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.

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 Summer School 2024 Symposium
Aalto ARTS Summer School explores the significance of water through the lens of art

OVERALL COURSE ASSIGNMENT

The course assignment consisted of pre-assignment, project work and two-weeks onsite summer school including visits and social activities.  For the successful completion of the whole project students were encouraged to consider the the following questions throughout the entire  process: How to be a supportive and good collaborator? How to plan, manage and schedule your project in a way that it can be visualized or produced during the onsite summer school period?


LEARNING OBJECTIVES
AND 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.

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. 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 topic 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 6 different assignments. Each student first reflected their personal relation to water by observing, experiencing and reading background research related to the theme (assignment 1). After that they developed a project idea (assignments 2-7). 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.

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