Tealemetree* Workhop in the Woods

In the end of August Capsula is co-organising a workshop in the woods of Juupajoki, Finland. It results from the artist residency of  Agnes Meyer-Brandis in the University of Helsinki Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station.

Call for participants is open until 24th June and the workshop takes place on 29th -31st August, 2014.

Sample collection with a spoon, Hyytiälä forest research station, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, 2013

TEALEMETREE * Workshop by Agnes Meyer-Brandis 29-31^st August, 2014

The workshop starts as an expedition into the forest and the SMEAR II station at Hyytiälä Forestry Field Station, Juupajoki, Finland. It continues as a journey into the soil, into the trees, into the clouds and the hovering matter in between, finally leading the participants into the realm of smallness.

We will investigate the experiments and data production archieved at the forest-research station of Hyytiälä. We will develop our own experiments and take samples of the invisible. On the way we will collect berries, data, aerosols and questions and try to trade and communicate them.

As this communication ideally would be mutual between the harvesters and the harvested we might have to develop new languages.

Beside that we are going to have a tea with a tree.

*

Tea=a traditional beverage made from steeping the processed leaves, buds in water.

Telemetry=The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure.

Tree=There is no universally recognised precise definition of what a tree is, neither botanically nor in common language.

If you are interested, sign up here: ulla@capsula.org.es, title your email with  ” Climate Whirl Workshop 2014″ and your name.
We would like to have max 100 words description of you and your motivations to take part to the workshop.
Max 15 participants will be selected, University of Helsinki students and stuff are prioritised.
The selected participants will be informed by 30th June 2014 and prepared with more detailed information of the workshop.

 

Back to Capsula

Hardly any posts have been published in this site during the last three years. Capsula people have been busy with intensive projects and the “home capsule” has been abandoned. The summer 2014 will activate the blog, but first I must look back and tell about what Ulla Taipale and Merja Markkula have been doing after Capsula Curated Expedition project was organized in the framework of the Turku2011 European Cultural Capital year.

In 2011 Ulla Taipale was approached by Aalto University in Helsinki/Espoo to set up a laboratory and program dedicated to biological arts, in collaboration with the founders and directors of SymbioticA – Centre of Excellence for Biological Arts Ionat Zurr and Oron Catts.

Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts was officially opened in February 2013 in Otaniemi Campus, Espoo. The same year Biofilia hosted five hands-on workshops interrelating artistic and scientific research and thought. The workshop were led by Oron Catts&Ionat Zurr / Biotech Art Workshop, Leena Valkeapää / The Biology of Snow, Christina Stadlbauer&Lina Kusaite / Melliferopolis Workshop II: Understanding the Essence of Flowers – Exploring Pollen, Andy Gracie / Drosophila titanus- Designer Babies and Marc Dusselier/NanoHacking: Converging Life and Tech at the Nanoscale.

Ulla run two academic courses for Aalto students together with Biofilia lab manager Marika Hellman, in fall 2013 Biofilia: Art and Biosciences Course and in spring 2014 Dinner´s ready course, that culminated with incredible Cook Show ArtMeatFlesh Helsinki at Flavour Studio at Abattoir, Helsinki.

This year Ulla will continue working on the research projects Melliferopolis-Honeybees in Urban Environments with Christina Stadlbauer and Climate Whirl Project with University of Helsinki researchers Eija Juurola and Janne Korhonen, so it will be again a year full of interesting activities.

Merja Markkula decided to bring Kuusisto Manor House in Kaarina in life and is organizing the second Kuusisto Art Manor exhibition with lot of activities during the summer season 2014. The exhibition topic is Water and it is open until the end of August 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rescue Boat Baltic Sea / Pelastusalus Silakka (fin) exhibited in Huuto Gallery

Silakka, the brave catamaran made out of waste, has been invited to be part of the Estomania exhibition in Huuto Gallery in  Helsinki, Finland.

 

Poster of Estomania exhibition.

The 2013 Estomania begins with a festival during the opening weekend (Fri 25 Oct – Sun 27 Oct), which includes not only the opening ceremony but also performances poetry, music and circus acts by both Estonian and Finnish artists. ( ) …It is about the joy of doing things together, the relevance of art, romance, friendship, beauty, rebellion and glamour. 

