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20231005

Returning from an intensive tour with waters. Between 22.-24. September we complied a project with Tea Andreoletti commissioned by the Instytut Kultury Miejskiej organisation for the opening of their new facilities at Kunszt Wodny in Gdańsk. For the opening event, we prepared and bottled 300 flasks of “Wypij Morze!” (Drink Sea!) carbonated mineral water which was served for guests from a “Bar (Słono)Wodny” meaning (Sea)Water bar. In all we produced 250 litres of the bespoken drink and supplied the audience with tap waters from around the city. There were a lot of performances, architectural light shows and sound/music at the opening event… Most of which referred to the sea and waters in different ways. The building is at the site of a historic watermill.

We prepared the project during the summer and we visited the city in August for research. The recipe of Wypij Morze! was drafted on the first trip in a meeting with Institute of Oceanology PAN scientists (Tymon Zielinski, Tomasz Kijewski & Aleksandra Koroza) and the Gdańska Infrastruktura Wodociągowo-Kanalizacyjna (GIWK) staff, who are responsible for the city drinking water affairs. The project was curated by Anna Mitus and produced by Anna Kwiatkowska (IKM) who handled both the production and the intensive field excursions, which took us all around the city between the strange shoreside of Rewa (where we collected seawater for consumption) and suburbs of Urunia. Natalia Cyrzan (IKM) worked on the back end of the project establishing and facilitating exchange with GIWK, the Institute of Oceanology and a tip:tap, a Berlin based NGO also working on a (tap)waterbar initiative. In addition to the performance we also took part in a breakfast seminar discussing sea & drinking water affairs and hosted a workshop for children where they could design bottle labels.

Ingredients for Wypij Morze!

1l/g Instytut Kultury Miejskiej Tap Water
NaCl (Table salt) 2,4
MgSO₄ (Epsom salt) 2
NaHCO₃ (Baking soda) 1,1
CaSO4 (Gypsum) 0,4
Mg(OH)2 (Magnesium hydroxide) 0,4
Ca (Calcium) 0,2
KC₄H₅O₆ (Cream of Tartar) 0,1

Our project explored the diversity of tap waters, water as commons, infrastructures’ relationship with domestic spaces and how changes brought about by rising sea levels will affect the latter. Gdańsk has a complex history with water (featuring sewage innovations), wells, mills and canals which were introduced to by GIWK.

For me and Tea this project was a continuation of the previous Waterbar/Spring -excursions but the scale of what we prepared for Gdańsk was grandiose and depended on a close exchange with local artists. This facet of the project was elegantly planned and organised by Mitus. The Bar (Słono)Wodny, which served as a main stage of our performance was built to the main hall of the Kunszt Wodny building. It was a geology inspired bastion-bar-counter built for the project by artists Krzysztof Surmacz and Daniel Sobański. Wypij Morze! was served to people in three different fancy glass bottles which prints were designed by artists Alina Mielnik, Kamil Kak and Karol Polak. Each produced their own design but they all contained the same drink.

Mielnik’s illustration offers hope for a submerged city, Kak’s bottle design performs the sinking of Gdanśk on every gulp and Polak produced a semiotic atomisation which broke the heavy content of the drink into a digestible mess.

At the Bar (Słono)Wodny, Tea shared their skills in tasting and we presented the raw minerals of Wypij Morze! explaining it to be “the taste of the future”. In exchanges with guests we explained that the drink had “magnesium for stamina so that we can hold your breath under water” and that it had extra calcium to “make your bones into beautiful fossils”. These macabre sales speeches worked as a segue to imagine the current state of the Baltic, contamination and future of coastline cities. The Institute of Oceanology predicts that Gdańsk may be swallowed by the sea as continental ice sheets melt. Inviting people to drink sea, as a responce to climate change gave me gothic-horror-thrills and the narrative was backed by an installation with various mineral and high pressure gas equipment placed on the bar counters. During our August trip we carried the carbonisation tools with us when exploring the city, appearing as scuba divers.

