weekly INCITE

‘The Happening of the Social: devices, sites and methods’

A Workshop, 14 – 15th of December 2007, was a two day event organized by Celia Lury and Nina Wakeford (Sociology and INCITE, Goldsmiths), sponsored by Intel Research, CSISP and the Sociology Methods Lab.

… just a note to comment how much I enjoyed the two days of presentations – nicely alphabetically grouped in headings such as ‘Event’, ‘Experiment’, ‘Panic’, ‘Performance’. It was great to see speakers from such different disciplines come together – including cultural studies, (visual) art, sociology, anthropology and design. What seemed to me more like a mini conference then a workshop, took us through a rather unusual and exciting mix of presentation formats – from theoretical thought-excursions (Mariam Fraser, Luciana Parisi) to visual indulgences into old film footage (Rachel Moore), online curiosities (Goetz Bachmann), photography (Jennifer Bajorek, Vikki Bell), beautiful objects (Bill Gaver) and some excellent performances (Jackie Orr)…

“Contemporary social theory proposes that the social world is changing in complex ways. The nature and significance of such changes are widely disputed. This workshop is not intended to contribute directly to debates ‘for’ or ‘against’ the existence of the changes to the social world identified in theories of, for example, risk, globalisation, information and complexity. Instead, the workshop aims to explore a series of orientation devices by which researchers may be attuned to the empirical study of change. The devices include: event, archive, sound, panic, experiment, performance, network, pattern, probe, profile, list, anecdote, and population.

The term device is important here: it has multiple meanings, including an object, a method and a bomb (Cambridge University Dictionary). To describe an event, an archive or a biography as a device is thus to make explicit how the object and method of social research are linked to each other and with what potentially explosive effects. And the aim of the workshop will be to describe the possibilities and implications of selected devices for the conduct of social research without separating out method from object and in doing so, to act as a series of small bombs in the sociological imagination.

This is not to claim these devices are new; on the contrary, devices such as the experiment, the archive and the population have long and complex histories. Nor is there intended to be any necessary privileging of either quantitative or qualitative approaches. Network analysis, for example, may and does make use of both. Furthermore many of these terms have been developed across disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences and sometimes the natural sciences. An exploration of interdisciplinarity will thus be an essential part of the workshop.

While the devices are not new, the hope of the workshop is that the devices chosen for discussion have a particular relevance in relation to the investigation of the contemporary social world. The aim is to explore how these devices enable the happening of the social – that is, its ongoingness, relationality, sensuousness and multi-dimensionality – to be investigated.”

Add comment December 23rd, 2007 britt

Filed under: Conferences,INCITE events,Methods

Helsinki Winter 2007_New Media Art

After a summer break, our research project on ‘New Media Artists as Cultural Intermediaries’ continues with a preliminary visit to Helsinki beginning of November and a second one beginning of December. This time, Goetz has already retreated to Berlin concentrating on finishing his PhD and I am left to venture out on my own. Below a few excerpts from field notes during both visits:

01/11/07
Without a moment to really take in the fresh icy air and bare winter trees, I am drawn into a trail of encounters and interesting conversations at medialab (TAIK).

Chris Hales, usually based in London, is my guide for the day. He is currently replacing Teijo Pellinen’s teaching sessions at medialab, both interactive cinema/TV experimenters. Teijo was part of the US touring F2F exhibition in 2000 with the first ever interactive TV show to be broadcasted on national Finnish TV. He is still based at YLE (Finlands’ national TV) developing new projects.

I finally get introduced to media artist/ curator (ISEA 2004)/ researcher Tapio Mäkelä (key person in shaping new media art policy in Finland) and agree to meet next week at the famous m-bar, which he himself initiated in 1998. I then meet Mikko Lindholm, with pram and kid, who together with Perttu Hämäläinen and Ari Nykanen runs and created animaatiokone and their widely shown interactive embodied gaming experience ‘kick ass kong-fu’ (created with support from Helsinki University of Technology, Graduate School in Computer Science and Engineering and Nokia Foundation – a triangle new media artists often find themselves working within, that Goetz, Nina and I spoke a lot about after our initial research phase in spring). Based within Medialab, Crucible Studio, developing projects around digital narratives, drama and interactive storytelling, also operate within a similar triangle: Universities, private technology/media companies and EU/governmental funding, bringing together engineers, artists and designers. The studio is often mentioned for having produced interactive TV show ‘Accidental Lovers’ in 2003 (presented at several international conferences on technology/media/design).

