Instead of making counter ads and jamming consumer culture Parallel Ads is an attempt to redirect cash flows away from corporations to small independent entrepreneurs. It is an effort to support marginalised industries (such as crafts and ethical foods) by making them look sexier then their corporate counterparts. The project has also helped to increase consumer awareness by clearing misconceptions consumers may have concerning specialised goods such as organic foods and sustainable designs.
The original goal was to select ethical (ecologically sustainable, local and good hearted) businesses by random and to provide artistic skills and tools to make street credible advertisements for them. These ads could then be distributed through the art world networks and be presented for global audiences through art fair screenings and exhibitions.
Similar project have been executed before. In most successful cases urban creatives have been successful in developing the services of small rural businesses, so that the entrepreneurs have been able to push their products to new markets. The most popular example is Guaraná Power (2003–) by artists’ group SUPERFLEX. The project initiated from a call for help by the guaraná farmers’ cooperative from Maués in the Brasilian Amazon. As a response SUPERFLEX helped to re-brand their Guaraná drink and to market their products globally. Parallel Ads is attempting to give urban manufactures similar benefits.
Parallel Ads was launched 2010 as a part of the Media Facades festival in Helsinki. The first Parallel Ad was made for an organic cafeteria “Galleria Keidas” in the Kallio district, Helsinki (Part two “Infomercial” ). The space was selected randomly, based on it’s menu (organic and vegan goods) and location in Kallio. The establishment owner participated in planning the ads. After completion both ads where projected onto building surfaces in Kallio as a part of video-art screening series curated by Gallery Alkovi. (Read more on the Keidas-case.)
The second edition of Parallel Ad was made for artist-blacksmith Jesse Sipola from Oshipala Airhammer Studios. This time the selection of whom to advert was not random, it was tactical. The project is intended solemnly online – And it aims to seriously expand peoples understanding on crafts and to clear clichés consumers project to blacksmiths. As the first effort a smithing festival called Rautasulka was streamed online using the Bambuser-service (See extract.). This was likely the first time contemporary crafts festivals where shown live online.
2011 a more detailed informercial “Jesse Sipola, Seppä | Blacksmith (2011)” of the praxis of blacksmith Sipola was published. In two years it has had more then 10K views and if currently featured on many blacksmith forums. Sipola used the same video material to edit a video targeted for his blacksmith peers. The edition Sipola made projects a more technical view on his craft. It is unclear which version has a more positive impact on the craft of blacksmithing. Both videos where recently presented as a part of the “Skills of Economy” event curated by Jussi Koitela. Crafts is the most important field of study for anyone interested in sustainable design and post-industrial economics.
The most recent Parallel Ads related action took place in Kemi as I made a small video about the local skateboarding site Kemihalli, run by the Meri-Lapin Rullalautailijat Association. The venture was made possible by the Heimo -scheme. As a controversial act I used the Heimo -scheme visual image in the design of the Kemihalli logo – Which is currently used by the association on their webpages.
Parallel Ads is useful for the associations, businesses and entrepreneurs who get help in marketing their services… But it also provides a framework for myself to connect different kinds of odd jobs (like making music videos: Kuukumina – Cajonero) into a sensible and artistic effort. Instead of promoting Indie-Capitalism (as defined by business week) the project is rooted in self-publishing traditions and will hopefully increase solidarity and understanding between grassroots organisations and the general public.
Update (26.8.2013). The following text was intended for the the usage of Media Facades festival 2010, Alkovi Gallery and M-cult. It was written as I was preparing for Parallel Ads #1 made for Galleria Keidas (Part one “Viral Funny”. Part two “Infomercial”). The project was followed with PA 2# for Blacksmith Jesse Sipola (“Infomercial”).
Introduction
I’m working on a project I call “Parallel Ads”. During it I’ll make a series of video commercials for a small company in the Kallio district of Helsinki. I’ll make a ~30s long spot which shows the services this business offers and a longer infomercial which gives more details about the place and possibly a short spoken introduction of its services. I’m looking for a small and young company.. A place which is offering services/selling goods in a fashion which I believe to be worth promoting. I’m not a specialist in making commercials.. Actually this is the first time I’m trying to make a TV quality ad. Before this I have mostly focused in critique of the ideological positions most ads and other narrative mass-media products place us in. But now, instead of working to dismantle the stereotypical ways race, genre and social class are portrayed I’m using the methodologies and tools of the mass advertisement industry to the benefit of a private entrepreneur.
