2. INDEX
2 ! Curriculum Vitae & The Study Plan
4! Theoretical Article - An Extract from the Bachelor Thesis
This is an extract from my Bacherol Thesis made in Spring 2010 in University of Turku for the
School of History, Culture and Arts. The original is written in Finnish, however here is a
translated version of it. To keep it closer to 1000 words I have included the opening pages,
including the index of the thesis and as a written academic example the conclusion part “Big
Pictures and Future Prospects”. The thesis examined the field of digital historical audiovisual
games, here a first-person shooter WWII game “Medal of Honor”, how they are used as
representations of history and as to educate players to a certain way of thinking about history.
8! A Letter to the Theaterszene Köln - Explaining the Design Strategy and Content of
! the Theatre Play “Mikset tänä iltana mene Ylioppilasteatteriin?”, Directed and
! Visualized by the Applicant!
! ! Most of my main artistic, visual and educative contributions come from the field of theatre. I
was an active member of Student Theatre of Helsinki from 2003 until 2009. I consider my
main work an experimental play called “Mikset tänä iltana mene Ylioppilasteatteriin?”,
which combined elements of history, arts, improvisation, visual theatre, religion, sports and
warfare. I co-directed and designed the play from the script to the visualisation, sound,
esthetics and role modelling together with a long-time friend and collegue, Juhani Haukka on
spring 2009. We experimented with a lot of visualizing methods in the field of theatre and
collaborated with several top Finnish academics in order to create a truly interactive and
innovative cooperation between arts and science. Another motto was an effective and
experimental use of technology and new media in the process of making the play.
This example is a shortened application letter in English sent in March 2010 to the Köln
Theaterszene, an experimental European theatre festival. The application letter was made in
order to shortly describe the character of the play and the process of making it. It is shortened to
the half to stay closer to 1000 words. I added also images of the play to give a better insight
about the visual looks of the play.
11 ! Web Link References to Audio & Visual Project Works
A link to my Apple rehearsal web site, packed with audiovisual project rehearsals, including
music, short historical narratives and images. Also another link to the website of the theatre play
discussed in the earlier chapter.
12! Recommendations
Two recommendation letters by my supervisors in the University of Turku. One from my Master
Thesis supervisor, Dr. Janne Tunturi, in my main subject General History in the School of
History, Culture and Arts. Another one is from a secondary subject supervisor, Dr. Merja
Pentikäinen, the professor of International Law, with whom I have also cooperated.
3. CURRICULUM VITAE
LAURI TAMMI
20.03.1985 (Helsinki)
Pispalantie 20 A 334
20540 Turku
+358 50 3727085
tammi.finland@gmail.com
EDUCATION
Academic:
*Master's Degree Program in Humanities and Social Sciences (Turku University, 250 credits):
[Advanced: General History. Intermediate: Contemporary History. Basic: Political Science,
Sociology, East Asian Studies. Other: Philosophy, Law, Cultural & Finnish History]
*Student from Mäkelänrinne Sports High School, 2004; [Finnish (E), Swedish (E), History (L),
English (M), French (C), Mathematics (C), Spanish (M), Italian (C). Grants: Exceptional historical
competence; exceptional creativity and talent; international activity and creator of team spirit.]
Arts:
Student Theatre of Helsinki (STH); Member since 2003, active period 2003-2009
Basic education for acting, drama, oral and physical expressing, dance and music
Advanced education: Improvisation, audiovisual elements, directing.
