Photo: MoA 2006

Photo: MoA 2006

Photo: MoA 2006

Photo: MoA 2006

Workshop I
Photo: MoA 2006

Workshop I
Photo: MoA 2006

University of Art and Design Helsinki
Photo: Jefunne Gimpel

Hämeentie 135
Photo: Jefunne Gimpel

Media Centre Lume
Photo: Ole mulle hellä

Arabianranta
Photo: Harri Ahola

Arabianranta
Photo: Harri Ahola

Festival Producer Tuuli Sotamaa:

Masters of Arts is a spring kitchen, a launch pad...

Masters of Arts 2006 is a three-week festival in Arabianranta, Helsinki. It is a joint venture between the University of Art and Design Helsinki, its graduating master students, various associates, sponsors, producers of culture and other educational institutes in Arabianranta.

The Masters of Arts Festival is a breathing organism, at the heart of which is a juried degree show. The exhibitioners represent each of the university's degree programmes. The volume, diversity and quality of the degree shows present an example of the power and progress of the creative fields of work. The exhibition showcases some of the latest visions. Spectators have a chance to enter a world in which societal themes, playful art, new methods, grandiose ventures and the wants and challenges of employers meet. A variety of different cultural backgrounds and professional factors live and function side by side. The exhibition is a testimony to the force of joint efforts and the momentum it generates.

In the buoyancy of the seminar series

The Masters of Arts Festival functions on a number of levels. In addition to the exhibition, there will be a series of five international seminars, galvanising discussions, fashion shows, living art, vibrant festivity and a whole lot more. Yet again MoA welcomes to Helsinki the key players of different fields of culture and incredible personalities from both around the world and Finland. The guests include some of the hottest names in design, brilliant stars and visionary thinkers; a wide assortment of cultural figures from all over.

This year other educational institutes in Arabianranta are also involved in making this exciting city cultural event. Arcada Polytechnic, Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia and the Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory will participate in the production.

The story behind MoA

MoA is an annual, multi-faceted festival of youthful design, art, film and media that makes the Media Centre Lume and Arabianranta's Art & Design City the focal point of Helsinki. For employers looking for creative talents the event is a preview of the visions of the avant-garde.

The forefathers of the MoA project are the Think exhibition in Ateneum Art Museum (2000); the Masters of Arts 2002 event in the Museum of Applied Arts, The Finnish Museum of Photography and gallery Forum Box; and also Masters of Arts 2004 in the Design Museum, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Cable Factory, Media Centre Lume and Korjaamo Culture Factory. The first Masters of Arts Festival was organised in the University of Art and Design Helsinki's Media Centre Lume in 2005. The pinkest cultural festival EVER! attracted over 7000 visitors to its seminars and exhibition.

Father of MoA, Rector Yrjö Sotamaa:

Masters of Arts 2006 - the final workout

The Masters of Arts Festival is a celebration as well as a tour de force of the new Masters. The years of striving for a Master's degree in a prestigious University deserve a worthy finish: a final workout before taking off toward a desirable career. MoA is the collective effort of the graduating generation and the finishing exercise that encourages all involved to spar their communicative skills to highlight their own ideas, skills and abilities.

Years of experience reveal that MoA increases students' motivation to graduate. Everyone wants to stand together on this platform that oozes with creativity. It also seems as if the joint event judged by a jury spurs students to constantly work for better results and the departments to support the students in their efforts. The grand event gives birth to new endeavours as the participating students realise that their thoughts and ambitions connect.

Masters of Arts is a forum that enables making contacts with potential employers. From the viewpoint of the University, MoA is also a barometer for the quality of teaching and research and also the relevance of the University's work. Our associates, sponsors and the media are able to estimate if the University has succeeded in its mission. Furthermore, MoA demonstrates the international connectedness of the University and the varied co-operation the University maintains with various corporations, culture institutions and other universities. The seminars at MoA reflect the relationship between contemporary discussion and the presented works - place them in a greater context.

This year we have invited other educational institutes in Arabianranta to join us in constructing the extensive and scintillating city event that is Masters of Arts. Simultaneously we will be able to showcase the diverse creative know-how that resides in Arabianranta. Arabianranta is an accelerator laboratory for creativity.

