Pixelache launches a new series of micro-residencies, consisting of ‘Leaner-in-residence’ positions. We offer 4 ‘Learner-in-Residence’ positions in 2012 to invited professionals of Pixelache’s extended network. These one week micro-residencies in Helsinki are not oriented towards new productions but towards the exchange of knowledge between Pixelache and these individuals, and towards supporting current developments and changes in our organisation(s).

During 19-26.2, we have the pleasure to welcome Catherine Lenoble (FR), our first Learner-in-Residence.

Catherine will give a presentation entitled ‘Hack for Culture’ on Tuesday 21.2 during 18.00-20.00 at Pixelache office. On this occasion, she will share with us her experience of informal learning within the field of art & technology, based on the LABtoLAB experiment. LABtoLAB is a nomadic university project, exploring the role of the lab as a space for collaborative learning and knowledge exchange. A documentary film of the process will also be screened as part of her presentation

More about Catherine & her talk
More about our Learner-in-residence programme

FREE CITY is an interdisciplinary series of events for young people, students and professionals targeted at highlighting specific urban space problems and finding solutions to them using freeware instruments and the underlying thought paradigm. FREE CITY showcases freeware instruments (in the field of IT and in other fields), the paradigm that links them and the arising possibilities for own-initiative projects for the audience, representative of various fields.

The format of the events is both theoretical and practical. The participants are involved in active investigation and intervention and thereby take part in influencing the urban space of Tallinn or any other city. The objective of the activities is to find, collect and process information (from the different layers represented in cities: culture, art, communication, safety, economy, mobility etc.) and to express and use the information in order to raise issues or as source material for providing solutions. The paradigm of freeware is not limited to the field of IT, but searches for its meaning in the more general and wider context of the urban environment. The discussion will dwell upon keywords such as public and common space, freedom and responsibility, public creation of knowledge, ethics and politics.

Agenda

The primary question of FREE CITY is how to analyse the layers of the urban environment in an interdisciplinary way and how to influence urban space developments and solve topical problems with the help of modern freeware (IT) instruments and experimenting with related thought models.

The secondary task of the series of events is to introduce and develop unconventional urban space strategies with young people, students and professionals. Parallel to wide- spread institutional planning, we would like to discuss the bottlenecks in urban space and experiment with solutions with the target groups to whom it is an integral part of innovative thinking and the development of sustainable initiative.

Organisers

The concept of FREE CITY is being implemented by the Cultural Cauldron’s Centre of New Media. The objective is to organise events in the spirit of the concept of the FREE CITY for various levels of competence two to four times per year which would create a basis, as a uniform series of events, for the development of a distinct format of events, an online knowledge base and an international network. An important principle is to cooperate with universities, institutions and the best-known enterprises and leaders in the field and to experiment with different formats and venues.

Invitation

The opening event in the FREE CITY series will take place on 26. April (a seminar) and 27. April (workshops). As the opening event of FREE CITY 2012 it will, compared to subsequent events, be more open to the following questions: What can, in fact, be considered and done? Where are the limits? Which discussions will lead to a dead-end and what will take us closer to accurate concepts and effective action? Hence we ask you to submit presentations and carry out workshops which, based on the concept of FREE CITY, discuss and target the following themes in a specific or general manner:

• The limits of freedom and responsibility in urban space intervention
• The linking of freeware and urban space – possibilities, peculiarities, activities and future outlooks
• The creation and application of open (i.e. Non-institutionalised) knowledge in the urban environment
• Emerging and ‘unofficial’ processes and mediums in the planning and analysis of urban space
• Transition from digital space to ‘physical’ space; the direct influence of digital space on the development of urban space

These are only meant to be landmarks – feel free to suggest themes or focal points not listed. It is essential that the themes or focal points relate to the general concept of FREE CITY.

The talks should last up to 20 minutes and be in the form of a lecture or presentation. A lecture is more theoretical concept-based introspection. A presentation is an introduction of a project, idea, research paper, product etc. related to the concept of FREE CITY.

The workshops will take place on 27. April (presentations, on the 26^th of April) from morning till evening, each workshop involving up to 10 participants. A workshop has a more hands-on, DIY-type format that results in a prototype (which may be prepared beforehand in the form of a project and the participants might be taught how to make, use and develop it further). A working group is a format more targeted at discussion and brainstorming with, nevertheless, a practical outcome (mind-map, map, book, video recording etc.).

