Author Archives: joonas siren

About joonas siren

Joonas Siren (b.1983, lives/works in Helsinki, Finland) multidisciplinary artist working mostly with the digital medium, installations and programmed art works.

Envelope Festival

I will be doing a live AV streaming concert next Saturday 8th of October at 22:00 GMT+3 (21 in Berlin, 20 London, 15 New York, 12 Seattle) on my Twitch channel https://twitch.tv/ffforces as part of pan-Baltic/Nordic Envelope Festival!

The theme for the performance will be MIDI as I will be using the SuperCollider programming language for generating multiple different note and control change streams (+ a MIDI saxophone!) into all my different hardware synthesizers plus to about a dozen of different VSTs. For me, it will be an attempt to control the digital chaos and somehow try to gear the note generating programs towards interesting and suprising results.

Tune in!::)

SHAPE+!!!

I’m super happy to announce that in July 2022 I was selected to be one of the artist of SHAPE+ platform for the next year (July22-July23, as Forces)! I’m actually travelling next Sunday-Monday to Prague to introduce myself to the network and meet the other artists + festival members, excited! I don’t know yet what other things this year will be bring but looking very forward for it.

Here is my SHAPE+ page:
https://shapeplatform.eu/artist/forces/

If you are unfamiliar of SHAPE+ here is a short introduction:

SHAPE+ is a new European platform for innovative music and audiovisual art co-financed by the Creative Europe programme. Running for the next three years, SHAPE+ will foster exceptional emerging talent, connecting them to local communities and audiences through collaborative residencies with multiple artistic outcomes, commissioned artworks, as well as one-off presentations and performances. Combining an open call and a curatorial selection, the platform members will select a roster of artists to support each year.

SHAPE+ initially consists of 13 partners in 13 countries with plans for further expansion, while adopting an interdisciplinary approach and committing to social and environmental awareness.
SHAPE+ builds upon the previous SHAPE platform, which from 2015 to 2022 supported 336 emerging European artists and presented their work at festivals, events and venues in numerous countries across Europe and beyond.

SHAPE+ is a three-year initiative, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.

‘Inertia’ album released!

My new Forces album is released! It’s called ‘Inertia’ and it’s 12 algorithmic SuperCollider drum machine jams, quite gabber influenced, but I also wanted to create quite unstable atmosphere with the help of the live-coding techniques.

Hope u like it!

::

IM097 – Forces – Inertia
by Forces

1. Algorithmic Governance 05:05
2. Chaosmosis 05:19
3. Ocean Falls 03:21
4. Morphogenesis 05:20
5. Swarm 04:35
6. Zamenhof 03:33
7. Futurability 04:32
8. Sad Passions 05:04
9. Statistikon 03:34
10. Soul at Work 05:32
11. Spiritual Automata 05:28
12. Horizon of Possibility 04:22

Infinite Machine is happy to welcome Finnish interdisciplinary artist, Forces, to the IM family with the release of Inertia, Joonas Siren’s fifth album since he began putting out music in 2018. With previous cosigns from Aphex Twin, Zuli & Daniel Ruane, Forces is known for creating sharp digital textures and ever-surprising rhythmic structures using live coding software such as SuperCollider and TidalCycles.

With a background in fine art, Forces is never one to shy away from conceptual thinking about his output and this album is no different. Engaging with the work of theorist Franco Berardi (particularly recent book ‘Futurability’), Inertia tries to soundtrack the political malaise of the last few decades and the growing sense of powerlessness and inability to avoid the many crises generated by the structures of capital.

Forces opens up proceedings with ‘Algorithmic Governance’, where doom-laden bass drones pulse and groan over erratic drum hits which play in alien time signatures, outside of the realm of full, human comprehension. The algorithmic control of the track’s title could refer to Franco Berardi’s interest in social media, a force which simplifies and monetises social communication, or it could refer to his approach to co-creation with his software of choice. With many compositions, Forces sets up rules or parameters in his code but allows elements of randomisation and evolution, inviting SuperCollider’s algorithm to become a co-author alongside him.