Masters of Arts 2006 Festival is presented and produced by

University of Art and Design Helsinki

www.uiah.fi

The University of Art and Design Helsinki is an international university dedicated to design, audiovisual communication, art education and art. It is the largest university of this kind in the Nordic countries and one of the most highly acclaimed in the whole world. There are some 1700 students enrolled in the University, 14 % of whom come from abroad. The University founded in 1871 is a pioneer in research and education. The uniqueness of the University stems from an ambitious community of creative people and creative will.

Throughout its over 130 years of history, the University has been an integral part of the succeshe s story that is Finnish design. Today the University is actively engaged in the development of not only the cultural but also economic and industrial competitiveness of Finnish society. Close cooperation with the business sector promotes the introduction of innovations and the cross-disciplinary utilisation of research results.

Media Centre Lume

www.lume.fi

Lume is a national education, research, development and production centre of audiovisual media. Lume combines the disciplines of cinema, TV, digital media and production set design. The special focus areas of Lume are cross-media content production and practice-based research which serves the needs of the content.

Media Centre Lume is part of the University of Art & Design Helsinki, but serves also other Universities, polytechnics, research institutions and companies. The Centre has extensive facilities for film, television, new media and theatrical productions. Moreover, facilities at Lume are also ideal for organising seminars, meetings, conferences, galas, festivals, or fairs. The education of the University, cultural and other projects along with research are combined in the Media Centre Lume.

Art & Design City , Helsinki Virtual Village , Arabianranta

www.helsinkivirtualvillage.fi

The University of Art and Design Helsinki is located in Helsinki 's new project area called "Arabianranta". Arabianranta should soon be an inner city district with 10 000 residents, 8 000 workers and 6 000 students. It's the last free shoreline area in inner Helsinki.
Design and art are a part of everyday life in Arabianranta. The City of Helsinki demands that 1-2 % of the construction costs for new buildings in the area are spent on works of art. Arabianranta has achieved its goal of being the leading centre of art and design excellence. The partners in this venture include businesses, the University of Art and Design Helsinki and 5 other educational institutions as well as residents of the area. The Helsinki Virtual Village portal and the fastest and most modern areal network in Finland are among the services Arabianranta has to offer for residents, companies and students. With focus in good design, the goal is to make Arabianranta prosper.

Tuuli Sotamaa

Outi Raatikainen

Tomas Träskman

Jessica Sinikoski

Hanna Kurppa

Matti Riikonen

Stina Salin

Suvi Tikka

Tuomas Toivonen

Ville Haimala

Lauri Johansson

Maija Louekari

Sanna Alver, Marco Suvanto
and Timo Ovaska

People behind MoA 2006

Festival Producer

Tuuli Sotamaa is the producer of the third actual MoA Festival. A Master of Arts in Design, she has studied in London and worked for a period in Italy. Tuuli is also a founding partner of the international architecture, design and production practice OCEAN NORTH. Creative madness has driven her to design pieces that situate themselves somewhere in the middle ground between architecture, installations, artworks and product design. Endlessly fascinated by the development of society, the mechanisms of the creative fields and the possibilities of architecture, Tuuli's doings are influenced by a number of factors. A taste of real life may also be found on horseback.

Festival PR

The University of Art and Design Helsinki's Head of Communications Outi Raatikainen is the person in charge of the marketing and corporate co-operation for the MoA Festival. She is intrigued by the crossing point of culture and economics and the possibilities the combination of these two generate. Outi is also enthusiastic about exporting culture, creative capital and spreading the word about the global impressiveness of the University's actions. As managing editor of Arttu! magazine and in various meetings around the city she is able to accomplish this. Design in particular has always been close to the former architect, who stumbled upon the field of communications through the MBA program of Helsinki School of Economics. She finds real peace on the grasses of summer.

The Curator - Smooth Operator

Tomas Ivan Träskman, born in 1970, is an art historian working at the crossroads of art, media, and education. In relation to contemporary arts practice, design and visual culture Tomas Ivan has a track record as a producer, director and writer working across sectors: he has programmed live arts festivals, directed, edited, and contributed to television documentaries. Tomas Ivan has devised work for contexts including Kiasma, Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, Belgrade Cityscape (together with artist Milica Tomic), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), and Tampere Short Film Festival. Currently he is working as a senior lecturer in Arts Managment at Sydväst Polytechnic/University of Applied Science and Arts.  When he works he likes to hum to Sade Adu's song "Smooth Operator" from the 80's.