Actor in various plays in 2003-2007
Final work, directing, "Mikset tänä iltana mene Ylioppilasteatteriin" (spring 2009)
Other:
Extensive Cabin Crew Training Course for Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (2005)
Education for Finnish Military Peacekeeping Operations (2006)
Nato Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Reconnaissance Agent (2006)
PROFESSIONAL WORKING EXPERIENCE
Airplane Steward for Ryanair, Shannon Airport, Ireland (2005, 3 months)
Sports Journalist and Commentator for Canal+ Finland (2006-07 & 2009-2010, 1 year)
Officer Trainee at the Protocol Dep. for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (2007, 3 months)
Eurovision program host for DinaTV and YleX, live broadcast hosting for Eurovision Song Contest
2007 in Helsinki (1 month, 2007)
EOD Reconnaissance Agent (Corporal), and Finnish Bureau NCO for EU Military Operation in
Tchad/RCA (2008, 11 months)
Theatre Director and Writer, "Mikset"-production at the STH (2009, 5 months)
LANGUAGE SKILLS
Finnish (maternal); English (excellent); Swedish, French (fluent); Spanish (good); Italian
(satisfactory); Chinese, German (basic)
IT SKILLS
Wide variety of skills, fluent use of visualizing programs in education and work; especially Apple
iWorks and Microsoft Office; experience from own web pages, blogs and podcasts; daily use in
work and studies
PERSONAL
Marital status: In a relationship.!
Hobbies: Theatre, football, music, writing, travelling.!
4. THE STUDY PLAN ! ! !
Lauri Tammi! ! ! ! !
ePedagogy Design!! ! !
- Visual Knowledge Building! !
University of Arts and Design (Aalto)!
I"m looking forward to this study program and the opportunities it could give to my internal
development and to my academic and artistic abilities. I believe I could also give a lot in return to
the program itself and the people and projects around it.
I have a deep knowledge in humanities. I will graduate from the University
of Turku on summer 2011. However I believe one needs also skills
and tools - the information and knowledge are not enough.
In this study program I believe I could direct my education and
career plans to the direction, which truly interests me and which would
help me in the future. I am hoping I could combine my historical and social
knowledge with an interesting visual presentation skills. I am also highly interested in
developing new learning and educative tools. The skills I could get from this program are the
m e d i a a n d visualization skills. Different visualization techniques and the construction
of interactive narratives stand high in my motives. These sort of courses I could
combine into my study program from the ePedagogy Design and also from the
secondary subjects in Aalto University.
I a m v e r y much interested to achieve theoretical and practical pedagogical skills
f o r m y f u t u r e career directions, but also as to develop myself as a person. Only in TAIK
you can combine them smoothly with the practice of interactive new media tools. That is why this
program and study environment, with its varying modules, suit my interests and career prospects
much better than the conservative, less international and less innovative, traditional university
history or pedagogy education.
I have a dream that one day I could be holding colourful educative presentations in the
public institutions, in the private sector, or in the different virtual environments,
dazzling with their ability to use visual knowledge building. I already have a
strong academic basis for that through my Master"s program in humanities
and social science. And with my artistic and theatre background and creative
character I have experience in the use of audiovisual and emotional
elements in educational and visual narratives. What I need is
to deepen these skills to divert this e x p e r i e n c e a n d
enthusiasm into the field of new media. I believe that our
societies needs more visually oriented experts with
pedagogical skills in this field. I have huge interest and motivation for this
purpose.
My academic background and the experience in visual arts give me good basis to
operate as a creative and able member in this study program. And my future plans arouse
a deep motivation to profoundly study a varying field of different courses and modules in this
program and in the Aalto University"s other areas. Most importantly I would think that, besides
pedagogy, ePedagogy, international exchanges and understanding of virtual realities, the courses
on interactive narratives and visualization techniques would be excellent for this purpose and give
to me a great addition to the primary studies of the program.
