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20210810

The Non-Sitting-Stuff-Not-About-Horses-vol0  publication is based on a collective online study-journal which was written during the spring of 2021 by participants of the Horse & Built Environment course for Aalto University (UWAS-C0071). Group members met weekly at the Kaarelan ratsutalli stables, discussed horse & animal matters and observed horses while executing various stable chores. During a six week period the group succeeded in tiling a floor in the main stable, demolishing an old storage, planting grass and performing a plethora of other maintenance tasks. The group’s activity intertwined with the daily routines of the stable and was periodically interrupted with horse handling exercises, lectures and discussions.

The publication is co-authored. It is inspired by early 1990’s horse hobbyists zines (see Ihahaa mag. in useful links). Group members have used the online document for collecting observations and to discuss different inputs & articles. Texts could be written anonymously and authors were tasked to create guidelines for managing the document. The text is wild: It was presented as a Pasture where group members could wander seeking nourishment and as a Compost which shows how different inputs and shared moments have been processed and digested. The publication is a snapshot to the thinking which the groups activities and engagement stirred up. It is raw –in the best sense of the word– including creative writing, diary entries, article reviews and links to inspiring media.

We hope you will enjoy this decay.

Dormalen, Gaudé, Harouny, Jalasaho, Keil, Kiviaho, Kolehmainen, Pietari Kylmälä (lecturer, editor), Lecerf, Moberg, Nimetön Nyan Cat, Nurmi, Polkinghorne, Rosina, Visuri, Eero Yli-Vakkuri (lecturer, editor) & Zhao

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20210802

Visited Ambient Arkipelag 2021 in Tenhola over the weekend and heard Lau Nau & Minea perform in an old church.

Made a well planned build of the Trigger-to-Switch Project by Thomas Henry. This time the circuit is used to power a 12v water pump when the unit receives clock pulses. Works well (and way cleaner then my previous attempt)! Now I have an artificial artesian spring which follows my bpm in my disposal.

Spend a night at the Kurängen spring. Slept in a hammock. Or didn’t sleep rather, woke up at 5 to cycle home due to thunderstorm. Performed restoration work on site by removing a worn canvas from the spring base. The canvas had been set (in the 90ties I suspect) to keep the water clear but over the years naturally eroding top soil, decaying plants and other debris had rendered it useless. It was essentially blocking moss & other plants from establishing roots and preventing sunlight from accessing the bottom of the spring. The mud below the canvas smelled rotten (and was possibly a reason for the faint rotten smell of the water). I’m hoping that by planting peat and moss, which I’ll harvest from a swampy patch higher up the forest, I can establish a natural filter for the to the spring base. The filter is needed to keep the clay and mud settled. There is a lot of grey clay in the spring and I took some with me for experiments. I removed mud and all the debris I could catch during the night.

The spring was revealed over a meter deep. I suspect it has been the “eye of the swamp” which the long ditches in the little forest valley have been dug to dry out. Also found the car mentioned in Metsäauto ja lähde: miete maastoisesta suunnassa-olemisesta [Forestcar and spring: though on being on track in the ] (2015) Marko Leppänen. Dreaming of cutting a piece of the car panel for a spring water related electronics build. It feels prestigious somehow and disturbing it might be a bad idea.

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20210730

Learning scripting with Norns. Motivated to find a method for using CVpal as a poor-crow (canary maybe?), for clocking modular and possibly providing synced lfo’s or s&h’s. The topic has its own thread but so far the utility is a desire. I succeeded in making a proof of concept utility using tmi. It uses the tmi as sequencer which produces notes ramping up from lowest to the highest (which CVpal permits c2-c6) and each note has note velocity data which ramps up and down (127-1-127) to produce a saw like lfo. Each changing note produces a gate which can be used for sync. Not perfect for syncing but works for modules which expect a rising edge. Got it running parallel with goldeneye and felt like a guru for a while. I’ll test other scripts too for fun.

Collecting resources for a stand-alone mod (or tmi additions).

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20210725

Build a Alex Rice Piezo Preamplifier following Zach Poffs documentation. Seems to work well with my i4 instrument input. I’ll have to build a few shielded piezos to get a better understanding of its quality. The build was relatively easy and I sourced a matched 2N3819 jfet pair locally (should have found a more sensitive couple but went for 11,6 & 11,7 Idss). Also… Should have fitted the 1,5k (R3) resistor I used with a 1-2k trimmer for balancing the transistor bias (the balancing process is detailed in the Cortado preamp documentations). But I’m happy with this as is… Perhaps for the next build.

