Tag: academic talks

Academic presentations, conferences, seminars, other scholarly events

Enactive Virtuality at CNA Sound and Storytelling Conference LA March 22

Pia Tikka and Martin Jaroszewicz gave a joint talk at the CNA Sound and Storytelling Conference.

Image: Dr. Martin Jaroszewicz disucssing his ideas of enactive VR soundscapes at the Chapman University conference, Orange, CA, March 22.

“Enactive Virtuality – a framework for dynamically adaptive soundscapes”. 

The novel notion of enactive virtuality is discussed, drawing from the theories of enactive mind [1], and the concept of enactive cinema [2]. The key attribute of ‘enactive’ refers here to the setting in which the human agent is in continuous feed-back-looped interaction with the surrounding world. Enactive virtuality in turn refers to the story emerging in the agent’s mind in this dynamical setting in order to make sense of the world. This story is based on the agent’s current situation and previous experiences [3], and in relation to others through neurally built-in imitation of their actions [4]. Thus, the concept of ‘enactive virtuality’ extends beyond the common techno-spatial buzzword of ‘virtual reality’. While virtual reality technologies allow platforms where the perception of sound events can be modulated algorithmically, we describe the human agent’s experience of a dynamically adaptive soundscape as an expression of enactive virtuality.Theories and techniques of sound transformations in the spectral domain [5,6,7] for this setting are discussed.

References:

[1] Varela F, Thompson E, Rosch E. 1991. Embodied Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[2] Tikka P. 2008. Enactive Cinema: Simulatorium Eisensteinense. PhD diss. Helsinki: Univ. Art and Design Publ.

[3] Heyes CM, Frith CD. The cultural evolution of mind reading. Science. 2014 Jun 20;344(6190):1243091. doi:10.1126/science.1243091.

[4] Gallese V, Eagle MN, Migone P. 2007. Intentional attunement: mirror neurons (…) J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 55(1):131-76.

[5] Jaroszewicz, M. 2015 Compositional Strategies in Spectral Spatialization. PhD thesis,University of California Riverside,

[6] Jaroszewicz, M. 2017 ”Interfacing Gestural Data from Instrumentalists,” ART – Music Review, vol. 32.

[7] Kim-Boyle. 2008. “Spectral spatialization – an overview,” RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.bbp2372.2008.086

Helsingin Sanomat Foundation -seminar 19 March 2018

Tekoäly viestin luotettavuuden arvioitsijana

(Seminar in Finnish language)

Keväällä 2017 Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö järjesti suunnatun haun teemana Totuudenjälkeinen aika.  Säätiön hallitus myönsi yli puoli miljoonaa euroa kymmenelle hankkeelle. Mitä hankkeille kuuluu nyt? Mitä ilmiöstä on saatu selville? Miten tästä eteenpäin?

Totuudenjälkeinen aika – nyt -seminaariin maanantaina 19.3. klo 16–18     Päivälehden museoon (Ludviginkatu 2–4).

OHJELMA

Politiikka ja distruptio. Toimitusjohtaja Taru Tujunen, Ellun Kanat

Poliittiset kuplat ja media. Dosentti, yliopisto-opettaja Arttu Saarinen, Turun yliopisto

Tekoäly viestin luotettavuuden arvioijana. Dosentti, yliopettaja Jyrki Suomala, Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu*

Miten media selviää polarisaation ja paskapuheen aikana? Dosentti, vanhempi tutkija Antto Vihma, Ulkopoliittinen instituutti

Alustusten jälkeen paneelikeskustelu, jota vetää toimittaja Johanna Vehkoo.

#totuudenjälkeen

Lisää hankkeista: www.totuudenjälkeinen.fi

Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö on yksityinen, yleishyödyllinen säätiö. Sen tehtävänä on suomalaisen median ja laatujournalismin tulevaisuuden turvaaminen ja sananvapauden tukeminen. Säätiö jakaa apurahoja viestintäalan tutkimukseen ja koulutukseen sekä alan kilpailuihin. Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö ylläpitää Päivälehden museota ja Päivälehden arkistoa.