The ads will be scripted together with the company owner and I use my expertise as a media artists to convey her/s ambitions in the most “street-credible” way I can. The target group I am aiming to reach are urban men and women viewing all forms of mass-media entertainment in a critically. I think it would be silly to attempt to seduce any other target group.. When social change is the game one ought to start by convincing their peers. The company owner will work as a “director” of the ads and I hope her/s contribution will expand our target group. From a visual perspective I’m attempting to reach the quality of standard TV ads, decent lighting, smooth camera work and bright colours. I’m hoping that the company owner will have interesting ideas on what kind of details will be shown and how the story will be told. The owner will receive all rights to use these videos in the way s/he likes and I’ll present these videos in the context of art. I hope that this gesture will draw more clients for the business.
In collaboration with Media Facades
This project is presented as a part of the international Media Facades festival organized in seven European cities between the 27th of August and 2 of October. Media Facades will “explore the networked possibilities of urban screens and media facades via internet and new technologies on a European level. The format of the MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL reflects on the increasing presence of massive-infrastructures with digital visual elements in public spaces while investigating their communicative function in the urban environment.” In Helsinki the events are organized by M-cult, new media association and our focus here is on the usage of existing media surfaces, (billboards, info-walls and other) as sites were to show ART.
A project which M-cult has put much effort in, is a three day long video-workshop organised by Alkovi Gallery curators Arttu Merimaa and Miina Hujala. The gallery is located in the infamous Kallio district as a window gallery and hosts site-specific projects along normal exhibitions. During this workshop a group of 10-15 video artist will shoot, edit and complete video-works which reflect the district of Kallio in some way. It is a collective effort and the aims and practical issues regarding the workshop has been drafted in discussion with the participating artist, Alkovi Gallery and M-cult. Parallel Ads has been developed during these meetings and will be presented in the same venues as other works made during the workshop.
This way the business owner will have the opportunity to present her/s business for large audiences in great places around Helsinki.. Using these venues to advertise is a controversial gesture.
Thanks to the festival, independent artist and culture workers, like my self have the possibility to show our work in the city centre. A site which screens and other media surfaces are mostly reserved for the usage of annoying multinational ad campaigns, screaming “buy, buy, buy” in video, text and image. Festivals like this are typically produced in the spirit of “anti-consumerism” and presented as opportunities to use city media-surfaces for the “good of the people”, giving alternative life-styles the opportunity to promote their views. And here I am using the same surfaces to show commercials once more.
…but with good intents
Early ’10 I had the opportunity to study a project entitled “I love my work” by Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. First off they collected stories about conflicts people have had in their working places. These stories where told by the people them selfs and Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen formulated a selection of these into movie scripts which where later made into movies. The people who submitted their often highly personal “work-horror-stories” where consulted during the progress, so that the movie would depict their story in every possible detail (I contributed a story for a movie and was given the opportunity to witness the production close). Tellervo had done similar projects before, in which people provided stories and she provided the necessary knowhow and equipment to make movies of them.
Parallel Ads has all of these community-video-art-project elements but in stead of working to turn a group of mass-media consumers into producers (by giving the [so called] commoners the possibility to share their stories) and collecting folklore archives of contemporary life.. Parallel Ads is working to turn cash flows from the corporations to the private entrepreneurs. For this I own credit for the methodologies Kalleinen & Kochta-Kalleinen have (as far as I know) developed.
I begun thinking about these issues back in ’05 when I was making a durational performance in Tampere. I worked in open city space and for a reason which was not so clear at the time I started to invite a lot of sponsors to support my event. I didn’t receive any money from them. Only goods needed for my show where exchanged. Later on I’ve come to understand that having corporate logos on brochures and webpages, made my extreme and queer performance more legitimate. In other words I used company logos to “certify” that my actions where legal, acceptable and fancy.
Company logos and brands have this quality to them. They link a singular happenings into a normative canon. Using this to the advantage of queer performances and art projects is difficult – the more you brand a work, the less street-credible it becomes. During the performance I could justify my actions by stating, that as I was working on the pedestrian street (filled with shops and boutiques) my actions would anyway be associated to ad-campaigns etc. And having a group of selected sponsors I could gain at least some benefits.
The next year a local company event organizer (one of my mains sponsors) asked me to produce a new performance to the same site. Instead of a performance I made a video project called “Adds/Tuttu TV:stä”. It is a selection of 12 of the most common TV commercials shown during the summer of ’06 in the Pirkanmaa district. I re-shot them without any props or logos, using my friends as actors. I used the same camera angles and dialogue as in the originals. They where shot in a empty room of a commune I was living and had tapestry from the 1940 as a background for the acts. They where shown projected onto a shop wall at the same pedestrian street. My history with the site legitimated them and even as they where anti-ads and broke copyright policies local company workers and executives excepted them. Such a series would have been near impossible to produce without trusting relations with the pedestrian street business owners.
I hoped that by showing the wireframe structures of the most common ads seen on TV, the visual tools and language they utilize could be viewed objectively and critically. Showing them so close to all the other advertisements and commercial elements found on city streets, made them more efficient. Audiences responded with laughs. They could identifiet with the home setting, amateur acting and could hack/understand what the seemingly nonsense sequences referred to. These ads mirrored the reality of TV commercials in a warped way. Unexpectedly a frequent comment was: “These are better commercials then the originals! You should contact the companies involved and sell these to them!”. And thinking about this I begun to plan Parallel Ads.
Evaluating the ad industry: Can images of products together with beautiful people, change consumer behaviour in a world where we generally have difficulties following traffic signs – even when our own life’s are at stake?
Do we really know if advertisement works? The way I see it, is that the most “successful ads” are selected in big ad festivals by ADVERTISEMENT AGENCIES and people in the business. And of course they will state that what they are working with will bring benefits to a client.. Other then this, we as consumers have very little clues on what is a successful ad-campaign and what is not. Very few of us would admit that our behaviour is controlled or even effected by advertisement. And most outdoor campaigns are not aimed directly to increase the sales of products anyway. They attempt to increase “consumer knowledge of the brand”. This is not only about recognising company logos. Consumer knowledge of a brand includes that the subject also understands the values behind it, so that they may establish feelings for the brand. This means that advertisement agencies work with immaterial, qualitative data. Much like poets and artist alike.
Looking at outdoor advertisement as public art or sculptures, brings in mind minimalism and propaganda of the WW-II and agitprop poster art. Admittedly propaganda has an effect, but it does not turn people in to evil killing machines nor good citizens. It’s business-to-business communications and the scale of the campaign is intended to send the message “WE ARE BIG” to INVESTORS and the industry. Effects of individual propaganda products on citizens is difficult to estimate. Is propaganda or advertisement in a massive scale even intended to increase the sales of products or is it something corporations “must” do to validate their existence?
It could be claimed that the best companies need NOT to advertise.. And some businesses even choose not to do so. I have a practical example of in this. Once we where making a live-art production with our xxx_group in the Kallio district and one site we wanted to work in was a cafeteria called “Taikalamppu”. As I was attempting to convince the business owner that to let us do performances inside her establishment, I started with C-class producer jargon saying:
– “The performance will be shot on video and show in a gallery space (Alkovi) which is working in association with Kiasma. Your company would be shown in the contact with the Contemporary Art Museum – and the URB09 festival.. This might lure new customers to this place.”
– “NEW CUSTOMERS?! Thats the last thing I want.. Where were would they fit and I´d loose all the old ones!” She replied.
Eventually we got to do performances in her Cafeteria. But only after explaining that honestly speaking the video will be seen by some 30 people anyway. Retrospectively I understand her very well. Working to get new customers is less satisfying then providing for the regulars. Even if one is available to lure in new customers, keeping them as regular might prove impossible, so why trouble? Building a business on the idea, that one would only get a pack of occasional random customers is unrewarding and thus unsustainable (This is the reason why I’m looking for a new company). Looking at corporations advertising on media surfaces (they pay heavily to rent) from this perspective makes me think that they are constantly in struggle for their existence. Deep down they know that people don’t REALLY respect their brand and products and if they were to vanish nobody (except for the investors) would woe after them.
All this said I feel that the practice of advertising is facing some of the same problems as artist and other culture workers are. Quantitative data of sales and data gathered trough customer queries is bias and a poor way to evaluate the “consumer knowledge of the brand”. It’s much like counting visitors of a exhibition and tells very little of the art or the artist and their affect. If the world of finance is anything like the world of art I’m sure that investors don’t bother with quantitative data. When it comes to gathering, analyzing and using immaterial, qualitative data… This knowledge is as much affected by poetics, as it is by ad agency consults. And on this level we are on mutual grounds: What I say has as much affect as what they say. And trust me: Giving the city media surfaces to the usage of small organizations and socially responsible enterprises for FREE, is good business!.
Some sort of Summary
Instead of de-constructing existing advertisement imagery and mass-media imagery in general, I’m establishing a parallel stream of advertisements. This is a very difficult project. My concern is that will I be able to satisfy the needs of the small business owner. If my work would freely develop into any direction the end-result might harm the her/s business. So to be safe what I’m to make has to remain somewhat safe. Suddenly I find myself facing exactly the same problems as all the other advertisement agencies. What I’m to make has to be clever enough to appeal to potential customers in the niche target group I personally represent and to accomplish this I have be INNOVATIVE.
If I am successful we’ll exchange “certificates” with the small business. I’ll show support their business and they’ll show support for socially engaged community-arts. If they receive new customers the “Parallel Ad -project” will benefit all of the small business in the Kallio district. Supporting small local businesses is something that validates my actions in general.. By directing funds to small business entities, socially responsible enterprises, small producers.. To self employed, un-authoritarian people in general we may derail the Orwellian future, multinational corporations (with their own media channels and production facilities) are working to build.
In detail I can use this experience in future efforts of dismantling the link between city officials and the big outdoor ad companies (like JCDECaux, Clear Channel etc.). As city officials are beginning to realize that working for a vibrant and open city culture is in everyones benefit.. And capitalists are becoming conscious about the benefits of having the diversity of dozens of small companies instead of two or three corporations in their stock portfolios.. Both will have to realize that the outdoor campaigns featuring ads of only the richest multinational corporations are not working in their behalf! For the benefit of a open city; My dream is that in the future 5% of all such outdoor media surfaces will be given to the usage of small organizations and socially responsible enterprises and as a result the content of such surfaces will be diverse.
To work for this change I’m moving in a parallel direction with consumeristic life-styles. Using narrative structures and normative camera work with unorthodox contents is the game. And as we gather enough momentum we´ll ram “them” of their rails. This is a socialistic venture using marked driven production tools to reach social change, much like The Carrot Mob.
I must be careful that I don’t fall into the trap of obfuscation: WAR IS PEACE = CONSUMERISM IS ANTI-CONSUMERISM.
Originally written in Keosto.org wiki. Posted here for safe keeping and cleaned in light of “Patent Pending” text published in Rhizome 2013.
”’SIMPLE”’ (Monologue of a web-video): Hi. My name is … and I am here to share with you a way you can protect human gestures from being patented. If you don’t know about this subject, search online for “patented human gestures”. In short software companies are patenting movements a user makes when interacting with computers such as smart-phones. Technically they are not patenting these movements but the ways computers read specific “gestures”. This however means, that some “gestures” are not permitted in relation to some computers and software! This is mostly discussed when talking of touchscreens but also applications which read the users facial expressions and body-movement are being developed.
This means that some expressions of the human body in the presense of specific devices will be effected by patent laws. I think it just plain ”’WRONG”’. For one: This makes it impossible to create free software which would be used by the same movements. For two: In the future all of the expressions of the human body might be effected by patents owned by corporations! Thirdly: A new language of interacting with computers is developing. Think what would have happened if some one had patented the letter ”’A”’ when we begun writing our languages. This would have killed the development of written word.
Fortunately there is a feature in patent laws which will help us protect “human gestures” from being patented. An invention has to be original to be patented. So, I urge you to do the following: Think of a movement and something you´d like software to when it reads this movement. Make a video showing this movement and describe what this movement would do in a software. This way your video will serve as a “prior art case” which means that it cannot be patented and it will belong to the commons.
=”’AIMS OF THE PROJECT”’=
In addition to what is mentioned in the ”’SIMPLE”’ introduction, the GIMPOS project is tapping into – and researching questions of human-computer relationships and the politics of touch and movement based user interfaces. The project is motivated with the idea that if gestures made in the presence of a computer would be understood a dance, then these choreographies would be the intellectual property of their inventor. Besides making it impossible for certain companies to patent these gestures, this would develop micro-businesses for choreographers and other creative live-artist as they could be able to develop gestures for the use of software developers (and licensing them as they see fit).
