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20210905

“The White Exhibition” at Emma museum caused a scandal during the summer but I haven’t read anything about it since. Artists Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Mejlvang aimed to explore whiteness trough a vast museum exhibition. Their text We can’t believe we still have to protest this shit (2021) is provocative and offers thorough insight to their artistic aims. I like what they are after and the look of the ragged flags in the exhibition.

The exhibition is another step in our ongoing quest to question and reject old hierarchical patterns so as to create spaces of inclusiveness. In a world of dichotomies, of Us and Them, we find it urgent to unify, to define a common We, a global solidarity. To start all over again.

Soon after the exhibition opened an article Emma-museossa puhkesi kiista tanssijoiden palkoista ja työajoista [A disagreement in Emma-museum over dancers wages and work terms] (2021) Pekka Torvinen revealed, that four performers who had been commissioned for a durational performance had been in contact with the Trade Union for Theatre and Media Finland (Teme) because the contract the museum had offered was unfair.

The exhibition artists had developed a performance, which was centred on choreographies related to maintenance. The performances were structured with tight schedules, similar as factory work and required daily presence by the performers. Hesselholdt & Mejlvang described the performance as the “heart of the exhibition”. To cut cost the museum sought to have the performance executed by students, who were attached to the show as trainees. As the working conditions and the function of the performance was revealed, the students organised and sought to make their contract just. I think they were really brave to do so (send them a compliment over email). They wanted a reasonable fee and I think they also wanted to be acknowledged as artists.

The article by Torvinen portrays the actions of Emma director Pilvi Kalhaman in a very negative light. According to this source Kalhama insists that their plan to use trainees was motivated by a desire to offer young artists a foothold in the field of art. They also argued that as the choreographies were not planned by the performers, an artist fee for the performers would have been unreasonable. Feels weird… Particularly in an emerging post-covid reality. The artists need the performers, who need the audience. The entire art affair insists that all parties participate equally. It makes absolutely no sense to pay a performer less then choreographer (or the audience).

As I understand it, most of the performers walked out from the production but I’m unsure what happened to the performance. I would like to know how Hesselholdt & Mejlvang felt about these debates and if the series of events had an impact in their praxis. Did this scandal motivate them to explore the conditions of class, capital and wage-labour further? Did the event effect their understanding of whiteness, does it have even more shades now? Interestingly the fee the artists were offered is close to the hourly wage of museum attendants. How did they feel about the entire debate?

The exhibition artists are using a picture from the performance as the front page of their website and comments on the exhibition performance documentation are turned off.

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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).