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20170908

– Hi, Eero Yli-Vakkuri here. I’d like to order a blank painting canvas.
– Allright. What size do you have in mind?
– I don’t know. What’s a normal size for a painting?
– Normal? Well it depends on what you are painting. We can make any size of canvas you want. Are you painting a landscape or a portrait?
– I don’t really know. I guess I’m not really painting. I just want the canvas and to present it as an art object.
– Oh. Well you still need to tell me the size and other specifications. Do you want it primed or not and other details.
– Jeah. I think it would be nice if it were primed with gesso. White gesso, I think and I guess it’s both a landscape and a portrait. But I’m not sure about the size. What would you recommend?
– If you don’t know the size I don’t think we can help you. I can’t give you a prize for the work or..
– What are you currently working on?
– I’m currently framing a painting.
– What size is it?
– It’s about 50x55cm. It’s a still life. No… Wait, let me check. It’s 53x55cm.
– Ok. Is that be a size you could make for me too?
– Sure, we can make any size of a canvas you want.
– Yeah. I’ll take the 53x55cm.
– Primed with white gesso?
– Yes, please. Do you think it should be framed too?
– It’s really not for me to say. We can have it framed but normally a frame is selected for the painting. The frame depends on its colors it has and so on.
– I don’t plan on painting anything on it. It would just be left as it is.
– I don’t know what would be the point of framing it then. The frame is intended to protect the painting and to make it look better but if there there is no painting, I don’t think that the frame would do anything to it.
– So no frame then?
– I don’t personally see the point but we can put a frame to it.
– What’s the most normal type of frame you use with paintings.
– It depends very much on the colors and theme of the painting and what our clients want. Some want just plain wood with lacquer, other want a gilded frame. The idea is that the frame does not to disturb the artwork and protects it. The painting I have here is going to be framed with a simple wood with transparent lacquer frame.
– I like it. Can you use that for my canvas too?
– Sure. It’s not a problem to me.
– Great. I’d like to order one.
– A blank canvas 53x55cm with a plain wooden frame?
– Yes.
– When do you want it to be ready?
– What time suits you best?
– When do you need?
– I don’t know if I really need it. Anytime which suits you best..
– In two weeks?
– Ok.
– Ok. We’ll have the canvas and frame ready for you in two weeks.
– Great. I’ll come get it then! Thank you very much.
– Sure. It will be ready by then and you can fetch it from the workshop using your name as a reference.

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20170905

Author Jari Ehrnrooth has written a hostile and offensive text: “Pahuuden kieltäminen ei auta” (Denying evil doesn’t help) and got it published through YLE, our national broadcasting company. The text is using the Turku attacks to target muslims and other religious groups. He claims that the attack in Turku was executed using “Isis-style knife handling” and that “islam is still an authoritarian and expansive world religion, which strictest forms include appalling amounts of mental submission, physical violence and murder”. He continues to speculate about a “righteous terrorist-mother, kissing her little-jihadist, who is send to the daycare center on a be-a-hero-for-a-day event wearing a fake-bomb-vest around his chest – As is happening in Gaza”.

I send a complaint to YLE which is responsible for publishing the text. Ehrnrooth holds the title of adjunct professor in the universities of Turku and Helsinki (he signed his text highlighting the title). I wrote to Thomas Wilhelmsson the chancellor of Hki Uni. and Professor of Cultural History Marjo Kaartinen in Turku, asking them to distance their universities and departments from Ehrnrooth. I got a sympathetic reply but I was explained that adjunct professor is a only a title and that the person is not employed by the university. The message also underlined the autonomy and right to freedom of speech of their researches. This was a weak argument. There is no “free speech” in relations others are targeted based on their religion. #ॐ

Send my Dude mixer back to Brno. Included a short letter explaining the problem and a postscriptum: “Ps. My favourite Czech performance artist is Jiří Kovanda. I’ve worked for an old Finnish lady Outi Heiskanen who had performed with a Czech group called Crusaders’ School of Pure Humour Without Joke in the 70ties. I own a hobby-anvil made from a tram-rail (made in and bought from Prague) and an axe manufactured in “Czechoslovakia”. I’ve visited Brno once, only passed through. Here is a video of me making macho-coffee in Prague 2009.”

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20170904

Forget Wall Street – Silicon Valley is the new political power in Washington by Olivia Solon & Sabrina Siddiqui (for The Guardian)

“Their theory is that democracy is an impedance to capitalism so they need as little regulation as possible”

During the 1990s, In the early days of the dotcom era, internet companies flourished in Silicon Valley by skirting the law, moving fast and breaking things. Such techno-libertarianism was founded on the belief that borderless cyberspace was separate from the physical realm and therefore not subject to the same rules.

[…] Silicon Valley’s tech leaders have a short memory: their companies were built on a foundation of government intervention and public monies.

Born Sexy Yesterday by Pop Culture Detective (Jonathan McIntosh) investigates naive-but-sexy female characters portrayed sci-fi movies and identifies them as fantasies for the colonial gaze. These characters are build on an older, racist narratives about indigenous women and white men. The interpretation feels legit.. In Finland similar characters have been written to illustrate the relationships between urban and rural communities. A male graduate from the city arrives to the countryside and meets with a farmworker girl. The graduate fights of her brutish suitors (often alcoholics) and marries the girl. These stories are not sci-fi movies but they are rooted on modernistic fantasies.

Performed at the Lauttasaari street-party over the weekend. Got on stage after a show by the Moomin characters! Our part in the event was a part of the Neighborizome project we are working on with Leena Kela and Heini Aho (recently announced on the Koneensäätiö website). We were introduced on stage by Anna Talasniemi. Some evidence on the event on Instagram. We found five potential condominium-collaborators to work with.

My Dude mixer arrived to day. I’m very happy with the quality of the sound. It amplifies mic level signals neatly and delivers a balanced stereo mix (almost makes a sm58 mic audible with out a preamp). The over-amplification/saturation sound mixing feature works with rhythmic material, it seems to follow beats (haven’t tested the feedback yet). I guess I’ll make a tutorial on how it works with different audio sources for Pietari. The only disappointment is that it doesn’t have a separate light to indicate when the device is on (Open lines are indicated with leds). There is a serious issue with channels 4&5 and I’m in contact with Bastl to have the unit replaced/fixed.

Here is a video showing issues with mics and here is a video showing issues with synths (ts & trs connectors). Leoš from Bastl-Help guided me to reheat the contacts in an effort to fix the problem. Unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work. As I was poking inside the mixer I noticed a lot of fast and dirty soldering work – Which was disappointing. Some connections didn’t seem to have any solder in them! I’m now waiting for news on how long it will take to be replaced (the delivery of this unit took two weeks). I need to have the mixer repaired and delivered by 15.9.

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20170831

What we perceive as terrorism, the terrorist perceive as cry for justice. #ॐ