During this project a video library of such choreographies will be created, business models studied and the concepts of cybernetic space researched. If you or your friends are interested in contributing feel free to use this this wiki. (keosto.org)
The project suggests that a computer creates a (on- or offline) cybernetic space around it which is comparable to any other performance space or venue. For making video of these “gestures” each creator may licence their choreography the way s/he sees fit. The choreographies are to be documented with a single camera. Gestures are to be show in front of a “neutral” background. If the maker sees fit a BW ruler (marking 5 centimetre blocks) may be placed behind the “dancer” so that the gestures may be measured. Spoken word describing the actions of the dancers is heard in the video. Thorwad the end of these videos some ideas on what this dance would enable in the computers is presented.
This project is written in [[SLP]]. (Socio linguistic programming – It had an article in keosto.org back in the day.)
=”’SOME EARLY SYNOPSES”’=
==This text is the tech introduction to the project.==
This is a video introduction to the project “Interacting with a computer using specific movement combinations (referred here as “CHOREOGRAPHS”) and gestures (referred here as “DANCE”) as input method to perform operations in software” or shortly “Choreographed Dances for Interacting with a Computer”. This project produces a collection of choreographies which a user may exercise when interacting with computers such as laptops, smart-phones or other computer powered devices. The movements and gestures of the user, referred and presented here as dance, are read by a software in the device as inputs and used to control its behaviour and interaction with the user. These choreographies are presented in video episodes and are to be considered as dance- or live- artworks documenting choreographies. Thus they protected by international copyright laws and are the creators intellectual property.
The reason these choreographies are protected by copyright is to prevent companies, which are not carrying social and ecological responsibility from patenting these gestures for use in device interfaces of their proprietary or open source software. If a license which forces such companies to carry social and ecological repressibility, is found it will be used to share these innovations to the commons. An other motivation for making these videos showing “human gestures for controlling computers” is to claim these gestures into to commons and thus preventing anyone from patenting these gestures in the future.
===Donald Duck as prior art===
As an example of this method of protecting “human gestures” from falling under patent laws is the “Donald Duck as prior art” case. A Danish inventor by the name Karl Krøyer came up with a method for raising a sunken ships by pumping buoyant bodies (such as plastic balls inflated which air) into the ship to achieve upward lift to bring the ship back to the surface. He received patents from many countries for this invention. According to the story, the Dutch Patent Office found a 1949 issue of a Donald Duck magazine which featured a story, titled “The Sunken Yacht”. In this story a ship is raised by stuffing it full of ping-pong balls. Since an invention has to be new to be patentable, Karl Krøyers application was refused in by the Dutch Patent Office. A Donald Duck episode discloses the same technique as that which is claimed in the patents.
Claiming “Choreographed Dances for interacting with a Computer” as artworks these movements and gestures will be protected by copyright. After the copyright expires these choreographies will belong to the commons. For the time being this will permit any developer from producing software which utilises these gestures to control a computer. The reasoning is that dance- and other live-art works are planned and constructed in relation to the space and site they are performed in. A number of post-structuralist theorists have pointed out that space is socially constructed. Space is a concept underpinned, simultaneously, by historical, geographical, social, political, cultural and technological significations. We argue that computers equipped with sensors working as gateways to online or offline cybernetic space produce a sense of space.
Computers equipped with sensors, such as cameras and motion sensors, enabling software to track for example the facial expressions and recognising walking patterns of the user effect her/s consciousness of cybernetic space. A computers quipped with such sensors produces a “device specific microscopic cybernetic space” around it, inside of which people are aware that they might be tracked. This phenomenon could be understood as the “presence of the computer” and is comparable to the gaze of the camera.
An example serves this argument best. As people become aware that there is a camera present they alter their behaviour. The direction where this camera is looking is not the only scope affecting people. People behind the camera are aware that they are not in the picture frame and know that their decision of “not being in the picture frame” is understood by the watcher as a deliberate sign. This sign is given non-verbally. A camera might be automated and people might not be aware if it is on or off. Nevertheless they alter their behaviour in it´s presence. The same goes for any sensor available of gathering information.
In her classic book, On Photography Susan Sontag referred to several aspects of ‘photographic seeing’ which are relevant in the current context. A quoute from this book goes as follows:
“To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed”
A derived quote from the book goes as follows “To identify is to appropriate the thing identified”.
