I thought it was love, instead it was a carriage
Friday 20.12.2019
Starting at 18:00
I thought it was love, instead it was a carriage: Discussion and party of, about, and in memes.
Memes, what are they? Are they even? What can memes do?Do they even do anything? Are they transformative, sublime, or are they banal, or both, but neither? Do memes have a start, do they ever end? Do they start things or end them? Are memes a medium? Are they a material? Do memes transcend their materials? Do memes exist only in human perception or do they have a platonic form? Do memes art? Are memes political? Do they have rights? Are humans the only ones who meme? Do stones meme? Are humans memes of Gaia? Are memes themselves the answer?
Starting at 18:00 on Friday the 20th of December Myymälä2 hosts a discussion moderated by Timo Tuhkanen joined by Bassam El Baroni, Egle Oddo, Gabriele de Seta, James Lorien MacDonald, Jenna Jauhiainen, Javiera Marchant Aedo, Jussi Kari, Mike Watson, Ramiro Camelo, of, about, and doing, memes, questioning not only their nature but also the philosophies, ideologies, cultures, feelings, legalities, technics, and desires behind making, distributing, and experiencing memes.
The discussion starts at 18:00 and later in the evening Mike Watson will perform memeic immanence intervention streamed online and projected in the gallery.
While some beverages and snacks will be provided the event is BBYB and bring your own Playstation 3 games.
A more detailed introduction to our participants discussing memes:
Bassam El Baroni
Bassam El Baroni is assistant professor in curating and mediating art at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Aalto University and former lecturer at the Dutch Art Institute, ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem, the Netherlands. He was director of Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) 2005 – 2012 a now closed non-profit art space in Alexandria, Egypt. He has curated or co-curated projects/exhibitions such as Manifesta 8 (Murcia, 2010); Eva International – Ireland’s Biennial (Limerick, 2014); HOME WORKS 7 (Beirut, 2015).
Egle Oddo
Her work focuses on linear and non-linear narration as an art form. Interested in operational realism meant as the presentation of the functional sphere in an aesthetic arrangement and its inter-relations, she combines photography, moving image, installation, sculpture, environmental art, and experimental live art. In her pieces industrial production morphs towards delicate handcraft, life forms appear and emerge out of sculptures and objects, film photography appropriate digital images, selected trash mix with fashion, precious edible minerals and ancestral recipes are served as part of ritual meals. She moved to Helsinki in 2006 and founded Namastic Art Collective. She is member of Catalysti Association of Transcultural Artists in Finland; Pixelache Trans-disciplinary Platform for Experimental Art, Research and activism; MUU Association of Professional Artists; Maatiainen Association for the Protection of Finnish Local Species.
Gabriele de Seta
Gabriele de Seta is a media anthropologist. He holds a PhD in Sociology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica in Taipei, and will soon be a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bergen. His research work, grounded on ethnographic engagement across multiple sites, focuses on digital media practices and vernacular creativity in the Chinese-speaking world. He is also interested in experimental music scenes, Internet art, digital data curation, and collaborative intersections between anthropology and art practice.
James Lorien MacDonald
Born 1977 in Vancouver, Canada; living in Helsinki since 2002, I’m a queer and transgender stand-up comedian, performance artist, and writer. I also make some of my living from public speaking and teaching in art, larp, and queer topics (particularly transgender).
Javiera Marchant Aedo
Javiera is the activist your mother warned you about!
Jenna Jauhiainen
My name is Jenna Jauhiainen. I am an artist, writer and researcher. My artistic practice resembles the Finnish variant of Outsider art called ITE which is acronym for its testy elm, translatable as self-made life. ITE is often about its creator’s environment and lived experience. My ITE focuses especially on my experience and life online. I also go by two performance aliases, THIN KING and goatsemestari online. I am a founding member of HYPERREAALIYAH, and the only member of the simulation slash collective who works non-anonymously. HYPERREAALIYAH is on a mission to return to meaning via various reconstructive and expository methods. My special interests at the moment are: artificial intelligence, activism, cyber feminism, human rights memetic, sex positivity, utopias/dystopias, war.
Jussi Kari
Jussi Kari (b. 1984) is a lawyer working for Tuxera. His speciality is intellectual property rights, immaterial rights, communications and labor law. Previously he has worked at Turre Legal as a specialist in media law and has worked as a lawyer for for HH Partners, in the military, and as a trademark lawyer for Benjon Oy. He is interested in computer games, weightlifting, and has worked as the principal organiser of Desucon Frostbite anime event and with his wife he writes a blog about anime.
Mike Watson
Mike Watson (born UK) is a theorist, critic and curator who is principally focused on the relation between culture, new media and politics. He has written for Art Review, Artforum, Frieze, Hyperallergic and Radical Philosophy and has curated events at the 55th and 56th Venice Biennale, and Manifesta12.
Ramiro Camelo
Ramiro Camelo is an independent curator based in Helsinki. Obtained a Master’s degree in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London. A selection of his curatorial projects includes: “Sugarry Wonderry”, Kallio Stage, Helsinki. (2018). “Travesía”, Sala Alterna, Uniandinos, Bogota. (2016); “Off Axis Colombia”, Justmad 6, COAM. Madrid (2015); “Paradise Stacion”, Stacion Center for Contemporary Art, Pristina (2008); “Of this tale, I cannot guarantee a single word” (Co-curator) Royal College of Art Gallery, London. (2008) and “Somatofilia Express”, Galeria Santafe, Bogota (1998). He has been a guest lecturer at Stacion, Center for Contemporary Art, Prishtina; Universidad de los Andes, Bogota; Academia Superior de Arte de Bogotá, Bogota; PerfoArtNet, International Biennial of Performance, Bogota; Festival 404 and Globe Art Point, Helsinki.
Timo Tuhkanen
Dr Timo Tuhkanen is a composer, artist, the Director of Myymälä2 gallery, and the founder of IWU – Internet Workers Union. They have written about the internet and social media since they hacked rhizome.org website to publish an article only available in the websites temporary search cache, also published in Athens Biennale 2013 Agora. They wrote their PhD on the aesthetics of touch in music and their research sits in the emerging field of new materialism placed between the experience of hearing and touch. Currently their artistic practice involves imagining, designing and creating instruments that act as social interruptions and political tools for encountering, expanding, and including decision making processes within an interdisciplinary and poli-sensorial epistemology that also includes non-human agents.
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