IMPORTANT: How to apply?

Please send your portfolio and proposal (max. 300 words) to the following e-mail: marge.paas@tallinn2011.ee

The deadline is: Thursday 09.02.2012. Please note, that in submission headline must include the name: workshop or presentation. (It depends on you, would you like to organise the workshop or make a 20 minutes presentation of your activities).

More info of the Free City: marge.paas@tallinn2011.ee  -Let’s come together and make the city free! :)

Organiser: Tallinn2011 Foundation Cultural Cauldron

Contact: Marge Paas Project manager, FREE CITY +372 5286326 marge.paas@tallinn2011.ee

I (Jukka Hautamäki) was offered the role to be Pixelache/Pixelversity Ambassador during my artist-residency (11-12/2011) in St. Petersburg. This was an interesting idea, since it also fitted perfectly with my original working plans with the residency at Suomi-Talo in the city, awarded by Ateljeesäätiö. Before going to St. Petersburg, I gained some local contacts with whom to start with, managed to attend several of the November festivals, and visit the local Hacklab. But before any of that, I need to mention the discovery I made in local flea market Udelniy.

I found a really peculiar measuring device. It is for measuring earth temperature differencies. This 50 years old device (image above) even had original documents with it. Russian custom service was also admiring my new treasure :)

November Festivals

I was really lucky to meet VJ Yuri Elik at the very beginning of my residency. Yuri was really helpful in introducing me to other artists. I met Yuri first time, on the occasion of the ‘Orson Welles’ festival in St Petersburg. I went to see the film screening ‘Touch of Evil’. Yuri was making live russian subtitles for it. A memorable experience and a great movie!

A few days later, the annual Cyberfest festival started. The festival, founded in 2007, presents international and Russian new media art, together with lectures, workshops and music performances. Cyberfest headquarters and main exhibition was located in Hermitage Museum. Other exhibitions and events related to the festival also happened at several locations around the city centre.

From Cyberfest festival I got a really great idea of how the cultural bridge between St. Petersburg and New York works. The same impression was strengthened in APosition music festival, which took place very soon after. In my opinion it would be good to consider building a ‘maker bridge’ between New York, St. Petersburg, and Helsinki. The maker scene in New York is really alive and kickin’.

At ‘APosition’ festival I finally stumbled into a local hacker – Vladimir Kabanov, who is making his own electronic instruments. He hinted to me that more local diy makers can be found from Russian ВКонтакте (VKontakte) groups, for example crazy box and circuit_bending. I also heard that just recently there had been MaxMSP workshop in CISR, and it had gained resceptable amount of participants. So something is slowly happening! As part of the Aposition music festival, there was performing the New York -based Dok Gregory, who is using devices build by Russian maker VTOL.. Really nice stuff!

Visiting the local hacklab: HackSpace-SPb

Before going to the residency, I had also found out that there was a hacklab in St. Petersburg. I checked their website and noticed that they had their first major event just before start of my residency.  After exchanging a few emails, I managed to arrange a visit to HackSpace’s headquarters, which was in the local university. They arranged an interpreter to make sure that the visit wouldn’t stumble into language problems. HackSpace-SPb is fairly modest in size, but this aspect of quantity was certainly replaced with quality: I have never before seen anyone repairing a laptop in a hacklab session.

Bye bye SPb, see you soon…

So, a lot of people have asked me, how was St Petersburg? Finnish people are quite curious about a city which has the population equivalent to whole population of Finland. In my opinion, the residency time in St. Petersburg was a great experience. The city is really big, and maybe it could be said that the media art scene is little bit fragmented, but people are really pushing things forward. Hopefully collaboration plans with Pixelache/Pixelversity, and local partners could create some new ways of working between both scenes.

You‘ve been involved in Pixelache Helsinki activities/festival past and/or present? Join us in our open map workshop charting out the connections among the Pixelache -related scene(s), as a contribution to Invisible City WDC2012 event (facebook event).

Our plan is to map and visualize the history and connections between different activities, organisations and people in the digital culture scene of Helsinki / Finland. We are joined by Minna Henrikkson, who has worked previously on social-mapping projects. This occasion we will make our relational map on paper, and use DOT language to make a digital version we release afterwards.

