Art & Science in Aalto University Case: University-Wide Art - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Art & Science in Aalto University Case: University-Wide Art Studies (UWAS)

• Dr. Juuso Tervo

11.10.2019 Metaforum, KU Leuven

Overview

A few words about Aalto University Art and Creative Practices (ACP) in Aalto University-Wide Art Studies (UWAS) 2 3 1

Who am I?

• BA, MA, and PhD in Art Education.
• Research focus on history, philosophy,

and politics of art and education.

• Interested in what art and education might

do, together and separately.

• Working in Aalto since 2014 – two years

as post-doc and two years as post- doc/project manager at University-Wide Art Studies (UWAS). Since the beginning

• f 2019, university lecturer and the

director of UWAS.

Aalto University: History and Current Strategy

Aalto University

• Formed in 2010 when University of Art and Design, Helsinki School of Economics, and

University of Technology merged into an ”innovation university” (a task given by the Ministry of Education and Culture)

• ~ 12 000 students and 4000 employees, including ~ 400 professors.
• Six schools, strong focus on science, engineering, and technology
• Aims at multi/inter/transdisciplinary research and education
• No separate schools/programs in humanities, social sciences, medicine…

School of Arts, Design and Architecture School of Business School of Chemical Engineering School of Electrical Engineering School of Engineering School of Science

Shaping the future: science and art together with technology and business An innovative society Passion for exploration Courage to influence and excel Freedom to be creative and critical Responsibility to accept, care and inspire Integrity, openness and equality

MISSION VISION VALUES

Breakthrough discoveries deeply integrated with design and business thinking enable systemic solutions and accelerate innovation.

Mission, vision and values

Strategy 2016-2020

Main strategic objectives:

• Research excellence for academic and societal impact
• Renewing society by art, creativity and design
• Educating game changers
• Transforming our campus into a unique collaboration hub
• Excellence in advancing and supporting our core goals

Art & Science Collaborations

• International Design and Business

Management IDBM Masters/Minor Program (BIZ & ARTS)

• CHEMARTS (CHEM & ARTS)
• Aaltonaut Bachelor’s Minor Program on

Interdisciplinary Product Development (ENG)

• Creative Sustainability Master’s/Minor

Program (ARTS, BIZ & ENG)

• ENG-ARTS courses (ENG & ARTS)
• Design Factory (ENG)
• PdP Product Development Project course

(ENG)

• Biofilia Lab for bioart (ARTS)
• Various joint researcher/lecturer/professor

positions between different schools

• Externally funded research projects

Some inter/multi/cross/transdisciplinary activities already in place before current strategy

…so why bother?

• University-wide courses in art, design, and architecture were scarce and often build to

serve the needs of specific study programs.

• There was no university-level coordination, support, or vision for art/design-based activities

across the university – lots of things were happening (and still are), but quite separately from each other.

• While combining engineering, design, and marketing is one of the historical cores of Aalto’s

activities, there was also a need to expand the variety of art & science collaborations.

• Changing myopic mindsets: The need to communicate that art and design have the

potential to do something else than merely make things look pretty.

Art & Creative Practices (ACP)

Accessibility: Courses, exhibitions, collaborations to engage both students and faculty. More possibilities to make, experience, learn, teach etc. through/with art and design Organizational change: Developing teaching, learning, research, and administration with art and design (e.g. teaching methods and contents, KPIs…) Communication: Reaching and being reached: students, staff, faculty, external partners, etc.

Our aims

Working Groups

• University-Wide Art Studies
• Sharing and Co-Creating

Transdisciplinary Artworks

• Brand Visuality
• Design Inside
• Global Outreach
• Education
• Public art, galleries, artist-in-

residency program

• Communication, visibility
• Design integration, partnerships
• Partnerships, visibility
• Led by Anna Valtonen, Vice President of Art and Creative Practices
• Responding to Artistic Activities Steering Group (AASG), which consists of members from each Aalto

school, directors of each initiative, and a student member.

Working Groups

UWAS SCTA BV DI GO Launched 2016 Two university lecturers, one study coordinator (50%), and student assistant (50%). Planning, organizing, and administrating courses, co-teaching courses outside ARTS. Launched 2016 One professor (part- time), one art coordinator, two curators. Organizing exhibitions, curating public art (percentage principle), showcasing research and art. Launched 2016 One senior manager,

• ne communications

person (50%). Implementing art, design, and creativity in Aalto’s communication and branding. To be moved under regular funding by the end of 2020. Launched 2017 One professor (part- time), two designers- in-residence. Supporting design- integration in courses

• utside ARTS,

implementing design thinking in administration. To be partially combined with UWAS in 2020. Launched 2018 One curator, working closely with VP Anna Valtonen & Senior Specialist Teija Löytönen. Managing international collaboration and visibility of Art and Creative Practices in Aalto University

Funding

• ACP is currently running on Aalto’s

Joint Strategic Initiative (JSI) funding. This funding is meant to ramp up activities that are prioritized in university’s strategy.

