Category: Faculty of Design

3.03–07.03

Join us for Mental Health Week – take a break and prioritize your well-being!

Monday – Digi Detox (3.03)
Swap your phone for a piece of fruit for a set time of your choice and enjoy a screen-free moment. Plus, grab a wellness shot during lunch!

Tuesday – Quiz Night (4.03)

Test your knowledge in a fun quiz night!
https://fb.me/e/63DbEu5zp

Wednesday – Yoga Class (5.03, kl 18, A501)
Find your balance and unwind in a yoga class. Suitable for all levels!

Pre-registration required

Wednesday & Thursday – Sauna Evenings (5.–6.03)

Relax and unwind in the sauna after a long day.

Pre-registration required

Thursday – Scream Room (D600)
Release your stress in a safe and soundproof space!

And much more! Find more details on Instagram.

See you at Mental Health Week!

Dear EKA members!

I invite you all to the celebrations of the 107th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia on Friday, February 21st at 13.00 on the lobby steps.

The keynote speaker will be Signe Kivi, EKA’s Rector Emerita, textile artist and member of the Riigikogu. Among many other activities, Signe Kivi has a solo exhibition “Signature” running until the first Sunday in March at the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design.

The event will end as tradition dictates with a shot of vodka, kissel and sprat sandwich.

Long live Estonia!

Mart Kalm
Rector

Pirjo Kääriäinen

19.02.2025

A-501 kell 16:30

Weaving textile design with material innovation

Pirjo Kääriäinen is a material enthusiast and textile specialist, working as an Associate Professor in Design and Materialities at the Aalto University, Finland. She operates between research and practice, and she is involved in several material research projects focusing on bio-based materials. Since 2011 she has been developing interdisciplinary CHEMARTS collaboration between the School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) and the School of Chemical Engineering (CHEM).  CHEMARTS is aiming to inspire Aalto University students and researchers to explore bio-based materials together, and to create new concepts for their sustainable use. Before her career in academia, Pirjo Kääriäinen worked over decade in the Finnish textile industry, and gained experience also as an entrepreneur and consultant for creative industries.

chemarts.aalto.fi
aalto.fi/en/aalto-university-bioinnovation-center

Supported by the Research Fund of EKA and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia

EKA Experimental Forms Exhibition “Foam Futures” at Viru Keskus

“Foam Futures” is an experimental fashion forms exhibition by the fashion, textile, and accessory design students of the Estonian Academy of Arts. Under the guidance of fashion designer Liisi Eesmaa and artist Flo Kasearu, futuristic foam plastic characters have come to life and will take over the Viru Keskus Atrium starting February 4th.

The exhibition “Foam Futures” at Viru Keskus Atrium invites visitors to reflect on the impact of human-made synthetic materials on the environment. This artistic display, created by students of Estonian Academy of Arts , focuses on the journey of foam plastic – from industrial waste to a nature-hostile “life form” that poisons the environment and gains strength, creating post-apocalyptic landscapes.

The pieces on display were created during a month-long workshop, where packaging industry waste was transformed into unique sculptures. The students manipulated materials using cutting, bubbling, and molding techniques to create both futuristic and organic shapes. Their inspiration was drawn from nature – plants, fungal networks, and strange life forms – reflecting the conflict between human creation and the natural world.

“This exhibition is raw energy and an endless amount of work hours, resulting in these haunting, bubbling, and foaming creations. Like a shadowy-black colony of beings, drawn from the students’ subconscious and rosy dreams,” commented one of the workshop mentors, fashion designer Liisi Eesmaa. “Our goal is to shock just enough and test the boundaries – how large and how colorful does packaging waste in the urban landscape need to be for people to clearly realize that the only way forward is through material recycling. We are thrilled to do this in collaboration with the emerging generation – the talented students of the Estonian Academy of Arts,” said Kristel Martis, Marketing and Communications Manager of Viru Keskus.

