MNF Reading Circle II: The Climate of Public Space. OK Do & Motto @ Helsinki Design Week

Posted in Uncategorized on September 16th, 2011
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Last days of Motto’s Temporary Shop in Helsinki

open on:
Saturday 17
11 – 8 pm
& Sunday 18
11 – 4 pm

Address:
Museum of Finnish Architecture’s villa in Kaivopuisto
Puistokatu 4, Helsinki


COMING UP!
MNF Reading Circle II: The Climate of Public Space
Saturday 17, September
12 – 3 pm

Join us in reading aloud texts from the Museum of the Near Future book collection, including a preview from a forthcoming title, and discussing public space today and tomorrow.

How can we define public space today? More precisely, what does it mean in Helsinki, a city of long winters and respectively cold and dark agoras? While the privatisation of public space – as illustrated by the rise of warm and brightly illuminated malls – is not only a local phenomenon, Helsinki faces a challenge to invent new models of spaces for year-round free assembly in its expanding urban core, taking over former harbour and industrial areas by the sea. Will the future of our public space be enclosed, or perhaps virtual?

Drawing from philosopher Boris Groys’ ideas about weather as a defining element in the collective sensibility of a city, The Climate of Public Space reading circle explores different ways of leading a public life inside. Based on the forthcoming ‘Solution Finland: The Welfare Game’ book (Sternberg Press, 2011), the event includes a presentation by its editor, architect Martti Kalliala, together with one of the co-writers Jenna Sutela (OK Do), leading into a reading and discussion about the weather, city and media, joined by Toronto-based curator Cheyanne Turions.

Previously at MNF: Reading Circle I: City of Matters of Concern

The City of Matters of Concern reading circle explored how to make our concerns and interests manifest in Helsinki, mixing the private with the public and the individual with the collective.

OK Do drew from (or bastardized) sociologist Bruno Latour’s notion of ‘matters of concern’ in mapping out what it means to care for a city. Hosted by OK Do together with Toronto-based curator Cheyanne Turions, the readings included extracts from ‘OK Talk Helsinki/London’ book (2011).

Museum of the Near Future is created by OK Do, the creative practice of designers, writers and curators Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela, and carried out in collaboration with organisations and individuals of different stripes. The project team for MNF I includes designer and curator Anna Mikkola, bookshop representative Matilda Tjäder (Motto), curator Cheyanne Turions and designer Tommi Vasko.

Museum of the Near Future – A book society and -shop with Museum of Finnish Architecture and Motto on September 9–18

Posted in Uncategorized on September 2nd, 2011
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Museum of the Near Future (MNF) is an apparatus for looking sideways at institutions, cities, time and space. In an attempt to challenge perceptions of what is possible, and desirable, between now and next, MNF produces places for imagination and discussion in site-specific, functional installations. They are set up in interaction with museum and other institutional contexts and contents, asking questions for and with their hosts.

The first MNF project manifests in a thematic book society and -shop, taking over the old space of Museum of Finnish Architecture in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki, as part of the museum’s attempts to revitalise it. It explores micro-political participation in a city undergoing grand urban projects, such as its rapid expansion to central harbour and industrial areas or the World Design Capital Helsinki 2012 nomination. Using literature and related activities – like reading circles and performative publishing – as tools, MNF I experiments with the convergence of personal and public space, asking how value-based concerns of individuals could be turned into productive ways of living in Helsinki.

Museum of the Near Future is created by OK Do, the creative practice of designers, writers and curators Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela, and carried out in collaboration with organisations and individuals of different stripes. The project team for MNF I includes designer and curator Anna Mikkola, bookshop representative Matilda Tjäder (Motto), curator Cheyanne Turions and designer Tommi Vasko.

