Week of Design in Rovaniemi
- 29.02.2012
2613
At the end of February, Rovaniemi in Finland hosted the Week of Design. A part of this event was an International Seminar on the Arctic Design. The Faculty of Art Education, Technology and Design participated in these events.
The seminar brought together the leading researchers and entrepreneurs of the Arctic in order to challenge the Arctic climate and discuss the impact of landscape on design (dependency of designers’ choices upon the location).
The Seminar on the Arctic Design was the first action of the thematic network «Arctic Sustainable Arts & Design (ASAD)». It took place as part of the «Arctic Design» project carried out by the University of Lapland and Rovaniemi Agency for Regional Development.
At the seminar our University was represented by Tatiana Ashutova, Head of Department of Visual Art and Design, Eleonora Agarkova, Senior Lecturer of Department of Visual Art and Design, and by students of the Faculty of Art Education, Technology and Design — Dmitry Sobolev and Ksenia Rumjantseva. The delegation of our University brought to Rovaniemi students’ and teachers’ works on the subject of «Interpretation of daily life». The works were exhibited in the city centre in Muotoiluhuone.
On February 24, all the participants of the thematic network gathered in the exhibition hall of Muotoiluhuone, where the representatives of our Faculty opened the exhibition of their works. Creative works of our Faculty were highly esteemed by the representatives of different countries-participants of the network. Afterwards, there was a roundtable and each participant presented his University, its educational and research interests, expectations from the network and cooperation proposals. As a result of the dialogue, it became clear that the majority of participants are interested in teacher and student exchange, joint research and projects.
On the same day, the Seminar on the Arctic Design was taking place in the Conference Hall Lappia-talo. The participants of the seminar presented their solutions in the Arctic design from different points of view, for example, «design and well-being» of Professor Satu Miettinen and «sustainability» of Professor Michael B. Hardt. Sustainability was also mentioned in the presentation of Professor Anne Marchand, for whom design is a means of promoting sustainability (ability to survive) among indigenous people in Quebec, Canada. From Tuija Seipell we learned what numerous readers of «The Cool Hunter» expect from Boreal design. Tatiana Ashutova made a presentation on «Ergonomic design in the Arctic». Our delegation has received a lot of important and interesting information for further development and improvement, outlined prospects for further cooperation with the University of Lapland.
These days in Rovaniemi were full of events. Virpi Nurmela, an international coordinator, acquainted us with the faculties of the University of Lapland and its teachers. We had a visit to the exhibition «Light and shadow» in Lappia-talo, visited the Arktikum museum and Herbert Enns’ installation «Iceberg», attended a marvelous fashion show KAAMOS ON/OFF at the Snow Showroom.
Our delegation was very welcome in Rovaniemi in the University of Lapland. We are grateful to Taija Sailio, coordinator of the seminar on the Arctic design, Virpi Nurmela, international coordinator, Timo Jokela, Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design of the University of Lapland and to many other professors and teachers for the warm welcome and an opportunity to participate in interesting and meaningful to our university events. We look forward to seeing students and teachers of the University of Lapland at our Faculty in April to further develop our cooperation.