Aalto ARTS Summer School 2024
Introduction
Summer School 2024 on the Theme of “Embodied Water” highlights one of the biggest global challenges of our time: water. Water issues are global, regional, and local, ranging from the challenges of clean water and sanitation to ocean observation. The summer school theme addresses themes that have worldwide relevance and can be approached from various perspectives. The course content is positioned in the immersive landscape of digital design and combined with perspectives of art, design, media and film. It is supposed to raise awareness and to provide solutions on social, cultural and systemic challenges related to water. During the course, students worked in international, multidisciplinary and multicultural teams exploring the topic through the lenses of information design, storytelling, game design, film, and creative technologies, utilizing AI.
The course aimed to help students learn how to transform water-related data into visual narratives, develop interactive games based on gamification principles to raise awareness of water conservation, create short films to highlight water issues and inspire advocacy, and build immersive AR and VR experiences that allow for virtual exploration of water environments. Using AI tools, participants were able to learn and explore new forms of artistic expression to enhance engagement with water-related topics.
News and events
Summer school started with an online symposium on June 11th. Symposium consisted of discussions about how can art and design address and raise awareness on water-related societal challenges. It gathered all summer school students and teachers to listen featured talks from the summer school academics and external experts from the field.
Summer school final exhibition “Embodied Water” was part of ARTS Student Show 2024 and Helsinki Design Week 2024 program. Also, an interactive installation of the international, multicultural and multidisciplinary learning and co-teaching process of the summer school was designed and produced to Helsinki Design Week main venue in Hakaniemi. The installation highlighted relevant, timely topics such as collective practice-based learning, brave experiments, multidisciplinary collaboration and the need to produce solutions for major global issues through art, design and digital media.The installation was designed and produced by Heidi Uppa, a designer and coordinator of the summer school 2024.
Symposium_recording_11062024.mp4 – Google Drive
Helsinki Design Week
Helsinki Design Week – Instagram
Water, Technology, Art and Design – John Nurmisen Säätiö (johnnurmisensaatio.fi)
Aalto ARTS Student Show 2024
Aalto ARTS Summer School 2024 Symposium
Aalto ARTS Summer School explores the significance of water through the lens of art
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Holistic Understanding
Students will gain a holistic perspective on sustainable development and systemic understanding in the context concerning water issues by merging their scientific knowledge with artistic expression.
Exploration of New Technologies
Understanding and exploring possibilities to combine AI, AR, VR and XR technologies with perspectives and tools from different design disciplines (games, narratives, data visualisation, film) to create engaging, meaningful, and interactive experiences.
Creative Solutions and Expression
The interdisciplinary approach through research and conceptual thinking will encourage innovative solutions and artistic expression to water-related challenges.
Patroadvocacy through art
Artistic creations will serve as powerful tools for advocacy, sparking conversations and driving societal change.
Project management
Successfully ideating, planning, and managing a project as a part of a multidisciplinary and multicultural group. Creating together a presentable outcome for an exhibition.
✴︎ overall
course
assignment
—
The course consisted of pre-assignment, group work and final exhibition at the end of the two-week onsite course. The key aim was to address and raise awareness on water related societal challenges and to develop a project idea together with the group. Students used their observations, research and experience in their individual and group studies.
ONLINE PRE-ASSIGNMENT
Before the actual concept development at campus, students familiarized themselves with the theme by conducting background research and discussing the topics in their groups in online Zoom meetings. Students worked both individually and in teams, used course material package, shared pre-assignment materials on a common platform and participated in online workshops and tutoring. Grouping was done based on their interest in learning about similar water-related topics or having a similar approach. The groups were designed to include a diverse mix of students from different schools, artistic fields, and cultures. The varied skills of the students were also taken into consideration.
Pre-assignment completed during the summer time consisted of six different assignments. Each student first reflected their personal relation to water by observing, experiencing and reading background research related to the theme. After that they developed a project idea. They also signed a team agreement which worked as a collaborative tool for the project work. Students were encouraged to use their collective creativity to address and raise awareness on water related societal challenges. Also, they were guided to take into consideration factors that contribute to being a supportive collaborator for the successful completion of a project in an online study environment.
ONSITE
GROUP WORK
In the beginning of the summer school, the teams presented their approaches and project ideas related to the Embodied Water theme. After that they worked actively around Otaniemi campus facilities developing the project concepts through prototyping, visualizing, and other experiments with novel technologies. Students also participated in lectures, workshops and seminars led by summer school academics. Teaching included joint lectures about conceptualizing and designing immersive experience in digital art and hands-on workshops about experimenting open source technologies and story world creation.
FINAL
EXHIBITION
The “Embodied water” exhibition in Beta Space Gallery and in Marsio Black Box presented all the 12 exploratory concepts produced during the summer school. Final projects varied vastly regarding the used technologies and tools from different design disciplines. The exhibition was part of the Aalto ARTS Student Show 2024 and Helsinki Design Week 2024 program.
Aalto University’s (FI)
2024 partner schools:
Politecnico di Milano (IT)
New York University, Game Center
Tisch School of The Arts (NY, US)
Technológico de Monterrey (MX)
University of Lusófona (PT)
National Institute of Design (IN)
Singapore University of Technology and Design, SUTD (SG)
National Film and Television School (UK)
University of Technology Delft (NL)
The New School, Parsons School of Design (NY, US)
Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IR)