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20160516

A pleasing and nearly comprehensible video: “P vs. NP and the Computational Complexity Zoo“. Draws a solid connection between art, philosophy, computers and math.

Send a grant application to the City of Helsinki Cultural Offices to fund a short documentary about the Mounted police of Helsinki. The text was largely the same which I used for application for the Arts Promotion Center of Finland. I feel optimistic about getting this smaller (3500€) grant. I’ve been in contact with the Mounted police in Helsinki and they have agreed to interviews, so if I get funded this make for a really interesting summer job.

Wedding ring is a thing in tutorial videos! Currently learning about Novation Circuit and control surface supports on Premiere Pro. While browsing at the videos I noticed that across the tutorials the hands of the hosts feature wedding rings.

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20160515

“We no longer have a linear time, in the sense of the past being followed by the present and then the future. It’s rather the other way around: the future happens before the present. Time arrives from the future.”

“We are in a future which has surpassed the conditions and the terms of the past.”

DIS magazine on what happens when accelerationism reaches full pace.

Visited the “Yövuoro/Night Shift” protest and talks in a park close to the Kiasma museum and the Parliament House. The invitation read: “What would you like to do? In which ways can artists take part in political debate? What should be discussed right now? What should one do right now?”. People were tasked to give 5 min creative introductions on matters they felt important to address. The meeting was inspired by the #GlobalDebout events. The PA was loud but I still failed to make sense what people where talking about. Ended up gossiping about art with colleagues.

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20160514

As a celebration of the Grey Cube Gallery documentation gig and as a result of a manic WSG building phase I bought a Novation Circuit (A B-stock unit from Thomann). I feel a bit out of control. This month I’ve used a sum equal to a month’s housing maintenance charges (which is high where we live) and kindergarten payments into synths/electronics. In total I’m 800€ into music and I now have a electro-acoustic music production studio. I don’t expect this hobby to pay it’s self back (Even though Pietari confirmed that we’ll get a fee for the gig we made for Kontula Electronic festival).

Wonder if I could use the Circuit as a midi controller inside FCPX or Adobe Premiere? If it would speed productions up I could justify the spendings. I’m such a novice to music production that I doubt I can use my own music in the upcoming videos. The Circuit has a limited sampler feature which I plan to use in future lecture-performances (Together with the Kaoss Pad 3) and we’ve had the idea to make an EP with Ore.e Refineries. But we haven’t practiced enough or composed any songs yet (I do have some nifty ideas for that up my sleeve).

Revolutionary, Post-Revolutionary but Re-Revolutionary.

As a terrorist I’d pose as a performance artist, lure the decadent audience close to me and ignite the bombs.

Visiting Là-bas “Kuilu: Sirpaleet syvyydessä” performance festival at Kaapeli by recommendations and invitation of Janne Rahkila. A great evening! Even had to write down names of some performers in order to follow them on online. In particular I enjoyed Siiri Nevalaises presentation, Sara Kovamäkis trash-piece and Peter Rosviks pure comedy without joke. These self-confident performers re-calibrated me to the art and I feel assured that there is sense in delay, repetition and the audacious claim that artists can see the world as it truly is.

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20160513

Made a side trip to the Academy of Arts Helsinki and sat at the “Moscow Conceptualism. Erosion and After, Moskovskij kontseptualiszm. Erozija i posle” book launch. The writers sat around a table reminiscing their travels in Moscow 25 years ago. The book is an anthology and the articles I browsed focused on stories of the now famous artist. A dull approach to an important subject.

Visited Mikko Joensuus “Amen 1” concert at the St. John’s Church, Helsinki (My second church concert of the week). The music was good and it was an emotional performance. A tad too long and repetitive but good. The audience was packed with hipster-jesus-lookalikes. Antony Bentley was performing in the chorus and keyboard! I joined the after gig celebrations with his friends and family but had to leave be before he arrived.

While walking home I saw a billboard prompting a stadium gig of a popular rapper. His name was written big but the majority of the ad’s surface was covered with names of celebrities and elderly musicians the rapper had invited to feature in his concert. It occurred to me that contemporary musicians use the same promotional strategies as sitcoms, talk-shows and shitty movies: Popular artists build cartels and always invite each others as guest stars of their products and reference each others. Mega clusters of popular artist strive to control popular opinion, preserve status quo and solidify the particular media ecosystem that helped their sort of artist hood to strive.

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20160512

In the future we can borrow clothing from the libraries.

Got a job working for the Grey Cube Galleries! I’ll be in charge of documenting their summer events at the Helsinki Zoo. Discussed the gig with Päivi Raivio and as requested I’ll make 4-6 short documentaries of various events and projects. I’ll get to interview Katrin Caspar & Eeva-Liisa Puhakka, Päivi Allonen and artist of the Honkasalo-Niemi-Virtanen group. These artist talks will be backed with interviews of various animal caretakers and zoo personel. I worked for the Grey Cube Galleries last summer too. I build the Zoovision reality-headset during my residency. This gig is a interesting continuation of last years work and offers a new view to the zoo institution.