Nature Laboratory

Video is available in Youtube. Here some pictures from Espoon keskus.

More info about my project is in my blog: https://controlr.wordpress.com/
Blog is written in Finnish.

Suit -performance in Entresse

Home sweet home video in youtube

Transportation, installation, final product

The day of setting up my installation finally came. The result was not perfect but highly satisfactory considering that I didn't do precise calculations of the perspective. Here are the events and the final results, as usual, described through pictures (and some additional words for good measure):

Transportation. I got some help from the post office worker at Taik.

Arrival at Entresse

Rise to the heights

Tying it up. We had a problem with the fishing line as it was actually quite elastic. The picture dropped about 40cm from its initial height so we had to tie it up again and hope for the best.

Ready 1

Ready 2

Thank you for your attention,

- Kaarlo Kajalainen

BABEL by Alicia de Manuel & Alejandra Calvo

    We are two Spanish exchange students studying in Aalto University in Helsinki. Each of us has different backgrounds and we got together for this project. Our aim is to enlighten the fact that we all have dreams. Taking into account the place we come from we can’t help but compare the educational system. Starting from the fact that Finland has the best educational system, we would like to know what kids, from different parts of the world, actually think of it.

What we want to do is to record the kids answering three simple questions in their own language. The questions would be

 Do you like the school?

 What do you like about it?

 What do you want to be when you are old?

    The videos will be transformed in BIDI codes, which is a system that allows the user to go to a website by taking a picture with your mobile phone. These codes will be assembled around the city of Espoo.

    In order to make this funnier for the kids and also to thank their help, we are going to organize a mask workshop and record the kids who want to participate.

Mini-kevät festivaali @ Espoo Kunsthalle 3.- 4.5.2013

Ohjelma

Entresse Kirjasto:

Anna Knappe - Videomuotokuva entisestä Pub Satulinnan talosta ja Terhosta

Alicia de Manuel ja Alejandra Calvo – Maahanmuuttajanuorten videotarinoita

Antti Granqvist - Todellisen elämän seikkailupeli (lähtöpaikka)

Entresse 3krs:

Kaarlo Kajalainen – Valokuva-installaatio

Global Cafe:

Johanna Rotko – Luontoa muistaen- installaatio

Riikka Lammi –  Kaikki taide on hyödytöntä- video-installaatio

Oona Järvinen – Utopistisia visioita- julisteet

Performansseja:

Elina Hartzell – esittää kirjaston ja Espoon keskuksen aseman välisellä alueilla performanssin,
jossa puhekuplat lähtevät kävelemään (pe 3.4 päivä)

Kasperi Mäki-Reinikka - Suit - mediaperformanssi yhteistyössä Brains on Art- ryhmän kanssa.

Esiintyjä: Henri Kotkanen
Entresse kauppakeskus 2krs. pe 3.5 klo 18:00, la 4.5 klo 12:00

Viktor Khachtchanski, Outi Debnam & Paul Takahashi – Buddha Orchestra
Entresse kirjasto la 4.5 klo 12:00 & 14:00. Esitys kesto n. 1 tunti.

Mark Ward – Is Not performanssi
Virastopiha la 4.5 koko päivä

VJ- Työpaja:

Ilmari Arnkil - VJ-työpaja, jossa nuoret pääsevät kokeilemaan live video- miksausta
Jukebox (Entresse 3krs.) pe 3.5 klo 14:00-18:00, la 4.5 klo 11:00-15:00

Lisää tietoa:
http://m1ce.blogspot.com tai http://www.facebook.com/EspooKunsthalle

Yhteistyössä:
Entressen kirjasto,

Espoo kaupunki: tekninen ja ympäristötoimi, kaupunginsuunnittelukeskus,

Sentteri- nuorisokeskus

Aalto Media Factory, MEET Factory

Kiitos:

Mikko Kivinen, Lea Keskitalo, Erik Stenroos, Eeva Jäppinen, Juhani Tenhunen, Anssi Leppävuori

Espoon kaupungin kulttuurilautakunta

  Aalto Media Factory

Pictures of pictures

I finally got my massive prints coated on the Kapa plate. The whole process was long and strenuous (ESPECIALLY the cutting).

Here are some pictures of the work:

Gluing the print onto the Kapa plate. Printlab's post processing master Markus Ahonen was of great assistance getting the work ready. The process was teamwork.

