TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

  

VIEWING ALL POSTS FOR: AUGUST 2004

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

2:45 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Scraped myself off the floor this morning, and came into media lab to meet the fabulous John Evans. I was planning to make some kind of sounding the forest thing (using aware), which has now morphed into a much more involved project following my journey, and mapping the connections between everyone I met and everyone they know at the events we attended. How do I get myself into these things? So now I have much more work to do, but it will be an interesting document, I hope.
This afternoon is criss-cross, the nifca nordic and baltic film screening, and there I will see Sanna and Mari.

Tuesday, August 31, 2004

2:42 PM
Posted by jodi rose

landed back in helsinki on a rainy monday afternoon, dropped by mari's to pick up my other suitcase and then straight to sophea's for decompression. Lounged around talking about art and existential matters, drank polish cranberry vodka and ate the lithuanian pilot chocolates I brought back - sadly the honey liquor slipped out of my hand while opening the door, crashed and spilled.
Mentioned to Sophea that I was totally up to my eyeballs with electronic avant garde music and really needed some sleazy disco, which turned into an idea for a rapid deployment unit to make an intervention at the final night of makro lab on suomenlinna island. So, we got on the internet and downloaded a selection of 70's mp3's (it's raining men, ring my bell, celebration, we are family), loaded them onto her mobile phone and took our RF38 loudspeaker out to the island to get the tactical response unit dancing. Andrew and Ben created a disco ball from empty chip packets, a football, string and video projector and we did our best to drag the makro-lab people away from the red and green dots and music selection on their laptops, but to no avail. Full report from Sophea to follow!

Sunday, August 29, 2004

5:40 PM
Posted by jodi rose

lovely lazy sunday, walked back to the artist's free state with voytec and george, drank sydar by the river. George found a metal bird suspended over the water which in poland is apparently called the 'pigeon of peace'. I tried to explain to voytec that we call that bird a dove, and a pigeon is something else, but he was adamant it was a pigeon of peace. deliciously warmed by the sun, and now going to sleep for a few hours before tonight's final performance at 'intro bar' which is a big gallery/club space somewhere in the city. It would be fun to hear some 'sleazy disco' as Nils cals it, for a change from all this avantegarde electro music. Maybe tomorrow night.
talked with Tatiana about a project she and Denis are making in Belarus, with art and science colliding, she tells me that is very unusual, in fact completely strange and unkown there, and I have promised to email her with details of symbiotica and csiro art/science projects in australia. but later, now it would be best to be horizontal for a while. this international media artist gig is exhausting! walking along the river, I looked over a rusting steel bridge at the water flowing, and felt so happy to be here.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

2:13 PM
Posted by jodi rose

really could have stayed in bed another few hours, but got up to have breakfast, which ended up being apple pie with icecream - although the witches's salad looked enticing. Motley groups of displaced media artists hanging around outside the CAC, waiting for someone to let us in, or something to happen. Walked around vilnius for a while with John Hopkins - stumbled across the Uzopio res publika 'free state' set up by artists 30 years ago, fantastic list of rules in their consitution: everyone has the right to live by the river, everyone has the right to be happy, everyone has the right to be unhappy, everyone has the right to be undistinguished, everyone has the right to idle, everyone has the right to make mistakes, everyone has the right to be unique, everyone has the right to cry, everyone has the right to be misunderstood, everyone is responsible for their freedom, no one has the right to have a design on eternity, everyone has the right to be silent, everyone has the right to have faith, everyone has the right to love and look after the cat, a dog has the right to be a dog, sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

