Max Ryynanen (FIN)

CV

Max Ryynänen is a philosopher of art and a contemporary art critic, with an additional history in e.g. gallery management (with artist group ROR) and cultural journalism. He works currently as the deputy professor of theory of visual culture at Aalto University at Pori. In his scholarly work Ryynänen has, besides contemporary art, been focusing on kitsch, the history of the mass culture debate, and urban aesthetics. His philosophical base is rooted in Italian philosophy, American pragmatism, and Nordic applied aesthetics, following studies at the University of Helsinki, Uppsala, Pisa, and Temple Philadelphia. Lately Ryynänen has lectured e.g. for architecture students (Trondheim university), performing arts critics (F.I.T.), and theatre festival organizers (SPACE). He is preparing a book on the aesthetics of ice hockey.

Lecture

NO WIPEOUTS, NO REAL REWARD? Against (mainstream) camp. Art vs. kitsch and high vs. low used to be strong dualisms, which segregated people, and built walls between different types of aesthetic experience.

In today’s world many young students of art say that they love kitsch. “The love of kitsch” for them, here, is a game built upon camp sensibility, where one enjoys other people’s stimulatingly bad, sentimental taste. “The love of kitsch” is a camp attitude which is of course often a survival mechanism which one takes into use when encountering trash. The “wrong” interpretation can help to cope with it.

Today’s people might be more flexible than ever varying their way of interpreting and experiencing. The same day can include a trashy design shop, Godard’s film, and a compound of TV and internet art and entertainment with varied backgrounds. And this seems to pose no problems, at least for younger generations, who can easily adapt themselves to different types of sensibilities very fast and ephemerally.

It seems that even careers are less and less made by sharing a “high taste” (“the right taste”). Young people share experiences of surfing on the waves of the entertainment industry, from horrifyingly bad TV programs to raunchy visual design, and so, in their talks, show off their “good”, “open”, and “ironical” attitude. How much we’d ever love camp (I do!) we have to get conscious of the fact that it is increasingly mainstream, and a must for many people attending artistic communities. They have to show their competence in this game, which for them is as much “forced entertainment”, as modernist slogans and social realism rhetoric where once a must for visual artists.

When camp and its pleasant games of interpretation and experience do not anymore contain a risk of a wipeout, but serve as a taste matrix for certain communities in the world of visual art, design, and culture, using camp as a surfboard in the nowadays enormous ocean of visual culture, can also just serve to kill critical discussion, differences, and boundaries which are sometimes needed to safeguard fragile artistic work. And from the point of view of an artist: why would you do good work, when you can do trash which someone picks up and enjoys as camp? In the end, real, profound aesthetic experience as well needs a real adventure. With no risks (of a wipeout) there are no (meaningful) giant waves to surf.

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CV

Jacek Utko, Polish designer, based in Warsaw. After obtaining an architectural degree, he began his career as an architect. Feeling disappointed, he decided to venture into various fields, including interior design, set design for film production and finaly graphic design.  
After a few years, he became the art director for Puls Biznesu (a newspaper run by Swedish Bonnier Business Press), and then later advanced as the design director for the whole BBP group for eight Central European countries. Despite working with small newspapers with small staffs and small budgets, he collected more than forty awards in various design competitions within a few years.  
Two of the papers he redesigned, Poland’s Puls Biznesu and Estonia’s Aripaev, were named “World’s Best Designed Newspaper” by Society for News Design, in the largest international design competition. Puls Biznesu (2004) became the first newspaper in Central Europe receiving such an award. He also received several other SND awards, including designs for front pages, newspaper redesigns, and individual portfolio.
  His covers for Puls Biznesu were named ‘Cover of the Year’ in Poland three years in a row. He was a speaker for various seminars, including SND conference. In 2009 he was a speaker at TED conference in Long Beach. Recently he works a lot on web design.

Lecture info soon Lecture

From Cute Secretaries, who know how to Photoshop and Mad Gorillas in Cockpits!
I want to point the emphasis on competition on the practical level, on the relations between client and designer, on how different clients choose what designer and why. What are the parameters a client chooses a certain designer. How can the designer manifest his position in an ever growing market.

