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20190323

Visited Performance and Feminism seminar at TeaK. I went particularly for Marina Valle Noronhas and Kim Modigs Performing professionalism: Why do we travel for art and what does it do to us? talk but stayed for Lim Paik Yins movie and Minna Harris presentation about time. The three presentations formed a loose arch, which dealt with ecology and challenges caused by development. The Performing professionalism… was a performance. The stylish duo played a prerecorded sound piece while sitting confidently in front of the crowd. I interpreted the presentation as an attempt to problematize the image of the contemporary creative (art) professional, whose relevance is measured by the amount their international flights and prestige appetites, which attempt to transcendent the limits of bourgeoisie taste (and end up being mega-bourgeoisie).

Yins movie IN[formal] INTERchange (2018) offered a good contrast to the critique. She had conducted interviews (video-voip) with various amateur(?) practitioners of performance art in the Southeast Asian region. The performers talked candidly about their relationship to performance art while engaging in various joined performances (or performance exercises) with each other and the Yin. The film was appealing because it used low-key/accessible esthetics and utilized consumer services (such as Skype) for artistic research. It reminded me that there are global alternatives and strategies that work against the performance of professionalism.

Made a short teaching gig to Hyvinkää for middle to high-school aged kids who take art classes at Willa Arttu. I continued with the “Poststructuralism for Kids” program. We talked about strikes and how the act of “striking” halts movement (which offers a good time to contemplate what to do next) and practiced halting trough contact improvisation. After this we played with doors. We explored what doors are (the kids had some really smart ideas: gates to new dimension etc.) and then we experimented with different ways of opening a doors and discussed about the experience. Used this door opening tutorial (1979) as reference. I’ll do a full write up after the last gig.

Also dabbled with electronics during the week. Scavenged smd components from a failed project and used them to make a voltage regulator for a headlight (9v-to-5v) and a assembled solder smoke removal fan.

I’m making electronics to energize my grant application process. I’ve prepared 16 pages for a five year plan. Five years is not enough. The application consists of an array of loosely linked projects and ideas, some of which are framed as development motifs for work that will be executed around 2038. I’m currently most excited about the idea to organize Smithing in Public Spaces forging workshops. I’ve written the texts so that Jesse can use them in his personal grant applications too. If everything goes as planned we’d host public forging workshops in open city spaces, during which participants would learn how to mend and make metal things. The workshops will also serve as a vessel for collecting stories partisipants tell of metal objects they hold dear.

Catching up on Critical Making. Design and the Construction of Publics (2009) Carl DiSalvo.

[…] the notion that publics are “constructed” is perhaps most salient to contemporary design because it prompts a consideration of the means by which publics are assembled; begging the question: “How does, or might, design contribute to the construction of publics?” [John Dewey]

[…] inquiry into design and the construction of publics begins with a more thorough understanding of the Deweyan public. The assertion that publics are not a priori existing masses is central to the notion of the construction of publics. The public is not something that has been and always will be. It is neither universal nor an abstraction. […] for Dewey, the public is an entity brought into being through issues for the purpose of contending with these issues in their current state and in anticipation of the future consequences of these issues.

As designers and educators, [Anthony] Dunne and [Fiona] Raby are well known for their development of “Critical Design,”19 which they regard as an alternative to mainstream design in that the goal is the use of design to expose and explore the conditions and trajectories of contemporary design rather than the utilitarian problem-solving or surface-styling that has historically characterized design (particularly industrial design).

By the contributions of design, will publics inherit problematic qualities of being “engineered” or “commodities”? Such concerns are legitimate and substantial. The subject of design ethics should go hand-in-hand with the construction of publics, and have a significant place in future discourse.

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20190317

I have a strong urge to assemble a Elektrosluch. It is a “open-source device for electromagnetic listening”. The design is by Lom audio, which seems like a very fine organization. I’d like to attempt to develop a binaural unit and to experiment listening to the electromagnetic properties of water (when it is electrified in some way) to confirm that different batches of Faux San Pelligriano have the same consistency. I attempted to make an electromagnetic microphone last night (and to listen to it with my new Lm071 preamp) but the loose 3,5mm jack picked up more noise then the coil.

I’m feeling empowered by my new electronics skills but I lack a clear focus. I’m get inspired by everything. I’m trying to keep grounded and set my bearings by listening to still & stretched: a mute tumult of memories (2017) by Heather B. Frasch. Her gig at Control last autumn set a trajectory for my current sound work. Perhaps I should take my eurorack and other loose projects to Jesse’s smithy and attempt to formalize something in relation to the Sound of Work series. There is also the possibility to develop something with Kristian (kettlebells?) or to possibly drone out at Kontula Electronic.