2:06 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Forest outside Vilnius
woke up late, caught the midday bus - which left at 1pm - out to the forest. arrived at the summer cottage of some friends of vilma, who had lunch set up for us - about 20 media artists from all over the world, then we walked into the forest.
Gediminas told me about a sacred healing spring, and a group of us walked along the river to find it - sloping grassy bank, wet and slippery, I almost fell in twice - but we didn't find the spring. Came back to the camp area, in an oak grove, where a huge international pagan festival took place 5 years ago. these are some of the wise oak trees, ingelunas told me, that people would come to ask advice.
Then the streaming started - Nils asked me to be his assistant, so I had to make the list of performers and organise people to get in front of the camera - essentially a live tv broadcast from the forest to the contemporary art centre. The first part was fine, developed into a discussion with Daniel Anjucar, Geert Lovink and people from the workshop talking about media and the forest, then we had to wait an hour or more for the next bus to arrive with our second group of performers. By the time they got there everyone was hungry and it was total chaos, and most of the audience defected to the fire and bbq area while the performers played.
we made another list - with help from the lovely Tautvydas and managed to set up the video projector, screen, and audio for Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer to do their performance, while Gintas K and John Grzivich did electronic laptop music.
Walking back to the bus was amazing, it was completely dark in the trees, muddy track, Denis sang for us in Russian, then once we got out onto the road the almost full moon silhoutted against the hills and the mist floating around us, totally strange and beautiful.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

1:51 PM
Posted by jodi rose

friday
contemporary art centre, vilnius
artist presentations, talked with a local historian about the forest, followed by long night dancing at Cozy with alison and nils, fabulous decadent lounge alcoves with lush fabric and chandeliers, a wild scene with lithuanian mafia - one guy in black suit, with cigar and another in stylish hat and white singlet - all muscled up - and a bevy of scantily clad women in skyscraper heels, straight out of a rap video. Then had great baclava at a turkish restaurant at 5am.

Friday, August 27, 2004

9:42 AM
Posted by jodi rose

wednesday
fly to vilnius
met at airport by brass band, paparazzi scrum and huge floral arrangements
ok maybe they were meeting the lithuanian discus gold medallist

Friday, August 27, 2004

9:42 AM
Posted by jodi rose

thursday
head spinning from data workshop

Friday, August 27, 2004

9:41 AM
Posted by jodi rose

tuesday
meeting with juha at katastro.fi
walked down to harbour and had ice cream with andrew
sauna with sophea at kallio wood sauna

Friday, August 27, 2004

9:40 AM
Posted by jodi rose

recovering from isea
a few days quiet in mari's apartment

Friday, August 27, 2004

9:39 AM
Posted by jodi rose

sunday
outdoor festival in east helsinki
sauna on private island unisaari
dancing

Sunday, August 22, 2004

1:57 PM
Posted by jodi rose

street sign in tallin - I understood it as 'there will be dancing' - but later realised it was a warning about pickpockets.

Good Morning!
Last night was the Grilli Radio walking tour and live broadcast from grilli kiosks around Helsinki. Lotta took us on a fantastic journey, through the history, architecture and cultural significance of the grilli. Sirpa and I interviewed people at various locations, on a phone line that was connected to the radio transmitter - with andrew the phone cowboy (will have the word for that in Finnish later) doing an excellent job of wrangling the connections with his online mobile messaging back to the radio HQ- (pirakki piper: kids, rats, media artists was one series of entries from various people chatting) Then the call would come through on our mobile and we would go live to air, talking with people about their greasiest grilli memories, what was good to eat on the menu - mainly anything once you were drunk enough! - there were some local specialites, one involving a sausage (of course) and then the belgian finnish french fries with ketchup and thousand island dressing.

Found out about the best hot dog stand in Iceland, from Päll, who said the most memorable moments there are ones you can't remember, and the husband of the grilli empire heiress, who met his wife skiing in lapland - he was very impressed when her father rocked up with the mobile grilli, and thought hmmm I will have sausages for the rest of my life!

Sadly I don't have any photos as the phone ran out of battery, but did take some video on the mobile I was using - will give url for documentation when it's ready.

