Category: Faculty of Design

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.

Bianca Herlo will give a public lecture entitled “Digital Justice. Feminist Futures” on Tuesday, December 10th at 16:00 in room A501. 

Design, arts, culture, media, and science are eagerly trying to categorize the latest developments in digital technology. Affirmative voices praise especially GenAI and its potentials, critical voices are expressing concerns about the developments in digital technologies and especially AI, and their eco-social consequences. Under the conditions of complex structural crises, technology-induced transformation processes and uncertain futures, new understandings of research and knowledge production might play a decisive role.

How can we shape digitalization processes in the interest of a fairer future for people and the environment? To what extent can practice-integrating research be understood as transformative research?

Bianca Herlo is Professor of Eco-Social Design and head of the Competence Center “Transformation Design” at Lucerne University, Design Film Art. She has been working for many years on issues of inequalities, social and digital participation and the potential of design for a more just digital transformation. As a research group leader at the Weizenbaum Institute and the Berlin University of the Arts, she has worked in national and international collaborations with actors from the arts, academia, politics and civil society to explore how emerging discourses of injustice and inequality can be translated into structural change.

Bianca is a founding member of the international Social Design Network (SDN) and chair of the German Society for Design Theory and Research (DGTF). Since 2022 she has co-hosted the podcast “Purple Code. Intersectional feminist perspectives on digital societies” (purplecode.org).

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.

On November 30, the presentation of the visually formatted process model and exhibition of the project “MUUSA: Synthesis and Development of Material Research” supported by the Ministry of Culture will take place.

The exhibition in the format of an open studio includes both completed and unfinished material assemblages and supporting structures. The MUUSA project was carried out by lecturers from the Estonian Academy of Arts and the heads of the Craft Studies Master’s programme, Kärt Ojavee and Juss Heinsalu.

One of the goals of the project was to develop a model of creative research based on materials using the co-creation method. During the work period, different versions were tested and synthesized and, for example, the following were studied: how to approach the study of the composition and properties of materials in creative practice; how to apply material as a method in managing the process; how to involve material as a muse to guide creative goals and interpretive solutions? The study of materials through artistic practice involves both meaning-making, sensory approaches, and the discovery and integration of the applicable properties of materials in possible final results. Eik Hermann helped to conceptualize and formulate the process based on the material and the knowledge generated through collaboration.

* moment of appearance – the moment when one production cycle has been completed and the work has reached the draft or rough draft level, when it can either be tried out in reality or temporarily or permanently shared with a smaller or larger audience; if it is a moment of showing the draft phase, then a new production cycle follows the showing.

During the project, collaboration has also been carried out with Marie Vihmari, Fibenol OÜ, Reval Stone and AAA Patent Office.

The project presentation will take place at Kopli 27.

The project space can be visited until 12.12.2024 by agreement with the authors.

MUUSA project space exhibition design: Annika Kaldoja
Graphic design: Indrek Sirkel

Project manager: Anna Lohmatova

Thanks to: Eik Hermann, Piret Valk, Gert Preegel, Janno Rauk, Soldi Rent OÜ, Eesti Killustik OÜ, Villavennad OÜ, Selgase Dolomitit OÜ, Mattias Veller, Estonian Academy of Arts Research and Development Department, Ceramics, Textiles, Jewelry and Blacksmithing, Sculpture Workshops, Bruce Anderson, Joosep Kivimäe, Gary Markle, Andrus Ojavee, Heron Vrubel.

You are welcome to the opening of Krista Leesi’s exhibition In Spe. Saint Victor and the Four Dragons at Draakon gallery on Thursday, November 28, at 18.00. The exhibition will remain open until January 4, 2025. 

The exhibition draws inspiration from the martyrdom of Saint Victor, as portrayed on the main altar of St. Nicholas Church in Tallinn. The altar, crafted in the workshop of Lübeck master Hermen Rode, was brought to Tallinn 543 years ago.

“The times are tense, even frightening.
Such that every means and possibility must be put into service.
Why not even mythical creatures and medieval patron saints.
Tallinn’s patron saint was Saint Victor.
He is often depicted on altars alongside Saint George, the dragon slayer.
But Saint Victor did not slay dragons.
Perhaps dragons might protect the knightly saint and us instead?”

Krista Leesi is an artist and designer with a distinctive textile art practice and extensive teaching experience at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She stands out in the field of textile art with her conceptual approach, often exploring the multi-layered meanings of language (as the author of tekkSTIILIkunsti SÕNAraamat). Leesi graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 1993 and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Estonia and abroad since 1992. Her first solo exhibition was in 1999. Leesi’s work encompasses both distinctive unique creations and practical small productions. Her works are part of the collection of the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Her works can be encountered in several museum collections around the world: in Tartu Art Museum, the China National Silk Museum (Hangzhou, China), the Contextile Contemporary Textile Art Biennial (Guimarães, Portugal), and World Textile Art (Miami, Florida, USA).

