In a week I'll embark on a bicycle trip with a couple of friends. First, out of Berlin and then around it in anticlockwise direction. It's a direct descendant of the last summer's mikroPaliskunta road trip, but also something completely different.

Just wanted to elaborate on the new thoughts through writing...

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MikroPaliskunta experiments with the contemporary practices of travel, exploration and documentary. The project aims at reviving the journey of exploration in the context of 21st century – by assuming a civil perspective, appropriating do-it-yourself, sustainability and readily available technologies.

The first trip in August 2006 was done with a vintage Volvo ticking with domestic biodiesel. The second one, Berlin round tour, will be on bicycles. The third one might employ sailing as means of transport. The idea is that travelling and sustainability needn't be mutually exclusive.

Events and findings are shared online. The first trip was documented on a single website, organised around themes and locations. The second one will be spread across existing blogging, placemarking and bookmarking services, photo and video sharing websites (i.e. Jaiku, Blogspot, Flickr, Vimeo, Tagzania). Unique tag "mikropaliskunta" will act as a label for relevant content on and between different online spaces. This also facilitates anyone to take part in the "movement", because tagging is open by nature.

As a documentary project mikroPaliskunta assumes no single point of view or method. Perspectives include, but are not limited to – artistic, journalistic and scientific approaches. Diversity of individual perspectives, foci, identities and/or assumed roles is necessary, as that reflects the diversity of our world experiences. This, and the possiblities of mobile production and connectivity have led me into liking to call the online part an "accumulation of near-time microdocumentaries".

Altogether, mikroPaliskunta is inherently post-scientific – we acknowledge the vanity of our efforts in the age of Google Earth and Wikipedia, but in the same time we, out of curiosity, engage in a journey of exploration, as if our maps were decorated with "Here Be Dragons".