Media Lab Xmas Demo Day 2019

Welcome to Aalto Media Lab's Xmas Demo Day 2019!

Already in the late 1990s we adopted the slogan, ‘hands on with minds on’ to explain our work. We also adopted the ‘demo or die’ attitude of other Media Labs and formalised this into bi-annual Demo Days, organised at the end of each term. Our Demo Days have become regular events at which we demonstrate our work to each other and the ‘outside world’, people from other departments and schools, companies, partners and prospective partners. Demo Days are also a chance to have fun together before the onset of the vacations.

This year's Xmas Demo Day will be held on Thursday 5th of December in Väre Kukkapuro Lounge. The day consists of various stage presentations from interactive media to AI and game design, floor booths and a visitor talk. 

The event is free and open for all!

Program:

ON STAGE

13.15 The Dead Are Speaking.
An interactive audio story with speech control Mirka Oinonen, Otso Ollikainen, Rauli Valo, Antti Ikonen
When a severed hand is found floating in a small swamp near Helsinki, the whole country focuses their eyes on the investigation. Follow the journey of two reporters as they try to uncover the truth behind the case that would leave its mark on history books for decades to come. The Dead Are Speaking is an interactive story game for Google Assistant. The plot changes depending on the choices you make and all interactions are done using only your voice!

13.25 Eun Young Park’s three research projects, outcome & progress
Designing of and for the makerspace: a brief introduction to three focused projects. In this presentation, I will particularly focus on two projects I'm currently working on, one is A!Ole pilot and theother is LACMA Art+Tech Lab project. Floor presentation: I might build a pop-up space with the tool I designed, Makerspace Building Block where I show a few posters, booklets and artifacts I designed.

13.30 A Lucky Man
Inan Evin, Kai Hanninen, Miika Kanerva, Emmi Kärnä
"A lucky man" is a puzzle based exploration game, where your job as a simulation world maintenance person is to save A.I. called J.O.H.N. from different and surprising deaths. You can test the game at Game Base, one of the desktop computers

13.35 Buzz Barrage
Juhana Sarkki, Patrick Milvi, Toni Pesola, Tuisku Hiltunen, Lassi Vihko
A multiplayer air-combat game for PC, with bugs in a micro-world. Fight for domination by pollinating flowers and crushing your foes! The project is part of the Game Design and Production master programme's Game Project course.

13.40 SySTEM 2020 map
Eva Durall and Teemu Leinonen
The SySTEM 2020 map is an interactive data visualisation that allows exploring organizations and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning activities across Europe. This map has been created as part of the research and innovation project SySTEM 2020: Connecting science learning outside the classroom.

13.45 Tämä elämä
Esa Onttonen
The final presentation for Tämä elämä -project where Media Lab produced a mobile game for student counseling. People involved Marie Kumpulainen, Oskari Liukku and Henri Niva. www.tamaelama.fi 

13.50 Sound and Physical Interaction 
SOPI Research Group Koray Tahiroglu, J. Camilo Sanchez Carranco, Miranda Kastemaa
We will present SOPI research group’s teaching, research and artistic activities. In SOPI we are coordinating research projects with interests in embodied approaches to sonic interaction, new interfaces for musical expression, deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with audio. sopi.aalto.f

13.55 DOTS AND DOTS
M Wingren
AI Exhibition design, collaborating with algorithms to make art, design, and communications about AI, & collaborating with machines to make machines. XR musical interfaces, first sketches of thesis project w/Helsinki XR Center ii-ll-ii.com

14.00 Garden of Galaxy
Kalle Järvenpää, VCD
Garden of Galaxy is a generative wallpaper concept for Samsung Galaxy mobile devices Garden of Galaxy won the grand prize in Samsung’s mobile design competition 2019. The concept is that in each Samsung Galaxy device, there grows a unique flower, which is algorithmically generated based on a randomized genome. https://www.dezeen.com/2019/11/07/garden-of-galaxy-wins-samsung-mobile-design-competition-wallpaper-category/

14.05 Chinese Pancake Qianyu (Sienna) Fang
This game is about making Chinese pancake, one of the most famous street snacks in China. In the game section, you can use eight available ingredients (onion, sausage, eggs, etc.) to make your own Chinese Pancake. And you can see different comments from customers based on how you make the pancake. As a personal project for Software Study for Media Designers, I wrote all the codes in processing and drew all the images in Illustrator.

AT THE FLOOR SPOTS

A Demo in Progress by Qi Chen
I'm now working on this project which I translate the perception of plants into soundscape, using different sensors. Context Physical Interaction Design Course.

Dancing trees / Mirya Nezvitskaya
Interactive installation made for Electronics for Artists, prototype for a bigger one for next year public installation in Russia. Using hand movements like in music conducting, the tree moves into different directions.

Meččy / Mirya Nezvitskaya
Prototype for an experimental music instrument made for Physical Interaction Design, the instrument interacts by hand gestures using up and down gestures.