Cutting the Kapa plate was a truly shitty job. The plate was too big for the Kapa cutter so I had to do it manually. It resulted in some hick ups on the edges but nothing too serious.

Almost done!
- Kaarlo Kajalainen

For my posters

Does this look annoying enough to be a typical perfect nuclear family from a nice suburb?

It's a flying Lada.

Working with the project

Here's pictures of some backgrounds i've made for the project. I've done them with Illustrator and Photoshop, and i wanted to make them look like quite simple, even childish.
Still working on with the human figures and texts.

- Oona

Suit - performance takes place in Entresse shopping centre

The place for the Suit - media performance has been confirmed! The performance takes place in Entresse shopping centre 3.5. at 6 pm and 4.5. at noon (see on the map).


A man dressed in black suit will stand in Entresse's 2nd floor, next to Elisa shop for half-an-hour with electrodes attached behind his ears. Stock market data from the previous week (as the stocks are closed for the weekend) will be transmitted to the electrodes, causing performer to lose his balance every time the stock index change for better or worse.

The stock index is projected to the wall next to (and partially on top of) the performer, so the passer-byes can see the data feed and the changes in index and in balance of the performer.

I'm now trying to get my hands on some HFT -data, where stock transfers are made in microseconds. I'm planning to expand that time frame of only couple of seconds for the Saturdays 30 min performance. Let's see how it goes.

The Land of a Thousand E-mails

Our final Friday gathering has passed and the next time we meet will be the presentation day of our works.

First we discussed the status of everybody's works and then a select group proceeded to the Entresse library to set some technicalities in place. I met Eeva Jäppinen, the District Manager of Library Services and the fire and safety inspector Mika Eilola in the lobby area where my installation is supposed to be hung. We discussed the details of the size of the work and where it's supposed to be placed since it has an impact on the safety of the area. Mr. Eilola gave an initial approval of the work and I've now sent a detailed e-mail to him about it, too.

I also sent e-mails to a laminating company about the work and got a price offer for the laminating procedure. The price is quite high so I e-mailed Andy about the budget of the course.

At this point the pieces of the puzzle are setting to their correct places and everything should be ready in two weeks.

As usual, here are some pictures for you to glimpse through:

The attachment points. The Kapa-plate is bound to be attached to the metal hangings pointed by the arrows. There's a white ornament plate in the roof among the yellow ones which, it seems, sets the centerpoint of the space.

Closeup of the metal hangings.

Time for a nap.

- Kaarlo Kajalainen

VJ workshop for local youth

Having given up my earlier plans of making an interactive sound piece, I've decided on a completely new kind of project. I plan to create a VJ workshop for the local youth at the Jukeboksi youth center. I will be using mainly my own equipment and material for the workshop. The workshop will be entirely non-digital, which means doing things the traditional way: analogue video mixer connected to a bunch of DVD players and a projector. 

My goal is to introduce a new art form to the folks hanging out in Jukeboksi, who probably haven't seen many VJ performances (if any). The old school equipment are great for demonstrating the basic idea of live video mixing because they allow for a very practical and hands-on approach to creating visuals. 

I will be using material that I've gathered with Kasperi for a couple of years now. I have briefly spoken with the Entresse library people and folks at Jukeboksi about the idea and they seemed to be excited about it. I have yet to arrange for a video projector, but I was told that the library should have one. If not, I'll bring one from the school.

1966 view of Espoon Keskus area

An aerial view of the area, where the present day IKEA store would be located in the right foreground this side of the Turku motorway. In the middle distance you can see the church/cathedral, and to the left in the distance the railway and present day Espoon Tori and Entresse area. Quite a change over the last 50 years!

Past Visions of the Future

Here are some images from the 1970's architecture competition for the Espoon Keskus area. We can see that some of the ideas were implemented...but maybe not with the desired results!

Aerial view of the area

The idea of the time (seen in many cities around the world) to seperate pedestrians and vehicle traffic on different levels. Does this work??!

Happy citizens & local baari!

Real life adventure game

I haven't been able to post ideas about my project until now - First due to technical difficulties and then because of my absence and illness. But now it's here for the public.

As the title says, my project is inspired by adventure games where the player is required to do some problem solving in order to get from a point to another. In this case the route people will experiment involves info about the city of Espoo in various forms of media, text, pictures, web links, etc. Some checkpoints might even work in co-operation with other projects of the course. At every checkpoint there will be a hint leading to the next stop. This will force participants to think and observe the present time of the area they're moving in, in order to find the next point.