5. Prepare for your finest hour!
THE DIGITAL VIDEO GAME “MEDAL OF HONOR” AS A
! HISTORICAL NARRATIVE, VISUAL ENTERTAINMENT CULTURE
! AND A TOOL OF INDOCTRINATION
Lauri Tammi, 75983
Bachelor Thesis
16.2.2010
General History
School of History, Culture
and Arts
University of Turku
6. 1. THE BEGINNING SHOT! ! ! ! ! ! ! 2
2. THE MEDAL OF HONOR AS A VIDEO GAME! ! ! ! 6
2.1. The Medal of Honor as a cinematic World War II heroism game! 6
! 2.2. The Medal of Honor in the field of digital entertainment games ! 7
3. AMERICANS AND GERMANS IN THE MEDAL OF HONOR! ! 9
! 3.1. The Americans: Human and honorable freedom fighters! ! 9
! 3.2. The Germans: Immoral monsters and destroyers of the culture 11
! 3.3. Analyzing and interpreting the German imagery! ! 14
4. HISTORIOPHILOSOPHICAL VIEWPOINT OF THE FRENCH OF
THE MEDAL OF HONOR!! ! ! ! ! ! ! 17
4.1. Libération – The liberation of the French in the end of the
World War II ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 17
4.2. Historiographical viewpoint to the relations between the Americans
and the French! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 18
! 4.3. The French portrayed as an image of the popular culture of the era 20
!
5. THE MEDAL OF HONOR IN THE CULTURE OF DIGITAL
HISTORICAL GAMES! ! ! ! ! ! ! 22
5.1. Propaganda and The Medal of Honor! ! ! ! ! 22
5.2. Contrafactuality and anachronism in the digital history culture ! 23
! ! ! ! !
6. BIG PICTURES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS! ! ! 25
SOURCES! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 28
7. 6. BIG PICTURES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
Medal of Honor reflects as a historical image as much the time, when it was created in the turn of
2000s, as the time it wishes to describe. The game succeeds masterfully in creating the atmosphere
of The Second World War and an illusionary feeling of participating the battle. Gameplay offers a
grand audiovisual experience where the player can imagine really simulating the events of the
Second World War. Framework for the game, music, movement, costumes, weapons, shouts, and
landscapes are all carefully constructed, in a professional and highly accurate manner. Game
content and the way to describe the post-D-Day events reflect, however, much more the views of
the modern game-makers than the real soldiers of the era. It would be a tempting to even call the
game as careful propaganda, created by the developed information society, where single players and
larger social groups are influenced through emotional experiences. The fictional image of the game
is either unintentional anachronism, or a deliberate effort to influence and indoctrinate. In any case,
the Medal of Honor franchise has helped to push into people's minds a more effective image of the
Second World War as the legitimate struggle and a moral victory. We may also wonder how much
this has helped to further strengthen the post-Second World War world system and the cultural
"americanization" of the world, which hand in hand have convinced us about the superiority of the
Anglo-American worldview and accept its current hegemony position. We lived through the turn of
the 2000s - and to some extent even today - in a post-World War II world, where the new world
order reigned; and after the end of the Cold War in an even more unipolarly Anglo-American. This
is also reflected in the game and the movie industry, where the point of views unconsciously, or
perhaps even deliberately replicate to our culture an Anglo-American liberal-democratic worldview.
But what happens at the point where our current system will, even according to the researchers,
quite possibly start to get discharged and the balance of power transform into its new direction?1
For example, if China rises to the level of the U.S. and possibly even further as the world's leading
centre of power, how will it affect not only our culture, but also our perceptions of history? Shall
1 1 Check i.e. EVA’s global scenarios. The Gamefields of Tomorrow 2009.
8. our grandchildren play their digital games at the real 3D-virtual world, where the language of the
game is no more English, but Mandarin, or perhaps their some sort of combined mashup-language?
Will their scenes of adventure locate somewhere in the worlds of Han, Tang or Ming Dynasties,
where you need to combine an own way of waging war? And could this include the classic art of
war based on deception by Sunzi and Wuzi, in order to defeat the perceived evil and immoral
adversaries of that era? It seems that the age-old fact of historical writing as the narrative of victor’s
history stays equally when turned from the classical tools of historical presentation to the
audiovisual virtual 3D reality. Also there is little space for the views questioning the current system
of power. This point may, though also grow more complex in the future with the broader
development of social media. However in this case whether it be the French or German point of
view of the Medal of Honor game, Charles de Gaulle's speeches, researches of Antony BEEVOR,
Jaakko SUOMINEN or the CHRISTOFFERSSONs, the fact is that all of them reflect primarily
their own time and have to be carefully treated as such.
