Sleep Paralysis & PhD-studies

Next week I’ll have a new joint-exhibition called Sleep Paralysis with Tuukka Haapakorpi & Jukka Hautamäki at Myymälä2-gallery. We describe the theme as follows:

“Sleep​ ​paralysis​ ​is​ ​a​ ​condition​ ​where​ ​the​ ​mind​ ​is​ ​awake​ ​but​ ​the​ ​body​ ​is​ ​not.​ ​The​ ​experience​ ​is described​ ​as​ ​an​ ​oppressive​ ​feeling​ ​and​ ​a​ ​distortion​ ​of​ ​space.​ ​Often​ ​a​ ​strange​ ​entity​ ​is​ ​perceived occupying​ ​the​ ​space.​ ​Thinking​ ​is​ ​possible​ ​but​ ​action​ ​is​ ​not.​ ​The​ ​exhibition​ ​is​ ​based​ ​on​ ​sleep paralysis​ ​as​ ​an​ ​allegory​ ​to​ ​a​ ​dysfunctional​ ​political​ ​subjectivity,​ ​fueled​ ​by​ ​a​ ​paralysis​ ​of​ ​discourse.

Consisting​ ​of​ ​a​ ​series​ ​of​ ​spatial​ ​experimentations​ ​and​ ​abstraction​ ​as​ ​an​ ​instrument​ ​of​ ​substance, the​ ​artist​ ​group​ ​aims​ ​to​ ​produce​ ​a​ ​landscape​ ​governed​ ​by​ ​an​ ​immobility​ ​of​ ​language.”

The opening of the joint-exhibition is on Wednesday 18th of October, from 6 pm – 8 pm! The exhibition is ongoing from 19th of October until 12th of November. Opening hours of Myymälä 2 are Wed-Sat 12.00 p.m.-6.00 p.m., Sun 12.00 p.m.-5.00 p.m. Welcome!

In other news, this Fall I have started studying in a PhD-program (actually a D.A program) at Aalto ARTS University’s, Fine Art department’s Contemporary Art -study program. The title of my dissertation is: “Poetics of Sound. How can sound forms meanings in a contemporary art context?”. I will focus mainly on newer sound works from the past 10 years that somehow bypass the ephemeral nature of sound to form different kinds of meanings, discourses and contexts, perhaps not at first hearable in the aural material of the work itself. I am not interested researching old pioneers of which there is plenty of texts. Rather I’m interested researching new developments and continuing forming a critical theory of sound art. I’m mostly following the research lines opened up by Seth Kim-Cohen’s “In the Blink of an Ear” -book that was instrumental for me for acknowledging more critical attitude towards sound based art works.

I will start to post more regularly about the progress of my studies.