Expectations of the End: Egle Ehtjen, Kelli Gedvil, Hanna-Liisa Lavonen, Helle Ly Tomberg

Four artists look into the future at a safe haven called Viljandi Old Water Tower from 5th of August 2022: Egle Ehtjen, Kelli Gedvil, Hanna-Liisa Lavonen and Helle Ly Tomberg with their exhibition ‘Expectations of the End’.

They explore how to relate to a world that is ending. Denial, fear, grief or reconciliation is on the table. You can also feel joy and wonder. One can be viewed from humanly close or cosmically far.

The end of the world is getting closer every minute.

Reality as we know it is stretched to the breaking point, there is no sense of security and there is a bittersweet smell of ozone in the air. The world around us is in active war, society is crumbling, climate change and everything that comes with paints the future in very hopeless tones.  

The feeling of being surrounded by global disasters as well as personal tragedies that shatter our personal core, have followed people forever. We have been born into these conditions, carry that fragile and heavy weight around daily knowingly that there is more ahead. Any catastrophe hasn’t been the last of its kind.

The future depends on self.

Our gratitude goes to: Marek Gedvil, Leegi Kiis, Svetlana ja Johannes Lavonen, Ian-Simon Märjama, Kristen Rästas, Sten Saarits, Jan Viilma, Tiina Vändre

Graphic design by Henri Kutsar

The exhibition is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Nudist

The exhibition ‘Expectations of the End’ will remain open until 31st of August 2022

Viljandi Old Water Tower is located at Johan Laidoner plats 5.

It is open for visitors Mon-Fri from 11 AM to 6 PM.

Each year, the Estonian Academy of Arts Research and Development Office, in conjunction with the Tallinn City Enterprise Department, holds an applied research and development projects competition to motivate the Academy’s members to apply to a greater extent the results of their academic and research work in the public, business and third sectors; to increase the quality and extent of knowledge services provided by the Academy to society and businesses and to raise public awareness of the application of the Academy’s know-how in the economy and society.

The author(s) of the best project are awarded 1000€. If numerous outstanding works are submitted for the competition, additional work(s) will be awarded.

The competition is open for EKA’s students, whose course or graduation project has reached the stage of developing an applied output, i.e. the results of the work can be applied in businesses or other organisations. The competition welcomes applied research or projects by all employees and researchers.

The works must be completed between 01.09.2021–31.08.2022.
To submit a project to the competition a completed form together with additional materials must be sent to koostoo@artun.ee no later than 14 September 2022. The e-mail addresses of all authors of the work must be included among the e-mail recipients.

Materials for applying:

Competition rules in English

(full document in Estonian)

Submission form

Peer-reviewing of Art and Design PhD student Nesli Hazal Oktay’s first design case study “Empathic Placebos—Designing for the bodies in videotelephony” will take place on Friday, September 2, at 15.00-17.00 (EEST) in the Estonian Academy of Arts, auditorium A501.

Nesli Hazal Oktay will present the design process and analysis of the project. Case study “Empathic Placebos—Designing for the bodies in videotelephony” is part of the doctoral thesis of Nesli Hazal Oktay.

The peer review event will be in a hybrid format. Please find the Zoom link to participate HERE.

Supervisors
Dr. Kristi Kuusk, Estonian Academy of Arts
Prof. Danielle Wilde, Umeå University, Sweden and University of Southern Denmark

Reviewers:
Dr. Kristina Andersen, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Dr. Oscar Tomico, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands and Barcelona School of Design and Engineering

The research project titled “Empathic Placebos—Designing for the bodies in videotelephony” is an inquiry into the ways people feel, interact and move during video calls. The project works with the moving bodies as a creative material to design for people who are close by heart but physically apart. Relying on a cultural probe kit study and a three-step embodied design ideation process, the project invites digital natives to be more in contact with their bodies so that they have more chances to shape their experiences with their loved ones and themselves.

Nesli Hazal Oktay is a designer-researcher and educator focusing on the impacts and interactions the emerging technologies could deliver. She holds an MA in Interaction Design from the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn and a Communications BA from the Galatasaray University in Istanbul. Since the academic year 2019/20, she is working as a visiting lecturer and also as a curriculum developer of the Interaction Design MA at the Estonian Academy of Arts. As an educator, she has led several industry collaborations, and her subjects are shaped around interaction design and speculative design. While continuing her journey as a design educator she is also studying at the Academy as a doctoral student. Her research interests include embodied, participatory, and speculative approaches to design. For more information, please visit https://neslihazal.com/

Katariin Mudist at Tartu Art House
“To-Do or Not-To-Do”
29.07.–28.08.22

The exhibition, showcasing themes that have long intrigued the artist, focuses on a newly completed monumental piece the exhibition has been named after. The 9-meter-long mixed media composition speaks of the contemporary productivity culture and anxiety relating to both action and inaction resulting from the global pandemic situation.

