VIULIFE projects stimulate the creativity of students
Document Actions
The goal of the VIULIFE projects is to stimulate the creativity of students and to help them understand Venice as a creative and contemporary city, while encouraging integration among students of the member universities. The creative projects are an excellent opportunity for university students to take part in an original and stimulating creative experience.
The Spring 2007 semester concluded on June 1 with an exhibition of the final projects of the Nokia Only Planet Workshop: Innovating through Empathy. The workshop was part of the extra curricular VIULIFE program which gives students the opportunity to participate in creative projects while studying at VIU.
During the Fall 2007 VIULIFE creative project students will produce short videos that explore Venice and the islands of the Venetian Lagoon as Islands of Creativity.
Only Planet is Nokia Design's international student program. The goal for the program is to provide Nokia and design students information about local visual culture. Students observe and document lifestyles, social interactions, attitudes, expressions, values, tastes, and desires that may not exist in any other country or region. The idea is that by identifying certain signs, visible and invisible, it is possible to understand where they came from and how they could be expressed in product design.
There were a few elements that made the VIU Only Planet workshop stand out from the other Only Planet projects around the world. First of all, it used an international artist to lead the workshop, Tina Gonsalves, a Australian artist now residing in London, making great use of technology in her work. Secondly, it used a cross-disciplinary approach as the students were not art or design students. They were psychology, marketing, economics, art history, linguistics students, etc.). Thirdly, it started from a collaborative approach, merging students from across the globe together.During the Fall 2007 VIULIFE creative project students will produce short videos that explore Venice and the islands of the Venetian Lagoon as Islands of Creativity.
Only Planet is Nokia Design's international student program. The goal for the program is to provide Nokia and design students information about local visual culture. Students observe and document lifestyles, social interactions, attitudes, expressions, values, tastes, and desires that may not exist in any other country or region. The idea is that by identifying certain signs, visible and invisible, it is possible to understand where they came from and how they could be expressed in product design.
"For Nokia, these students were a diverse selection of 'users' of their products. This was an invaluable opportunity to observe how the students make sense of mobile technologies personally and creatively and how they imaginatively see mobile technologies working for them in the future. For myself, it was a great opportunity to promote the importance of creativity in the student's lives. A small door to creativity was opened - they learned to look at the world through a visual lens, to make sense of it through colour, shape, pacing, framing, narrative and sound. They learnt the importance of failure, reflection, observation and experimentation to lead to great and touching ideas. They learnt how mobile technology can be used a creative tool. For VIU, the university explored how important creativity is in research." (Tina Gonsalves)
Students created short films using mobile phones to both shoot and edit. After the initial phase which pushed the students to rely on their instinct, the students began to discover their own styles. They quickly became more aesthetically aware and creatively confident to explore.
The final projects were presented on June 1, 2007 to the 100 students of the Semester Program and were received exceptionally well. The winning group was group 2: Robert Hannig (LMU), Angela Kirschbaum (LMU), Filippo Minelli (Ca' Foscari), Sarah Bähre (Iuav exchange), Saki Miyoshi (Waseda). Filippo Minelli and Robert Hannig, were selected to participate in the Only Planet conference which will be held in Helsinki later this year.