So, now I am also a radio star in helsinki, on grilli radio anyway!
After the broadcast finished, and the bar closed we went to the flow festival - more electronic music, my uncle simon who is at the conference says Helsinki should have a 'dangerously cool' rating on the old fire danger system which we have applied to culture, the Finns are very cool - with a posse including Joni, (from sydney now living in berlin), who said people keep thinking that she is me - oh, you did that work with bridges! - no, that's the other Jo from sydney! Also Andreas, Katya, John, Nils, Andrew, and I can't remember the other names now. It was also the post-isea party, so lots more familiar faces on the dance floor, Andrew and I danced to Jazzanova until the very end - great vibe, very smooth funky beats and it was a total blast. Then went back to the radio HQ at SIBA (Sibelius Academi Centre for Music and Technology) and chilled out with Sophea, Teri, Pier, Rasmus and Andrew until it was time for Teri to catch her plane back to Baltimore, and then I waited until the trams started again at 6am. Helsinki was quite wild at 4am, lines of people waiting for taxi's, bustling crowds coming out of clubs, we revisited the final grilli for a late night snack - and one last live broadcast - but at 6am it was a city of giant seagulls - huge like small dogs - feasting on left over snaggari wrappers at the bus terminali.

In the past few days I've had a few moments of ... dislocation, being in this state of flux where I am not really here or there, feeling very aware that I am only here for a moment, and the future is completely uncertain, but today that is not so much a problem. The magic of staying out all night and dancing has worked it's spell again, and the world seems full of possibilities and I'm feeling sanguine again.

Now it is time to go and listen to Sigma with their falling through space music, which I greatly enjoyed from the couch at their rehearsal last week - Mari is doing live video, at the PoikkiTaideTeltta KontuFestarilla. Also Lotta gave me some home made jam in exchange for my bridge CD, and I will meet Peter and Adam for a drink later once they have cleaned their apartment, before flying back to Barcelona and Budapest respectively in the morning.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

1:17 PM
Posted by jodi rose

whiling away a few hours playing with photos in between conference talks. didn't make it to the laser game - this is why I don't write things I am going to do, only what I have done - went in and the site was so tiny and dark and claustrophobia inducing, I was too hungry to run aroud being shot with a laser gun, so met up with mari and had dinner in benjam's, quite a good italian restaurant where I have eaten last time I was here, after locative media workshop finished.
this morning attended a very thought provoking session on fat and porn on the internet - quite intense for 10am and still waking up.
this afternoon - well, let's see where it takes me. more later.

Friday, August 20, 2004

9:04 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Maria from sydney/manchester and Dave from the phonebook outside Kiasma during the crazy evening when everyone was celebrating and happy.

ok so now maybe I have made enough space for the images, I can write an actual entry.
at m-bar in helsinki, opposite kiasma. having a hilarious evening, after conference today went to the u gallery for peter and adam's show - they gave a beautiful presentation about their work, projected onto folded paper in this really large four-pronged fishing rod kind of thing. decided I would like to stay in europe until transcultural mapping in riga at end of september - only slight problem of insolvency. have gathered an apartment in helsinki and one in the 5th largest town of hungary to stay in, and now working on the compensation part of the equation.
wandered over to kiasma for the northern lights concert - caught the last half hour, was not si intrigued or excited, am waiting for jacob to make his music with the sounds, I think they will be very beautiful and intriguing, based on our conversation in copenhagen.
anyway, hanging out in kiasma cafe met maria, who I knew very slightly in sydney years ago, and remembered mainly through her ex-boyfriends. she's now in manchester, invited me to their girls night when I'm next in the UK - she also knew fee and ben and dave from the phonebook - they do really cool animation on mobile phones, where you make your own stop frame animated characters and then play them as a movie on the phone. Esther also met them finally, and andrew and john at the rengo walk - it was a refereshing change from sitting in the lecture theatre, the embodied locative media experience. walking around the outside of media lab/uiah building and talking with the workshop participants about their experiences, watching the video rengo they made on the phones, it was a very immersive and engaging environmental experience.
then also at the kiasma cafe met julianne pierce who had inspired me at art school with VNS Matrix and the cyberfeministpunk manifesto. totally cool. and then Bronja who remembered my glebe island bridge piece from years ago, told me she has been telling people about it ever since. Helsinki is so great, you meet the coolest people everywhere!
now I am due to meet teri and andrew and go to the electronic music celebrity deathmatch laserzone.
but first the excellent news that makro lab and radioqualia both won huge prizes at isea - the president of finland was here, and many people couldn't get in because she had already entered the theatre - I was chatting to adam and marko totally oblivious that they had both just won this major prize - well I could see something was going on with Marko, a huge entourage of excited people but just thought it was due to his charm and artistic cred!
there you go. So now I am talking with him tomorrow about the makrolab work and also his record label of avant garde musicians from eastern europe; and then adam hyde from radioqualia about the radio astronomy project.
apparently I am going to be the grilli romanci reporter tomorrow night, talking to people in grilli's about their greasiest romantic experience.!!!

