Saturdays travel to EMMA was another easy journey, two minutes walk to the bus and another two minute wait. Two minutes walk from the bus and another two till the metro arrived. I arrived at half eight which gave me time do some sketching around the building before starting work.
Sketching on the bus is something I do not find easy as the vibration can resullt in squiggly lines .However I have found some great models for drawing on the metro, people engaged in their phones, head down, and they do not realise whats happening. You have to be quick to capture the pose before they move along with people sitting blocking the view. The speed of the metro along with the chance of missing my stop also need consideration! Everyone at EMMA are lovely. The Finnish are all so friendly and helpful as a rule. I have been working under the direction of Sami and also direction from Kalle, along with helping Jegi and also working on my own with guidance from Tiina the curator. All speak english when I am about which is a great help as my Finnish is very very limited. I am also getting the opportunity to utilise some of the skills I learned in GTI and these are serving me well (big thanks to John Keaveny from the woodwork department). I have been upholstering some display cabinets during my time here. I did make a mistake and laid the top cover for the cabinet down on the concrete floor and was advised not to do this again as it had just been painted (sorry Kallee). I also helped in the prepping for painting other cabinets. The place is buzzing in preparation for Tuesdays opening. Underground is huge with long corridors and Kalle uses a scooter to get about quicker. In the afternoon I was also helping to cut plexi glass for the display. After work Conor and myself met with our GTI tutor Sarah Farrell. We took a walk down the docks where there are many interesting sites. Padlocks on a bridge reminded me of Galways wolf tone bridge (which I cross traveling to the GTI). We also heard someone hammering, breaking the ice to go for a swim!! Then we found a kebab shop and headed back to the apartment. Till the next time, -Stu
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Today Fiona and myself went to the Ateneum Art Gallery. A mishap with Google Maps delayed us a bit, but we got there in the end. The gallery was showing an exhibition on the Von Wright brothers. The Von Wrights were famous Finnish painters who specialised in the study of birds.
The gallery also had a collection of paintings done in a “Duckbergian Style”. These were paintings that took Donald Duck and Co. and put them in classic pieces of art. They were placed cleverly around the the building. Generally they’d be hidden amongst a huge wall of paintings, or just around the corner from the ones they were based on, that were usually on show beforehand. When it came to lunch I had elk meatballs. I’d never had elk before, but it was really good, and they were late bringing our order, so we ended up getting it for free, which was nice. After lunch we continued around the gallery trying to take in as much as possible. Doubling back on some sections and trying to get a drawing in when the crowds would clear. - Conor Zeppo from Varia College took us three Irish students from GTI and two students from Varia College to see the behind the scenes at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. The guided tour included going through the workshops, paint rooms and costume department, their production areas. The opera house is a well oiled machine that operates under the 5s Japanese methodology, making everything in house from the curtains, set, props, costumes, to the jewellery and much more.
Returning back in the college bus, we stopped at the Sibelius monument in Sibelius park in the Toolo district of Helsinki. Zeppo informed us it took six years to construct. It's made up of 600 hollow steel pipes that are welded together in a wave like pattern. The purpose of the piece was to capture the essence of the music of Sibelius. Overall it was a great day, all thanks to Zeppo - Stuart Things that make me happy are good design thats fit for purpose and Finland has it in abundance. From the two holes in the duvet cover which can be used to put yer hands through to quickly cover the duvet to the amazing transport system. Starting at 9am my travel to work takes an hour. At the bus stop the shelter tells when the next one is due. They run on time, instead of the Irish leap card system which can take an age and makes me feel like I am holding up the queue, the Finnish travel card beeps and is immediate. One door to enter and another to exit, this makes life better.
The metro system is great, smooth speedy and is a breeze to navigate. LED signage in the carriage and voice indicating every stop. My stop is Espoo which takes me to the Emma museum. On the platform stands a huge sculpture of Emma who makes a mark. Multi-coloured, her left hand has paint on it and marks are on wall up the four escalators that lead the way to street level. The museum is great, it is a repurposed printing works and working behind the scenes is giving me a huge insight into how it operates. Things I'd wondered about but never saw before, like the huge lift thats needed to raise artworks o the gallery on the first floor. I've been helping out with setting up for an opening next week. Down near the cleanroom in the basement is a fully kitted toy shop the woodwork department with a spray booth and next door lives the metalwork department. I have also been promised a tour of the store, however I have been busy and will take that offer after the opening and i'm very much look forward to that. -Stuart The week in Helsinki is going pretty smooth. The people at the Finnish Comics Society are very helpful and interesting. Today I learned that not only do they run comics courses and workshops at the place I have been working, at but also in libraries and primary and secondary schools. Comics are a tool for teaching and connecting people of all generations and often the people from different ages, the youth and senior classes for example, exchange comic pages between each other.
As part of my responsibilities, I am helping the other intern with some external work around town, visiting art shop and book shops. These tasks are a great opportunity for me to get around Helsinki and see a bit of the city, learn about the history of the buildings and the language too. This week I also got to do some illustrations for their Facebook page and for the Espoo town website, which is not online yet. I always wanted to pursue a career as a illustrator and having the chance of trying it a bit it's marvellous.I made a comic stripe about my wanderings in town and how far places looks like when covered by snow. -Paula Today, Emmi brought Conor and myself to a photography workshop run by Kari Paajanen. He was kind enough to give me a masterclass in photography. We covered the nuts and bolts of light, shutter speed, film and how to work with your camera. Though I have worked with cameras before, I found the workshop to be a concise walk through of how the camera can be an artistic tool.
