icewhistle.com

That was the week that was, the other week, that is

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:12:39 +0000

I'm still dazed from all of the awesomeness last week, beginning out of the La-Bas 'Concept of Performance' biennale in Helsinki, which ran from 25-29 April. I already posted about the DIS/Orientations workshop I co-led on Sunday, which was really the beginning of an unforgettable week - amazing people, brilliant performances, and a real feeling like we were trying some new ideas here.

After the workshop was a lovely post-festival comedown, all set on Harakka, where lots of the bizarre and wonderful people I had spent the week with enjoyed a sauna and campfire on the back of the island. Returning to Tallinn seemed impossible mentally as well as physically, but there was a pretty intense gauntlet of activities waiting here.

A few months ago, when I realised that a plethora of creative forces were aligning in Tallinn during the first week of May, I thought to organise a mini-festival around it all. I drafted up a plan for Unknown Feathers: A Festival of participation in the experimental arts before realising that I was starting to overdo it. I have such a tendency to expand things and overload what would be already a busy week; call it 'festival bloat' perhaps, but it's a real problem, and I didn't need to pack the week even more. As it was too late to seek any sort of financial assistance, I wisely shelved the idea of Unknown Feathers for a later date and just focused on making the already-scheduled events happen.

Dr. Felicity Ford arrived on Monday. She's going to MoKS for a month-long residency to investigate the "deep wool" connection in Estonia, which is supported by the British Council Estonia. We met up Monday night and showed her Slothrop's, and ended up recording an impromptu podcast - a bit of a departure from our regular efforts, without Binx present, but still a good deal of fun.

On Tuesday, Alexei Borisov and Patrick McGinley arrived. Alexei is a legend of experimental music in Russia, and we set up a concert at Kodu Baar that was originally intended to be the kick-off event of the non-festival. It still effectively was a kick-off to a week of greatness. Patrick, performing as his Murmer project, did a brilliant set that used the total space of Kodu in a way I haven't seen before, drawing the audience closer to engage with slowly unfolding resonant sounds. Patrick and Alexei collaborated briefly at the end, and it was a nice balance of energy and deep listening - perfect for a Tuesday night. Also on the bill was the Raw Synth Sound Lounge project, led by Hobilabor's Toomas Savi and Rene Rebane - a workshop on synth building that slowly turned into a band, the five participants experimented with homemade electronics and actually honored the "lounge" term in their name.

Thursday, daytime, was Felicity's Instant Clothes Museum workshop, which she's already detailed wonderfully on her own blog, so here's a link to it.

In the evening, my pet project on alternative currencies had it's first (and possibly last) manifestation in Tallinn. Though I previously thought alternate currencies were purely a Discordian pipe dream, Christian Nold's Bijlmer Euro project illustrated the full potential that such a project can have. I met Christian last year at Pixelache in Helsinki, where he is working on a currency-based project on Suomenlinna. Since then, I've dreamt of assembling the various artist-run projects, small creative centres, and cultural organisations to discuss how we might implement a local currency in Tallinn. This night, which Justin dubbed 'Make it Rain', featured three presentations: Christian (via Skype), Rainer Eidemuller from the P.A.I.de Pank in Paide, and Kaspars Lielgalvis from Totaldobze in Riga. After the presentations, we ate some excellent lentil dahl, prepared by Felicity, and began to discuss as an open group how these currency project might or might not work in Tallinn. It was an extremely stimulating discussion, though I'm not sure what we concluded. But the event overall is exactly the type of event I love the most - one that is inclusive, cross-discipline, constructive, and casual.

Friday, the Totaldobze gang presented their Idearium interactive installation in the garden of Tiib. We were lucky to have great weather and a great turnout; there were many ideas planted, good food, and a nice time had by all.

At midnight on Friday we held a slumber party, this month's installment of the GFYP variety party. Called GgggggggggFffffffffrrrrrrrrYyyyyyyymmmmPppppzzzzz (to create maximum confusion, of course), this was my second attempt at an all-night low-key event. This idea actually goes back over ten years, where Luke Ferdinand and I would talk about how much we would love to have an 'anti-rave' - an event where we would listen to minimalist music, quietly, and sleep. I tried this in Helsinki in 2010 with Antarctica Starts Here, but the night, while fun, failed to be the immersive sleep-saturated audiovisual feast I dreamt of.

I'm pleased that it worked well in Tallinn - it was a dream, really, with some actual dreaming probably taking place. Laurence Boyce began with 'Coming Soon', his personal history of film trailers. Kimbal Bumstead (UK) did a performative presentation of his travel-based projcet, Vertically Down. Kaspars and I DJ'd quiet, minimal records (Robert Ashley's Automatic Writing, Eno, Pelt, etc.) in between, and very very late (maybe 4:00?) Felicity began to present her field recordings from the British wool industry. As people slowly fell asleep to the sounds of farmers and sheep, Villem Jahu, Patrick, and myself began to play improvised music, spread across two rooms of mostly sleeping participants, which continued roughly until 6 AM.

Then, just as suddenly, everyone was gone. The week, a smash success, again made me grateful for all of the incredible people I've gotten to build my life around, and it's been hard to adjust without the presence of Felicity, Patrick, Kimbal, the Latvians, and of course all of the Tallinn regulars who always make life great here. But this weekend is Camp Pixelache 2012, so I'm off to Helsinki in a few hours to immerse myself in another batch of amazing people and ideas.

DIS/Orientations workshop in Helsinki

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:04:58 +0000

Yesterday, John Grzinich, Sari TM Kivinen and myself led a workshop called DIS/Orientations on Harakka Island, Helsinki. This was part of the La-Bas 'Concept of Performance' Biennale, a 5-day investigation of performance and sound art. This was our first shot at trying something extremely experimental and improvisational on the theme of orientation and disorientation. For a few hours, the ten of us explored various exercises that were performative in nature, at least enough to justify it's inclusion in the festival. In terms of orientation we looked at re-mapping - exploring our surroundings by superimposing the map of an entirely different place - and intuition towards compass points. Disorientation was achieved via sense blocking (using blindfolds, earplugs, and bungee cords), textual games (by modifying each others biographies as an introduction) and simple performative scores: "Find a problem, and instead of solving it, enlarge it." The purpose, if there must be one, was to massage the unintentional serendipities that may come out of failures, misinterpretations and mistakes.

John (a sound artist and co-organiser of MoKS) and Sari (a visual and performance artist who is director of Ptarmigan Helsinki) were a dream to work with, and as we're quite good friends it was natural and fun. I hope we can develop DIS/Orientations a bit further and take it elsewhere -- and some other ideas for workshops or other collaborative forms were born, such as the idea of "object re-purposing".

Great participants made it great fun, and it was very much an experiment for us as well. Some of the exercises, such as the sense blocking, didn't need any additional structure, while others would have benefited from more clear instructions. And while the value of workshops as an art practice, for me, is in the moments of people creating together, sometimes I do feel the need to have "findings". It's not that we have to draw conclusion or have specific objectives, but at least face towards some convergences.

Despite not actually being a performance artist myself - in any way whatsoever - I love experimenting with action in groups. The opening of our workshop, where we passed out slight variations on the problem-extending score mentioned above, turned into a surreal, wacky bit of wordless group nonsense. This part reminded me a lot of the Resonance workshop that Bilwa and Kristin Orav led in Ptarmigan Tallinn last September - perplexing aberrations of behaviour, breakdowns of order, and repetition without a goal. While it's easy to be seduced by the humourous components, it's also wonderful to reimagine elements of the quotidian through such absurdity. That I can follow these threads as a component of an art practice is also wonderful, and I count my blessed stars to be in a position like this.