We have a table among the open data people in Kulmasali, Korjaamo, on Saturday 4th February from 14:00-20:00. Come and add your entries and/or remind us of what we have forgotten!

Geoff Robinson is presenting 2 projects and a sound performance next week 3-5 February on Suomenlinna. His work is based on  research and documentation of Suomenlinna during his HIAP residency  November 2011 -February 2012.

Below is information on the projects, feel free to email or phone me if you have any questions or need further directions for finding the works on the island. Attached are the location details and a map. I recommend for the Friday night sound performance at Gallery Augusta catching the 6pm Suomenlinna ferry from Market Square.

Suomenlinna Sound/Duration Map
by Geoff Robinson

3-5 February 2012, Suomenlinna, Helsinki.

Location 1- Rantavarustus (the shore work), Kustaanmiekka, Suomenlinna. Outdoor installation viewing during daylight hours, 3-5 February 2012.

Location 2 – Gallery Augusta, Suomenlinna.  Installation viewing 1-4 pm, 3-5 February. Sound performance Friday 3 February 6.30 pm.

HIAP Suomenlinna artist-in-residence, Geoff Robinson (b. 1973) from Australia, will present two mapping installation works on Suomenlinna based on sound and sunlight documentation on the island.

Robinson has documented the movement of the sun at Rantavarustus (the shore work) between November 2011 and February 2012.  The movement of the sunlight, cast through a fortress window on to the landscape, will be marked and a spatial diagram will be constructed on site.

During the residency Robinson has collected sounds on the island, at Gallery Augusta he will create a mapped diagram of the sound recording locations and perform the recorded sounds on Friday 3 February 6.30 pm.

For further information contact:

E-mail: geoff.robinson73@gmail.com
Mobile: 0403 238 390

The Pixelversity cluster theme ‘Virtuality, Social Identity & Augmented Reality’ begins its activity on Thursday 26.1. (today!) with the first stop on the Virtuality Grand Tour. A ‘grand tour’ was, in the tradition of classical learning, a travel around cultural landmarks. In this theme we revive the practice online.

Each stop on the Virtuality Grand Tour (VGT) explores different online platform(s) and tools, and is hosted by a particular persons. Pixelversity facilitator Andrew Paterson starts with exploring some online organisational tools, including Twitvisio (Twitter video-hangout), Doodle (event/poll scheduler) and Etherpad (collaborative writing). The event begins at 18.00 EEST / +2 GMT by signing in with a Twitter account to Twitvisio #pixelversity channel.

>> More info

How do you experience space? Kaiku-gallery at the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts turns into a process-space during the final weeks of January. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to modify and change the space according to their own tastes with materials available at the gallery. The process does not have a defined objective, neither does the outcome need to be called a work of art. The aim is to investigate organic spontaneous ways of expression and different ways to approach space. Signification, meaning and sense will be constructed as the space transforms. This will be achieved through presence in the space, via participation and as a result of how we think about the space.

The space and the process is open for all visitors. Over a period of ten days the process of the space will be documented with a time-lapse video, which will be viewable as a collage of the process at Kaiku-gallery during 28.-29.1.2012.

Workshops as part of Space is the Place will be organized for students of the Fine Art Academy in the process-space. A series of public lectures will be held in the auditorium 25.-26.1. The lectures will, among other themes, address various aspects in connection to spatial experience.

The lecture programme:

Wednesday 25/01, 17:15–17:45 – Kaiku Galleria

Pre-lecture artist presentation about “How ta tawk & dans rite” by Rhys Turner, Anna Rouhu & Guadalupe López

Wednesday 25/01, 18–21 – Auditorium – discussion facilitator Sari Kivinen

Eero Yli-Vakkuri & Oksasenkatu11 representatives – “Presenting views about artists as organisers, a few perspectives specific to Helsinki and Tampere”, 19:45–20:45 (in English)

Thursday 26/01, 18–21 – Auditorium – discussion facilitator Christine Langinauer

Christine Langinauer – “Taiteen uudet tilat”/”New spaces of art”, 18:00–18:40 (in Finnish)

Harri Hämäläinen (Helsinki Hacklab) – “Yhteisölliset työpajat”/”Communal workshops”, 18:40–19:20 (in Finnish)

Anna Pakarinen & Liisa Jokinen (Riemu) – “Riemu-projekti & taidebloggaus”/“Riemu project & art blogging”, 19:40–20:20 (in Finnish)

Toni Ledentsa & John W. Fail – “Strengthening autonomous culture”, 20:20–21:00 (in English)

4 lecture evenings, 9 international speakers discussing the future of the human! Mondays 5-7pm at Aalto Media factory, Arabia. Starting on the 23rd of January and continuing on the subsequent 3 mondays.