“Foam Futures” does not offer answers, but urges visitors to ask: what happens to the waste we create? Do we only notice it when it directly disrupts our lives, or does it silently blend into nature, causing irreversible harm?

The exhibition’s interactive elements – touch walls and sound experiences – take visitors to the heart of the foam plastic and its transformed environment, helping them better understand the impact and longevity of materials in nature.

“The students created incredibly juicy and voluminous accessories! The raw material was delightfully fascinating, and while the process was as always challenging and labor-intensive, the final transformations of the material were incredibly rewarding!” said mentor Flo Kasearu.

The exhibition “Foam Futures” will be open at the Viru Keskus Atrium from February 4th to February 19th.

Admission is free.

*The synthetic PE (polyethylene foam) material widely used in the exhibition is recyclable with modern technology. After its “artistic life,” it can be shredded and converted back into granules, 70% of which can be reused to create new materials.

Event Supporters: VIRU, EKA, Viva-color, Digiprint, Reval Kondiiter, ETTeam Baltic OÜ, AS Norma, Põhjala, WÕLU, Kadrioru Park

Artists: Allan Suomalainen, Anete Aurelie Aas, Halyna Yaroshenko, Hedi Leppik, Helen Tambla, Katriin Raudsepp, Kertu Seestrand, Linda Teemägi, Lucille Gonzalez, Maksim Kapustin, Mihhail Zaytsev, Oskar Tammäe, Pihla Alina Teder, Roosi Mändmaa, Sofia Robbe, Tereza Bláhová

Interior Architects: Airi Anderson, Brigita Praks, Carmen Pikknurm, Helena-Liisa Moks, Janet Kljuzin, Karl Oskar Palo, Kertu Bachmann, Madli Bulgarin, Raigo Tšetšin, Reigo Raal

Form Supervisors: Liisi Eesmaa, Flo Kasearu

Space Creation Supervisor: Annika Kaldoja

Production: Piret Puppart, Cristopher Siniväli, Marion Laev

Graphic Design: Anete Ots, Mariliis Tarja

Artistic Direction of Photos: Liisi Eesmaa

Photographer: Riina Varol

Photographer’s assistant: Karmel Kull

MUAH: Eliise Brigita Mõisamaa

Models: Merzeede (Agency Icon), Sam (E.M.A. Model Management)

Additional Information: piret.puppart@artun.ee

Event Facebook: Event – Vahu Vahel

Photo Link: To be added later

On Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 4:00 p.m., open debate of EKA rector candidates will take place.

EKA rector candidate programs (in Estonian):

Rector candidate Hilkka Hiiop’s program
Rector candidate Kirke Kangro’s program

Hilkka Hiiop is the dean of EKA’s Faculty of Arts and Culture from 2021. Hiiop is a professor in the Department of Cultural Heritage and Conservation. Hiiop’s candidacy was submitted by the members of the EKA Council.

Kirke Kangro is the dean of EKA’s Faculty of Fine Arts from 2016. She is a professor at the Department of Installation and Sculpture. Kangro was nominated by the Faculty of Fine Arts and Faculty of Design of EKA.

The EKA rector’s elections will take place in auditorium A-101 on Friday, January 31, 2025, at 2:00 p.m.

At the election meeting, the members of the electoral board will vote by secret ballot. The rector candidate who receives more than half of the votes will be elected.

Information related to the rector’s elections can be found at artun.ee/rektori-valimised.

The term of office of the new EKA Rector will begin on April 4, 2025.

Ezio Manzini, a world-renowned advocate for sustainability and social innovation in design, will give a public lecture “Livable proximity. A design-orienting scenario” on Tuesday, December 17, starting at 4:00 PM in room A101.

In the past century, the spatial organization of modern societies has been dominated by the effects of an idea of efficiency based on specialization and the economy of scale. In the name of efficiency, some areas have specialized: those where to work, those where to have fun, those where to study, and those where to go back to sleep. We can refer to all of this as the scenario of distance.

