What am I thinking (tomorrow)?

Hi all,

My project is now in that state, that I will go tomorrow to the Kamppi mall to talk with the people and ask them what they are thinking.
The question "What are you thinking today?" has been twitted to the Kamppi twitter page and also posted to the Facebook page of Kamppi shopping mall, asking people to write their thoughts with hashtag #whatruthinking, or #mitämietittänään. Hopefully someone will find those posts and participate in the project. :) But I guess most of the material I will get tomorrow face to face with people (I really hope so!).
Yesterday I had a talk with an artist who is working a lot with interviewing people, and I got some helpful tips from him for tomorrow.
I also have to make decision about the screens, of how I want my work to be shown there. But I´m sure that is something tomorrow will show to me also, when I have an idea of the material I´m getting.
So looking forward tomorrow and what it will bring to my project! :)

Emilia

Ordinary Desire_#2_by June in Winter

Little valuable things in Finland

I am going to crochet little valuable things what I found in Finland. They helped me a lot enjoy the life in this harsh weather. For me, the little things are the best surviving media to live here for three years. They are mostly from the forest and neighbors, mushrooms, berries, apples, beer after the sauna. I will install small objects at the hidden places all around the Kamppi, under the benches or behind the escalators or at neglected places. I would like to encourage people to discover little things and break a moment. 

Ordinary Desire of urbanites  

When something becomes too ordinary for us, we consider it is not anymore our desire. I am afraid of this moment. I don't want to forget valuable impressions from the first encounter and I hope people can think about their ordinary desires while they are staying in Kamppi shopping center.

_June in Winter

Ordinary Desire_#1_by June in Winter

I am curious what people are missing, what people are looking for while they are walking fast in the Kamppi shopping center. I would like to call those little missing things as Ordinary Desire of urbanites.

'My impression of Kamppi shopping center'

I think the shopping center should be the place to stay for long time, but Kamppi is not. The atmosphere of the shopping center made me to walk so fast. Yes, I understand urbanites are so busy!!! However, Fast phased busy life style does not really suit for Finns.

When I observed people on E -floor(the ground floor), I could imagine several different colors of flows from busy people. At the same time, I thought 'what if I cut some of their flows and link those flows with others then what happen? People might be able to take a moment and share something with others.

The process of my media _Crocheting
Knitting and Crocheting are one of little things what I found in Finland. The process of knitting is very interesting. It always starts with one single yarn, and when it is tangled it creates diverse possibilities. The process looks similar with the process of formation of communities, starting from one individual and building the complex society. I want to use this process as the media to make the small link between people. 

-June in Winter

Interruption Idea

Hello everyone!

I am focusing on “Interruption” idea, especially by using CURTAIN as the way.

* First challenge I got

: After last Thursday meeting, I got an email from Andy regarding Heli’s meeting with security part and he said

: You need to use fire-proof material for your curtain.

How wide are the hanging strips?

Is there space between the strips, can people coming from opposite directions see if they will bump into someone going the opposite way?

(If they can’t see, this is a problem, as someone might get hurt.)

à About his mention, the space between strips is not matter because I can reflect that, but the matter was “fire-proof” material.

* I solved the first challenge

: Today, I visited textile department in our school, but there was no suitable material for my work. But I finally found the fire-proof fabric in Eurokangas! It costs quite much but I am so glad that I can keep my curtain idea.

* So, I am thinking “Text” which will be written on the fabric and “the way” to write the text. (Ex_ A big simple word or tiny many words. I am leaning to “tiny words” so that people can only see in near distance, which means they should anyway shortly stop to read the text and this matches well with “interruption” idea and my intended message.)

* Lastly, overall design of curtain: how to be connected to wire and the space between strips. Still on ideation process!

These are my current steps. 

See you on Thur!

Invisible Helsinki: UPDATE!

Hello! 

I'm posting for both Andre and myself.

After the last class and the critique, we realized that we need to look the the project from a different point of view. Here are some of the changes...


Overview:
Invisible Helsinki is a platform who facilitates stories of people. Interviews will happen inside a tent in front of Kamppi where strangers are invited to sit and have their portrait taken.  
The main interview question will be "When do you feel invisible?"

How:

Andrea and I are going to look for people and invite them to have a picture taken in our project about “People of Helsinki”. Inside the tent there will be Meela who is going to conduct an interview (aprox. 15min) gaining trust and letting people talk.

The layout would follow the structure of the previous project, a portrait, the logo and a new headline “I feel invisible when...?” together with the website of the project.

Side note: Meela is from the photography department at Aalto

Structure / Period

Short videos of 10 seconds in the big screen of Kamppi where we show a person portrait followed by a headline and the website of the project (who could be hosted by Kamppi).

The initial idea is to have 15-18 stories and run it through a period of two weeks posting one new story per day in the website.