The inspiration behind the exhibited works is Mudist’s longtime self-critical study centered around to-do lists that have accumulated over several years. The central piece “To-Do or Not-To-Do” visualises activities along with their temporal dimensions – starting new activities, as well as interruptions – and treats this input as anthropological and psychological data which, in turn, reveals interesting patterns describing both the pace of life and the state of mind of an individual.

The exhibition and artwork of the same name are at once personal and remarkably universal studies visualising choices, disruption, inactivity, and exhaustion – both the internal and the societal pressure to be productive.

Katariin Mudist (b 1994) has studied in the Tartu Art College and the Estonian Academy of Arts, supplementing her skills in Budapest and in Ghent. Her previous solo exhibition in Tartu was in 2020 in the Jakobi Gallery.

The exhibition is supported: Estonian Cultural Foundation and Anderson’s craft beer

Exhibition design: Alden Jõgisuu

Exhibition team: Tanel Asmer, Elika Kiilo-Kulpsoo, Johanna Mudist, Peeter Talvistu, Urmo Teekivi and Mae Variksoo

Thanks: Sander Koit, Alan Voodla, Sophie Durand and Maria Elise Remme

The exhibition is open until 28 August

Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26, Tartu, Estonia) Wed–Mon 12–18. Exhibitions are free of charge

The exhibitions of the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu Town Government and the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

The opening of the exhibition Hardcore Gentleness by Maria Izabella Lehtsaar and Sarah Nõmm will take place on 25 August at 18.00 at the Vent Space project room.

The first duo exhibition by Lehtsaar and Nõmm focuses on the intertwining of intimacy, mental health, sense of security, control and loss of control in a person’s life through common elements of both artists’ creative practice. In their artistic dialogue, Lehtsaar and Nõmm talk about the challenges of girlhood and coming of age. The artists explore the interdependent dynamics of security and intimacy in different relationships, everyday expressions of gender and sexuality, and the role of everyday rituals in coping with mental health issues.

The tension at the heart of the exhibition is the juxtaposition between categories – such as light and heavy, soft and harsh, safe and dangerous, and acceptable and unacceptable – which is characteristic of the work of Lehtsaar and Nõmm. The aim of the convened duo show is to manifest the role of sexual expression in art and life, emphasising the importance of a sense of personal security and belonging, shared joys and concerns, and the well-being of one’s mind and body.

Curators: Anita Kodanik and Brigit Arop

Graphic design: Michael Fowler

Maria Izabella Lehtsaar (1998) is an artist based in Tallinn who combines textiles, graphics, drawing, installation and text in their work. Their works deal mainly with the themes of queer experience and mental health, often playing on the fragile border between reality and fantasy. Lehtsaar graduated from the Estonian Academy of Arts with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Art and is currently studying in the Contemporary Art MA programme. In 2021, they were awarded the Edmund Valtman scholarship.

Sarah Nõmm (1998) is an artist based in Tallinn who works primarily with sculpture, installation, video and performance. Her work deals with the female body and the spaces surrounding it. Nõmm’s works are often based on personal experiences and look at themes of the body through popular beliefs, myths, taboos and everyday rituals. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sculpture and Installation from the Estonian Academy of Arts. In 2021, she was awarded the Young Sculptor Prize.

The exhibition is open every day at 13.00–19.00 from 26 August to 31 August.

Supported by: Cultural Endowment of Estonia

Special thanks: Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, EKA Gallery, Johannes Luik, Maksim Bondartsuk, Julika Roos

Additional info:

Brigit Arop, curator

brigit.arop@artun.ee

Anita Kodanik, curator

anita.kodanik@artun.ee

On Friday, September 2, starting at 12:00, the opening ceremony of the 2022/23 academic year will be held. The ceremony lasts approximately 1.5 hours.

Peer review event of Art and Design PhD student Dila Demir’s second design case study „Caring Companion“ will take place on August 22, 14.00-15.30 at EKA, room A501.
Dila Demir will present the design process and analysis of the project. Along with the peer review event there will be a physical exhibition at EKA on the fifth floor. Case study „Caring Companion“ is part of the artistic doctoral thesis of Dila Demir.

The peer review event will be in hybrid format. Please find Zoom link to participate HERE

Reviewers: Dr. Vasiliki Tsaknaki, assistant professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Dr. Claudia Nuñez-Pacheco, post-doctoral researcher at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology
Supervisors: Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat and Dr. Kristi Kuusk.

