International Week Workshop & TAF: Programming for Artists with Processing

Dr. Zsofia Ruttkay, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest

Programming has not yet become a natural medium for artists and designers. To acquire sufficient skill of computer programming and the essential algorithmic thinking is normally beyond the capacity of artists, and, for many, it is not apparent what novel possibilities the computer offers for visual exploration and for entirely new genres of experience. Processing – a recent open-source programming language made by artists for artists -- makes it feasible to break both of these forbidding arguments.

The goal of the workshop, held by Dr. Zsofia Ruttkay, is to let participants – including artists who have never ever programmed before – get an insight into the programming language and its environment, practice making visual sketches and control them by using the mouse, and get an outlook on the potentials by browsing selected digital artworks.

The workshop will be organized around a series of algorithmic visual tasks, to illustrate the basic algorithmic concepts and language constructs. By the end of the workshop the participants will have created some own digital sketches, and will have a basis to develop their programming knowledge further. This outcome may enrich the arsenal of individual artists. It is also useful for educators who seek a first, attractive programming language to be taught for art and design students.

International Week Workshop & TAF: Printed advertisements of Soviet Estonia

Evelin Urm from Tartu Art Collage / Media and Advertising Design Department, lector

Soviet Estonia practically lacked advertising in the sense we understand it today.
What was Soviet Estonian print advertising like?
Which was the work field of artists?
Which were materials and possibilities to express themselves?

Evelin Urm will also bring a long a small exhibition of Socialist Estonian tokens, pennants, plastic bags and posters from the 1970s to 1990s, so that all students could have an overview over the print advertisements in Soviet Estonia. She has digitized an slideshow with many different examples of printed advertisements.

International Week Workshop & TAF: Type in Motion

Susanne P. Radtke has developed and run international workshops mainly in the Middle East. Typography is always the foundation for her intercultural approach. The meaning and the message typography can transfer is very different in various cultures apart from differences in writing systems. Designers today focus on one hand on the global market but on the other hand they remain sensitive to their own national and cultural heritages.

Through Type in Motion diverse media like animation, sound and typography combine with your own voice become part of your animated piece.

Creativity and experimentation while playing with typography will be an essential part of the workshop. Increased knowledge about the rules and conventions of the wide field of typography will occur during being in the process of brainstorming, storyboarding and working on the final design. Later lectures in Typography will be included which will build a theoretical background for the practical work.

An interest and openess for typography and a curiousity to explore and express the hidden meanings in proverbs, sayings or expressions are good prerequisites for the workshop. The Program Flash will be used for the animation although the students are welcome to use any other software such as AfterEffects. During the workshop a brief introduction in Flash will be given but the students will be expected to have a good knowledge in the basic design PROGRAMS programms.

Susanne Radtke is tenured Professor of Graphic and Media Design at University of Applied Sciences, Ulm, Germany. She is co-author of Textbook for Visual Media Design. Prof. Radtke earned a graduate degree in visual communications from Berlin University of the Arts. She has studied with renowned teachers from the School of Design Ulm (hfg) which is the successor of the Bauhaus in Germany. Radtke lives in Ulm and Berlin.

Record number of participants to TAF International Week

We will again have a photography exhibition fromChung-Ang
University, the Korean top university for photography.
The photo is from the 'Korean Wave' exhibition last year.

We have so far 24 confirmed teacher/company participants from 18 institutions, students from three universities, six workshops, three seminars and a number of presentations. Countries so far: Austria, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania, South Korea, UK and US. We are expecting confirmation of attendance from 15 participants.

It is going to be a great week again! We try to have the final list of participants ready by the end of February. The list of workshops hosted by our guest we wish to have ready by February 18.

While waiting for the update of our blog pages, view what happened last year from our 'International Week' page.