Our 2nd drawing event!
New people, please just come and participate even if you were not in the first class! Please sign up through Helsinki Public School's class page -- click on "olen kiinnostunut/i'm interested".
The first drawing night proved a success so we are organizing the next one right away. This one starts a bit earlier, so that kids and people who cannot stay overnight can also participate. Again, you may come as you please: drop in and out, or stay the whole time... We have ideas of dancing in the dark with flashlights and drawing at the same time, drawing to music... and you can introduce yours! And everyone, bring materials to draw on/with (pens, pencils, cardboard, papers, whatever), music, pillows and bedding to take naps if you wish.

Ilia Belorukov (b. 1987) is a saxophonist based in St.Petersburg. He works both in solo and group settings playing anything between free jazz, noise and free improvisation. Despite his age Ilia has made his mark within the Russian experimental music scene. He is very active both in studio and on stage: during the last couple of years he has released roughly twenty CDs and he plays dozens of gigs every year. Ilia visited Finland last summer playing in Turku, Tampere and Helsinki.

Topias Tiheäsalo (b. 1978) is a guitarist focused on improvised music. During the past decade he has played in various settings within the Finnish free music scene. He is mostly known for his solo playing, which was featured on his CD Eyes of a Dead Lamb (Tyyfus 2007).

A weekly meeting group for photographers to present their work and discuss/critique, with exercises and other activities.

Facilitated by Norah Nelson and Vilma Pimenoff.

For more information, and to register, please visit the Helsinki Public School class page

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Model Court

Model Court is an ongoing curatorial/research project involving the artists Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lorenzo Pezzani and Oliver Rees. It uses the structure and technologies of the courtroom to interrogate the signifying and controlling role architecture plays in contemporary art and society.

This opening will present the results of their research during their residency at Ptarmigan.  The exhibition (opening through 22 April) will explore the intersection of the courtroom and the cinema, the use of technology in jurisprudence and specifically the extraordinary case of the François Bazaramba trial.

Anthea Caddy and Felicity Mangan

Felicity Mangan is an Australian sound artist based in Berlin, Germany. She has developed her practice through frequent collaborations with dancers, visual artists as well as musicians, utilising digital composition techniques to explore field recordings and sampling from found sound archives. Through the deployment of custom-built amplification, Felicity presents her work in live performance and sound publications, to explore the physical sound qualities of field recording via hand-made speakers and contact speakers made from re-cycled and found objects.

Anthea Caddy (Melbourne, Australia) is a media artist and cellist. Her practice centres on the relationship between recording, spatialisation, and the instrument. Exploring the cello’s textural, spatial and dynamic capabilities, she draws reference points from electro-acoustic music and sound art. Working with digital composition, environmental field recording, and acoustic performance she consolidates the conceptual and practical aspects of these approaches by applying techniques and concepts indigenous to digital spatialisation to her performances and recordings. She has performed previously at Ptarmigan with Thembi Soddell.

In conjunction with the Model Court residency at Ptarmigan, the Model Court artists (Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Lorenzo Pezzani and Oliver Rees) will be presenting a Clip Kino night exploring the intersection of the courtroom and the cinema.

Clip Kino events are self-organised screening events of short video clips & documentaries found online.  They bring 'private' viewing activity from one's own computer, into public space for screening, appreciation and debate.

Model Court is an ongoing curatorial/research project that was designed by the artists Sidsel Meineche Hansen and Lawrence Abu Hamdan and which also involves Lorenzo Pezzani and Oliver Rees. It uses the structure and technologies of the courtroom to interrogate the signifying and controlling role architecture plays in contemporary art and society.

In the frame of its residency at Ptarmigan, the “Model Court” group proposes a workshop that will deal with the courtroom as a contested space where legal “truths” are produced and disseminated via specific protocols and technologies.

Material from the “Model Court” archive* will be discussed and will guide the participants through a series of practical exercises that will explore the spatial-technological intricacies of the courtroom, the performative qualities of the trial and its relations to the cinematic, the notion of evidence and the status of images in court. The material generated in this workshop will become integral part of the exhibition that will open in Ptarmigan on the 8th of April.

Presented through the Helsinki Public School.  To attend, please say "I'm interested!" via the Helsinki Public School class proposal page.

*The model court archive comprises of texts by Cornelia Vissman, Pyel Haldar, Mladen Dolar, Costas Douszinas and many  clips from courtroom dramas and documentaries, documents from trials and material generated from meetings with lawyers, filmmakers, architects, typists etc.

