“Drawing in the air”, interactive installation at Annantalo, Helsinki.
Minor subject in Art and Technology
20-25 ECTS
Target group: Students at Aalto University, exchange students, students from other universities (within the JOO agreement)
Objectives and content: The Art and Technology study module focuses on media art and especially electronic art. The emphasis is on interactive artworks that are spatial, embodied, or mobile.
The course works realized within this module typically utilize computers and electronics for artistic expression. Some topics covered in the module are interactive installations, experimental user interfaces, wearable electronics, and ubiquitous technology.
The minor subject combines media artistic thinking and practice with the aesthetic and philosophical foundations of the field. Students are encouraged to cross over boundaries between technology, art and design. To support students in their conceptual work a group of mentors that are post-graduate students are available to them.
Previous studies in digital media or programming are not required from students who have a study background in art. The basic technical skills needed for the course works are provided on the course ‘Software studies: Programming for Artists’.
The study module is a collaboration between Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and Aalto School of Science, coordinated by Aalto Media Factory.
Enrollment: Application deadline is 31st May. The application consists of application form, motivation letter and extract of student record, and it is delivered to lecturer Vesa Kantola at Department of Media Technology. The applicant should tell about his/her background and reasons to apply in the motivation letter (1-2 pages). The applicants are interviewed in case there are more applicants than can be taken to the study module.
Teachers: Vesa Kantola, Andy Best, Matti Niinimäki, Barbara Sonvilla, Tapio Takala, Markku Nousiainen and other teachers.
Language: English
Number of students: Max 10-12 students.
The minor subject consists of the following courses:
Compulsory courses 16 ects
01293 Media Art Installation 6 ects
tk0266 A History of Media Arts 5 ects
Depending on study background (discuss with the coordinating teacher) either
25397 Software studies: Programming for Artists 5 ects or
Inf-0.1300 Estetiikka 5 ects
Optional courses 4-9 ects
T-111.5077 Sisällöntuotannon projektityö L 6-9 ects
tv0045 Wearable Technology 6 ects
01252 Media Art (Media Intervention in the City) 5 ects
01095 What’s the Future of Art? 6 ects
ME-E4200 Experimental User Interfaces 4 ects
T-111.6596 Mediatekniikan yksilölliset opinnot
For the course descriptions see the Courses page.
Use WebOodi for course enrolment.
More information
Vesa Kantola (lecturer, Department of Media Technology)
email: vesa.kantola ((at)) aalto.fi
tel. 050 5562092
Leena Närekangas (coordinator, Aalto Media Factory)
email: leena.narekangas ((at)) aalto.fi
tel. 050 3427114
Hello Reader,
Currently I’m studying Industrial Design Engineering at the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands. Since a while now I’ve been thinking about starting a career in Interactive Installations. Currently I’m working on a schoolproject in which I’m tracking individuals at trainstation and beamer interactive visuals at their feet. After this project I intend to further improve on my programming skills (sofisticated motion-tracking) and work on some personal projects (digital costumes and scenes for theathershows and other). Also I will be applying for the TU delfts Honours programs of which I’m currently decided to choose a philosophical issue or using this honours program to dive into ‘light’. This ‘light’ study would fit perfectly into your ‘art and technology’ module. Therefor it might be a good module to fit into my personal ects within this honours programs. Would this be on option? I could sent you my hours prgrams application form (will be done by next week). But summarizing its content I intend to investigate the potential of light in design. Since without light there is no vision and vision is the window into your outside world (first you see a product after which you decided to interact with it). Possible applications which I’m thinking of would be:
- fashion (digital make-up)
- anti-light (filtering out stains or texture of materials)
- customization of environment (advanced ambilight)
- psychological (enhancing moods)
- theather (digital costumes/scenes o enhancing emotions)
- sports (enhancing experience for athlete or spectators)
- and more
So might it be possible to apply for your module while being a student of my university or should I aplly for one of your masters?
regards,
Rik
Hi Rik,
Thanks for your questions. I’ll have to find out about how and if you could apply in this case. It may be easiest to communicate directly with email about this either this week or next week: markku dot nousiainen at aalto dot fi.
Cheers.
- Markku
Hi Rik,
To apply to our Art and Technology study module you should be either an exchange student, or a master’s degree student in some Finnish university. So it’s not possible to apply directly to a minor study module without having a status like this. (But it’s probably possible to become an exchange student based on your current studies.)
And since this is a rather small module I think it makes most sense if you would have some other studies going on here at the same time. The courses of the Art and Tech module take one year (September – May), but they are not full-time. I can give further advice with email (markku dot nousiainen at aalto dot fi).
Best,
Markku