Over time, however, it clearly emerged that the application of this scenario was leading to very serious environmental and social problems. Therefore, for long time some cases appeared in which this model began to clash with other ideas and practices, driven by the need to bring together what had been separated and to reconnect what had been disconnected. That is, to bring services, workplaces and people’s homes closer together. These new ideas and practices, i.e. these social innovations, can be seen as the beginning of a new, emerging scenario: the scenario of proximity.

Although the problems of the society of distance were evident for long time, until 2019, the ideas and practices that had led to the definition of the scenario of proximity have slowly advanced. Then the pandemic arrived and, paradoxically, the same sanitary distancing it required has shown everyone how important physical proximity is: the social role of neighborhood services; the advantage of working close to where you live; the importance of having good relationships with the tenants next-door. In short, the value of the scenario of proximity has been recognized by a growing number of people and institutions

The lecture discusses this scenario of proximity, showing how it has emerged from the grassroots social innovations of the past 20 years, and how, in some large cities, it has become a reference for action, sometimes using the expression “15-minute city”, with the creation of new proximity systems capable of responding to many, if not all, the daily needs of citizens.

Finally, underlining how the strategies for approaching this scenario are profoundly place-based, the lecture also identifies some common traits and focuses on one of them.

The conceptual background on which the lecture is based can be found in: “Design, When Everybody Designs”, MIT Press 2015, “Politics of the Everyday.” Bloomsbury, 2019 (both are also published in China) and Livable Proximity (Egea, 2022)

For over three decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Most recently, his interests have focused on social innovation, considered as a major driver of sustainable changes. In this perspective, he started DESIS: an international network of schools of design, active in the field of design for social innovation for sustainability.

In 2024, the Design Research Society awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Presently, he is President of DESIS Network and an Honorary Professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He has been a guest professor in several design schools worldwide, as (in the past decade): Elisava-Design School and Engineering (Barcelona), Tongji University (Shanghai), Jiangnan University (Wuxi), University of the Arts (London), CPUT (Cape Town), Parsons -The New School for Design (NYC)

His most recent books are: “Design, When Everybody Designs”, MIT Press 2015; “Politics of the Everyday.” Bloomsbury, 2019; “Livable Proximity” Egea, 2021, “Plug-ins: Design for City Making in Barcelona” (with Albert Fuster and Roger Paez, Elisava and Actar Publishers 2023; Fare Assieme, Una nuova generazione di servizi pubblici collaborativi (con Michele D’Alena), Egea, 2024

The Design Open Lecture series 2024 is part of Sandra Nuut and Ruth-Helene Melioranski’s Design Issues course. It is public and open to all.

EKA Design Showcase will take place on January 23, 2025.

For the eighth year, we are celebrating the best collaboration projects of Estonian Academy of Arts students with companies and public sector organizations. All EKA cooperation partners and future design enthusiasts are welcome.

Register for the event here.

The presentation will feature innovative product and service concepts, prototypes and ready-made solutions created by EKA Faculty of Design students over the past year for companies and organizations.

The projects to be presented have grown out of the EKA Faculty of Design’s entrepreneurial collaboration program LAETUS, which brings together fresh ideas from a new generation of designers and challenges from companies and public organizations.

The most impactful and innovative projects will also be awarded.

You are welcome to the Design Showcase and gain new knowledge and inspiration on how to take your organization’s products or services to the next level in cooperation with EKA through new generation design and open innovation.

Program:

14:00 EKA campus tour for interested participants (pre-registration required)
15:00 Exhibition opening in the foyer
16:00 Start of the EKA Design Showcase Gala. Welcome speech by the Dean of the Faculty of Design, Ruth-Helene Melioranski
16:20 Presentations of collaboration projects
17:45 Coffee and snacks
18:15 Presentations of collaboration projects
19:30 Words of gratitude and presentation of acknowledgments
19:45 End of the event

The event will be moderated by Jan Teevet.

