Ptarmigan operated in Tallinn from 2011-2014. We no longer maintain any presence in Tallinn, but this website will continue to serve as an archive of the activities produced at Ptarmigan during these years.
Second meeting of Elektron. If you are joining us for the first time, please register here and let us know about materials, etc. Everyone is welcome; lack of previous experience is not an obstacle. However, if you have any prior experience, then please share it with others!
Bring your laptop and any existing tools you have that may be relevant. Let us know in the registration form what you are bringing and if you'd like us to get anything. We will have some Arduino boards to sell to participants (at cost) and other materials as well.
This 3 hour, intensive workshop is a short immersion into the world of tattooing from DIY, through prison, and into professional tattooing. All ‘tattooing’ during the workshop will be done on grapefruits but safety and prevention of diseases transmitted by blood will be covered as well as aftercare. As an introduction to tattoo culture we will begin the workshop by learning ‘stick & poke’, to create small images. As prisons have played a large part in the imagery and development of tattooing we will follow up stick and poke with a how to make your own "prison style" rotary electric tattoo needles. To finish the workshop all individuals will get to use a professional tattoo machine for line work, coloring and shading. Participants should leave the workshop with a basic knowledge of how to accomplish tattooing, by a variety of methods, in a safe and sterile environment.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica}Justin Tyler Tate was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and grew up in Florida USA. He relocated back to Halifax to attend the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and has since migrated to Tallinn. Graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts his solo practice incorporates a variety of media; primarily sculpture, installation and performance. Over the past few years, he has exhibited his work across Canada and internationally. Tate's work investigates the relationship between the viewer and the object questioning the weight of viewership and creation alike.
Starting in the 1940s, small portable movie cameras made it possible for just about anyone to make films as travel documents. It was only natural that amateur filmmaking would extend into the anthropological realm as travelers became interested in seeking out more 'exotic' destinations like Africa. For this Clip Kino, a selection of amateur films shot in Africa in the 1950s by Watson Kitner, Mrs. J Shipley Dixon and Harry Bernard Wright (available on archive.org) will be screened. As the films are all silent, an ethnomusicological soundtrack will be added as a counterpart to the image.
Clip Kino events are self-organised screening events of short video clips & documentaries found online. It aims to drag aspects of normalised 'private' activity - of viewing downloaded content on one's own computer - into public space for screening, appreciation and debate.
Tonight's screening is presented by John Grzinich, who has been conducting his own forms of sound research for over 15 years, including field recording, kinetic sculptures, electro-acoustic composition, performance, group workshops and exercises in listening. Currently he lives in Estonia and works as a program and technical coordinator for MoKS, a non-profit artist-run center. He has published CDs of his sound works on international labels such as: SIRR, Cloudmirror, Staalplaat, Erewhon, Intransitive, Cut, Elevator Bath, CMR, Orogenetics, Pale Disc and others. Documentation and examples of his work can be found at: http://maaheli.ee/
The aim of this workshop held by members of artistic collective Ici-Même is the creation of a Tallinn specific soundwalk. The workshop roots in Ici-Même´s concept of City sounds concerts and will be presented to public during the event of Tuned City Tallinn. As this workshop is mobile in nature, it will only meet at Ptarmigan initially at 12:00 on 28 June.