UPDATES:
We have confirmed time and date for photographing! It is April 14th and 18th on the square between Henry's Pub and Lasipalatsi

Reviewed project idea

Hi people,

So my part of project idea have stayed the same and some things have changed.
Even though I really appreciated Nora's critic (which didn't really surprise me), it still stressed me a lot. I have to be realistic about me project, but at the same time I don't want to do something I don't feel comfortable with or which is not my aesthetic style.
I want to keep the idea of relaxing slowmotion pictures of natures, but then I instead want to add sounds from the city (for example traffic sounds).
I will put white curtains and the nature pictures will be projected on to that, which hopefully will make it look lively and organic, and people can be able to surround themselves with nature. Then I will put up speakers with the stressful sounds. These to elements combine should give a contrast and should be seen as to sides of Finland.

That's it!

Hopefully I will recorded some different sounds for next time.
See you - have a nice weekend.

- Siw

Anteeksi Bag Prototype

Here is my prototype of an Anteeksi-bag. It is made of normal A3 size white paper. Compared to how I would prefer it to be, I think this one is too small and that it looks too homemade. 

I have a few options on creating bigger and more "professional" looking bags:

1. Find a company which produce customized paper bags and having them produce them. 

2. Get ahold of paper bags and customizing them myself. I could possibly get the bags from asking the stores in the Kamppi mall if they wanna donate some bags. Then I could color them in the same color (for example with spray paint) and put the text/logo on. The latter could be done in a number of ways (for example by printing the logo on sticker paper and sticking it on, or painting it on by cutting out letters kind of like a cooking cutter style). One of the issues with this option is that the stores that donate bags might expect something back and if I do not get enough bags for the whole installation/intervention I might end up with bags in different sizes. This last issue as not something I see as very problematic though. 

3. Getting bigger papers and make a design so I can print them directly from a computer and wrap them so the logo is visible in the center of the bag. One challenge with this and the 2. option is the tI am not very crafty, so the bags might end up looking a bit homemade anyway. I think the option 3. is the one whre it might end up looking the most homemade, due to my bad skills with folding paper (I know that it sounds like it should be easy, but I did have some challenges with folding the Anteeksi-bag). 

Rush

My project idea changed since my first post here. The final work will be called Rush and is again interactive projection, but it occupies another space and visually is very different. It is pretty clear - a heart beat. Not sure yet if I will use the red dot from the logo or I will make a more realistic image of a heart, but it is going to pulsate in the center part of Kamppi, the round-shaped space on the E floor. The more people pass through the area, the faster it will beat (and if there is no one in some moment, it will have a normal human heart rate). I am already considering a "heart attack" after the feedback from the curator on Tuesday :) The fun part is about to start - the actual production of the work...
Good luck to everyone!

My project idea

Hi,

So now I have a project!
Today we presented our project ideas to the manager of Kamppi mall, and we got really positive feedback. :) My project is still waiting confirmation on some technical details about using the comercial screen inside, but I´m hoping for the best. 

Here is my thoughts so far:

”MITÄ MIETIT TÄNÄÄN? / WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF TODAY?”

About the project:

Kamppi is very busy place with a hectic pulse of people coming and going because it´s not only a shopping mall, but also a traffic terminal for buses and metro, so people are often in a hurry. There is a different variation of people: some are there shopping, some are having lunch or coffee, others are waiting for the transportation, or using Kamppi as a short cut. Some people are there just hanging there. 

With my project ”MITÄ MIETIT TÄNÄÄN? / WHAT ARE YOU THINKING OF TODAY?”
I would like to make people stop for a second and think of what they have in their minds while being in Kamppi.

My way of doing the project would be making a stand to the first floor for a day with the question ” What are you thinking today?” / ”Mitä ajattelet tänään?” so that people could write their thoughts on a paper or blackboard or notepad. (still have to think of this one!)
I would collect those papers with thoughts, and then next week post them to the screen inside Kamppi and create a poetic collage / diary page of thoughts that people are having in the mall, with the ending line: ” Mitä mietit tänään? What are you thinking of today?” 

My goal in the project is to make people stop for a second and give a moment for their own thoughts.  Make them be present in the moment and conscious of their thoughts. Make consumer a thinker. Instead of commericials the screen would show people´s thoughts.
The idea is also to create a positive feeling, to make people read other people´s thoughts and with that point out the variety of people in Kamppi, having different or same kind of thoughts.

The layout would be very simple and peaceful, so that it would not create more restless stimulation to the surrounding space.

The target group for my project is the people in Kamppi.

Mockup picture of the screen.

