Monthly Archives: March 2010

FISCAR conference "Social creativity, design and activity"

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Nordic ISCAR, FISCAR and Media Factory welcome researchers and students from all around the world to its 2010 conference in Helsinki, on the 23-25 of May. The conference is dedicated to examining human creative activities. The conference theme is “Perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity”. We conceive of design as a field of knowledge and activity concerned with the creation of artifacts. Creative activities operate with diverse modes of knowing and representations. Creativity is a social quality that involves communication and community formation. Creative activities and design are needed when humans transform their circumstances by developing new technologies and institutions. Creation of the new relies on cultural mediation and historically accumulated resources. Activity theory and socio-cultural approaches offer fresh perspectives on these themes. The conference aims at bringing together diverse points of view and disciplinary orientations to discuss social creativity, design and activity.

Conference themes:
We invite researchers, specialists, and students in the fields of art, design, education, health care and other professional activities to participate in the Nordic Conference on Activity Theory and the Forth Finnish Conference on Cultural and Activity Research (FISCAR10). The conference is seeking proposals on variety of perspectives on social creativity, designing and activity. The sub-themes of the conference are the following:

  • Design as an activity
  • Theory and methodology for research on creativity and design
  • Design and creativity in diverse forms of communities
  • Design and creativity in educational activities
  • Design and creativity in work activities
  • Digitalization of culture
  • Design and creativity in heath care and social services

>> Read more about the conference.

Visit to Department of Media Technology on 23rd March

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The purpose of Media Factory’s laboratory visits is to give insight to the lab and studio facilities used for research and education purposes. In our series of visits, the next event takes place in the Department of Media Technology, located at Aalto University’s School of Science and Technology, in Otaniemi.

The field of the Department of Media Technology is digital media in all of its forms: as a publishing platform, as well as an interactive environment. The goal of the Department is to promote the complex technical, contentual, and psychological skills required in building the current media systems and products.

The visit takes place on 23rd March, 2010, at 15-17. We will meet in the lobby of TUAS building, located at Otaniementie 17, at 3pm.

You can find the place with the following map:
http://tinyurl.com/ydexvpf

Programme:

15-15.15
Introduction to the Department, coffee served.

15.15-16.10
Eye-tracker facilities
Camera lab
(presented by Prof. Pirkko Oittinen)

16.10-17
Virtual acoustics and Odeion theatre
Motion capture studio
(presented by Prof. Tapio Takala)

Please note that you have to sign up to the visit. This is because space is limited in the lab facilities. We can take a maximum of 25 visitors.

Sign up with the following web form:
http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=418247&cid=109830471

Welcome to the visit!

Greetings from the brand new Media Factory headquarters

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This year has started with a little bit different focus than the last one. In our five-point action plan we emphasize more gatherings with our different stakeholders as well as the visibility of media education and research within Aalto university.

We have had two seminars in February, one in co-operation with the Canadian embassy and one in co-operation with Grafia ry. We enjoyed both networking with Dr. Gerri Sinclair from the Digital Media Center in Vancouver as well as hearing the Grafia seminar panelists discuss the future of research and education within graphic design. Some twitters from the events: Sinclair: Where is the money? Answer Baby-boomers. Grafia seminar: What is the core of graphic design in year 2015? Is it information design? For getting a glimpse of these events please find the videos on our video channel.

Finnish Game Jam

The Global Game Jam 2010 was an event organised on January 29-31 in a multitude of locations worldwide. In Finland the event took place in four locations. Media Factory took part in organizing and documenting the Helsinki Event in Media Centre Lume. A video documentary is currently being edited and will soon appear on our video channel.

What is a Game Jam? It’s an event and competition where participants innovate computer games from scratch in a single weekend. The assignment is given in Friday evening and the completed games are evaluated in Sunday afternoon. This year’s theme was “deception”, something that all completed games were expected to deal with. To learn more and actually to play the winning games visit Finnish Game Jam’s website: http://finnishgamejam.fi/

Mobile App Developer Network

There is a growing demand for collaboration in the area of mobile application development (i.e. programming and content creation for mobile devices such as mobile phones) within Aalto University. Therefore, Media Factory has initiated a multi-disciplinary network where people interested in this topic can meet regularly and plan joint activities. The network is intended for both staff (researchers, lecturers) and students of Aalto University, with visitors from media industry. Continue reading →

MediaBizLab seminar

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Aalto University Media Factory and School of Economics, Faculty of Marketing would like to invite you to a half-day seminar of “MediaBizLab – COMMERCIALIZING MEDIA AS SERVICE” Join us for a seminar on how to engage audiences, drive popularity, and generate revenue for media content in the internet era!