Ptarmigan at Supermarket 2012

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 08:21:30 +0000

Last month, Ptarmigan went to Supermarket, the artist-run art fair in Stockholm. Thanks to the KulturKontakt Nord Mobility Programme for enabling this to happen - Sari Kivinen, Andra Aaloe, Lewis McGuffie and myself all attended, which was 4/5 of the Ptarmigan staffers and in a way, our first collective project as collaborating artists (outside of the regular administration of Ptarmigan).

As Ptarmigan is emphatically not a gallery, nor did Tiib have anything for us to exhibit, we treated our exhibition booth as a mini-version of Ptarmigan itself. We constructed a theoretical replica of ourselves, dividing the booth into Finland and Estonia, with a small Baltic Sea in the centre. Across the centre we painted a blackboard (a reference of course to the blackboards in Ptarmigan Tallinn), providing an ongoing slate for us to write things, announce activities, and experiment. Throughout the 3 days (and the opening night on Thursday), we held an ongoing series of performances, actions, and activities, encouraging the 6000 attendees of the fair to participate as much as possible.

This was a bit mad, but indicative of what we do; projects rooted in the ephemeral, with a focus on inclusivity and participation, and a reinvention of what constitutes cultural production. Of course, lots of what we did at Supermarket was ludicrous and bizarre, as much of the programme consisted of improvised, impromptu actions: 'Lewis eats a Sandwich' and 'John stands in a bucket' being particularly dull points.

Some might ask why we even bothered going to an art fair when we are not a gallery and had nothing to sell or even really present. I believe that Supermarket is a great opportunity to meet others working in similar fields; sharing ideas and resources is important; and the reach of audience here is invaluable in attracting new people to Ptarmigan. We're always looking for new, worthwhile projects to attempt.

We met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun engaging others in our activities, which were sometimes extremely universal (such as the numerous games of mini-table tennis and paper American football) and some significantly more esoteric.

We had a few proper performances throughout the weekend too, such as Sari's Textual Opera/Rations, where she actively filled sheets of A4 paper with texts constructed, overheard, misheard and reinvented. Sari's performed this before in several environments but at Supermarket she encouraged others to contribute; as the weekend progressed, pages slowly filled the walls.

Our former resident Ola Ståhl stopped by on Friday to do a reading of a textual piece called 'Black Box', and Helsinki friend Marja Viitahuhta re-performed her 'Spotlight' performance in our booth, attracting an entirely different audience than who attended when it was part of the official Supermarket programme.

Beyond this, we had our own improvisations, often marked on the chalkboard with arbitrary times to signify their beginning and ends. We played games, invented some new ones, talked with lots of people, and did a lot of completely ridiculous stuff. "Toss notes over the wall to the booth on the other side". "Build a city out of paper". For an hour on Saturday, we swapped places with the ZET Foundation of Amsterdam, where we manned each other's booths in a game of impersonation. On Sunday we performed "Cling-wrap a visiting artist" with Edwina Goldstone (representing GalleriaKONE, Hämeenlinna). And in probably our most popular activity, we had an 'open haircut lab' where we invited strangers to cut our hair and offered to cut anyone else's hair. I now have a lovely but strange haircut that was the composite efforts of 6 different people, finished by an 11-year old.

Overall, the weekend was amazingly fun, and exhausting. There's more photos below, or you can check out the small Flickr set which has an overview of it all.

'Open haircut lab'.

Andra was keen to wrestle; she was almost undefeated though it never got any wilder than arm-wrestling.

Edwina Goldstone, who let us cling-wrap her to the table.

Fight the cold : Ptarmigan and related activities, February 2012

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:24:59 +0000

It's really, really cold here right now. Here being Tallinn, Estonia, where as I write it's currently -22 C (-7.6 F) and it "feels like" -33 C (-27.4 F) with the wind chill. I'm sitting here in Slothrop's trying to stay alive, for the feeble electric heating can't keep up with the brutality of an Estonian winter. Thank you, medieval architecture!

But that's okay, because February is going to be a crazy busy month with activities going on all around the Baltic sea - in Tallinn, Helsinki, and Stockholm.

Supermarket 2012

17-19 Feb - Stockholm! Both sides of Ptarmigan are attending Supermarket Art Fair 2012 in Stockholm. We are supported in part by the Kulturkontakt Nord mobility programme. At Supermarket, we will be running various "mini-events" throughout the weekend, all from our booth on the 5th floor of the Swedish Kulturhuset. These events haven't been completely mapped out yet, but they will include performances by friends of ours in Sweden (former Ptarmigan resident Ola Ståhl, and Julia Bondesson who also performed at our Invisible Prom event last April) and our own projects. I'm going to try out a small demonstrative "workshop" on how to make your own hot sauce, and Sari will perform as well. I'm also hoping to have some public discussions about the issues that affect artist-run spaces, like a small roundtable chat. [Ptarmigan profile on Supermarket site]

Workshops and other participatory events

Sunday 5 Feb - Svamp Tallinn. Even though it's Super Bowl Sunday, come by Ptarmigan Tallinn at 14:30 and bring something to make sound with. We'll hopefully get a Helsinki Svamp happening this month too. [link]
Friday 24 Feb - Fake it Til You Make It, February edition. FITYMI is Justin Tyler Tate's monthly workgroup where participants show up without knowing what they will make. Last month everyone created cutout-style animations, and the month before we made inflatable sculptures. [link]
Saturday 25 Feb - 'Fast and Raw' intermediate sushi workshop. Justin also leads a regular workshop at Ptarmigan on sushi-making, which also includes knife-sharpening. Sign up at the Ptarmigan site. [link]
Monday 27 Feb - Fermented foods club, February meeting. I just made some natto which I will share with everyone (I made a lot) - if anyone can stomach it. I also got some tempeh spores so if I have time (unlikely), then I might try making that. [link]
Tuesday 28 Feb - Symposium, the Eesti Humanities association's regular symposium series, resumes activity. Programme TBA.

Performances, concerts and exhibitions

How ta tawk & dans rite - Ptarmigans Helsinki and Tallinn both are producing an interactive media/dance performance piece by Joey Chua Poh Yi, Rhys Turner, Anna Rouhu, and Guadalupe López. The events have already begun in Helsinki and next week we give it a go at Ptarmigan Tallinn. There's only space for 15 audience members per performance; though it's free, we ask that you register through our website for which performance you would like to attend. All of the individual performances are set as separate events, so go to www.ptarmigan.ee and pick the one you want.
Saturday 18 Feb - Ö-E-R orchestra, As Artistas Plasticos, Re:partisan. At Kodu Baar, in Tallinn, we're having a mixed show of music/sound meeting dance and performance. Featuring artists from Helsinki, performing in Tallinn. You know, that's the way it's supposed to work... [link]
Thurdsay 1 March - Lewis McGuffie, Ptarmigan's Director of Creative Hemispheres, will open an exhibition at our gallery space in Tallinn, Tiib. [link]

Talks, presentations, screenings

Monday 6 Feb - Clip Kino comes back to Tallinn with Viktor Lillemäe presenting a selection of his favourite American propaganda films from the 1950's. This is the sequel to the Clip Kino he curated last May. Wow, it's been ages since we did a Clip Kino. [link]
Wednesday 8 Feb - Luciana Ohira & Sergio Bonilha present "transimmanence" + Jane Hughes presents ¨Imagining Other Worlds¨. This is a Labyrinths and Rings performance/presentation by two Brasilian artists and former Ptarmigan artist Jane Hughes, in Helsinki. At XL Art Space. [link]
Tuesday 21 Feb - As William "Bilwa" Costa and Martín Lanz Landázuri will do a 'Labyrinths and Rings' in Tallinn, presenting their Resonance project and screening a performance from The Kitchen NYC last December. [link]
Wednesday 29 Feb - Leap day! I'm going to run a Liminal Images night, though I haven't worked out the programme yet, and it might be guest-curated.