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CV

Veronika Burian, born in Prague, got her first degree in Industrial Design in Munich, Germany, before she moved on to Austria and Italy to work as a mix between a product and graphic designer. Discovering her true passion for type, she graduated with distinction from the MA in Typeface Design in Reading, UK, in 2003 and started to work as full-time type designer at DaltonMaag in South London until 2007...

After a 3-year stay in Boulder, Colorado, she is now living and working in Prague and dedicates her time fully to TypeTogether, an independent type-label that she co-founded with José Scaglione. She also continues to give lectures and workshops at international conferences and universities. Her typeface Maiola received the TDC Certificate of Excellence in Type Design 2004, was selected in the Creative Review competition 2005 and was part of the touring exhibition e-a-t. Karmina and Bree, two collaborative typefaces from TypeTogether, also won a merit at the ED-Awards competition 2007 and 2009. In 2010 Adelle received Gold and Karmina Sans Bronze at the european-wide design competition ED-Awards.

Lecture

Centers play a distinctive role in education, but the most vibrant places are those where many different cultures and visual backgrounds meet. Therefore it is important to encourage diversity and decentralisation, instead of hegemony and top-down thinking. One of the big advantages of todays technical possibilities and online communication tools is, that establishing oneself as a one-(wo)man show is far easier than it used to be. Why are we so eager to grab ideas endorsed and propagated by centers, although we have our own visual roots? Is it correct to assume that developments in the periphery will in some way or other influence the center? How does this relate to the microcosm of typography? What role does economy play? This talk will attempt to answer these questions and more.

Lecture

Diversity vs. Competitiveness
In their lecture they will introduce the principles of their creative practice as artists, designers and architects. Whilst presenting their different projects it will be explicit how their work is interconnected with their attitude to life. 

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CV

Petr Skala was born in Brno in Czech Republic. Soon after finishing his studies at Faculty of fine arts in Brno he moved to Netherlands as a cross media designer for Fabrique studio. His range covers graphic, web, motion and product design in which he was pleased by some awards. Nowadays he is back freelancing again, working on his secret project and writing about things which does not seem to but are very close to the design.

Lecture

It is obvious that among the infinite ways there can not be objectively set the only right approach in creation. Either central or peripherial – mainstream or fringe – light or dark – sweet or salt... the only objective distinction seems to be the final quality. But what do we understand as “quality”? And is the final quality based on the describable universal approach or at least some rules? And if – is there any difference in designing and (for example) bread making?
So lets talk about bread then.

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CV

Director of the Silesian Art & Enterprise Castle in Cieszyn gratueted from Jagielloński University in Polish philology. In 1992 she became a director of the faculty of Education, Culture, Sport and Turism Department in the Town Hall in Cieszyn. Since 2005 she has worked as director of the Castle,  the only one regional design centre in Poland. From 2005 to 2007 she coordinated the Silesian Design Network.

Lecture

The lecture will be focused on Castle various activities for designers, companies, gouverment... The title "You can dream it, you can do it".