Collaborations to be presented:

– How to turn production waste into profit and new products?*
Circular Design MA students of & Granitop OÜ

– Mobility and energy independence – what will the energy consumer’s user experience be like in 2035?*
Interaction Design MA students & Eesti Energia AS

– How might we enable meaningful engagements with Tallinn City’s Digital Twin?
Interaction Design MA students & Tallinn Strategic Management Office

– Join the queue – Rohetiiger`s (Green Tiger) guerrilla campaign*
Visual Communication BA Students & Green Tiger

– From colleague to colleague: job shadowing*
Social Design MA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– The preoperative journey of a patient undergoing planned major surgery*
Social Design MA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– Redesign of PERH’s insulation labelling*
Graphic Design BA students & North Estonia Medical Centre

– How might we empower family doctors in the transition to genetics-informed personal healthcare?
Interaction Design MA students & TeamPerMed

– Packaging solutions for Bank of Estonia commemorative coins*
Design Faculty BA and MA students & Bank of Estonia

17:45 – 18:15 Coffee and snacks
18:15 – 19:30 Presentations of collaboration projects

– Designing the outdoor area of Laulasmaa School as a multifunctional space*
Social Design MA students & Laulasmaa School, architects, and the community

– Creating the interior design and visual identity of Sydney Estonian House*
Design and Innovation BA Students & Sydney Estonian House

– An invitation to home – how to reduce loneliness among Estonian returnees?*
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– A supportive checklist for independent returnees
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– From Classroom to Practice: A Service Design Journey
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Integration Foundation

– The Tallinn Housing Manager Compass
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Tallinn Housing Lab: Co-creating housing solutions for living, not for profit
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Accessible Tallinn: The Housing & Urban Futures Forum
Service Design Strategies and Innovation MA students & Tallinn Strategy Centre

– Design of the State Budget Dashboard*
Digital Product Design BA students & Ministry of Finance

– What to do after the end of the cooperation project – how to implement the ideas?*
Industrial and Digital Product Design BA students & Estonian Manor Builders Association, EKA’s Department of Cultural Heritage & Conservation

– Introduction to Laetus 2.0, Maarja Mõtus

19:30 Acknowledgements and awards ceremony
19:45 End of the event

Presentations marked with * are in Estonian.

The presentations will be in Estonian and English, without translation.

It is possible to participate both on site at EKA (room A101) and watch the broadcast at EKA TV.

Video reminder from last year’s Design Showcase Gala

Students of the Estonian Academy of Arts will open the exhibition of experimental printed fabrics “Viridis (T)exitus / Green (T)exit” at the Tallinn Botanical Garden Visitor Center on December 16 at 5:00 PM.

17.12.2024–30.01.2025

Kassandra Laur, Eleonor Tingas and Nikolai Keller, 3rd year students of the EKA Textile Design department, will present experimental textile works inspired by processes, rhythms and textures occurring in nature. 

The three artists, having different life experiences and approaches, experiment with nature-inspired processes, rhythms, and textures, telling stories of myths, life traces, and future urban biodiversity. The works on display reflect dialogues between natural forms, urban space, and human creativity. The young artists use experimental techniques to offer their personal interpretation of natural processes. These works offer an opportunity for stillness, opening a door for the discovery of three artistic visions. We welcome you to discover nature along with the authors. 

The experimental printed textiles were created in the course Printed Textile Design 2, supervised by Lylian Lainoja and Piret Valk. Digital printing was done by Kiustuudio. We would like to thank Maria Erikson, head of the EKA graphics workshop, and Taavi Teevet, head of the metal workshop. Graphic design by Diana Tammets

The textile design specialty, which celebrates its 110th anniversary this year, is part of the EKA BA curriculum Fashion, Textile and Accessory Design.

https://www.artun.ee/en/curricula/textile-design/

Kassandra Laur‘s lithography print “Ubinapuud” (Apple Trees) is inspired by an old, wild apple garden where century-old trees still bear fruit despite their great age. Their trunks bear scars from the clotheslines and swings once tied to them. Despite the marks left by people and the passage of time, these trees continue to grow. Sometimes it is the weight of their own heavy load of apples that breaks their branches and boughs. These trees contain a deep vitality, and even if their trunks are sawed halfway through, it may not be the end—they can heal themselves and keep bearing fruit.

