Tag Archives: society

book process + art

Autopsy of an Island Currency published and available online

MoneyLab-digiflyer

Autopsy of an Island Currency was launched last weekend at Camp Pixelache in Helsinki. The book documents and reflects on the Suomenlinna Money Lab project — an artistic research project that tried to create an experimental local currency for the small island of Suomenlinna near Helsinki.

You can download the free PDF of the book here.

The general aim of the Money Lab was to engage with the specifics of a local setting by working with local people and creating a project that would generate interesting research and be beneficial to local dynamics. It was an ambitious attempt to explore and affect a unique place and its social dynamics through participatory art and design practice. The project was initiated by Susanne Jaschko / prozessagenten and produced by Pixelache, a cultural organisation in Helsinki, who together invited artist Christian Nold to develop a project for Helsinki.

The book describes the project’s process in detail trough a combination of first-person narration and ‘artefacts’, a wide selection of documented materials in the form of emails, notes, sketches, announcements and reflections. The publication also analyses the project’s challenges, such as the internal social dynamics and power structures of the island, which the Suomenlinna Money Lab project rendered visible. In addition, commissioned essays by authors Jaromil, Chris Lee, Pekko Koskinen, Antti Jauhiainen and Suzana Milevska contextualise the project and discuss subjects such as the challenges of participatory art, the value and hybrid nature of participatory projects, and the potentials of alternative money systems. The book is aimed at practitioners who work at the intersection of art, research and social action. It should be particularly useful for people working on alternative money models or on participatory projects that request a high degree of people’s commitment.

open data process + design workshop

2nd day: It’s all about food

On the second day of the Open Data Cooking Workshop in Helsinki we moved to Aromi Kitchen, a kitchen for cooking classes, and started to get our hands dirty. The workshop participants had selected their topics and data the day before. They also had done most of the shopping and thought out their recipes.

So Sunday was all about working with the ingredients and learning from Antti how to create delicious and good looking dishes while Miska, the data hunter, helped to find the last bits and pieces of missing data and Moritz and I were busy documenting what was going on.

Symeon makes his dough for the Lasagne called Spiced Foreigners Between Pasta that compares Finland’s population with and without immigrants.

Rossana mixes her Suicide Cocktail based on Finnish, German and Italian data on suicide rates, monthly average wage, alcohol consumption and average temperature.

Dimitrii gets ready to cut beet roots for his Criminal Herring in Fur Coat based on Finnish Crime Rates in 2011.

Hero shot of Jen’s Happiness Cocktail visualising the amount of smiling Facebook friends…

…and of Nathalie’s and Melinda’s Lakmoussetikka showing the amount of harvested blueberries (jelly on top) in relation to the amount of blueberries that are not picked in Finland (white chocolate mouse).

 

exhibition process + art symposium workshop

Der Garten als riskanter Raum für ineffiziente Forschung

1861 erbautes Palmenhaus des Botanischen Gartens Schöneberg

prozessagenten planen für April/Mai 2013 das Projekt ‘THE GARDEN LABORATORY. Temporäres Gartenlabor für ineffiziente Forschung’ in Kooperation mit der Berliner Kunst- und Kulturförderung District. District hat ihren Sitz in der ehemaligen Mälzerei in Tempelhof, einem Industriegelände am gefühlten Stadtrand Berlins. Das besondere Interesse Districts gilt künstlerischen Ideen, die sich mit dem urbanen Raum sowie Formen seiner Aneignung beschäftigen und das Soziale neuartig begreifen.

THE GARDEN LABORATORY bietet Künstlerinnen und Künstlern eine lebendige Plattform für aktuelle künstlerische Forschungsprojekte, die den Garten als einen riskanten, provokanten, imaginativen und politischen Raum in den Fokus nehmen. In dem temporären Gartenlabor begegnen sich Künstler/innen, Wissenschaftler/innen und Besucher/innen, tauschen sich aus und von lernen einander. Mit seinem Schwerpunkt auf „ineffizienter“ Forschung, also einer Forschung, die nicht den Anspruch wissenschaftlicher Effizienz oder unmittelbarer Nützlichkeit folgt, ergänzt THE GARDEN LABORATORY den aktuellen Diskurs zu Nachhaltigkeit, Urbanität und Krisenbewältigung um eine eigenständige Position.

 Das Gartenlabor macht künstlerische Forschungs- und Produktionsprozesse transparent sowie Prozesse in der Natur unmittelbar erlebbar und ermöglicht so die Bildung eines differenzierten Verständnisses von Natur. Partizipation und Wissensvermittlung über Seminare, DIY-Workshops und eine Blog sind wichtige Bestandteile des Projektes.

Mit dem Thema Garten hoffen wir nicht nur ein kunstinteressiertes Publikum anziehen zu können, sondern auch ein Publikum, das sonst eher nicht Ausstellung zeitgenössischer Kunst besucht. Der Standort von DISTRICT im Bezirk Tempelhof mit seinen vielen Gartenkolonien und dem Gemeinschaftsgarten auf dem Tempelhofer Feld ist hierfür ideal.

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prozessagenten are planning the project ‘THE GARDEN LABORATORY’ in cooperation with District. The District Arts and Cultural Promotion is located on the grounds of a former malthouse in Berlin Schöneberg/ Tempelhof. The aim of the platform is to promote art and culture, in particular artists and artist collectives that reflect contemporary issues from a critical position. The focus of District’s interest rests on artistic ideas that deal with urban space and forms of its appropriation as well as a new understanding of social issues.

THE GARDEN LABORATORY offers artists a platform for their current artistic research projects that explore the garden as a risky, provoking, imaginative and political space. Artists will meet artists, scientists and visitors at the temporary garden lab and will exchange ideas, knowledge and perspectives. With its focus on ‘inefficient’ research, i.e. research that neither meets the standarts of scientific research nor the requirement of immediate usability, THE GARDEN LABORATORY complements the current discourse on sustainability, urbanity and crisis.

The garden lab elucidates artistic research and production processes and translates natural processes into sensual experiences. It promotes a differentiated understanding of nature and invites visitor participation in DIY workshops, seminars and a blog.