• Overall budget around 1 million € per

year

• The plan is to have all our activities

moved under regular funding by the end of 2021.

Graphic design: Joosung Kang

ACP’s Joint Activities

• U-Create Seminar

(twice a year: one thematic, one

• n pedagogical development)
• Unfolded magazine
• Exhibitions
• Bi-weekly meetings

Graphic design: Marika Latsone

University-Wide Art Studies (UWAS)

2019-2020

Course Posters 2016-2020

Basics

• First course piloted in spring 2016. In 2019-20

total of 29 courses scheduled to be taught.

• Courses are open for all Bachelor and Master

degree students. Courses are relatively small (15-20 students per class). No previous knowledge in arts and design required.

• Courses range from creative writing to coding,

from game design to sculpture, from optics to brewing…

• All courses specifically designed for UWAS
• Currently all UWAS courses are elective.
• Situated under Art and Creative Practices, led

by VP Anna Valtonen and responding to Artistic Activities Steering Group (AASG) (U-Level)

• Working closely with Education under VP Petri

Suomala and Head of Learning Services Eija Zitting (U-Level)

• Administered from ARTS, course portfolio

decided in ARTS’s Academic Committee (School-level)

• Follows Aalto’s general guides and schedules

for curriculum design process (U-Level)

Guiding Insights

TRANSDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION For UWAS, to start from the premise of transdisciplinarity is to approach learning and teaching as practices that pass through and cross over both existing and emerging disciplines. Rather than distributing new knowledge and skills for those who seem to lack it or, alternatively, abolishing disciplinary traditions, transdisciplinary education denotes a joint endeavor to approach the world from multiple angles at once and learn from each other. As no discipline owns issues like climate change or social inequality, UWAS encourages the formation of communities of teachers and learners who, together, can tackle these and other issues in new and creative ways, ensuring that the viewpoint of art and creative practices is included in this process.

On Site – Island Workshop (Fall 2019) Teachers: Juuso Tervo, Matthew O’Malley Photo: Juuso Tervo

Guiding Insights

ART-BASED TRANSDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION Like in other fields of expertise, artists and designers work closely with various modes of thinking, doing, making, exploring, and experimenting that help us to position as well as reposition ourselves in the world. By bringing these modes available to every Aalto student and faculty, UWAS encourages the Aalto community to explore the creative potentials of all disciplines. This is initially what art-based transdisciplinary education means for UWAS: an opportunity to creatively rethink all forms of knowing and doing, including art and design.

Electric Energy in the Arts (Fall 2018) Teacher: Gregoire Rousseau Photo: Lauri Linna

Guiding Insights

Transdisciplinary education is not simply about cumulation and/or integration of knowledge – it may also offer time and space for dissensus, unlearning, and criticality. We do not claim to know what art, design, or education “really” are, but aim to explore what they could do today.

Microscopic View: Experimental Light Images (Fall 2018) Teachers: Leah Beeferman, Jaakko Timonen Photo: Lauri Linna

Curricular Aims

• Generative: To generate new courses where art

and design play a key role in transdisciplinary education.

• Formative: To approach curriculum planning

aside from the requirements of individual study programs, departments, or schools.

• Diverse: To offer a wide range of contents,

methods, and practices associated with art and design.

• Accessible: To develop high-quality courses

where no background in art or design is required.

Art, Beer and Sausage (Fall 2018) Teachers: Harri Laakso, Taina Rajanti & Max Ryynänen Photo: Harri Laakso

Curriculum Planning Process

deciding thematic categories sending

• ut the

course call collecting proposals compiling a preliminary course list and schedule contacting teachers about revisions and schedules working on course descriptions, schedules and budgets sending the preliminary course list to Artistic Activities Steering Group Final course portfolio decided in the Academic Committee of ARTS Presenting the course list to Artistic Activities Steering Group

Course Categories for 2018-20

• Global and Local Issues
• Sites and Environments
• Crises and Turning Points
• Senses
• Materials
• Narratives
• Technologies
• Course content, conceptual framework, and methods

should reflect the variety of practices and ways of knowing in art and design. They are topical and based

• n research and/or professional expertise.
• Skills taught in the course are based on artistic or

design-based thinking but should also enable students to reflect and reassess their own disciplinary knowledge and life experiences.

