STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT:
Reactive residence concept
The seminar Media Artist at the Crossroads of New Performing Environments, held at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre on 2d of September, launched the Reactive residence concept developed by the project. PhD students Néill O´Dwyer, Maura McDonnell and Cobi van Tonder from Trinity College Dublin/ Arts Technology Research Laboratory (ATRL) lectured about the new possibilities of interactive media towards performing arts. The seminar was a joint education for the University of Tampere´s School of Communication, Media and Theatre CMT and several subjects of the Tampere University of Applied Sciences.
Strategic collaboration between academic organizations
The project´s Reactive residence seminar and Hamlet´s Norwegian Dollhouse workshop series have been significantly facilitating the strategic collaboration between different academic organizations. Through these educational and research contents University of Tampere, University of Arts Helsinki/ Theatre Academy, Aalto University, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and several foreign academies have been able to carry out similar studies together. Joint education based on the new technologies enables the future professionals to gain a deeper understanding in the fluid work culture.
The collaboration between academic organizations enabled by the Vimma project reacts to the strategic alignments set by the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. Its development strategy for education and research for 2011-2016 states that universities and polytechnic universities should improve their mutual and supplementary educational contents.
Reactive residence as a part of the Mediapolis initiative
The Vimma project carried on the strategic work concerning the Mediapolis campus. The project participated in the planning of the joint education contents to be held within Mediapolis with University of Tampere/ School of Communication, Media and Theatre CMT, the School of Information Sciences SIS and several subjects of the Tampere University of Applied Sciences TAMK. Also the use of project´s Reactive residence concept as a facilitator of the diversified workshops within the Mediapolis campus was developed further.
Roihankorpi and Lenni-Taattola participated in a meeting, held at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre on 30th of September, where the working possibilities of the freelancers of AV field within the Mediapolis campus was further developed. The Reactive residence concept could be partly applied in their further training and employment. Arto Koskinen (TAMK), Ilmari Huttu-Hiltunen (YLE), Jan Kolkkinen (Technopolis) and Mika Lehtinen (Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre) were also present at the meeting.
Roihankorpi and Lenni-Taattola participated in a Mediapolis tour during which practical issues of the Mediapolis education and research contents were developed further. Salla Aaltonen (Technopolis), heads of the schools Heikki Hellman (University of Tampere, CMT) and Kari-Jouko Räihä (University of Tampere, SIS) as well as researchers Markku Turunen and Jaakko Hakulinen from TAUHCI were also present.
The Vimma project is actively involved in planning of a motion capture (mocap) studio within the Mediapolis campus. With it´s widespread international network of partners the project is in charge of the research and educational contents of the mocap technology. This area of research was taken further on 8th of November when Roihankorpi and Lenni-Taattola participated in a development meeting in Mediapolis along with game companies, AV professional and media schools to chart the need for a mocap studio. The common objective is to create a locus of mocap expertise to the Pirkanmaa region.
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH CO-OPERATION:
Meeting on 18.10.
Roihankorpi met researcher and artist Kaisu Koski from Utrecht University of the Arts at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre on 18th of October. The meeting framed a possible research co-operation focusing on the use of user-centred applications in pain relief.
Meeting on 30.10.
Roihankorpi and Lenni-Taattola took part in meeting with professor Hanna Suutela (University of Tampere, Theatre and Drama Research) postgraduate student Niko Suominen (University of Tampere, Theatre and Drama Research) and lecturer, postgraduate student Maarit Uusitalo (University of Connecticut). The subject of the meeting was a joint research project in which the historicality of performances and costumes would be studied by using 3D designs and avatars.
Meeting on 28.11.
Lenni-Taattola met game researchers Hanna Wirman (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) and Olli Leino (City University of Hong Kong) in Helsinki during Coming to Terms with the Audiovisual Field seminar. In the meeting possible co-operation schemes concerning 3D game performing studies and PhD in Digital Arts network were discussed. Furthermore related academic research lines (including non-human subjects in game environments) were brought up.
Scen utan gränser seminar on 16.12. in Helsinki, Hanaholmen.
Lenni-Taattola presented the project´s central results at the Scen utan gränser network´s seminar entitled Ny teknik inom scenkonsten in Helsinki. At the same event Määttänen and Nieminen presented user-centred applications developed in the Ornaments sub-project.
PRODUCTIONS:
Andrée
Roihankorpi, Määttänen, Niemeläinen and Lenni-Taattola participated in the first production meeting of Andrée held at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre on the 25th of September along with the rest of the team. The production will capitalize on the technical applications developed by the Vimma project. The development work was taken further on 22th of October, when Määttänen, Niemeläinen and the set designer Kimmo Sirén met in Helsinki to define the joint compatibility of the technical applications.
Ornaments
Määttänen and Niemeläinen started on 1th of October to execute the Ornaments part of the project´s research. The objective is to develop an application based on the user-centred technology, which can be applied also e.g. artistic and social-ethical contexts.
OTHERS:
Media designer and researcher Teemu Määttänen applied the performance technology concepts developed in the Vimma project in educational use. Painting the light workshop held at the Centre for Practise as Research in Theatre between 7- 11 of October taught the lightning and sound design students from the Academy of Arts/ Theatre Academy and the set design students from Aalto University to utilize video design in various ways. The other supervisor of the workshop was Swedish lightning designer Örjan Fjällström.