Category: News

Conversation at Blönduós /CIRRUS
Iceland University of the Arts

Teacher: Birta Fróðadóttir 
Number of available places:1-2
Ects: 2
Level: BA (MA students are welcome to apply also)
Location: Reykjavik and Blönduós.
Organised by: LHI
Teaching period: January 6 – 17, 2020

Description 

Recently, the Icelandic Textile Residency and the Knowledge Centre in Blönduós were joined at the Icelandic Textile Centre in the old Women School on the banks of the river Blanda. In this course, students travel to Blönduós and stay in the Women’s School for five days while working on ideas for the environment and the current school facilities. The school facilities are comprised of the old Women School building from 1912, a set of detached houses and a long stretch of sheds. 

How can spaces be rethought and better used? How can the activities taking place there, be projected into the community in Blönduós? Students work in pairs, developing suggestions for the rethinking of spaces on the one hand and connecting the activities with the municipality on the other, before presenting their suggestions to both the administrators of the intuition as well as the people in the community.

In the second week students process and collect the suggestions at the IUA in Þverholt. This course is open to students from all departments of the University of the Arts. The project springs from an actual request from the Icelandic Textile Centre and their wish is for the suggestions to instigate a discussion about innovation and future development of the institution.

Arrangement: Stay in Blönduós for four nights from January 6-10. The Icelandic Textile Centre offers free accommodation with a shared kitchen. Students make their own travel arrangements, there and back again, either in private cars or with Strætó, the bus service. Express students must book and pay for their accommodation in Reykjavík (1^st night upon arrival and last night before departure).

Rendezvous in the Women School in Blönduós on Monday, January 6 at 13.00.

How to apply

Please submit your application and motivation statement no later than 24^th November 2019.

Click here to enter the online application.
Students who have been successful with their application, can find information about grant practicalities here: https://pesa11.artun.ee/mobility-for-students/

The Disaster Artist /CIRRUS

Exploring artistic means in dealing with crises 

Teacher: Uta Reicharrdt, PhD and research fellow at the Institute for Sustainability Studies, University of Iceland 

Number of available places:2 

Ects: 2

Level: BA (MA students are welcome to apply also)

Location: Þverholt 11, 105 Reykjavík
Teaching period: January 6 – 17, 2020
 

Description: 

With the growing impact of natural events on societies more and more people are in need for ways of coping when hazards strike. Society´s resilience is the ability to recover and bounce back after a disastrous event – this course explores the ways art can contribute to resilience in times of crises.  

The course presents students to the main concepts of disaster research, drawing from the fields of earth sciences, environmental studies, sociology, health sciences, psychology and cultural studies. It covers factors important in dealing with the aftermath of an extreme event. These include the role of psychological first aid, communication, media, art and spirituality in coping with hardship, tragedies and trauma. 

It will look at examples on how art and design – be it graphic design, audio, writing, fine art – can come into the process of disaster risk management to develop the students´ own project. 

How to apply

Please submit your application and motivation statement no later than 24^th November 2019.

Click here  to enter the online application.
Students who have been successful with their application, can find information about grant practicalities here: https://pesa11.artun.ee/mobility-for-students/

Behaviour and Transformation /CIRRUS
Teacher: Ari Marteinsson 
Host: Iceland University of the Arts
Number of available places: 2

Ects: 2
Level: BA (MA students are welcome to apply also)
Location: IUA campus in Þverholt
Teaching period: January 6 – 17, 2020

Description  

People aren’t dumb. The world is hard. 
Richard Thaler 

 We would like to believe that our decisions are logical and mainly determined by what we believe is good and worth pursuing. But in fact, we all make bad decisions every day. We eat unhealthy, we are late to our appointments, we exercise too little, we do not recycle, we spend too much time on our telephones, we gnaw our nails, we procrastinate rather than doing our school projects, we call our parents too seldom, and this list could go on – we do all of this while knowing better.

