Eero: "Lazdynai-is-Tapiola-is-Lazdynai"

Made a compilation of the Lazdynai and Tapiola reels discussed today.

- Eero

Eero: Back to the future.

I was in the library of the Clock Museum looking up on details about the history of speaking clocks. I found a list showing who the "voices of the speaking clocks" where:

• Kaisu Puuska-Joki (alku-1959),
• Sirkka Osmala (1959-n.1980),
• Aija Rikala (1980-2000)
• Voice of man unknown. (2000-??)

I tried to call the personal phonenumbers of the "ex-speaking clocks" but none of them where available. I'll try again later. The library of the Clock Museum is right opposite to WeeGee and it's a nice place to visit. We sat in the kitchen, drunk coffee and talked chop. They thought I was working on my phd.

But I made a discovery! I learned that Koelse has a "mysterious speaking clock machine" in their offices in Vallila.

Looking at a photo of it on flickr taken by anttia.....

I noticed that it's looking exactly the same as machine in a photo in the archives! Koelse has currently not been able to activate the machine. But now we have an educated guess on who's voice well hear. The Clock Museum staff was exited about this finding too.

If I go forward with this, the Clock Museum would be happy to learn any and all details concerning the venture.. If I for example would interview the living speaking clocks etc. and make a brief study about this or a videowork or a lecture.. They would possibly be very interested in this material. That would be an interesting project to do but possibly wields no importance to the district of Tapiola.

Then for something completely different.

<- Here is something contemporary form next to the swimming areas.

Remember the Plootus mentioned earlier? The city museum managed to find the boys behind the story. I could call them too and ask if they know where to find more Plootus. I'd surely love one.

In making this I could also do interviews of the boys – In the framework of archeology: Perhaps linking their social class, the impression of Tapiola being a rich district to the Plootu story. The archeological backdrop would serve well in focusing to the temporary history of Tapiola. Somekind of class struggle thing perhaps.

That's how far I got last time. I like Paulas food blog and when eating in the joint with Timo and her we talked about doing something useful instead of doing something "classically artistic".

Some years back I started to work with the idea of making "commercials for local entrepreneurs". The idea was to affect the circulation of money directly. To use advertisement industry tricks for the benefit of a small company. This kind of actions would be useful for the Tapiola entrepreneur community too. To make fancy advertisement of local small business.. To organize a citizen movement to kick Stockmann out of Tapiola (with their multinational sushi in plastic boxes) and to have a "Heikintori 2.0" there (with a bigger Kalabaari) instead.

And here is a choppy video from the same landscape Timo was interested in. An idea was to drop ants and spiders into the miniature setting. Crafting a horror movie of sort.

Also the idea to dress into a bear suit and steal stuff from shops and piss on street corners was discussed.

- Eero

Walking around in Tapiola was a peculiar experience for me. As against the experiences of those of you who know this city for a long time, mine was more like being an alien. Of course, it is always very interesting to look around in a foreign city where one has never been before. However there is something extraordinary in Tapiola that made this alien-feeling even stronger for me. I think the peculiarity of the city is the sensation of time that is created by the special architectural atmosphere. The presence of the sixties is so conspicuous through architecture that I had to ask the question: Is this just a foreign city or am I also in a foreign time (back to the future)?

This experience first of all made me think about ideas about future from the past. This very broad topic with which a lot of artists already have been concerned with raises questions on different levels. Such as the question of discrepancies between plans, previous ideas and their materialization, realization, questions of ideology and viability, questions of theory and practice. But it can raise questions on a more personal level. For example, what could had been my parents imagination of their future child? What could had been my grandfathers idea of our family in the 21^th century? Or simply what is our picture of future like as compared to those from the past?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/evandagan/4798569602/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9eAiy0IGBI

Secondly, restricting the topic more to Tapiola and its architecture from the '60s, questions in terms of ideological urban planning comes up.( http://books.google.fi/books?id=uIE3yXbrBu0C&pg=PA128&dq=theory+ideological+urban+planning&hl=hu&sa=X&ei=dCl0T4_EGaWB4gTSvdWkDg&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=theory%20ideological%20urban%20planning&f=false ) In what form does it exist today? Is the “modernistic optimism” still existent that is so present in Tapiola's architecture?

Also it would be interesting to see Tapiola's architecture as compared to some other countries architecture from the same time period. (Especially compering to social realistic architecture might give a new erspective. For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duna%C3%BAjv%C3%A1ros )

City planning

For me the most exciting moment of our trip was the metro station models in Metrokonttori.
This model with the label: "In reality this street doesn't exist." reminded me of the film Truman Show.

Afterwards I also watched this interesting historical advertisement video about Tapiola: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoH0dQOuya4

Foodblog: Lunch at Kalabaari (Fishbar)

On friday we had a lunch at the Paavo's Kalabaari in Heikintori shopping center. Recommended by the chef I chose the fishsoup(8€) and my companions chose the Fishplate(9,50€). The salmon soup  was clear unlike the typical creamy salmon soup and spiced with fresh herbs. The fish comes from a producer near by, apparently it's grown salmon from Norway. The overall experience 4/5. It was very good, but not mind-blowing, therefore only 4.

The fishplate had smoked salmon, salted salmon, whitefish and something else that we thought was lamprey. My other companion was disappointed that the fishplate was cold and gave a 3/5. Another companion wasn't excepting it to be warm and enjoyed the fresh fish giving a total 4/5 of the experience. It would've been 5, if the salad had been more innovative, he said.

