Danny, Madli, Tuuli and Patrick have just started ...

The general technique is rather simple: you need old fabric for your composition, plastic mesh (and old newspaper to put under it to protect your table/floor), the white wall(paper) glue (‘seinaliim’), spatulas to spread the glue on the fabric.
While we were rehearsing the basics, Tuuli herself experimented with a technique of cutting the fabric into tiny pieces, mixing it into a mass with glue, and spreading this over the mesh. This also seemed to have a really nice outcome.

You are all welcome to join in next time and bring your ideas with you – which means also proposing your own subject and guiding other tinkerers! For example, at some of the next meetings we are probably going to experiment different techniques to tie-connect-glue cardboard with environmentally rather harmless materials (avoiding nails or staples, for instance) to make sculptures or – why not – some useful objects for the household. This will also serve the much bigger MoKS plan that you will hear more about soon – just to keep up the excitement!

The next club is planned for the 1st of March, the doors open at 17:00 and the tinkering foes on until 20:00.
The cost per club night is 3€.
Info: moks.ee
moks_at_moks.ee

Madli pilt Mooste koolist

During these very grey November days, hoping and waiting for the snow and sunlight, the matchbox camera workshop was held at MoKS. The good reason for this was having someone practiced in the mentioned craftwork – Daniel Allen – here as part of a two-month residency at the end of 2011.
So as planned, on Saturday the 26th, a small group of people gathered to learn the secrets of this strange craft. See the gallery below!

The process itself is not actually very complicated – just fairly. Here are main supplies you need:
- an empty matchbox – to cut different size of holes in different parts;
- a little piece of foil (stronger than cooking foil) and a pin to make a hole;
- a black pen to colour the inner parts of the box to avoid any light being reflected anywhere;
- some card to build the shutter;
- a film, of course, and also one old empty film cassette;
- black tape to make your camera fully lightproof;
- and a bit of sponge and half a clothes peg – for spooling the film from one cassette to another smoothly and successfully.

I would say the most difficult part, requiring most assistance needing, is getting the size of the pinhole (aperture) right – to be able to match it later with the approximate shutter speed in certain light conditions.
One of the most beautiful things about taking the photos with such a camera is the game between predictability and unpredictability. One takes pictures of the chosen subjects usually very consciously and also recognises most of these things later on the photos. And there are some extras as well that appear as certain effects (which can emerge from the “mistakes” made while building the camera). Actually there’s hardly any outcome that wouldn’t have these extras – in most cases, I would say, enriching the results.
It should be said that once the film is full of pictures, the camera has to be destroyed to get out the negatives. The good part of this is, however, that if you became good friends with the relations between aperture, light evaluation and shutter speed, you can re-use the same pinhole – as you remember, it’s the hardest part – to build the next camera.

And some more good news is that if you are interested, then please keep an eye on MoKS’ activities in winter-spring 2012 – we are planning to have more of these workshops!

Gallery #1

Gallery #2

For the second year MoKS has hosted the ‘summer practice’ for students from Tartu Art College sculpture department. The aim is to allow students to experiment and gain practical experience in a non-school setting. The weeks activities were guided by John and Evelyn who led a series of exercises that focused on the idea of site-specific environmental art. Using the greater context of Mooste village and its surroundings, the students were also given time to develop their own works. They also had a chance to learn about the practices of other artists who were in the residency at MoKS and to get a historical overview of site-specific art practices from historian Maarin Ektermann. Despite the changing weather conditions, it was a productive week overall and we hope to host another group of creative people next year.

Special thanks to Veljo Runnel for leading an excellent workshop on Nature Sound Recording, sharing his experiences from the last 10 years and extensive knowledge on bird species. We enjoyed having Danny, Evelyn, Eve, Taavi, Patrick, John, Ignaz, Maria and Aivo to come out and participate. The group spent one early morning and one full evening out in the field, analyzing and collecting sounds. We then listened to the recordings that were made an identified the animal species that were heard. Comparisons of different recording setups were helpful to in defining both aesthetic and scientific approaches to the sounds that were captured.

