“Feed me, so that I may feed the horses”. My Kone Foundation application in a nutshell. The text is in Finnish and available trough this link. I think this is the last time I’ll apply funding for the Trans-Horse initiative in a research framework. This marks the fifth year I’m approaching art and research funders in Finland with the same core idea. The idea is simple: To ask a horse what we should do next. If this application returns as a dud, I have to move on before the zombie-proposal consumes me. I will also have to seriously reconsider if I can continue in the PhD program at Aalto. The university has been generous by offering a few teaching gigs and I’ve also inspected two master’s thesis but there isn’t enough paid academic work to sustain active participation and involvement with the faculty. I don’t have the means to commit. The odd-jobs and gigs I manage to secure require dedication which make reading and writing difficult. If the Kone and Finnish Cultural Foundation applications fail, I’ll try to source money for a small independent publication which will summarize the work I’ve done teaching art with-and-in relation to horses. I don’t believe not having a degree is a hindrance for the work I do and I don’t think it has a severe impact on my opportunities to be employed by universities because my asset lie in engagement rather then research.
20200325
Schools are closed and kids are taught trough the web. Domestic spaces are used for remote classes and parents are made into web-technicians (I use 4-5hours a day to help in school work). Turns out our society is operated by google and microsoft. All kids have been assigned email addresses and are expected to use the ms-office365 suite and different google services. This is a really sad and shameful turnout. There are open source alternatives to all of the services the kids need and nothing to stop schools from using them. ms and google stuff is just as complicated to use. Corporations are using this situation to unashamedly establish their services as the infrastructure of all social and work related interactions.
Also turns out schools are absolutely obsessed with quantifiable results. This situation is teaching kids to perform school as a series of questionnaires and online presence which does not involve interaction. They are essentially learning to fake working. Schools in Finland should back down on their desire to “keep the kids in schools” during these times. Schools, with big class sizes and mass curriculum’s don’t really work for online learning. Learning online happens best when a student is given the liberty to decide how they pace their work and allowed to set their own goals. The schools current strategy of maintaining daily presence trough online services (ms/google) is hindering learning possibilities. Technically savvy families get the “faking working” experience with virtual punched cards and online meetings which are organized for the sake of having meetings, while other families are dropped out.
How can I help in this situation? I’ve written feedback to the schools and the Ministry of Education and Culture about the situation and asked them to give families more liberties in pacing school work. I don’t think my critique of the situation has any impact. Unfortunately it seems that our modern, corporation reliant, mass-society is combating these challenges by evolving to an even more modern and more controlled organization. This is a really bad strategy: Mass culture has no future, evolving into a surveillance society (which focuses on quantifiable performances) should not be an option. I don’t think my critique will be heard because citizens are using mostly social medias as a platform for organizing and voicing their concerns. It really feels one has to be a member of a corporation (though fb/twitter) to be a part of society! Why is our society allowing this to happen?
Pietari made a strong critique of the tone of a recent Kone foundation grant procedure. I agree with him: This crisis should not be made into a creative project and this crisis does not bring about an opportunity for change. Change happens after a crisis, when people feel secure enough to voice their fears and desires. Crisis only teaches people how to survive a crisis (or how to suffer) but it does not change people. Change requires resources, time and research. Rushing it causes people to retreat to established models. Which is why a call to use a crisis as an force to drive personal development feels like a hostile act. Why isn’t anyone offering their support for arts unconditionally? This would be a really good time for such a gesture.
20190223
Returning from my one month Kankaanpää Art School teaching gig with good vibes. I only had five students but they were committed. I’ll prepare a summary of the course in Finnish for next week.
Send an application to the Kone foundation community art triennial open call.
Met with Binna Choi by introduction of Frame. We had a fun chat about workshops (as art), metalwork, crafts and horses.
Preparing to swap my Zoom cdr70 to a QuNexus and build lid-locks and a handle to my eurorack case. It looks very cool. I still have a clock divider module in the works. I only bought a pcb for it and sourced the components.
I have untill Tuesday to finish my review of the Oodi Library’s Other Intelligences events (mentioned earlier) for Mustekala mag. in Finnish. Barely enough time for fact checking.. I’ll visit the library again on Monday.
20180416
Wearing my spring jacket which I surface treated using a boiled linseed & beewax mixture. Spring rain doesn’t penetrate the cotton cloth but the downside is that the jacket smells faintly like freshly cut grass. The wax-coating made the denim fabric darker and the jacket looks cool. Droplets of water stick to the surface, I feel like a cowboy or sailor. Tuned an old hoodie too, lengthened its sleeves and replaced its backside with a lighter fabric (for better ventilation). The jacket and the hoodie work well together.. Only the front and top of the garment is waterproof and the backsides allows inter-garment climate control.
Collected synths and controllers for our Oodi modular presentation from Pasila library. I received a Make Noise 0-Coast and a Arturia Beat Step Pro. They are the first instruments of the Oodi modular system and I’m the first person to loan them! We will use them with Viktor at Kontula Elektronic to demo services that Central Library Oodi studios will offer for library users. I have week to learn how to use them. I’m now a (fake) synth-expert, demoing instruments which I don’t own. I hope someone will make musicmesse-style awkward interview of us.
Preparing for a live radio interview regarding our work (Neighborizome) at the Kone foundation Lauttasaari mansion. I’ll have 5min of airtime to introduce people to Performance Architecture (I’ll refer to Alex Schweder if possible). Used the little time I had to build a case for “new mansion culture”.