team

Principal investigator

Dr. Pia Tikka, Adjunct Professor of New Narrative Media, is the principal investigator of NeuroCine research project. Currently she holds position as Director in Crucible Studio, Department of Media, Aalto University.

Since 2003, in the field of new narrative media, she has led her research group of Enactive Cinema, and a founding member of the research project Enactive Media (2009-2011), Aalto University Finland. As the inventor of a biosensor-based interactive (enactive) media format, she has been awarded with Möbius Prix Nordic prize of interactive storytelling with her Enactive Cinema project Obsession (2005). The project premiered in the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki) 2005 and internationally in ISEA 2006 & Zero One (San Jose, CA). Pia Tikka has authored the book Enactive Cinema: Simulatorium Eisensteinense (2008). She is co-author of interactive film-game Third Woman, which has been shown in Thessaloniki Biennale (2009), Digital Art Weeks in the Great Hall Xian Academy of Fine Arts (2010), and Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY (2011). Pia Tikka is the CEO of production company Oblomovies, Finland. She has written and directed feature films the Daughters of Yemanjá (Brazil-Finland 1996), Sand Bride (Finland 1998), and the Maiden of Dusk (in development), and gained expertise as a creative team member in a range of international film productions. Currently enactive cinema team is developing an interactive humanlike virtual screen character, Enactive Avatar.

In the field of naturalistic neurosciences, she has acted as a core member of the directory group of neuroscience research project aivoAALTO at the Aalto University (2010-2014). Her research in neurocinematics is focusing on studying the neural basis of storytelling and creative imagination. She has contributed to the neuroeconomics as a member of the advisory board in NeuroService research project at the Laurea University of Applied Sciences, funded by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (2014–2015). She is a Fellow of Life in the Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image. Currently, her research team NeuroCine applies neuroimaging methods to study the neural basis of narrative cognition. See publications at neurocine.net

See Curriculum vitae and more about Cinema.

Associated artists and researchers

Synes Elischka, M.A. studied Media Arts at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Media Art, Prof. Bernhard Leitner and Prof. Erwin Wurm 2002 – 2008. He is also educated as a Lighting Technician at Dopplinger, Vienna (2004) and studied at ENERC and IUNA in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005 – 2006). Currently he conducts doctoral research on "Immersion in Film: Toward an empiric basis of audience engagement" at the Film, Television and Scenography, Aalto School of ARTS. He has directed an innovative VR 360° cinema shortfilm EgoCure designed for head-mounted displays, and is currently running Virtual Cinema Lab at the Department of Film, Aalto University.

Jelena Rosic, M.A. graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy (Artistic Research in Film) and from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, Belgrade (Film Editing). She has studied film as mediated form of intersubjectivity. Since 2012, Jelena has been working with NeuroCine (Rosic J. & Tikka P. 2013. Annotation of film content for a neurocinematic analysis: Implications for embodied approaches to filmmaking, SCSMI 2013) . During this time she has also conducted research on Neuroaesthetics of Film at the University of Amsterdam. Her recent editing work, a feature film Humidity, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale 2016). Jelena is currently working on her doctoral thesis Enactive Storytelling with NeuroCine group at the Crucible Studio, Department of Media, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Helsinki. She draws from embodied mind approach, enactive cognitive sciences and neurophenomenology in order to unravel the embodied basis of narrative practice.

2010 - on-going

Working with the enactive avatar demo and enactive feature film

VFX supervisor Peter Hjorth, on-going

s3D CinematographyJari Mutikainen, on-going

Animator Miika Puustinen, 2012

Animation assistent Juha Koppström, 2012

Unity coding Mikael Matveinen, 2012

Unity coding Tommi Horttana, 2012

See other info at the menu enactive avatar and enactive feature film

Obsession enactive cinema installation

Premiered in the Museum of Contemporary Arts Kiasma Helsinki 2005

Software architect Rasmus Vuori

Sensor designer Joonas Juutilainen

See other team members at the menu obsession enactive installation credits

Enactive cinema installation Obsession is ready to travel

Contact pia.tikka@gmail.com