Listen to a mushroom, listen to a bike | 1.–31.10.2020
In Turku city space 1–31 October 2020
Simo ja Tuike Alitalo
Alice Pamuk
Geoff Robinson
Videokaffe
Kaino Wennerstrand
Nicole Willis
Sound art project Listen to a mushroom, listen to a bike brings new sound art to the Turku city space. For the project, Arte has invited six artists and / or groups of artists to create new site-specific works to be listened to in specific places in Turku’s public space. All the locations are accessible to everyone.
The works can be streamed and downloaded free of charge from Soundcloud, through Titanik’s website. The audience is encouraged to go for a walk with the works and listen to them in locations specified by the artists. These unique artworks help us pay attention to the small details of the city, special places, spaces and moods, or perhaps to see the city through someone else’s eyes. The soundtrack can also become a “partner” with whom to experience the city on a walking tour.
The project has been funded by the City of Turku’s Turku 2029 Foundation.
Simo & Tuike Alitalo
Höristystehtäviä
Höristystehtäviä is a listening exercise where to practice how to sharpen your hearing. We present a set of places in Turku, where at least at certain times or circumstances you may hear something out of the ordinary. Sharpening the hearing can be facilitated through concentration and exclusion of interfering factors: don’t think about other things, if possible don’t think about anything (try to empty your mind). Switch off your mobile, don’t take selfies, don’t talk. You can put your hands behind your ears or close your eyes.
Listening station locations as well as information on the conditions are provided on the map. The map provided indicates the listening stations’ exact location and conditions. Some places are at their best at night, after the rainfall or in other special conditions. Special conditions are not necessary, it is recommended to visit the same place several times, in different conditions. Prick up your ears!
Feedback: kuulumia@gmail.com
Tuike and Simo Alitalo are sound artists based in Turku, Finland. Their practice involves sound installations based on field recordings, environmental art, writing, participatory performances as well as communal sound performances and listening walks.
Exploring the ways places are heard, their work emerges from the central questions of ‘acoustemology’, i.e. acoustic epistemology, questioning “what do we experience through sound, listening and other auditive practices? How is our knowledge shaped by the things we hear in our surroundings?”
Their work ranks in the domain of sound art, participatory community art and conceptual art. They are currently working on two long-term sound art projects, Kuulumia – Hearkenings and Sonic Commons.
List of listening exercise[bg_collapse view=”link” color=”#b6b6b6″ icon=”arrow” expand_text=”Show More” collapse_text=”Show Less” ]
Listening exercise: The block of Turku Energia
Starting point: In front of Turku Energia, Linnankatu 65.
Circle the block in counter-clockwise direction, from Linnankatu to Stedinginkatu, then Amiraalistonkatu, through Linnanfält area to Linnankatu and main entrance.
Recommended circumstance: during the night or after rain.
In the Turku Energia block you can hear the whooshing sound of various ventilators and transformers and their reverberation through neighbouring buildings. You can best hear the sounds in the evening when the traffic is calming down.
Listening exercise: Föri
Starting point: Either river bank, travel back and forth. Does each direction sound different?
On the electrified Föri you can hear the sound of the chain mechanism, rather than the sound and smell of diesel engine.
Listening exercise: Vilkkilänmäki district heating pumping centre
Location: Vilkkilänmäki playground, the intersection between Tapulikatu and Ilkanrinne.
Listening spot: Circle the pumping station if the weather conditions allow it.
The district heating pumping station is like a miniature model of the Turku Energia block; there are many different ventilators, mechanisms and their echoes can be heard.
Listening exercise: Raunistula electricity station
Address: Helsinginkatu 29
Listening point: At the end of Lokinkatu, turn left onto a path leading to the best listening point.
The keynote of the electricity centre is approximately 200 Hz, however, there are many of its multiplications available as well.
Listening exercise: Konsankuja railroad crossing
Recommended circumstances: wait until a cargo train or Turku-Tampere or Tampere-Turku train arrive at the railroad crossing.
( http://junatkartalla.vr.fi)
The bells at the railroad crossing are an example of what the phase shift created by minimalist composers sounds like.
Listening exercise: Tuomaansilta
Listening point: under the bridge, on the western riverbank.
Tuomaansilta plays a symphony of car tyres, bridge structures, weather, and seasons.
