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20220221

What is ecofeminism, and why is it necessary in the fight for climate justice? (2022) Julie Gorecki. A well spirited discussion with Inês Telles, Joana Bregolat, Andreia Galvao, Alice Vale de Gato and Sara Bourehiyi investigating the possibility of an ecosocialist system change. The discussion explores how ecofeminism could serve as a framework, for developing alliances among careworkers and other precarious labor forces. An effort to develop unity among emerging members of an ecosocialist ecofeminism working-class. Motivating and fun to listen to. Also works a nice recap to what metabolic work and ecofeminism are.

Arradio exploration is progressing steadily. The ak-modul-bus.de Steckmodul mit TDA7088 works as a drop in replacement for the obsolete Conrad/Arradio tda7088 submodule. The coils which the chip needs (78nH & 70nH or 70nH & 70nH, depending on source) are build into the pcb of the new submodule, the tuning feels more accurate and the reception is better (I can even listen to radio in my air raid shelter of a studio). The current Arradio uses 100k pots for tuning but with the new submodule all the FM channels  are present in a smaller region (perhaps a 50k resistor would suffice).

Feeling frustrated with the sonics of the FM domain. Using commercial channels for exploration is proving a challenge and most likely a reason why there aren’t that may FM modules out there. I’m using an Ampmix to supply steady voltages to the I/Os of my sequential switch Paths, which is swapping channels. The steady voltages work like a memory and the tuning is fast and accurate. There are occasional glitches (perhaps some slew is needed for ease).  I can change the channels rhythmically but the splinters of songs and droplets of radio host chatter, are so figurative that they steer the listening. The manner which channel swapping has been portrayed in popular media, is effecting the experience. I feel like a kid, playing a DJ on an old radio. Arradio feels like a performance of old school media critique, a sonic collage which opposes the commercialisation of mass media. The sonics I’ve managed to produce so far have been dogmatically locked to this reading.

The sequential switch supports audio rate switching and with it I can listen to two or more channels at once. Switching the channels sounds clean and works so fast that I can follow what’s on different channels at once (depending on the rhythm of what ever is playing). The setup works like a flanger and I’m flangering two or more audio streams together (decoding them in the brain and I guess with this setup I could assess the speed my brains can decode). I tested a low pass gate (Apature) to shape the FM audio bursts. This works when the envelope is very fast but the more abstracted the sounds are, the more irrelevant it feels to work with an actual radio. There are periodic sweet spots when different channels mix together but the majority of the experience causes frustrations. The glimpses to different audio streams spark curiosity to what’s being played but any effort to follow a lyric or tone goes unrewarded. It’s teaching irrelevant listening (which is a skill regular commercial radio teaches better).

What I I’m enjoy listening listening to to jazz reads with like my this Arradio . .

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20220215

Habermas on the legitimacy of lockdown (2022) Peter J. Verovšek. A defence for Habermas recent outbursts in which he supported restrictions of individual rights, to fight the pandemic. The article offers a useful analysis of their political thought concerning the current state(s) of exception and recaps the critique Habermas received. Their approach was said to summon a “biopolitical Leviathan”. Verovšek explains that in Habermas view “democracy requires that ‘all decisions of consequence will depend on the practical discourse of the participants” but this does not mean that individuals power should be unrestrained, rather that public institutions which are validated by democratic processes, will by their design guarantee that the voice of the people is heard. I think this portrays freedom of speech as an institutionally maintained platform for peoples assemblies. The freedom of speech, we see Convoy protests in Finland manifesting, get defined as advocating “anarchic, unfettered communicative freedom”. If I read it correctly Habermas believes that digital networks which enable opinion formation and mobilization (if need be), constitute the public sphere. This is why it is not necessary to “Convoy” to be heard (as people are already “heard” trough the networks they engage with).

[Habermas’s] social and political theory is rooted in the fact that human interactions can be interpreted from two different and incompatible viewpoints: the internal perspective of a participant in a ‘lifeworld’ and the external, ‘system’-based perspective of an observer. While the latter has certain advantages, most notably in governing efficient and materially productive market relations, Habermas worries about the ability of such functional, system-thinking to ‘colonize’ the lifeworlds of individuals by encroaching too far onto their daily lives and everyday interactions with others.

[…] prioritizing economic considerations (by privileging individual private rights) over the protection of life is precisely such a form of colonization. […] he noted that the ‘language of “value”, borrowed from the sphere of economics, encourages quantification. But a person’s autonomy cannot be treated in this way … there is no “choosing” one human life over another.

I think joining a political party (no matter the size) which grants its members a forum to debate and form collective statements is a Habermasian-move.

