PARASENSE: Is a nimble proactive Helsinki based consultancy and production company founded by Marko Tandefelt, concentrating on a wide spectrum of challenging multi-disciplinary projects within immersive, interactive and multisensory experience design, public art, new user interface concept design, novel forms of cinema, realtime performative systems and sensorbased prototyping, among other areas.
Parasense´s clients include: media artists, galleries, museums, cultural organizations, production companies, municipal and government agencies, design & service design companies and tech startups, among others. Parasense´s projects since the company´s inception in 2020 can be found in the main WWW page.
In its projects and collaborations in areas of art, design, media, architecture, urbanism and culture, Parasense considers carefully and consciously its approach, role and responsibility on complex matters pertaining to: Systems thinking and mindfulness relating to art, design and new digital technologies, A.I./machine learning, techno-determinism, cognitive biases and assumptions, sustainability and ecological impacts, and overall, our joint collective role in shaping of our interconnected lives and future together.
Parasense has been granted the Finnish Vastuu Group´s Reliable Partner (Luotettava Kumppani) rating and the Valtti card (Valttikortti), an electronic ID that complies with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, serving as an access pass to construction sites or shipyard areas. Each Valtti card contains all the information that is required by the Occupational Safety and Health Act: the holder’s photograph, name, tax number, and employer details. Parasense is a member of the Metaverse Standards Forum.
MARKO TANDEFELT:
Marko is a U.S. and Finnish dual citizen, with 20+ years spent in New York. After his NYU studies, he 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.
Between 2001-2016 Marko taught Masters level Physical Computing and Thesis Studio courses at Parsons The New School for Design MFA Design Technology program, guiding 500+ students on 1000+ projects. 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 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. Participants included top design students from Columbia University, RISD, Parsons School of Design, Pratt and NYU ITP.
Before returning 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 AI Research Center. Issues relating to technology, the role of A.I. and related impact on human mind, self awareness and emotions, as well as employment, diversity and equality are among major interests and concerns of Marko.
Among his other core interests are vibrotactile instruments, music/sound therapy and immersive storytelling, including XR: (VR/AR/MR). 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 and sub-low frequencies and their impact on the body, nervous system, mind and overall health. He has built musical instruments, electric and synth MIDI basses, pickups, musical gloves, sensor-based instruments and collaborative waterbased connected embodied 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 own studio is based in the 1952 Olympic Village in Käpylä district in Helsinki, Finland.
Marko has worked widely 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).
In Finland, among other things, Marko has worked as a Masters Thesis advisor and reader/critic at Aalto University Medialab´s Sound in New Media Masters Program and as a Mentor at Metropolia XR Center in multiple projects (Love Simulator, Birth of a Bird, Parallel Universities among others). He has guest-lectured for Aalto University, Metropolia, Haaga-Helia 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.
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.
MARKO TANDEFELT CV 2024: