Imagine it is summer.
Imagine 500 thoughtful, but satisfied people all around you.
Imagine Finnish summerbreeze is petting your pretty face.
Imagine the perfect workshop, where you are having stretching yoga every morning, smoking cigarres, lighting candles, getting to know people, getting into intimate situations with buildings, sharing food, peeling snails, tasting Finnish moonshine, giving hand to old people at a side of a road, chasing ghosts, being offensive to digital mind, talking to children, letting emos get a haircut, dancing with fishes, shouting famous quotes, climbing trees in a bathing suit, collecting pebbles, hugging something ephemeral, activating sleepers, diving into something unknown, dressing like in a fairy tale, dressing like a yellow telephone, pop the space bubble, getting photographed on a boat, listening to animals, establish a honeycomb, allow to love grey, rocking a repaired chair, breathing invisible air, having know-how instead of tournament, kissing a colour, witnessing Guzmo is whispering, thinking about propellors, chilling, just chilling, writing an important sentence – naked, painting clouds, sitting and watching people, sleeping in a warm place, moving elegantly to Finnish folk music, finding your sushi, getting annoyed by an artificial voice, just doing it, stopping a fight, jumping over an animal, seeing the sun rise after turning around, transporting chickens for lions, switching jobs for one day or walking on mayonnaise.
In aesthetical theory (since the enlightenment) the body is used to be seen as the instrument the mind uses to perceive the world and to get the sensual input to be processed and reflected by our mentality. According to the relatively young aesthetical discipline Somaesthetics the body with all it’s abilities is way more important for experiencing the world – it’s not just a machine but in fact not to be separated from the mind, the dualism of body and mind is what we want to get rid of. Somaesthetics provides new methods of generating awareness of physical existence as well as interactions. With this techniques we get able to listen to the whispering of our built objects. For our workshop we want to use this way of thinking to examine the role of the body in architectural discourse and the perception of space in general.
We take this philosophical foundation combined with the well known methods of psychogeography by the International Situationists and proxemics theory from E.T. Hall to make investigations on how this particular site (Suvilahti) can be experienced. Wastelands become our wonderlands. Extending or restricting certain senses, for instance, can be a way of mapping the given landscape. Spontaneous actions will be a tool to evoke creativity and motivation. In two weeks we want to try out a broad range of different approaches to create a bodily centered image of the surrounding space. For this reason we already contacted the Finnish Society for Aesthetics which also has it’s main focus on Somaesthetics philosophy in March. Our contact person there is PhD cand. Petteri Kummala, who is curator at the Museum of Finnish Architecture and very interested in a cooperation. The fact that an abandoned industrial area is home and object of our examination opens an enormous field of possibilities to deal with space inside a city.
Another important part in our concept is to involve the public and to get the view of the citizens of Helsinki on the area of Suvilahti to encourage them to fill their life with this place and to take part in filling this place with life. This interaction should lead to a sustaining estimation of this more and more cultural charged part of the city.
Providing the skills and the framework for a playful discovery of the place and the unconventional documentation of the spatial conditions therefore are the core intentions of this workshop.
Since our workshop is very conceptional we don’t want to define a specific outcome, we rather want to discuss potential results with the participants. But we do have some goals on different levels. First of all we want to create awareness of the place, both participants and Helsinki residents will see Suvilahti with different eyes, develop a conscious for the immanent change and discover it’s potential. We want to practice spatial acupuncture. In the end there will be a somatic analysis of the site and it’s urban surroundings.
How did we begin?
Movements workshop
Wastelands EASA 2012
Tutors: Zsófia Paczolay (HU), Zsófia Szőke (HU), Patrick Jaritz (AT), Ana Perković (HR)
Guides: Gesa Piper (DE), Judit Kéri (HU), Adrienne Bádos (HU), Mia Pajunen (FI)
Participants: Alessandro Bosshard (CH), Taja Dezman (SI), Carola Heras (ES), Lukas Hüsser (CH), Tamara Kopaliani (GE), Kristina Potkonjak (RS), Borya Shapshalova (BG), Tina Tam (AU), Gola Zumbulidze (GE)