 

*Team:
Janne Kauttonen, FT, researcher, NeuroLab, Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
Jenni Hannukainen, FM, researcher, NeuroLab, Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
Jyrki Suomala, KT (dosentti), Lecturer, NeuroLab, Laurea-ammattikorkeakoulu
Pia Tikka, TaT (dosentti), EU Mobilitas Pluss research professor, University of Tallinn

A 13 min talk on Neurocinematics, Tallinn University Day 2018

 

1920x1080-13-eng.jpgSee full program here

At 12:15 session Pia Tikka, Research Professor, Baltic Film, Media, Arts and Communication School “Neurocinematics”

My 13 minutes will introduce a multidisciplinary research paradigm of neurocinematics. Combining methods of cinema, enactive media, and virtual screen characters with those of cognitive sciences it allows us to unravel new aspects of the neural basis of storytelling, creative imagination, and narrative comprehension. In addition to contributing to academic research on human mind, neurocinematics contributes to a range of more specifically targeted goals, such as the impact of audiovisual media on its audience for artistic, therapeutic, or commercial implementations, to name few of many.

TALK @Brain Awareness Week 2018

Brain Awareness Week 2018

Tallinn University is celebrating Brain Awareness Week (BAW) for the second year in a row! This year we have an open seminar

“Meet the Researchers”

Monday, March 12 from 2PM to 6 PM “Meet the Researchers”, University of Tallinn (Narva mnt. 29), room A-325.
Take part of a seminar where experts from the field take the floor and discuss brain, promote the benefits of brain research and inform the public about what we do as neuroscientist and brain researchers.

Researchers:

  • Professor Talis Bachmann – Professor of Cognitive and Legal Psychology (University of Tartu)
  • Dr Toomas Toomsoo – Neurologist (East-Tallinn Central Hospital)
  • Pia Tikka, PhD – Finnish film director and leading research scientist (Tallinn University)
  • Erika Comasco, PhD – Neuropsychopharmacologist (Uppsala University)

Workshop on Enactive Mind and Media at Politecnico di Milano, 12-16 Feb 2018

 

At the Politecnico Milano, School of Design, professor Pia Tikka (MEDIT/BFM) and Ilkka Kosunen (MEDIT/DTI – in image on the right) are running their workshop week with a group of 40 students of Communication Design.

The topic is as challenging as thrilling: “Enactive Mind and Media”.

In addition to providing the students at Polimi new insights to Enactive media and biosensor-driven interaction design, the workshop also contributes to the international dissemination strategy of the EU Mobilitas Pluss Top Research project by Dr. Pia Tikka. Ilkka Kosunen’s travel is funded by Erasmus Mobility, TLU. The workshop utilizes (DTI) Digital Technology Institute’s biosensor technology and expertise. During the workshop also contacts with the local hi-tech researchers and industry are created.

A great news is that the bilateral agreement of Erasmus Mobility for Staff Exchange has been established between Tallinn University BFM and Politecnico Milano School of Design starting 2018 January. The agreement was initiated at TLUby Enactive Virtuality Lab.

TALK by Bruce Sheridan on Creativity: Embodied, Extended, and Enactive 19 Jan 2018

Speaker: Bruce Sheridan (University of Auckland) 
Time: January 19th (Thursday) at 15:00
Place: M-213

Creativity: Embodied, Extended, and Enactive

Cognitivism and computational theories of mind drove approaches to creativity through the 20th century, and formal education across arts and sciences continues to draw on assumptions that are increasingly challenged by developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence. By emphasizing the physically embodied, socially extended, and inherently enactive nature of human mentation, creativity can be understood as a fundamental, ubiquitous, and highly dynamic capacity central to all human activities. In this presentation I consider ways to conceptualize creativity and learning holistically, and how this approach can both draw from and contribute to work in the biological, physical, and social sciences.

Professor Bruce Sheridan is a filmmaker and educator based in Chicago. He began his filmmaking career in New Zealand, where he produced and directed drama and non-fiction projects for cinema and television, and won the 1999 Best Drama Award for the tele-feature Lawless. From 2001-2017 he was Chair of Cinema Art + Science at Columbia College Chicago, where he led the creation of the Media Production Center, a unique laboratory for modeling and investigating professional collaborative filmmaking practice. Professor Sheridan is Chair of the North American region of CILECT, the international organization of screen education institutions, and a member of the Creativity Research Initiative team at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, where he is currently completing his PhD in philosophy.