Friday, August 20, 2004

8:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

The rengo archiving process was quite interesting.... and in the end, does it really matter if you get things in the 'right' order??

Friday, August 20, 2004

8:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

On the Rengo workshop/walk, Andrew, John and the workshop participants took us on a walk outside around the UIAH building to various sites where they had created video clips in a linked poetic response. This took us past the matinkaari bridge, which I first recorded in 2002.

Friday, August 20, 2004

8:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Walking up to the University of Art and Design, in the old Arabia factory I felt so happy to be in Helsinki again.

Friday, August 20, 2004

8:53 PM
Posted by jodi rose

my favourite thing about Tallin was finding out that Tarkovsky filmed 'the zone' here for 'Stalker'

Friday, August 20, 2004

1:48 PM
Posted by jodi rose

One of the many very funky DJ's playing on the boat - Tuomo Töivonen, aka giant robot who also had a sound installation in the swimming pool.

Friday, August 20, 2004

1:47 PM
Posted by jodi rose

We did our first secret gig here, with a chorus of 'disco laundro' for the underwater microphone set up by Mukul

Looking back again to the beginning of the ferry trip. Some people have been describing it as a two day long hip-hop video! I don't know about that, but Sophea and I were the spa starters at the Riveria Bar on the first afternoon!

Friday, August 20, 2004

1:46 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Inside the lifeboat. Melville, Pearl, St Jacques working hard.

Going back in time to the lifeboat on the ferry, had my psychological date and DNA extracted by the authorities in orange jumpsuits.

Friday, August 20, 2004

12:32 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Andrew and Manu at the Olympia Terminali Bar before the ferry left. Manu was at dinner last night and Andrew is presenting the Rengo workshop today.

Blue sunny skies and light breeze this morning, Helsinki is beautiful and summery. I am in luxury at the media lab, with a room full of computers at my disposal - sadly can only use one at a time, unlike my last weekend in Sydney when i had four going simultaneously at the ABC, finalising all the stuff for my program and trip - and finally have some time to try and change my photos to 100 mb and upload them.
The opening last night at Kiasma was crazy, so many people milling around and everyone is a little shattered from the boat trip, estonia and non-stop conference and 'other fun' activities (that is really one of the categories on the program!)
It is fantastic being able to meet so many people doing all kinds of interesting media work, and make new connections. Adam (from Aether architecture) has just moved back to Budapest, and he tells me there is an artists residency at the new media centre there. Also Pall told me about the Icelandic Artists Union who also have a residency, and then of course there is everything on www.transartists.nl which is well worth checking out for anyone else who has the yen to travel and make art in different locations.
Juha gathered together a bunch of us for dinner at the Sea Horse restaurant last night - traditional finnish meatballs a speciality, also baltic herrings - and we had another great evening there, although no performance poetry this time! Manu and Mukul and I have been invited to become Pixelache Ambassadors - we are hoping for an extensive training week in a 5 star icelandic spa resort!!
Tonight is the opening for Peter and Adam's exhibition at gallery U, then the Northern Lights concert which I have to attend, to hear the variation in how someone else uses this material, and finally the electronic music celebrity laserzone deathmatch, which everyone is very excited about!

