PARASENSE is a Helsinki based interactive multisensory AV design company and consultancy working on a wide spectrum of challenging projects between disciplines.
Among Marko´s core interests are: New user interface concept design, sensorbased prototyping, immersive interactive multisensory cinema, realtime performative electronic music interfaces, experimental visualization systems, crowdsourcing, co-design, and sustainable electric transportation systems.
WORK IN HELSINKI, FINLAND: Marko´s clients include: artists, galleries, museums, production companies, cultural organizations, design/service design companies, tech startups and construction companies, among others.
In Helsinki Finland, Marko has been working on a wide range of projects within many overlapping domains and disciplines.
Marko´s latest own projects are: A novel realtime interactive 3D camera concept “Para-Cam”, with AVEK Creademo funding; diip: vibrotactile collective bodily instrument, developed together with Jani Hietanen, presented at central library Oodi in Helsinki in October 2020 (diip.parasense.fi); leading to development of Tabula Rasa, a multisensory vibrotactile room for the Finnish Autism Foundation, together with Jani Hietanen, Jyväskylä University´s Music Therapy Program´s Esa Ala-Ruona and Puredesign´s Esa Vesmanen, with grant funding by Taike and Finnish Cultural Foundation. Marko and Jani have also worked on an urban spatial mobile 3D sound experience “Audiowalk”, with Taike funding as well as on “Selfie”, together with AI artist Hannu Töyrylä and media artist Tatu Heinämäki. Marko is currently working on an unannounced large scale public art project slated to be presented in 2023 in Helsinki, and on an interactive museum experience for a large museum.
Marko has worked as an AV/Interaction technology consultant for the Finnish Forest Ministry and Artlab on the Nature´s Concert Hall biodiversity concert, with Apocalyptica´s founding member, cellist and haldorophonist Max Lilja and Ringa Manner (Ruusut/The Hearing), as well as creative technologist, sound designer and visualist Jani Hietanen et co from Artlab. Marko has also worked on motor programming with a wide range of finnish media artists such as Petri Eskelinen, Roberto Fusco, Helinä Hukkataival and Kaisu Koivisto & Anna Nykyri on realization of their camera based interactive installations.
Marko worked as a Technology Consultant and Producer for a realtime 3D Body scanning process/installation “Cosmetic Space” for media artist Hanna Haaslahti, programmed by Thomas Carlsson (currently at Varjo) and Marko’s ex. Parsons Design school masters student, Tyler Henry. The project has been chosen for development for Venice Film Festival´s Production Bridge track, as well as CPH:Lab at Copenhagen and Robert Redford´s Sundance Film Festival´s New Frontier. The installation has also been presented at the prestigious British Film Institute´s BFI London Film Festival, as well as at ZKM Karlsruhe.
Marko´s interface prototyping work has included a visual proto of a groundbreaking electric car charging system for Parkkisähkö OY. Prior to forming his own company, Marko has worked at an innovative Finnish Media Art/Interactive company Kunstventures as a creative technologist, producer, concept designer and prototyper. At Kunstventures, Marko has produced large scale public art installations for Luomus, Oodi, galleries, museums as well as the Internet.
In context of recent competition projects in Helsinki, Marko formed an international team with an ecological futuristic immersive project called Symbioscene which became a top three finalist among 200 international teams in the Finnish National Opera´s Opera Beyond competition in 2019. The team utilized collaborative future backcasting methods in context of school children, inspired by a possibility for a positive homeostatic balanced future, as well as the neologisms of the famed Australian sustainability professor Glenn Albrecht. In addition, Marko was a member of a design team which became a finalist in a Finnish competition for Venice biennale´s Alvar Aalto space in 2020.
Marko has also guided students as a Masters Thesis Advisor and reader/critic at Aalto University Medialab, Sound in New Media Masters Program, and has guest-lectured for Aalto, Metropolia and Uniarts (Sama program for students of Sibelius Academy, Fine Arts School Kuva and Theater School Teak), as well as at Tallinn University at Estonian VR meetup circles.
UNITED STATES: Marko is a dual U.S./Finnish citizen, with 20+ years spent in New York. After his NYU studies, Marko worked at the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York as an AV & Media Producer in a large scale touring international exhibition Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, as a Project Director and Curator of “SAUMA: Design As Cultural Interface” and “F2F: New Media Art from Finland” exhibitions. Marko also worked as an AV consultant for various Finnish design exhibitions during the NYC Design Week at the Meatpacking district between 2008 and 2010, such as Hardcore, Playful and Straightforward. In New York, Marko has worked for companies such as NEC R&D Labs, ESIDesign and Antennadesign/NYC MTA.