Venue: Aalto University, School of Economics, Main building, Juhlasali (assembly hall), Runeberginkatu 14-16, Helsinki
Time: 13:00-17:00, April 22, 2010

Will Content still be King?

MediaBizLab is a new minor subject study program run by Aalto University Master’s degree program in Marketing and Aalto Media Factory. he objective of the program is to teach the essentials about the media content commercialization from the points of view of design, technology, and business in the true Aalto spirit. (Applications for next fall will be received until May, 15th, 2010.) “Commercializing Media as a Service” will be arranged as an open kick-off seminar for studies that will begin in the fall semester of 2010.

The seminar program includes keynote speeches and a panel discussion from leading creative and content industry professionals. So far we have confirmed Gerd Leonhard (Media Futures, Author, CEO of Media Futures Group, http://www.medafuturist.com) and Saku Lehtinen (AD, Remedy games, http://www.remedygames.com) as keynote speakers. Gerd will talk about ‘21st century content economics’ detailing how to get ready for the new content economy. Saku will share his experiences from marrying art, technology and business in producing the hit game ‘Max Payne’ and the much anticipated ‘Alan Wake’.

Follow http://twitter.com/mediabizlab for updates to our seminar program.

This event is open for students, academics and practitioners interested in storytelling, value creation, and business models in the internet era. In true Aalto spirit, we want to help designers, engineers, and marketers explore how to excel in this digital environment. We take a broad approach to media and the event is suitable for people interested creating and managing comprehensive media experiences utilizing transmedia storytelling combining print media, TV, film, gaming, internet services, mobile applications, etc. Our goal is to uncover how media as a service relates to co-creating meaning and value through interaction with the audience, embedding virality and enticing stickiness of internet services, and optimizing revenue models for cash flow.

SIGN UP for the event on: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFVpSFJ6d1JrRFY2WDhBazROSDFQNnc6MA
Seats will be filled in the order of signing up.

MORE INFORMATION: Elina Koivisto (Aalto University School of Economics / Aalto Media Factory)
tel. +358 40 353 8400 / elina.koivisto{ät}hse.fi

GERD LEONHARD (Media Futures, Author, CEO of Media Futures Group ). The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd ‘one of the leading Media Futurists in the World’. Since 2002, following a decade as digital media entrepreneur and start-up CEO, Gerd is considered a leading expert on topics such as social media, mobile content and mcommerce, innovation and entrepreneurship, UGC and peer production, copyright, licensing and IPR issues, next-generation advertising, marketing and branding, digital content strategies and the development of next-generation business models in the content, communications & technology industries. More information on Gerd can be found on his blog www.mediafuturist.com and his Twitter www.twitter.com/gleonhard as well as his presentation are available on www.gerdtube.net

SAKU LEHTINEN (Art Director at Remedy games). At his position, Saku has been directing the audiovisual experience of Remedy’s games for 8 years. There, he has been leading the art team and being heavily involved in the tools and engine development. Remedy games’ previous successes include Max Payne 1 and 2 for PS2, Xbox, PC and Mac, which have sold over 7 million units. Currently he is workon next-gen game Alan Wake, see www.alanwake.com for details. In the seminar Saku will be talking about the capabilities needed for the development of a successful media content.

New: Newsletter Archive

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View Media Factory newsletters sent so far through our mailing list in the new newsletter archive.

We send a monthly newsletter, and occasionally an extra email if there’s a special reason. To join the list, please visit http://lists.uiah.fi/mailman/listinfo/media_factory and fill in your name and email address. You will receive an email message with further instructions to confirm your subscription.

Visit to Department of Media Technology on 23rd March

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The purpose of Media Factory’s laboratory visits is to give insight to the lab and studio facilities used for research and education purposes. In our series of visits, the next event takes place in the Department of Media Technology, located at Aalto University’s School of Science and Technology, in Otaniemi.

The field of the Department of Media Technology is digital media in all of its forms: as a publishing platform, as well as an interactive environment. The goal of the Department is to promote the complex technical, contentual, and psychological skills required in building the current media systems and products.

The visit takes place on 23rd March, 2010, at 15-17. We will meet in the lobby of TUAS building, located at Otaniementie 17, at 3pm.

You can find the place with the following map:
http://tinyurl.com/ydexvpf

Programme:

15-15.15
Introduction to the Department, coffee served.