‘Morphogenesis’ begins life as a straight-forward, hard techno composition but things are not as simple as they may first seem. Over its 5 minute duration, the stable 4/4 beat seems to collapse in on itself, potentially nodding to the mood of our current socio-economic moment. This is followed up by the formidable ‘Swarm’, a masterclass in algorythmic synthesis that’ll slice your brain in half on first listen. A stuttering of buzz saw-styled synth tones sweep, stretch and pitch bend themselves in ways that would be almost impossible to achieve within a classic DAW.

Named after the Berardi book that inspired Forces, ‘Futurability’ takes things in a slightly softer direction. Reminiscent of early Tim Hecker releases (with an added cybernetic edge), ‘Futurability’ has a sedative yet uneasy tone to it, as if the song is reflecting the dual sense of concern that things should change in society but our helplessness to actually change them, especially in the ecological or economic arena.

A tale of two halves, ‘Soul at Work’ starts out as a blissfully serene piece of what you could describe as code-based shoegaze which is then chewed up and spat out by algorithmic distortion and disorientating glitches from the midway point onwards.

Forces ends Inertia on a more hopeful note with the David Graeber-sampling ‘Horizon of Possibility’. Unlike ‘Soul at Work’, the lush drone work is left intact on this arrangement – maybe signaling the potential existence of different structures that are more positive and robust for all.

With Inertia, Forces pushes his singular musical style even further, to more hyperbolic and emotive heights. Embracing the eccentric randomness of the SuperCollider software and working in concepts from contemporary theorists, this album is a mediation on the current moment created alongside technology that also feels hyper-relevant to today.

credits

released July 1, 2022

Artwork by Forces
Mastered by Fausto Mercier

Chaosmosis

I have a new web project out called Chaosmosis!

https://chaosmos.is

It’s also a single from my upcoming record ‘Inertia’ on Mexico City based  label Infinite Machine. You can also just check it in SoundCloud.

The animation of Chaosmosis is produced by JavaScript code, especially a library called Three.js which is meant to handle 3D models. So all the movement (camera and the models) is produced by code calculations, which is pretty wild for me, as I’m more accustomed to be working on Blender and GUI way of working with models.

Here is what I wrote on IG about the whole thing:

“The generative animation is programmed with Three.js library and with two different 3D models of Russian shipwrecks sunken in the Gulf of Finland in the 18th century. The Finnish Maritime Museum generously published those models online for free of use.

The whole album is inspired by the philosopher Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi’s ‘Futurability’ book and the way it deals with the systematic failure of Neo Liberal Capitalism and the current inability to resist it.

The ‘Chaosmosis’ webpage project is a poetic rendering of the failing structures of current hegemony. The sunken and destroyed imperialistic war and cargo ships of the Russian empire has of course political connotations of this current moment, but they can also be seen as more abstract remnants of the past. Disappearing and rotten forms.”

At EMS residency && first single released from the upcoming new Forces album!

Hello all, couple of new news. Writing this from Stockholm where I have moved for six weeks. I was incredible lucky and got a residency in the Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm or EMS as it’s better known. I’m here working every day on pretty varied different synthesis topics. Lately I have been doing some pretty basic (but still indepth for me) signal processing techniques learning like frequency modulation and ring modulation in SuperCollider, but with all kinds of weird signal inputs and lots of modulation sources. Also besided the Buchla and Serge modulars that the studio is most well-known of there is plenty of interesting other modules and synths to try out. Lately I have had super fun with a weird 90’s FM synthesis module EVS-1 from Evolution Synthesis, which is a pretty unknown manufacturer who only made this one module. It’s a multitimbral FM module and it’s super fun to use with SuperCollider and sending random MIDI channels to different presets and see what comes out of. It’s pretty different maybe than to my previous Forces output but still super fun to use to make weird plinkety-plonk sound.

Here is my EMS article about my residency period: https://www.elektronmusikstudion.se/composers/2022/1234-joonas-siren-ncp-artist-in-residence-ems-23-may-1-july-2023

Other news: there will be soon a new Forces album! It’s called Inertia and it’s released by the Mexico City based label Infinite Machine and the first single is already out on IM’s SoundCloud. You can hear it below.