City Sounds Concerts
The City Sounds Concerts are blind walks within a moment of the sound environment. Without their sight, members of the audience let themselves being led through a edgeless, slow stroll. The experience shifts perception, playing on the ambiguities between reality and fiction. The addition and subtraction of sounds act as a sensorial revealer and extender. Little by little, a sensible and subjective landscape reconfigures. City Sounds Concerts are an almost motionless journey that reaches far away destinations… "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this experience within the sounds of this neighborhood […] For your comfort, it is preferable to take off your glasses and big earings if you have some […] A luggage facility is at your disposal, in which you can left your bags and where you will find them back after the travel […] You can totally entrust our guides, who are long-time experienced professionals […] Take a few steps aside and choose the place that suits you […] When you are ready, close your eyes, it would be the signal for us that the travel can start." The City Sounds Concerts are site-specific, they adapt and transform according to the environment in which they set. The actors/guides of Ici-Même compose the score of their walk with the sounds, lights, odors, densities and intensities of the city, inside and outside, empty and crowded, close and distant… The usages and habits of the city wear off, landmarks disappear and give way to a sensory and poetic experience of space. Added sounds then slip within the real sounds, opening a fictional dimension. The City Sounds Concerts are using very simple, light and easily transportable equipment: noise-canceling headsets to transform the sensation of space and create an intimate dimension ; dictaphones and small amplifiers moving around and setting the sounds of the environment into motion, eventually moving to abstraction ; flashlights moving behind the eyelids ; small sound objects, sometimes found on the spot... all of which are designing the contours of a new and imaginary space… Places and routes are chosen for the possibilities they offer. We have been performing them in many railway stations, their human activity and flux, their complex architecture, their quiet and hidden areas allow a great variety of contrasts. Before public performances, practice on location allow to explore the environment, to design the possible itineraries, as well as to negociate accesses, create a complicity with local users of the place. We develop an intimate relation with the place, that eventually gives way to improvisation, to being able to react to events and be taken by what happens during the walk. Workshop Ici-Même invites you to become a guide and performer for the City Sounds Concerts in Tallinn. You will be practicing the very specific art of guiding people with closed eyes, composing with the sounds, lights, odors and events, playing and improvising with the city for an instrument. About ten days will be dedicated to body practice, rehearsal and writing the "score" of the blind walks; the public performances will take place three times a day during Tuned City. [ Workshop contact and further informations, write to Sam / Ici-Même : pali@palimeursault.net ]Founded in 1993, Ici-Même [Grenoble] is a collective of variable shape, getting together three to thirty people according to different projects. The collective’s approach is deeply rooted in the urban space, as a place and an object for experimentation. Mixing sounds, images, objects, dance and speech, the artistic practice of Ici-Même is protean and cross-medias, and cancels out the boundaries between the fields of theatre, soundart, installation, performing arts, graphic design, architecture, photography, writing, video, field sociology… The creation process develops within the urban reality of the everyday life, productions are written and conceived in the public space where they eventually take shape. All of the environment is likely to be considered a perceptive and informative source matter for creation, which can be captured, recorded and collected. If the city might be understood as a geographical compound of axes and zones, bounded and identified areas and districts, it is also traversed by flows of activity or movement of people according to a very specific temporality that matches days, seasons, actuality… unremittingly shaping and reshaping its proper landscape by filling some spaces while leaving other places hollow, uncovering folds and interstices. Through a sensitive exploration of these “human territories”, Ici-Même calls to study the many usages of the public space and puts forward an art of the experimentation.
This photography workshop, led by Predrag Tasevski, is intended for beginners and enthusiasts. We will meet over four weeks, on Mondays in June at 19:00. The workshop is divided into two parts, two weeks each. If you miss the previous session it is OK to attend to next one.
Part two - Digital processing of photography
Note: Please bring you laptops/notebooks. Basic knowledge is required in editing photos in one of the mentioned applications.
Predrag Tasevski - FKK Kozjak 50, http://kozjak50.com/en
Born in 1985, Kumanovo, Macedonia. Activist since 2008 in Photo Cinema Club Kozjak50, Kumanovo, MKD. Participated in many exhibitions in Macedonia and outside the country. Organizer of two international photo exhibitions supported by FIAP, PSA and IAAP; one Macedonian local exhibition. Working as a freelancer and experience in: fashion photography, gigs, festivals, party, events, etc.
Svamp is a regular workshop for sound and music improvisation. It does not involve money, careers or obligations -- only interpersonal and sound relationships. Svamp sessions may range from collective improvisation to directed exercises or game-playing. You do NOT have to be a professional or trained musician -- just someone with an interest in sound, an open mind, and the ability to listen.
