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20180524

Pori Art Museum has published a report on the Creative Commons and Art seminar which I participated in with Kaino and Kalle Kuisma. My talk is recapped on pages 10-12 and I’m very pleased with my contribution. I claimed that “Artists do not contribute to the commons – They claim phenomenons from the commons” (artists taint phenomena and mark it as their own). I also claim that skills are production tool (for artists) and shed light on the ideological origins of Ore.e Refineries (and the COOL 1.0 license).

Working on our Ihme-days presentation with Heini and Leena, packing stuff in preparation of my New York visit, preparing next weeks Horse & Performance course with Pietari and writing a lecture/presentation for expo2001∞ (organised by Daniel Kupferberg) events at Kunstraum Argh15 (I’ll give “An Introduction to Horselogical thinking” over skype or wire). Aaand.. Learning how to make cheesecake.

Flashed Face Distortion Effect is interesting. Wonder if could be reversed: Images of faces would be distorted so that the faces that flash would appear normal.

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20180331

Sound of Work: Blacksmith is linked as a “sound publication” on the Finnish Society for Acoustic Ecology website. It’s right next to publications made by Meri Kytö – Which is very flattering! Her article on modern cities as acoustic spaces (Moderni kaupunkilaisuus akustisena järjestyksenä 2011) was a very influential text when I worked on the Hear and There+ project for Ihme-days.

Also discovered a EU funded labor themed audio archive project Work with Sound (my favorite sound is Pump). There is going to be an international conference in Tampere in June Exhibiting Sounds of Changes. I send them a proposal for a gig!

Send a grand-application for Frame. Asked for 500€ to have my Land- and Environmental Art Conservation article translated into English. I proposed to make it into a A5 size booklet (like Gastroeconomy 2014) with bw illustrations (like in Reseptejä Kemistä 2013).

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20171113

Wrote a detailed summary (in Finnish) of my art-camp contribution for 12-18 year old kids from Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna children’s art schools. Added links to Peggy Pierrots talkshop-guidelines and referred to Poste Restante.  The title “Postructuralism for Kids -lecture” brings a smile to my face.

Neighborizome project development is in a mid development crisis. Nothing threatening but we need to find more sensible ways in to work together. We drafted a budget for next year.. If everything goes as planned we’ll publish a booklet and host a miniature performance art festival in the spring of 2018. Things will be confirmed next week.

Through this collaboration I’ve come to understand of my personal shortcomings as a project manager. Instead of engaging in negotiations which would be rooted on clearly articulated opinions, I tend to continue addressing questions I have issues with for as long as it takes for the group to address them the way I prefer – This way I inadvertently assume indirect control of the discussions, without clarifying and assuming responsibility for my intents. This style of management is rooted in collective low budget production culture (typical for performance art in Finland) where members have strong creative opinions and they don’t have the resources to challenge their beliefs. When issues are continually re-address the aims and shape of the artwork (or project) is address as a series of tasks which fit within milestones and deadlines (instead of creative intents and visions). As a result the project will be lead by the person who invest the most in task solving and this seldom makes for good art.

Vili Mustalampi performed well at the Kom-theater sound night at Vuotalo. I haven’t listened to the recording yet. I think the Mitä kuulu+ (for Ihme-days) & Kutsu projects which focused on the changes in city soundscapes are now complete. I’m not completely satisfied on how things went. The 48min documentary I made is a tad too long and unfocused and unfortunately I haven’t found anyone who would be interested in publishing it. I should share it more boldly to people I imagine would like it.

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20161207

Visited Ihme-days cocktail party. Came late but managed to meet with Jonna. Had a fun chat about bread with Otto Karvonen.

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20161128

Visited Hybrid Matter symposium at TeaK last Thursday. Jennifer Gabrys gave a talk concerning animals as sensors. She referenced projects that had embedded animals with sensory technologies to collect data on weather conditions, migration routes etc. The approach is of interest for our Trans-Horse project. We’ve investigated the possibility to set the horse’s views and environmental requirements as a premise of urban planning in hopes of crafting more environmentally engaged and versatile environments. Gabrys approach was critical and she argued the majority of animal aided data is used to confirm human perceptions. She is currently working in a project called citizensense.net. Her talk gave me the idea to use the horse care-journals of the Mounted police of Helsinki as data to study city development!

Steen Rasmussen gave an interesting talk about BINC economics (bio-, info-, nano- and cogno.). His talk was a useful reminder of the historical importance of the middle class: The empowered, wealthy and democratic middle class of the last century was a unique historical glitch and automation of labor is it’s biggest threat. He was optimistic about 3d printing and other “new” manufacturing technologies and urged the audience to engage with new technologies open mindedly. Unfortunately many new technologies categorically renunciate agency of the makers. This renunciation is embedded in modern worldviews – Factories and 3d printers are equally bad! There are no new technologies.. New tools fuel the same old colonization. After the symposiums I came across the concept of Critical Making which I’ll have to study more. Critical Making seems to fit many Ore.e Refineries projects neatly.

On Friday I joined a dinner organized by the Union for Rural Culture and Education. The dinner completed my involvement with the Grey Cube Gallery project. I was seated next to Päivi and sound artist Petri Kuljuntausta. Kuljuntausta was kind enough to share field recording techniques and motivated me to continue with sonic experimentations. We talked about the Ihme audio-guide project I completed last spring and he had some ideas on whom to contact concerning the future of the project. I had to leave the dinner early as I rushed to Turku. On the buss I read some of Kuljuntaustas texts on sound art. He has used a KaossPad in his live setup.

In Turku I met with Jesse and we made 232 separate machine/tool sounds and two binaural recording at his smithy (The binaural equipment is on loan from Circus Maximus). The recording went as planned and we worked on site for eight hours. The majority of the sounds are high pitched and we’ll possibly make additional recordings next year. Jesse had the idea of fitting the smithys floor with piezo microphones, so that we could hear the bottom end sounds. We’ll likely call this sample-pack “Sound of Work: Blacksmith vol.1”. I’ll demo the sounds for Jesse next weekend.

I’m meeting students from the Kankaanpää Art School online this week to discuss their upcoming graduate exhibition and art projects. Also met with Antoine Pickels concerning possible Trans-Horse engagements next year.