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CV

Ondrej Herec, zakladateľská osobnosť slovenskej teórie fantastiky, ktorej sa venoval popri povolaní sociológa a medzinárodného právnika, pracoval ako riaditeľ Centra OSN pre sociálnu politiku, člen Vládneho výboru Rady Európy ai. Prednášal na viacerých univerzitách. Zostavil prvú slovenskú antológiu svetovej fantastiky (1981), autor prvého československého rozhlasového seriálu o svetovej fantastike (1986), iniciátor, editor a autor prvého slovenského SF magazínu (1988). Zakladajúci člen Československého syndikátu autorů fantastiky, zakladajúci člen a predseda Slovenského syndikátu autorov fantastiky, spoluzakladateľ, organizátor a predseda poroty súťaže O cenu Gustáva Reussa, ktorej 1500 poviedok od 500 autorov predstavuje vyše 90% slovenskej fantastiky v dekáde 1990 – 2000. Jeho monografiu „Fantastika a realizmus“ v knihe Cyberpunk – vstupenka do tretieho tisícročia v zahraničí nazvali „učebnicou fantastiky“, titulná esej je prvou slovenskou prácou o kyberkultúre. Iniciátor, hlavný autor a editor prvých žánrových Dejín slovenskej fantastiky (spoluautor Miloš Ferko). Odmenený 1998 Cenou Národného osvetového centra za výrazný prínos k rozvoju teórie a kritiky fantastickej literatúry, 2007 Cenou českej a slovenskej Akadémie sci-fi, fantasy a hororu za celoživotný prínos, 2007 najvyšším ocenením českého a slovenského fandomu, cenou Mlok, 2008 Cenou českej a slovenskej Akadémie sci-fi, fantasy a hororu za najlepší teoretický text roka. V knihe Z teórie modernej fantastiky predstavil po prvý raz na Slovensku viaceré témy modernej fantastiky, niektoré po prvý raz v Európe. Titulná esej knihy Dobre organizovaný netvor (2010) o organizáciách ako o netvoroch každodenného života patrí podľa zahraničných odborníkov k najlepšiemu, čo sa doteraz v medzinárodnom meradle na túto tému napísalo. Člen SC PEN od roku 2010.

Lecture info soon

CV

Johanna Biľak (born Balušíková) is a partner in Typotheque type foundry based in The Hague, the Netherlands. She is focusing on self-initiated graphic design projects, type design, typography and exhibition design. Together with Alan Záruba, she co-authored the e-a-t (experiment and typography) exhibition and the publication 'We Want You To Love Type', which explore the Czech and Slovak work since 1985, (www.e-a-t.org). Johanna studied at the Jan van Eyck Akademie (1999-2001), Maastricht; Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (1998-1999), Paris; Ecole des Beaux-arts de Saint-Etienne (1997-1998), France; and Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava (1992-1998), Slovakia.

Lecture

Exhibiting exhibit
Exhibition design is sort of "peripheral" subject in my personal work. However, it's one of my favorites for its complexity, mix of disciplines and people who are involved in the process. Dialogue between all involved parties is crucial for realization of the project.
I will talk about several projects in which very different spaces are involved (e.g. art gallery, hotel, kunsthal). Content is the most important element which is followed by style and a unique visual expression.

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CV info soon
Lecture

Downtown’s centre, Cairo’s periphery

Situated in the very heart of Central Downtown in Cairo are two venues that attract quite unusual crowd of people judged by purely Egyptian standards. Long haired youth with Rasta caps, unveiled smoking and drinking girls and suspiciously looking grey-haired men in their late forties or fifties comfortably seated sipping their coffee with much gusto. El Hurriyya (Liberty) pub, also frequented by foreigners and ex-pats has been long known as the meeting point for all liberal-thinking artists, emerging writers and directors from Cairo, who move at later hours to the neighbouring coffeehouse Nadwa Thaqafiya (Cultural gatherings) to discuss the latest Egyptian issues concerning politics, culture or everyday life.  
This animated bunch of people has been so far quite successful in paving the way into their own microcosms of counter-culture that runs against the mainstream Egyptian culture either state-sponsored or representing poverty-ridden underprivileged classes of society fed by the popular Egyptian singers and Islam tinted soap operas. Downtown in Cairo represents extremely vibrant and flexible scene in the contemporary Egyptian art. Its marginality is skilfully used to mould its own distinct identity in this gargantuan megapolis thus creating very interesting phenomena of art on fringes.  

 

Alternation of the program reserved!

The visual products of professional graphic designers are crucially determined by a number of arbitrary aesthetic qualities, often at the expense of their primary function: communication. What is labeled aesthetic, creative, clean, complex or rather tasteless, kitschy, expressionless or just lousy, is influenced by institutional centers and geographic centers such as fine art academies, graphic studios and sometimes advertising agencies too. The concepts of what excellence in design should be, are formed by these centers to discredit other – peripheral – approaches (amateur, obsolete, manneristic, historicizing, ornamental, or rural), or at least to impose respect as the only truly valid approach to graphic design.)