SOLA festival 2022

I was part of a team (or actually an association) organizing the yearly festival SOLA, festival for experimental music/film. Because of Covid there was a break for two years, but we succesfully had the festival again on 13th and 14th of May 2022 in WHS Teatteri Union. I think the festival went super well and I feel that it was our best yet. Happy to continue curating/organizing it in the future as well!

Festival webpage: www.solafestival.fi

Photos by Moona Pennanen

Tomutonttu aka Jan Anderzén

Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen

Pakasteet (Mika Taanila & Jussi Lehtisalo) + Ilpo Väisänen

Minna Koskenlahti

Maarja Nuut

Film of Sandra Lahire

Fågelbörs

 

EVOL, Keiska, game cafe, Olmi, Forces & ang3l_sp1der, Värvöttäjä at Free Art Space

I’m excited to announce that me and Olli Aarni decided to organize a concert for the one and only EVOL from Barcelona. #computermusichooligans4lyfe!

Olli will play a special duo set with noise legend Tommi Keränen as Olmi and I will play together with Miša Skalskis aka ang3l_sp1der so some SuperCollider magic is going to be excpected. Our set will be probably quite freeform but hopefully we can make it intresting 🙂

Here is the whole lineup

https://www.facebook.com/events/4845776435530042/

EVOL (BCN)
http://vivapunani.org/

Keiska
https://soundcloud.com/keiska

game cafe
https://soundcloud.com/game_cafe

Olmi
https://olliaarni.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/tommi-keranen

Forces & ang3l_sp1der
https://soundcloud.com/forces-music
https://soundcloud.com/ang3l_sp1der

Värvöttäjä
https://soundcloud.com/varvottaja

Vapaan taiteen tila (Vilhovuorenkuja 15)
5€ (free for Uniarts students)

17:00—22:00

Sound system by Tatu Nenonen

*strobo warning for epileptics during EVOL set*

orchaedia spawn //// +++ nokturno

i’m happy announce a livestreaming event called orchaedia spawn next saturday at www.twitch.tv/orchaediaspawn sunday 30th of january 18.00-22.00 (gmt+2)

function start (){
let load = this.loader.app.load
load.OS_v017b
void(null).start //type: www.twitch.tv/orchaediaspawn
lineup()
}
//
//
function lineup(){
///
18.00 (gmt+2)
Harold Hejazi: Adventures of Harriharri Episode II. (film, 56min+ introduction from Harriharri)
//
19.10 (gmt+2)
Jeremy Couillard & Forces present ESCAPE FROM LAVENDER CITY ISLAND ___ (live game / sound)
//
20.00 (gmt+2)
Jacqouline Delacroix & Alien Child *LIVE AV
///
21.00 (gmt+2)
M (LIVE)
}
begin.descent;

orchaedia spawn is an evening of experimental av works, mostly live and mostly video game related works. initally this was planned as a physical evening but event restrictions made us to do on twitch. it should be loads of fun still!
more info in the facebook event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/664303894760266

***

other news, me & milka luhtaniemi published a new online kinetic poetry work called “kesken kaikista paikoista” that was published in the nokturno.fi digital and experimental poetry platform. more info about it here: www.joonassiren.fi/kesken-kaikista-paikoista

Forces gig at Corsica Studios!


.

I’m very excited to announce that I will play (as Forces ) my first UK show ever in Corsica Studios London on Wednedsday 17th of November, so little under two weeks (here is the FB event)!

I will play there together with Aho Ssan and Ana Fosca. After our live sets Ozel Ab will be dj-ing the rest of the night.

I was approached by the art organization Iklectik that I wasn’t familiar before, but who seem to be super awesome non-profit dedicated to the experimental arts. From their website u can check that there is plenty of cool upcoming stuff like a eurorack synth workshop Ewa Justka and a concerts by Philip Jeck and Astrid Sonne!

Long time ago, I have actually visited Corsica. In 2008 I went to Supersonic festival in Birmingham with my s/o of that time and during our trip back we stayed in London and went to see Parts And Labor play in Corsica. It’s pretty amusing that I haven’t been in London (or UK) since and now I’m coming back and actually playing in there!