In 2019, Leesi was awarded the annual award by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia for her work. In 2020, she won the main prize at Contextile, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary textile art biennials. In 2021, her site-specific exhibition Verbarium, which conceptually connected language and visuals, was shown at Tartu Art Museum. Leesi has been named Textile Artist of the Year four times and is a member of the Estonian Textile Artists’ Association and the Estonian Artists’ Association.

www.kristaleesi.ee

The artists gratitude goes to: Heino Prunsvelt, Kadi Kibbermann, Äli-Ann Klooren, Leelo Leesi, Mari-Leen Leesi, Aivi Valliste.
The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Exhibitions at Draakon gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and Liviko AS.

 The works of EKA students offer a new look at Estonian design classics at the exhibition Selected Interventions

On the 29th of November, the exhibition Selected Interventions will open at the Estonian Museum of Applied Arts and Design. Selected Interventions is a collection of new works and dialogues within the museum’s permanent exhibitions by the MA students of Craft Studies of the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The MA programme brings together people from various backgrounds and with a deep interest in materials and making. The Craft Studies curriculum expands on understanding contemporary crafts and advances professional development, critical expression, and artistic research into materials, processes, concepts and identities. 

Through this unique intervention, the exhibition examines the works of applied art and design classics on display in the permanent exhibitions Collected Works and Introduction to Estonian Design.

Based on their background and interests, each student selected a piece, a series of works, or an artist to have a closer dialogue with. They were encouraged to respond with new pieces based on past techniques, approaches, materials, stories, aesthetics, forms, and more. This project consists of interventions that redirect our attention, study the heritage or add a new layer of meaning. 

“I was intrigued by the opposition of qualities Rait Präät’s work gives; the glass was no longer used as glass but as a layered cake, painting each floor with a different life. Prääts’ work made me question the choices we make about storing memory in our bodies and minds. What do we put in the frame? What do we perceive?” explains Craft Studies student Sofiya Babiy. 

Selected Interventions includes work by Sofiya Babiy, Iohan Figueroa Rojas, Rait Lõhmus, Juulia Aleksandra Mikson, Alyona Movko-Mägi, Katariin Mudist, Maarja Mäemets, Kati Saarits, Hannah Segerkrantz, and Elias Sormanen. 

The project was supervised by Juss Heinsalu and Kärt Ojavee.

Selected Interventions is a satellite exhibition of the 9th Tallinn Applied Art Triennial.

The exhibition tours conducted by students of Craft Studies will take place on 30.11 at 13:00 (in Estonian), 7.12 at 13:00 (in Russian) and 14.12 at 13:00 (in English).

More information: Sandra Nuut, tel: +372 58717871

Follow the announcements at etdm.ee 

Mental Vitamin Week is back and happening next week! From November 18–22, we will host various exciting activities to bring some fun and relaxation to the long and tiring school days.

**MONDAY, 18.11.2024**

– Morning run at 8:00 (meeting in front of the school)
– Fruit in exchange for your phone
– 12:00–18:00 Sauna in the school courtyard
– Gaming in A300

**TUESDAY, 19.11.2024**

– Morning run at 8:00 (meeting in front of the school)
– Health shots
– 12:00–18:00 Sauna in the school courtyard
– Gaming in A300
– Scream room in the ÜE tower
– 19:00 EKAAJU quiz (in the atrium, registration required)

**WEDNESDAY, 20.11.2024**

– Morning run at 8:00 (meeting in front of the school)
– Gaming in A300
– Confession room and worry box (5th floor box)

**THURSDAY, 21.11.2024**

– Morning run at 8:00 (meeting in front of the school)
– Gaming in A300

**FRIDAY, 22.11.2024**

– Final morning run of the week at 8:00 (meeting in front of the school)
– Gaming in A300

Design Issues: Hasso Krull’s Talk “Earth Thought: sentipensar con la tierra Arturo Escobar and the Cosmovisions of the Relational Ontology” on Tuesday, November 19 at 4:00 PM, in room A501 at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA).

We have been taught that we live in the modern world. The axis of modernity is progress, based on rationality, development and technology. However, we have also learned that modernity is in a perpetual crisis. But why does development always lead to a disaster? Maybe modernity is not a solution, but in itself a problem? If that is the case, we need to redefine it. We need several new cosmovisions and something that Arturo Escobar has called pluriversal politics.
Hasso Krull (b. 1964) is an Estonian poet who has published sixteen books of poetry and nine collections of essays that include literary criticism as well as writings concerning art, cinema and society. During 1990-2017 he was teaching cultural theory at the Estonian Institute of Humanities (special courses on creation myths, oral tradition, continental philosophy and psychoanalysis). From 2019 he has been teaching creative writing in the Estonian Academy of Arts.

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.