Other events

Monday 13 Feb - Slothrop's Books is going to have a belated opening party from 19:00 - 21:00. We'll have free wine, some musical entertainment probably, and a festive atmosphere. [link]
Thursday 23 Feb - I'm going to do the DJ night at Kodu Baar that I meant to do monthly, but haven't actually managed to. I'll play vinyl in various forms: krautrock, prog, art-rock, jazz, psych, and other strange pulses. Kodu Baar is at Vaimu 1 in Old Town and I'll probably play from 21:00 til about 1 or 2 AM depending on the crowd. Lewis will make a really ridiculous and cryptic poster. We're thinking about trying to make one in the shape of a snowflake.

Slothrop's, Tallinn, Estonia

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:25:28 +0000

If you're in Tallinn, please stop by Slothrop's on Müürivahe 19. You'll find a large selection of secondhand books in English - literature, history, art, politics, essays, criticism -- the works. Slothrop's is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12 to 18, Eastern European Time. Soon we'll hopefully have a (carefully-curated) selection of independent publications and analogue musics for your shopping enjoyment.

NYC friends: Marathon reading of Gertrude Stein this weekend

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:07:24 +0000

Triple Canopy is opening the new space at 155 Freeman in Greenpoint, and is celebrating in the most insane way possible - by scheduling a marathon public reading of Gertrude Stein's The Making of Americans.

I can't make it over, of course, but my own copy has been sitting unread for years on my shelf, as I tote it around from move to move .... so I will be starting it myself, in parallel, and if anyone in Tallinn wants to meet up and do a shadow-reading this weekend, give me a call.

More information on the Triple Canopy announcement page!

Recent things.

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:06:36 +0000

Dispatches from a website I do a piss-poor job of keeping up-to-date:

I've been based in or around Tallinn for one year now. Ptarmigan I can say has been going well; it's been an amazing thing and it's more momentum than inertia here. We've had too much going on to fully talk about here, as we've had something like 80 events since April, but there's lots in the works for 2012, the Year of Our Culture Hangover.
Helsinki Ptarmigan as well is bubbling with activity, thanks to the efforts of Sari TM Kivinen, Ptarmigan's Director/Janitor. We managed a lot, I think, despite having no physical space throughout the year, and there are some great new projects bubbling up.
I'm thinking about getting back into recording, working on the followup to the Boat Trip LP which I have about half-recorded, but has been dormant for a few months.

More to come, in detail.

Oakwhistle live show in Tallinn: 17. september 2011

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:13:01 +0000

I'm going to perform solo/live for the first time in ages, as Oakwhistle again. It's at the Soodevahe festival in Tallinn on the 17th of this month. Expect something along the vibe of the Boat Trip LP only maybe sloppier - but (un)focused around hesitation, delicacy, and misguided stabs at beauty.

The Time-Journalist - a potential big-budget film idea

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:02:26 +0000

Refactored from last night's dream. I'm putting this idea out there - for free!

Our hero: a hunky, famous American TV reporter. Not a behind-the-desk anchor, necessarily, but an "in the field" guy. He's fearless, witty, and I'm thinking best played by Jon Hamm. But despite his fame, wealth and success, our hero is sad. He's lonely. He's tried supermodels, politicians, actresses, and atheletes, but no one is right for him. It's even starting to affect his work - his nightly reports, delivered from the frontlines of horrible war-torn places and the inner sanctums of heretofore-untouchable public figures - have been infused with an innate sorrow.

Then, time travel is invented! It's neither easy nor cheap (being controlled, of course, by the potentially sinister company, Big Chronos), and it must follow strict I, Robot-style rules to prevent time-chaos like in every other time travel film. But due to our hero's fame and talents, he begins to innovate the field of time-journalism. Maybe he's not the first, but he's the best; but by excelling in this, he has even less time to find Mrs. Right.

For whatever reason he goes back to the 19th century or so - I'm thinking the time of Andrew Jackson -- to work on a story. And it's there he falls in love with a woman from the past - one who is not necessarily drop-dead gorgeous but satisfies his soul. I'm thinking Rebecca Hall for this. And of course, this violates a crucial rule of time-travel.

And from here, we can go in several directions, but all of them are bleak. Screenwriters, take your pick!

Absolute emotional tragedy -- these two people love each other but cannot really be together because of, perhaps --
- The time-journalism technology is actually only some sort of hologram/simulation, so our hero cannot actually touch or interact in the flesh, which renders their lovemaking a vaguely awkward bit of frustrated thrusting, bashing into walls and closet doors because of closed eyes, trying to break through the temporal-tactile barrier, etc. where our plot takes us to, possibly --
  - in some horrible accident, these frantic Ghost-like attempts to physically connect lead to violent impairment, from the battering and bruising, to the point of death even; or --
  - in some Groundhog Day-like bit of movie magic, these characters are able to transcend the limitations of the non-physical, and our hero actually reaches a corporeal state in the past, whereas they consummate their relationship (and, to preserve the tragic twist, if the screenwriter desires, they are both horribly disappointed by the sex [he perhaps because he is expecting more, and she is conforming to the mid-19th century ideas of intercourse; her disappointment comes because he's just not a very good lay] and furthermore the hero's transformation into past-occupying flesh and blood renders it impossible for him to ever return to our present day, at which point he realises that he's actually very much a shallow vapid celebrity fuckwit and he misses his iPad and spends his remaining life in the 1830's trying to invent the IP address; or --
  - In an even more twisted take on the non-tactile relationship concept, one inspired by dark body horror like Cronenberg et al, the heroine could fall into a state of psychosis and begin to create surrogate bodies to replace the hero's physical state. This could get into kidnapping and even murder, and the hero would go along with this, desperate to please her, thus raising some tired issues of time-travel ethics as well as creating many disturbing scenes of Rebecca Hall trying to mount a chloroformed hobo while the spirit-apparition of Jon Hamm stares in manic frustration;
- Or, this isn't the case, and the time-journalist is perfectly capable of touching, feeling and fucking as much as anyone else. So instead of focusing on the physical relationship, a more PG-13 oriented screenwriter could instead twist the emotional knife by addressing the false promise of 150-year-old love. Our hero, again, this has to be Jon Hamm, so desperate for something that modern romance can't offer him, falls in love with Rebecca Hall or whomever, and commits fully to a serious relationship, let's say also forsaking the ability to return to the present (which also makes it easy, plot-wise). But as the film goes on, he quickly discoveres that being in a relationship with a woman born a century before your parents isn't so easy; once the infatuation wears off, the everyday reality sets in and both characters find it difficult to relate to one another. She cannot understand his job as she cannot even fathom the concept of television; he, likewise, has difficulty adjusting to a world without as much technology -- and, let's hold true to the idea that the guy is a bit of a fuckwit - he starts to stray a bit from their commitment, first indulging in a little high society sexual hijinks but then eventually descending into the nebulous depths of brothels and other dark areas. And remember, safe sex isn't really on the radar here. And so, this plays out as a horrible dung heap of misery for both parties.
Or instead -- total sci-fi madness! Cause, let's face it, we've already got time-travel in here, so we can take on a bit of the La jetÃ©e approach and implode the future world or something like that. Let's say he has the ability to bring her back, and he convinces her that she desperately needs to come back to the future and exist in a world of electronics, plastics and Twitter, so they do this; at which point tragedy can strike again, perhaps because --
- Our heroine, or at least we can say "female lead", being an adult woman from a time with far different airborne bacteria, sanitation standards, and other disease-spheres -- she instantly contracts polio, scarlet fever, or some other all-but-eradicated disease that is probably on every surface of our contemporary, inoculated/vaccinated existence. If she doesn't just straight-up die, which would drive our hero to utter madness, then she will at least suffer in some extremely depraved way and our hero will find his investment in their love-based relationship under strain, where from here you can factor in any of the options from pathway 1 above; or --
- In classic time-travel style, hero is unaware that heroine is somehow a necessary step in the creation of his own birthline, so he somehow wipes out his own existence; or --
- Of course, building logarithmically on the previous option, their disruption of the time-travel rules (which of course are very much strictly enforced by Big Chronos, for obvious reasons, which would also add a thrilling suspense/action sequence in the middle as they must find ways to sneak her to the future, which could be slightly more Dystopian than our actual present [though I do think the emphasis should be still on electronics, plastics and Twitter - market capitalist democracy at its fullest, of course] and involve fights, chases, bribes and/or trapeezes) not only wipes out the hero's own existence but actually alters the world entirely, perhaps for the better, but most likely for the worst; or --
- Maybe the violation of Big Chronos's time-travel rules will actually lead to the implosion of the entire world in some sort of negative reality inversion!

