Posted on

20171113

Wrote a detailed summary (in Finnish) of my art-camp contribution for 12-18 year old kids from Hyvinkää and Hämeenlinna children’s art schools. Added links to Peggy Pierrots talkshop-guidelines and referred to Poste Restante.  The title “Postructuralism for Kids -lecture” brings a smile to my face.

Neighborizome project development is in a mid development crisis. Nothing threatening but we need to find more sensible ways in to work together. We drafted a budget for next year.. If everything goes as planned we’ll publish a booklet and host a miniature performance art festival in the spring of 2018. Things will be confirmed next week.

Through this collaboration I’ve come to understand of my personal shortcomings as a project manager. Instead of engaging in negotiations which would be rooted on clearly articulated opinions, I tend to continue addressing questions I have issues with for as long as it takes for the group to address them the way I prefer – This way I inadvertently assume indirect control of the discussions, without clarifying and assuming responsibility for my intents. This style of management is rooted in collective low budget production culture (typical for performance art in Finland) where members have strong creative opinions and they don’t have the resources to challenge their beliefs. When issues are continually re-address the aims and shape of the artwork (or project) is address as a series of tasks which fit within milestones and deadlines (instead of creative intents and visions). As a result the project will be lead by the person who invest the most in task solving and this seldom makes for good art.

Vili Mustalampi performed well at the Kom-theater sound night at Vuotalo. I haven’t listened to the recording yet. I think the Mitä kuulu+ (for Ihme-days) & Kutsu projects which focused on the changes in city soundscapes are now complete. I’m not completely satisfied on how things went. The 48min documentary I made is a tad too long and unfocused and unfortunately I haven’t found anyone who would be interested in publishing it. I should share it more boldly to people I imagine would like it.

Posted on

20161006

Found some text concerning on spiritualism and electricity. “The Spiritual Telegraph and the relation between body and electricity in Spiritualism” is an overview on how science of electricity was used foundations of a new spiritualistic movement. “Spiritualism and Electromagnetism” offers a detailed look on how scientific concepts and terminology was used by some spiritualistic practitioners.

Visited KOM-theaters “Sound Night” (Ääni-ilta) at Vuotalo. The event lasted for over 90 minutes and was structured around contributions by local art/culture actives and organizations. Some parts of the show felt superficial.

The Sound Night was build around interviews they’ve conducted through the year. It felt as if all of the informants they’ve talked to had portrayed Vuosaari in very emotional manner (both negative and positive). The theater crew had chosen the positive approach to investigate the sites history. The Sound Night was fixed on the idea of Vuosaari as a happy village which had been masked as an urban district. They tried to portray the sites mythological past and contemporary soul. The problem is that suburbs renounce the concept of a soul – Suburbs are about movement. The unifying character of suburbs like Vuosaari is that they are transitional and fluid areas. They are constantly being rebuild and populated by new groups – They are modern.

Towards the end we sung a Vuosaari song the crew had composed. The song feld similar to the horrible municipal songs nationalistic artists composed for their districts, around the time Finland gained its independence (Vuosaaren maakuntalaulu). The Helsinki-model cultural funding program is guiding the team’s focus specifically to the Vuosaari district. This is a very limiting frame for cultural production. I’m interested to learn how other Helsinki-model funded institutions have solved the issues.