At the bar we also handed out tap-water drinks, the most popular of which was “Domowa od Ani z lodem” (Anna Kwiatkowska’s home tap) and “Jaskinia Batmana (Orunia)”, which was inspired by our visit to the Stara Orunia Reservoir, which currently serves as a bat dormitory. Our August visit to the reservoir was facilitated by GIWK who provided us with a detailed history of the city’s drinking water infrastructure. “Domowa od Ani z lodem” drink was the centrepiece of our bar-installation, illuminated by a led lamp and luring people like a lighthouse. A simple and effective flopping of public and private spheres, the added tension of all the waters being prepared by the same public infrastructure company.

The bar also included a soundscape which consisted of processed sounds of carbonisation (benjolin&twinpeaks&delaynomore!) and wave-drinking sounds. Tomek the light/sound designer is also to thank for the look of the bar. Anna M. also published a text on the project later on which is available in Polish.

Returned from Gdańsk on a bus (26h) and prepared an installation for Drifts -festival which was led by artist directors Giovanna Esposito Yussif & Soko Hwang. On the opening day on Saturday I presented the “Our Grand Water Treatment Plant” installation composed of ceramics, minerals and pumps. A centre piece was a makeshift water filter system which circulated tap water through natural stones collected from the Kurängen spring, altering its composition. I also prepared pebbles for people to taste. The modular installation was exhibited on old water pumps found at the “Filterhall” room of the Museum of Technology in Vanhakaupunki. The filterhall is the site where the drinking water of Helsinki was supplied from before the Päijännetunneli was opened. I guess the theme of the festival called for our own water infrastructure initiative.

Our Grand Water Treatment Plant was built from the same building blocks as the installation at the The Surface Holds Depths -exhibition at Lappeenranta Art Museum (curated by Miina Hujala) and wooden frames first used as props for the “The Forest Spring Affair” performance in Sipoonkorpi late 2022 . One frame showed ceramics made from wild clay collected with the Nomadic Kiln Group (Monika Czyżyk & Elina Vainio) and I also included a ceramic whisk which housed a bacterial cellulose membrane (which removes oil traces from the water) that was prepared under the supervision of artist Alexey Buldakov.

On Sunday I gave a lecture performance discussing drinking waters using the same notes as during the Kiilan äänipäivä performance in 2022 (I think I’ve now performed everything I can imagine with this piece) and I also supplied the audience with 22 liters of Wypij Morze! during the festival.

Drifts succeeded in inviting a lot of great artists and managing large crowds. My absolute favourite was bela from Berlin who hardcore screamed through a theatrical act. The sound system of the space (or perhaps the curatorial plan) favoured descant tones and most concerts utilized some kind of whipping clash-crashes. This served bela well and Kaino Wennerstrand’s phaser effected acoustic guitar riffs too! Most of the sets were didactic and deployed aestheticized glitches for the spoken word bits. Most performers used automated computer processes. There was no rage in analog form. The bass was good too but most complex and interesting events took place in high registers.

An Tul was a touching new act for me. They performed outdoors with intensive charisma establishing a stage by their mere stances. They showed humour with out joke and offered intuitive nature interactions (a flock took their set as a cue for starting their winter migration). I had very high expectations for Nkisi on Sunday because I just learned about their work from a Techno at the End of the Future, Episode 1: London podcast. The set had a positive-gabber vibe but I didn’t get on a rhythm high.

There was a screening too. The Otolith Group’s “Hydra Decapita” (2010) was great to see and served as a perfect finale for my water-tour-vibes because they utilized short wave radio tones in their artistic documentary detailing Drexciya (Our Bar (Słono)Wodny soundscape also had a SW segment!).

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20221117

Fun electronics projects for solarpunk: Build a Solar-Powered Music Synth (2022) Iffy Books which is inspired by Ralf Schreiber solarsoundmodule (1996). Schreiber’ step-by-step manual on the latter beautify, as is the guide for suneater which links to Mark Tilden’s and Eric Seale’s work on solar motor designs. I’m planning to build a water-pump and sensor element for a water-purification machine, which could react to changing water levels & quality and user interactions. It’s supposed to become a fountain of sorts. Desperately keeping it non-technical, so that the tech part (which currently motivates me more the then conceptual function of the machine) won’t take over how the machine is interpreted. Ad-hoc’ish buggy gadgets like the suneater seem to work in the favour of looser interpretations. They have agency.