Regardless of which forking path is taken, the moral remains that the pursuit of ones dreams is ultimately selfish and only inflicts pain and suffering in others, whether that other is the woman herself (who I can't seem to picture as anything but a victim in most of these scenarios), the entire human race, or at the very least the TV network that employed the hero to go back and interview Andrew Jackson, or whatever they trusted him to do before he frittered away his time chasing Second Great Awakening Tail. Of course, I mean this moral to only be applicable to super-rich beautiful celebrity-type people; a subtext (surely to be inserted by a deft screenwriter) would be that regulars and normals should pursue their dreams without hesitation!

Ptarmigan essay in 'ak28 revisited and three parallel visions'

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:14:27 +0000

I've entered the world of 'published author' with my essay 'Everything is Tentative and Possible', which describes the experience of co-founding Ptarmigan in Helsinki from 2009 until the opening of the Tallinn space. It's published by the lovely Mount Analogue press/curatorial platform in Stockholm, and is part of a book that deals with self-organised, non-profit art initiatives with regards to the ak28 collective (now defunct). I'm not completely sure where to get it, but you could try contacting Mount Analogue.

Lots has happened since I last remembered to post here; the opening of Ptarmigan Tallinn, I guess, is the biggest thing. I've had a few small things of my own - the release of a new Lied Music/Vernon and Burns LP, a workshop/seminar here and there - and I'm going to try to be more diligent about posting these things.

Which reminds me - Sunday, 12 June 2011 at the SHuSH event in Helsinki, I'm going to lead a short seminar/discussion group titled 'art, collaboration and pedagogy' through the Public School Helsinki in collaboration with SHuSH, Ptarmigan and lots more. More info will be on the SHuSH page.

Ptarmigan leaves NilsiÃ¤nkatu

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:28:29 +0000

It's hard to avoid getting emotional when cleaning out the project space that I've dedicated the last year and half of my life to, arguably the most seriously I've ever dedicated myself to anything. And I keep telling myself - it's not over, it's not the end - it's just changing, evolving, developing, and reinventing itself.

But a project space is at its core, just that, a 'space' - a term probably overused in arts and culture, to the point where it becomes devoid of meaning. But that's ultimately all I could use to describe it, because whenever anyone called it anything else -- venue for experimental music, art gallery (ha!), art space (taidetila), or even just culture space -- those terms felt too restrictive. At its core, Ptarmigan was just a space (tila) - 150 square metres in a exciting, developing (yet still off-the-beaten path) neighborhood of Helsinki - but a space that filled some sort of void, at least to many people. So when that space is abandoned, it's hard to avoid shedding a tear.

Tonight's not been fun, and I'm not even close to being finished (but I'm taking this opportunity to write here and procrastinate somewhat). All of this evening's mundane acts -- sweeping the floor of my personal studio for one last time; taking down the projector ceiling-mount and getting fiberglass drop-ceiling shards in my hands; filling yet another box with keepables and writing the always-redunant "MISC. STUFF" on it in Sharpie -- feel like some eulogy of action.

Action was the point of Ptarmigan, I guess. Our logo, at least on our website, privileged the fleecy feet of this wonderful Northern bird (a name we chose basically at random, though the hilariousness of Finns pronouncing it PUH-tarmigan, as Finnish has no silent letters, is never-ending). Andrew Paterson asked me once why we used the feet, and I said 'Because we do things, not just talk about them.' Although, that was arrogant nonsense I made up on the spot - there was no executive decision to decide such a philosophy (and wings would have been a better metaphor anyway).

When you have an arena, there's no limit to the amount of shenanigans you can cram into it. Two years ago, I couldn't have even imagined all of the wonderful things we managed to do here. Rather than blabber on about it here, you can look at our event archive. Our annual report, which I wrote to ape the corporate style, actually makes me proud; the people who have supported this space and put their energy and efforts into it have been the most amazing thing of all.

And now, it's a time to celebrate. We?re not really closing; we're technically expanding, with a satellite location opening in Tallinn, Estonia in the next few months. Ptarmigan in Helsinki, due to financial issues, is going to exist as a mobile arts centre at least temporarily; it will cease to be a permanent address and become a floating idea, and a residency-centre-without-a-centre. But hopefully not for long.

I'm going to be writing much more detailed thoughts about the Ptarmigan experience elsewhere, soon, so I'll save this for my cleaning-related emotions. I've spend an enormous number of hours between these walls, and felt for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, like I was contributing to something. It's a bit different than moving out of a flat or graduating from a school, but since the projects will (hopefully) persevere, tonight is really just an exercise of pure drudgery.

Thanks to everyone who has been part of Ptarmigan - volunteers, performers, artists, and audience. I could name names but it's really Tara Pattenden, Ptarmigan's co-founder and Creative Director who deserves the most credit. I know we won't be the only Helsinkians that will miss this physical space, but to quote the Photon Band, "the future's only just a second away."

New web projects, affiliations, etc.

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 08:56:44 +0000

Two projects I have worked on have recently launched, and I meant to post them here sooner!

