Mikko accidentally recommended a really interesting lecture about plastics and petrocapitalism by Heather Davis The Queer Futurity of Plastic (2014).
20160913
I’ve been sick with flue for a week.
Felt better yesterday, worked together with Viivi Koljonen on a Grey Cube Gallery artist documentation we made in Italian during the spring. We made a raw cut together and now she’s working on the translations. On my way home I started feeling sick again on went to the supermarket to buy a treat. In my weak state I suddenly bought a a 16kg kettlebell. The kettlebell is a big surprise. It’s an incredible concentration of metal and cultural practices (My favorite move with it is The Turkish Get-Up).
I guess I’ll have to make an artwork out of it/with it. 2007 during my time in the Academy of Arts in Tallinn I felt guilty about buying coffee in take away cups daily. My friend Daniel Kupferberg urged me to “make art from the expendable cups so that the feeling would yield something productive”. This approach will serve well with the kettlebell.
Later surfed online and bought a Honu Cage v.2 camera cage (used for 86€). I can now replace my shaky and worn out Dörr stabilizer grip thingy.. It’s intended for shooting low-angle skateboarding glides and under the load my current system (Gh3/lens, Tascam dr-40, Røde VideoMic Pro, cheep wireless AudioTechnica units and a YongNuo YN-160 led lamp/battery) it wobbles in the wind. The Honu Cage v.2 will stabilize my kit and serve as a hub for a shoulder rig I plan to build.
Today I met with Arttu Merimaa, Miina Hujala and Mikko Kuorinki to plan our upcoming course “The Cruel Radiance of What Is” for Art School Maa. The educational collaboration had a shaky start last spring but this meeting restored my believe on the project.
20160419
I got issues with the Discogs database. I met Mikko Kuorinki, talked about the Record Singers empty record cover and learned about Discogs. I entered the artwork into the database over the weekend and celebrated that found a good company. The database enables users to create lists which help to build context for oddballs like the empty record cover. There are lists for “Freakshow: A museum of strangeness” etc. packed with similar inspirational titles. I found Christian Marclays “Record Without A Cover” in one these lists. Inspirational stuff (Now I want to make an LP too).
I entered the empty record cover to the database and contacted some of the list maintainers to suggest it as an entry for their virtual collections. Unfortunately this effort led to a user initiative to remove the empty record cover entry from the database. This was done based on the fact that it is “Not an audio format”. It was tagged “not eligible for this database” because it’s was seen as a piece of cardboard – not even a piece of vinyl or other audio carrier.
I complained about the decision. Record Singers group has presented the piece as a record and that has to count for something! It is a radical departure from the traditions of audible music and makes silent recordings (and compositions) of its time appear superficial. As it was removed it means that the record will remain in the same lonely fringe of music it was made for. I’m feel that the vote on the records validity was too quick but I understand the desire to keep discogs entries in the audible spectrum. I don’t think there would have been many entries like this, so it wouldn’t have threatened the integrity of the database.
It remains in a purgatory state inside the database as only people who have the direct link to the entry can access its: https://www.discogs.com/release/8389026. I felt sad and made a song about my experience with Discogs to cope with the tragedy.
20160411
My first talk for Ihme-days is online (in Finnish). Audio is a tad low so here are the notes for the talk.
Accidentally met Mikko Kuorinki at a Cafe. We went on to talk about the Record Singers (group) vinyl cover designed by Jorma Puranen in 1974. Kuorinki was interested in getting a copy so I gathered my guts and called Mirja Airas to ask if she had any left. She has some copies stored and her friend Marjatta Hanhijoki will bring them to Helsinki later this week! I’ll give copies for Puranen and Kuorinki too. This is the same vinyl cover I’m tasked to write about for the Artsi-museum catalogue.