Hello friends!

we’ve started our year with a lot of energy and the Media Factory space has been full of life in form of various events. If you still haven’t visited us and want to pop in for a coffee or a chat, please follow these instructions: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=693

We are currently busy with building the Fablab (http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1190): connecting the lab equipment to our computers, building networks and walls. We had our first “customers” last week – students making their course projects with the vinylcutter. To follow Fablab’s progress, like it on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AaltoFablab.

Answer Media Factory questionnaire and win movie tickets!

Tell us how we could serve you better by answering this questionnaire: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=1222 We will raffle 16 movie tickets among the participants who have answered before 12th of January.

Stelarc and Riitta Hari on Human Design or Evolution? lecture on 13.2.

The last event on the Human Design or Evolution? lecture series on Monday 13.2. includes presentations from the brain researcher Riitta Hari and the world-famous performance and robotics artist Stelarc. The lectures are videoed and some of them are already online on our pages: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?cat=193 More information about the lecture series: http://humandesign.mlog.taik.fi/

Trashlab events in February

Pixelversity’s monthly Trashlab events explore experimental art-design-technology practice between hacker and maker cultures, in the context of re/up-cycling and the increased availability of new fabrication tools. Trashlab’s objective is to build up a community of people who are concerned with material and electronic waste in contemporary society, and tackle this problem with creative and tangential approaches. Trashlab lecture on 17.2. and workhop on 18.2. are held in Media Factory. More info: http://www.pixelache.ac/helsinki/pixelversity/programme-2012/trashlab-renewable-festivals/

Seven new Aalto Media Factory Open Call projects!

The last AMF open call in autumn 2011 got 20 proposals of which we decided to fund the following seven projects:

Visuality in digital books – platform and pilot cases. Annu Ahonen. Julkaisupalvelut. 20000€

Stretch-‘e-room’ and eFibre workshop in Aalto 2012. Raija Jokinen, Ramyah Gowrishankar. DoD, DoM, Dep. of Motion picture. 10000€

The Media of Energy and Emotions. Tatu Marttila, Karthikeya Acharya, Till Bowermann, Lutz Gegner. DoD, DoM. 16000€

Wagner-gaalakonsertti. Marjo Mäenpää. Pori, Tampere, Turku. 14000€

‘Talking Trash(lab)’. Andrew Patterson, Karthikeya Acharya, Sami Bhowmik. DoD, DoM, Aalto Lahti. 15000€

CoMeUP: Collaborative Media content creation for Urban Planning. Joanna Saad-Sulonen. DoM, Surveying and Planning. 25000€

Euroscope – Näkökulmia talouden multimodaaliseen merkityksellistämiseen. Yrjö Tuunanen, Heidi Hirsto. DoM, Dep. of Language and Communication. 38900€

Enjoy the snow!
Aalto Media Factory staff

Hello dear friends!

the new Aalto Media Factory premises have been under a construction since last June when we moved here. Some of the walls have been taken down and new walls built up. Even though the space is not totally finished yet, it has been in use by different actors, such as Creative Sustainability and IDBM study programs, Wearable Electronics course and many more.

Our aim is to build a 50+ seat size flexible space that can be used as auditorium or for example as small scale AV-studio or animation studio. The space will have high quality (HD) video projection and Dolby digital 5.1 six point sound system. One of the two smaller meeting rooms has 3D 55” screen and PS 3 console for games and blue ray films.

The bulding of a rapid prototyping studio, fablab, will start 1 Nov, when Anu Määttä is joining our crew as the fablab studio master. Anu has been previously working for the ProtoSpace fablab in Ütrecht, Netherlands. Ali Neissi Shooshtari has already started to invade the space for the use of the electronic studio.

You are most welcome to visit the Aalto Media Factory any time and if you will need a good quality comfortable meeting room or class room, please visit Aalto Media Factory web page http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/spaces) to check the availability of the spaces. To book a room for your purpose, call or send a message to Mira Mutikainen ([at] aalto.fi).

We would also like to invite you to an introductory workshop on wearable electronics, given by our visiting teacher Meg Grant on Wednesday 2nd of November, from 14-17. We will experiment with simple electronic circuits that can be integrated into textiles, garments and installations to produce output in the form of light and sound for example! Read more about the workshop: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1136

The Media in transition (Median murros) course that examines new media and current trends has being organized for the third time this autumn and you can now watch the inspiring course lectures online (http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1131). The lectures are in Finnish.