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20220214

Built an Arradio module over the weekend with a new friend I met trough muusikoiden.net/tori. I posted a prompt to borrow an Arradio module to study its circuitry which led to a process where we managed to source parts and pcbs to build a few units. To confirm my earlier notes, the tda7088 pin1 to 3,3v power line via 33k on a switch (currently 30k) does indeed work as a channel latch mechanism and toggling it changes the tuning behaviour. We changed the original design by adding polarity protection diodes 1N5817 (instead of the ferrites, but still including them) and I added a 1k resistor to the output (cut the trace on the pcb and soldered a 1k smd resistor as a bridge). Neither additions might not be necessary but I feel more confident exploring the circuit with these changes. I’ll proceed to test the unit with different radio sub-modules and possibly designing a new pcb layout. The current unit also has a I/O switch which I’ll need to study too… It cuts the power from the FM receiver sub-module and I’m not sure if it has (or needs) surge protection circuitry.

Updates:

Drilled a hole to the faceplate to accommodate a sub-mini switch hooked to toggle the latching mechanism. I tested if the circuit “Scan” feature could be activated with a button (3,3v to pin15) but this only produced glitches. I think the tuning potentiometer control voltage should be squeezed with a resistor for it to work (or even disengaged). The Conrad “UKW Retro Radio” schematics which the sub-module is based on show a 200k resistor between the tuning pot(s) and the RE2 trace which lead to the “Reset”/pin16 (perhaps serving as a voltage divider?). The “Reset” also works for manual tuning. The new “retro radio” board wiring examples show a 1m resistor after the tuning pot(s). I should test the minimum voltage the chip needs for manual tuning and add a voltage divider accordingly. The “Scan” is on pin15 and I think a constant voltage at at “Reset”/manual tuning prevents it from working. I’ll test having 0 voltage present at the RE2 trace will enable the “Scan”.

I don’t have any radio reception in the basement I work in, which defeats the purpose of having a radio. Spend a few days building antennas. I had most luck with a 2x 75cm dipole antenna made from insulated scrap copper but I’d have to set it up 10-15 meters out to our housing companies backyard, which might cause suspicions. Touching base with the radio-hobbyist scene.

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20220211

Eco-phenomenology and the Maintenance of Eco Art: Agnes Denes’s A Forest for Australia (2021) Clarissa Chevalier. A nice introduction to discussions, and summary of approaches to land-art conservation. Chevalier refers to William Cronon who argues that approaches to the natural world which portray it “as Edenic or sublime uphold problematic colonialist ideology” (in stark contrast to what Enis Yucekoralp writes concerning the sublime). The article offers a through investigation to the condition of the artwork (building on the work Sarah Hicks and Gilbert Jock started) and calls for a change for how we appreciate land- and environmental artworks.

I argue that there is value in allowing A Forest for Australia to be gradually shaped by its environment without human intervention, as the trees extend past the planned geometry of the original planting. As Jock and Hicks note, A Forest for Australia offers a rare glimpse into the increasingly extreme weather of Australia, in contrast to the manicured suburbs and lush city parks of Melbourne. […] I believe Denes’s “A Forest for Australia” highlights the contradictions of artificially sustained urban green spaces in the face of extreme weather conditions induced by climate change.

I’m flattered by the quote from my contribution to the “Forest Dreams” seminar last year: “As performance artist, Eero Yli-Vakkuri poetically states […] approaching the uneven growth of Denes’s forests allows us a mental exercise in cultivating our appreciation of decay, of ‘failure’, of our unmet expectations of nature.'”

Turns our marble can be made into co² using sulfuric acid: From Marble Dust to Soda Water (2021) Henry Levin. I could use a part of the Finlandia hall to drink the other.

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20220202

Ville Haapasalo is more valuable for Finnish national defence than a F-35A Lightning II fighter jet. #ॐ Relationships keep peace.

Finns are the biggest consumer of coffee globally on a per-person basis – But we are not actually drinking coffee: We are drinking tea, in the shape of coffee. Cafeterias serve coffee in samovars. Big heated pots stands still for an entire working day and the drink is served too hot to taste, mixed with milk and sugar before serving. This makes our coffee taste like not-coffee. It’s bitter, weak and served in jugs – Consumed to keep warm. We are wasting valuable resources, expediting global warming while at it. All this just to proof that we are culturally different from Russians.

The saddest thing is that we are wasting good ingredients for our not-tea. The President brand for example, a blend of African and South-American variants, is a great for slowly brewed drips – When the beans are roasted lightly. But to survive a day in Finnish-Samovar Coffee pots without turning bitter the blend is often roasted dark which removes the earthly, borderline grasslike tones from it (I think the blend has some yirgacheffe in it). It makes no sense to prepare fine variants of coffee to be spoiled by trying to incubate them in a samovar. At best the drip coffee served in our cafes tastes like americanos, so why not go straight for espressos?

Our coffee culture is tea culture. Joining NATO is a bad idea. Putin is an ageing dictator and things are not looking good but NATO is not a peace organization. The only route for peace is a route towards peace.