This will be the second meeting in Tallinn and we encourage anyone with an interest in group interaction to attend! Please bring something to make sound with - an instrument or other object. Amplification will be quite limited so please prepare accordingly (ie: don't bring a laptop!). We will explore collective improvisation, possibly breaking into smaller groups depending on attendance, and look at some simple organising structures and methods.
Svamp was originally started in Helsinki and has been meeting sporadically for several years. The project is intended to be a place for people to develop their improvisation abilities, experiment with different ideas, and feel no pressure to perform publically or release recordings. Svamp in Helsinki is now curated by Äänen Lumo and Ptarmigan, and we hope to build a community in Tallinn and eventually bring the two groups together.
This is the first meeting of Elektron, a regularly meeting workshop/workgroup to explore open-source hardware, particularly focused on Arduino technology.
At this first meeting we will look at several basic concepts:
Everyone is welcome; lack of previous experience is not an obstacle. However, if you have any prior experience, then please share it with others!
Bring your laptop and any existing tools you have that may be relevant. Let us know in the registration form what you are bringing and if you'd like us to get anything. We will have some Arduino boards to sell to participants (at cost) and other materials as well.
Elektron is a hobby of electronics organizer Tanel "mou" Külaots, who has been working with this stuff from the age of 12.
This photography workshop, led by Predrag Tasevski, is intended for beginners and enthusiasts. We will meet over four weeks, on Mondays in June at 19:00. The workshop is divided into two parts, two weeks each. If you miss the previous session it is OK to attend to next one.
Part two - Digital processing of photography
Note: Please bring you laptops/notebooks. Basic knowledge is required in editing photos in one of the mentioned applications.
Predrag Tasevski - FKK Kozjak 50, http://kozjak50.com/en
Born in 1985, Kumanovo, Macedonia. Activist since 2008 in Photo Cinema Club Kozjak50, Kumanovo, MKD. Participated in many exhibitions in Macedonia and outside the country. Organizer of two international photo exhibitions supported by FIAP, PSA and IAAP; one Macedonian local exhibition. Working as a freelancer and experience in: fashion photography, gigs, festivals, party, events, etc.
Fast Food for Ears is an introduction into the world of building your own DIY synths, making contact microphones and having fun with CMOS chips. The workshop will be conducted in three hours. The workshop is for a maximum of 8 people. Previous knownledge of electronics is not required. There is a small fee for the materials, depending on what you make: synth kit prices begin at 5€.
The workshop ends at 18:00; at 20:00 will be a concert where workshop participants are encouraged to demonstrate their creations and perform.
During the workshop three different stages of a circuit will be presented:
Participants will build the circuit first on the breadboard. After that they are encouraged to experiment with the circuits, listening to the differences between components (resistors, capacitors etc.).
Projects include: Preamp, making a contact microphone, nand synth, simple matrix synth.
About workshop tutors:
Dennis Tan is a Singaporean sound artist living and working in Bremen, Germany. As a sound artist, he makes sound installations which are both sculptural and compositional. He has also written graphical notations for musicians or none musicians alike.
Jukka Hautamäki is media artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland. He is founding member of Turku based experimental electronics association Kokomys. Hautamäki has organised sound art and electronics workshops and lectures in Finland, Germany and France.
Jukka Hautamäki (FIN) and Dennis Tan (SNG/GER) are making noise and experimental music across Europe in June 2011. This evening they perform in Tallinn, hosted next door to Ptarmigan at Piip ja Tuut Mängumaja.
Squarewhite is Dennis Tan, a Singaporean sound artist who lives and works in Bremen, Germany. As a sound artist, he makes sound installations which are both sculptural and compositional. He has also written graphical notations for musicians or none musicians alike.
He founded the group Sonic Kitchen in Bremen and they have releases on Kitchenworks (GER) and naivsuper (GER). Since 2006 Tan has gone solo and has participated in a compilation on the [TN012] Tecnonucleo netlabel.
Tan works this year under a new project name, Squarewhite. Squarewhite address first the question, what is the difference between noise and silence, since our perception changes all the time? He will explore and research on this question with both analog (diy electronics) and digital tools (synths, samples, max/msp).