East of Borneo is "a collaborative investigation of contemporary art", based out of CalArts and led by Thomas Lawson. The locus is Los Angeles and Southern California, and it blends curated articles and content with user-uploaded material. I have worked heavily on the development of this website this summer and autumn, and will continue to be involved with it. So far there's some great articles on Roger Corman, John Baldessari, Asco, and more, so please check it out. www.eastofborneo.org

I also joined the development team of Triple Canopy, an ongoing curatorial platform, magazine and online project space. I've loved what TC has done in such a short time; I was happy to help implement the brilliant re-design, which launched last week with issue #10. Caleb Waldorf and Adam Florin are responsible for the striking, yet amazingly functional visual design. Issue 10 is rolling out now, and will have a piece by Steve Rowell that I'm really looking forward to. At the moment there's work by Matt Mullican, Julia Sherman, and others. www.canopycanopycanopy.com

Miscellaneous expertise @ MoKS AVAMAA 2010

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:38:17 +0000

Next month I will be coordinating a workshop entitled Miscellaneous expertise: performance, unlearning stories and public speech at the MoKS Kunsti ja Sotsiaalpraktika Keskus AVAMAA sympsium in Mooste, Estonia. This is a collaboration with my good friend Giles Bailey, and the workshop will take place over five days with the dissemination on the sixth.

We proposed Miscellaneous expertise as an experiment using the workshop format; we hope to explore some of the structural components of performance through a patchwork aesthetic, with a concentration on “found” materials, chance, and non-linear constructions. One potential subtitle was “Performance for non-performers AND non-performance for performers”, though that's a bit too constrictive and I think "unlearning" is a better term to use.

The outcome of the workshop will be a panel discussion that dissects the nature of performance, which of course will itself be a performance, which of course will not be. If you remember my post about last year’s Mutopia workshop @ AVAMAA, then you’ll know I valued the MoKS approach to creative practice, a flame that will hopefully burn through this.

Details about the workshop (how to attend, as well as info on the other workshops and projects occurring during the AVAMAA week [Natalia Borissova’s workshop looks amazing, and I wish there was some way to clone myself and do both]) are available on the MoKS website. If you’re thinking of participating in Miscellaneous expertise, feel free to drop me a line or comment here. See you in Estonia!

En route to 'There is nothing less passive than the act of fleeing...'

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:30:15 +0000

I'm stuck on this boat again -- that's not a metaphor -- but it was my own (stupid) personal choice to take the Helsinki to Rostock ferry. I hate flying, I love the environment, etc. etc and it would be a fun way to go to Berlin, right? But then I impulsively ended up driving back from the UK two weeks ago, so I took this very same boat (though in the other direction, from Rostock to Helsinki) and discovered it to be a 29 hour plate of boredom -- starving boredom, really, as Tallink doesn't understand that a vegetarian might not want to pay 29€ for the dinner buffet just to eat salad and bread. But yes, I'm back here, sitting in this shitty ferry bar listening to 'Baker Street' over and over and sipping crappy Finnish beer. I no longer have Bill Simmons' mammoth basketball book to amuse myself with, but I'm better prepared for food, having brought my own sandwiches.

Anyway, the reason I am posting this is to alert any potential readers to 'There is nothing less passive than the act of fleeing...', which is a 13-day seminar in Berlin organised by The Public School. I'm only catching the last few days, but greatly looking forward to it. Overlapping with this is a series of programmes presented by Triple Canopy -- so needless to say, I'll be busy. Additionally, it's a chance to formally make the connection from the Public School Helsinki (though I think Kari Y-A is the only other person likely to show up from Hki) and also to get more involved with Triple Canopy, as this will be the first time I'll actually have met most of these people in person since I formally joined the team.

The first of the three 'There is nothing less passive...' days I'll catch is happening in Teufelsberg listening station, a pretty unforgettable place that has been etched into my ears since I visited it a few years ago. It's going to be an amazing place to discuss Claire Fontaine's essay with a bunch of strangers! But Caleb Waldorf, my old partner in Intro to Pterodactyl (a musical group that recorded what is still probably my favourite recording I ever did, still unreleased at large), is no stranger, and he was one of the core organisers of these events -- so seeing him will be great.

As for now, the sea is calm (and boring) and 'Baker Street' just came on again, and this Lapin Kulta was "only" 4€, so I'm happy! I have Alexander Theroux's Darconville's Cat to occupy my mind (as well as the Public School readings). See you guys in Berlin!

Lost Lake in the UK last month

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:43:44 +0000

(75% of Lost Lake, live in Newcastle: L-R Mark Vernon, Luke Fowler, me)

Last month I ended up back in Glasgow for a week to work with Luke Fowler in our Lied Music project, though this time we have formally merged it with Vernon and Burns, using the name Lost Lake. Mark Vernon and Barry Burns, with whom we recorded the 2006 LP Lied Music vs. Boy-Band Tax Returns, are two of the most like-minded, complementary soundies we've ever worked with;; while we've recorded together heaps, we have never performed before as a 4-piece.

The two live dates (Newcastle and Glasgow) didn't go quite as planned; due to a family emergency, Barry had to drop out rat the last minute. Also, we were hoping to have our new LP available, but mastering and pressing delays meant we were empty-handed on the merch table (though Luke has a slew of new releases on his Shadazz label, and Vernon and Burns have a new LP on Gagarin). Suddenly thrust into trio mode, unprepared, the Newcastle date was a bit jittery, though it was worth it to experience the lovely Star & Shadow Cinema, an inspiringly beautiful all-volunteer cinema and performance space.

It was a rewarding experience nonetheless - we spent the prior weekend improvising and recording (as the full group, with Barry), which was also rehearsing for the live dates. I brought no sound-making instruments to the UK, apart from a few bits of junk and my old sampler; I borrowed some small objects from Mark and used his banjo for a few parts. Luke also brought me some old favourites from our '06 tour, like the nail-o-phone and some small gongs. For his own playing, Luke was experimenting with his newest synthesizers, pictured below. I intentionally kept my sound palette small, keeping my options limited, and seeking versatility from the apparently non-versatile. I can say now that I have mastered the art of playing a thumb piano with a battery-powered fan.

(Luke's gear)

I wish I could play more with Luke; our geographic separation + his very successful art/film career + my own projects make Lied Music a very, very part-time thing. So I'm grateful for the little time we had, and I think the new recordings really show how the four of us have gelled. When they surface (hopefully sooner than the usual few years we take in getting releases together) I suspect it will be our most diverse work, featuring some very strange synth alienscapes, eerily processed electroacoustic weirdness and occasional spoken detritus.

(Me and my junk)

Maybe the most essential non-musical element of playing with Luke that has influenced me is his continual drive for reinvention. In the past I've always thought of Lied Music, if it had to be reduced to the most distinctive description, as "Luke on homemade instruments, me on israj, and both of us using shitloads of tape loops/manipulations". These Lost Lake sessions used none of the above. It was almost a total about-face, except that our sensibilities remained (though inarticulately altered through time and new experiences, interests, etc.).

It's been some time since I've performed music live, and while I enjoyed the experience (particularly the Glasgow show, which was everything we had hoped, and more [but still would have been better with Barry]), I still feel more interested in taking my musical experience in the direction of workshops, structured exercises, and other interactive forms. I was hoping to bring some sort of performative element to Lost Lake, but in the end I was caught up in concentrating on the sounds I was making and how they fit into the group mix. I don't think it was exciting to watch three guys - one on a laptop, one playing with synthesizers, and one rubbing a ballon -- but at least I got to be the guy with the balloon.

When the LP is ready -- hopefully in just a few weeks - I will announce it here with ordering information, etc.