• The content and objectives are thematically-orientated,

allowing students from multiple fields to contribute to the course.

• Course may support and develop teacher’s own

educational practice.

• The course teacher has at least Master’s degree and

hopefully some teaching experience

Pedagogical criteria to evaluate proposals

UWAS Courses Fall 2019

Code Name Cre Period Teacher(s) Teacher in Charge Theme UWAS-C0002 On Site – Island Workshop 3 I Juuso Tervo, Matthew O’Malley Juuso Tervo Sites and Environments UWAS-C0035 Electric Energy in the Arts 3 I Gregoire Rousseau Juuso Tervo Technologies UWAS-C0051 Designing Services with Emerging Technologies 3 I Nuria Solsona Alejandro Pedregal Design Inside UWAS-C0048 How did we get into this mess? 3 I Alejandro Pedregal Alejandro Pedregal Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0032 Under Pressure 5 I Denise Ziegler & Petri Kaverma Juuso Tervo Sites and Environments UWAS-C0003 Creating Stories and Narratives 5 I-II Johan Eichhorn Alejandro Pedregal Narratives UWAS-C0036 Game Design and Production 6 I-II Arash Sammander Alejandro Pedregal Technologies UWAS-C0008 Design Learning 3 II Jaana Brinck, Saga Santala & Mari Savio Juuso Tervo Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0013 Introduction to Sound Culture 3 II Derek Holzer Alejandro Pedregal Technologies UWAS-C0049 Creating Futures in Art, Science, Technology and Business 3 II Juuso Tervo Juuso Tervo Narratives UWAS-C0011 UWAS Project: Film as an emotional artifact 3 II Jose Juan Cañas Bajo Alejandro Pedregal Senses

UWAS Courses Spring 2020

Code Name Cre Period Teacher(s) Teacher in Charge Theme UWAS-C0015 Visualized Me 5 III Laura Isoniemi Juuso Tervo Narratives UWAS-C0004 Miten idea materialisoituu? 5 III-IV Inka Nieminen Juuso Tervo Materiaalit UWAS-C0024 Freedom – An Artistic and Experimental Approach 5 III-IV Johan Eicchorn Alejandro Pedregal Crises and Turning Points UWAS-C0027 Film, Work, and Labour 6 III-IV Inês Peixoto, Tiina Taipale, Eeva Houtbeckers Alejandro Pedregal Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0028 Fashion in Culture 3-5 III-IV Annamari Vänskä Juuso Tervo Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0034 Photography and the City 5 III-IV Kalle Kataila, Harri Laakso Alejandro Pedregal Sites and Environments UWAS-C0045 AV Club: Thinking and Doing Moving Images 5 III-IV Lauri Linna Juuso Tervo Technologies UWAS-C0030 Human-Material Interaction 2 IV Bilge Aktas, Camilla Groth Juuso Tervo Materials UWAS-C0050 3D Prototyping in Context of Creative Practice 3 IV Ashish Mohite Alejandro Pedregal Technologies UWAS-L0001 UWAS Doctoral Workshop: Participatory Practices and Social Change 3 IV Alejandro Pedregal Alejandro Pedregal Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0029 Design and Culture 5 IV-V Paola Cabrera Juuso Tervo Global and Local Issues UWAS-C0014 Spatial Structures 5 IV-V Taneli Luotoniemi Alejandro Pedregal MathArts UWAS-C0023 UWAS Discussion Series 1-3 IV-V Juuso Tervo Juuso Tervo UWAS Varied Contents UWAS-C0046 Creative Coding 5 V Tomi Slotte Dufva Juuso Tervo Technologies UWAS-C0025 Art and Artificial Intelligence 5 V Kasperi Mäki-Reinikka Juuso Tervo Crises and Turning Points UWAS-C0042 Kertomuksen äänet 3 V Hanna Weselius Alejandro Pedregal Narratiivit

UWAS credits and study attainments (2016-19)

179 255 412 815 1047 1740

200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

2016-17 2017-18 2018-19

Study attainments Credits

Credits by school (2018-19)

811 318 296 168 125 31

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

ARTS SCI BIZ ENG ELEC CHEM

Study attainments by school (2018-19)