04/11/07

Tallinn, Estonia: Ville Hyvönen shows us around Kulturfarbik, a derelict building to be turned into a cultural centre.

A little overwhelming, this visit turns out to be a non-stop ‘being in the field’ with hardly any time to reflect at all. The weekend I spend with Pixelache delegation in Tallinn, meeting with Estonian media initiators/ activists/ festival producers. Juha Huuskonen, Ville Hyvönen and Nathalie Aubert from Pixelache don’t cease to surprise me with their many activities and involvement in a number of different media festivals, events and programmes. I look forward to spending a bit more time with them in march for the preparations of Pixelache festival.

05/11/07
A first but long awaited meeting with Heidi Tikka becomes my first insight into the upcoming exhibition at Forumbox Gallery, where Heidi will be showing new work alongside Tuomo Tammenpää and Hanna Haaslahti.

It is a privilege to see the very first stages in the production of her piece. An initial and rather simplified description would be: ‘illogical’ garments (oddly re-seamed leather jackets) with wearable CCTV circuits embedded into them.

We spend the evening talking about her work, past projects and her thoughts about this upcoming exhibition. I decide to come back for the set up and develop a few ideas for some form of ‘audience feedback’. The next day I have another great evening with Tuomo (interactive designer and new media artist), at the Pixelache University event ‘dorkbot’, talking about work and the world. Closer to a critical designer then an ‘exhibiting new media artist’, Tuomo sees his work geared towards the context of everyday life, not the gallery environment. Thoughts on relevance of such work and the failing of technologies within new media art leaves me truly excited about the potential crossovers within new media art/design. For the exhibition at Forumbox he is working on ‘electrical toys gone wrong’ (again it seems, some form of rebellion against a predictable logic…)

07/11/07
Before my flight back to London, a last minute very interesting conversation with Perttu Rastas – a key figure in the collection, distribution (AV-arkki) and curation of early Finnish video and media art, based first as a curator now as head of media archive at Kiasma Art Museum – leaves me in a thoughtful state, with notes in form of big questions, not answers: … will, and if so, how can art institutions such as Kiasma play a role within new media art in the future? how can they be ‘appropriate’ facilitators? hosts? collectors? (what kind of) new media art is in fact ‘collectible’? (Hanna Haaslahti’s interactive installation ‘White Square’ was bought into their archive in 2003, her piece which she will also be showing at Forumbox ‘Time experiment’ has been bought and is on display at Nokia Mobile Zone in Oulu) what and how does the work ‘fit’ into gallery or museum spaces? does it ‘work’? ….

Perttu kindly shows me around the fascinating underground archive, digital lab and small library.

Add comment December 12th, 2007 britt

Filed under: Art,Media,travel,visual research

Helsinki Winter 2007_ second visit

27/11/07
I am back in Helsinki. This visit is mainly dedicated to the following exhibition of Hanna Haaslahti’s, Tuomo Tammenpää’s and Heidi Tikka‘s work, at the FORUMBOX Gallery, opening on the 29th of November and on until the 29th of December.

After a preliminary visit only two weeks ago – which had been packed full with interviews and events – this visit is much more channeled and concentrated. I spend my days within the walls of the gallery, trying to juggle between being a visual researcher: documenting sounds and images; that of the classic ethnographer: noting down observations, asking questions and recording conversations; trying to come up with a concept to creatively find a way of capturing visitors’ feedback, while, above all, wanting to be a helping hand in the setting up of the exhibition.

