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20200204

Telecommunications Reclaimed (2019) Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay & Félix Tréguer. A book on community networks. I read the history part and some shorter interviews/reflections. Unfortunately it reads as a tactical project publication, made more for the sake of having a publication for a project, then an effort to advocate a cause.

Aruna D’Souzas talk (2020) for the Creative Time Summit X is great! She problematises empathy as a strategy for political resistance and argues that institutions created the need for racism: “Slavery was not the product but the origin of racism “. Hence changing attitudes cannot undo structures. She also identifies how empathy is utilized to validate the global-wests efforts in assuming control over others (which is something we’ve explored trough Trans-Horse). She then takes a critical view on artworks which seek to “give voice to marginalized communities” and argues that in many cases these kinds of artworks expose individuals in the same ways as dehumanizing institutions (such as border control) do.

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20200202

When will mining the moon replace mining the earth? When it is cheaper to mine the moon then the earth. The operation will start right after earth has been depleted. #☭

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20200130

What an exiting day. I got a Mazizone installation running on my Raspi3+! I can now host a local access etherpad service, open a file sharing box or a wordpress installation (among other things). Here is a short explanation why these kinds of “Digital Sovereignty” projects are important. (The project also has a faint link to urban farming, as one partner for the project has been Prinzessinnengarten) Feels great and only took 10 hours of manic computer work to figure out. I’m preparing to share my Trans-Siberian Railway sound collection using a Mazizone which is specifically set up for the Alkovi space at Hämeenkatu. Here is are my notes on getting the system running for this setup.

  1. Etcher > mazizone-v3.1.1.img (or 2020XXXX_alkovi-mazizone.dmg)
  2. SD card to RPi3+, boot and wait for ssid: mazizone
  3. Setup (Set location: lat, lon 60.187174, 24.953562) and change password
  4. Expand Storage > Reboot
  5. Browser to local.mazizone.eu:4567/admin > Disable unused apps
  6. Set USB1 wifi dongle (panda06) for “Internet connection” and set “Internet Network Mode” to “online”
  7. ssh pi@10.0.0.1. Change password using raspi-config and sudo apt update > sudo apt full-upgrade and reboot
  8. Setup DS3231 clock for stability. Sudo apt-get install i2c-tools, set locale using raspi-config and configure module using ssh. Guidelines for battery setup (in short supply it 3,3v).
  9. Applications > WordPress > Set up WP (don’t mess with the URL settings in WP)
  10. Change WIFI ssid: Alkovi (no password) and reconnect
  11. Change Portal Domain “in-various-stages-of-ruins.eu”
  12. Assign WordPress as “homepage” and set bigger upload file-size via Admin > Settings > Apache max file size: 500M
  13. Don’t change WordPress url (Test if changing step 8 order would help in clean urls for wp. Edit: no effect, see: Changing domain for wordpress not possible.)
  14. Update WordPress and themes, make them pretty (one page for sound, one page for info) and upload Trans-Siberian railway sound collection.
  15. Setup cron for daily reboot cycle:  sudo nano /etc/cron.d/alkovirebootcycle > 15 2 * * * root /sbin/shutdown -r now
  16. Add > dtoverlay=pi3-act-led,gpio=19 to /boot/config.txt to allow sd-card activity to be shown on an external red-led (protected with 470Ω resistor for good measure).
  17. Make duplicate of the SD card as backup.
  18. Test everything, break everything and re-do everything.

Later: External shutdown button (python?), how can I get it to “sms report home” (will old Huawei E1550 I’ve stashed work out of the box or should I configure it somehow?). experiment with PiFmRds(?) and enjoy.

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20200128

I’m working on a Trans-Siberian Rails and Stations 2019 sound pack for Freesound.org. Currently adding descriptions and meta-data (locations & tags) to the files. I have some three hours of raw material to work trough (excluding a 40 min interview with our train steward, which I wont release unedited). Majority of the clips are 5 min long and they focus on complete work cycles (eg. break check at a station, bathing in a toilet) and ambiences from different locations (eg. restaurant wagon, cabin by night). Majority of the sounds were captured during our 180 hour return trip Vladivostok-Helsinki.

