Moi Tapio!

> I will be working in the spring with a group of young co-creators from a
> North-East part of Finland and maybe can facilitate something around
> participatory art + ecology + activism with the brico session at Pixelache.

sounds really good. as saunas are surely part of the mix! the days begin to
stretch into the Arctic pre-summer white nights, stars disappear for months, the
river ice breaks, and Finns get wild ;-)

> John - discourse about public lies and someone needing to tell the truth is
> currently here in FInland used predominantly by the popular (neo) right, who
> have gained much more foothold since you were in town. We are talking about a

...snip...

> and left party in power at the same time. Pixelache just got the state art
> award - yet if the populists were in power, it'd be instead for a painter
> doing mimetic realism on a heroic moose in a winter forest.

bwahaha, too bad they haven't the possibility to vote for legalization of pot as
here in the US gains momentum. A stoned heroic moose would be something to see!
But it sounds like there is still plenty of room for certain kinds of radical play.

Here in the US there are so many layers of s**t over everything that authentic
be-ing is tremendously difficult -- like wandering through a mine-field with a
blind-fold on. There is always the massive-oppressive media-sphere which reaches
down into every momentary human encounter. I now catch myself playing secret
performance artist with improv fake mobile telephone calls in public spaces --
*just to avoid attracting attention to myself*! What kind of madness is that?

They already are talking about the NEXT election in 2016. The desire for power
has become an overwhelming source of spectacle that has the power to deeply
alter, corrupt, and destroy lives. Debord would be even more prematurely suicidal.

And mediated reality absorbs more and more life-times... ach...

> Closer to Brico discourse, and know Juha is on the list so he could share
> some reflection after the event he co-organized, there was the Open Knowledge
> Festival here with more than 1000 participants few months back.

...snip...

> hackathons becoming like TED talks? Is the DIY Maker what not becoming quite
> mainstream? If so, what to make of it? Or are this symptoms of in fact
> changing wider politics ie. being effective?

I have had an uneasy feeling about some DIY as it seems the same as the
hobby-techno-obssessed movements that were rife in post-Sputnik Amurika:
Heathkit; Popular Mechanics; Popular Science; that all is too surficial, too
technocratic, sometimes too limited in that it is avocation and hobby rather
than life-(changing)-trajectory. But as you observe, it still has the potential
to establish a foothold for other more radical learning encounters -- but we
need to be mindful of the risk of doing only for the sake of doing, rather than
a more simple-yet-rich doing-for-being.

> As for cooking and Helsinki, I have a pretty good sized kitchen + workshop
> space so can host cooking sessions of 4-6 cooking + 15 max 20 eating. That is

damn, now that sounds GREAT! breaking bread at Tapio's table has always been an
enLightening experience as many of you already know! I'd highly recommend it:
strangers become friends ;-)

> cats for those who may be allergic. Don't worry though John - they have
> calmed down since the time when you brushed your beard with a Platonic stance
> and a kitten jumped with all four paws around your quite gnome credible
> add-on. :)

LOL! For those of you who haven't been to Finland and enjoyed the distinctive
aura (aurinkoa!) of Finnish hospitality -- check out this doco I made way back
when:

http://www.neoscenes.net/aud-vid/video/finland_p.html

from the venerable Polar Circuit days (starring Desdemona, one of those wild
kitties that Tapio had; and Tapio, and some others on this list...)...

jh


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
Watching the Tao rather than watching the Dow!
http://neoscenes.net/
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
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