Body enhancement, body modification, prosthetics, wearable and embedded technologies, mind uploading, memory-upgrades, biotechnologies and other nano-scale technologies are keywords in contemporary societys answers to the demands projected onto the human body. What is the future human like?

It is evident that our perception and attitudes toward the body are changing. This is visible in the general acceptance of ever more radical modifications and enhancements in the functions and appearance of the body, many of which are evidenced e.g. in media, in art & design, and in theoretical articulations concerning the future of the human species. Design for a future human has become an emerging area (in the art & design), which is tightly related to advancements in science and technology. This area is not only researching future potentialities of humans, including the development and design of a human body; it also addresses important ethical issues concerning such development. The lecture series asks what is, or could be, the role of an artist and a designer in this field?

There is no better way to use the winter monday evenings than discussing the future of the human. The 4 lecture-evenings offer 9 unique perspectives in investigating the human and the biological body as the material and subject of art, design, science and technology.

23.1.2012  Andy Miah, Laura Beloff, commentator: Sam Inkinen
30.1.2012  Natasha Vita-More, J. Auger & J. Loizeau, commentator: TBA
6.2.2012  Fiona Raby, Sissel Tolaas, commentator: TBA
13.2.2012  Riitta Hari, Stelarc, commentator: Marita Liulia
Moderated by Laura Beloff and the visiting commentators.

http://humandesign.mlog.taik.fi/

Please register your attendance; there is a limited amount of places: http://www.doodle.com/izbx38h3af4ex8n9

The lecture series is curated, organized and produced by Laura Beloff. It is a collaboration between Department of Design / Textile, Department of Art and Aalto Media Factory. Contact: laura.beloff[x]aalto.fi

This spring, 11-12 May,  we make a more compact edition of Pixelache Helsinki Festival called ‘Camp Pixelache’, at Arbis adult education centre, with the the theme of “Do It With Others” (D.I.W.O.). How can artists, makers, cultural producers, researchers and activists work  collaboratively with each other and audiences, to create new  co-production models for  artefacts/events with sustainability as the core goal? Other sub-themes are ’Creative Neighbourhood Skills’, ’The Art of Gathering Environmental Data’ also ‘Virtuality/Social Identity’. We are CALLING OUT proposals for presentations as well as demos for Open Design, Crafts & Manufacturing.

>>> READ MORE

Trashlab monthly events during 2012 will explore experimental art-design-technology practice between hacker and maker cultures, in the context of re/up-cycling and the increased availability of new fabrication tools. Trashlab’s objective is to build up a community of people (artists, designers, hackers, makers, re/up-cyclers, activists) who are concerned with material and electronic waste in contemporary society, and tackle this problem with creative and tangential approaches.

>>> MORE INFO about Trashlab programme, the different events and actions so far defined

The first workshop takes place at Aalto Media Factory on Saturday 14.1. from 13.00-19.00, with the second one on Saturday 18.2. from 13.00-19.00. They will continue each month, but in some different locations also.

Welcome to take part, take apart, remake, and attend all year long! Note: January & February’s Trashlab events will be ‘light’ maker activity – So, Bring Your Own Gear (BYOG) & bring some Potluck / Nyyttikeskit Trash for the table!

In addition, Aalto Media Factory are funding a monthly lecture series called ‘Talking Trash(lab)’ organised by Pixelache Helsinki & Aalto University School of Art & Design researchers: Inaugural lecture event by Antti Ahonen (Koelse) on Friday 17.2. from 17.30-19.00 (the day before the second Trashlab workshop).

Image credit: Jenni Kemppainen, Roskalava HKI facebook group.