Events

HOOK'19 seminar: Towards an ecosystem of the creative fields

Hook is an annual event focusing on the areal and community development of Aalto University’s campus with its collaborators. This year, the theme is creative ecosystems.
Aalto Festival 2019 Night at Otaniemi

Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture is now in Otaniemi, Espoo. Our intention is to grow a new ecosystem of creative fields on our campus focusing on art, design & media, and cross-disciplinary collaboration to complement the ecosystem of arts and crafts located in Arabia.

Aalto University warmly welcomes you to Dipoli for a day of keynote talks and inspiring discussion. Hook is an annual event focusing on the areal and community development of Aalto University’s campus with its collaborators.

This year, the theme is Towards an Ecosystem of the Creative Fields.

Collaboration in creative communities

Ecosystems are place-specific dynamic platforms of collaboration between species. An ecosystem of the creative fields allows collaboration and mutual enforcement. It can include freelancer artists, but also corporations, startups, consultancies as well as education institutions, programmes, pop-up activities and events. 

Creative communities tend to have certain characteristics in common, often involving inexpensive, open, spacious premises, pedestrian density, urban setting and repurposed industrial or storage spaces. Otaniemi does not have post-industrial premises, but it does have "post-laboratory architecture” made of bricks. As an example of these, the startup centre A Grid is one, and has already become a popular place also for creative startups. Aalto University’s campus offers remarkable possibilities for cross-disciplinary activities between creative and other fields as well, namely technology and business. 

The open discussion Hook ’19 addresses such questions as the characteristics of creative ecosystems, communities and placemaking, competition between creative places, the challenge of affordability and gentrification, the possibilities of company-university collaboration and city strategies utilising the potential of creative fields. 

Keynote speakers

Ellie Schneider

Ellie Schneider is the Director of Advocacy and Operations at Design Core Detroit, the steward of Detroit’s United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), City of Design designation. Schneider spearheaded the application process for the designation, making Detroit the first and only city in the United States to receive the UNESCO City of Design designation, joining a network of now 31 design cities and 180 cities focused on using creativity as a driver for sustainable and equitable development around the world.  

Design Core Detroit serves as the convener and backbone organization for the Detroit City of Design initiative alongside 50 local partners and champions design-driven businesses and their role in strengthening Detroit’s economy. It offers services to strengthen, grow and attract design businesses, increases market demand for design services, and tells Detroit’s design story locally and globally. She represents Detroit as a City of Design in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, serving as coordinator for the Cities of Design subnetwork. 

Satoshi Otomo 

Satoshi Otomo is Director of Design and Planning in Muji. Otomo worked in advertising before joining Muji, where he is currently involved in designing health & beauty and stationary products. Muji has the best designers of the world for designing its non-labelled merchandise. The Japanese consumerware giant also has a heavy emphasis on social wellbeing and humanitarian projects. Muji is about to open its largest store in Nordic countries in Kamppi shopping centre in Autumn 2019 and is simultaneously seeking for collaborators and coworking possibilities within the area. 

Schedule

13:00 Registration

13.30 Antti Ahlava, Vice President of Campus Development at Aalto University, Eetu Ristaniemi, Director of Real Estate Investments at Aalto University Campus and Real Estate, and Jarmo Suominen, Adjunct Professor at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architeture, present the collaboration ecosystem on Aalto University's campus 

14.15 Ellie Schneider 

15.15 Break 

15.30 Satoshi Otomo 

16.30 Panel discussion moderated by Aalto University alumna Hilla Rudanko (Architects Rudanko + Kankkunen, Uusi Kaupunki -collective)

16.55 Endnote by Antti Ahlava

More information
Pirjo Peippo-Lavikka 
Coordinator, Leadership Support Services 
Aalto University 
[email protected] 

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