Such a thoroughly modernistic approach to good design is certainly the dominant mode within the discipline, at least in Central Europe. There are certainly many more ways to explain why this particular model is so well established and continues to dominate, however, what matters here is how to deal with it when confronting and examining the visual cultures that are peripheral for institutional or geographical reasons. If designers continue to fully internalize or accept the exigencies of the center’s privileged approach to graphical design, the only problem they would see is how to win still more recognition for this approach and impair the competition of a so-called poorer quality. But if we would rather take away the privileges of the centers’ approach to graphical design and just see it as one possibility among many, thus making the center’s approach peripheral too, it would rapidly lose its claim to cultural dominance. In addition, current teaching methods, contemporary aesthetic criteria and even the position of the designer itself are put into question by the visual chaos that is found on the outside of the geographical and institutional centers, especially in post-communist countries. )

This conference will try to find answers to the questions that emerge from this situation and develop a number of topics that are related to this state of affairs in the discipline of graphic design. How can visual communication move beyond the modernistic designer’s principles and their pretense to universality? If we are to think of culture in democratic terms rather than elitist terms, to what extent are ventures into peripheral design actually a necessity? In what ways can we reconsider the professional designers' positioning towards their preferences and audiences and invalidate the dichotomy between their almost imperialistic standpoint and what they would call visual junk or naïve and rural productions? Are products created outside of the center's dictates really less progressive or creative? And should current pedagogical approaches, as formalist as they may seem, not called into question, because they are meant to safeguard the center's hegemonic position?

Graphic designers (but not only) from Central European countries meet every year at the conference aiming at group exchange of professional experiences and building of the field identity following the message of the guild, field groups, associations and traditions. These institutions protected professions in history and builded healthy working environment. On the one hand they gave correct working conditions and appropriate financial assessment for their members and on the other hand they guaranteed appropriate quality for the market. Within new conditions of contemporary life these structures exists, but they are mostly focussed on presenting and advertising the field itself and they don't solve the very specific problems of the graphic designer in reality. Our ambition is not to substitute the traditional institutions, but to build a dynamic platform for permanent discussion and consulting, higher information exchange, professionalism and working culture in our field.

Friday 22.10.2010
14:00 START!

14:00 - 15:00 Max Ryynanen – KEYNOTE SPEAKER (40 min lecture, 20 min discussion)

15:00 - 15:30 Ondrej Herec (20 min lecture 10 min discussion)

BREAK 30 min

16:00 - 16:30 Ewa Golebiowska (20 min lecture 10 min discussion)

16:30 - 17:00 Marek Brieška (20 min lecture 10 min discussion)
17:00 - Discussion "of the day"
21:00 PARTY

Saturday 23.10.2010
10:00 START!

10:00 - 11:00 Veronika Burian (40 min lecture, 20 min discussion)

BREAK 15 min
11:15 - 11:45 Petr Skála (20 min lecture 10 min discussion)
11:45 - 12:15 Johanna Bilak (20 min lecture 10 min discussion)

12:15 - Discussion "of the conference"

GOOD BYE KUPE6 FELLOWS

Light and easy but very friendly evening together. Dancing and drinking all night long. Just like every year. 21:00 START

Dj Bisley

Dj Bobsan

Dj Puppesh (obscure, hidden and dangerous)

Lady Gapa Karaoke Shoe (suprise at the midnight)

Date: 22nd - 23rd October, 2010
Place: Stanica, Zilina-Zariecie, Slovakia (cultural center)
Conference language: English
Participant fee: Students - 10 EUR / professionals - 20 EUR (price includes two days of lectures, ticket for party, welcome drink, goodbye drink)

Download MAP!

Very important notice: All participants make from this year their own reservation directly with the hotel or hostel they choose.