Silakka artists Teemu Takatalo, Tommi Taipale and Juha Mehtäläinen recently published a book about the journey of the raft during 2010-2013, and this book is sold in the exhibition but also in different spots in Helsinki and Tampere.

After the book launch, celebrated in Tampere in 10th September, the artists parked the raft on 12th September on the pier of Helsinki Market Square for a sunny afternoon, where the book was promoted for by-passing citizens of Helsinki.

Sorry, the rest of the text only in finnish:

Syyskuun 12. päivä, 2013 Pelastusalus Silakka rantautui Helsingin keskustaan. Turun kulttuuripääkaupunkivuonna 2011 turkulaisia viranomaisia riemastuttanut alus kellui kesäisen syyspäivän Kolera-altaassa, nyt lastinaan miehistönsä Takatalon, Taipaleen ja Mehtäläisen taiteilema parisataasivuinen kirja, jonka sivuilla katamaraanin kannella purjehtineiden kutsuvieraiden painavat mietteet ja Itämeren suloja ja kauhuja esittävät valokuvat ovat kovien kansien välissä. Jos haluaa nähdä missä tilanteissa keskustelut käytiin, dvd kirjan mukana tekee tapahtumapaikat konkreettisiksi. (https://vimeo.com/74915582)

Eiran ja Kauppatorin välillä jaloittelevat paikalliset ja turistit lehteilivät uteliaina uunituoretta kirjaa, saaden näin syyn jäädä tarkastelemaan aluksen yksityiskohtia ja arvailemaan sen merikelpoisuutta. Väittäisin näkeneeni useamman iäkkäämmän mieshenkilön katseessa kaihoa, välähdyksen toivomuksesta seikkailuun…kaihosta joka on helppo kätkeä miehekkääseen hymäilyyn nuorempien saavutuksen edessä.

“Tuo on kyllä arvokas vene”, kommentoi parikymppinen mies ja jatkaa; “ihanko totta olette sen itse tehneet? Ihan käsityötä.” Hän palaa hetken päästä takaisin ja tuo mukanaan tyttöystävän, jolle hän haluaa ehdottomasti esitellä veneen ihan kannelta käsin. Vilpitön ihailu kuultaa hänen sanoistaan.

“Onko täällä Silakkaa myytävänä?” Kysyy vanha rouva. “Koska ne silakka-markkinat alkaa?”

Samana päivänä Hakaniemen hallissa kertovat että silakka on pyyntikiellossa.

En voi olla heittämättä tähän otetta Richard Thompson Coonin tekstistä How fares the art of organic living?

As members of our mature, gender-sensitive Baltic democracies, as stewards of the Baltic Sea, as citizens of the world, as neighbors, sisters and brothers, we welcome competition that demonstrates our abilities to find satisfaction through the lowest possible consumption of energy and natural resources – that our grandchildren, here and in the Global South, may live full lives.

Love is nothing if not a pro-active mixture of passion and compassion, but passion, thus also compassion, is hopeless if not dangerous in the absence of respect for ecosystems. We love to build in good, local wood, with bricks from glacial mud. We love root tar, pine soap, soft boreal water, mats from old linen bed-covers and tractors that out-last their purchasers.

We love living with the seasons. We love our berries and mushrooms, our own strong apples, plums and pears. And what about the Baltic Sea?

Like fresh bread, the price of fish is going up. Like the parched, degraded grasslands of central Russia, the Baltic Sea is producing less and less edible human food. Why?

What is happening in the mud at the bottom of the sea tells the story of love – the story of who and what is controlling our emotional and material input and output.

Every Baltic citizen can demand, has the right to demand and must demand fresh, organic food from within the Baltic Basin. We only need to demand just that and we will find that we are able, together, to correct the sustainable development equation.

Richard Thompson Coon, Suomenlinna, July 2010 ( read here the entire text)

Pelastusalus Silakka-kirjan voi ostaa suoraan s-postiosoittessa ttaipale@gmail.com

tai kirjakaupoista Helsingissä ja Tampereella:

* Tamperelta Tulenkantajien kirjakauppa, Hämeenpuisto 25, puh: 045-3489688, email: tulenkantajatkauppa@gmail.com

* Helsingissä Mustan kanin kolo, Hämeentie 28 sekä kaikista Rosebud kirjakaupoista, esim. Kiasman kirjakauppa.