Book report: 'The San Francisco Tape Music Center', ed. David W. Bernstein

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 00:36:07 +0000

The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde is a stunning work that achieves the history it intended to write while also providing stimulating inspiration about sound and approaches to creating it. Editor David W. Bernstein presents a series of articles that detail the history, occasionally repeating information but allowing a pluralistic set of viewpoints to emerge instead of a monohistory. The second half of the book is comprised of interviews, first with the primary actors of the Center (Pauline Oliveros, Ramon Sender, Bill Maginnis, Morton Subotnick and Tony Martin) and then with other figures who were also involved (Terry Riley, Ann Halprin, Don Buchla, Stewart Brand, Stuart Dempster).

(l-r: Ramon Sender, Michael Callahan, Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros (seated))

I think I found this particularly inspiring because I read this at a time when I've felt rather oversaturated with experimental music, and a bit unsure about how to continue my own experimentation in the field. I'm about to embark on a stint with Lied Music/Vernon and Burns for the first time in ages, which makes me think a lot about the aesthetics of tape (which I haven't worked with since I left the UK -- I don't even own a working reel-to-reel at the moment).

Reading about how these artists were just so excited to create -- not just sound, but performance, visual art, light shows -- makes me think about how different things were back then. (Well, of course). I'm always nervous about my tendency to fetishise early electronic music, and the SFTMC from this 'golden' period. It wasn't easy to make, the equipment has a certain aesthetic to it, and these people really worked in a cultural vacuum -- and those are all aspects that somehow change the way I perceive these recordings, especially when compared to contemporary work which may have its own merits that I don't always acknowledge.

But my own marginal involvement in the world of sound and music has always been very rooted in community, or 'scene' as some would say, and this book conveys the social aspect of this in a way that few other histories do. I really felt like there was a community of wide-eyed artists, as the interviews gave a background that wouldn't necessarily come from a straight history.

There are a lot of big names who were working on the West Coast at the time, and personal favourites as well. Ramon Sender really emerges as an unsung figure in this whole story, with his amazing Desert Ambulance cited as a key work along with Riley's In C and Oliveros' Pieces of Eight -- though the Center was very much a group effort. And the subtitle of the book doesn't overstate the impact of the SFTMC on 1960s counterculture. Though these artists seem to have little resemblance to the crazed hippies of the Bay Area scene (which exploded to national prominence a few years later), their innovations were profoundly influential on the emerging psychedelic rock scene. The Center moved to Mills College in 1966, effectively ending it (at least as far as this book's scope), but there was a brief period near its end (with the Trips festival) where the avant-gade overlapped with the emerging psychedelic rock scene. And this is before the poison of commercialism had seeped into anything - before Bill Graham and the Fillmore and all of that - but only just before.

(Ramon Sender at the Trips festival, January 1966)

The interviews are all really fun to read, and sometimes surprising. Terry Riley is really down to earth and cool; Ann Halprin is someone who's work I was not familiar with but I will now investigate; Pauline Oliveros is as warm and inspiring in print as I found her to be in person. The sense of magic and wonderment that these artists found while working in the Center is something that I have felt at points in my life, but to be honest, not for a long time.

Reading about how these people were trying to experiment with theatrical and performative actions (in the early 60s) really gives perspective to the last 50 years of experimental music. The idea that live sound should be an experiential happening is often forgotten, I think, as increases in technology have made live experimental sound far less interesting to audiences. Back in 1963, as now, it would be amazing to see someone plugging in wires on some giant analogue synth and manipulating giant tape loops constructed around wine bottles. That was happening then, and that would be 1,000,000 more interesting than most of what I see today -- yet these artists still did more. They pushed themselves to properly use the space of the stage and the talents of their performing community, involving filmmakers, dancers, visual artists, and classically trained musicians too. These days, such multidisciplinary work is less frequent (at least in the world I've been immersed in), as many are content to stare at a laptop or turn knobs on homemade electronics. The fingerprints of Cage and Tudor were all over the SFTMC (as they even staged a series of 'Tudorfests' in 1964) and it shows in some of the approaches to performance, which share some affinities with Fluxus. I think this needs to come back (and it has, to some extent, but not enough).

Near the end of the book is a chronology, which situates the happenings of the SFTMC in the continuum of other music and arts history, and the occasional intrusion of the 'real world' (such as the JFK assassination). It's a simple idea, but the basic act of ordering these events really puts things in context, and I found that it enhanced my appreciation of their work.

There's a DVD included of a 2004 reunion performance, playing a lot of the pieces described in the book, though I haven't watched it yet. I think I'm solid on the history now and curious to revisit some of these pieces, but I'll mostly re-read some of the interviews and try to imagine what it must have been like to transform a sleepy city into a hotbed of the avant-garde.

Summer 2010: Kalasataman Konttiaukio + Helsinki Public School

Mon, 31 May 2010 09:54:11 +0000

As mentioned in the previous post, Part Oy has offered Helsinki Public School a shipping container to use for classes + events to be housed at the new Kalasatama development.

(full-size image)

There will be 9 containers arranged about halfway up the western side of the harbour (where #4 is marked on the map). Besides us, there will be Dodo, two theatre groups, Kuvataideakatamia, Suomen Merimieskirkko and possibly some others. The opening event will be on 12.6, Helsingin Päivä.

Container #4 on this map will be the Public School's. We haven't actually gotten the container yet, so I don't know exactly what the facilities will be like, but we will have an electricity hookup. There's been talk of installing solar panels and the self-generating electrical system used in the Self-Sustainable Party Container from the Pixelache/Ptarmigan Art and Sustainability workshop -- and we've already proposed a Public School class to expand those facilities.

The triangular space outside of where the containers are arranged, dubbed Konttiaukio, will likely be a place for meetings, performances, and social activities throughout the summer. We'll have some things going on there (or in the containers themselves) on the 12th -- Dodo and Public School Helsinki are planning to finally get the long-planned Bicycle Maintenance class happening that day, possibly in two sessions (basic maintenance and advanced tuneups). The Dinosaur Drawing group will also be holding at least one session, also as a Public School class, though instead of the freeform approach before, there will be some more focused exercises. I believe some theatre pieces will be taking place around Konttiaukio as well. And beyond our little slice of Kalasatama, there will be other Helsingin Päivä festivities - bicycle joust competitions, a human chessboard, etc.

The next day, 13.6, the Friend_Ship project (a traveling performance boat featuring my partner, Tara Pattenden) will dock at Kalasatama and perform in the Konttiaukio space at 19:00.

In addition to Konttiaukio, there will be a lot of other things happening around the harbour over the next 25 years! A public beach is being constructed, Dodo is organising some community gardens on the southern tip, there is talk of an ethnic restaurant cooperative opening up, and rumours of a floating sauna. (Larger size scan of plan)

As Ptarmigan's schedule has slowed down a bit for the summer, I'm planning to focus my attention on this space, so look here for announcements of classes, programmes, and other events occuring at Kalasataman Konttiaukio.

The Public School Helsinki: last weekend, and the future

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:08:41 +0000

Summer is almost here, and summer will (almost certainly) bring us a large empty shipping container, "permanently" landlocked in the Kalasatama harbour. This is part of an initiative between the city and Part which will be an ongoing 25-year project to revitalise Kalasatama. We're looking forward to using the container as a classroom for most Public School events this summer, and I'm also curious to see what sort of community we end up with down there, as other organisations (Dodo and Kuvataideakatemia, for starters) will also have their own containers.