Production assistant

The students taking part in the degree show are coordinated by production assistant Jessica Sinikoski . Jessica's got a master degree in literature from the University of Helsinki, but she changed letters to visual arts as she started her arts management studies in 2003. This is the second time Jessica's working for the MoA Festival and her next project is already bubbling under, as she is coordinating University of Art and Design Helsinki's academic degree ceremony in January 2007.
Jessica is at your service not only in Finnish and English, but also in Swedish and Norwegian if necessary!

Graphic artists

Hanna Kurppa (born in 1974) is a graphic designer from Helsinki. She has a prior education in genetics and has worked as a researcher of developmental biology at the Institute of Biotechnology in Helsinki. Hanna has studied graphic design in the University of Art and Design Helsinki and typographic design in the Royal Academy of Art, based in Hague.

[ Matti Riikonen:] "I was born in Porvoo 28 years ago. My interest in graphic design was sparked by an active enthusiasm for comics and the cover of a Pixies record. I graduated from the Institute of Design in Lahti in 2003, after which I've worked as a freelancer. My Master of Arts programme in Graphic Design and Illustration started this fall. I do my work at the Super8-workroom in Kallio. In addition to graphic design my interests lie in football and strumming the guitar in the cosiness of my living-room."

Stina Salin, graphic designer, Master of Arts student, born in 1977. Stina graduated from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2002. She has done varied freelance work while studying, but typography and book design are her true passions. Saul Bass's graphics, the works of artist Eduardo Chillida, different types of documentaries and biographies, animations and especially discussions with her sisters serve as some of the sources for her inspiration. Her aspiration is to reach a point where she can be satisfied with her efforts and still find new work challenging. Her motto might be "never leave anything for tomorrow," but obviously that ideal is seldom an easy one to follow.

Suvi Tikka graduated from the Institute of Design in Lahti in the December of 2003 and she commenced her studies in graphic design in the University of Art and Design Helsinki in the fall of 2005. Suvi is especially interested in colourfulness, vectors and pixels. She is inspired by design, sunshine, music, people with unique personalities, street fashion, art, and subcultures. Currently Suvi's life consists of trying to find a balance between two continents and cultures: she lives partly in Australia, partly in Finland.

Architecture work group

This year's festival architecture is designed by a student team headed by Tuomas Toivonen , author of last year's MoA exhibition's spatial design. The rules for the team are clear: no second-hand solutions from yesteryear are tolerated, and the festival and its setting must be more interesting, fresh, exciting and contemporary than ever before. Besides being the ambitious team coach, Tuomas is also an architect, designer, sporadic teacher, member of Anteeksi and founder of Now Office.

Ville Haimala studies in the Master of Arts programme in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design. Besides studying, he has worked in the domain of architecture, at Now Office and as a member of various short-term projects. Balancing all that architecture is music, which takes up the remainder of Ville's time.

Lauri Johansson studies in the Bachelor of Arts programme in Industrial Design. The future industrial designer moves fluently between the worlds of spaces and objects - a great part of his output deals with public space and ways to furnish it. Exhibition architecture is new to Lauri, but he expects that his vision and fresh ideas will help the production reach full bloom in spring 2006.

Maija Louekari does her MA studies in design in the University of Art and Design Helsinki, where she graduated BA in interior architecture and furniture design. In her work she wants to combine graphic design and design together. She does illustrations, graphic design and artistic projects. She is interested in people and environment, and gets inspiration from travelling as well as little everyday observations. One of the most important things in her life is music.

Web pages

The quality of the MoA web pages is guaranteed by the Virtual University (aka Virtu) of the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. Virtu helps the departments and teachers of the university to carry out flexible teaching. In addition, it helps in planning web pages of events at the university. The Virtu laboratory consists of Sanna Alver as technical coordinator, Marco Suvanto as visual designer and Timo Ovaska as web producer. Please feel welcome to drop in and listen to the humming of the stereo, the slurping of coffee and the hissing of fizzy drinks - www.uiah.fi/virtu.