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Had the pleasure to meet Kaisa Luukkonen by chance and got a rundown on the Göteborg performance art and independent gallery scene. One of the biggest differences is that in Göteborg artist run gallery boards are formed trough invitations, which makes it difficult for the newly arrived to enter the scene. The arrangement is said to forster commitment but by Kaisas account the board member activity level is the same as in Finland. The more secluded system produces exhibition-venues-as-scenes and their curatorial programs feel repetitive. Joined Kaisa for the Gathering of Fables exhibition opening by Marja Patrikainen at Oksasenkatu 11. After learning about Göteborg I appreciate Oksasenkatu even more. Kaisa had made a interesting observation, many of her dyslexic friends are fascinated by open reel-to-reel tape recorders. This makes sense for some reason.

Learning everything I can, as fast as I can about the Raspberry Pi. Got a nice script running Raspberry Pi – Auto WiFi Hotspot Switch Internet (2017-) which scans if there is a home-wlan available and if it fails to find one, starts the device as a wireless access point. Works well and makes me confident to imagine using the device in field conditions (leaning about sensors in hopes of building a wild water analysis kit). Also tested RaspAP but couldn’t get it to work. Nethood – DIY Networking (links) feels like a good resource for building networking systems on the device.

I need to share files locally and I’m planning to use Piratebox for that. I’ve used it in the past, when sharing documents to students and even translated the Finnish localization of the android app (Reveal: I translated “Sininen” [Blue] into “Uusi musta” [New black] as a hommage of Paula Lehtonen #0000FF is the new #000000 exhibition). An other option for a localized network is MAZI Zone. I’m really digging Networks Of Ones Own too:

Networks Of Ones Own is a para-nodal periodic publication that is itself collectively written in a network. Each of the episodes is thought of as the ‘release’ of a specific software stack, contextualised in its specific practice. The series aims to document a set of tools, experiences, ways of working that are diverse in terms of their temporality, granularity and persistence.

Build an audio amplifier using a pre-assembled pam8403 unit. On start up it draws so much power from the Raspi that I get a throttled=0x500005 error message. I’ll attempt to use a regulator circuit to limit the temporary voltage drop. Used a 3Ω resistors as a “inrush current limiter” on the +5v rail which supplies power to the amp. I tested various values starting from 10Ω but 3Ω seemed to work well enough.

Got Conky working using these tips (made my own config for it) and build a PWM Regulated Fan Based on CPU Temperature to keep the device healthy while on for long. Also revived a 2012 tablet battery using these tips (and flashed a new rom to use it for VNC). Patchbox OS by Blokas.io should support Raspi 4 soon and I’m hoping to install it in a dualboot arrangement (using PINN). For now I’m satisfied with fiddling in Pure Data Sunvox (which feels responsive and fun to use).

Managed to grind Finlandia Hall marble or Chalk stone from Porvoo to a fine powder, to corrode it into tap water it my high pressure carbonator. Tastes chalky. Salvaged the stones from an environmental artwork on the Malminkartano hill called The Winds and The Points of the Compass (1998) Hanna Vainio. I was under the impression that all of the white stones on the hill were marble leftovers from the previous Finlandia Hall outer shell conservation effort. But apparently the marbles have been mixed with chalk stone pebbles. I think the darker samples are marble as they should be more sensitive to the elements. I should get some confirmed Finlandia hall marble to run some experiments.

Experimenting with DIY orthopedics. Made arch support shoe insoils using 100% silicone and cornstarch (for fast curing). Not perfect yet, I’ll have to make new casts to confirm my findings. I’m trying to combat anti-bodybuilding effects of precarisation (mentioned earlier) by emerging as a plastic-bodyborg.

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Rasmus Hedlund Luminös Klang (2018). A good vibes summer techno track with a video by Paula. The track has a strong Maurizio vibe and the road trip music video is in baltic-style.

A Kulttuuri ykkönen episode on the power of curating. Jussi gives a good description on what culture institutions are: Factories which reproduce the past. This is why we should not expect museums, stages etc. to react to pressing political issues. They are specifically designed to keep art and life separate, which is why they cannot serve decolonial, radical identity politics (they can only create representations of these movements). He also offers an honest description of the work of curators: It’s only partly about curating.

Settling to New York City. The Fciny crew welcomed our four member family warmly. We sorted our two room apartment so that the kids have their own room. The apartment building has a gym in its basement and it’s located very close to the Grand Street in Brooklyn (Control is right next door!). Had to buy a new phone, my Oneplus3t LTE doesn’t work here. Got a Samsung 7J Prime (it’s scrappy). All of the food is coated with sugar, everyone I’ve seen has an iPhone and our apartment air-conditioner is leaking water (had to pry it open to drain it). And it’s all great! The city is more spacious then I expected.

I want a Rakit Analogue Drum Synthesizer kit.

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Apparently pifm which I tested last year only works in RasPi2 and I’m now trying to get RpiTx to stream FM trough USB audio in (I bet that for what I need it would be easier to buy a RasPi2). RpiTx is very advanced but I can only get it to broadcast audio files over fm (here is a simple tutorial). Unfortunately I can’t get it to stream live audio trough my USB audio interface. Following rpitx-app-note‘s I learned about:

arecord -c1 -r48000 -D plughw:CARD=Device,DEV=0 -fS16_LE - | csdr convert_i16_f | csdr dsb_fc | csdr bandpass_fir_fft_cc 0 0.1 0.01 | csdr gain_ff 2.0 | csdr shift_addition_cc 0.2 | sudo rpitx -i- -m IQFLOAT -f 100000

But it is dependent on libcsdr, which I can’t get to compile on RasPi3 because “If you compile on ARM, please edit the Makefile and tailor PARAMS_NEON for your CPU.” and I have no idea on the RasPi3 PARAMS. I found some hints on what to do (but it seems that those are set for RasPi2). Trying to sort the things out by installing gnuradio and other tools as recommended in a different tutorial.

I’ll make yet another clean install of Raspbian and continue in the evening with PiFmRds. I’m using Etcher to write the os on the sd card, which seems to work well. I should learn how to clone the sd card.

Visited Lovi ambient event at Lava klubi and saw a good gig by Rasmus Hedlund and Paula Lehtonen. Their collaboration yelds great results. Paula designed video using material from their trip to Tasmania and Rasmus crafted a field of sounds consisting of oceanic & low jungle rumble tones. Spotted a Make Noise Photogene in use. The gig was constructed out of some 8-10 distinct soundscapes, which were supported by videos from different locations.

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Visited an exhibition after-party at the Ingredients-space over the weekend. The event was a celebration of Irina Korina’s work (On display at Alkovi) and hosted by Arttu Merimaa & Miina Hujala. Saw Paula and had a pleasant chat with Arash Moori a sound artist who is working at HIAP. We exchanged notes on the experience of playing music live and how sometimes one can get the feeling that there is something (or someone) extra inside the sound.

Today I participated “Kollab talkshop on local activism” event at M-Cult. Riikka Kuoppala & Thomas Martin presented their Maunula-movie project, Mikko Lipiäinen gave a short overview of the Transformative Pulp project (which I’m a big fan of) and Emilia Palonen talked about local democracy developments in relation to the Maunula-house.

Made videos for the upcoming performativity lecture:

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Yesterday I met with Andrea Kovács from the let-it-be art agency together with Paula and today Frame organized a meeting with Mami Kataoka. I’ve been talking non-stop about horses. I’m still sick with a flu so I was sweating throughout the talks.