Medienschmerz

Doppelgänger #12

Mesq — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:07:38 +0000

Apollo lunar module in the Sea of Tranquility / Temporary sauna at Biscay Bay.

Doppelgänger #11

Mesq — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:57:42 +0000

Actor Daniel Radcliffe / Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen.

Temporary sauna at Biscay Bay

Mesq — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:27:07 +0000

Temporary sauna at Biscay Bay from Mesq on Vimeo.

In February 2009 I travelled to the Basque Country to join Demos Helsinki & Co’s “basecamp” in Donostia-San Sebastián. I brought a portable DIY sauna with me and one evening we built it on a remote beach. This is a 2.5 minute video how it happened. Camerawork by Kirmo Kivelä.

Pimp My Passport in Jyväskylä

Mesq — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:57:17 +0000

This spring has been very eventful and it shows on the worsened update frequency on this site. Anyhow one of the better events has been the first Pimp My Passport workshop on 16 May 2009. Remember PMP was first introduced in Riga last autumn but now we actually got hands-on.

Mari and I were invited to Jyväskylä by the media art working group Live Herring. They’re currently appointed as “regional artist” which is a radical move in Finnish cultural politics. The workshop was held at the university lobby during the city’s “long night of the arts” so there was a lot of buzz and people on the move.

The idea was to facilite a workshop where people could make their own shielded covers for their new RFID passports and in the process discuss and get informed about the issues related to technology, privacy and biometric passports.

We set up our tables at the university lobby which itself is an Alvar Aalto landmar and put up lots of scrap and recycled material including used coffee packets, info sheets about RFID and passports plus a sewing machine. The amount of visitors exceeded all expectations. The first people arrived minutes before the official start and the last participants left at 00:05. During the eight hours the booth was never empty of visitors!

It was also nice to note that people of all ages came by. Young women were the most active group, but seniors and children took part as well. Creative flair was shooting through the roof all the time. At the end we counted some 40+ covers were made.

Press showed some interest to the event, regional newspaper Keskisuomalainen put it on page five where we were pitted against the Ministry of the Interior. Another paper from Turku also took note of the event and concentrate more on the crafting side. Unfortunately none of them checked out the vibes themselves but resorted to phone interviews.

The event night and the afterparty presented Jyväskylä as a very jovial and friendly city. It might well be the “most underrated” city in Finland. A world of thanks also to Soile of Live Herring for her kind efforts and support.

Links:

Gallery on Flickr

DIY instructions (fi)
Article from Keskisuomalainen (pdf, fi)

Blogpost and reaction by Live Herring (fi)

Article on Turun Sanomat (fi)

Gone to the Canaries

Mesq — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:30:29 +0000

Greetings from the beach! I’m in Playa del Ingles overcoming tourisim until 10th April with mikroPaliskunta ‘The Finnish on Holiday’ expedition. Follow us on www.mikroPaliskunta.net

Earth Hour?

Mesq — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:21:14 +0000

In Berlin, there’s the 18th Long Shopping Night instead…

Doppelgänger #10

Mesq — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:21:51 +0000

Senior people misusing umbrella bin / Wind-blown people misusing garbage bin.

Spectacular architecture

Mesq — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:36:23 +0000

I haven’t been reading enough blogs lately, because I had missed out on the Dynamic Tower of Dubai until the latest issue of National Geographic.

The skyscraper also known as Da Vinci Tower has 80 floors, each of which rotates individually – extending the whole architectural experience into the “fourth dimension of time”. It is also wind and solar powered and claimed to be self-sustaining with enough surplus to power up five other similar buildings.

Like much of the spectacular architecture of these days, it is being built in Dubai and should be completed in 2010. The presentation is very pretentious, leaves behind even Khan Shatyr in Astana of Kazakhstan.

I’m curious to see how it works out. Not everyone is convinced of its feasibility.

Dopplreffekt

Mesq — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:13:16 +0000

I created a public profile on Dopplr, so that friends and friendly-minded can keep up with my comings and goings. If you’re a user too, just add me as a fellow traveller.

Eco-tip

Mesq — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:17:26 +0000

Pictured above is a way to do the dishes with a minimal amount of water using only a sponge and the foam from washing up liquid. A friend of mine learnt this from an Israeli cook. Considering the water resources of the Holy Land, they must have a good number of methods like this.