Click here to view the embedded video.

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!

The Public Office for Architetcure explores the link between private and public interest in the practice of architecture. A temporary architecture office was established at MoKS, open to the public and free of charge. The public was invited to consult any architectural needs or questions they may have. In return every project that was taken on by the Public Office added one component to the program of requirements that was decidedly of public interest, initiating a dialog between private needs and public needs in the dynamics of architectural services. Four distinctly different projects were taken on by the office while in Mooste which will be followed up over the coming months.

The Public Office for Architecture is conceived as a nomadic project that will span over several years. The inaugural project hosted by MoKS was followed by Public Office for Architecture at Galeria HIT in Bratislava, with several projects planned for 2012. The accumulated work will serve as a collection of case studies to argue for a revision in the client-architect relationship within the practice of architecture as a service industry.

Public Office for Architecture is generously supported by MoKS, Galeria HIT, CECArtsLink and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. Many thanks to Evelyn and Siiri from MoKS and to our fabulous assistant and translator Iris Allese.

the serious side of Dan and Trish Scott

MoKS September residents from the UK, Trish and Dan Scott set up the PAIR WORK blog for their collaborative experiments. Please have a look to see just how productive they were.

This 5-day intensive workshop focused on Strategies of Culture, Collaborative Methods and Site-Specific art practices. We focused on the theme of ‘Narratives’ that includes three areas; the personal, the larger social and site or object narratives. The idea of narrative was explored beyond the basic notion of stories, where we looked at what constitutes the foundation or conditions that allow narratives to develop. The week activities consisted of practical fieldwork and exercises, artist presentations and discussion rounds in an open setting of international artists and students. We want to thank the 20 participants for their time and energy for a very productive week. We are looking forward to the next meeting in Helsinki.

Click here to view the embedded video.

They also documented some events. This is a lecture/performance by Stuart:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here is a video document of the final performance of Bruno Humberto’s workshop at AVAMAA 2011:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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

Following this research phase we are entering the period where we need to visualize the data, that is, translate it into a visual form in order to graphically lay out the information for the printed form. Carsten Stabenow and Andreas Töpfer will be designing and editing the final design of the map, but in order to do so we needed to brainstorm what a printed sound map could look like and edit some of the data collected and shape it into a usable form.

See the Tallinn Sound Diaries by Andreas Töpfer.

“Lokaalne ja globaalne MoKS” for SIRP (Eesti keeles)

English version on ARTISHOK

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

Here is a photo gallery of the various spaces at MoKS (studios, kitchen, cellar, sauna).

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.

playing the great flagpole on Heybeliada, photo by Enise Gökbayrak

New Maps of Time sound workshop/residency Istanbul Turkey

‘New Maps of Time’ is a project and workshop about mapping architectural and urban spaces using sound as a means to express actions within a space. read more…

Workshop carried out in the frame of my X-OP residency at Apartment Project, artist-run project space, from February 8 – March 8, 2010

Idil trying a simple sound horn, photo by Enise Gökbayrak

One of the deepest traces in my memory are connected with silence that I had the pleasure of listening to when smoking a cigarette outside, staring through the window, taking long walks around the small lake and through the forest, lying in bed early in the morning, when light was still shy and I was concentrated on the outside just to hush up my thoughts … or the silence I listened to when being with/sitting with people and listening to them or to myself … always listening what silence spoke to me. Unconsciously, silence and the mere fact of being by myself most of the time gave me inner beauty and clearness. While contemplating, I realised I almost selfishly protected my “by my self” being there … And again, I emphasise the importance of primary, basic activities like burning a fire, just sitting in front of the flames and enjoying purifying softness of the parching heat and sounds of redness … and there, somewhere in-between, disperse silence emanates, that helps you to really hear yourself. Maybe this is all what there is around the mystery of silence, yearning, exploring and researching of it?

When I told people I would be at Moks the whole November, I noticed a hesitation concerning the persisting greyness of the day. But that was exactly what I wanted – to experience November light in Mooste (and Tartu, Pärnu ….) and all the varieties of hazes and yes, there are thousands of different greys and blues (from purple to the white pearl to dense black).