Recording nature sounds

This is a list of problems and challenges experienced by the participants during the workshop. Overcoming these issues are key to improving your skills

• the sound of ones self -whispering, rustling clothes and hungry stomachs can easily show up in your recording interfere with your interest to capture natural sounds.
• to plan or not to plan -research is important but sometimes random situations can also bring success. how much planning is needed?
• finding a good location -certain factors like flora and fauna types, distance from inhabited areas, proximity to lakes and rivers all contribute to the wildlife you may find in nature and the sounds they make
• knowledge of equipment -for getting good recordings, everything depends on your technical setup. knowing what types of microphones work best for certain situations, charging batteries and maintaining your equipment is essential in being prepared to capture the right moment.
• consider the whole sonic environment -noises from other creatures like insects and dogs can interfere with what you want to record. birds often change their position, a robin sitting in from of your microphone will mask more distant sounds. learn some tricks on how to deal with these situations.
• patience and persistence is key -finding interesting subjects to record rarely happens easily. sometimes you may need to follow a sound source carefully to get close to it, yet often in the process animals can easily be scared by your presence
• coordinate when recording in a group -make sure agreements are made about when to be quiet, how long you plan to record, and when movements can be made. not considering these details will often cause unwanted noises in your recordings.
• be prepared personally -bring food to feed a hungry stomach. wear the right clothing for recording, sitting still may need extra layers for warmth. get into the right mental state for listening carefully, recording sounds in nature demands your full attention.
• familiarity with the subject -start to learn about animal species and the types of sounds they make. in noisy environments (morning bird chorus) it can be difficult to distinguish one bird call from another
• laziness -its hard to get out in the field. forget the excuses, get off your bum and get out to record

identifying the species heard during the morning chorus

Future goals

What do the participants aim for in their future practices?

• learn about animal identification -some understanding of species differentiation is helpful and needed when you want to search for special sounds. This also helps in understanding the environment you are in and your relation to it.
• learn and consider the geographical aspects of the environments where you plan to record -think about the acoustic properties of natural habitats. not every forest sounds the same, what environments are interesting for capturing a good soundscape
• improve recording technique -invest in some better equipment (mics/recorder) and making regular use of it
• make time to record -preparation and travel add extra time, making the whole process rather lengthy
• be more conscious of surroundings -you can’t hear nature if you’re not listening to it
• find a creative response to nature sounds -can the recorded sounds be used in a dance/movement piece for example.
• edit, clean and archive the recordings -it is easy to forget what and where you recorded
• cooperate with other field recordists -it helps to share knowledge and techniques. plan more regular excursions.
• reach out to the public -look for ways to share your recordings and build a wider audience. see how nature sound recording can be more than a hobby.

listen to mix of four recordings by John Grzinich

1. creaking tree and morning birds by the Ahja river
2. lone Tangmalm’s Owl (Karvasjalg kakk) in the forest
3. Spotted Crake (Täpikhuik)
4. Morning chorus near Ahunapalu with Cranes

GROUND is an exchange project between MoKS, MAA Art school of Helsinki and the Art Academy of Poznan in Poland funded by Grundtvig life long learning programme. GROUND as a project focuses on Strategies of Culture, Collaborative Methods and Site-Specific practices. During a 2 year period, groups from each of the partners will make 2 visits to each other partner. The local host develops a theme and a program for each meeting. In the case of this first meeting the theme was “environment” and the students were given an open canvas as how to interpret that.

Two options were given as starting points:

• choose and “environment. make and analysis of it. work with the phenomenon of that environment
• create an “environment”

Over the week the students formed into small collaborative groups or worked as individuals and developed site-specific installations, performances or multi-media works. From the Estonian side we had: Mari, Patrick, Kersti, Kerstin and Indrek.

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Evelyn and the board

A number of officials and past figures came out to show their appreciation.

Piret Lindpere from the Ministry of Culture speaks

Two excellent artistic performance were given in the new ‘common’ space on the second floor.

Patrick McGinley aka 'murmer' creates a live feedback performance with audience participation

Mari Kalkun charms the space with voice and kantele

The event also opened and exhibition of works by artists involved with MoKS.

Mari Jõgiste exhibits her visual works in the cellar gallery

large scale drawing works on display by Evelyn Müürsepp

MoKS annual summer art symposium AVAMAA took place from August 16-21. The biggest challenge this year was to conduct the symposium almost without being able to use MOKS. With the exception of using the basement for 2 of the workshops, the building was pretty much unusable because of the current state of intensive renovation. The same could be said for the final concert event, Mesi Kõrvadele which was supposed to be held in the new Mooste concert hall (folgikoda), but was held in the Kultuurimaja instead also because of renovation work. Given these conditions we still managed to pull everything off, hosting and feeding all 37+ participants for a week creative endeavors in the Mooste schoolhouse. Details of the workshops, projects and week long program can be found on the MOKS website.