Anteeksi / Förlåt / Sorry

After going back and forth for a while with my project I decided that I would like to create some sort of an installation that created out of several paper bags that have the word "Anteeksi" (sorry in Finnish) on them. After advice from Andy, I've decided that it would be good to have bags in different kinds of languages (Swedish, English, Russian, Somali, etc.). Inspired by Félix Gonzáles-Torres' piece consisting of candy, the thought for my project is that people passing by are welcome to pick up a bag. By doing so, the installation grows smaller and is slowly "ruined" or broken down, until there are now bags left. Hopefully the project will raise questions, like who is sorry and for what? By keeping it more or less simple, I believe it leaves the project open to several interpretations. I would like to put something in the bags, like a short text or essay, a poem or a sample of some sort. This is still to be decided.

My work before class next week is to start creating a font for the "logo" of the bags and figure out how to make them. Thanks to Aunt Annie's Craft Website, I now know that it's possible to create these kinds of bags from home.

Couple of Ideas

Hi all!

I finally got to writing this blog entry after transformed ideas. I am not sure yet totally what I want to do but I think the core is there.

First I started by wondering what this was...

Who lived there and how an earth it gives any shelter from the outside world: The noice and especially the wideness, there are no trees or anything to give cover. Only the big roads and occasional airplanes.

Then I started wondering of the contrast. The worse things gets outside, the better even a small shelter feels.

Somehow, I wanted to take a small shelter and bring it to kamppi. The Idea behind this was to show how a crappy cottage might feel more relaxing than the inside of kamppi centre.

After a week or so this idea started to feel stupid like most of my ideas begin to feel after a week or so.

Then I started to alter the idea a bit. I wanted create a space where a person could take a nap because it isn't allowed anywhere and I think it should be a human right. Public spaces should have solutions to recharge. I started researching.

French mayor puts metal cages around benches on Christmas to dissuade homeless from sleeping there

 I think itself, these  benches constitutes as a work of art and make the statement I was wondering about. Could be a possibility to create this sort of negative space. No sleeping allowed in a bed or so.

Then I found a couple of services which sell sleeping in boxes.

Sleeping units in Japan, which cost around 640 dollars a month. Kind of inhumane.

Sleepboxes which are rented as a service to public spaces, airport etc.
Only rich can afford, nobody should own the right to sleep.

Reminds me of this...

 

In Matrix all people where in state of sleep in virtual reality and were used for fueling the system of artificial intelligence. They were used to provide power.

If it's a service which cost something, It feels like people are recharging to serve the capitalistic system. It should be free!

Couple of ideas after this:

Sleep revolution. People taking control by sleeping in totally random and disallowed locations. Like to make an elevator to a bedroom.

Hammock City. Hammocks put everywhere in the shopping centre. People sleeping or just the hammocks?

A bed of nails. Or some sort of bed where sleeping is very difficult. Bed in the air?

Box forts or a shop full of pillows like a pillow sky.

Best Regards,

Juuso Lavonen

Second post

Hi everybody.

So a week have gone by and I have come just a bit closer to what I want to do. Some of the explanation will a repetition, sorry but it's so it makes sense.

For the project I want to do something in contrast to hectic feeling and create a place to relax and breath out in a way. In that sense my project is in some ways similar to the Kamppi Chapel (where I’m inspired by the wooden material it is made of), but my project has nothing to do with religion.

It should be something that is visually satisficing and where the aesthetic abundance is scraped away. Right now my idea is the make a nature video that features the beauty of Kuusamo near Lapland (and maybe also Nuuksio National Park and Suomenlinna). I’m not use to making videoes only photography so if I’m satisfied with my footage it will instead change use my photography and them the photos into a transitions, so still get some sense of movement. It should be very relaxing and maybe with sounds of the nature also. I would either like to make kind of a closed space (for example by putting up a black curtain) inside the centre, where people can step in and take break by seeing the movie, putting headphones on and listening to the nature, and smelling branches from the woods. In that way it would stimulate more than one sense, as the shopping centre already do. My other choice is to only make the video without sound and placing it on one of the big screens so that it can reach everybody that is passing by. I’m coming back from Kuusamo on Sunday and I will hopefully be clearer about the practicalities of my idea by next week. 

See you all next week!

 

Ok! I have this very raw idea of a human marionet, which I´d like to see operated/manipulated from the shopping center balcony. The idea is to help busy people in Kamppi to think about the forces that drives us to consume and do all kinds of other weird stuff. Who pulls our strings? And why? This will be artistic investigation and a performance. I need to think this very precisely. Lets talk about these ideas soon together and let´s be creative!

Reflecting on Consumption

For my intervention in Kamppi I have been thinking about a project that could reflect on consumption. The shopping center is a place where people are encouraged to shop and consume. These encouragements are communicated visually through signs and ads that fill up the center, as well as via the PA system, with the Kamppi radio, playing ads every now and then.

I have a preconceived understanding that we don't always give deep thought to why we buy certain things, but rather act on some kind of impulse or desire that makes us drawn to purchasing. I would like to explore and maybe highlight these desires and impulses somehow. 