And last but not least we would like to invite you to be Aalto Media Factory’s friends on Facebook to stay more closely in touch: http://www.facebook.com/aaltomf

Enjoy the beginning of the winter!
Aalto Media Factory office staff

Hi everybody!

The newsletter includes:

1. The Media Factory Fab Lab
2. Ali Neissi Shooshtari will start as a master of our electronic studio
3. We are looking for a studio master
4. Registration for Median murros course is open until 29.8.
5. Wearable Electronics course starts 19.9.2011
6. Open Call June 2011 funds 12 projects
7. New videos online

We are currently renovating and furnishing our new space in Arabia campus. There will be several spaces available for all Aalto people! If you already want to book a space for this autumn, check the availability of the spaces online: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/spaces and make a reservation by contacting Mira Mutikainen (ät aalto.fi, or by calling: +358 (0) 50 378 11 68). The spaces available for reservations will be:

An auditorium for 50+ people, equipped for audiovisual presentations
Two meeting rooms for max. 12 people each
A fab lab including an electronic studio

Media Factory will also offer Hot Desks for the use of Aalto community. If you have a temporary need for a desk at Arabia campus, just step in.

We also welcome you to visit the Media Factory kitchen to test our brand new coffee machine!

1. FABLAB

Aalto Media Factory is currently making preparations to open the first Fab Lab in Finland. The idea of Fab Labs come from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) and the concept has spread all over the world within the last six years. The Fab Lab serves as a platform for small-scale digital fabrication, prototyping and innovation. The basic ideas of the Fab Lab concept are easy access, openness and distribution of knowledge.

AMF Fab Lab will serve the whole Aalto community from all six schools, and it will be open to the general public and outside communities at least one day per week. Key areas of the lab will be rapid prototyping, interactive media prototypes, and open design and open hardware. A special feature of the AMF Fab Lab will be an emphasis on interactive physical media prototypes, and electronics and embedded systems. This is also an on-going trend in media design because of the rise of ubiquitous computing, and the largely spread use of cheap micro-controllers.

The AMF Fab Lab will serve its audiences within and outside Aalto University as a platform for research, education, innovation and networking. AMF’s Open call funding will also be available for projects that utilize the lab.

The machinery of the lab will include a computer-controlled laser-cutter, milling machines of various sizes for both furniture-sized and small high-precision parts, a vinyl cutter, a small 3D printer, and all the tools for building and programming embedded electronics.

More news about the AMF Fab Lab will be available during this autumn.

2. Ali Neissi Shooshtari will start as the master of our electronic studio

In connection with the Fab Lab we will open a small electronic studio facility. It will be build up with the help of the Design Factory. Ali Neissi Shooshtari will start as the master of the studio at the beginning of September to help and guide in the problems concerning electronics. Teemu Ronkka from Design Factory will be backing up him in his work.

3. We are looking for a studio master

for the period of 1.10.2011-31.7.2012. The work will include the development of the Fab (3D printers, laser cutter, CNC machine), training of the users and the maintenance of the studio and workshop equipment. Those interested, please find more information at http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1070

4. Registration for “Median murros” course is open until Mon 29th Aug

The “Median murros” (Media in Transition) bachelor level course is be organized for the third time this autumn. The course consists of lectures that discuss the transition from traditional media to new media from various viewpoints. To argument their own experiences with the matter, students make short video assignments in multidisciplinary groups. The course is open for all Aalto students and is taught in Finnish. The course registration is still open for few days in WebOodi, until Monday 29th Aug.

Course pages: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/medianmurros

5. Wearable Electronics course starts 19.9.2011

Wearable electronics is a rising new field of art and design, and also the topic of an upcoming cross-disciplinary course organised this autumn in collaboration between Aalto University and the Muu Artist Association. The course is facilitated by Aalto Media Factory and attended by costume and textile design, as well as new media students from Aalto School of Art and Design, in addition to a number of professional artists from Muu.