Currently he is getting his hands dirty with Arduino and DIY electronics.
http://www.tandennis.net/
http://squarewhite.tumblr.com/
Ihokas is Jukka Hautamäki, a media artist living and working in Helsinki, Finland. He works with video, digital photography, experimental soundscapes and electronics. His primary form of expression is media installation.
As Ihokas, Hautamäki has always tried to maintain a unique style while avoiding common mainstream solutions. His music style is abstract ambient noise with a twist; the live music is occasionally accompanied by video projections. Ihokas live music is combination of digital sound processing, live sampling, diy synths and electro-acoustic sound improvisation.
Hautamäki is also working with diy electronics, Arduino and MaxMSP. He is founding member of Turku based experimental electronics association Kokomys. Hautamäki has organised sound art and electronics workshops in Finland and Germany. Hautamäkis music has been released on albums and V/A compilations by Turbo Records (CAN), Lumi Records (FIN), [aanite] (FIN), Luumu Recordings (FIN), Acidsoxx Musicks (USA).
http://www.jukkahautamaki.com
http://ihokas.tumblr.com/
with additional music from Raul Keller (http://raulkeller.mkdk.org/).
The evening will begin with a short concert/presentation from the participants in the afternoon's Fast Food for Ears workshop, led by Dennis and Jukka.
This photography workshop, led by Predrag Tasevski, is intended for beginners and enthusiasts. We will meet over four weeks, on Mondays in June at 19:00. The workshop is divided into two parts, two weeks each. If you miss the previous session it is OK to attend to next one.
Part one - Basics
Please bring your own equipment (e.g. camera (digital(DSLR) or analog-film), lights, lenses, filters, tripods, monopods, notebook, laptops, etc.)!
Predrag Tasevski - FKK Kozjak 50, http://kozjak50.com/en
Born in 1985, Kumanovo, Macedonia. Activist since 2008 in Photo Cinema Club Kozjak50, Kumanovo, MKD. Participated in many exhibitions in Macedonia and outside the country. Organizer of two international photo exhibitions supported by FIAP, PSA and IAAP; one Macedonian local exhibition. Working as a freelancer and experience in: fashion photography, gigs, festivals, party, events, etc.
This photography workshop, led by Predrag Tasevski, is intended for beginners and enthusiasts. We will meet over four weeks, on Mondays in June at 19:00. The workshop is divided into two parts, two weeks each. If you miss the previous session it is OK to attend to next one.
Part one - Basics
Please bring your own equipment (e.g. camera (digital(DSLR) or analog-film), lights, lenses, filters, tripods, monopods, notebook, laptops, etc.)!
Predrag Tasevski - FKK Kozjak 50, http://kozjak50.com/en
Born in 1985, Kumanovo, Macedonia. Activist since 2008 in Photo Cinema Club Kozjak50, Kumanovo, MKD. Participated in many exhibitions in Macedonia and outside the country. Organizer of two international photo exhibitions supported by FIAP, PSA and IAAP; one Macedonian local exhibition. Working as a freelancer with experience in: fashion photography, gigs, festivals, party, events, etc.
TIMO VIIALAINEN
Timo Viialainen is a Helsinki based sound and performance artist who explores the areas of conceptual art thru various symbolic images and acts and the use of light, video and sound controlled by interactive intuitive interfaces. "My goal is to achieve an intuitive cathartic experience by taking the performance to an area where our usual ways of sensing and perceiving the world around us stop dominating us and we open up to something new."
MAIKE LOND
MELTING HEARTS
is a new project by the Finnish pop singer Samuel Meri. Samuel Meri has a reputation as a man of slow movements, but even then he's managed to spend hundreds of hours in the sleaziest karaoke bars of Helsinki, gathering inspiration for his new project. Samuel Meri has previously played in Estonia as a guest of the group Yön Syke in the Schilling Festival 2010.
http://helsinkisinking.blogspot.com
NOMADIC TRAVELLERS
Diverse Universe is a nomadic performance festival througout Europe in May and June 2011. Tonight it comes to Tallinn for a last-minute event at Ptarmigan.