One way I have been thinking about how to do this, is by conducting research before a finished project is presented. The research would consist of talking to costumers in the Kamppi mall, asking about what they have bought and why. Perhaps it would be possible to see some connections to purchases that might be completely different on the contrary. Are there some underlying motivations that drive our consumption? It may sound a bit banal, but could it be to gain something, like happiness, attention, status or love? The data gathered could be analyzed to try to investigate these questions. 

After conducting this research I would like to present the data and the result of the analysis in the mall. This would be where the more artistic part of the project comes in. I have a few ideas on how this could be done. 

One idea is to have a stand or booth somewhere in the mall. At the booth, someone would give out shopping bags labelled with the findings of the consumers, boiled down to one, two or three words (like LOVE, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, ATTENTION, COOLNESS etc.). 

Another way of presenting the results of the research might be to have several performers walk around the mall, carrying around a huge number of bags and boxes that are labeled the same as the bags above. I don't know if they might be visible in the crowd, but hopefully there could be a way of styling the bags and perhaps also the performers so that people would have to take notice. 

The third idea is playing a recording of the results over the PA system in the mall. For example having a sensual voice (preferably similar sounding to the one that usually is announcing all the ads in the mall) that reads these findings or answers.

I'm thinking it would be great, if possible, to incorporate some sort of comedic aspect to this project. Exactly how I don't know yet. There might also be better ways of presenting the data. The ideas above do need some more development, but these are my ideas so far.

The Aquarium

This is a combination of two different ideas. One is about buildings with huge glasses which always look like fish tanks and how people wander inside them sometimes just like fish do, and the other - about surveillance. I'm not sure yet how a combination between the two could work, but maybe you could tell me. I find in both the notion of a certain controlled environment.
So I see the end result as a projection on the windows (that should be tested first!!) in 2-3 different locations in the building. The projection consists of footage of people going through the mall (the ideal would be to have a live stream and project footage from the ground floor on the 2nd floor, or footage from the 2nd - on the front of the building etc. - so that people could perhaps see that they are being watched), and this is merged with footage of fish floating around. The fish will definitely make the image more appealing and attention grabbing...
I'm also open to any feedback and cooperation :)

Maybe some inspiration came from these guys, though it's very different as concept and execution. But I like this light way of presenting something important - http://www.luzinterruptus.com/

So many options! So many things to do in Kamppi!

Hi everyone! 

So many different ideas has crossed on my mind during this last week, when thinking of a project to do in Kamppi. 

I tried to give the freedom for my ideas and let them come and go, trusting that some idea will rise above the others. 

When wondering around Kamppi and trying to feel the atmosphere there, first thing that came strongly out was the amount of stimulations. It created chaotic feeling and almost took all my energy away.  So as many of us, I was also first thinking that instead of adding something to the space there is a need for less: make people stop and have a quiet moment. 

Then another idea that came to my mind was to create some kind of ”green space” where people could plant some seeds / plants / flowers / herbs, put their hands in the soil and lower their stress levels with that kind of action.

But after a while I started to think of the wonderful opportunity of using the screen in Kamppi, and I had this kind of similar idea than Andre posted, of giving the commercial screen time to the people in Kamppi. My idea was not as clear or as thought thru. I was thinking of interviewing the people that are in Kamppi, asking them what kind of messages they would like to present and then posting their thoughts in the screen with images or just a text or something (that was still in thinking process). But I really liked that Andre had took this idea even further and I would be interested in cooperating with that idea.

But anyways, 

I´m looking forward tomorrow´s meeting when we will talk more about our ideas and possible collaborations! :)

Rough two ideas_

Hello, everyone!

I am Min.

I've been also struggling with ideation for the work, and still thinking about.

But, roughly!

I have TWO ideas

: One is that I want to make/arrange something “interrupting” the super busy people. That is, I just want to “slightly” block the way of moving people in order not to really and totally obstruct the way but to give people a simple message – there might be a more crucial thing or better direction for you than just going ahead.

So, the “slightly” refers my output will not stay for a long time but will be installed for a short time period because I really want to put the work in the right center of the super busy spots.

The way HOW to interrupt is not fixed yet, just a rough idea.

Some sketches..

: Second idea is the use of the icon of “CCTV camera” in really favorable or playful way.

I strongly thought that Kamppi has an irony that it is a public space as well as a privately owned and being monitored space in every second by someone.

In this manner, I want to use symbolic icon of CCTV camera as a main and the only image on the work, and want to make it as pretty, colorful, friendly and favorable as possible for the public to make them think the work is just like their near friends; but in reality, the work actually refers to the “on-going” surveillance of the Kamppi space.

I am thinking of making the work in large-scale paintings or sculpture combining those with video installations as well. But still sketching about the idea.

I am really really open to get any comments and suggestion from you guys!