Thursday, August 19, 2004

12:42 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Berries at the market by the harbour where the Silja seacat fast ferry comes in from tallin

Aaaahh.... back in Helsinki. Deep sigh of relief. My one day in Estonia was very intense, got lost in the rain twice - completely lost - and confused by the huge wide 8 lanes of traffic in all directions. Tuomo later told me this was the classic russian street architecture, so the tanks can parade around the city. The only thing that endeared tallin to me was the site where Tarkovsky filmed 'stalker' in particular the set for the Zone. It was very bleak and intriguing.
Anyway, came back a day early and got some rest - although still a little dizzy, feeling much more on top of life again.
Currently missing the first session at uiah school of art and design, but will go in for the postmodern tribes and communication by Professor Michel Maffesoli.
Monday on the ferry is a blur of music, talking and interludes in the spa - wandered out at 7am and it was full of people sitting in the rain - gorgeous. Now at media lab, will hopefully be able to find a computer and upload some photos. next round of exhibitions and parties in helsinki about to start. Juha has organised an 'electronic music celebrity deathmatch' in the laserzone arcade on friday, that will be fun. I'm with the pixelache warriors!

Monday, August 16, 2004

12:01 AM
Posted by jodi rose

Terri and Kelly at the bar outside before getting on the ferry

woke up this morning and my clock said 18:32, so I thought maybe I'd slept all day and missed the boat. Luckily it was just my inept 24 hour clock setting at work again.
On the ferry now, midnight, waiting for Norrie Neumark's networked seance to start, had a spa first thing in the riviera bar with sophea, and then sauna. Almost over jetlag now. Listened to tuomo's gorgeous sound installation where the ship is the tape head playing the ocean, and now have to go in to the seance.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

7:43 AM
Posted by jodi rose

colourful apartments across the canal from Overgaden gallery

awake early this morning, to a gallery full of sleeping bodies. off on the plane to helsinki soon yay!
tried to upload pics from overgaden but files too big, will resize and post asap.loving the digital camera.
bon voyage for now
xx jr

PICTURES ONLINE NOW!!

Friday, August 13, 2004

8:21 PM
Posted by jodi rose

kaarsten, enrico and tanya mixing live at the displaced dilemma

NOW STREAMING LIVE FROM COPENHAGEN!!!

: : FRIDAY August 13 : : 20.00 : : dkk 20 : :

"Rip, Mix & Burn + Point of Sale (Ripsale)"
Displaced Dilemma:
various euro (de)
Matze Schmidt (de)
mi_ga (lt/de)
Enrico Glerean aka e.g.ø (it)
Jodi Rose (au)
http://217.160.178.83/%7Emodukit/displaced-dilemma/

What the **** is a Ripsale? If people really could download all the
(digitized material) they want and reprocess it would be the end of
capitalism, they say. But the question is not one of copyright, new
licences or money making. It is the question of production!
The displaced dilemma here is: how to "rip, mix & burn" and sell NOT?
We download mp3, remix it, make a give away on soulseek, burn one
golden audio-cd, offer it on ebay, stream the sound of it all and
transmitt it via a local MHz frequency.

B r i n g y o u r R a d i o!

Friday, August 13, 2004

12:47 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Jodi after the show with Tanya, fabulous wild sound artist and the Danish Katherine Hepburn!

The concert last night was great fun, very well attended with a really nice laid-back crowd. Steve and Jacob made some intense, beautiful sounds, and I had another experiment in performing with chaos. Met Jonas Olesen, who did a lovely remix for me 2 years ago now, and Markus from Flipper on Swedish Radio, who interviewed me in Stockholm, and Tim who is working at Danish Radio here making audio art in the radio drama department. After the concert we walked down the road to the Eiffel bar - tiny, packed, smoky and should have been dark but was very brightly lit. Had some beer and raved with Tanya about sound and performance, she and Jacob had some great feeback and very constructive ideas to develop my performance - I'm really looking forward to working with the material more when I get home.
Copenhagen is hot and muggy this morning, went for a walk along the canal to the city bathing place - it is a swimming area in the canal, which is apparently very clean now. There are bright cornflowers and other amazing spiky purple flowers growing outside the apartments, everyone rides bicycles and the local supermarket is a cornucopia of interesting comestibles.
will upload some photos later, once I work out the cable and software.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

6:04 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Jacob Kirkegaard playing sounds from the Swedish Nuclear Power Station vs Steve Bradley playing the 17 year cicadas.

