Beyond Matter MA Fellowship Programme

The MA Fellowships programme (2020-2021) is organized for the Creative EU project Beyond Matter – Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual reality (BMVR). The programme was conceived and run by Professor Lily Díaz-Kommonen and coordinated by Cvijeta Miljak, Department of Media at Aalto University, School of Arts, Design and Architecture.

The programme brings together talented Masters students from Aalto University with important European museums and heritage institutions such as the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany, the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, France, Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia, Tirana Art Lab, Albania and the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Hungary. The programme consists of ten internships given to outstanding individuals with the objective of completing their final MA thesis, engaging in a specific independent line of study or research that is in relation to the BMVR research project at one of the heritage institutions involved.

Beyond Matter MA Fellows (2020-2021)

Tim Moesgen

MA Fellow at ZKM, September – December 2020

Tim Moesgen is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Collaborative and Industrial Design at Aalto University. With a background in interaction design he is interested in exploring hybrid interfaces combining the digital and analogue utilising emerging technologies such as wearable computing, physical prototyping, VR/AR.

He is conducting multidisciplinary research on innovative, multisensorial interfaces which enrich the product- and service experience. Having worked with users with sensory impairments in the past made him realise how beneficial it is to design for more than only one sense. His vision is to create accessible, multimodal experiences and elevate users to a certain emotional state, such as relief, trust or the feeling of well-being.

Tim wants to apply his research expertise within the Beyond Matter project in the museum context creating physical and digital devices that are able to present past landmark exhibitions such as Iconoslash (2002) in an accessible and immersive way.

Mirka Sulander

MA Fellow at ZKM, March – May 2021

My name is Mirka Sulander and I am a Visual Culture, Curating and Contemporary art (MA) student at Aalto University. I was chosen for an internship at ZKM as part of the Beyond Matter Fellowship Program.

I got interested in the Beyond Matter project because I wanted to learn more about the technological side of creating exhibitions and to get hands-on experience on contemporary curating. At ZKM I am looking forward to researching further how history can be reached and made vivid again through virtual reality.

During my MA studies I have concentrated on psychogeography in film, photography, music and storytelling.

I hope I can benefit my multidisciplinary background also while working with ZKM’s exhibition called Iconoclash. The exhibition is especially interesting for me because it brings science, art and religion side by side and looks at them through an intriguing topic: iconoclasm and the critical gesture towards images.

Already in my MA thesis, I have researched spirituality as part of art making and looked more closely at criticality which can turn into destructing and denying force.

I am looking forward to being part of the professional team of ZKM working on the interesting theme of iconoclash and to provide the audience with new virtual experiences.

Jennifer Greb

MA Fellow at ZKM, May – August 2021

Edoardo Piroddi

MA Fellow at Centre Pompidou, February – June 2021

Edoardo is a multi-disciplinary designer currently working as a UI/UX Designer and 3D Artist at Centre Pompidou for the Beyond Matter project. Human-centred at his core, his approach is holistic, fluid and hybrid, aimed at creating memorable products, services and interactive experiences. Graduated from the Master of European Design, he has studied at Glasgow School of Art, Köln international School of Design and Aalto University, exploring the intersection between Product design and New Media. His most recent work explores the inherent power of sound and music to design user-centred interactive products, services and installations to improve people’s lives, bringing poetry in mundane routines, enhancing the sonic identity of urban spaces, and re-imagining public environments as aural spaces.

Jiaxin Tao

MA Fellow at Centre Pompidou, April – June 2021

Jiaxin is interested in exploring the space experience in the virtual world with an architecture background.Going to the site is no longer the only way to immerse in an exhibition. She is researching the similarity and differences in space experience between virtual and real worlds. And in the Beyond Matter project, she studied navigation and user experience and created immersive environments from historical archival documents. Jiaxin also researched and mapped the archival documents, worked on the information architecture, and designed the information architecture diagrams, essential deliverables in the concept design development process.

Niklas Alenius

MA Fellow at Centre Pompidou, March – June 2021

Punit Hiremath

MA Fellow at Centre Pompidou, March – July 2021

Pekko Vasantola

MA Fellow at Ludwig Museum, February – May 2021

Selina Oakes

MA Fellow at Ludwig Museum, February – May 2021

Lisa Rein

MA Fellow at Tirana Art Lab, April – July 2021

Lisa Rein is an artistresearcher and graphic designer based in Berlin. They have studied New Media (MA) with a minor in Visual Culture, Curating and Contemporary Art at Aalto University from 2018 to 2021.

Their work ponders questions of digital media infrastructures, codes, languages and emancipatory practices. They are interested in a combined form of artistic research and practice that investigates the fabric of digital media technologies. Employing critical thinking to digital media environments, they reflect on the media infrastructures around us.

For Beyond Matter, LR is searching for forms of digital archiving that do justice to artworks from different disciplines. Their hope is to make them accessible and alive again without reducing them to the sometimes trivial banality of the digital. Working with Tirana Art Lab, LR is involved in the development of a virtual archive of artworks that have been or are currently present in Tirana’s public space. Together with TAL, they are exploring ways of applying digital media technologies, 3D worlds and virtual maps in suitable and sensible ways, orbiting web-based curatorial and archival practices.