Presentation of Wooded Meadow Augmented Reality Video Games

On May 7 at 17:00, the presentation of the augmented reality-based video games “VäikesedElud” will take place at the green area in front of EKA.

As part of collaboration with EKA UNESCO Chair on Cultural Heritage Studies, the Environmental Agency, and the University of Tartu‘s project WoodMeadowLIFE experimental games on the theme of wooded meadows were created in collaboration between the New Media and the Cultural Heritage and Conservation departments of the Estonian Academy of Arts. These games explore the boundaries between video games and art.

As part of the EVA Lab (Experimental Video Games in Arts) course, EKA students developed augmented reality–based games that place a virtual environments directly into the player’s surroundings. The “VäikesedElud“ project is grounded in biology-based data but uses this information in a creative, artistically driven way to tell stories. The aim is to encourage participants to reflect on the issues surrounding wooded meadows. This is achieved through a poetic form.

According to supervisor Andrus Laansalu: “We are not trying to educate anyone with these games. Through the themes presented in the games, we simply point to the need to understand that the problems facing nature are immense, and no one can ignore them anymore. From now on, all of us must continuously take actions that help restore nature – actions that, on a larger scale, have consistently been neglected by many previous generations.”

Project lead: Riin Alatalu 

Supervisors: Taavi Varm, Andrus Laansalu, Jaagup Irve, Amanda Warner, Camille Laurelli, Sten Saarits and Maarja Nuut

Students: Ako Allik, Bob Bicknell-Knight, Kairi Getman, Mihhail Grigorjuk, Joel Jõevee, Marie (Müü) Kanger, Caitlyn Kesa, Lene Lekše, Anett Maiste, Rosa-Maria Katariina Nuutinen, Yiyang Sun

The games titled VäikesedElud are available for download on Google Play and Apple App Store.

The project has been co-funded by the European Union. However, the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA.

Textiles 110: Open Lecture by Päivi Vaarula “Material and Content, Working Together in textile Art”

On April 29, at 5 p.m in room A501

Päivi Vaarula is a textile artist from Hämeenlinna, Finland. Her work is rooted in keen observation of everyday life, which she thoughtfully transforms into the visual language of textile art. Rather than seeking to entertain, she aims to create meaningful, thought-provoking works that often engage with present contemporary issues—particularly those related to the environment.

Vaarula works with local materials, traditional floor looms, and natural dyes, embracing sustainable practices in both concept and technique. For several years, she has been known for her distinctive three-dimensional woven surfaces, skillfully utilizing the expressive qualities of wool to bring depth and texture to her pieces.

Her art has been featured in over 70 group exhibitions and she has held 18 solo exhibitions, both in Finland and internationally. Alongside her artistic practice, Päivi Vaarula has worked as a full-time lecturer for more than 30 years. She has led lectures and workshops in numerous countries, including Finland, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Wales, Scotland, England, and Iceland.

Päivi Vaarula will talk about her textile journey and about her art.

Her solo exhibition “Entertainment” is also open at HOP gallery (Hobusepea tänav 2, Tallinn) until April 29th.

Textile 110 is a series of events celebrating the 110th anniversary of EKA’s textile design education, as part of which a series of open lectures focusing on textiles will be held, a series of publications will be published, and a selection of works from the EKA Museum’s textile collection can be seen throughout the year.

The lecture series opens up the spectrum of diverse opportunities in the field of textiles, both in design, industry, and creative practices, bringing out different roles and methods of creation in the field through various invited guests.

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

The exhibition “I Got a Great Lick of It Before It All Melted” is an exhibition by students of Graphic Design and Product Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts, which reflects on choices and experiences.

Opening 24 April 6 PM
ARS Art Factory – Studio 53 ja 98

Entrance from the courtyard

We all have a certain number of experiences in life, on which we build the next one. It is like an archive. You can’t ever experience anything without the latter.. And then we end up with those choices that we unconsciously and finally consciously make every day again and again. We are faced with something that is self-evident, like putting one foot in front of the other when walking or inhaling and exhaling.. we don’t notice these actions, but yet we do them constantly. Our choices shape our experiences and, when combined, our dance through life.

Artists: Riko Smirnov, Richard Vainola, Gabriella Tarja, Laura Sööt, Katriin Saulus, Anna Elisabeth Remmelg, Kenneth Pert, Hanna Milk, Anett Elis Männil, Brit Maripuu, Paula Maria Mengel, Stella Maris Liiva, Kelli Kütt, Helen Kärt Käbin, Martin Kislõi, Mark Kokotov, Teele Kiisk, Grittel Kastan, Greg Mikael Juhanson, Daria Titova, Johannes Adrik, Aries Puusepp, Rebecca Lopez,
Graphic Design: Mark Kokotov

Dance like this is the first of its kind for the students and they have been guided to this by Kristel Saan.

