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20161031

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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20161029

​An incredibly cynical video detailing the future of urban life and warfare made by the American military complex: Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity. 

A nifty text on cultural imperialism by Pilvi Porkola What is ‘esitys’ on the University of Arts “How to do things with performance?” project blog. She is critical about Richard Schechner’s “Performance Studies. Introduction” which I’ve been studying in preparation of our upcoming Art School Maa course. 

I should make a kettlebell out of Snellman’s head. 

Visited SIC 2 gallery spaces opening exhibition The movement that didn’t have a dog and a stick… The exhibition was curated by Mikko Kuorinki and Diego Bruno who have been working together on a project they call Ruler. My favorite work was “Joycean Society” (2013) by Dora García. In discussion with Topi Äikäs I came into the conclusion that the exhibition was fuelled with sincere trust for the arts. Topi and I had difficulty in participating in the feeling because we know that the production of such exhibitions is always messy. Messiness is the opposite of Accountability. I have trouble trusting mess (even if I know that art is at it’s best as mess). 

We chatted about the 9/11 events in USA. Topi gave an honest account on how he felt after hearing about the attacks. His honesty cleansed the air and I suddenly remembered feeling suppressed delight. At the time we had been both excited about seeing the imperialists twin towers collapse and celebrated the attacks against the high standing symbols of global capitalism.

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20161028

If I’ve understood “Situated Knowledges: […]” by Donna Haraway correctly, she claims provocatively that the ones oppressed by the system do not understand the system better than the oppressors (I believe she’s arguing in this manner in an effort to motivate women into engaging with “hard-sciences”).

“To see from below is neither easily learned or unproblematic, even if ‘we’ ‘naturally’ inhabit the great underground terrain of subjugated knowledges. […] The standpoints of the subjugated are not ‘innocent’ positions. […] ‘Subjugated’ standpoints are preferred because they seem to promise more adequate, sustained, objective, transforming accounts of the world. But how to see from below is a problem requiring at least as much skill with bodies and language, with the mediations of vision, as the ‘highest’ technoscientific visualizations.”

Derrida insisted that all human codes and cultural expressions are “writing” and that everything can be understood as text. This means that bodies bashing against structures and seeking affordances, are in fact “reading” our culture. From this perspective the ones that are exposed to the violence of our system have more access to to it’s structures! Do victims understand crimes better than criminals?

Interesting video Black Market International Documentary (2005).

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20161025

Alex Schweder discusses “Performance Architecture” (.pdf).

In 2009, after a decade in the gallery, I began Its Form Will Follow Your Performance at Magnus Muller Berlin, a project that used the gallery as a point of departure but extended into the homes of ordinary Berliners. As a way of starting a renovation, I would meet interested parties at a desk in the gallery. Here, we talked about their apartment for about an hour. […] Our session would conclude with us agreeing on a new way that they would perform their house. This could be as simple as moving a plant into the hall during winter and not bringing it back in or sitting on the roof thinking about potential.

He cites Trisha Browns work.  I found her dances on youtube and liked Accumulation (1971). Watermotor (1978) is boring but the slow motion effect is inspirational. Schweder presents one of the structures he’s made with Ward Shelly on a video.

Also found the movie on Conical Intersect (1975) by Gordon Matta-Clark.

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20161024

Preparing for the Art School Maa: “The Cruel Radiance of What Is” course which we’ll host together with Miina Hujala, Arttu Merimaa and Mikko Kuorinki. Updating my approaches to performativity.

Performative acts against precarity!: “There is no freedom that is not it’s exercise. Freedom is not a potential that waits for its exercise. It comes into being through its exercise”. A brilliant talk by Judith Butler – From Performativity to Precarity. The talk also gives a glimpse on what kind of worker’s right issues will emerge in Europe as a result of the refugee situation: “How does the unspeakable population speak and make its claims?”.