But how can we transform the behaviour of ourselves and others? How can we work with space, systems, graphics, technology, service to affect behaviour?

In this course, the basics of behaviour will be discussed as well as how people’s behaviour can be influenced. The aim of the course is that students research, map, analyse, design, make prototypes and tests for possible solutions. Our platform will be the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and its environment and the students in the course choose the challenges they want to work on themselves.

How to apply

Please submit your application and motivation statement no later than 24^th November 2019.

Click here to enter the online application.
Students who have been successful with their application, can find information about grant practicalities here: https://pesa11.artun.ee/mobility-for-students/

School of Arts, Design and Architecture / Aalto University
Helsinki, Finland

3-7 February, 2020

CIRRUS Nordic-Baltic Network of Art and Design Education
https://pesa11.artun.ee/

Below, info on the workshop to be arranged at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture of the Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland as a collaboration of three art universities and countries: Aalto Arts – https://www.aalto.fi/en/school-of-arts-design-and-architecture (main organizer), Iceland University of the Arts – www.lhi.is and VDA Vilnius Academy of the Arts, Lithuania – www.vda.lt

In addition to students from this year’s host (the Aalto University), five students from Iceland, five students from Lithuania and five students from other Nordic/Baltic countries are able to participate. The CIRRUS network will pay travel and accommodation costs.

If you want to participate, please email tarja.nieminen@aalto.fi by DECEMBER 1, 2019 a brief statement of why you wish to participate and an overview of your skill set as it relates to the topic. We are particularly interested in participants with animation skills and/or experience working with pervasive gaming / augmented reality. The results of the selection will be communicated by 31^st of November and for those selected also information on travelling arrangements.

Tentative travel dates:

Saturday 1st February or Sunday 2nd February –
Sunday 9th February, 2019

Workshop description:

Urban Space Gaming
Level: BA/MA
Duration: 5 days

2 ECTS credits

Tutors: Tarja Nieminen (Finland), Sam Rees (The UK, Iceland), Lode Coen (Belgium), Ausra Lisauskiene (Lithuania) and visiting lecturers

URBAN SPACE GAMING

In terms of civilization history, games and gaming represent one of the oldest means of human communication and interaction, and at the same time, they are more contemporary and relevant than ever.

The key element in gaming is involvement: games are social, so players interact meaningfully with each other and games often help to bridge the communication/conversation gap. Games are not only “games” but also go beyond their immediate purpose: they embody living popular tradition

due to their ability to renew and adapt to new times and new customs. The workshop is relevant, not only because of its adaptable topic, but also educationally when considering current notions of designer´s roles as a content developer, author, producer, activist, and collaborator, and agent of change.

The workshop theme is communication and intervention in public space
by means of participatory games and act of playing – in other words, it looks at the gamification of urban and social design. In the workshops, the participants will create concepts for different kinds of participatory games taking place within public spaces.

The overall aim of the workshop is to generate interaction between students and
the local people as well as between the people and their surroundings.
The aspects to be taken into consideration are:
1. Public space intervention,
2. Interaction among people and between people and spaces,
3. To encourage people to improve their physical environment,
4. Explore ways to communicate e.g. on cultural and historical awareness, as well as social issues
5. Public space appearance improvement by means of art and design, and
6. Alternative ways of mapping, guiding or way finding.

The main output of the workshop will be a number of game concepts, game mock-ups or in some cases actual games played out in the urban environment. The final presentation should involve dynamic visualizations of the concept to showcase clearly the intent and possibility of the project.

Some of the final game concepts may be transferable, but some of them will probably be more site specific. Ultimately, there will not be any preconceived notions of the kind of the game participants should design – the concepts could include for example, games which involve growing things, games which expand in time, games which utilize augmented reality or games which use other pervasive gaming strategies. In addition to the presentation of the final game/game concepts, there will be a blog created,
showcasing the results of the workshop online.

(More info will be provided to those who will participate).