For this artwork, old worn sheets have been used, which, like the ancient apple trees, have also seen their share of days. At some point, the sheets and the trees even crossed paths outdoors, when laundry dried on lines strung between the apple trees.

Nikolai Keller’s fictional archaeological rust print “Andalusia Behemoth” describes how archaeological excavations leading up to the construction of the new EKA building were interrupted by a spectacular find – the long-lost and sought-after shroud of the Andalusian Behemoth.

The fossils of the mythical creature found wrapped in cloth shed light on many, yet-unsolved myths and stories in Biblical history. The workers who discovered the remains fell into a state of unexplained and paralyzing nightmares the night after the discovery.

The find raises questions of how it got there. It is believed that a Reval merchant acquired the rare piece of cloth during the time of the Hanseatic League. It is known that valuable goods and treasures arrived here via the League’s trade routes. The cloth has sparked enormous interest, and the Estonian archaeological community and international researchers continue to investigate the case.

The work was exhibited at the opening of the new academic building on EKA Day https://www.artun.ee/en/eka-textile-celebrates-its-birthday-with-the-fictional-archaeological-textile-behemoth/

Eleonor Tingas’s digital print technique “Rhythms and Forms of Life” explores the interplay between nature and urban space, expressing it in a richly detailed and sensitively balanced visual language. The grey and rectilinear forms of the industrial urban landscape gradually merge with the varied and dynamic patterns of wildlife. The restrained geometry of buildings and streets reveal flowing and organic lines that seem to suggest the growth of plants and flowers, evoking the harmony of nature’s invasion and rebirth. The work invites the viewer to experience the contradictions and possibilities, and the rhythms and forms, of the coexistence of nature and man, creating a visually and emotionally affecting whole.

The exhibition is open until the 30th of January 2025.

Opening hours the Visitor Centre of Tallinn Botanical Garden https://botaanikaaed.ee/en/opening-hours/

Leonardo Custódio, PhD, is a Brazilian post-doctoral researcher at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. He also co-coordinates the Anti-Racism Media Activist Alliance (ARMA Alliance) and the Finland-Based Activist Research Network. The  title of this talk will be “A Conversation on Decoloniality and Design.” 

He is an an educator and expert on communication for development and social change. He supports individuals and organizations to understand, develop and promote uses of means of communication available for internal and external strategies grounded on the principles of human rights, social justice, mutual learning and respect. For that, he applies research-based knowledge and dialogue-centered skills to organize workshops, lectures, talks and consultancies designed specifically to the participants’ needs.

On December 6th from 6 pm A-Galerii will open its annual exhibition of Estonian contemporary jewellery, abstract objects and applied art that leaves plenty of room for interpretation. The materials used in the pieces range from various metals, textiles, and glass to organic materials. The exhibition concept embeds people and social practices addressing what kind of role and meanings given to objects play in curating our own personal reality.

A piece of jewellery and an art object is a valuable and layered conveyor of culture. It has symbolised belonging to a social, religious or political group functioning as a bind in between and a force guiding people to behave in a certain way. Therefore, assigning meaning to a physical object can be very efficacious on a personal and group level. There is a possibility to give meanings to an object that it originally did not have without the viewer.

Through objects, one can propose a hypothesis about the creation of the future. This activity enables us to break away from habitual meanings in relation to items and to consciously play around with them. This is proof that the future has not been fixed even though it might seem this way sometimes. The exhibition encourages the viewer to think about realistic and fictional scenarios about the future through dreaming and interpretation. With this practice new ideas and important meanings are being created.

The exhibition is open from December 6, 2024, to January 11, 2025.