With Bruce and Pia in the middle: Vice-Rector for Creative Activities and Cooperation Andres Jõesaar, Head of BFM Katrin Saks, and our EU Mobilitas Plus -project coordinator Maria Hansar.

Keynote @ ITMO St Petersburg Nov 2017

Pia Tikka

Keynote titled

Lighting the neural scene of storytelling – A neurocinematic approach

at the International research-to-practice conference Lighting Design in St Petersburg, hosted by CLD ITMO University and RULD
The main goal of the conference is to connect Science with Business through Art and Innovative technology to develop a competitive market of lighting design and produce new ideas and trends. Over 500 architects, lighting designers, engineers, IT and multimedia specialists, scientists, representatives of Russian government, top-managers, set designers, producers and artists are expected to attend this year’s conference and discuss the main theme “Identity”. The two-day event features four general panel discussions, more than 20 presentations, workshops and lectures given by key Russian and international experts. In addition to the main program, there will also be cultural and social events arranged, as well as open lectures for the city to promote the development of lighting culture and to increase awareness and knowledge amongst the local citizens in the field of science and light.

TALK by Hosana Celeste Nov 2017

Pia Tikka

Hosana Celeste Oliveira gave a talk @ TLU on her research at the São Paulo State University (UNESP), Institute of Arts São Paulo, Department of Fine Arts, Brazil. Previously she worked in my research team at  Aalto Uni as a visiting research fellow 2016-2017.

Title: Assistive interfaces for the arts: From diffusion to inclusion

In this presentation we introduce the activities carried out in our research group GIIP at São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil) focusing on the project “Assistive interfaces for the arts: From diffusion to inclusion”. This project brings together the efforts of several researchers from Brazil and Spain. It aims to create low cost and free access assistive interfaces to teach and make art by using reengineering, customization and open source. We will present an overview and some partial results on four prototypes that we developed, such as Kit Facilita, Artia.V, Artia.C, and TECLAUT. The creation process of these prototypes is mainly inspired by the case studies of Samara Andresa Del Monte (journalist) and Dr. Ana Amália Tavares Bastos Barbosa, as well as her teaching method in art education. Dr. Barbosa is artist, art educator and postdoctoral researcher at GIIP, she became the first quadriplegic to obtain a doctorate degree in Brazil.

Hosana Celeste Oliveira

Ph.D. Candidate in Arts, Institute of Arts, São Paulo State University (UNESP, Brazil) Artist and researcher in the field of art, science and technology. She got a bachelor degree in Fine Arts and master in Multimedia, both at UNICAMP (Brazil). Currently, she is PhD candidate in Arts at UNESP, funded by Capes (Ministry of Education of Brazil). She accomplished one year of her doctoral studies at the Media Lab – School of Arts, Design and Architecture of Aalto University (Finland, 2015-2016) under de supervision of Dr. Pia Tikka. She was visiting researcher at KISD (2007-2008), funded by DAAD-STIBET, and at KHM (2009-2010), both in Cologne, Germany. Also, she collaborated with En-Fer Atelier (The Netherlands, 2005-2007) developing web and graphic design projects. Her research agend is built around neuroscientific approaches on perception, emotion, biofeedback interfaces, and embodiment.

 

Recently Hosana Celeste contributed to the book Projective Processes and Neuroscience in Art and Design ( Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts) (9781522505105): Rachel Zuanon: Books.

TALK by Pia Tikka @ BFM and MEDIT Sept 2017

Pia Tikka

A “thank you” for everyone attending the introductory presentation on my background in neurocinematics and enactive cinema as well as future research outline, as the starting point for fruitful research collaboration with the faculty and researcher community @ BFM and MEDIT, September 2017.

http://www.tlu.ee/en/Baltic-Film-Media-Arts-and-Communication-School/Events/7268/medit-seminar-pia-tikka

http://medit.tlu.ee/news/medit-seminar-intimate-dynamics-of-facing-the-other-as-a-model-of-predictive-processes-a-neurocinematic-approach