15.15-16.10
Eye-tracker facilities
Camera lab
(presented by Prof. Pirkko Oittinen)

16.10-17
Virtual acoustics and Odeion theatre
Motion capture studio
(presented by Prof. Tapio Takala)

Please note that you have to sign up to the visit. This is because space is limited in the lab facilities. We can take a maximum of 25 visitors.

Sign up with the following web form:
http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=418247&cid=109830471

Welcome to the visit!

Newsletter 1/2010 (March)

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Hi everyone,

This year has started with a little bit different focus than the last one. In our five-point action plan we emphasize more gatherings with our different stakeholders as well as the visibility of media education and research within Aalto university. Read more here.

We have had two seminars in February, one in co-operation with the Canadian embassy and one in co-operation with Grafia ry. We enjoyed both networking with Dr. Gerri Sinclair from the Digital Media Center in Vancouver as well as hearing the Grafia seminar panelists discuss the future of research and education within graphic design. Some twitters from the events: Sinclair: Where is the money? Answer Baby-boomers. Grafia seminar: What is the core of graphic design in year 2015? Is it information design? For getting a glimpse of these events please find our videos on our website (the video from the Grafia seminar will be published later on)

Finnish Game Jam

The Global Game Jam 2010 was an event organised on January 29-31 in a multitude of locations worldwide. In Finland the event took place in four locations. Media Factory took part in organizing and documenting the Helsinki Event in Media Centre Lume. A video documentary is currently being edited and will soon appear on Media Factory’s website.

What is a Game Jam? It’s an event and competition where participants innovate computer games from scratch in a single weekend. The assignment is given in Friday evening and the completed games are evaluated in Sunday afternoon. This year’s theme was “deception”, something that all completed games were expected to deal with. To learn more and actually to play the winning games visit Finnish Game Jam’s website: http://finnishgamejam.fi/

Mobile App Developer Network

There is a growing demand for collaboration in the area of mobile application development (i.e. programming and content creation for mobile devices such as mobile phones) within Aalto University. Therefore, Media Factory has initiated a multi-disciplinary network where people interested in this topic can meet regularly and plan joint activities. The network is intended for both staff (researchers, lecturers) and students of Aalto University, with visitors from media industry.

Due to its pioneering role the Mobile App Developers Network serves also as a model for further networks, or special interest groups within the media field in Aalto University. The first joint activities planned for spring 2010 are events such as seminars both for the network members and the wide audience in Aalto University and its stakeholders.

MediaBizLab – Commercializing Media Services

Media Factory participates in organizing a new Aalto-wide minor study program. The aim of the “MediaBizLab – Commercializing Media Services” program is to give students skills and experience in discovering success factors in media design and commercialization of their own product and service ideas. This takes place through facilitation of creative processes, understanding of media markets and end users’ needs, business thinking, and skills in prototyping. The students will work in groups throughout the programme.

The administrative unit of the program is the Department of Marketing and Management at the School of Economics. Other participating units are Department of Media (School of Art and Design) and Department of Media Technology (School of Technology). The launch is next fall, and the intake is 20 masters level students, preferably in their fourth year of studies.

For more information contact mikko.villi{ät}taik.fi

Research news

Media Factory will arrange an open call for smaller research projects. The call will include more detailed information about the process. Researchers and students within Aalto university will be encouraged to take part in a pitching event where the idea should be presented shortly and efficiently. Check out our website for further information later on this month. We will also inform you through this list.

Further news

We could create a little bit of buzz around the following themes: Short film competition (www.uneton48.com) and Postproduction. More information will be given in the next newsletter.

The Media Factory office has moved on the 4th of March. Please visit our new office at Aalto University School of Art and Design. The visiting address is: Hämeentie 135 A, 3rd floor just above the cafeteria Katri Antell. Or contact us by sending an e-mail to mediafactory {ät} aalto.fi

Enjoy the dawning spring :-)

The Media Factory Office Team

Media Factory newsletter December 2009

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Dear friends of Media Factory,

The last month of this year is here and we are all in a waiting mode. We are not just waiting for all that the Christmas season could bring but also how the new Aalto university will start officially on the 1st of January. The Sylvester Night will certainly start the new wave of inspiring encounters between different actors from both academia and the media field.