I know that the soundsystem should be topnotch there so I probably play my more beat-heavy from all my released records!

Hope to see a lot of people there!

Compilation trax and news

Hey all. Summer is over and I’m gearing up for new things. I have again released couple of new compilation tracks as Forces.

The first one is called “Anti-Apophenia” on a Chilean label Hibridanita. The compilation is called “AURAL COOPERATIV”. Apophenia is a psychological condition where you make connections between unrelated things. It has often been linked to different compulsive conspiracy theorists, but I was thinking that the mental state where u deny the excistence of climate change against the massive amounts of data, could be seen as a reverse apophenia, an anti-apophenia of sorts. You can listen the track below!

The second track is called “Dandelion” on a Tokyo based label Mizuha 罔象 on a compilation “Biosphere”. No spesific meaning to this track name, but I have been thinking to make an installation based on the resilience of dandelions, which I feel are almost like the rats of the plant world. At least in Helsinki they seems to grow pretty much everywhere! Again track below:

I also just updated the website. Now on the works page there is mine and Milka Luhtaniemi’s recent joint exhibition Toinen laji, which was presented in Forum Box July-August 2021.

I have some upcoming Forces gigs as well. The first one will be 15th of October at Asbestos Art Space, an event called Slumber Party! No event link yet, but stay tuned on my Forces FB profile or Twitter.

The second one will be in Turku, a child-friendly concert called Muskari! The event will be in Kutomo couple days later from the slumber party, on 17th of October. I still have no idea how can I try to approach more child friendly music, but I guess I’ll make some wonky melodies with different random SuperCollider midi thingys and gentle clouds of grains :).

Final thing, during August I had my first physical gig since Paris gig last year in January in Kauttua middle Finland of all places. Kauttua is pretty small village but one of my closest friend Eero Pulkkinen moved there last year and organized a festival called Hunajanjyvä with Sadet Hirsimäki. It was super fun to play there so I ended up going there also there couple of times more just to see the other gigs presented there during August. The festival was livestreamed on YouTube and u can watch my gig from below:

JS

Ps. I’m working on new records that I hope to share the news soon. <3

Toinen laji – new exhibition with Milka Luhtaniemi at Forum Box gallery!

 

I’m super excited to announce that my new joint exhibition with Milka Luhtaniemi is finally going to open tomorrow (Thursday 22th of July, -21, 16-19, BYOB!) at the Forum Box gallery. The exhibition is called Toinen laji/ Different Species and it will run until the 15th of August. We have been working with the material almost 2.5 years so it feels super good to finally to get it finalized and out in to the world!

Here is the exhibition text and I hope to see many familiar faces at the opening (again Thu 22.7. 16-19!).

MILKA LUHTANIEMI & JOONAS SIREN – TOINEN LAJI

Different species is a spatial poem and a digital video installation. The installation consists of poetic fragments – written by Luhtaniemi and composed by a programming language – shown on LCD screens. The poems composed by programs are generated into chance compositions and generate visual and kinetic poetry on the screens.

Different species refers to the question of whether some other way of being a human could be perceived behind, in place of, or between the human parts. The fragmentary and emergent poetics of the work map out this possibility of different ways of being.

The text moving by means of a kinetic poem is programmed into 2D and 3D environments, allowing the textual movement to appear in two different ways. One location in the work is the sea and an archipelago: water, landscape and sun are programmed into digital space. The installation also includes a printed publication of poetry, and the exhibition visitors are welcome to read it while watching the video.

The spatial nature of the work includes a sound installation utilising a so-called soundshower speaker. Ultrasonic technology allows sound to be heard very subtly only at a specific point in the room.

The work is Siren’s and Luhtaniemi’s third collaboration and first joint exhibition. Previous joint works are the performances BLÄNK (2017) and OFF (2018). The completion of the work has been supported by Arts Promotion Centre.

Milka Luhtaniemi (1992) is an interdisciplinary performance maker, dramaturg and poet living in Helsinki. She graduated as a performance dramaturg from the Theatre Academy in 2020. She has made performances at Mad House Helsinki, Tiivistämö, Exhibition Laboratory, Third Space, B-Galleria and Oksasenkatu 11. Her poetry has been displayed at Exhibition Laboratory and Nokturno.fi webpage which focuses on digital poetry.