Last weekend Ptarmigan hosted back-to-back Public School classes. Friday brought the second meeting of Drawing, aka Dinosaur Drawing or Drawing Marathon, faciliated by Cathérine Kuebel and Sarah Alden. This time the class was extended to be 6 PM til 9 PM, though most people petered out before 5 AM.

Turnout was pretty high this time - I myself didn't participate in any drawing, being that I was swamped with other work, but it was a fun vibe. Lots of food, lots of hanging out, and a general low-key vibe. The resulting mural, like last time, is a mixture of incredibly beautiful sections layered with crude jokes and bizarre text fragments, but I think it's about the process, not the product.

Saturday afternoon we immediately launched into Sculptural Workshop for Foodies. This is a great example of what I love about the Public School project. The 'class' itself was awesome - led by Salla Kuuluvainen, the small group of participants played with various foods for a few hours, constructing visual creations of varying sophistication.

It's always fun to play with food (see my post on the Adam Zaretsky workshop) and this unleashed a side of me I never knew was there. I think the lemon zester is my artistic tool of choice now.

At times the creations reminded me of Max Ernst paintings, or Alberto Giacometti sculptures - only edible.

Afterwards, we cooked everything down and ate a very weird, very pink Indonesian-style curry with a side of annatto-infused barley.

This class was originally proposed by the Public School in Brussels, and copied to the Helsinki site. We gathered enough enthusiastic people to run it, and it was done without any communication between us and the original proposers in Brussels - where it has not yet happened. I like that very much -- unspoken, cross-country idea-sharing.

The venerable Helsingin Sanomat published an article on TPS Helsinki yesterday, which I unfortunately cannot link to because it's not freely available online. (Finland must be one of the few places where the traditional economic model of newspapers can still survive). With the attention from this and the other press outlets, plus a bright summer hopefully spent seaside, the future looks bright for TPS Helsinki.

Thoughts on Treme, so far

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:00:55 +0000

Once again, it is possible to immerse oneself into the magical synthesis of language, people and artifice that is the David Simon city-fiction. What worried me, before seeing the 80 minute pilot of Treme, is that Simon would stray from the “write what you know” rule — it’s inarguable that he is a master of all things Baltimore, but tackling post-Katrina New Orleans?

I have never been to New Orleans myself, so I can’t even guess at its accuracy. Simon has already defended his factual errors and makes a pretty good case for the liberties he and co-writer Eric Overmyer have taken. It only took me a few minutes into the episode - probably at the sight of Wendell Pierce raising his trombone to his lips - before I realised that I didn’t care about how realistic the city’s portrayal might be.

See, there’s something immediately recognisable about the style of Treme, maybe in the angles or the cuts, that instantly recalled the thrills of discovering The Wire. No amount of hyperbole is enough for how much of an accomplishment that series was, and if the first episode is to be any indication, Treme is going to be (perhaps equally) amazing of a ride.

This is not going to be a retread; Treme is about New Orleans, and Simon is far too careful to graft any Baltimorean predilections onto these characters. What strikes me the most about the pilot - besides the absolute beauty of the images and music, stylistically - is how different of a beast we have here.

The Wire is a show about structures and systems, where organisations, hierarchies and power dynamics infect every minute detail. Treme seems to behave in a much more organic manner. As the opening march shows, there is order in its chaos; what is a seemingly messy street party contains a fluid organisational structure, with negotiations and roles, but none explicitly manifested. But this is a stylistic choice, not a philosophical change. The conscience of this show, like The Wire, is still the death-spiral of the American city. It may be articulated much more blatantly here, but its the underlying shadow to every shot, and every word of dialogue. And really, is any other American entertainment dealing with this topic?

So we’re exploring decay and chaos again, but from a different direction. There are human beings at the core of both shows, but Treme is going to focus (in a gloriously dynamic way), on the plurality of viewpoints and relations that construct this city-fiction. Yes, The Wire did this too, but the rigidity of systems was inescapable there. It is perhaps only in the ravaged New Orleans that Simon finds a canvas to look beyond power structures and envision a right-brain celebration of American urban culture that wasn’t present in his Baltimore. There are many fingers pointed in The Wire, but Treme starts beyond the point of accusation (despite John Goodman’s character’s best attempts) - in a world where hopelessness is the starting proposition.

I am very, very excited to see this unfold.

Ptarmigan artist-in-residency programme

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:20:38 +0000

Ptarmigan was funded by The Nordic Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture administrated by the Nordic Culture Point! We will be able to offer three 2-month residencies in 2010 to residents of the Nordic and Baltic countries (outside of Finland).

In true Ptarmigan fashion, we are interested in people who do similar things to what we do. So while we are looking for artists and cultural producers, we are particularly interested in people who have a strong emphasis on community interaction, workshops, skills exchanges, and event-driven dissemination.

For more information, or to apply, please see our call for submissions. And spread the word! Applications are due in just over a month and we hope to make decisions in early June.

Some recent press re: Helsinki Public School

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:26:32 +0000

The Public School Helsinki has been getting a bit of coverage lately. Here's two recent articles:

Voima [Finnish language]
Ny Tid [Swedish language]

Any Helsinki people who are interested in getting involved -- please do! At the moment the committee is open to anyone and you can sign up via the CoActivate project.

I will end this post with this amusing photo of Tero and I from the Voima article.

Report: Vivoarts Workshop with Adam Zaretsky (Pixelache Helsinki, 2010)

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:32:36 +0000

Lots of catching up to do here! This is my biannual attempt to post more, documenting some of the things I've seen and some of the projects I've been involved with.

So here's a few reports from Pixelache 2010 in Helsinki, which happened last weekend.

The highlight of the whole festival, for me, was the Vivoarts Workshop led by Adam Zaretsky.

A simple premise: we can create new, hybrid DNA by combining various matter (food, houseplants, horse manure) and extract that DNA using household ingredients.

The performative aspect of this workshop, as Mr. Zaretsky boasts a humorous American personality that borders between trickster con-artist and batshit-insane person, made it delightful. It's always fun to put on a lab coat and play with food.

This resembled the game that everyone played as a kid - mixing up everything in the kitchen in a blender into a disgusting goo. I buried said goo in the backyard once, circa 1986, and Mom never knew about it. Here that activity was made public, but with a creative focus and political commentary to it.



The premise is "simple" - combine organic materials, strain out the liquid, put that liquid in a test tube. Add some contact lens enzyme cleaner to the test tube, to break down the cell membranes and release the contents of the cells. Wait a few minutes, and then dribble in some cold alcohol (vodka works, but isopropyl works better). After a bit, the DNA will rise to the top towards the cold alcohol solution and clump together into visible white rings.

Look, it's fun to make a mess. Especially in the Kiasma seminar room, and Mr. Zaretsky was slinging slop all over the place, leaving piles of gross manure-loaded muck on the normally posh floors.

But it's at the end that Mr. Zaretsky infused things with a political commentary. Dipping a tattoo needle in some of the hybrid DNA, he stabbed himself in the arm, asking us if what he was doing was ethical. Then he picked up a plant and threatened to inject it with our DNA. Would anyone stop him?

The room was strangely paralyzed; I played devil's advocate (or "other American", or maybe just "dickhead") and started shouting back at him to go ahead, that it wouldn't hurt. I share his views on genetically modified organisms, absolutely, but though it would be good to propel discussion along somewhat. The security guards assembled to kick us out of Kiasma, being well past closing time. In a rush, we left, and I feel Zaretsky, though clearly making his points, had a bit more to say.