Electronics and sensors allow artists to create interactive smart garments that produce sound and images in reaction to movement. They sense and communicate with the environment or react to it, and send online messages. As the term ‘wearable’ suggests, such artworks are carried by the user, thereby interacting with the environment. The course focuses on the use of wearable computing and electronics in art. This broad and varied field provides new opportunities for artistic work and for the creation of multi-disciplinary art projects embracing media art, costume design, fashion design, and engineering.

More about the course:
http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=1008

6. Open Call June 2011 funds 12 projects

Altogether 21 proposals arrived before the Media Factory Open Call June 2011 deadline. 12 of these projects were awarded with funds and a total of 157 k€ was allocated to them (in random order):

Human design or evolution? (Laura Beloff)
Gesture Watch (Chi-Hsia Lai)
Layered locations (Henrikson)
AaltoWindow (Jari Kleimola)
New Generation of Surveys – Mobile Media Influenced Virtual Research Tool (Inka Kojo)
Exploring participation and physical human-human interaction in collaborative music performance, new media and education (Roperto Pugliese)
AtWink II (Petri Saarikko)
Photomedia One II (Merja Salo)
Aalto on Waves (Adalgisa Santos)
Designing a Web Service for Cultural Heritage Communities: oMu (Ferhat Sen)
WeStyle (Tuukka Takala)
Communicum (Mikko Villli)

7. New videos online

We have two new videos online, the first is about the computational photography theme at this year’s Pixelache festival which presented, for example, course works from the ‘Experimental Project in Computational Photography’ course organized by Media Factory: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1024

The second video is a report from the DMY Design Festival that took place in Berlin this June. This year’s DMY festival was focused on Finland, in anticipation of Helsinki’s World Design Capital nomination for 2012. http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=1043

Have a great autumn!
The Media Factory Team

ps. To unsubscibe from this mailing list, visit http://lists.uiah.fi/mailman/listinfo/media_factory

Dear all,

October is the time to plan the activities for next year. We are doing it too, and we would be happy to hear your ideas about what kind of environment Aalto Media Factory should be. In any case it should be something above and beyond the basic activities of the departments and units of Aalto. Please don’t hesitate, tell us your opinions.

But before next year, there are lots of things happening:

Open call for project deadlines are 12 and 26 Nov

Open Calls are one of the means of Aalto Media Factory to find what “new” is in the air in the Schools of Aalto University. We will have another two calls this year. The deadline for the small projects (6000 €) is on Friday 12 November and for the large projects (25000€) on Friday 26 November. All the Aalto University personnel and students are welcome to apply. Please find the more detailed instructions from our web site: http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=548

From this autumn’s first two calls we got all together eight applications:

Three projects were granted 6000€:
– The Cooperation with Advertising Agencies (contact person Heikki Nuutinen),
– CITY SETS – multi-linear urban identities (contact person: Marja Seliger)
– Sosiaalinen media koulujen opetuksessa (contact person: Risto Sarvas).

Two projects were granted 25000€:
– The Game Experience Pattern (Contact person: Ben Cowley)
– The Great Conspiracy Opera (GCO, contact person: Mika Tuomola).

More information on our website:
http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=548

Upcoming events

Impacting the Bottom Line with Media Services – MBL seminar
23 Nov 2010, Aalto University School of Economics, Assembly Hall (Juhlasali)

The theme of MediaBizLab’s second seminar on media services is monetization. Topics to be covered are transmedia storytelling, social media marketing and sales, and revenue models. There will be inspirational encounters with the students of MediaBizLab during their poster session in which they will share insights on current trends in media consumption, consumer cultures, and business models.

http://mediabizlab.fi/2010/10/impacting-the-bottom-line-with-media-services-mbl-seminar/

City-sets – visual urban identities
15 -16 Nov 2010, Media Centre Lume, Sampo Hall

City Sets is a metaphor that refers to cities as stages where passers-by are seen as actors. People with different motives come to cities to live, work, do business, spend free time and meet other people. The City Sets seminar takes a look into these identities and narratives of cities as portrayed in visual practice, research and new media. Participation to the seminar is free, but registration is required before 5 Nov 2010.
http://citysets.media.taik.fi/

next(con)text seminar on typography
18 Nov 2010, Media Centre Lume, Sampo Hall

For over the past five hundred years, typography has been bound to paper, to the printed page. Not anymore. A growing part of our communication happens in the electronic world of the Internet, and more and more of the typography we read is pixels instead of ink. Our one-day seminar will cover several of the key issues of the future typography. There will be a diversity of speakers: some concentrating on technical issues, some on the aesthetic aspects of type and some even covering both.
http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=634