Luhtaniemi’s book Kirnu was published in February 2021 (Gummerus) and she combines her literary thinking to her other artistic work.

Joonas Siren (1983) is a sound and media artist from Helsinki. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with a master’s degree in visual arts in 2013 and from the Nordic Sound Art master’s program in 2012. His most important projects and exhibitions include the following: Nordic Sound Art – Master student’s exhibition at Roskilde Museum of Contemporary Art 2012, Kuvan kevät 2013, Jussi Koitela’s Skills of Economy project at Kiasma 2016, OFF performace-installation at Tiivistämö 2018 (in collaboration with Milka Luhtaniemi, Nicolina Stylianou and Elena Rekola) and a private exhibition Softbed at Kosminen galleria 2019. He also makes electronic computer music by the name of Forces, and has released numerous albums and remixes through various international electronic music labels.

www.milkaluhtaniemi.com
www.joonassiren.fi
www.instagram.com/milkeniemi
www.instagram.com/fffforces

The Olive Tree & Dorsal

I have two new compilation tracks on two very diffent projects as Forces.

The first one is called The Olive Tree which was released on a charity compilation called Persimmons From Palestine release on the Finnish label World Canvas. All the proceeds of the compilation will be donated to MECA (Middle East Children’s Alliance)

U can listen the track from the embed below:

The other one is a cool video album by the artist Sarah GHP. Sarah released an album of videos called Pleco on the Berlin based Conditional records. Different artists were asked to provide the sounds for the videos and I made the sounds for a video called ‘Dorsal’. U can also watch it below!

Mycorrhizal Network

I’m super happy to announce that I’m a member of a new network of artist who work in game-adjacent mediums called: Mycorrhizal Network. We have been bonding over a spesific Discord channel and the plan is to build a sort of an alliance or network, as we are all interested in the artform of, for a lack of better term, “games” and maybe build different kinds of co-operations in the future. Our first venture is a Itch.io bundle called: Mycorrhizal Network Bundle: Solid

https://itch.io/b/880/mycorrhizal-network-bundle-solid

which is a collection of 9 different works that could be called games. My Juha The Unemployed is released officially part of it.

Maybe some words about Juha The Unemployed. It’s a game where you have to guide the former prime minister of Finland Juha Sipilä to the unemployement office, after he unfortunately got fired from the Finnish parliament. The whole project started as a joke, as I found out an incredibly janky RPG maker called Maker4D that I wanted to try out. Also people outside from Finland probably don’t know the fact that Juha Sipilä was responsible for a new draconian unemployement law called “activity model” that punished unemployed folks, if they weren’t “active” enough. This was an ultra bullshit law that resulted cuts to your unemployement benefit, if you couldn’t prove that you were “active” enough for looking for jobs. This was my main reasons to make a game that you had to guide “Juha” himself to the unemployement office.

Sadly the game is only available for Win, Linux and Android but I hope people have some laughs playing it! Here is an old IG clip of it, but I have already updated it after I posted that: https://vimeo.com/508502524.

Last but not least, I want to mention that I updated my site to include new friends section https://joonassiren.fi/friends/. This is an oldschool Webring for all the cuties included in the Mycorrhizal Network!

XquisiteForce AV gang at CTM Festival 2021!

 

I’m very happy to announce that I’m (as Forces) part of SFX labels XquisiteForce AV exhibition with 42 other artists in CTM Festival’s virtual platform Cyberia. There is a slight delay and you should be able to reach the Cyberia interface in couple for days, probably at 23rd of January.

Here is the festival text:

“»XquisiteForce.AV« is a collaborative audiovisual piece, a record of artistic expressions and conversations curated and produced by Alessandra Leone and Zoë Mc Pherson, who together form SFX. The project is addressed to adventurous video and sound artists, with the aim to foster synergetic thinking and making.

The »exquisite corpse« (cadavre exquis) is a surrealist method/technique created in the 1920s by which words and images are collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, having only seen the end of the previous contribution. »Xquisite Force« borrows from the surrealists’ semi-blind and sequential method and asks participants to create sound or video in response to the final fragment of a previous work.