Kari also provided coffee in the coffee breaks. Good Finnish coffee. The workshop covered the ABCs of photography, from photographers stance to content of the photograph and included looking at the construction of the frame. You have the photo which is the object and also the suggestion of what exists outside of the frame. Both working together to create the effectual content of the piece. We examined the work of the french photographer Henry Lartique. Kari also showed some of his own work, a project based on photos constructed within his own home. The talk included a discussion on the mechanics of taking the photos and the effect of taking a photograph. Beyond this is the psychology of photography, and its effect on the audience. The tutorial included a discussion about working with clients and the personal art of the form. In the second part of the tutorial, we were given cameras and sent out into the college to apply the skills that we had learned in taking photographs. On our return we were given a brief look at the possibilities of Photoshop in enhancing the photograph. We looked at how Photoshop can be used to work with the raw digital data and how to create different effects. This has given me an understanding of the possibilities for creation within Photoshop that I previously did not have. I look forward to taking this basic understanding and playing with it further when I return to Ireland. A new discipline which I am looking forward to exploring. -Fiona First day in Varia and we are received with a warm welcome. Salmiakki, salty licquorice! Emmi and Anu, our co-ordinators gave us a thorough and to the point orientation of how to move around Helsinki. We were also given travel websites to guide us and travel cards that give us the freedom of the very impressive train, tram, bus and metro system. We get a student rate which makes such a huge difference. We also got a tour of the vocational training school, free to students with a wide variety of courses, including, fashion, furniture, food, metalwork, electrician training, metalwork, photography, graphics.
The space, facilities and equipment are available to the wide variety of students. Tutors give instruction and then let the students at it, a 'learning through doing' approach. Practical instruction and practise, with an emphasis on technical expertise. It's interesting to see the different approaches to the creative process to the approach we adopt back in Galway. Education here is free, as is food in the canteen. Fish stew is tasty and filling though traditionally made with cream instead fo water, Nora (a decoration student) told us. Lunch time is half an hour with self service and it is as much as you want to eat. It's left up to yourself... On our first day we were brought to lunch in the restaurant run by students. They cook the meals, and trainee staff wait on the tables. The soup was very impressive, a tureen bowl of spicy shrimp cream soup with a thatch of puff pastry. Fun and fishy, we were spoiled. The Finns in general speak very good english and are generous and patient in using it with us. -Fiona A penguin walk down a slope of ice to the bus stop. The kind of cold that makes you fearful and optimistic all at once. Everyone in Helsinki appears exactly the same as everyone else when they’re on their way to work. An entirely silent, non-violent rush hour in the train station. Eerily civilised. Lots of turned up noses and elfin faces. Dogs in thermal jumpsuits with pigtails for ears. A cinnamon bun which turns out to be a karjalan piirakka instead.
The Finnish word for ‘OK’ is hieerkkiipakkakoisokokkbekkinommo. They don’t have any word for please. Trudging along gritted paths trying to find somewhere, a man passes by clutching ski poles. We order whale for lunch, because that’s what the natives would eat. The snow has a Walt Disney sparkle and icicles hang overhead like daggers. Losing count of all the lovely, helpful people we meet, though we still have no idea where we are or where we should be. No matter how clearly and kindly they explain everything to us nothing can distract us from thoughts of saunas, hot baths, alcohol, charity shops, cafes, lie-ins and adventures that veer far outside the parameters of Erasmus Plus excursions. It’s so hard to tell if everything is going well or if I’m dying! Warm feet are a sign of frostbite... White plains of snow, black and grey trees flying by through the windows. Inaccessible voices and words all around. -Sadhbh It was dark when we started our journey. Some of us had slept but most of us were too excited to do so. We looked at each other at the bus station and we couldn't believe the big day has just arrived. I spent most of my week preparing for it, making up my bag, researching about the museums and local culture. I had everything ready, I just needed to board the flight and set off.
I must say that nothing could have prepared me for such a stunning view. From the window of the plane there was that endless blanket of snow, covering the flatness of the country to where the eyes couldn't see any more. Being from a tropical country (Brazil) I have never seen so much snow and was amazed by the contrasts between the blackness of the crooked birch trees and the softness of the white ice patches beside the road. It is like arriving in another dimension, even the air feels different... colder, sharp, but lovely, dry and fresh. Another experience I found fascinating from my first day in the country is the language. It is different from everything I had ever listened to. The Finns speak as if they are singing, but fast...very fast. Their words sound much longer than the english words too, and they don't have any similarity between each other. I realised that in a very funny way, when going to the shop to buy dinner and things for breakfast I couldn't even guess what I was putting in the trolley. From that experience I understood how important it is to have a good brand design! .... and pictures of the product on the package helps too! Today was a very challenging day, because is not easy to get out of your comfort zone, take a flight and go to a completely different country; but it's this type of adventure that teaches us about endurance, courage and curiosity to try the new and unexpected, and with that become better people. |
Art & Animation 2017/18
Map of Helsinki |