An intense period filled with physical construction, potential hick ups, delicate situations and some long winding crucial decision-making process stretches over three whole days. I spend the first two days recording, thinking carefully about relevance, discovering interesting moments, capturing dialogue (if not in Finnish..) between the three artists , between both Heidi and Hanna and their technical collaborators, and between the artists and their work that slowly takes shape within the huge space. It feels like a constant ebb and flow. All three have times of thinking, starring, observing, building and tweaking (the most significant of all it seems – working with unstable, complex and unpredictable technologies…)

Heidi – Hanna – Tuomo

29/11/07
The day of the opening I spend setting up a corner by the entrance to the gallery with a few ‘tools’ I brought with me. Despite initial doubt on part of the gallery director Tanja Saarto – saying that visitors (Finns) might be too reserved or shy to engage – the response, to her own surprise, is rather good. Visitors (in total probably about one hundred) are invited to take a disposable camera (to capture their own details of interest) and maps (to be marked with colour coded impressions/experiences, in response to the individual pieces in the gallery) as they explore the space.

A brief conversation with Tanja Saarto gives me the impression that the opening is definitely a success. She is surprised at how many people within the art scene are positively intrigued and complementary towards this fairly new adventure for the gallery into new media art. I myself am so involved in visually capturing the atmosphere of the opening and engaging with visitors gathering around the ‘feedback corner’, that I miss the opportunity to speak to a seemingly important art critic – whom I later briefly see curiously wondering around Tuomo’s piece with a pen and paper.

The opening happens to coincide with the opening of another New Media exhibition at MUU gallery of Andy Best & Merja Puustinen’s work. Both parties strangely end up in the same restaurant a few blocks down for dinner, which I guess is not surprising considering the after all rather small New Media Art scene in Helsinki.

(During dinner, someone pulls out his Nokia phone – a rather old model - to show us the noise level in the restaurant – what a great but strange thing to be able to measure, making sure you don’t spend too much time sound-polluting your ears)

I meet Andy Best the next day at the gallery, adjusting, repairing and ‘tweaking’ his robots. We spend a few hours talking about the theoretical context of their installation and the way both, him and his partner Merja, are managing to juggle between producing new work, teaching and the family. Merja seems to be the one mainly involved in the funding side of things, so I later find out that this exhibition is supported by AVEK (one of the main funding bodies of New Media Art in Finland – whose funds curiously mostly originate from a special tax deriving from blank videos/DVD’s ) and the Finnish Arts Council.

1/12/07
I take part in Tuomo’s workshop organized by Pixelache University at FORUMBOX Gallery. Well prepared and patient, Tuomo shows a group of 6 how to mount and weld a simple ‘electronic music circuit board’ (the gallery attendants probably called them ‘noise tools’). With great enthusiasm I manage to make one myself, only to drop out once it comes to the final tweaking – making sure it actually keeps on working..

As I start taking down my bits in the gallery, looking through some of the ‘experience maps’, I see that a lot of dots marked ‘sad’ have ended up at Tuomo’s installation on the map. Only then do I notice a little sign next to two or three of his toys reading ‘they did not survive’. It reminds me of our initial conversation about whether, or what kind of media art ‘works’ in a gallery space, and what happens if not. Openly declaring a failure with this little sign seems to perfectly communicate the risk and instability involved in using complex technology in this context – but this then being ‘sad’ – not frustrating.

Frustration seems to undermine some of the thoughts Heidi has about her installation when I speak to her briefly that afternoon. The ideal scenario in terms of visitors’ engagement with the two wearable jackets (sewn in CCTV cameras and screens are placed in relation to each other) is for several people to be present at the same time, or of course for her to be there in person. The atmosphere at the opening encouraged a form of interaction with the piece that maybe is impossible to achieve outside some kind of ‘event’ structure? Audience instead of visitor? Does it need a different kind of public scenario? The question of context, audience and interactivity hovers above me as I sadly say goodbye to Helsinki the next day.

Add comment December 11th, 2007 britt

Filed under: Art,Media,Uncategorized,travel,visual research

Just out!

Many thanks to Shadey and Seabird for giving me permission to use these pictures of them ‘doing wireless’ on the cover of Mel and Gerard’s new book.

Add comment December 2nd, 2007 kat

Filed under: Australia,Internet,Volunteer community wireless networks,Wireless technology research,visual research

The way we were. circa 2004

Found these old school pics in a recent back-up frenzy.

Add comment November 17th, 2007 kat

Filed under: INCITE events