* Verkkotilaukset: Palladium Kirjat – www.palladiumkirjat.fi tai suoraan Silakan miehistöltä ttaipale@gmail.com.

Kirjan hinta on 35€ (+tilatessa postikulut 5€)

Vol.at.ilit.y dance performance on-line!

The dance performance Vol.at.ilit.y by coreographer Tomi Paasonen is now to be seen on-line, here the trailer and the full version is to be seen also in Vimeo.

Vol.at.ilit.y is a staged media dance installation that explores water as connective element, transforming itself molecularly from liquid to ice and vapor. Using water in its three different states, both as stage elements, source for musical composition and as a metaphor regarding the human mental bonds towards each other, this piece fuses science, technology, nature and art into kinetic poetry.

Dancers are Kimmo Alakunnas, Rea-Liina Brunou and Linda Sointu and it is  a coproduction by PAA,  Capsula and Barker Teatteri Turku. The piece premiered as part of Turku2011 EU Cultural Capital Programme at Barker Teatteri – Turku, Finland.

Deeply human expedition

Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea, the last project by Capsula, finished in the end of 2011  within Turku2011, the Finnish Capital of Culture. The artworks created during 2010-11 are presented in Capsula Expeditions -website and little by little the pages will be updated with the rest of the material, documentation and texts. Some collegues and collaborators have contributed the website with texts, here the Deeply human expedition by Raquel Rennó, brazilian researcher and semiotician.

The Expeditions will continue after some time have passed for reflections, rest and new inspiration! Thank you for all that took part as artists, collaborators, funders, audience or/and friends.

Since Plato´s Allegory of the Cave we search for a way to unchain men that have only seen shadows and echoes and take them to the light, where they can se “the real thing”. Beside philosophy, some believe that one of men´s greatest value, creativity, could be a path to take men outside the cave. Itsuo Sakane says: “in such society as ours, in which one tends to be unable to distinguish between reality and artificial reality and ends up chasing daydream, the healing power of art is most effective.”1 Nevertheless, wouldn´t it be a paradox to think that art (not only by the opposition nature vs. culture, but also based on the etymological meaning of art, the manifestation of human activity, as in artificial vs. natural) could help experiencing nature more deeply?

Vol.at.ilit.y dance performance explores the waters of the Baltic Sea

Vol.at.ilit.y dance performance explores water as connective element and its molecular shifts from vapor to liquid and ice. Using water in its different states, both as stage elements, source for musical composition and as a metaphor of human mental states and bonds towards each other, Vol.at.ilit.y combines art, science, technology and nature melting them into a poetic experience. The group of three dancers, audio designer Kirill Lorech, costume designer Merja Markkula and coregrapher Tomi Paasonen spend an intensive  working period  in the Kone Saari Residency.

Kimmo Alakunnas, Rea-Liina Brunou and Linda Sointu dancing in the Baltic Sea.

Vol.at.ilit.y will be shown in Barker -theatre, Virusmäentie 65, Turku, Finland in six performances.

Lunch with seven Cows

A beatiful and memorable encounter between cows and humans was celebrated on 28th August in Tammenpää milk farm in western coast of Finland, Angelniemi. Seven Eyeshire cows: Narcis, Urania, Andorra, Tooticki, Äppel, Fauna and Eddy, were the honoured guests, invited to have a lunch with some 20 human guests, spending a marvellous afternoon together around the same table.

The ingredients of the meal were peas, rye and apples. Photo: Sami Perttilä

The concept for this meal of cows and humans is by Kultivator artist group, that has “married” the art and agriculture and work their “agri-artistic” projects from Ooland island next to Swedish coast. Angelniemi based Kia and Matts Boijer hosted the Lunch with Cows in their organic farm, Mikko Kivelä cooked delicious soup of  fresh peas, baked bread, with an  apple desert. We drunk milk.