Further study areas of the subject could be focused either to the broader gaming and movie
comparison and analyzing them as the potential tools of indoctrination and propaganda. Further
more, the views examined in this study about the first Medal of Honor game, could be extended to
the entire game series over the last decade. Will the views and attitudes change when the time
passes on? The theme becomes particularly interesting, when you consider that the newest version
of the game, appearing in the autumn of 2010, will deal with the present war in Afghanistan. The
game makers have, therefore, for the first time, decoupled from the Second World War context.
What might be the reasons behind these decisions? Conscious move from the historical past to the
present may indeed be a well-motivated effort by the game makers to keep Electronic Arts
competitive for the markets by reacting to the trends of time. In the background might though also
lie deeper and grayer political motives, which would certainly be more interesting to have further
examined in the following researches.
But perhaps most importantly we should understand that the study of digital culture is a young
phenomenon, and that we need to start the process of carefully examining how far the traditional
written presentation will take us in the future. When examining the print media, we are getting well
along with the means of the printed text. But when examining the digital culture, video games,
cinema and all other audiovisual material, we should carefully ponder, whether the presenting ways
of historical research should be developed from the print-based presentation toward a more diverse
and more audiovisual and interactive expression. This could serve not only the presentation of
digital culture, but also even broader audiences and future generations, who are constantly - in their
environments - becoming more accustomed to the handling and reading of electronic and
audiovisual material instead of the traditional print media.
12. Web Link References
1 The Roots Of An Oak Tree
My Apple Media Playground, packed with audiovisual project rehearsals, including music, short
historical narratives and images.
http://web.mac.com/lorenzetti10/iWeb/TheRootsOfAnOakTree/
This is an area, which interest me hugely and I believe I have good vision and potential for this.
Besides from the audiovisual projects at the theatre I have started to learn the tools of visualizing
thoughts and narratives also in the field of new media. The main tools in this purpose have been
Apple applications and some of the rehearsal projects, which are visible on this web site.
Including e.g.:
- An Apple iMovie Rehearsal on Aksel Airo, Sunzi and the Winter War 1939-40
(http://web.mac.com/lorenzetti10/iWeb/TheRootsOfAnOakTree/Military%20%26%20Politics.html)
- A Video Speech about History, Sociology, “Muscular Bonding” and Present Challenges of Social
Interaction (in Finnish)
(http://web.mac.com/lorenzetti10/iWeb/TheRootsOfAnOakTree/Podcast/CDC772FC-
C4B1-4A20-87E5-F270E09F1D25.html)
- An Audiovisual Music Remix Experiment with Own Singing and Playing, Made on Apple
Garageband
(http://web.mac.com/lorenzetti10/iWeb/TheRootsOfAnOakTree/Podcast/90B46391-62F1-484C-
B274-B6E2377DE30F.html)
2 !Mikset tänä iltana mene Ylioppilasteatteriin?"
Images and design strategies about the theatre play discussed earlier in previous chapters. The
site is in Finnish, but the images and visual setting should give some flavour also to a non-Finnish
viewer. The site was put together by the co-director Juhani Haukka, however it was designed and
planned in cooperation. The site also shows much of the way and the process how the play was
made and performed.
www.mixet.org
Direct links to the images:
- The process: http://www.mixet.org/Valokuvat/Sivut/Prosessi.html
- Creative sessions with the visiting academics: http://www.mixet.org/Valokuvat/Sivut/
Luovat_sessiot.html
- Press photos: http://www.mixet.org/Valokuvat/Sivut/Pressikuvat.html