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20230302

Finally got my Leploop v3 midi out figured. In retrospect the solution would have been possible to reach just by following the manual. But with all the other beautiful kinks of the device it was difficult to trust my judgement and intellect. I reached out to the designer Tonylight and got a simplified guide.

Build a midi 5 pin DIN to 3.5mm mini-jack adapter with the specifications: Midi 4 to jack tip, 5 to jack sleeve. Attach the adapter and set Leploop CLOCK to EXT. Tap the tempo using Sh1 button and external devices will follow Leploop. In this configuration external midi can also be used to control Leploop and the clock sends out sync acting as a midi trough. RATE CV IN controls the LFO rate with external CV (but not the tempo).

My gray literature curiosity with synth manuals and tutorials is being challenged by esoteric documentations such as the Leploop zine and Whimsical Raps techno poetics. I think Leploops underground aesthetics, which desperately reach for clarity but suffer from bad spelling and stuff lost in translations are more credible then Whimsical Raps aestheticizations. The latter present learning as personal growing and sensitization. But I prefer learning which hurts, which conveys a desperate desire to connect yet fails to. The Leploops manual is cringey but I like it because it make me appear smart.
tworoundrobins addresses the same mystery element of sound-devices in a recent should we demystify gear? monologue.

Developed a most rhythmic city soundscape assignment for a group of curators/artists visiting Helsinki as a part of Kunsthal Nord field excursion organised by Tina Madsen. Assigned them to send me field recordings with the promise I’d use their clips for making DnB. I’m chopping up the sounds they send and used them as samples in schollz amenbreak script for Norns. And replied  back with 40sek-1min DnB riffs bundled with suggestions for dodgy bars around the Kallio district. Took them to Sompasauna to work&bathe and introduced them to Miina Hujala (by chance to Otto too) & Alkovi.

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20230125

Visited Oodi Maija-sali for the SOLA Post-Festival Club. Came late, left early but enjoyed a cinematic performance by Minerva Juolahti. They stood in front of the audience in a dark room with their back leaning against a huge black stage curtain and held a mirror which redirected a projector light beam towards the audience. An odd drone was heard and the mirror trembled a bit as they held it. The reflection which they reprojected onto the floor in front of them shivered like a tongue trying to keep still. The projector showed a slow film of intersecting squares, which corresponded with the shape and size of the mirror. One of these beams remained in place, constantly directed at the mirror. The black curtain folds bent the moving white rectangles, allowing gradients to form on the curtain velvet, which made them appear as floating metal sheets.

This scene lasted for quite a while. The floating metal sheets passed the screen and only the beam directed at the mirror was left. Juolahti then turned the mirror and directed its beam to a disco ball which re-reprojected the projection so that the entire room and everyone in the space was touched by miniscule square rays of light. The projection square then began moving upwards disappearing outside of the screen. As it rose Juolahti followed its movement with the mirror they held and as it went over their reach, they lowered the mirror and suddenly a hairly drone whipped across the room. The sound was revealed emanating from the mirror sheet. The shivers of the reprojections had been produced by a solid transducer attached to its back, which revealed the drone and the reflection being of the same.

I would have loved to listen to the gig with a light to sound device. Ilpo Numminen played the Oodi-modular and presented it as an “instrument” which was a delight. The gig explored feedback loops and krell-like patches. Looking forwards to visiting SOLA on Friday too for gigs by Tomutonttu and Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen. (The gigs where last May)

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20201106

Returning from Anti festival. Our performances (four two hour long spring tours, one featuring local spring water advocate Sirpa Vuori) and the Water Bar during the event gala were well received. Our collaboration with Tea was smooth and were kindly supported by Thomas Berra. I particularly enjoyed the energy we channeled during the 6h Water Bar session. I completely lost myself to the work and we moved around our bar-table in unison – Staying concentrated on our individual tasks: Preparing cocktails from water which bar customers prompted from us. I think we served over 20 liters of drinks (half of which was from the Poukama spring).

Here is a recipe for Moon Mist which was one of the most coveted drink (Discarded Gravestone with Salt did well too). Moon Mists is the taste of the moon crust as it is presented on Geology of the Moon article. We used 2g of substance per 1l water (Carbonated with 65 bars of pressure to illustrate a spacecrafts entry on Earth). The mount feel was sandy.

  • Quartz stone powder (as a supply for silica) 50%
  • Soda-can tab shavings (Aluminum) 24%
  • Limestone (Chalk) 15%
  • Steel tool flakes (Iron) 7%
  • Hit of Magnesium oxide 7%
  • Touch of Titanium white paint (Titanium) 1%
  • Hint of Sodium oxide 1%

We also served: Tap from Genova (Multia spring seasoned with a big chunk of copper), Poukama Spring (raw unfiltered wild water), Faux S. Pellegrino (recipe here), Finlandia Hall Carrara (marble powder from Finlandia hall with Faux S. P.), Wäinö Aaltonen Travertine (travertine from Wäinö Aaltonen museum wall with Faux S. P.), Berlin Wall Carbonated (Ppowdered Berlin Wall with Faux S. P. and salt), Ammonoidea in Limestone (fossil powder with with Faux S. P. and chalk), Sokos Hotel Puijonsarvi Tap, Private Home on the Rocks, Distilled ’n Chilled and Discarded Gravestone with Salt

Also participated in a TAIKE seminar on Performance as Public Art (my contribution is available as a recording ) and before your shows I gave a short interview for Yle. (Edit:  I was told that spring-water restoration was discussed in Savon Sanomat in 17.11.20 and 22.11.20) A busy production and an intensive week. Currently working for Aalto university with Tina Madsen. We are teaching a course called Art, Environment, Education and has little over ten participants. Feels nice to teach. We will be experimenting with Deep Listening next week (as defined by Pauline Oliveros).

Mark Fisher: Capitalist Realism (2019) Philosophy Guy. An easygoing video for staying on track with communist fantasy.