- Tampere seizes creative economy

NEWS
The Trescape service depicts a street view from
decades ago on a mobile phone.
MOBILE SERVICES
for congress guests
Mobile phone content services for use by
visitors are under development in Tampere.
One particular target group comprises the
approximately 5,000 conference and congress
guests who visit Tampere during the year’s
busiest season in summer. Mobile multimedia
services are being piloted during this autumn’s
congresses.
“The mobile services are divided into
three sections. The mobile web pages
contain congress information and additional
materials. The Navitres tourist guide facilitates
orientation in the city, and the third section,
Trescape, presents Tampere’s cultural
heritage,” describes Project Manager Minna
Ilmén from the company developing the
service, Media Tampere Ltd.
Navitres assists congress guests with
their leisure time activities by providing
information on current events, sights, dining,
accommodation and shopping locations as well
as opening hours and addresses in Tampere
and its neighbouring municipalities.
Trescape a window into history
The Trescape mobile service presents
Tampere’s cultural heritage in Finnish and
English with a portrayal of how the cityscape
has changed over the decades.
“Tampere’s city centre has been divided
into four zones in the mobile site. Each zone
has walking routes marked where visitors can
use their mobile phones to check what the
place looked like perhaps a hundred years
ago,” Minna Ilmén explains.
Trescape has been developed in
cooperation with Museum Centre Vapriikki,
which converts old photo archives into digital
format.
Photo: Media Tampere
“T
his is one of my
favourites, perhaps
the festival’s keynote
presentation,” notes Ulrich
Haas-Pursiainen, project
manager of Backlight 2005, the
7th International Photography
Triennial in Tampere. He is
looking at a work entitled Images
of Alzheimer’s by the young
German Peter Granser.
“I just read in the paper
how Alzheimer’s is becoming a
national disease among Finns.
But the issue concerns people
everywhere; we all get old.
It’s high time we focused our
attention on it.”
Haas-Pursiainen has many
other favourites during the
festival this autumn, and he
estimates that all in all the
triennial has brought together
a high-standard group of
participants.
“We received applications
from a total of 500 artists,
enormously good material. The
volume is considerable and it
shows that Backlight is taken
seriously.”
An estimated 600 to a
thousand photographs by 50
international and 10 Finnish
photo artists were selected
for review. The festival will
extend beyond its home base,
the Nykyaika Photographic
Centre at Finlayson, to Tampere
Art Museum, Museum Centre
Vapriikki and the Sara Hildén
Art Museum as well as smaller
galleries.
Documentary photography
The history of the photography
triennial goes back to 1987 when
the fi rst exhibition presented
works mainly by Finnish
photographers. Since 1995, more
and more international artists
have been invited to participate
in order to portray a cross section
of European photographic art.
The festival has been organized
under the Backlight name since
1999.
“One of the ideas of
Backlight is to follow the
documentary line of photography
as well as the times. It is arranged
every three years so that it
BAC
sheds light
is possible to see how things
change and how the perception
of documentary photography
changes too,” Haas-Pursiainen
says.
Another of Backlight’s
schemes is to provide a theme for
the exhibition.
“The theme is very open, the
kind that allows photographers to
present their own interpretations.
In 1999 the theme was
Documents and Identities, in
2002 Critical Authenticity. This
year’s theme is Untouchable
Things.”
Backlight’s primus motor
is the Photographic Centre
Nykyaika, but many museums
and educational establishments
in Tampere also participate in
the cooperation. International
partners represent Italy,
Luxemburg, France, Lithuania
24 Tampere Business • Science • Life