Fitting a Neutrik NCJ6FIS combojack in a Hammond 1550A case took filing but worked well in the end. Added a belt clip from an old Würth tape measure so that I can keep the unit on me during performances. A neat and small package! I’ll etch some descriptions (using ferric chloric acid!) on its workings to the case before its done. I’m dreaming of building a stereo-pair which could be fitted to the two inputs of my tascam dr40. Found a good resource for all sorts of audio/electronics stuff Elliott Sound Products (the piezo preamp looks promising) maintained by Rod Elliott.

Getting more comfortable with Norns. Digging Cheat Codes and other grids optimized devices using my secondhand launchpad. Also coping with script tweaks by accessing the device over maiden. The forum introduced me to a bizarre programme Argeïphontes Lyre which can (for example) chop up files into desired lengths (working with the Trans-Siberian Railway -Sound Archive recordings using goldeneye).

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20210719

Talked and played waters at Kiilan äänipäivät. I had a wonderful time, stayed up way too late and made new friends. I enjoyed all the performances. Particularly liked Ahti & Ahti (perfectly lowercase guitar tremors) and .oO ensembles interpenetration of the four scores they had commissioned. Out of these a poem by Pauliina Haasjoki was my favourite and I also liked Leena Kelas piece titled “Ode to Soil and Elegy for Extinction”. In their interpretation the ensemble focused on distance, perhaps to draw emphasis to our experiences of the phenomenon of extinction. The performers were really far (across the wheat field) from the audience. Three small black dots in a vast plane. They begun executing the score but what they actually performed was impossible to see or hear. Suddenly they produced a lot of noise banging metal barrels and right after a sound clip of generic audience applause was played. The clip was treated with a phaser effect and slowly morphed into a squarewave bleep. This amplified our the distance to the performers. The field felt like a stadium concert. From a far the loud noises they had performed were effected by the wind and atmospheric gasses, which made the noise they produced wavery. Phaser effect morphing to squarewave was a nice discovery. The score for the piece (revealed later at an after party at Kiilojentalo where we hear two compositions by Pauline Oliveros, interpreted by the Truckfuckers) was very detailed and revealed that the drumming segment was produced from the prompt “AIM FOR JOYFUL CACOPHONY”.

I performed with the Kiila village spring (60.2372, 22.8633) which is a plentiful water source that produces drinking water for the village. It is situated between two fields (wheat and rye) and produces a small creek heading towards the sea. The spring opening is protected with five big concrete rims (covered by a plastic lid) and the enormous overflow (from under the rims) was covered by willows. Roope said the spring has a chalky taste… I think there was clay in it too. I think there were over 50 audience members and I had to use the full range of my voice to be heard. Felt messianic to shout next to a flowing creek. Water Lab (version 2) operated very well using batteries. I chained two lantern 6v’s (for 12v) to power the VC122 Gieskes which produced a small water jet by interpreting the amplitude of the voices the system produced (I’m pushing my usb power supply to ~410mA! and the only error is occational drops in the output when there is no signal). I polished my diy allflesh pads before the gig, felt like a proper way to prepare (also made a special t&r unit). I passed the map which the director of the Kurkijoki village museum drew us to the audience but I didn’t receive it back. The revolutionary dance poses and stretches were well received and the entire audience partook in my efforts. Being inspired by the The French Revolution, Pt. 1 & 2 podcasts by SRSLY WRONG I added French revolutionary poses to the mix. They worked great as bodies are off balanced and facial expressions amplified. See the statue for the French Revolution in Maubeuge as an example. The legs are arched back and if the riffle would be changed to a guitar the pose could be from a stadium gig. The revolutionary stretches feels like a worthy physical activity to explore further (also reminds me of Shadow Boxing Revolution, 2010).

Handed out a few copies of our (by Tea Andreoletti, Thomas Berra & me) Tasting book which is now released as a part of Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto’s Shift Key: Protection Spells program curated by Native Art Department International (Jason Lujan and Maria Hupfield). Bundled the booklet with a plastic knife which the audience could use to tear the sheets open and to perform one of the recipes in the book (also had some Sriracha sauce available). Tasting is the process of comparing two or more ingredients to each other (2021) is available for view for two weeks (and after this on youtube).