The ending year can be described as a year of initializing new ways of co-operation between different media researchers and students within the three schools. Please read professor Maija Töyry’s reflections of Media Factory 2009 here: http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=444

Media Factory’s new director

On the 23rd of November Philip Dean was appointed director at Media Factory. He is currently working as Professor of Media Management at Media Lab, Taik, the department he founded in 1993. You can read more about him here: http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=405

Media Factory’s research tracks so far

The research tracks of Media Factory (Doing Cross Media and Enactive Social Media and Gaming) had a seminar where the researchers presented their research so far. Read more here: http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=415

Workshop focusing on industry collaboration

Media Factory organizes a workshop at TKK on December 17th, 9.00-12.15. The workshop concentrates on the pedagogical aspects of industry collaboration. It is intended for educators in Aalto, who teach subjects related to media and communication. The workshop will be held in Finnish. More information at http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=419

Media in transition on film

Students attending the Media in transition (Median murros) course organized by Media Factory have produced several short films as their course assignments. The theme given to the students was “Media 2020”. These films, created in multidisciplinary students groups, can be viewed on the course web site http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?page_id=219

Also several essays written by the students are available on the site, as well as video recordings of the course lectures. All course material is in Finnish.

Seminar on Digital Visuality

Welcome to the Media Factory seminar:
Digital Visuality – The multiple societal uses of images

17.12.2009
13.00-17.00
TKK, TUAS, TU 5

The seminar has as its aim to discuss and develop further the new Media Factory Research Track called “Digital Visuality” that is still in the plannig phase. In other words, it is a good opportunity to get involved. More information here: http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=445

We from the office team wish you a wonderful Christmas time and all the best for the year 2010.

Stay in contact with us and follow our doings on our webpages http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=330602485060
and Twitter http://twitter.com/AaltoMedia

Media Factory newsletter October 2009

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Dear friend of Media Factory

It is time for us to tell you something about Media Factory’s latest happenings and also give some information about upcoming events.

Networking Through Disciplinary Boundaries

On the 1st of October Media Factory arranged a seminar about the theme “Networking Through Disciplinary Boundaries”.
We were really proud to have Associate Director Martha Russell from MediaX at Stanford University as a guest speaker. You can find her presentation on our website http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/
The local touch was offered by professor Johanna Moisander from HSE, professor Maija Töyry from TAIK and professor Marko Turpeinen from HIIT who chaired the session. Find more information about the seminar and the presentations http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=369

Media Factory’s Researchers’ network forum

The following Media Factory’s Researchers’ network forum is arranged on the 12th of November at the University of Art and Design in lecture room 885 on the 8th floor. We will discuss and debate about the subject Public Space Contested. New Media Technologies, Art and Society”. More details about the programme can be found on our website http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=369 The number of participants is limited to 35. Please register before the 5th of November by sending an email to Mika Elo (melo{ät}taik.fi). In order to facilitate networking, Media Factory is collecting information about media related research done in Aalto University. Please attach to your registration a short description of your current research interests. we would also like you to get acquainted with our invited speakers by reading their blogs:
inki.fi/hkoskela/akatemian-blogi/”>http://blogs.helsinki.fi/hkoskela/akatemian-blogi/
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~off/off/
http://www.ykon.org/saarikko-huber/
http://www.nunocorreia.com/

Media Lab OPEN 2009 Symposium

We also want you to notice the following symposium where Media Factory collaborates with Media Lab: OPEN 2009 Symposium (5.-6.11. 2009)
Media Lab Helsinki’s Doctor of Arts Symposium OPEN 2009 in University of Art and Design TaiK

OPEN 2009 is an event for all interested parties who want to understand the ongoing shift from an industrially organized era to an era of networks and social production. The role and meaning of information is changing from a fixed, well-guarded asset to a continuously changing openly shared process. Openness is affecting the relational dynamics between different actors. New ideals, organizational forms and practices emerge. They interfere with older traditions and create a space of conflict. More information at http://mlabsymp.uiah.fi/

Digital Innovation Workshop

On behalf of the organizers Media Factory wants to inform that the Digital Innovation Workshop will be held on November 11th 2009 in Tampere (Hervanta, Nokia Innovation Center). This full day event is open to all active digital innovation researchers in Finland. There is no registration fee. This is a national research community event bringing digital innovation researchers from diverse fields of academia together. Please register and submit abstracts at http://simlab.tkk.fi/Corinna/Digital+Innovation+Workshop

News from Media in transition

The first educational offering of Media Factory, “Media in transition” (Median murros), a BA level introductory course, is in process. 50 students from the different Aalto schools attend the course. Video recordings of the lectures and other course material can be found on the course web pages http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?page_id=219 (only in Finnish).

On behalf of the Media Factory Project Team

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