Hotel Holiday Inn
Sportová St. 2, 010 01 Zilina, phone: +421 41 5050 120,
e-mail: reservation@holidayinn-zilina.sk

Hotel Astoria ***
Narodna St, 1, 010 01 Zilina, phone: +421 41 5624 711-4, fax: +421 41 5623 173,
e-mail: recepcia@astoria-zilina.sk

Boutique Hotel Dubná Skala****
Hurbanova St. 345/8, 010 01 Zilina, phone: +421 41 507 9100, fax: +421 41 507 9101,
e-mail: hoteldubnaskala@doxx.sk

Hotel Slovakia Zilina
Nam. Ludovita Stura 2, 010 01 Zilina, www.hotelslovakiazilina.com/hotel-in-zilina.php

Hotel Galileo
Hlinska St. 25, 010 01 Zilina, www.hotelgalileo.sk, e-mail: info@hotelgalileo.sk

Pension Junior
Hlinska St. 8315/20A, 010 01 Zilina, phone: +421 41 700 23 67, +421 41 764 14 25, +421 41 764 14 25, mobile: +421 903 290 666, e-mail: penzionjunior@penzionjunior.sk, www.penzionjunior.sk

Pension Kamelia
Tajovskeho St. 1, Zilina, phone: +421 41 700 28 52 - 53, fax: +421 41 700 28 54

Hostel SOMO
Zavodska St. 9, 010 01 Zilina, phone: +421 41 763 30 06, mobile: +421 905 860 947, +421 960 442 470, e-mail: zilina@somo.sk, web: www.somo.sk

KOMPAS
Vojtecha Spanyola St. 37, 010 01 Zilina. mobile: +421 918 481 319, +421 911 723 453,
e-mail: ubytovanie@tckompas.sk, web: www.kompascafe.wordpress.com

Hostel Stavbar
Bratislavska St. 2, 010 01 Zilina. phone: +421 41 5621 263, fax: +421 41 5625 964.

Train

Kosice - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Kosice - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Bratislava - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Bratislava - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Praha - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Praha - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Kraków - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Ostrava - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Ostrava - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Cesky Tesin - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Cesky Tesin - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Bus

Brno - Zilina 21. 10. 2010

Brno - Zilina 22. 10. 2010

Air transportation: Praha - Zilina (regular connection) www.csa.cz

Traveling around

What was Kupé5 about? "Competition and Competitivenes" 2009
On the practical level, competition is a tool, an instrument in the hands of the client or sponsor. Competition allows the client to select the best of a number of proposed solutions to his demand. For the graphical designer, competition is a developmental pathway through which he improves his professional, economic and social status. Competitiveness and rivalry in the field of graphical design are not constrained to business only...
Kupé5

What was Kupé4 about? "Nation -- Design -- State" 2008
Is there still any reason to talk about national design? Haven’t been national schools (such as polish, dutch, swiss…) flushed-down by the synchronised aesthetics already? Can we consider every design national according to its place of origin or the designers nationality? If we talk about national design can we simultaneously use the term state design? What is the difference between design used by the state for inwards and outwards communication? Does the quality of state design relate to the quality of the culture of state or nation?
Kupé4

What was Kupé3 about? "KAP vs. SOC" (Commercial vs. Social Design) 2007
The aim of the third conference was to discuss the relationship between commercial and social design. Commercial and social design seems to be in different categories of graphic Designer's work. In both areas they solve economical and ethical aspects of their both design fields. They coexist and supplement and penetrate each other. In this synergy they co-create visual culture in our countries.
Kupé3

What Kupé2 was about? "Exposition of graphic design" 2006
The topic of the second conference was to find an elementary definition of the term: "graphic design". The term "graphic design" has, here in Slovakia but also in whole Central European region, a lot of unclear interpretations and associations.
Kupé2

What Kupé1 was about? "Self-defense of graphic designer" 2005
The first conference was focused on "The Self-Defense of the Graphic Designer" and we discussed and tried to find the possibilities of communication and methods of work with public and commercial institutions, NGOs, freelance work for advertisement agencies, personal projects in our own country and countries of CE.

+421 904 366 772 (Janka)