I skipped the Zodiak “men’s advanced dance course” this fall. I have some plans for bodybuilding and holistic kettlebell moves. Here are some inspirational videos.

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20190316

Made my first batch of Faux San Pelligriano. 1,5l water is added with ~2g of salts and minerals (10l has 0,92g Table salt, 5,7g Epsom-salt, 4,8g Plaster of Paris, 1,5g Chalk). Digesting Plaster of Paris aka. Burned Gypsum feels weird but I’m confident because Gypsum is also used in the production of tofu. Epsom salt aka. Magnesium sulfate is a spooky material too but it is used also as a laxative and it’s health benefits are well documented. Chalk and salt feel more safe to use.

Spotted Too Many Zoos online. The baritone saxophonist is called Leo Pelligriano. I want to drink Faux San Pelligriano while playing techno as Faux Leo Pelligriano.

Build an acoustic piezo preamp using a tl071. Used the toner transfer method to etch a pcb following this design (some traces came off a bit weak). The same circuit can also be found as a vero board design. Works well, sounds very clean and even amplifies the signal enough to trigger Bastl Skis. I’ll possibly make a lm386 audio amp as it’s companion, so that I can boost the signal further. I’m also planning to run the lm386 independently so that I can use it to trigger the second Skis channel. Drum triggers in the works! I designed how the two circuits would be linked while attending the Frame Epistemic Hospitality event.

Meritocracy is a myth invented by the rich (2019) Nathan Robinson.

It’s no secret that wealthy people will do nearly anything to get their kids into good schools. But this scandal only begins to reveal the lies that sustain the American idea of meritocracy.

[…] equal opportunity would require a radical re-engineering of society from top to bottom. As long as there are large wealth inequalities, there will be colossal differences in the opportunities that children have. No matter what admissions criteria are set, wealthy children will have the advantage.

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20190314

Visited Permanent Temporariness book launch at Publics on Tuesday. Artists-architects Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti offered an introduction to the work they do at and in relation to Palestinian refugee camps. They provided a great overview of the contemporary Palestinian condition and offered some hints on their approaches to art making. In their presentation, they separated the work they engage in at camps from the art they present in museums (and biennales etc.). I got the impression that their work is rooted on a double-reading: They are using art for activism and activism for art.

Sometimes calling a their work “art” grants them the possibility to access places that are restricted from political operators and sometimes people living in camps, use their work for non-art activities like education and meetings (See Concrete Tent, 2015). It felt like they celebrated refugee camps as incubators for agile and non-normative agency. I appreciated the spin – This approach acknowledges skills which refugees manifest. Instead of approaching refugees as victims they can seen as some sort of re-organization specialists. It felt like Hilal and Petti were trying to craft an alliance between contemporary precariat workers and refugees: Both parties are pushed into motion by the same global capitalistic conditions. This part of their talk remained me of an encounter at the Finnish refugee policy protest camp in 2017.

They have an interesting archive of course descriptions on decolonizing.ps site Decolonizing Architecture: Sites of Knowledge production.

Architecture is too important to leave to the Architects. (Giancarlo De Carlo)

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20190304

Small cities in the Satakunta region serve as incubators for the “Finns Party” political organization and other racist fearmonger movements. Until recently I thought that people who vote for the “Finns Party” there, are expressing their disappointment: They feel left outside from the focus of development and are trying to express their feelings by using their votes as a protest. I used to pity people in the region and I thought that their anger was at some level understandable, tough horribly misguided. I no longer feel this way.

I now believe that the political climate of the Satakunta region is a manifestation of their desire to return to the times when the land was organized as the estates of the realm and managed by the talonpojat-class. The people who are collecting votes for the “Finns Party” are local church reverends, teachers and farmers! These classic upper-class actors are promising their voters the return of a class-society, where land-owners rule the estateless.

Racism in the Satakunta region is manifesting the deep hatred the talonpojat-class has against all outsiders and the working class. The decedents of the talonpojat-class see the demise of industrial production (which is resulting into the demise of the middle class) and the renewed interested in localized food (etc.) production as an opportunity to re-establish serfdom. The talonpojat-class still owns the land. They loathe cities, centers and the urban, because they hate people who have taken charge of their own lives. They hate freedom because it reminds them that they no longer have serfs to fuck around.

The “Finns Party” is for feudalism. #☭