All of these dances are performed in this cybernetic space. And software which creates “device specific microscopic cybernetic spaces” inside of which users interact with the computer in similar manner as shown in these videos is in direct violation of international copyright laws. Whether or not, gestures to control computers should be able to be patented in the first place is open for debate. Despite controversies many software and hardware companies do this. An analogy to the world of art would be that a cartoon characters may be intellectual property of the creator. But the style in which this character is drawn cannot be. In comparison, what a software does can, for arguments sake, be patented but the way a person interacts with it ought not be.
===Visual guidelines===
For these presentations it is not important to show how software tracks and reads the gestures of the user or what kind of sensors the software uses to track and read the gestures of the user. The computer is represented by a sheet of paper displaying following symbols: They eye – symbol represents the camera and luminosity sensor of the device. The arrows represent GPRS, compass and other position sensors of the device. The ear symbol represents the microphone, mouth is for the speaker, and the hair represents both touch and motion sensors of the device.
These choreographies will remain the sole intellectual property of the creator for time covered by international copyright laws. If the owner of these works sees fit s/he may license these artworks to interested parties. For documenting choreographies used in dance or other performances there is a method called Labanotation. Labanotation is a complicated movement notation system invented by Rudolf Laban.
Unlike music, where there is a limited range of notes an instrument can play, the human body can make an unlimited number of different movements or shapes. Labanotation is a complex system and using this method is expensive and time consuming. Like most performances these choreographies are not recorded using Labanotation. Instead of this these artworks are documented using video. Each gesture is recorded form two sides. This material is enhanced with absolute best method for passing choreography down from generation to generation: word of mouth.
==This is the extro shown after choreographed gestures==
This episode was a part or “Interacting with a computer using specific movement combinations (referred here as “CHOREOGRAPHS”) and gestures (referred here as “DANCE”) as input method to perform operations in software” – Project which produces a collection of choreographies which a user may exercise when interacting with computers such as laptops, smart-phones or other computer powered devices. These choreographies are presented as video episodes and are to be considered as dance- or live- artworks documenting choreographies. Thus these movements are protected by international copyright laws and are the creators intellectual property.
(The license might be different for each work. A better license (by the name of [[THL]]) for these works is being developed.)
You are allowed to share and creative derivative works of this video if copies or derivative works are made and shared for free and in free file formats. No copies or representation (screen-shots or other) of this video are allowed in other then free file formats. You are allowed to show this video, and representations of it in private. You are allowed to show this video, and representations of in public if these events promote anti-copyright/patent policies. Such events may produce revenue for either you personally or an organisation. Profit is to be used to promote anti-copyright/patent policies or to make your personal of organisations “free culture activities” sustainable.
Copies of this work are to be tagget in the following manner: In the name of this clip you´ll find a number. When you make a copy of this clip you must replace this number with an accenting number. The material Dicknson Modelling shares are referred as 0, first copies of this with the number 1, copies of 1 as 2 and so forth. You must state the original name of this work and the tag used to index it if you use it in derivative works. If you do not understand these rights you may write to ?@storijapan.net
=Help needed=
#Validating that dances and choreographs “in the presence of a computer” are protected by copyright.
#Verifying theoretical notes (found in -This text is the introduction to the project-) on the “extended on- or offline device specific microscopic cybernetic spaces”
#Fixing terminology of the theory.
#General proof-reading
#Making a video library of gestures
=Stuff already underway=
#Finding researcher or other interested in preserving human gestures to the commons (and helping with the theoretical parts of the project) :)
#Finding person involved with such software patents to validate the text on a technical level.
The text below was published in the “Resonance Catalogue” produced 2008 by the late http://www.sonance.net network. NARP is sort of happening but it’s only based on my personal relations and the “TML” was “too late when it was born”. Today (2012) the need for such is replaced with social-medias. All remaining plans to execute ideas formulated here, where shattered after the tragic passing of Simon “BINSH” Häfele the primus motor of Sonance.net.
The writer is a performance and community artist working in Finland and Estonia. When in Estonia, 2006, he met Simon Heafele at the Estonian Academy of Arts and was introduced to the Sonance.Artist.Network. Since the spring of 2007 we have been working hard with the aim of getting a system similar to the sonance artistic network up and running here in the Nordic area, specifically in the Baltic sea region and Finland. We have deep demand for a collaborative online system for independent artists, as the distances between cities and their artist communities are big due to sparse settlement. The density of population in Finland is 16 persons/km2, as against 99/km2 in Austria, and the distance between Rovaniemi (FI), the northernmost university city of the EU and Helsinki is as much as 831 km. This is part of the reason why local artist groups usually have only their personal friendships and the benevolence of the main galleries to rely on when they are setting up nation-wide or international shows.