Come to Ptarmigan and sell your things at our first flea market! Because space is limited, it will be available as a first-come, first-serve basis.  There is no fee for selling things! We hope you will find unusual and interesting items to buy, as we expect our community has unusual and interesting items to sell. Come by, hang out, have some coffee or tea and shop.

Table space is limited, so get their early or maybe bring a blanket for the floor.

The Pixelache 2010 festival is finishing up on Sunday, 28 March.  Join us for the afterparty at Teatteri Ilmi Ö, featuring music and visuals  by Reijo Pami, Nomo, the Invalid Robot Orchestra and Koelse.

Helsinki Hacklab arranges the first Open Projects day.  We present various electronic, art, and related projects, and arrange a public Arduino workshop where you can get hands-on experience in building and programming a simple microcontroller based electronic device.  We also present Helsinki Hacklab activity.  More detailed program will be available closer to the event.

This is a free event open to anyone interested in electronic projects, electronic art, open hardware, and general tinkering.  You can also bring your own project to show to others.

Helsinki Hacklab is the first hackerspace in Finland, with the aim of renting and maintaining a space where members and others can gather to work on various projects by themselves or together, as well as exchange ideas, organize open workshops, and collect shared tools and raw materials.

More information to come soon.

This will be held in Teatteri ILMI Ö, next door at Nilsiänkatu 8.

Welcome to the first Foraging Know-How Bee at Ptarmigan! In an event
organized by Pispala Culture Association information on urban edible
wild plants
and fungi is to be gathered, edited and put online by using such
already existing wiki projects as Wikipedia, Ekopedia and Wikikko.

The material gathered during the event will be used for botanical
information signs that will be handed out for distribution in the
urban environment in Kiasma during the PixelACHE Festival 26. - 28.3.

All plant knowledge is welcome, especially images, that you can bring
either in digital or paper format. Please bear in mind that the
material published, in for example Wikipedia's site, must be free for
non-commercial use.

Draft of the event's content:

-Introduction to Foraging Know-How Bee
-Presentation of Wiki projects, the differences between them and a
brief refresh to
show how to write articles and to add pictures to Ekopedia and Wikikko
-Editing of Wikipedia, Wikikko or Ekopedia articles on plants with a
perspecive focused on urban foraging
-Free discussion on creative use of plant information

The event is run by Mikko Lipiäinen and Markus Petz from Pispala
Culture Association in English and Finnish


Examples of wiki-projects:
wikipedia.org
www.ekopedia.org
wikikko.info

Helsinki Public School presents: Drawing!

as proposed : http://helsinki.thepublicschool.org/class/2113

Kick-off drawing marathon! This Friday, from 9pm - 9am... At this first event we'll play the movie 'Stalker', make some pizza and draw all over paper-covered walls... You may come as you please: drop in and out, or stay the whole time... Bring your pillows and bedding to take naps if you wish.

Bring some food you like to eat, and any materials that you like to use to draw!

This is a crazy, casual all-night drawing party. Come whenever you'd like, drop in and out, sleep, draw, eat, hang out, listen to music, play games, make art!

Clip Kino events are self-organised screening events of short video clips & documentaries found online.  They bring 'private' viewing activity from one's own computer, into public space for screening, appreciation and debate.

This event focuses on the theme of foraging, and its relationship to practices in the rural and urban context.  Featuring documentary by local film-maker Nina Nordström, and other international video-clips.

Organised in cooperation with The Public School Helsinki, as part of the 'Herbologies/Foraging Networks' programme in Pixelache Festival, and is supported by a multi-cultural grant from Arts Council Finland.

http://clipkino.info/
http://pixelache.ac/helsinki/herbologies-foraging-networks/

Join us at Ptarmigan for the presentation of work from the Neanderthal Electronics workshop! Over the weekend, Derek Holzer will be teaching a workshop where a group of students will create their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. This concert will showcase the output of this workshop through individual and group presentations.

Derek Holzer will also perform a solo set. Derek is an American sound artist living in Berlin, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, sound art, field recording and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has played live experimental sound, as well as taught workshops in Pure Data and electronics, across Europe, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.

Additional performances to be announced. This night is free - please come and enjoy the sounds!

Derek Holzer's site

More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal predecessors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins…), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others. Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it “easier” to make music, so long as we channel our creativity into such socially acceptable avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. As with any established genre, the results are often completely predictable, and therefore quite boring. But some of us, deep in our wild hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!

