Media Lab Helsinki

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The Media Lab is the school of digital design at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in Finland (also known as TaiK). Media Lab provides MA and Doctoral education, and does research on design and production of digital culture, digital media, interaction design and technologies and the effect they have on society. Media Lab Helsinki is a coordinator and a partner in number of international research, design and development projects focusing on digital technology, media and culture.

1 History
2 Mission and Values
3 Teaching
4 Research
5 Notable projects
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

Media Lab Helsinki was founded in 1993. The first MA program was started in 1994 and the first research group assembled in 1996. Since its formation the Media Lab has been part of an relatively active digital culture scene in Helsinki and its surroundings.

Since 1995 Media Lab has collaborated in, generated and coordinated research and development projects funded by the European Commission, Tekes (the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), Nordic Council, UNESCO and a number of industrial partners, including Nokia, Elisa, TeliaSonera, SanomaWSOY, YLE and MTV3.

In January 2000 the Media Centre Lume - the National Research and Development Center of audiovisual media - was officially opened. Lume is located in the same premises as the Media Lab and offers its resources for study and research projects carried out in the Lab. Experimental and interactive video productions are common in Lume.

In 2003, the Ministry of Education Finland chose Media Lab as one of the national top educational units.

In 2006 Media Lab was invited to the Ars Electronica. The Beta Lounge, Campus Exhibition presented over 20 works by Media Lab's MA, DA and alumni students and its four research groups.

In 2008 a new "innovation university" is being created out of three universities in the Greater Helsinki area. The new University will be created by the fusion of the University of Art and Design Helsinki where Media Lab is located, Helsinki School of Economics and Helsinki University of Technology. The new University will be competing with the best universities in the world.

[edit] Mission and Values

The mission of the Media Lab is to explore, discover and comprehend the new digital technology and its impact in society; to find and exploit the possibilities it opens to communication, interaction and expression and to evaluate, understand and deal with the challenges it poses to design and creative production.

Media Lab encourages experiments in the spirit of "hands on with minds on". In education, research, and productions Media Lab promotes collaborative learning and work, co-design, creativity, reflective practice, design for all, usability, and accessibility.

[edit] Teaching

Media Lab offers Master of Arts and Doctor of Arts (equivalent to PhD) programmes. Teaching is in English and about 20% of students are non-Finns (2007).

[edit] Research

There are four research groups inside the Media Lab:

Arki research group aims to understand and influence the evolution of the social practices that take advantage of new digital technology in a future media environment. The approach is multidisciplinary, it involves a lot of co-design in close collaboration with end users, and exploration of the possibilities of media especially in software intensive systems. ARKI research group

The Learning Environments research group is involved in research, design and development of New Media tools, as well as their use and application, in the field of learning. Besides academic research papers the outcomes of the group are often software systems, software prototypes, applications and scenarios. The group's works are based on the social constructivist theory that sees learning as a participation in social processes of knowledge construction. The Learning Environments research group

The Systems of Representation research group focuses on the topics of visualization methods and tools, digital cartography, ontology design and 3D user interface design.