Hanging out in the gallery, with enrico from italy, karson from berlin, steve from usa and tanya from the west coast of denmark. Making plans for dinner tonight - enrico is cooking pasta!
i'm all set up for the performance tonight, with jacøb's frog to play - it's a fabulous old skool green reverb/delay device, and the bridges are singing and rockin' through it. So i will be on at 8.30 tonight, then the boys doing a sound battle between cicadas and nuclear power.
had a great afternoon - walked down to christiania and had yummy cheap wholesome lunch at a hippy cafe (there is a sauna there too, and a hairdresser both of which I hope to try tomorrow), then walked down the road to a lake and interviewed Jacob for my series on musique concrete. I think it's going to be lovely - he was quite surprised that it was so personal and in-depth, we had a great meandering conversation about sound and ice and invisible things. www.secretsounds.dk
tanya is great - it's always fun having another sound girl to hang out with - she does scratching on tape recorders, using soundscape, spoken text, cut-ups. and I am also on the flyer for tomorrow night with the boys from berlin - very glad I made it over here, and it's only day one!!!

Thursday, August 12, 2004

11:47 AM
Posted by jodi rose

The audience at Steve and Jacob's show

Arrived in Copenhagen this morning, 9.45am after 26hours flying and in transit. Very glad of the 20 minute massage at Bangkok airport, which came with pure oxygen, it's made all the difference. Although this could be a state of delirium, more than being awake - the boys from Berlin are in a much worse state, one of them came straight to the airport from a club, and is lying on the carpets in the gallery with his headphones on. Sirens blaring outside on the canal - steve bradley says it's just like new york.

But not. Very airy, open light space, Jacob and Steve are setting up for their show tonight - the nuclear power station sounds amazing.
I am maybe performing tonight or tomorrow with the berlin boys, who are doing a kooky open source sound thing - they sent a fabulous diagram, which I don't quite understand, but looks like some bridge samples will fit in quite well.

Sophea has plans for me to be an on-air personality for Grilli Radio from the streets of Helsinki, which will be hilarious! they are trying to find a Finnish speaking co-host.

And the Vilma people in Vilnius have an even set up in the forest on friday 27th August, which will be very high-tech and help with collecting sounds for my audio mapping project.

Slight daze setting in, maybe time to go have a shower and then get onto interview with Jacob for the radio piece I'm producing.

www.overgaden.org
www.soundartfestival.dk

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

12:44 PM
Posted by jodi rose

A preview of the overgaden gallery from the bridge

ABC Harris St Ultimo
Well, I've reached escape velocity!
The last day in the studio, finally got to a point of some sense of satisfaction, yes, we have achieved a result. Not sure if it's any good yet, will have to wait and see. hard when you're so inside something and all you can hear are miniscule things to tweak.
But now, I'm on my way back out into the world.
Yes, leaving tomorrow for Copenhagen, Helsinki and Vilnius. Have been very relaxed about it all, so last minute and ridiculous - but now the excitement is kicking in, and I can't wait. Seeing old friends from Pixelache on the ferry at ISEA, and RAM6, and new friends in Copenhagen. Concert on Thursday night with Jacob Kirkegaard and Steve Bradley, at Overgaden Sound Festival.
Have to go now, many CD's of bridges to burn :)

Wednesday, August 4, 2004

10:02 PM
Posted by jodi rose

The intensity of last week is slowly ebbing away, although building to a new pitch gathering momentum for imminent take-off.
I had the absolute pleasure of experiencing Francisco Lopez' concert on Sunday night, at Lanfranchis Memorial Discotheque. He creates an extraordinary immersive journey through sound, created from environmental recordings with intense crescendos in extreme contrast with almost inaudible times, building wild sweeping aural worlds. Lying on the floor of a cold warehouse in Chippendale, blindfolded, it felt as though every cell in my body had been rearranged by sound.
www.franciscolopez.net
Then had a marvellous conversation with Francisco about composition, sound, music and other things - recorded courtesy of the fabulous ABC Radio, for a program I'm making on musique concrete. So even though my residency has officially ended this week, I have enough loose ends, and new projects up to be floating around the corridors for a while now.
Planning to be in the forests of Lithuania at the end of August, for RAM6 reapproaching new media.
Everything else in life has been suspended (possibly including sanity) to finish producing the radio program - almost there now. One day to go.