Aalto Creatives Art & Tech Open Call ’25 Award Ceremony

Aalto Creatives Art & Tech winners and jury gathered in Marsio for the Art & Tech ’25 awards ceremony on October 31st. In the jury were Katri Salmenoja from Genelec, Taina Seitsara from Business Helsinki, and Marcus Korhonen from Aalto Studios.

Monika Hauck’s project, Going Dark, was awarded a development grant of 4000 euros. Going dark is an immersive installation that explores the effects of artificial light on the environment and biodiversity. The installation highlights the disruptive impact of light pollution through emphasizing the relationship between human activity and ecological balance.

Participating in the award ceremony remotely was Koray Tahiroglu’s team who also received the development grant of 4000 euros. Their project, Augmented Performer, creates a new approach to real-time music performances with AI. The approach enables interactive co-creation between a musician and an artificial intelligence system. The project includes a live demonstration and investigates audience engagement. The project investigates the possibility of advancing the role of AI from a supportive tool to an active creative partner in musical performances. 

Winners of the Genelec product packages were Kari Rauta with a project called AudioSpace, and Ariana Marta’s team with their Solu project. Kari Rauta’s AudioSpace harnesses modern computing power to deliver exceptional music visualisation experiences. AudioSpace utilises Unreal Engine and offers high quality visuals to various settings from home PCs to live stages, and VR environments.

Ariana Marta’s project, Solu, designs and sells electronic musical instruments inspired by classic games. The first product is a music sequencer based on the classic board game where players try to guess which character the other person has on their card. The music sequencer provides users with familiar interaction to ease their entry into music-making. 

Tianjun Li's project, Free as Birds: An AI-Vocal-Visual Experiment in Migration and Bird Songs, received both the development grant of 4000 euros and Genelec's product package. Free as Birds is an interdisciplinary arts initiative combining video, sound, and live performance to investigate the shared experiences of birds and people. The project reimagines the symbolism of birds as embodiments of freedom, and addresses issues such as migration, ecological vulnerability, censorship, and the erosion of languages.

“The quality of the proposals submitted to Art & Tech competition this year was great! We got everything from XR to imaginative utilization of AI and a music sequencer inspired by classic games. The task of for the jury was not easy, but I feel that the winners represent well the width of proposals sent for the program”, Marcus Korhonen from Aalto Studios summarised.