Featuring:
MYK HENRY (NEW YORK/IRELAND)
An Irishman from Big Apple. A Provocative performer, was once the quickest dealer in the illegal gambling scene of New York in the 80s; once a top 10 artist in Switzerland.
MARCUS VINICIUS (BRAZIL)
The Artist Is Warrior. Body like a territory for intensive experimentations, exploring the time, the instability and limits. Urban interventions.
STEVE VANONI (CALIFORNIA)
Make Art Not War. Wild Californian underground, living icon of west coast. Now in Tallinn: fun, dangerous and interactive.
PHILIP LUDDITE (DENMARK)
Not So Young Upcoming Artist. Nomadic Traveler, Tireless Pyroman & Western Anarchist. Metamorphoses, Evil Spirit in Transmission.
NON GRATA (ESTONIA)
Around the name Non Grata there have been different hushes and shushes for a long time. Already from the point of view of death of conventionalization of art it has embodied the horrible and unwanted disembodiment of human person, from which the meaninglessness of nowadays art, is pouring out. For those, whose world of arts starts from the point, where the art world ends, NON GRATA has been a liberator, the orphic gap in the seemingly unalterable course, which however betrays us, it is a cure from incest. The presentations are physical texts…
Svamp is a regular workshop for sound and music improvisation. It does not involve money, careers or obligations -- only interpersonal and sound relationships. Svamp sessions may range from collective improvisation to directed exercises or game-playing. You do NOT have to be a professional or trained musician -- just someone with an interest in sound, an open mind, and the ability to listen.
This will be the first meeting in Tallinn and we encourage anyone with an interest in group interaction to attend! Please bring something to make sound with - an instrument or other object. Amplification will be quite limited so please prepare accordingly (ie: don't bring a laptop!). We will explore collective improvisation, possibly breaking into smaller groups depending on attendance, and look at some simple organising structures and methods.
Svamp was originally started in Helsinki and has been meeting sporadically for several years. The project is intended to be a place for people to develop their improvisation abilities, experiment with different ideas, and feel no pressure to perform publically or release recordings. Svamp in Helsinki is now curated by Äänen Lumo and Ptarmigan, and we hope to build a community in Tallinn and eventually bring the two groups together.
Ptarmigan inaugurates the Tallinn chapter of the Labyrinths and Rings series with two groups, both operating self-organised initiatives in different corners of Europe.
Sam West is the alias given to a group of artists who met informally in spring 2010 through the Top Floor Studio group at Spike Island, Bristol (UK). They actively encourage artist-led activity, dialogue and exchange; seeking sustainable solutions outside of traditional economic frameworks - especially apposite in the current climate.
B-galleria is a non-profit art gallery in Turku, Finland run by a group of young local cultural actives. They have been running the gallery since December 2004. The B-mission is to provide inexpensive and easily approachable gallery space for young emerging artists and their ideas. The gallery doubles as a project room for gigs, film screenings, lectures, workshops and other art activities and happenings. Within the gallery space there is also a shop called B-butik presenting limited editions of clothes and jewelry from contemporary designers.
In addition, B-galleria member Elina Minn will screen two video works: Dragon Beach by Aada Sigurlina Niilola, 18 mins (animations by Elina Minn) and her own Stage Fright (2 mins).
Labyrinths and Rings is a monthly series of talks and presentations by visiting creative practitioners, followed by a brief moderated discussion/Q&A. It aims to extract fun from artist talks, emphasisng the social aspects of these events. Tonight's DJ will be Elijah Värttö of East gallery fame/infamy.
Clip Kino events are self-organised screening events of short video clips & documentaries found online. It aims to drag aspects of normalised 'private' activity - of viewing downloaded content on one's own computer - into public space for screening, appreciation and debate.
We inaugrate the Tallinn chapter of Clip Kino on 2 May, where Viktor Lillemäe presents -- 'American propaganda and educational films': Selected works to catch a glimpse to the American 50s, the social norms and the fears of its society. The topics are (homo)sexuality, drugs and politics.