From 2001-2016 Marko taught Masters level Physical Computing and Thesis Studio courses at Parsons The New School for Design MFA Design Technology program. His students have won numerous leading international design/media and art awards, such as Ars Electronica Golden Nica, Red Dot, IF, AIGA, Adobe Web Design, Golden Web, Cologne Design Award, Nokia Mindtrek, Good Design Award, and Future Everything Award, to name a few.
During 2007-2015 Marko worked as the Director of Technology & Research/Senior Technology Manager at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center where he was in charge of practical and conceptual implementations of technology within wider creative processes, artist’s practice and exhibitions and research for the organization. Marko was also in charge of audiovisual and technical realization of large exhibitions such as: Source Code, Interference, ReGroup: Beyond Models of Consensus, Biorhythm, Surface Tension: Future of Water, Untethered, Tourists and Travelers, X-LAB, Feedback Ecovisualization exhibition and Postgravity Art Syntapiens to name a few (for more, see under “Exhibitions).
Among a few of his central projects at Eyebeam, Marko was involved in organizing an experimental 3 day hackathon on novel interactive multisensory immersive cinematic storytelling methods, New Cinema, together with the Creators Project/Intel/Vice Magazine. The event enabled the birth of a series of new collaborative projects by feature film directors, world’s leading creative coders and designers from Google, and 3D/SFX people from UK based company Framestore, behind visual effects for Harry Potter, Avatar, Children of Men and Gravity movies.
Relating to cinema, future, new human interface technologies and affective/emotional/mindful approaches to computing, Marko was asked to consult for a Microsoft team on the thematic and conceptual structuring of a large hackathon “Captivated by HER”, inspired Spike Jonze’s movie “HER”, its human centered design blends and atmosphere. The hackathon was organized by Microsoft in collaboration with Vice Magazine and Warner Brothers, taking place at Marko’s Alma Mater, NYU Tisch Film & TV School’s ITP Program.
Before moving back to his native Helsinki Finland in 2016, Marko was invited to the “Virtually Human: A Panel Discussion on the Future of Cognitive Machines”, a resonating small scale event on how human and non-human agents related, touching also on the Future Life Institute’s open letter on “Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence”, hosted by IBM Watson Research Center. Issues relating to technology, the role of A.I. and related impact on human mind and self awareness are among major interests and concerns of Marko.
Marko has worked as a jury member and a critic at Harvard Architecture School, Pasadena Art Center College for Design, Eyebeam, SIGGRAPH ASIA and Entertainment Computing Journal, and has been a member of the LMCC Board (Lower Manhattan Cultural Council).
PERSONAL PASSIONS: Marko thinks constructively and critically about: The future, income inequality, shifting nature of what work means, white savior complex, presence, mindfulness relating to uses of digital technology, sofalarity/complacency, art, architecture, design, media, urbanism, culture, open source hardware and software, new models of co-designing, sharing and co-ownership, future of cinema, music, nature/rural areas, techno determinism, cognitive biases we all have, the chasm, self fulfilling prophecies and the role of humans & our wider collective consciousness in shaping our lives, together. Vibrotactile instruments, music/sound therapy and immersive storytelling are among his core interests, including XR: (VR/AR/MR etc). In New York, he had the opportunity to be an sound studio assistant/re-builder for VR scientist Jaron Lanier, founder of the early commercial VR company VPL, known for its Body Electric software, EyePhone VR helmet and fiberoptic Datagloves.
Marko is very passionate about electronic music and especially low frequencies and their impact on the body and mind. He has built musical instruments, electric and synth MIDI basses, pickups, musical gloves, tilt/compass/sensor based instruments and collaborative waterbased connected body instruments. Marko has worked and recorded in NYC based recording studios, including Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode recording engineer and techno DJ Francois Kevorkian’s Axis. The latest band Marko has been playing synth bass in is Varick. He is currently constructing his own electronic music/immersive viz studio in the 1952 Olympic Village in Käpylä district in Helsinki, Finland. Marko´s latest large project in vibrotactile area is diip: vibrotactile collective bodily instrument, which is presented at central library Oodi in Helsinki in October 2020 (diip.parasense.fi)
ACADEMICS: Marko holds a B.M. degree Summa Cum Laude in Music Technology from NYU, and a Master’s degree from NYU Tisch School of the Arts Film & TV School Interactive Telecommunications Program ITP. He has been a longtime member of ACM, AES, IEEE, SIGGRAPH, SMPTE and SPIE, and a lifetime member of Pi Kappa Lambda, National Music Honor Society.
Parasense has the Finnish Vastuugroup´s Trusted Partner/Luotettava Kumppani rating and the Valttikortti card, required by the construction industry for site visits. Parasense is a member of the Metaverse Standards Forum.
MARKO TANDEFELT CV FINNISH
MARKO TANDEFELT CV ENGLISH