Mikko Myllykoski

Mikko Markus Myllykoski
Born December 25, 1963, Vammala

Bachelor of arts 1993, Master of Arts 1998 (general history), University of Helsinki
Doctoral student of art history 2012–, University of Helsinki

Experience Director 2002–, Heureka Science Centre
Head of design 1999–2002, senior designer 1994–99 and designer 1990–94, Heureka Science Centre
University of Helsinki history project research assistant 1990

President of the Finnish Association of Science Editors and Journalists (FASEJ) 2015–
President of the Società Dante Alighieri (comitato di Helsinki) 2008–12
President of the Finnish Inter Press Service 1994–2000

Research themes:
Travel-literature themed Master’s thesis on Mrs Alec Tweedie’s 1896 Finnish travelogue
Doctoral dissertation (in progress) on the exhibition Dialogue in the Dark as a radical social innovator

Awards:
State Award for Public Information for the exhibition Nordic Explorers 1997 (together with Jouko Koskinen)

Recognition for Heureka Science Centre exhibitions:
Employer of the month award from the Ministry of Labour for recruiting 45 visually-impaired guides for the exhibition Dialogue in the Dark

Association of Finnish Aviation Journalists Follow Me award for the exhibition Flight! 2003

Association of Science and Technology Centers’ Roy L.Shafer Leading Edge Award for Visitor Experience for the exhibition Heureka Goes Crazy 2014

Photo: Pinja Myllykoski
Written by Mikko Myllykoski (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta ed.)
Translated by Matthew Billington

In the beginning was the picture

A historian lives in a world of text, but the picture predates writing, and even a baby will communicate with faces and gestures before learning to speak. Studying, interpreting and making pictures have always fascinated me, even though they have never played a central part in my life. The photography hobby of my youth, watching endless motion pictures at the Finnish Film Archive, my picture editing jobs, and producing the Kronikka periodical provided me with the joys of visual appreciation during my studies.

At Heureka our designers, graphic designers, and web editors are experts in the visual arts, and I can just sit back and enjoy their proficiency. Creating an exhibition is not an assembly line process in the style of Henry Ford, where you just hand the script to the designer who then drafts the final blueprints for the workshop; rather, success depends on a dialogue between experts and test runs with audiences.

I express my visual creativity in the spirit of the snapshot pioneer Sakari Pälsi: by trying to take good snapshots – with my phone – and uploading them on Instagram. Another of my great joys is that for quite some time my daughter has been taking more interesting pictures than her father.

By Written by Mikko Myllykoski (Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta ed.), translated by Tero Heikkinen, revised by Matthew Billington