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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.

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20160511

Two weeks of life wasted on the WSG. Still not working right. Swapped all the parts and resoldered the wiring using an alternative diagram. It’s not working and I have no idea why. I ordered new resistors for the second unit and I’ll stop trying to fix this one to save energy to work on the next unit. Made a song about the life I wasted.

Noticed I have made fun entries to my soundcloud account. 20160423 2021 is one of my favorites.

Visited the “My Signs” performance by Pekka Toivonen at the Rock Church. It was a celebration of his career as a graphical designer. He had composed a concert for a small orchestra and made a video collage which showed his personal life during the time he had made his celebrated designs. The show was centered on his artists-persona, his encounters with women and snapshots of fast paced life.

Graphical designers have taken center stage of contemporary creative culture. Their profession is about building connection between different sorts of tastes. They don’t necessarily strive to make statements, their work is a celebration of complex signs presented in tasteful packages. The audience is left to make sense of what is being presented (they often build their interpretation on zeitgeist vibes or immerse in with the experience like romantic art back in the days). I imagine graphical designers don’t get constructive criticism about their work (there is no statement to criticise), so it must be a lonely profession.

Toivonen is the Gallen-Gallela of 21th century Finland but that’s not why I like him. I like him for his class struggle. His success is the success of the welfare state – He has breached the boundaries of his class.

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20160510

It’s incredible that some electronic components are so rare. We can’t reach a post-scarcity economic utopia (where we only trade services) as long as specific resistors are so hard to find. I saw a dozen of Yamaha Electone organs for sale 10€ each at a local recycling center. Each device has components inside them which cost more. I should start a component upcycling business. Some info on the Electone organ chips is available online.

Tried my best to get the WSG working again. Sanded the paint away from the case (under the potentiometers) to create a stable ground connection, added a ground wire from the “-” power lead to the case and replaced the audio jack. Results: Only sound A Osc.2 is working. Bought new components for a second unit. I’m determined to build a working noise box.