Since almost ten thousand years now, we live very close to each other, and has indeed affected each others lives and beings a great deal. Our relation has been practical and very close physical, but we have not yet really grown into exchanging a lot of thoughts, or even trying to meet at an intellectual level. This informal lunch meeting intends to be a small start of a more mature and interesting way of being together. We have no prepared speakers, no translators or list of topics that must be discussed, but! Questions about our future relation, and sustainable survival may come up!  KULTIVATOR

Cows did not hurry away from the table after the feast, they stayed calmly next to the table after finishing their plates. We were told, that next day, at the same time, they we waiting to eat together with us by the table. This makes me happy, the desire to spend some time together has been reciprocal – and I am waiting for the next chance to make this happen.

Mats Boijer feeding his cows. Photo: Ulla Taipale

The lunch was documented by Petra Kallio, Sami Perttilä, Andrea Vanuchhi and Jarmo Markkanen in paintings, photographs and video.  The framework of the event is Halikonlahti Green Art -project, an initiative of artist and curator Tuula Nikulainen and Sunny Future association. The exhibition, called Food Chains, will be opened at Salo Art Museum next Friday, 9th September. It is curated by Tuula Nikulainen and Ulla Taipale. More information about the exhibition here.

Hope you enjoy seeing the video – and feel free to rethink your own relationship with the cows – or others that you did not have a meal with before!

Curated Expeditions -site is online!

Fresh material of Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea can be found now in

http://capsulaexpeditions.com

The contents of the first Expedition to the Total Eclipse are still under construction, but will be updated before the end of the year.

Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea

Antti Laitinen sailing towards the Estonian coast on his bark boat Photo: Juuso Westerlund

The ‘Expedition to the Baltic Sea’ is a cross-disciplinary art project to observe and experience the natural phenomena of the Baltic Sea. Expedition works are realised through collaborations between artists, scientists and different cultural agencies and will be exhibited as part of the European Capital of Culture Turku2011 programme. The project began in autumn 2009 with an open call to Finnish and Estonian artists and creators to present proposals for new works that should include an expedition to the Baltic Sea. The call produced 70 proposals. Five projects were commissioned by a committee of art and science professionals.

The exhibition is open from 28th May to 31st August. The venues are in five different places in Turku area, starting from Aura River and ending to the Ruissalo Island.

Download a Tutkimusmatka_Itämerellä/ Curated Expedition to the baltic sea / Forskningsresa pâ Östersjön -brochure and map

Exhibition venues in Turku, Finland

The audience is encouraged to do their own expedition using leisurely methods of transport, such as walking, bicycles, canoes or a riverboat.

Four new artworks in exhibition

Finnish visual artist Antti Laitinen and Rescue Boat Baltic Herring crew managed in building two experimental boats, with the idea to explore the Baltic Sea  area by sailing.  In case of Antti, the principal objective was to  reach Estonia by sea by a gigant, selfmade Bark Boat. Antti gathered together so much bark of pine trees, fallen on the ground, that he managed to build a 3,7 meter-long boat out of them. The project culminated last August to the landing of artist in Estonian coast, after a 20 -hour long sail from Porkkalanniemi, crossin the Gulf of Finland. The model for the gigant Bark Boat comes from small boats, traditionally sculpt of bark by children. The Bark Boat is exhibited in Wäinö Aaltonen art museum in Turku.

The Rescue Boat Baltic Herring crew were busy in building of 8,5  -meter-long vessel made out “waste” materials, mostly donated by different supporters in Tampere and Turku region. The boat was taken to Hakkenpää port by Turku and  rebuilt there again. The August 2010 artists Teemu Takatalo and Tommi Taipale were sailing around the Archipelago Sea together with several guests participating the agenda of the vessel; artists, scientists and thinkers. Audiovisual documentation of the sea adventures are installed in two sea containers in front of Forum Marinum centre. Third container will exhibit reflections from Gulf of Finland by artist Richard Thompson Coon. See the video:

Mia Mäkelä, author of Green Matters project  spent a residence period first in Seili Island, Turku University Archipelago Investigation Centre and then in Ouraluoto, Merikarvia archipelago. Her work investigates new manners to rescue the eutrophicated Baltic Sea, encouraging citizens in foraging the excessive green algae and working  it to textile format.  In her video trailer she explains the project. Green Matters is shown in a greenhouse in Turku University Botanical Garden.