This 3 day workshop is designed for 8-10 people, possibly with a background in sound, but with no previous electronics experience. They are shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips…) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers.

The participation is free, with possible material costs.

Registration is now closed.  Please check out the concert on Monday night.

Derek Holzer

US GIRLS
"Megan Remy is a chanteuse from (perhaps) the future, guiding all who choose to sail an evocative trip through her unique aural hallucinogenic landscapes. It's a journey of lush vistas, warm currents, and complex beauties. 23nd-Century-style, of course. So come aboard and see why U.S. Girls is being hailed the Eno of the '50s--the 2250s! Can you imagine? Let's hope so." --Siltbreeze Records

HETEROSKELETON
As bulk diagram may loresoja thus shall break it , that output those and thrust meanwhile wall , desirable snuff tulee rather smart visual. It report , that ku meillä is considerably them long-standing kehyksiä , that mend niihin. Butter though became legend puzzle if it veneer gleam. No loss.

http://www.myspace.com/heteroskeleton

KANTTORIPOIKA
http://www.myspace.com/kanttoripoika

JUSTIN VINSON: "A Composition Four Hands to Voices and a Kantele Yonder"
Vinson has been studying experimental music, the kantele and Kalevala in Finland for some months now and now he is premiering the piece he has composed during his stay.

This event is also the closing night for the exhibition 'Push/Pull' by Scott Andrew Elliott.

Svamp will meet at Ptarmigan on Sunday 7 March at 14:00. This session is open to ANYONE and EVERYONE! Please come with an open mind and some way to make sound (a musical instrument, voice, or random objects). We will experiment with various structured sound-making and listening exercises, and explore group improvisation and interaction.

If anyone has any exercises, games or other ideas, you are encouraged to bring them along.

For more information, and to join the Svamp discussion list, please check out:
http://www.coactivate.org/projects/svamp/summary

Helsinki Hacklab arranges another Open Projects day.  We present various electronic, art, and related projects, and arrange a public Arduino workshop where you can get hands-on experience in building and programming a simple microcontroller based electronic device.  We also present Helsinki Hacklab activity.  More detailed program will be available closer to the event.

This is a free event open to anyone interested in electronic projects, electronic art, open hardware, and general tinkering.  You can also bring your own project to show to others.

Helsinki Hacklab is the first hackerspace in Finland, with the aim of renting and maintaining a space where members and others can gather to work on various projects by themselves or together, as well as exchange ideas, organize open workshops, and collect shared tools and raw materials.

The premiere of an 'Push/Pull', an installation by Scott Andrew Elliott in the Ptarmigan project room.  The work will be exhibited until 28 February.

Scott Andrew Elliott is a Canadian artist and recent graduate of the Environmental Art department of the University of Art and Design Helsinki.  His work is focused primarily on environmental installations in the form of large site specific architectural works. Each work demands active participation from visitors.  The projects examine the relationship between person and architectural environment.

Kiila
Kiila was founded by Niko-Matti Ahti and Sami Sänpäkkilä in 1993 in Ulvila, Finland. The band first worked as a duo and played their first show in Pori, a city near by, in 1995. Since that Kiila has shifted through many phases, played a lot of music, seen many events and people. The composition of the group has always varied quite effortlessly according to the needs of the band and the people in it. After the release of Tuota tuota Kiila will be playing shows as a six-piece group and rehearsing new songs in a basement of a cathedral and house on a hill. The future looks merry, like a dance or a menuet. (http://www.kiila.com)

Rank Ensemble
Rank is a Helsinki-based ensemble devoted to new music and free improvisation. More specifically, their activities focus on improvisation, as well as works from the contemporary music repertoire which include elements of improvisation, or otherwise expanded roles for the performers. Boasting a unique instrumental line-up, and four members from five countries, bringing with them a range of backgrounds, Rank ignores barriers, and offers a fresh perspective on the new music scene. (http://www.myspace.com/rankensemble)

Sari TM Kivinen
In her performances Kivinen attempts to isolate behaviour, which is subsequently regurgitated through performative actions. Her interest is to locate gaps within her own identity, to explore learnt and mimicked behaviour and to negotiate levels of uncertainty, failure and success. Performances occur in a variety of forms such as durational action based performances, dramatic role-plays, and social investigations. For her performance at Ptarmigan Kivinen will merge predetermined actions with sensory responses to the specific site and audience. . (http://www.sari.net.au)