We would like to thank the MOKS team and all the participants for their creative energy this year: John W Fail, Giles Bailey, Natalia Borissova, Selda Asal, Cem, Marko Kosnik, Monica Glahn, Lara Tau Viera, Michael Saup, Di Clay, Nick Clay, Goncalo Leite Velho, Andrus Kallastu, Hans Gunter Lock, Leonora Palu, Indrek Palu, Kai Kallastu, John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Maarin Ektermann, Mari Jõgiste, Patrick McGinley, Jaanika Jaanits, Piibe Kolka, Tom Grzinich, Leela Elison, Toomas Thetloff, Siim Tiirik, Mari Kalkun, Taavi Tatsi, Kaisa Sammelselg, Grigori Lotman, Caleb Waldorf, Piret K, Maria Rõhu, Kurt Korthals, Andreas Leo Findeisen

After Curatorial Dinner exhibition

The artistic project ‘After curatorial dinner’ was conceived by Petra Kapš during her one month x-op residency in MOKS. She researched the artistic production of a number of artists (Riho Kall, John Grzinich, Evelyn Müürsepp, Toomas Thetloff, Patrick McGinley, Erkki Luuk, Anna Hints) through dinner conducted as a social ritual. The exhibition contained works that were produced in connection to the process of her residency.

MUTOPIA 6

The 6th edition of MUTOPIA was held during the event and was led by Tero Nauha and John Grzinich. While the group was fairly small the effort was of the participants was highly focused and concentrated. Most of the workshop took place in the public spaces around Tomar and focused on two locations in particular, the monument outside the courthouse (in the middle of a parking lot) and the main gardens under the castle. Below is a short video compilation that randomly composites some of the sound, movement and text exercises.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The MoKS summer art symposium known as AVAMAA took place for the second time and again proved to be fertile ground for the exchange of ideas and experiences between all participants. Over 30 people took part in the workshops and projects hosted by the event. Thanks to the dedication of talented and creative workshop leaders like Derek Holzer, Elffriede, Taavi Taatsi, Bruno Humberto and myself, we seemed to exceeded any expectations the volunteers and participants may have had. The contributions of “infrastructure” also cannot be understated, particularly the evening meal coordination by Patrick McGinley and the breakfast by Mari. Other interventions like the breakfast film series by Taavi Tatsi of Worldfilm and spontaneous music and artist talk evenings showed even a high how density of activity can be accommodated within the flexible organizational structure of AVAMAA. Such a structure allows opportunities not always afforded in events of this scale, particularly in that the organizers themselves were able to take part  and even give workshops. We hope this kind of organizational research (in practice) will help to scale MoKS activities in the future as we expand. For us there is a fine balance between keeping an open flexible atmosphere and defining roles that keep clear of institutional hierarchies.

We want to thank everyone for making this years Honey for the Ears concert evening a big success. Well over 100 people came out to see the variety of groups performing that evening. That does not sound like much but it was possibly the most people to come to any MoKS event. Mooste is not such a central place and the performers came from Finland, Tallinn for the night. Pastacas even had to go to Tallinn the same night to give another concert!

Pastacas + Mari Kalkun (EE)
twowho (FI)
Jüppala Kääpiö (CH/JP)
Kirtana Rasa (EE)
Pekko Käppi (FI)
Kago (EE)

One of the main themes that was explored during the residency of Emma Lipp and Matt Marble was local food production. While searching for ingredients for their meals a number of sources for local food came out with a little research (besides what we try to share from our garden in the summer). The son of an entrepreneur in Mooste manages a factory and farm for pickling which includes cucumbers, potatoes and cabbages all grown on site. We went to visit the facility to see how the production was done. Much to our surprise, we found out it is possible to cure pickles in 24 hours! These are not the usual kind of sour pickles made with vinegar, but only from salt and spices. The result, fresh and delicious!

photos by John Grzinich

Monday, January 26, 21.00
*Electropera Act 1: Parahouse_12
self-evolving participatory environment
by Egon March Institute and partner productions
Studio Martina Schumacher & Joulia Strauss in Ullsteinhaus

Monday-Thursday, 26th – 29th of January
X-OP- Conference Berlin
„True Art / Truely Merchandise“
at ConcentArt

Evelyn and John from MoKS are spending a few weeks in Dresden Germany in a residency at 7.Stock. This literally means 7th floor which is what it is. We occupy a studio on the 7th floor of an old DDR administrative building in the center of the city. The building is mostly empty with the exception of a number of artist studios on the 6th and 7th floor. While this is an almost ideal situation there are a number of ongoing problems, mostly of a political nature with different administrative departments of the city. These problems essentially keep the 7.Stock project from growing and going more official. Nonetheless this artist initiative has hosted many artists and events over the past few years in a sincere and well coordinated manner.

Our aim here is rather open, to work on continuing personal projects and to prepare for a performance in Berlin. There we will take part in the parahouse12 multimedia event organized by Marko Kosnik in cooperation with X-OP project.

Tero Nauha wrote an excellent essay AVAMAA IN MOOSTE for SIRP cultural weekly.