194 73 68 40 30 7

50 100 150 200 250

ARTS SCI BIZ ENG ELEC CHEM

Study attainments 2016-19

45 28 14 15 21 56 110 37 17 12 26 53 194 68 7 30 40 73

50 100 150 200 250

ARTS BIZ CHEM ELEC ENG SCI

2016-17 2017-18 2018-19

Challenges

• Scheduling: There is no shared, university-

wide scheduling frame in Aalto aside from study periods

• No-shows & drop-outs: Students might

register, but never show up, or then they drop

• ut (scheduling, lack of motivation, etc.)
• Scalability: Currently, we have no capacity to
• ffer courses that every Aalto student could take

(one solution: integration)

• Budget model and measurements: Incomes

and outcomes are currently tied to degrees or publications; we have no stable funding instrument to cover our activities

• Degree requirements: Programs sometimes

wish to keep their students to themselves, and thus make it difficult for them to take courses

• utside of their own discipline
• Faculty involvement: Aalto’s faculty has been

less active to propose and teach UWAS courses than hourly-paid teachers, because faculty is often busy with “normal” teaching/research.

Some Course Feedback

• This was on good path: the overarching, philosophical

quality of aesthetics, postmodernism, consumerism, narratives - basically UWAS could be the general ”civilizing” courses that our own fields try to have but are too afraid to really be. (UWAS-C0003 Creating Stories and Narratives)

• I don’t know if I’ll take another uwas course, because I

don’t want to put pressure on myself to create something artistic. I like the idea very much and think that its a step in the right direction, but I put a lot of pressure on myself when it’s a course and not just a

• hobby. (UWAS-C0003 Creating Stories and Narratives)
• More courses that focus on the artistic process and

producing an artwork, as these courses are the only reliable way for students of technology to participate in art projects that have guidance and counseling from a

• teacher. (UWAS-C0025 Art and Artificial Intelligence)
• I see it very important to have at least one course

where technology is addressed in a more human way, considering its effects on humans and in the society. Specially in this university where the technological studies has an important weight, understanding the technology with a wider perspective is essential in my

• pinion, so I think that themes such as the

transhumanism are very important. (UWAS-C0040 Design for Transhuman Systems)

• Design, art and fine art, entertainment, fun, “out there”

courses like the beer and sausage one. UWAS courses give me good memories. (UWAS-C0045 AV Club: Thinking and Doing Moving Images) What kind of themes or course contents would like to have as part of University-Wide Art Studies in the future?

Next Steps

• Call for 2020-2022 courses was opened in the beginning of

October (list of new course categories in the following page)

• Close discussions concerning administration and budget model

continues with VPs

• Further developing course integration and co-teaching

activities with Design Inside

Course Categories for 2020-22

• Anthropocene courses address issues such as

global warming, sustainability, resources, and

• energy. They respond to and reflect on the great

challenges related to our current geological era.

• Actions courses deal with different aspects of

making and creating in arts, design, and architecture, and explore their connections to practices in other fields.

• Reflections courses offer theoretical and critical

approaches to present human and non-human

• conditions. This might include explorations of

futures and utopias, identity and identities, and global and local ecosystems.

• Manifestations courses deal with

communication, visualization, presentation, and representation of information, how is it applied, and how to understand its impacts.

• Collaborations courses explore participatory

and cooperative practices in arts, design, and architecture, and their links to other fields.

• Tensions courses explore traditions,

paradigms, and histories between disciplines, and how they are expressed and reflected upon today.

Concluding remarks

Lessons learned

• ACP has focused on strengthening the

presence of art and design in all levels of the

• university. Specific research projects and/or

collaborations are still managed locally in schools.

• In short, ACP offers an example of an
• ngoing groundwork required to make art

and design an acknowledged and “normal” part of the university.

• Such groundwork is essential if art &

science collaborations are to be sustainable.

• I haven’t talked about research

collaborations – that’s a whole another topic (e.g. artistic/arts-based research + research in other fields).

• No need to reinvent the wheel: what is

needed is a structure that is generative and supportive of existing activities.

• Active dialogue between academic faculty,

administrative staff, and student body is vital.

Lastly…

Bozar, October 17 2019 Sustainable Transformations: Exploring the Arts and Creativity in Stimulating Innovations and Technologies with a Human Touch

Organized together with Regional STARTS Center Belgium and Bozar Lab

Thank you!

uwas.aalto.fi facebook.com/UWASAalto Instagram: uwas_aalto

juuso.tervo@aalto.fi