Recommended circumstance: best to visit when it rains. [/bg_collapse]
Alice Pamuk
Port Arthur – Lüshunkou
The imaginary text is based on a residential and slightly indeterminate zone of Turku, comprised between St. Michael’s church, the Iso-Heikkilä Observatory, and the beginning of the harbour zone. I began the work by improvising a narration into a microphone while watching the google satellite view. Then, I transcribed and edited the text, using my lack of fluency in English as a tool. The more the text is polished, the more clearly a stranger’s structure appears. For the audio play, three actors interpreted the text, I asked them to be affirmative and have a vigorous pace, like walking.
Alice Pamuk (FR/BE) is a visual artist living and working in Brussels. She typically works with sound, video, and text.
With:
Actors: Melissa Mabesoone, Eszter Popp, Christian Roe
Sound: Arthur Arsenne
Geoff Robinson
Durational Situation / Turku / Naarm
Durational Situation / Turku / Naarm is an audio walk that is situated between Turku and Naarm (Melbourne). The project is a comparative study across time and between two locations on the opposite sides of the world. Locating the walk at Vartiovuori Park, the listener is guided through the durational layers of the site from the last ice age to now whilst the narrator talks from the counterpoint of Naarm. The walk reveals the geomorphological and colonial transformations of the two regions and their inverted relationship.
Geoff Robinson is a Melbourne-based artist working on Wurundjeri country. Robinson creates event-based artworks that utilise the temporal qualities of sound and performance and the spatial conditions of physical sites to unravel the durational layers of place.
Videokaffe
Door
In a book, there is a very famous poet called Silenius. He is a very rich man and lives in an apartment that has 42 doors that lead to other planets, all of his house‘s rooms are on different planets and he can go to those locations as he chooses. His favourite room is his toilet. That is located in a raft on a planet that is only one big sea.
We Videokaffe members are located in different places of the globe, we made a sound piece that takes listeners on an audio journey through a door to a different place. Even though we cannot see or go through the door, we can hear and imagine what is on the other side.
Videokaffe is a collective of ten artists in various locations between North America and Europe.
Videokaffe explores the intersection of handcraft and technology: through public art, sculpture, residencies and performances. Since 2011 Videokaffe has been bridging art community by producing, exhibitions and art residences, in Germany, Finland, Holland, Sweden, Japan, Russia, and the USA.
Works by:
Jack Balance (FIN), Jip de Beer (NL), Tom Burtonwood (USA), Holly Holmes (USA), Jenny Mild (FIN), Olli Suorlahti (FIN), Thomas Westphal (GER/FIN), Sebastian Ziegler (GER/FIN)
Kaino Wennerstrand
Two Beers
“10… 9…8… We have 25 minutes together. You and me, 25. When it’s over, my alarm clock will ring and whatever happened will melt and become part of the versions of you and me that go on from here.”
Two Beers is a recording in which Kaino listens to a voice together with you. The work is 25 minutes long.
Kaino Wennerstrand is an artist living in Helsinki. Their works have been shown in group exhibitions, screenings, and festivals globally since 2009. They make up the artist duo Biitsi with Heidi Wennerstrand. Kaino is also a sound designer who’s worked with renowned Finnish brands and artists. Kaino’s writings have been featured in publications and platforms such as the recent Sorbus gallery anthology and AQNB.
Nicole Willis
Seasoned
The sound art piece is situated at Pehr Kalm Revival by Jan-Erik Andersson. Andersson reoccupied 1/8thof a botanical garden by Pehr Kalm, whom was highly influenced by the philosophical movement of the Enlightenment. An explorer that met with French and British colonial settlers, Native Americans and befriended Benjamin Franklin. The compositions created for a visit to the garden, are fashioned on the ideas of the Rational and Irrational. Suggesting that works with themes are romantic, therefore irrational, challenges the listener to find order in sentiment, or not. The listener is given the option to decide what they may consider rational or irrational. The audio is 29.16 minutes of six musical compositions written, played, and recorded by the artist. Sounds are software instruments.
Rational or Irrational
1. 2.23
2. 2.21
3. 7.06
4. 4.00
5. 5.10
6. 6.26
Nicole Willis, BFA, is a visual artist and musician, born in New York City (1963) who lives and works in Helsinki. She has studied at Lahti Institute of Fine Art, 2009. Willis has worked with oil painting, time-based media, and performance. Solo exhibitions have taken place in Finland. She has received critical acclaim for her 36-year long career as a singer/songwriter/performer with 14 recorded albums released. After a hiatus, Willis is returning to time-based media in 2020.