Museum of the Near Future bookshop

9–18 September, 2011

 

Address:

Museum of Finnish Architecture’s villa in Kaivopuisto

Puistokatu 4, Helsinki

 

Open:

Tue, Thu, Fri 10–16

Wed 10–20

Sat, Sun 11–16

(Mon closed)

 

Programme:

Fri 9.9. Museum of the Near Future bookshop opens at 10 am

Sun 11.9. Museum of the Near Future morning party, including the Helsinki launch of OK Do’s OK Talk Helsinki/London book 9 am–noon (RSVP at hello@ok-do.eu)

Sun 11.9. Walk talk in Hernesaari, a Helsinki harbour area in development. Participants will be picked up by a water bus to Hernesaari at the Sea Harbour of Kaivopuisto (address: Merisatamanranta 10) at 1.30 pm and brought back by 4 pm (tickets 5 e, bookings at hello@ok-do.eu)

Tue 13.9. Reading circle I 6 pm–9 pm (free entrance, RSVP at helhello@ok-do.eu)

Fri 16.9. OK Do curates a film screening at Museum of Finnish Architecture’s backyard, Kasarmikatu 24, Helsinki 7 pm–9 pm (free entrance, to be announced at www.mfa.fi)

Sat 17.9. Reading circle II 12 am–3 pm (free entrance, RSVP at hello@ok-do.eu)

Sun 18.9. The bookshop closes at 4 pm

 

Coffee will be served by Café Aaltopelti!

More information:

hello@ok-do.eu / +358 50 527 3123

www.ok-do.eu

www.mottodistribution.com

www.mfa.fi

www.helsinkidesignweek.com

 

OK Talk: Helsinki/London

Posted in Theory on July 25th, 2011
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OK Talk: Helsinki/London

OK Talk brings together designers, artists and theorists operating in Finland and Britain to talk about emerging questions in design philosophy and strategic design. The series of events started at Helsinki Design Week on September 4.

Topics:

Making Places

Making Places takes a fresh view on spatial practice. It studies both existing and imaginary places, looking at their creation, evolution and essence. The speakers for the two Making Places talks, one in Helsinki and another one in London, range from architects that build, design systems or make music to researchers and designers who create places through cultural activities or visual identities. Using Helsinki and London as starting points, we will encourage the discussion to revolve freely around placemaking in relation to day and night, the natural and the human-made, infrastructure and spirit of spaces, cities and citizens, or planning and spontaneity.

Strategies of Participation

Strategies of Participation explores the design of encounters, interactions and collaborations. Having used tools and methods such as intuition, friends, different media, travelling, coffee and the paper that you are holding in making OK Talk, we are keen on learning new ways to design participation. The panelists include creative professionals in the fields of interaction design and cultural production specialised in events, online platforms or exhibitions. They are invited to share their skills and insights on creating constructive collisions between people.

Borderlands

Borderlands explores the crossing of boundaries between design, art and other fields with an emphasis on collaborative practices. The idea of this talk is to look at the role of the designer in the increasingly interconnected world where we see the ambiguity of professional identity, often connected with varied locations, people and modes of practice, as an asset. What can working in between disciplines offer for creative professionals and the world at large? How are design processes changing? The speakers will tackle these questions through their backgrounds that vary from architecture and music to critical and experimental design, publishing and curating.

Contributors:

Bryan Boyer, Hanna Harris, Amanda Levete, Shohei Shigematsu, Nene Tsuboi, Åbäke, Nene Tsuboi, Sarah Ichioka, Teemu Suviala, Tuomas Toivonen, Finn Williams, Celine Condorelli, Ulla-Maaria Engeström, HyperMarketo, Karen Mirza, Suvi Saloniemi, Revital Cohen, Martti Kalliala, Zak Kyes, Max Lamb, Designer, Aamu Song

D 20€

Buy

Available for distribution

Science Poems by OK Do

Posted in Exhibition catalogue, graphic design, Motto Berlin store, poetry on November 1st, 2010
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Science Poems By: Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela from OK Do.

Following the traditional mindset of science fiction, OK Do’s Science Poems project explores the poetry and multi-sensorial aesthetics of science rather than its functionality and logic. This summer, on June 4–6, 2010, it brought together a group of designers and artists for an exhibition at 0fr gallery and bookstore. The weekend also saw the launch of the Science Poems book which explores the topic through images and texts by us and the people around us. The book and the exhibition are now travelling around the world – the latest Science Poems party took place in Helsinki on July 10 at Napa Gallery.

D 25 €

Buy: orders@mottodistribution
Available for Distribution