We welcome you to the opening event for the Tallinn location of Ptarmigan!
Ptarmigan opens at our new Tallinn home, Toom-Kooli 13 in Toompea. We begin with a mixed programme of video, music and live art; the evening features performers and exhibitors representing both our new home in Tallinn and our initial base in Helsinki. We will also be showcasing output from the previous week's Radio Aporee workshop, hosted at Ptarmigan as part of the Tuned City festival.
FILM and VIDEO (approx. 100 minutes):
Invisible Forces by Juliacks:
Näkymättömiä Voimia :: Invisible Forces is a Finnish+American short narrative experimental art film portraying the relationship between a character's internal psychological and external physical world. As the story goes, Rody Plane is a young woman who has been pushed around by her caustic environment. She deals with this by retreating into a dissociative inner fugue, letting the invisible forces take control. Ultimately, Rody must take action. Will she be subsumed by the insanity within and without? The film stars Tero Jartti (Mr. Vertigo), Jone Takamäki and Emilia Lagk (Dinosauruxia) and combines film with 2D and film scratch animation, video and datamoshing.
Püha Tõnu kiusamine by Veiko Õunpuu:
Veiko Õunpuu is an Estonian writer, artist and film director. Sometime lecturer, this ex-carpet salesman (who never made a sale) has directed 1 short and 2 feature length films which have excited critics and left audiences enthralled, appalled and puzzled. He is now directing a play.
The Tale of Little Puppetboy by Johannes Nyholm
Sin/New work by Juhani Koivumäki TBA by Lilli Carre Gylden Load by Hooliganship Life without Gabriella Ferri by Priit PärnThe Radio Aporee workshop is led by Udo Noll.
About:
The project platform radio aporee has started around 1999/2000, based on former artistic research on mapping, spatial conditions and the means of navigation between the real and the virtual. It develops from the insight that it is basically impossible to map the complexity of todays public & private spaces. Against the background of an increasing awareness of spatial aspects in media and the popularity and presence of visual geographies (like google maps), the idea was to connect sound and space in flexible configurations, to create a sonic cartography which focusses solely on sound, and open it to the public as a collaborative project. Meanwhile, the project radio aporee ::: maps contains many thousands of recordings from numerous urban, rural and natural environments, showing the audible complexity of our living spaces, as well as the different perceptions and artistic perspectives related to sound, space and places.
In addition, the project invokes contemporary developments in mobile computing and so- called locative media which presume to be crucial to the way we experience our momentary daily life, where media and markets merge at the momentary location of our body, creating a mixed-reality space of social (inter)action. An important question directly addressed by radio aporee is how we might autonomously create and subsequently occupy these hybrid social spaces, against the functions and fictions of solely market- driven forces.
Workshop:
The radio aporee workshop in Tallinn, April 2011, introduces the new project miniatures for mobiles, a platform for the creation of space-based audio works (see appendix for further information). The workshop consists of lectures about the conceptual and technical background, and practical exercises as well as sonic explorations within the Tallinn area. The workshop aims to instruct participants in how to use the authoring tools provided by radio aporee, and ideally would result in an audible miniature for mobile media, to experience by listeners now and in future.
Lectures:
Introduction into radio aporee projects, backgrounds, perspectives and further development:
Practical part:
The active part of the workshop ideally focusses on the creation of a miniature in the Tallinn public city space. This needs a relatively clear idea of what the work to be done is about and where it should happen, since it involves many practical and conceptual aspects. (It would be helpful if participants could gather in advance of the workshop, e.g. by email, to identify points of interest, locations, etc.)
Schedule:
Output from this workshop will be exhibited at the official opening event of Ptarmigan Tallinn on Saturday, 23 April!
Vita:
Udo Noll, born 1966 in Hadamar/ Germany, lives in Berlin and Cologne. He graduated as applied scientist for film, photography and media technology at the university of Cologne. Since then he works as an artist and media professional in numerous international projects and exhibitions. He's also the founder of radio aporee, an open and collaborative platform for the research about sound, art and space in today's mixed realities. More info on his website.