Dila is working in the field of interactive textiles, bodily discomforting experiences i.e., pain, soma design, and somaesthetics. Her second design case titled Caring Companion discusses the emergence of designing discomforting interactions that demonstrates how repeated engagement with the discomfort can lead to new becomings and inform the design of better engaging wearable interactive artefacts (soma extensions). Dila regards bodily discomforts as disturbing experiences that disrupts the everyday flow of the bodies such as fibromyalgia, depression, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or chronic pain. She specifically works with the chronic pain and aim to induce sensory bodily awareness in her doctoral research. Accordingly, Caring Companion is a collection of various items in the form of a cultural probe kit (CPK) for encouraging people to engage with their bodily discomfort, specifically, chronic pain. Five participants with chronic pain used the Caring Companion kit for a minimum of four days a week for three weeks. For the study, they wore the soma extension – a soft textile artifact – that was included in the kit to practice yoga sequences shown in a YouTube video. They inserted their phones into the soma extension for localized sound effect. After each practice, they reflected on their felt experience of moving with the soma extension textually in the journal and visually by drawing body maps included in the kit and forming the plasticine. Additionally, they choose the words that best describe their felt experiences from the word list that includes 42 words to which they were free to add different words as well. The Caring Companion became part of their routines and supported them to engage and reflect upon their bodily experiences concerning pain.

On September 6, 2022, the Estonian Academy of Arts will organize a conference analyzing the vast scope of possibilities for innovation in the era of digital reality, looking more specifically into the fields of architecture, spatial design, creativity, innovation, and design education in relation to the possibilities offered by the means of digital reality.

PROGRAM

There is no fee for the conference, but you are kindly asked to sign up in advance.

The previous conference of the Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Architecture dissecting digital reality took place in 2019. In the years since, the world around us has changed – many say, irreversibly.

The pandemic hit the global economy and culture with unprecedented force, forcing all to restructure our lives, businesses and leisure habits. The global wave of lockdowns catalyzed e-commerce, distance learning and work-from-home, as well as all digital platforms. Innovations in digital reality have gained momentum and have now become a source of completely new possibilities.

The concept of innovation radiates throughout the economy and culture today. It has been argued that for innovation to be radical, it must be design-based. We can trace logical steps from creativity and invention to design and innovation in our lives. It can be assumed that the design thinking that was highly promoted in recent decades was a bit premature. Only now, with the emergence of digital reality, has it become fully meaningful – through digital platforms, most human labor is being pre-designed.

At the conference, we will speculate on the future of space, architecture, creation, innovation and design education in the age of digital reality. Dr. Roberto Verganti will dissect innovation as the keynote speaker at the conference with his lecture titled “Design-Driven Innovation and Radical Invention of Arts”. Speakers include Emil Adamec (Brno University of Technology, Charles University), Gao Xu (Taiyuan University of Technology), Cheng Lu(Cardiff University), Max Eschenbach and Prof. Dr. Oliver Tessmann(Darmstadt University of Technology), Prof. Roemer van Toorn (UMA School of Architecture), Dr. Siim Tuksam (Estonian Academy of Arts) and Martin Melioranski (Estonian Academy of Arts). The sessions are moderated by Professor Toomas Tammis and Professor Dr. Andres Kurg. The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Jüri Soolep.

The conference takes place within the TAB Tallinn Architecture Biennale, always aimed at looking boldly into the future.

More about the conference.

The conference is supported by the Estonian Academy of Arts, the Estonian Association of Architects, the Estonian Cultural Endowment, the Estonian Ministry of Culture, and the European Regional Development Fund.

Estonian Association of Architects together with Estonian Academy of Arts and SAP Katowice are pleased to invite for an exhibition about the cycle of lectures Masters of Architecture

The opening will take place 18.08.2022  thursday|
18:00 (EEST) I Estonian Academy of Arts | Põhja pst 7
110412 Tallinn | Estonia|

The exhibition opening on the 18th of August will be followed by a polish-estonian panel discussion about the conditions of designing in both countries. Guests invited to participate are Andro Mand, At Ader, Katrin Koov, Matgorzata Pilinkiewicz and Tomas Studniarek.
The discussion will be moderated by Justyna Boduch and Wojciech Fudala.

Masters of Architecture is a series of architecture lectures organized by the Association of Polish Architects in Katowice (SARP Katowice). This special exhibition is created to sum up the historv of all the events.
The series was originated in 2004 and supposed to be a cycle of 5 lectures onlv, given by architects representing 5 biggest European capitals. The speeches about London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Amsterdam received extremelv wide interest from local architects and architecture students. As a result, the only decision possible was to go on with organization.
The Masters of Architecture series is organized up to now and influenced the education of hundreds of architecture students who received an access to much extensive knowledge than their predecessors from post-communist era. Between 2004 and 2020, the citv of Katowice hosted 70 architects from all over the world, including winners of the most significant architecture prizes.
A moving installation consists of 70 circles, corresponding to 70 architects who visited the city of Katowice and shared their knowledge with Polish audience. All the elements of the exhibition are mobile, what encourages visitors to interact. Besides the circles with the Masters of Architecture names, the installation contains some bigger circles with architect’s portraits, together with their opinions about the city of Katowice.
An extra gesture are mirrors, located at some of the circles. When young architects are visiting the exhibition, the can see their own reflection there. Who knows, maybe
in the future the will become Masters of Architecture as well?

The event is under the Honorary Patronage of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage prof. Piotr Glinski, the Ambassador of Poland to Estonia Gregorz Koztowski and the Mavor of Katowice Marcin Krupa.

EAL website