Here's why this was amazing art to me:

Accessibility. Though I love obtuse, difficult shit, lately I've been really thinking about the importance of communicating. This was crazy, but fun, and I can't imagine anyone not being at least curious about it. If I think of this versus most of the "live art" I've witnessed in the past few years, the difference is astounding - this is direct, and effective, and not bogged down by its own weight or aesthetic problems.
Interactivity. Though Zaretsky was clearly running the show, he made this a group thing completely, as the pictures show. I've been drawn to workshops and classes so much recently because I'd rather be involved in a dialogue between performer/artist and audience/participant than only on one side of that relationship.
Great art often seeks out fissures in perception and tries to wedge them into wider gaps. There were a lot of boundaries that Zaretsky danced along, and that he was able to do it in a format that probably most people wouldn't even think of as "art" is all the more of an achievement. I spent more than half of this workshop thinking this was all a total hoax (and I'm still not completely convinced that it's actually DNA we've extracted from all the goop).
Commentary. The political commentary was strangely effective, particularly because he had just led us all through an exercise that was turned against us and presented as problematic, when no one was really expecting it. But in addition, there was a commentary on the artworld itself. Throughout all of this, Zaretsky made biting comments about new media and electronic art (of which the festival was saturated in many mediocre examples of). He also skewered his own field of bioart, referring to it as "shit" and sarcastically welcoming us into the bioart community through our participation.

The 15,000 Day Boat Trip: now available!

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:14:38 +0000

I'd like to announce (with great pleasure) that The 15,000 Day Boat Trip is finally available!

This is an LP that I recorded during my final year in Glasgow, in 2007. It's one long piece split over two sides , and I have been describing it to people as "instrumental music". To be a bit more detailed, Boat Trip contains similar concrète assemblages to what we did in Lied Music, but with a significantly less boisterous attitude. I took a slow hand here and tried to focus on cohesiveness (despite the damaged/anti aesthetic) as well as providing delicate, slowly breathing spaces. If you know me, you won't be surprised to hear a lot of strings, though I believe this record is esraj-free.

The LP is released in an edition of 300 by the lovely 8mm label of Italy/Portuguese operation (making this, strangely, the second consecutive solo release I've done on a Porto-based label [the first being the split CD with Spiral Joy Band from back in '07]). Screened/handmade covers, hand-numbered editions, you know - the whole deal.

This has been a long time in the works and represents a solid year of my musical life. I'm really thrilled to have this on vinyl, and it sounds great (thanks in part to the wonderful premastering done by Rory Sanachan).

I'm really sorry to any Americans who may balk at the high price of this. Vinyl costs are rising, but even moreso are shipping rates, which almost seem designed to fuck over those of us who still love hearing music on wax. I have more thoughts on this (as well as the future of physical music replication for me personally) which I will spit out here some time in the future.

This should be obtainable from the usual suspects - I will edit this entry to include links to more stores as they become available. Mimaroglu Music has copies in stock and KFW has written a really thoughtful description that does a better job than I could ever do of describing my own soundworld. Thanks!

15,000 Day Boat Trip Band video clip

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:46:21 +0000

Here's the end of our set from Ptarmigan last weekend, performing the song 'Talbot' which is actually not on the 15,000 Day Boat Trip LP (available very very soon from 8mm!) but a song from my project Handshake Garden. Blurring the lines, you know.... Please accept my apologies for how awkward it is to watch someone sing and play viola at the same time. More live shows (with hopefully an expanded band lineup) will come in the future. And thanks to my partner Tara for filming this and using a nice arty slow shutter speed.

On Amacher

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:03:38 +0000

This is an odd blog, being that I rarely post anything to it - recently I've had little to say apart from announcements or unstructured reflections on death or semi-liquid travel reports. Well, here I go again: I'm writing something messy, belatedly, after the death of Maryanne Amacher.

It's easy to make statements like "it changed my life", etc. -- and I'm prone to hyperbole anyway -- but I never articulated my thoughts after I experienced Amacher's music and in retrospect, it really was some sort of turning point for me.

I saw her at the INSTAL festival in Glasgow, 2007, as the final act of a dense 3-day sound festival. I remember that I almost skipped it because someone spilled a beer on me right before she played and I was sticky and grumpy. But I stuck around because for years I enjoyed the Tzadik disc Sound Characters (though I really only played it whenever I wanted to freak myself out [or irritate friends]). Some of the tracks had this insane effect on my head when turned up to a very loud volume -- and I knew that the CD format couldn't contain the frequencies that her live work conveyed.
There are many ways to describe the experience of listening to Maryanne Amacher live (assuming you were in an environment where the sound system can handle her frequencies) but really, it's the type of the thing that defies language. Let me use another cliché - Amacher's music touches a nerve, quite literally, as it stimulates tiny inner ear bones with a spectrum of sounds unavailable in other forms of music.

The effect is simultaneously narcotic, mystical, and terrifying. With parts of my body oscillating for the first (and only) time in my life, it felt like her music was literally pouring out of my head. She balanced the shrill, higher frequency pieces with dense sheets of earthy, physical sound, and with the audience encouraged to move about, the sensation was constantly in flux. It sort of hurt - but it was also like reaching some higher plane of consciousness.

And it was FUN -- her music was lively, geuinely expressive, and invitingly complex. Everyone in the audience danced about and talked with each other while it was happening -- I'm still not really sure what actual "volume" the music was at. If you placed fingers in your ears even slightly, to block the "special" frequencies, what remained was barely louder than a clock radio.

My ears buzzed for ages afterwards - actually, I'm not sure if they ever stopped buzzing. I left thinking that it was the most powerful sound experience of my life - and it was, honestly. I think that this was the furthest exploration of pure sound I have ever experienced - and I wonder how many other even approached the type of research she was doing.

Everything since has been different. I'm not just talking about the ringing; it's more like discovering there's a whole other dimension to sound. Obviously it's easy to retract back into everyday existence, which is like permanently sleeping. But whenever I have played live music I've been somewhat more conscious of my own body and my location in relation to the sound. Movement changes eveything and I think Amacher's live performance exaggerated these characteristics, like a permanent doppler effect.

Music is complicated and there are many aspects that have drawn me to it throughout my life. The side of sound explored by Maryanne Amacher throughout her long and (depressingly underappreciated) career is only one side, but it was an important one nonetheless (and probably what distinguishes those of us who are naturally curious about sound as a physical/liminal experience from people who just like nice songs and melodies). After seeing Amacher I felt like my purpose had changed. I think I became more interested in form and construction, and less absolute about things. The old John Fail really wanted to rip apart the seams of the world's musical fabric, but I think Amacher showed me that it's all in my head anyway. And to some extent, she had already gone as far as possible in that direction.

I was immensely saddened when I heard of her death, for purely selfish reasons - I wanted to somehow experience her work again, with my partner and anyone else who wasn't there the first time. Of course I realise that her work can be performed again, being that it was largely recording and/or software-based. But in 50 years of composing -- blurring the lines between art practice and research -- she took the human ability to experience sound and space to uncharted heights of innovation. If anyone will actually pick up from where she left off remains to be seen. The next year's INSTAL featured Marginal Consort, who had an equally strong impact on me (though in a different way) but I'll save that for another post someday.

Amazingly, there's a video clip from the performance online, but trust me -- YouTube does not convey the experience, not even slightly. Which is why I'm not even going to link to it here.

New York Times obituary of Maryanne Amacher [nytimes.com]