The main idea of the project is to increase knowledge of the area and activate people in both physically (walking, cycling) and mentally (problem solving) while giving them an unusual experience in a city environment.

Notes about Espoon Keskus

I had discussions with two persons from the area of Espoon keskus, and I also talked with other people from Espoo and Helsinki about what they think about the place, and what mental images do they have about the district. Based on the discussions and things that we have heard earlier for example in Espoo town council, I figured four different points of view about Espoon keskus. I spesify these categories more closely below.

Espoon keskus as a slum or a ghetto

- specially the younger people talk about the place this way
- district where poor people are gathered: single parent families, immigrants, socially excluded young people
- criminality and drugs
- fear of walking around the area by night
- people are hoping for a change

Espoon keskus as a nice suburb

- what does many persons from Helsinki think about the place
- this side of the area does not appear in the centre of the place, but little further away it can be understood why some people see Espoon keskus as such a nice place to live
- detached houses, exemplary families
- Espoo as a town for white middle class people
- idyllic, peaceful place near of the capital
- ugly centre of Espoon keskus is just one small part of the area

Espoon keskus as a rural-like place

- how does people from other parts of Espoo think about the area
- how did the man from the Espoo town council split the city into two parts: there's this modern, nascent and rich southern Espoo full of young intellectuals and companies, and then there's desolated, old and anemic northern Espoo (you can guess, in which part Espoon keskus belongs, if you don't already know...)
- closeness of the nature, for example the Nuuksio national park near by
- located far from all the places where's any action
- place where city meets countryside
- I think the area might have a possibility to attract new, young, hippie-like inhabitants by using this image as a inducement

Espoon keskus as a graveyard of great plans

- what did the council guy talk about the place
- also older people remember well the plans how Espoon keskus was supposed to be a modern, fine district
- dreams of Espoon keskus as a city of the future full of amazing architecture, companies and happy people
- plans and projects never came true: what Espoon keskus really get was ugly buildings following the style of lovely Itä-Pasila and inhabitants with drug problems
- manner to speak about the place in a way that reminds me of soviet propaganda.

Finalizing the plans 12.4.2013

Once again we gathered at the Global Cafe and discussed our projects. We were also visited by Habiba Ali who works as a community representative at Espoon keskus. We had an excellent afternoon discussing the housing policies in Suvela, art in general and some other sizzling hot topics.

My project is coming along quite nicely, as well. I've acquired three Kapa plates for free (10x3000x1400mm) one of which I will use as the surface for my big prints. Hopefully I will get a permission from the Entresse shopping center to hang it from the roof of my destination area. I've still not gotten anything back from the Entresse marketing manager on the matter.

As usual, here are some random pictures of today's meeting:

Cheers,

- Kaarlo Kajalainen

Home sweet home Suvela

This week I've been filming in Suvela and will continue doing so next week also. Here's a couple of photos to give you an idea what my video will look like.

Jackets - media performance

Jackets (working title) is a media performance I'm planning for the course. It includes one or two black suit jackets worn by performers. Included in the jacket are two electrodes that are attached behind ears. A small electric currant then flows through causing imbalance (to left or right, depending on flow). The currant will be controlled by stock market changes.

I started the work by getting acquainted with galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) technique. It is a method of driving a small current through the earlobes to affect ones balance. The method itself was discovered already in 18^th century by Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the first electrical battery, when he almost electrocuted himself when driving 30 volts through his head. The sensation feels like someone is pulling you to left or right, depending on the flow of the current.

I implemented the circuit in a smart-looking black suit jacket. Electrodes are coming from the collar of the jacket, making them easy to wear. The circuit and the battery are placed in a pocket inside the jacket and the trimmer is easy to access if the amount of current needs to be altered.

The sensation we got depended mainly on how well the skin was prepared. Feeling of dizziness and sometimes pulling was achieved, but the effect varied a lot between different individuals. Also a small sting was received when the trimmer was on minimum (the strongest current running through). The sting was probably caused by the rush of electric current turned on suddenly and not little by little. Although a sensation was achieved, more research and tests are needed in order to get the jacket to work more reliably.

Introduction to GVS & some schematics:

http://lab.robomotic.com/hardware-stuff/35-motion-nodes/62-gvs-introduction

Some videos from GVS:

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