Also acquired a kintsungi kit to restore earthenware ceramics which were prepared during the previous Experimental Clay Workshop 2. The metals used in the technique might facilitate electronics too. Perhaps a porcelain cup as a electra distortion unit? Unfortunately the bomb-shelter studio is too cold to for intricate work.

I’m working on too much text and my neck is sore. I have art-reviews to edit, accidentally made a short column for a political journal and I’m scheduled to start working on an article on sustainable art residency culture soon. Also working on a institutional critique campaign which will likely be announced later this month and preparing a horse course for TeaK. Had a short lecture in the Fine Art Academy too (and examined a thesis there too). The students were expecting a talk on ecological art, so I had them form a bus row from chairs and took them on an imaginary road trip on Suuri Rantatie, chatting casually about horses. This year I’ve taught or had lectures in Aalto university, Fine Art & Theatre Academies, the Kankaanpää Art School and co-organized two workshops.

The book “Performance Art in Practice – Pedagogical approaches” (Worthwise 2022) edit. Aapo Korkeaoja, to which I submitted an essay four years ago is being launched next week in Turku. The text I wrote for it is more relevant to me now then when I wrote it. Here is a n extract which starts my text

I have always had issues with authority. This family tradition was passed on to me by my mother. I get offended when people tell me what to do and for this reason studying has been and still is challenging. Luckily Finland is a welfare state, and in the nineties primary school teachers were idealistic. They believed that everyone is good at something and their trust convinced me that my dissident attitudes would find acceptance in the field of art.

I try to pass on similar hopefulness when I get the opportunity to teach. In the past I’ve attempted to assert control over creative processes and I’m learning to get more comfortable with uncertainty. I fear that open processes end up strengthening existing ideas and do not enforce change, which I think is mandatory for combating the hostility of present societies.

Prepared a new category in-memoriam to the Ore.e Ref. site structure (root folders also include praxis and media). Added a celebratory 15 years in operations speech for Jesse, scribed to the marginal of a Casio 3769 manual.

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20221029

The Evening of Artificial Spring Water Tasting at the Finnish-British Society r.y. turned out great. Tuukka Asplund was a welcoming host and the audience of the event open to encountering taste.  People shared their drinking water related memories and tasting histories. We explored in-house waters which were collected from two different tap of the building. To my surprise people experienced the kitchen tap to be more refreshing then the toilet tap water. As I learned from Tea during a previous performance, the toilet tap usually supplies fresher water then the kitchen tap. This is due to the frequent flushing, which constantly clean the pipes. Moving water is fresh – We gotta keep moving. The evening folded into a comfortable seminar, a chamber presentation of sorts. I ended up detailing my activities at the Kurängen Spring (I had brought with two of the carbonization / mineral extraction tool displays built  last month) and opening the waterworks relationship to land-art conservation, which is a topic I’ve not yet explored publicly.

Joined Outi’s blessing ceremony today. The priest conducting the blessing asked us to foster “good speech” as an opposition to “hate speech”. The ceremony was held in a church, from where we were led to restaurant Kosmos by the Bad Ass Brass Band. It felt great to dance in their trail. It was raining and we formed a bicycle bock of the parade with other wheeled friends. A fitting rite to commemorate Outi’ life and legacy. I will keep the mourning flag at the Ore.e Ref. site for a week still.

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20220926

The Nomad house program for Mad House Helsinki, curated by Tea Andreoletti & Daniela Pascual was organised trough an open call. Artists were invited rethink their practice by first imagining an audience they hoped to reach and then to develop performances for them. I wanted to meet all the habitants of the Degermossa road, which leads to the Kurängen spring deep in the Sipoonkorpi forest. I wanted to work with this group because I imagined they could offer me insight of the spring and the surrounding nature.