Supported and sponsored by Estonian Academy of Arts and Põhjala Brewery

At the seminar ‘Contemporary Higher Art Education: A Dialogue with the Future,’ leaders from five Nordic art academies will share ideas and exchange perspectives. In addition, faculty members from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Estonian Academy of Arts will discuss these challenges.

Advocating for art and art education has never been an easy task. This seminar focuses on key issues in contemporary higher art education here and now, at a time when critical thinking, ethical approaches and the independent power of art are more important than ever. The development of higher art education is closely connected with contemporary art movements – it’s not easy to say which influences the other more. Art must be able to engage with a vast range of phenomena and questions.

Art must maintain creative freedom, independence and autonomy, while also integrating more and more with other fields. A significant portion of contemporary art is exploring research-driven paths. In the education landscape, art education must offer comparability with research-based universities. Art and artists must manage themselves, communicate, and market their work. At the same time, art higher education must remain an attractive choice for the new generation. How can art academies offer all of this and meet these expectations?

PROGRAMME

11:30 –12:00 Coffee, Gathering and Welcome Words
12:00–12:20 – Maj Hasager (Rector of Malmö Art Academy) – Higher Art Education and the Political Gaze
12:20–12:40 – Jacob Jessen (Head of Department, Trondheim Academy of Fine Art) – Art and Research in the Creative University
12:40–13:00 – Kirke Kangro (Dean of Fine Arts Faculty, Estonian Academy of Arts) – Art Education between Freedom and Frameworks

13:00–13:20 – Coffee break

13:20–13:40 – Bjarki Bragason (Dean of Fine Art, Iceland University of the Arts) – environments in art education – a few thoughts
13:40–14:00 – Leevi Haapala (Dean of the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Helsinki) – Art Education and the Professional Art Field

Event will be held in English.

Please register to the seminar through the following link: https://forms.gle/wYxHjxZ8GiAiQkiWA

More info: Kati Saarits, kati.saarits@artun.ee

The peer-review of Kim Morgan’s exhibition Blood and Breath, Skin and Dust, will take place on April 28th at 15:30, at EKA in room A502. This presentation is the first review of her practice-based doctoral artistic research titled Examining, Diagnosing, and Creating, Public Art Installations for Complex Spaces.

The peer-reviewers are Dr. Maiju Loukola (Uniarts, Helsinki) and Pan Wendt, Curator (Confederation Arts Gallery, PEI, Canada).

The thesis supervisors are Dr. Tüüne-Kristin Vaikla (Tallinn, Estonia) and Jan Peacock, Professor Emerita (NSCAD University, Halifax, Canada).

Kim Morgan invites you to her public presentation on her exhibition Blood and Breath, Skin and Dust, curated by Susan Gibson Garvey, currently showing at the Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Feb 1 – May 11, 2025.).

“The exhibition Blood and Breath, Skin and Dust focuses on interdisciplinary artist Kim Morgan’s research and artistic production using electron microscopy to explore materiality and the body. Informed by the experience of vibrant matter at the microscopic level these works offer encounters in human-scaled space and time, and an opportunity to bridge the gap between science, medicine, and art.” (Susan Gibson Garvey, Exhibition Catalogue).

Kim Morgan will discuss her artistic research and method of working that resulted in the exhibition installations, public presentations, and off-site interventions. She will situate this discussion within the larger context of her doctoral thesis. With this body of work and ongoing research and activities, Morgan proposes that site-specific relevant art installations situated in health care facilities have the potential to enhance our understanding of the human body, and shift our experience and relationship to these complex spaces. And, hopefully, to promote a new sense of health, care, and well-being.

The artist would like to thank the following institutions for supporting this exhibition:
The Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada; Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax, NS, Canada; Arts Nova Scotia; Canada Council for the Art; and Halifax Regional Municipality. Individual works have received support from Artpace San Antonio, Arts Nova Scotia, Dalhousie Medical School, and Ferno Canada.

Kim Morgan is a doctoral student at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Halifax, NS, Canada.

Roundtable with Karsten Brüggemann (Tallinn University), Tiina-Mall Kreem (Gesellschaft für deutschbaltische Kultur in Estland) and Anneli Randla (Estonian Academy of Arts), moderated by Ulrike Plath (Tallinn University).