Magazine Symposium

1 Dec 2010 (registration starts 1 Nov 2010)
Aalto University School of Art and Design, 8th floor

The topic of morning program is Magazines as research field (Aikakauslehdet tutkimusalana). Afternoon program is about Magazines and e-reading. The morning program is in Finnish and afternoon program in English. Registration in required to the afternoon program.

http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?page_id=659

Computational Photography course and Pixelache Festival

Media Factory collaborates with Pixelache Helsinki 2011 Festival to organise an Aalto University course and a thematic area to the festival on computational photography, a new area which brings media technologists and artists together. Today’s digital cameras are increasingly tools for programming instead of merely recording images. This gives rise to both expanding the capabilities of the camera and inventing new modes of visual expression.
http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/computationalphoto
http://www.pixelache.ac/helsinki/festival-2011/

Spot On seminar recording available on YLE Areena

The Spot ON seminar gathered an audience of about 160 people at Media Center Lume’s Sampo hall. If you missed the event, you have still change to see it on YLE Areena (There are two video clips, before and after the lunch break. The program of the event can be found at http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/?p=619).

http://areena.yle.fi/video/1306124
http://areena.yle.fi/video/1306172

Best wishes,
in behalf of the Media Factory Team
Juhani

Dear friends,

Just before leaving on our summer vacation we want to share some glimpses of our doings the past month as well as introduce you to what the autumn will bring.

Media Factory’s open call

We have had three deadlines for applications for funding of media-related projects. In all we had approximately 30 applications. The funded projects are found here:http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?page_id=548

Uneton48

Our partner Uneton48 has reached the point where the 10 finalists of the competition have been chosen (can be found here http://bit.ly/acuhrA) and when the gala festivities are close at hand. It has really been great to follow how the organizers Enni and Sami Tuomisalo together with their team have succeeded in coordinating this huge event with all its inspiring learning and networking possibilities as well as moments of true experience. Congratulations already at this point. Next Friday on the 18th the Uneton48 gala party starts at 5 p.m. and will be held in the Sampo Hall, Lume Centre. See you there ;-).

Media Factory was tracking Aalto on tracks

Media Factory documentarists Anna Berg and Ina Mutikainen traveled with the Aalto on Tracks posse on train to China in May. During the trip the passengers shared many fantastic experiences and made many good new friends and of course saw exotic sights through the train windows. A short video made by Anna and Ina about the trip was shown in Shanghai World Expo Finland day on 27th of May and in YLE morning-tv on 10th of June (http://areena.yle.fi/video/1050887). Later this autumn there will be a longer film about the tracks available, so stay tuned! Before that, you can explore the trackers’ adventures in the AoT-blog: http://aaltoontracks.com/

New students in the MediaBizLab minor studies program

17 Aalto students will begin their studies in September in the new minor studies program MediaBizLab – Commercializing Media as Services. The students admitted to the program share a similar enthusiasm towards media, yet their differing backgrounds will enable them to develop and produce new solutions for future media services. The MediaBizLab program is organized in cooperation between Media Factory and the Department of Marketing and Management (Aalto School of Economics). More information on the program is available at mediabizlab.fi

Media Facades festival in August/September

Media Factory collaborates with the Media Facades festival (http://www.mediafacades.eu) that takes place in Helsinki as part of the Helsinki Festival (Helsingin juhlaviikot) and also in six other European cities in August and September. The festival “explores the networked possibilities of urban screens and media facades via internet and the new technologies on a European level”. The kick-off of the festival with public screenings and street art happenings is in the Night of the Arts (27.8.) More information in our August newsletter.

Changes in the office team

The project manager in Media Factory, Maria Suokannas, will leave Media Factory at the beginning of August. A challenging new position as a principal lecturer within well-being services at the Laurea university of applied sciences, is waiting for her.

Also Mikko Villi, the coordinator of educational operations at Media Factory, will move to a new post in September. After receiving his doctoral degree in June, he will start his new work as a post-doctoral researcher at the Aalto School of Economics, the Department of Language and Communication.