I visited most of the habitants of the road over the summer and interviewed them regarding their forest-relations. Invitations to this event where mailed last month and I delivered event brochures last weekend featuring a partial map. In the brochure I indicated that I’d meet with them at the end of the Degermossa road. People didn’t have to sign up in advance and I was very concerned whether any would come. It was ecstatic to see people arriving towards the meeting point walking the narrow road. Their participation felt like a gift. I offered people lunch, neatly packed in paper-bags and after a short introduction we hiked trough the forest.

The event was titled “The Forest Spring Affair” and I think I succeeded in the goals I set for it. Eventually 11 audience members came with me to the spring. The youngest audience members were 10 and the elders close to 80ties. The audience was chatting all thought the walk, they were curious and shared personal details on how they had moved to the Sipoonkorpi area and how their houses were connected to the surrounding nature. As a detail, one explained very exhaustively how water collects to their yard after rain, and forms a pool which is deep enough to swim in. An other told that their property had a spring, which in closer examination was revealed to be a well.

After a kilometre hike in a pretty but rough terrain we reached the spring… Which was dry. I’ve been visiting the spring frequently since 2019 and this was the first time it was void of water. There was no drinkable water in the pool. Viljami Lehtonen and I had visited the site the previous days, to transport our equipment to the site. Because the pool was dry, I took a bus to Tuulensuun lähteikkö in Vantaa and collected spring water from there. So, at Kurängen, I served the audience spring water collected the previous day from a different spring. This was a bizarre turn of events and people were humoured about it.

One artistic objective of the performance was to offer a ceramic vessel, made from the clay of the spring – Into the spring. I visited the spring early in the summer and tested the arrangement. As the earthenware ceramic jug (prepared during our Nomadic Kiln workshops) was submerged in the water it made a high pitch squealing sound. I wanted the audience to hear this sound which I presented to them as a “clay song”. When I poured water from Vantaa spring into the container… It did not make a sound! People were expecting a noise and as the vessel was silent, one noted: “It’s the wrong water”. I used the clay jug to serve people drinks, and after this I gave a short introduction of the exhibition and people walked around investigating the area.

Here is a recording from a previous session at the site:

I presented the audience displays of mineral water related equipment, rock samples, maps, watches (reference to different time-scales), videos and pottery made from the Kurängen spring clay. I also exhibited the fabric I removed from the spring basin last year as an wall rug and Viljami  treated us with a wet-ambient concert.

People were really disappointed that there was no water in the spring but understood that drought was to blame (the wells on their backyards had dried out too). The drought might give them motivation to visit the site later on. The display worked well and I think that as people were not expecting to end up to an art event, they behaved in a relaxed manner. Viljami started the concert while people were discussing. They told each others stories about the forest, about encounters with wildlife and dogs. One member wanted to show to the group how they had handled a close encounter with two unleashed German shepherds. As there were kids in the audience they went on mimicking how the dogs barked, and presented their choreographic retreat – How they walked backwards away from the dogs territory, keeping eye contact with them, while making angry faces.

An other told of their encounter with a predator. While hiking they heard a deep breath behind them. The sound prompted them to immediately walk home, almost running trough a swamp. Reaching home they learned that a young bear had been sighted close by. An other had pictures of bear footprints to show. Some audience members investigated the felt material I put on display and concluded that the fabric was natural. I will have to test it further.

It was delightful. The event lasted for two hours, people ate their snacks and had fun.

As the event was not framed as a “performance” people took over and entertained themselves. I introduced Viljamis gig as a “concert” but the weird looking modular setup possibly did not look at all like a musical instrument and the audience didn’t understand what was producing the sounds (if Viljami had a violin people would have behaved differently, the modular-synth instrument does not have similar authoritative appeal!). They possibly assumed they were playing a recording and kept on interviewing Viljami as he was playing. Viljami handled this really well, chatting with the curious while performing. A modular synth system in a forest, manifested unexpected low-key punk-ish aesthetics. It brushed against expectations of what a concert is and helped in keeping the event horizontal.

This experience built up to a bizarre revelation: Because people were not expecting an artwork, they made the event theirs. But it can also be that the event reinforced existing behavioural modes. I’m not sure if people were far out, out or in of their comfort zone. I’m not sure where I was either. It was weirdfun for everyone involved.