About curatorial dinners …

The question how to perform a “curatorial research” on a personal level somewhere with very little things known, was challenging for me. But soon I found a satisfying possibility in phenomena of “dinners” – through intimacy of social ritual like eating together. And there I had seven different stories with different people and artists. Also, I have to say it was fun experimenting with local food supplies.

with Riho Kall
apple, orange, almond and raisin cake

with John Grzinich
tagliatelle with tomatoes, mozzarella and cheese, olives and red vine

with Evelyn Müürsepp
red peppers, zucchini, almonds, raisins with soya sauce and cardamom, rice and carrots with garlic and lemon, cake with cherry jam and chocolate from the market

with Toomas Thetloff
we changed roles, Toomas was the cook, we had liver, red beet and cottage cheese

with Patrick McGinley
mixed smoked and very (!!!) salty fish with cream sauce, rice, clementines with dark chocolate

with Erkki Luuk
smoked fish in cream sauce with garlic and butter potatoes with dill, mandarines with dark chocolate

with Anna Hints
I don’t have a photo of our meeting, we met at Werner cafe in Tartu, we had coffee and carrot cake

Here are some photos of my oscillation between fascination, artistic researches, writings, spontaneous acts, researching of words … (I still believe words can correspond with persons on intimate level, on political level – or with other words, words are not what we think they are – sometimes, when someone tells us something, they are just … nothing, empty, and maybe they are empty because of speaker’s emptiness – and here I don’t mean the emptiness in zen perspective).

An elderly lady in the beautiful allotments recieves one of our homemade ice-cream lollies.

Dear all…

A little late but life jumped back into the fast lane once we got back to Germany. Mooste seems a million miles away now. Which is sad.

Between the 15th of July and the 31st of August we spent a six week MOKS residency in Mooste, creating a body of work to address themes that emerged during the first week of our stay. Our work explored Estonian identity in the locality using a variety of participative and interactive techniques, a body of work that looks at the relationships between people, place and history.

Interventions included the creation of a moped procession through the village, sand mapping on the local beach, a photo-shoot in the baron’s clothes, hiding messages on homemade ice cream and infiltrating Google Maps.

Information and documentation relating to these events can be found on our website at http://treacleonline.wordpress.com/archive1/moks-residency/

We can’t describe how much we valued our time in Mooste. For the first few weeks at MOKS we managed to balance work and life for the first time in many years. The question is how to keep hold of this.

Hope all goes well and look forward to seeing you all again some time in the near future,
Kaspar & Susanne

PS. Exciting scenes in the basement! We look forward to seeing how everything develops over the next year.

Irena Biechonska and Jerzy Biechonsky

http://diary.kanakosasaki.com/

The third X-OP event of this year took place in Novigrad Croatia in the frame of the Mediascape festival. In the X-OP “tradition” the meeting of the 9 partners provided a base for intensive discussions relating to the cooperation between the diverse group of project partners. While much of this is far too complicated to elaborate on here, the fact remains that cooperation and transparency are essential, not only for basic functioning within the project but also to generate new content with sincerity and a level of quality we are capable of. In parallel, we were treated to a series of artistic and curatorial presentations in the warm atmosphere of the Istrian sun taking while refuge in the shade of the Musej Lapidarium. In a sense one could get an overview of activities regarding artistic policies and practices from the region of Croatia and Slovenia which seem to differ greatly from those we are used to at MoKS. In between there was a touch of art, not quite enough for our tastes but a taste nonetheless with a few musical performances of the electronic vein and a spontaneous intervention in the city by Evelyn and Susanne Kienbaum of Berlin. What was the message here?Even with all the resources and beautiful environment of the Novigrad event, the most precious resource still remains to be time, of which there never seems to be enough, time to meet, time to share, time to listen from which new ideas and relations grow. If there is one thing to respect and understand, its the need for giving time to the process of the X-OP project, other wise that time will be sacrificed for continued misunderstandings and frustrations among ourselves, especially the ones who gave so much time in the beginning to make such a thing happen at all.

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.

Early in the morning on August 24th, just after AVAMAA, some construction workers peered through the windows at the back of MoKS only to find some artists sleeping on the hay inside. Tere hommikust! The renovation of MoKS has begun. First the facade and re-grading of the exterior will be done, while it is warm I suspect. In parallel the basement will be worked on to secure the foundation. Then they’ll move on to the interior, heating system and other details. The amount of work is significant yet according to plan, everything should be ready by the end of 2010. Lets see… check here for updates.

This means some temporary changes will be made to the residency program, particularly for 2010. We are looking into some option to keep the residency open but probably scaled down and at another location. If you are planning to apply, please write and ask about the status of the program and be prepared for a flexible situation.

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)

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During the remaining 2 weeks and 3 days of my precious time at MoKs
I will be wandering around on the blog now and then.
yours truly,
Sandra Sitron