Hanna Haaslahti & Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski has been exploring the underwater sonic scenery of Turku surroundings using hydrophones. The public will be able to listen real-time audio compositions  from two Sonic Seascape Terraces, situated in Koroinen, nearby Halistenkoski rapid and in Ruissalo Island Park.

Marianne Decoster-Taivalkoski listens sounds from hydrophone photo: Hanna Haaslahti

The dance performance Vol.atil.it.y in october 2011

Vol.atil.it.y dance performance related explorations by Tomi Paasonen and Tiago da Cruz started in January 2011, in the middle of icy Archipelago Sea. The artists were lucky to be able to experiment great variety of divergent winter phenomena related with different stages of water. After this white break of urban life Tomi and Tiago had a session in Turku University Department or Biomedicine and could peek to the microscopic scale of water icying and melting processes (photo).  To follow a blog written by Tiago da Cruz, enter here. In the beginning of June the artists will continue their expedition by the open sea – in Tvärminne Zoological Station of Helsinki University and Aranda research vessel by Syke. They are supported also by Kone Foundation that will offer the group facilities and residency for practicing the dance piece in August in Saaren Kartano. Vol.atil.it.y is a co-production of Paa, Capsula and Barker-theatre.

Tiago da Cruz and Tomi Paasonen microscoping in Turku University. Photo:Ulla Taipale

The exhibition will be opened in Turku on 28th May, 2011, presenting four different approaches to the sea by the expedition artists.   The dance performance Vol.at.ilit.y is a joint production with Barker Theatre and will be presented six times from 13th to 30th of October. The exhibition is free and dance performance tickets cost 13€ and 10€ (children, students).

The project is funded by

Turku2011 Foundation, AVEK, Wihuri Foundation, Finnish Art Council, Cultural Foundation of Varsinais-Suomi, Ministry of Environment and Frame.

Special thanks for

Turku University Archipelago Sea Research Centre and Botanical Garden, Forum Marinum Centre, Wäinö Aaltonen art museum, Lumo Centre in Koroinen, Centre for music&technology /Sibelius Academy and ProNatMat-project and BalticSeaNow.info-project by Turku Politechnic.

We thank also:

Langh Ship Oy, Genelec Oy, Porkkalan Meripelastajat, Triin Männik/Tallinn2011, Merikarvian kunta, Kivikangas Oy, Foiltek Oy, Ympäristötaiteen  Säätiö, Rautasoini Oy, Turun Lukko Oy, T:mi Turun Tynnyri ja Säkki, Tampereen Palolaitos, Esko Puusti, Nakolinnan Rauta Oy, Ruissalon Telakka, Koukkujärven jättenkäsittelylaitos, Hakkenpään lauttasatama, Turun Museokeskus, Hartela Oy, ssBore, Aurajokisäätiö, Ruissalon Kansanpuiston säätiö, Lightpress Oy, Turun Ympäristökeskus, Merireitit.fi, Vanhan Tammen Kahvila, Kahvila Promenade.

Vernissage drinks are offered by

Norex Oy and Nokian Panimo Oy.

During 2009-10 Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea -project main organizer was Finnish Bioart Society and since the year 2011 it is Capsula. Curating and coordination by Ulla Taipale and Merja Markkula.

Information of Curated Expeditions in Finnish (updated March 2011)

Call for audition / Vol.at.ilit.y

The open audition for the Vol.at.ilit.y -performance by Tomi Paasonen and Tiago Da Cruz will take place in the Barker-Theatre,  the Free Stage of Performing Arts in Turku, Saturday 16th of April 2011, 12 am. The audition is open for everybody. There is no need for registration in advance. The audition will be organised in Barker-theatre.

Vol.at.ilit.y is a dance performance combining science, art and technology. It explores the biological processes and the water of the Baltic Sea. Vol.at.ilit.y is a part of the Curated Expedition to the Baltic Sea -project and Turku 2011 -programme. The production partners are PAA and Capsula.
Vol.at.ilit.y features freezing, melting and subliminating water, projecting macro- and microscopic  imaging and ice that melts during the performance. It means that the dancers are going to deal with ice, water and nudity. The performance combines contemporary dance,  media- and sound art and it´s choreography is also inspired by the movement of the Baltic Sea plankton.