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STARTS.EE Innovation at the nexus of Science, Technology, and the Arts

STARTS.EE is Tallinn University umbrella initiative promoting encounters between science, technology and the arts, for the benefit of society.

​The goal of the initiative is to build on Tallinn University's potential and to open up its research and development activities to the outer world​, strengthening its abilities and increasing societal and cultural impact.

STARTS.EE has strong links to an environment where already multidisciplinary exchanges already happen. However, it focuses on promoting stronger ties between the creative approaches on the one hand and the science and technology development practices on the other.

Streams of activity

Residencies The initiative funds six-month long artist residencies in science or technology units of Tallinn University to kickstart artistic and scientific or technological collaborations. This is meant to lead to the creation of original artwork and the development of innovative aspects in science and technology. Two residencies are to be supported per year between 2019 and 2021.

Seasonal schools, workshops, courses STARTS.EE promotes exploratory seasonal schools, workshops and courses bringing together scientists, engineers, artists and citizens in general, in a playful but systematic way. These activities are like interdisciplinary sandboxes looking for sparks of innovation through serendipitous ways. They also aim for science popularisation awareness raising, as well as to act as safe forae for discussion on the possibilities, limitations and potential pitfalls of of recent advancements in science and technology.

Publications, presentations and public discussions The initiative also encourages and funds open-access publications, presentations and public discussions on the interplay of science, technology and the arts as an instrument of inquiry.

Ongoing activities

[Residency] STARTS.EE launched a call for participation to find an artist and a researcher or technologist to collaborate on the topic of wearables for biofeedback. The application deadline is August 24, 2020 and the residency is expected to start in September.

[Course] Tallinn University, Estonian Art Academy and Estonian Music and Theatre Academy will deploy in 2020/21 the second edition of the inter-institutional course combining interaction design, textile design, choreography and music composition.

Past activities

[Public discussion] Artist in residence, Taavet Jansen presented and discussed his residency process and outcome on June 11, 2019 from 14:00 at Tallinn University (A447).

[Residency] STARTS.EE first solo residency. The School of Digital Technologies hosts an exploratory residency on Neurotheater. It addressed the usage of physiological computing tools within the context of performing arts. Artist in residence: Taavet Jansen; host scientist: Aleksander Väljamäe.

[Residency] STARTS.EE hosts a Vertigo funded residency. The residency builds on Goprosocial, funded by the Estonian Science Agency, and explores uses of neurocinema do discuss dystopian post-singularity futures. Artist in residence: Ellen Pearlman; host scientist: Aleksander Väljamäe.

[Course] Tallinn University, Estonian Art Academy and Estonian Music and Theatre Academy will deploy in 2019/2020 a pilot edition of the first inter-institutional course combining interaction design, textile design, choreography and music composition.

[Residency] STARTS.EE co-hosted and co-funded Magic Linen, work focusing on exploring possibilities for altering people’s self-perception through the inside of garments. Artist in residence: Kristi Kuusk; host scientist: Ana Tajadura Jimenez.

[Seasonal school] A summer school on Experimental Interaction Design, focusing on designing wearable technologies for the performing arts, was co-organised and hosted by ITMO University in St. Petersburg. The initiative was funded by EV100 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Estonian Republic.

[Workshop] Making noise with biosignals was organised in 2018. The goal was to open-up the filed of phisiological computing to all. the workshop focused on BITalino, a versatile toolkit composed of low-cost hardware and software, created by one of our partners to enable anyone to create cool projects and applications involving physiological data.

[Workshop] Magic! took place in 2017 and was run as rapid prototyping exploratorium on the intersection between neuroscience research on mental body-representation, human-computer interaction and real-life applications.

Partners

Narva mnt 29, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia

Credits:

Created by the HCI group at Tallinn University