The edited volume:
Manors are one of the most well-known and beloved phenomena in Estonian cultural history
– they are widely studied and visited, written and spoken about, photographed and filmed,
restored, bought and sold. In fact, the manor is one of the few elements of Baltic German
heritage that has been domesticated into Estonian national cultural memory and heritage landscapes. However, it could also be argued that all this has flattened their public image.

This book is based on the conviction that the manor is key to a better understanding of Baltic history and culture, as well as of the transfers between Estonian and Baltic German cultures. For this, however, we need to look beyond the manor house and its aristocratic owners, and apply multidisciplinary approaches in order to find new perspectives. In this edited volume, scholars from a variety of disciplines explore the manor as a phenomenon around which many
of the major themes of the transnational history of the Baltic space unfold.

New perspectives are opened up on the early history of the manor, the importance of material culture and art as a source of manor history, the role of research and restoration practices in shaping the meaning of the manor, the cultural imagery and representations associated with the manor, and the ambivalent relationship between Baltic Germans and Estonians.

Editors: Kristina Jõekalda, Linda Kaljundi, Ulrike Plath

Authors: Riin Alatalu, Toomas Hiio, Hilkka Hiiop, Kristina Jõekalda, Inna Põltsam-Jürjo,
Linda Kaljundi, Andreas Kalkun, Marju Kõivupuu, Kadi Polli, Heiki Pärdi, Maris Saagpakk, Hannes Vinnal

Publisher: Tallinn University Press, 2025

The roundtable is in Estonian. The book is sold with a reduced price during the event.

The seminar takes a close look at one of the most diverse artists in the Baltic art scene, Friedrich Ludwig von Maydell (1795–1846), and asks which kind of new knowledge do his letters to architect Wilhelm Stier (1799–1856) reveal about Baltic art and cultural life in the first half of the nineteenth century, incl. about the contacts with German artists both in Germany and in Italy. Their correspondence, stretching over several decades, was recently found in the archive of the Berlin Technical University’s Architecture Museum. It enables fresh insights into several topics of Baltic history, also beyond art history.

The seminar’s four roundtables feature discussants from Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn University, University of Tartu, Art Museum of Estonia, Gesellschaft für deutschbaltische Kultur in Estland et al. The seminar is organised and moderated by Kristina Jõekalda and Tiina-Mall Kreem. The program is in Estonian.

PROGRAM

12.00 Maydell’s correspondence and travels against the background of art history
Tiina Abel, Kristina Jõekalda, Liisa-Helena Lumberg-Paramonova, Maris Saagpakk

13.15 Maydell, church art and the status of an artist
Reet Pius, Kadi Polli, Anne Untera

14.00-14.30 pause

14.30 Maydell in Tartu (Dorpat): drawings, prints and everyday life
Reet Bender, Triin Kröönström, Moonika Teemus, Kristiina Tiideberg

15.30 The letters’ significance for history and cultural history
Linda Kaljundi, Kairit Kaur, Tiina-Mall Kreem

Pablo Ignacio Hermansen Ulibarri – Visiting Lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts

Pablo Ignacio Hermansen Ulibarri is a designer with a PhD in Architecture and Urban Studies. He teaches and conducts research at the School of Design at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His work focuses on co-design, interaction design, socio-natural ecosystems, photo-ethnography, performative politics in public space, more-than-human prototyping, and public services as public space.

He will be visiting the Estonian Academy of Arts from April 14–16 and will give a public lecture, “Counter Designing: Animals and Algorithms as Creative Agents,” on April 16 at 18:00 in room A501.

In January, EKA Interaction Design students visited his university in Chile to develop collaborative projects and academic exchange.

In this seminar, we will discuss the results of the EKA research project ‘Art Historical Contact Zones: Popular and Fictional Mediations of Art History in Estonia’ (2023–2024).

Our aim was to explore different ways of representing art (and its history), i.e. to investigate how art has been presented by media external to the art world, and whether and how this has changed the meanings of art, compared to the interpretations of academic researchers. Each of us dealt with a different “medium”: fiction, film, journalism, heritage construction, schematic and photographic narrative, television programs, art criticism.

At the seminar we will also present the final product of our project – a special issue of journal Vikerkaar (2025/4–5), our section edited by Johannes Saar. In addition to him, the authors of the articles are Epp Lankots, Kädi Talvoja, Liisa-Helena Lumberg-Paramonova, Tiina Abel, Kristina Jõekalda and Krista Kodres.