Within CTM Cyberia, this ongoing project features contributions from 43 contributors:

Aho Ssan, A-li-ce, Aylu, Ainissa V, Bonebrokk, Alessandra Leone, Dali de Saint-Paul, Analucia Roeder, Désir d’enfant, Bora, ELLLL, Constant Fernandez, Flore, Geso, Forces, h5io6i54k, Glass, iamunnatural, Gramrcy, Kevin Karanja, Holy Similaun, light.synth, Hulubalang, LUXMEADUX, Jellvako, Malo Lacroix, John Object, Michael Mesiats, Kaltès, Moonth.AV, Katie Gately, Nick Teeple, KMRU, oxoo, Luke Lund,Patrick Defasten, Simon Grab, Petra Hermanova, Tadleeh, Pierce Warnecke, Ziúr, Pierre Tardif, Zoë Mc Pherson, Sam Wiehl, ZULI, Serena Stucke, Software2050, Soyun Park (RGBdog), Testu Collective”

Peramen! A Compilation for Belarus

A new charity compilation is out called ‘Peramen! A Compilation for Belarus”. All the funds from the compilationg goes to #BY_help an independent grassroot organization that helps the victims of repression. From their website: “Since June 2020, #BY_help fundraises money to provide help to victims of repressions during the 2020 presidential election campaign: compensation of fines, medical expenses, legal support. ”

Full compilation here and more info about the project:
https://radiokapital.bandcamp.com/releases

I have a new Forces track on the compilation called “Strength In Number”, which you can listen from the BandCamp link above or from SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/forces-music/strength-in-numbers

——

Other news, I have updated this website to include two my most recent works from this year: Untitled with Helmi Kajaste exhibited in Oksasenkatu 11 gallery June 2020 and Anti-Blashemia exhibited in Nastola‘s summer exhibition July-August 2020.

New Forces digital album / cassette tape ‘Epoch’ released on Gin & Platonic!

Hi, very strange times we’re living during Coronavirus. But some things goes on as normal, as was the release of my new album (digi/cassette) called ‘Epoch’ as Forces that me and Czech record label Gin & Platonic had scheduled months before. The albums maps out my personal and global struggles of last year, when I made it but I think it’s applicable to this year as well, as we clearly can see now. I wrote liner notes about the record about two months ago, when the virus was yet to hit Europe, but yea it’s pretty fitting to this situation as well.

Hope everyone stays safe!

https://ginandplatonic.bandcamp.com/album/epoch

Forces – Epoch (G&P012)

“This is the epoch of uncertainties; of shifting and unreliable narratives, of rising temperatures and sea levels, of growing economic inequality, of increasing political polarization and far-right influence.

’Epoch’ is a testament of these disintegrating processes. It is also a narrative of my own struggles. The album was made during 2019, when I felt that my mental health was unraveling; panic attacks, anxiety and somatic pains left me almost paralyzed before I got some professional help.

My personal troubles can be seen as an indicator of the general political, ecological and social problems. There are many new studies, how the looming possibility of climate catastrophe is causing anxiety and mental health issues.

Besides the disastrous effects on climate change, late capitalism is also causing problems on a societal level. The job and social security is poor, especially for younger generations, which in turn generates even more distress, alienation and mental instability.

How to remain hopeful in this situation? Rather than reverting to abandoned nihilism, I believe in the force of grassroots activism. Not everybody has to be like Greta Thunberg, but her actions can be seen as an illustrious example, how you can actual make a difference.

The album maps out all these topical ideas sonically. Collapsing sound material, unsteady temporal structures, noise and distortion build up intensities without catharsis. The tracks are made with different live programming techniques, peculiar time-stretching and layering techniques and other VST and FX’s dysfunctions.

Within the mournful aural chaos, there is a potentiality for change.”

– Forces aka Joonas Siren

Released by Gin & Platonic March 22, 2020

Produced by Forces
soundcloud.com/forces-music

Mastered by Wim Dehaen
soundcloud.com/wimdehaen

Artwork by Jiri Macku
jirimacku.tumblr.com