Tumblr, reddit, twitter, facebook, google docs… All forms of cloud-based computing are\u00a0contemporary consumerism. It’s difficult to remember\u00a0you’ve paid for the materials\u00a0and the design of the screen you look at. And that what you experience is being measured\u00a0and sold further. You are not using software \u2013\u00a0The engineers who made it are using you. The development of software is fuelled\u00a0by a\u00a0need to capitalize all\u00a0untainted resources and who ever enters\u00a0the consumer’s mind first will yield the greatest profits. We are granted access to operating systems, because corporations have convinced investors that they quantize our minds (This is also why corporations present\u00a0modern art in their office lobbies \u2013 These paintings are evidence\u00a0of the conquest of the unconscious).<\/p>\n
Assisted in a\u00a0Mad in\u00a0Finland<\/a> movie project over the weekend.<\/p>\n 10 years ago\u00a0I was\u00a0angry\u00a0with performers who have\u00a0backgrounds in circus defining\u00a0themselves as contemporary artists (This was around\u00a0the time when Cirque du Soleil<\/a> became popular in Finland). My anger was silly. I had not seen many circus acts\u00a0and my opinion\u00a00n the\u00a0artform was based on clich\u00e9s. I was just establishing myself as a\u00a0professional and\u00a0felt threatened with this change. When looking at the fine people from Mad in Finland working on their\u00a0movie together with\u00a0a\u00a0professional film crew,\u00a0I suddenly remembered those silly\u00a0angsts.<\/p>\n As skilled and gifted performers enter the contemporary art sphere, unskilled and ungifted performers might\u00a0lose their ground.\u00a0<\/span>A<\/span>rtist who perform out of a compulsion to change the world and <\/span>s<\/span>how\u00a0their dirty\u00a0bodies out of necessity (their bodies are the only hulls\u00a0they can reach, touch and motivate to move) will be\u00a0reduced into “content creators”. Skill\u00a0factor will\u00a0squat the contemporary\u00a0art sphere (This was also discussed\u00a0with\u00a0Esa Nickle<\/span>).\u00a0<\/span>I have to rethink how I make art. I won’t be able\u00a0to maintain my praxis for long by showing\u00a0how the artist’s body adapts, fails and is being broken in\u00a0laborious\u00a0tasks, conditions of labor, through media\u00a0technologies, elements of nature, animals etc. <\/span>The standards are changing. <\/span><\/p>\n We talked about this with some Mad in Finland artists. One\u00a0had backgrounds in gymnastics and she\u00a0had migrated\u00a0towards the\u00a0circus,\u00a0so that she\u00a0could express herself\u00a0creatively and collaborate, instead of having her individual performance judged according to the\u00a0rules of\u00a0gymnastics. This story echoes how economics have changed. Creativity\u00a0beats\u00a0conformity. Skills of creativity are more needed than ever and collaboration is more important than personal\u00a0commitment. I’ve clinged on to artworks and projects which require an extensive amount of commitment, because I’m afraid that I’m bad in collaborating. I’m a fucking mika-myllyl\u00e4<\/a>. I have to learn how to collaborate better in order\u00a0to work more efficiently.<\/p>\n The Mad in Finland movie\u00a0will be\u00a0worked on at the Kone Foundation Residency<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tumblr, reddit, twitter, facebook, google docs… All forms of cloud-based computing are\u00a0contemporary consumerism. It’s difficult to remember\u00a0you’ve paid for the materials\u00a0and the design of the screen you look at. And that what you experience is being measured\u00a0and sold further. You are not using software \u2013\u00a0The engineers who made it are using you. The development of … <\/p>\n