The result of this is that productions are unevenly noticed as the capital area, due to the high density of art organisations which have control over information and so possesses the most influence in the press and general discussion. Our aim is to built an independent art production tool-kit which will flatten the differences that the unequal distribution of wealth and political capital have created. For this we are currently using the services of the sonance server in Vienna but are working towards the opportunity to build up our own local server to the Nordic region. This server will be closely linked with the sonance structures and will in time help sonances development as a cross-national collaboration tool. Ultimately the services created for the Nordic artists can be used on an international scale with the same ends, to provide tools for independent artists and communities regardless of their location or cultural and economical backgrounds.
We are currently setting up two structures which will enable independent artists to collaborate, with each other and with galleries, organisations, the media and local communities around the Nordic region. This development will hopefully enable artists to promote their work without the compromising influences of commercial service providers such as the Saatchis STUART online gallery, which because of the lack of alternatives has become somewhat popular with young artists in the north.
The first system, currently being built with the help of the sonance team, is the “Transparent Mail List” (TML). TML is a database of e-mail and other addresses of Artists, Galleries, Curators and the Press organised so that independent art producers will have tools to create their personal mailing-list in order to publish press-releases and announcements of events. The e-mail address data will be organised by regions -> cities and city areas -> individuals by profession, so that when producing an event or an exhibition in an unfamiliar location, an artist will have the same possibilities as locals do, and be able to send out press-releases and announcements to a selected audience of curators, fellow artist and members of the press. TML will also be used to inform members about competitions for public works and other institutional events on a local, national and Baltic area scale.
It is open to all but monitored to filter out unwelcome material. Typically information such as e-mail addresses are collected by galleries, organisations and by the press, and are kept firmly in their control. Not surprisingly in a sparsely settled country, most government-funded galleries, organisations and museums are located in the capital area. Often, these firmly established institutions have few if any ambitions to inform their subscribers about art event by outsiders. TML will also develop the channels of information between artists across the Baltic sea, another area where the press neglects to inform the public of art events. This situation is highlighted by the fact that even though Helsinki and Tallinn are the two closest capital cities in the world, being only 80 km apart, Finnish press and art audiences alike have trouble finding their way to openings and other events across the border.
Another arrangement under development is NARP (Not an Artist Residency Program) which will help independent artist communities to import and export intellectual capital. It is being developed for the needs of small artist communities which work at the borderline of government funding and have little if any possibilities to provide their community with outside know-how. Luckily, many young artists are more then willing to visit new cities and faraway places, to meet their peers, up to and including at their own expense. NARP aims to link communities with special needs such as programming, art management skills, carpentry, etc, with artists who have abilities in such areas. Once introduced, they can work out a solution together which will cover the travelling artist for some or all of their expenses (travel, accommodation, meals) in exchange for work-shops, lectures or other technical assistance.
NARP brings the aids of virtual networking tools to fleshy territories. It is a concept motivated by the argument that if an idea is not implemented socially it is worthless to spread it. NARP works such that the know-how of an individual in the program is directly utilised by the community providing for the artist. This way, the program both fortifies the communities and establishes solid “platform independent” social networks between individuals. In contrast, residency programs are typically provided for established artists merely as interesting locations within which to develop their own work. By working outside of the established channels of the large institutions, the program is a good platform for artists working on a grassroots level, critically and non-commercially. NARP is in a early stage and as such it is open for development. It remains to be seen which kind of interface it will have and how the program will be illustrated on a server.
Transparent-Mailing List and Not an Artist Residency Program work well together, as NARP sites and artists can be announced in the TML framework, and the artist benefiting from NARP within a community can also be introduced to TML services.We have presented some of the motivations behind why we want an independent artistic network in the Nordic region, why we believe it will fill a hole in the market for art and information, and some strategies and services we have developed for its launching. TML is at a near beta-stage and will be announced for full beta testing in early 2008. Our usage of networking tools will equip independent artists with alternative and more appropriate services then those provided by government or commercial interests. By this strategy, we intend to bypass the barriers facing the independent artist, constructed on the basis of location and wealth, and open up the field of art to be accessible to many more.
