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20170407

Brown and gray colors schemes used by early 1900 Finnish artists served as tools for our nationalist agenda, argues Irmeli Hautamäki in Kansainvälisyys ja kansallisuus suomalaisessa taiteessa (In Finnish). I don’t agree.. Dull tones (best manifested by the November-group) protest against glamour and they taunt the bourgeois aesthetics of impressionism – Globally. Framing the brown-and-gray movement as nationalistic dissolves it’s critical agenda. November is the post-revolution month. Žižek asks what happens after the revolution.. Brown and grey happens.

Critics from Edit-media Rosa Kuosmanen & Tuomas Laulainen hit hard against the Ars17 exhibition in Hello World! – Goodbye kuratointi (Fi.). They blame the exhibitions awkward feel on curatorial decisions and argue that the fetishizion of art objects (performed by the museum through their exhibition architecture) detaches the artworks from the social and technological reality they are intended to touch and interact with. The critics state that the internet has changed the way we make art but Kiasma has failed to evolve and to change the way art is presented. I agree full heartedly but I think we should also criticize at the way the artist exhibited their works. Majority of pieces were presented carelessly (like at a hobbyfair), projected on walls without effort and they looked as they were installed by robots. Perhaps this attitude was a form of protest against Ars17.

We are backing down from Kontula Electronic gig. The schedules are too tight.

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20170406

Visited Sound Share Night at Temporary.fi on Tuesday. Had a brief and fun chat with Kaino Wennerstrand. Apparently he’s working out with kettlebells too! We plotted a workout date. The event was fun. We listened to and talked about field recording a group member had prepared. I had to leave early so I couldn’t presented SOW: Blacksmith but I’ll possibly go there next week too.

Visited Kontula in preparation of the Kontula Electronic gig. Met with Safia Abdulkarim from the Lähiöasema (Sub-Urb Station). Got a permission to use power for ty Lähiöasema grid. It seems we’ll have to perform on the street.

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20170404

Major updates at Ore.e Ref. main site (10 years of celebration!). The biggest structural updates are internal: Cleaned dead links, re-organized the folder structure (./media, ./praxis) and relinked files to corresponding .html pages. Also added company staff (Eleonoora Lundell, Päivi Raivio, Hanna Karppinen & Pietari Kylmälä) and reframed Ore.e Ref. as “a public utility company”. While working on the site I found a lot of cute stuff (like a copperplate sale announcement and an attempt to make an interpretation of the company logo from 2011). Also noticed that NO-CHAIR-DESIGN in featured on a top 100 design manifestos list. The site is still missing an announcement of the Meta- Collection. I’ll start working on it during the summer. I guess it will be hosted on the “projects” page.

Got a call from a random English speaking copper scavenger asking if I could buy his 100kg batch. Referred him to Niemen romukauppa and provided him with the addresses, contact details and bus schedules. This isn’t the first time Ore.e Ref. has caused strange enquiries. Once I got a call from Rick DuBois a Sea captain from Imperial Yachts. He wanted Ore.e Ref. to repair a ventilation ring while the boat was docked in Helsinki (Unfortunately Jesse was busy at the time so forwarded the commission to Kylmateras.fi). Ore.e Ref. website might look shady for creatives but it spells P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L for people who need of custom metalworks.

Visited Homage 1 at TeaK yesterday. The piece was choreographed by Janina Rajakangas, featured nine dancers and it dealt with emotions. Rajakangas explained that she was exploring dance as a stylized convention for movement which is primed by the dancers desire to portrays emotions/feelings on stage. The approach was analytical. Dancers working on stage presented themselves as emotional teflon by swapping their moods and gestures impulsively. In a dicussion after the piece Rajakangas talked about “tunteet” and “tunteiden esittäminen” but I’m not sure if she was talking about emotions, moods or feelings. The audience (consisting of dancers) talked about the piece using weird vocabulary. They asked Rajakangas if she was interested in “liikkeen laatuisuus”. This apparently meant “the formal structure of movement”. “Kehon laatuisuus” was also to describe specific muscular tensions. People were trying to sort out if the emotions the dancers portrayed were real of formal representations emotions. I don’t know.. Everything looked fake to me.

I read the piece as a critique of contemporary dance. It’s statement was: If artists can acquire​ emotional-teflon-skills and they truly can swap their emotions on cue or if the dancers can make the audience believe that their emotions are true by using specific gestures… Then it must mean that the emotions they perform on on stage categorically fake or that the audience is gaullable (or crazy).

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20170403

Hike&Thumb​!

Want to protect the environment and save on expenses? But you still need to travel right? Public transport is great but it isn’t as flexible as you need. So thumb a lift!

Tired and bored? Maximize the usage of your car, meet great people, share a coffee on the road and learn new skills. Hitchhiking​ is a social transportation system which helps to protect the environment.

With Hike&Thumb app it’s convenient and safe. Hitchhiking is the oldest public transportation system known and now it’s easier than ever.

As a driver you earn points from each ride you offer. People and companies offering the most rides have the opportunity to to advertise through the Hike&Thumb app. Going green? Don’t be shy to show it.

Travellers can thank the drivers by donating to a charity of the drivers choosing or offering a coffee on the road. Use the Hike&Thumb app to find travellers and drivers on the road, meet up at a Hike&Thumb the stop of your choosing.

Worried about safety? Hike&Thumb travel-insurance has got you covered. Travellers insured by Hike&Thumb wear official headwear, which drivers can use to identify insured travellers. The headware also glows in the dark, which adds road safety.

There is nothing old-fashioned in making life as fun as it used to be. Hike&Thumb app can be used to share your location with friends and family, so your loved ones know when to expect your arrival.