Eyes of Argus Multimedia installation in Pori Film Festival
Argus Panoptes, the giant with hundred eyes in Greek mythology, is the penultimate watchman, always vigilant and awake. The saying “the eye of Argus” as in “to be watched by” describes being subject to invasive scrutiny. In this multimedia installation the mythical Argus is set into contemporary context, acting as a surveyor of the turbulent times in which GDPR rules and a surveillance society on the brink of dystopia collide. The installation is made by Sound in New Media MA students of Aalto University, and is on display at Pori Film Festival from November 28 to December 1.
Working group: Pietu Arvola, Anzé Bratus, Hannu Ikola, Matias Koskimies, Juha Perä, Bailey Polkinghorne, Sirja Puurtinen, Lassi Vihko

Two Projects from Ameya Chikramane
Fireflies: An interactive demo project done as part of Software Studies - Programming for Artists course.
Have a Slice: This is an interactive edible cake, that will be presented along with Samir Bhowmik's book launch on the same day. Done as a part of Samir Bhowmik's Media and Environment course.

Oscilloscope Graphics with Arduino / Arto Chydenius
Retro style vector graphics with an oscilloscope and Arduino using a custom software library.

RÖÖZTER MÄDNESS / Cili Kugler, VCD
https://vimeo.com/367728982
Description: Short funny animation I've created for Tallin Fashion Week. It's a collaboration with Tauri Västrik, Estonian fashion student currently studying at Aalto. It was an experiment to show the inspiration behind the designer's collection in the form of an animation and make the experience more memorable. This video was played before the models entered the catwalk. The idea for this fun video came as we wanted the audience to respect the work of the designer and not stare at their phones while they're bored until the show starts.
Synopsis: The story is about an ambitious chicken who's following their dreams to become successful in the fashion industry.

CRC: Cyclic Redundancy Chuck, An experimental game demo / Konsta Polkutie, Emeline Jou, Harold Hejazi, Pyry Takkunen and Tomi Panula.
Our project is made as a second game project of the Game Project course during this fall period. Our team members are 1st year Media Lab's game, sound and minor student from Aalto and Uniarts Helsinki.

Infragraphy Volume 2, a Book Launch / Gurden Batra and Reishabh Kailey
As part of our course Media and the Environment, we will be printing a compilation of student writings and documentation of our ongoing art exhibition in Väre. Place: Väre LQ lobby https://blogs.aalto.fi/mediainfrastructures/

DEEP, a diving game / Jenni Juntunen, Abhishek Jaiswal and Markus Laattala
The exclusive VR diving experience will take you to the quiet deep waters of the icy sea… The game is on demo state.

Stranded / Andrei Rodriguez, Essi Aittamaa, Vera Anttila, Gautam Vishwanath and Gabriela Juganaru
Stranded is a poetic fantasy Virtual Reality game about climate change and the negative effects of the Anthropocene era. It is our own project.

New Growth, a visualization
Person involved Oskar Koli

The Anthrobscene Media and the Environment Course Exhibition 22 November – 9 December
The Anthropocene is nothing but the Anthrobscene. This obscenity according to media philosopher Jussi Parikka (2015) is— “because of the unsustainable, politically dubious, and ethically suspicious practices that maintain technological culture and its corporate networks. Obscene because this age marks the environmentally disastrous consequences of planned obsolescence of electronic media, the energy costs of digital culture and furthermore the neo-colonial arrangements of material and energy extraction across the globe. To call it anthrobscene is just to emphasize what we knew but perhaps we were shielded away from acting on—that is the horrific human-caused drive toward a 6th mass extinction.”
The exhibition is a collection of student artworks that deal with the materialities of media technologies. It is a response to the contemporary discourse of political economy of media and related environmental implications. It tackles the Anthropocene through the lens of media theory, culture and philosophy to understand the geological underpinnings of contemporary media. Artists: Gurden Batra, Ameya Chikramane, Punit Hiremath, Eerika Jalasaho, Julia Sand, Reishab Kailey, Kevan Murtagh, Hanna Arstrom, Leo Kosola, Takayuki Nakashima, Liisi Soroush, Surabhi Nadig Surendra.

The Berlin Excursion
We got an invitation to Transmediale Festival and Monom Sound, in the context of Production Clinic and Sound Seminar. Time: in the end of January 2020. Participants: Niko Tiainen, Hannu Ikola, Anze Bratus, Bailey Polkinghorne, Mimi Nezvitskaya, Ameya Chikramane, Matias Koskimies, Pietu Arvola, Juha Perä, Emeline Jouvencel, Anssi Alhopuro, Sirja Puurtinen, Lassi Vihko.
Transmediale Festival https://2020.transmediale.de/festival-2020

Monom Sound
https://www.monomsound.com
https://www.facebook.com/monomsound/?rf=286921728488155