Apparently Paavo's kalabaari is the place to eat in Tapiola. At least it is in favor of celebrities such as Frederik, Pirkko Mannola and Jukka Puotila who had personally written a card to Paavo, thanking for the wonderful food. In the Kalabaari they were also selling albums of Kikka and other finnish singers, maybe to create the atmosphere of the archipelago?

On the wall of the Kalabaari was a picture taken by Paavo himself of the Isokari lighthouse that is located  near Paavo's summer cottage in Selkämeri. 

More information about the majakka: 

http://www.isokari.com/index.php?page=majakka

and more about the happy kalabaari http://www.kalabaari.net/

Routes, walking, buildings

When I used to work in Tapiola during one summer I always took the same routes from bus stop to the workplace. I guess I’m not only one who does that. We get so familiar with everything that surrounds us that we won’t pay any attention to the environment and the possible beauty that might be found there.

We just walk with a decent, rapid phase, in our own thoughts, moving the hands back and forth. Unless we carry something, our hands are tied, and we have to slow down a bit. It’s fun to watch people walking. I have a feeling that the phase is a bit slower and the hands (arms) don’t move in such a large scale in Tapiola than in downtown Helsinki.

Besides people there are buildings (blocking free routes). Buildings with high walls, some windows here and there. Where there is no windows there is empty walls which cry for something happening, may be in the form of video projection?

Impressions

Two hours of wondering around Tapiola. Some impressions:

Visited Heikintori. A place full of Chinese stuff, a fur shop, Alko, lots of different smells.. It's now actually quite far from this idealistic vision about the 1st American style shopping paradise in Finland (was it 1968?).

In Tapiola there's also a big information office where you can find lots of information and maps about the metro they're building at the moment. Many people in Espoo have been worried (in media) about this metro because it's been said it will bring "wrong kind of people" to the area. After 2015 - that's when it's supposed to be ready - it's going to be an easy way to reach Espoo from not-so-well-doing East Helsinki.

I realized I really need to deal with my own prejudice. Maybe the reason is the commercial nature of the area. It might also be my own memories about Tapiola and it's people when I was a kid and a teen. I keep imagining that this NIMBY is going strong in Espoo (Espoo doesn't really want to be joined to Helsinki or other worse doing cities in the area). I really have to change my attitude and this project is really good for that. Don't know yet how to do it.

The cute and small swimming hall might be a good place to take a closer look at. I was fascinated about it's outdoor pool and this middle aged man that spent time around it with only swimming trunks on. I'm thinking of using that as the starting point of my ideas. I mean not the man, but the water.

Eero: Look up on the Archeology of Espoo.

Today I went for the prehistoric roots of Espoo and ended up looking up stuff related to the "copper money" or Plootu's, we where introduced to during the lecture by Espoo City Museum personnel. I found some resources to use if you are interested in prehistory (and read Finnish) of Espoo.

This is an interesting map system which shows the locations of archeological excavations and archeological findings by private parties:
http://fba.evvk.com/geo/kulttuuriymparisto

Here is a portal, with more detailed data:
http://kulttuuriymparisto.nba.fi/netsovellus/rekisteriportaali/portti/default.aspx

The Plootu's currently exhibited in the museum where found from Mäkkylä, but despite the efforts we where unable to find newspaper clipping etc. of the finding. I'm now trying to find the boys who found the Plootu's by with the help of the museum staff. The museum also had replicas of their Plootu's made and I'm trying to find the Blacksmith responsible for making them... In hopes of purchasing a copy! I guess this interest in Plootu's is related to local currencies and the Suomenlinna Money Lab but I'm not at all interested in trying to build a local currency for Espoo.

There was also a "Clock Museum" in WG house and I was given a short introduction to the collection. A device of particular interest was the "Observatory Balloon" which was used to set the clock on ships in sync (from Helsinki, Tähtitorninmäki). This particular balloon was lifted on top of a flag pole every day at exactly 12:00 and ships used this signal to sync their clocks (sync on clocks is needed for navigation, more here). In short the device is the gps-technology of it's time. If the weather was bad a cannon was fired to send the sync signal. I send a request to meet with the Clock-Museum staff next Friday (for fun) and to have a look at their archive.

Not sure where these investigations will result to.. I also learned that there was a mine (for iron) in Leppävaara (with ore of 30% iron!) and that there is a dugout there.. I could go for mining too. The most interesting link I found was this. Which is a forum/portal for Finnish treasure hunters. I wonder if I could build a metal detector? Or does Aalto Uni. have one I could borough? (edit: apparently metal detectors are simple to build: http://www.easytreasure.co.uk/bfo.htm)

-Eero

Hei

I will join media intervention with pleasure!

Cheers,
Neringa

Welcome to the 2012 Course!

The new course for spring 2012 kicks off this week Friday, starting at 09.30 at the Art House, Otaniemi. We'll meet at the 3rd floor, room 331. Schedule for the day is as follows:

09.30 - 11.30: Introduction & lecture by Andy Best

11.30 - 12.15: Lunch & move to WEE GEE TALO http://www.weegee.fi/etusivu.asp?path=91524

12.15 - 13.00: Introduction to Cartes (Centre of Art & Technology) with Suvi Alanko http://cartes-art.fi/

13.00 - 14.00: Guided tour & talk at Espoo City Museum

14.00 - 16.00: Walking tour of Tapiola area, discussion.

Please have suitable clothes for moving around the Tapiola area according to the weather, and remember your bus ticket, or have bicycle/car etc!

Each week we will meet at Cartes studio in WEE GEE at 09.30 for project planning and discussion before working in the Tapiola surrounding area.