Dates for your calendar

* SPOT ON – a seminar on locative media will be arranged at Media Centre Lume at TaiK on September the 23rd. The main organizers are Media Factory and Yleisradio. (more information later on on our website).
* A seminar on typography and type, next(con)text on the 18th of November (more information here http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=606).
* Magazines in the era of e-reading –symposium 1.12.2010 (more information maija (dot) toyry (at ) aalto (dot) fi)

And last…

Maria: As I won’t be co-writing the next newsletter I want to wish you all the best for the future and a lot of inspiring encounters with Media Factory. I am really grateful for everything I have learned during my year within the Aalto university.

Wishing you an energizing summer and remember, there shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart (Celia Thaxter).

The Media Factory Office Team

Hi everyone,

May is often one of the busiest months within academia and a month where the academic year ends and plans are made for the autumn. If you want to experience how the ending of an education process feels like, please visit the Masters of Arts’ exhibition”City of Senses” at Aleksanterinkatu 16-18 and Katariinankatu 3 in Helsinki. Find more information here: http://www.mastersofarts.fi/moa2010/

Our Factory agent

The three Aalto factories have decided to employ a factory agent to connect the factories more. We are glad to introduce our new Factory-agent, Juhani Tenhunen to you. Juhani Tenhunen is a doctoral student at Media Lab of the Aalto University School of Art and Design Helsinki. Previously he has been working as a producer at a new media department of the largest publisher in Finland, Sanoma-WSOY, and before that as an entrepreneur at New Media – AV production companies.

Uneton48-our partner

Our partner Uneton48 is energetically preparing for the next weekend when approx. 100 teams compete about who makes the best short film within 48 hours. We are glad we can be part of this organized passion for making short films. We are certainly looking forward to the gala night in Lume’s Sampo-sali on the 18th of June. Read more about uneton 48 here: http://www.uneton48.com/

Media Factory is tracking Aalto on tracks

Media Factory’s representatives Anna Berg and Ina Mutikainen started their journey to Shanghai with the Aalto on tracks community on Friday the 14th of May. They will be documenting highlights from the journey. To follow how the journey is proceeding please visit the following website http://aaltoontracks.com/

MediaBizLab’s kick-off

The kick-off for the new minor subject MediaBizLab was arranged on the 22nd of April. The seminar was a success although the ash cloud prevented the keynote speaker Gerd Leonhard from coming. To feel the event visit MediaBizLab’s website http://bit.ly/dyHPom or see the video on http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/

Digital Visuality Network

A new network within Aalto University, the Digital Visuality network had its first meeting and was thus established on 6th May. It brings together people with an interest in visual communication and media technologies to initiate joint projects in research and education, and in organising events, industry collaboration and networking. There will be shortly more about the network on Media Factory’s website, and an email list is being established. For more information please contact Markku Nousiainen (markku dot nousiainen [at] taik dot fi).

3D Animation Minor Subject Program

A new minor subject program will begin next fall in the Department of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design at the Aalto School of Art and Design. All Aalto students are eligible to apply. In the program the students learn how to create a 3D computer animated short film and work with professionals of the different areas of the production (sound, designer, composer, editor). More information at http://www.aalto.fi/fi/studies/mobility/art_and_design/

Mobile app developers network next meeting May 25th

The next meeting of the Aalto mobile app developers network will be in Otaniemi on Tuesday May 25th, at 09:15 – 11:15. The location is meeting room Edison (Otakaari 7 A, behind Restaurant Electra). Guest speakers are Michihito Mizutani and Abhigyan Singh. More information at http://www.aaltomediafactory.fi/?p=573

Dates for your calendar

Please put the 23rd of September and the 18th of November in your calendars. On the 23rd Media Factory is arranging a seminar about locative media in co-operation with Yle. The seminar will be held in Lume Sampo-Sali, Aalto university School of Art and Design. On the 18th of November Department of Media/Unit of Graphic Design arranges the next(con)text seminar which will discuss the future of typography and type. This seminar will also be held in Lume and Sampo-sali.

When writing this we are totally overwhelmed by the beauty and warmth the month of May can bring. Enjoy every minute :-). Let’s hope that this lasts and that no media in the world will bring us bad weather forecasts.

The Media Factory Office Team