We are happy to announce that the following projects have been approved for AMF seed funding:

Exploring Cinematic spaces: Frames, Images, Screens
Kirsi Rinne, Timo Heinänen

The Symposium delves into these complex issues. It aims at gathering existing multidisciplinary knowledge on the evolution of aspect ratios and composition of cinematic images. One of the key question deals with the role of aspect ratios in cinematic narrative and storytelling. What is the significance of aspect ratios in building depth and space? How perceptual submersion is achieved in new media? Multidisciplinary approach The symposium is open to all students, teachers and scholars. The target group includes filmmakers, new media and media technology students, professors and professionals.

11200€

Aalto on Waves finalization
Johannes Söderström, Dimitri Paile, Leo Liesvirta and Anna Berg

A document about a journey to Brazil that the students of Aalto University did. It is a story about how expectations face the reality in a foreign country.

9100 €

Urban Media Prototyping
Andrea Botero, Joanna Saad-Sulonen, Kimmo Karhu
ARTS ja SCI

The initiative aims at exploring collaborations between creative technology and media, participatory art, and urban design communities via placemaking and urban media interventions (prototypes) that explore civic engagement. We will build -via an open hackathon organised by Aalto students- two urban media prototypes which will be explored in real life settings.

13000€

Enactive Avatar finalization
Pia Tikka & others

3534€

Seattle in Helsinki
Professor Eric Bruun TECH, D.Soc.Sc Jukka Kortti ARTS, Lecturer Arja Karhumaa ARTS, Maarit Suokko ARTS (M2) and Producer (co-ord.) Pipsa Asiala;

This project should provide insight into the importance of major infrastrcture decisions on the future urban form and social fabric of a city by the means of data visualisation.
While it would be highly desirable for the visualisation to be creative and innovative, it is far more important that it be grounded in physical reality with realistic impact estimates, and for intance not wild exaggerations, boosterism for Helsinki, bashing of Seattle.
It should be possible for a person who is well educated to understand without the need for a specialized vocabulary or training in architecture, design, or civil engineering.
Five concrete and creative project ideas will be developing by 8 students: a led bicycle, a sound design intervention, an audiovisual isometric map, an alternative view booth with augmented reality elements, a 3D light installation with sensors.

8000€

Electro-acoustic Digital Music Practice for ND people
Till Bowerman, Julian Parker, Vesa Välimäki, Pirjo Kääriäinen, Ramyah Gowrishankar. DoM (ARTS), DoD (ARTS), D o Computer Sciense (SCI)

With this application, we request that Aalto Media Factory support the initial phase of the long-term project ”Electronic digital music practice for Neuro-diverse People”. The goal for this starting grant is (a) to support development of a solid network of international partners to successfully apply for an EU-level research project and (b) to help carry out the first design and prototyping iteration of this project in order to get a solid basis in both expertise and publications for a successful large-scale project application.
As a starting point for the exploration of possible shapes and materials for the hardware interface, we will focus on the use of textiles and e-embroidery.

WP1 – investigative field work: The deliverables of this WP are musical recordings, workshop documentations, and, possibly with the help of the recorded material, attendances to public events and international festivals.
WP2 – evaluation & coding, theory building. The deliverables of this WP are scientific papers for IxD, NIME and Autism related conferences
WP3 – conceptual synthesis & instrument development. The deliverables of this WP are instrument prototypes and guidelines for the design of electronic instruments to be published at international conferences.

32000€

Games Now! lecture series
Miikka Junnila, Perttu Hämäläinen

The gaming industry is growing faster than ever, but there is also a myriad of changes affecting the scene. New target audiences, platforms and distribution channels. New business models, game mechanics and approaches to games as experiences. New roles in games companies. New connections between the games industry and other businesses. New possibilities to use games for non-entertainment purposes, and new production processes – there are lots of things happening, and the pace is growing.

The Games Now! –course series is planned to be a forum where international and national speakers address these hot topics, bringing the latest knowledge for Aalto students and game industry professional alike. The perspective needs to be multidisciplinary, as the changes are affecting all different aspects of the games industry, and there are relevant topics for people of different professions.

The Games Now! -course series will contain a monthly lecture by a specialist that will also be available as a web stream. Students can participate to get credits, and also people from game companies are welcome to learn and also to spark up conversations after the lectures. Apart from the lectures, there will also be some workshops on different relevant themes, also open to a limited number of students and industry people. This will create opportunities for networking, both inside the Finnish game scene, and to the international speakers. The new connections will open up new possibilities for courses also in the future. As we are aiming for top speakers and interesting topics, there might even be a chance to build a massive open online course around these lectures.

Media Factory event
50000€