Exhibitions

2021

Noita – The Long Journey of an Idea

I co-curated an exhibition on the development of Finnish rogue-like game Noita. I also worked on the illustrations adapting the original pixel art to stylized infographics, vector art style. The exhibition was originally presented at the Studio space at The Finnish Museum of Games from 4th September to 12th December 2021, but is now also available for other venues to borrow. The mobile version differs slightly from the original version (instead of foam boards, it is printed on roll-ups and provided in Finnish and in English). This exhibition was a full research project: together with the team (Riina Ojanen & Niklas Nylund) we collected various types of data in the process of uncovering how the ideas have transformed within this Finnish indie game project by Nolla Games. The exhibition process was also streamed via Twitch to engage the community of players and content creators around Noita.

2019

Games, Art and Science

I Curated an exhibition of five games for Aalto University. The games were exhibited at the Helsinki Central Library Oodi from 20th September to 29th September with average daily visitors of 500. All game pieces in the exhibition were somehow tied to arts, science or intersection of those two. Two of the pieces were science-fiction games created by Aalto University game design and production masters’ students and two of the pieces were connected to quantum physics – one citizen science game prototype and one to illustrate the concept of superposition. Two of the pieces were presenting DIY hardware art showcasing visitors a trend in game art that is not widely known.

2018

Quantum Garden

Organized a one-piece game exhibition at Aalto University campus shopping center A Bloc, 16th November – 14th December 2018. Quantum Garden is a citizen science game art piece designed by Robin Baumgarten in collaboration with a scientific team (Aalto University & University of Turku) lead by Professor Sabrina Maniscalco. The piece is an adaption of Baumgarten’s previous work Wobble Garden. The stand (my design) was specially designed for Quantum Garden A Bloc exhibition. Quantum Garden has been touring later in different locations in Finland (for instance at Heureka Science Center) and also in USA (MARS conference) and Brazil (Itau Cultural).

Minun Pelihistoriani (My Game History)

Co-lead with Jaakko Stenros a second group of 13 students from the University of Tampere to form narratives of their game and play histories. The exhibition was continuation of the previous exhibition of the same name and were later combined into one traveling exhibition by The Finnish Museum of Games. The exhibition material was also turned into a book (in Finnish): http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-0656-4

2017

Line Wobbler in a Beer Tram – A Pop-up Game Exhibition

Organized a two-hour pop-up exhibition in a beer tram in Helsinki, 14th November 2017.  A special tram with a bar was rented for a two-hour ride around Helsinki city center presenting Robin Baumgarten’s Line Wobbler – first time in Finland. The exhibition also contained light art from a Finnish indie game developer Olli Harjola and music from the band From Grotto consisting of several game musicians playing classical instruments as well as GameBoys. Watch the mini-documentary of the exhibition below:

Minun Pelihistoriani (My Game History)

Co-lead with Jaakko Stenros a group of 13 students from the University of Tampere to form narratives of their own, very diverse and rich, game and play histories. The exhibition was the first temporary exhibition of The Finnish Museum of Games at the Museum centre Vapriikki, Tampere Finland 10.1.-1.3.2017. The exhibition material is available for a loan to events and other museums.

2016

The Finnish Museum of Games

Participated to the committee work of the Finnish Museum of Games. The narrative, collection of games, emphasis and the visuals were discussed in the tight collaboration of seven committee members from museum, University of Tampere (me), game collectors, game journalisim and demoscene. The Finnish Museum of Games was partially crowd-funded and opened it doors to funders on December 2016. The museum opened for wider public in the January 2016.

2012

Finnish Games Then and Now – The Praised, The Loved, The Frowned-upon and The Forgotten

Leading a group of students and volunteers to build a pop-up exhibition on the long history of Finnish games all the way from 1918 to 2012. The exhibition was open for six days at the Rupriikki Media Museum and gathered over 1000 visitors around the Finland and the Globe. The exhibition was also turned into a book (both Finnish and English versions).