The event was a logistical challenge and an art-infrastructural spectacle. We carried the six art displays, built to fit neatly in banana-cardboard boxes to the site. We also transported a pair of Genelec speakers, a power-station (720 Wh!) and a modular system (which hosted the Benjolin I built last year). All of the equipment could be transported on one go. The boxes could be carried using a custom shoulder mount. The kilometre hike trough the forest with speakers, batteries, art and what-nots was a roadie-delight. The demands overloaded us and we didn’t experience fatigue: The event beat my expectations in every scale.

Below is the initial introduction to the performance from the Mad House programme.

Finland does not have any wilderness and we are better off without yearning for it. What would “wilderness” be like? Every tree, branch and stone in a forest is owned and used by someone. A forest is a site of negotiation and the noises we hear in it are proposals. The traces forest creatures and bypassers leave behind define borders between habitats and species. Accessing, passing and working a forest requires that we confront others. The confrontations can be scary and life changing. If you are interested in engaging in swampy-forest-negotiations, I invite you to visit a spring located at the border of a natural reserve and the emerging city. I will primarily work with citizens living closest to the spring but if they accept, we will share details of these encounters with broader audiences. The events will be organised deep in the forest.

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Institutional critique has successfully problematized for whom are the spaces of art accessible and safe for and ultimately for whom is art. What is the class of people who enjoy stuff on display? Utilizing this approach to environmental matters and questionging what is nature, yields interesting result. For example: For whom is a spring for and is “drinking water” a desirable category?

Change is natural and as long as there is production, there will be new material. There are always new creatures which benefit from change and even participate in bringing it about. This approach is a branch of the ecosocialist concept of second nature by Bookchin (quoted below) which deems human activity natural by aligning it with other evolutionary processes. As an addition I insist that all manifestations of intellect (or rationales) are equal and maintain that animals form institutions (and that institutions are animals). A horse stable needs all intellects to become.

If one goes beyond that notion of nature as being more than just that which exists, we are talking about the biosphere. And when we talk about the biosphere we are talking about its evolution. Otherwise the word “nature” becomes so big, so promiscuous as it were, so “universal” as to become almost vacuous. It becomes the being that is nothing.

So we are talking, when we speak of a natural world, or when we speak of the biosphere, we’re talking about evolution. And it is always evolving.

When we no longer rank materials on the basis of how natural or man-made they are, it is revealed that human labour is the only constant which we can identify causing harm. Instead of evaluating the environmental impacts of what we define as “waste” (by analysing how materials we produce, such as plastics, change other than humans), we should approach labour itself as the waste. It extracts to sustain human values. All work is preservative, it seeks to halt change, to combats erosion. #ॐ

I now think that all environmental concerns are aesthetic: Nature will always find a way – But when they begin a process of adaptation, they change into something I cannot classify. The terror I feel facing climate change is revealed as a tremor at foundations of the ivory tower I’ve constructed: The position from where I’ve safely classified and framed my relations to others from.

Seems that non human life adapts to change and when it does it super exceeds my understanding of what is natural. It might be that survival is ugly. The (climate) change I’m involved with is a change in values, a change in what is deemed beauty. I can see desperation being normalized and crying emerging as art.

There is an odd bitter (or class-aware, which is which in this turmoil?) tone to the question “what is nature” and “for whom is nature”.  For example, there are currently numerous Safe the Baltic Sea -campaigns, with celebrity enforcements and support from business patrons. They want the people to keep the “sea clean”. When a business patron speaks of saving the sea… I’m left to ask for whom and what is sea.

I don’t have access to the sea they roam nor the clean they speak of. These are synthetized hyperobjects of sorts. The modesty etiquette these folk enforce, taints me like an oil spill. I’m not motivated by the cleanliness the patrons and their celebrity friends are calling – Particularly when their lifestyles and merchant ship are the root of the cause. Their campaigns are waste.

We can return to campaigns, after the fruits of all labour have been distributed fairly. I think this is a continuation of an Ore.e Ref. slogan from way back: “Let’s make de-growth fun!”