Eco-National Discourse and the Case of the Finnhorse (2014) Nora Schuurman & Jopi Nyman. The article points to a striking position Suomen Hippos ry (The Finnish Trotting and Breeding Association) made “[…] SWOT analysis of the Finnhorse as a brand […] sees the potential rise of nationalism as an opportunity: ‘If national phenomena will become a trend, the Finnhorse may also become a trend’ (Suomen Hippos 2008a.)”. I think the article can be read as an expose of the nationalistic agenda rooted in the Suomen Hippos ry organization. A discourse of Raceless-Horse Culture is due.
It has also been suggested that although equestrian culture enables flexible gender identities, it reproduces the traditional agrarian model of a hard working woman. Strong, even ‘masculine’ bodies are seen as physical capital among women who ride, as opposed to the urban feminine ideal.
The dominant version of Finnish self‐understanding, while outmoded yet guiding contemporary interpretations, as [Ari] Jääskeläinen points out, sees the nation as consisting of ‘soldiers, pioneers, and agrarians’ and was produced originally for the needs of the Swedish Empire in the eighteenth century.
This discourse of nationalism carries over to the contemporary documents, which place the Finnhorse explicitly in the context of nation, defining its Finnishness as one of the central characteristics in its internationalising brand (Suomen Hippos). In the general descriptions of the breed in these documents, the Finnhorse is defined as ‘genuine’, ‘unique’, ‘native’, ‘the national horse’, and ‘Finland’s only native breed’ (Suomen Hippos).
The relationship between the Finnhorse and the Finn of the text is also gendered: while the traditional stereotype of the Finnish male is that of a silent man who expresses his emotions by doing rather than by speaking, the relationship with the Finnhorse provides an otherwise sanctioned outlet for expressing emotions and care.
The article also offers an analysis of contemporary nationalistically geared horse themed schlagers (to which the Trans-Horse playlist offers great contrast). The publication is a part of the Companion Animals and the Affective Turn: Reconstructing the Human-Horse Relationship in Modern Culture – CONIMAL. 2011 – 2015 project.
I’ve been building sm-artwatches for a while by attaching pretty items to wristwatch straps. One watch has a wooded (gilded) frame with a fragment of a print by Outi Heiskanen, one has a fossil (which I also used as mineral supplement in performances), one has a coin from 1865 (10 Penniä) and one has spokes which I can attach fruits to (it’s measuring decay-time). This artistic interest has slowly evolved to an developing intrest in real watches and I now own three Casio wristwatches (One is fake, which is cool too). I bought the newest one on tori.fi for 2 euros, because I want to modify its inner workings: Casio W-800H mod.
I’m also curios of the illustrations found in the IED TRIGGER RECOGNITION GUIDE document (U.S. military or Department of Defense). The “Casio Watch Timer with Opto-Isolator” might be interesting to study as a circuit. I’d like to use the circuit to schedule electric shocks to myself.
A list of Ethical Open Source Licenses collected by the Ethical Source Movement (here is a list of the source criteria for software). Could work for other design too. I think emphasis on ecology should be added too. Perhaps something in lines of Permacomputing (2020) as defined by Ville-Matias “Viznut” Heikkilä.
[…] computers have been failing their utopian expectations. Instead of amplifying the users’ intelligence, they rather amplify their stupidity. Instead of making it possible to scale down the resource requirements of the material world, they have instead become a major part of the problem. Instead of making the world more comprehensible, they rather add to its incomprehensibility. And they often even manage to become slower despite becoming faster.
Computer systems should also make their own inner workings as observable as possible. If the computer produces visual output, it would use a fraction of its resources to visualize its own intro- and extrospection. A computer that communicates with radio waves, for example, would visualize its own view of the surrounding radio landscape.