There are a some Trans-Siberian train related clips and a lot of train sounds on Freesound. Martin Sadoux has released a nice collection Russia Trans-Siberian Train in 2018. He has a good recording from the open third class wagons (which I don’t have). The collection I’m prepping will compliment previous releases well. I’m particularly proud of my recording of a break check at a station and I also collected a lot of interesting announcements. I also have some special sounds like the rattling of a samovar (using contact mics).

Miina made an interesting remark about my collection. Finnish explores of the early 20tieth century collected geological samples in hopes of tapping to natural resources and items made by other cultures or groups to develop ethnic narratives. Bringing stuff back home and displaying it for the public was an important gesture in the process of producing cultural capital for the developing Finnish state. Displaying stuff others had made here, illustrated our distance. The act of displaying stuff and material, validated the work of the explorers. Many ethnographic museums got started this way and the contemporary souvenir business echoes this.

My delight over a break-check sound, is a delight over a conquest of a rare resource. Field recordings can be identified as a geologic-like-wealth! Controlled distribution of this material makes it possible for me to harvests cultural capital. Could this process be put to good use? I don’t see hope in returning to esrek-like lisencing models. How could I share the material in a non-exploitative manner? Emphasizing movement to location: Playing the sounds in a Finnish train as the train is moving?

I’ve sometimes explained performances as condensed behavior which is informed by a site: A particular performance is only possible in a particular situation. This idea works better in Finnish: “esiintyminen” means acting, exhibiting or performing and is very close to the word “esiintymä” which means a geological deposit of ore. My condensed behavior on the Trans-Siberian railway trip made it possible to harvest documentations of events, where the train and people of the train performed in interesting ways. I was mining these event using my recorder.

Spotted interesting eurorack projects on the Freesound blog. CTAG Strämpler is a module which connects to the Freesound API and allow users to download sounds directly from the service. BeagleBoom works the same. Really interesting and specific devices.  I’m tempted to make an eurorack module which would only play sounds of particular event. A module dedicated to playing news reels and interview covering a specific public protests or animal? YLE should make something similar for their archive.

Saw Earth (2019) Nikolaus Geyrhalter at DocPoint festival. It was a really dull film which failed in its attempt to hide the fetishization of mining equipment and wastelands. There is nothing wrong in exploring toxicities. The directors attempt to disguise their interest into a moralistic sermon was perverse.

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20200122

Private arts supporting foundations and the Arts Promotion Center of Finland offer grant writing workshops for individual artists and working groups. I’ve been to a few info-events and they are useful, particularly if you are new to the scene. I’ve learned that when you write for one organization you can easily reformat your texts to fit in the procedures of another. Many of them use the same web platform for application submissions, which means that mismatches are easily resolved. Only a paragraph here and there might need work. One organization might look for proposals which support local cultural practices (nationally defined) and an other seek to advance a particular artistic medium or field (design/performance). Adding emphasis to a proposal is a cosmetic manoeuvre. My desire can be to work in public spaces and I can sincerely frame this as a “localized cultural practice” or an attempt to “make performance art more accessible”. This does not affect what I’m doing (making space public) or how I view my work.

I understand why funding organizations call for proposals with specific goals. They serve their mission and align with policies that are set by the state or the city. The same cosmetic manoeuvres are at play on both sides. Understanding budgeting, project management and how to frame artistic aims within an organizations mission is good to learn. Writing an application is learning how institutions think. There is always a chaotic element involved. Even when you follow guidelines and your peers review a proposal, it can (and most likely will) get rejected. Organizations don’t offer feedback for individual artist (feedback is sometimes provided for associations which employ people). The best feedback I’ve received has been from peers who have worked in the proposal evaluation boards. Most of them say that short and easy to read texts work best. Most of them have also revealed that luck is very much involved in the process.

I enjoy developing proposals. The writing process sets a trajectory for my work and keeping my CV updated is good for maintaining an archive on where I’ve been and with whom I’ve traveled with. But recently I’ve begun to wonder who is teaching the foundations and the arts promotion centers to read applications? I don’t think it’s in anyone’s benefit that artists learn to make cosmetic maneuvers in aligning their desires with the vague organizational goals of exclusive institutions. A more beneficial cultural movement would be that applications would be written as the applicants pleases and the institutions would use their resources in learning how to read. How can we teach institutions to read? This is a naïve wish. I fear that people who have money get to decide what will happen next. I only have the power to make proposals. This is a good power but only sends weak signals.