S t a t e m e n t s

this particular constellation of humans is organized in the context of learning in the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland where they are enrolled in the seminar net.culture facilitated by the tech-no-madic artist and educator, John Hopkins.

key topics of exploration this spring have included the evolution from product/project oriented thinking to practice-based creative action based in sustained dialogues. the direct connection from talking-the-talk to walking-the-walk. especially identifying internal and immediate sources for activity, as well as positioning the most local and intimate community as the matrix for such activity.

with a home-base located in Helsinki, Finland, a key urban center in the Baltic context, it seemed only logical that the class participate in this collaborative training program which will generate possibility. possibility for future dialogues on many scales and patterns rooted in direct human f2f dialogue. possibility of geographic alignments sourced in the Baltic Sea as a reference point.

there are often gaps between the pre-packaged categories that are used to frame and control social contexts. among the many such blank spaces, there is one that exists between academia and artistic praxis. although it is only abstract walls that separate, they have enough psychological presence to frequently obstruct productive dialogue. by overtly penetrating the walls of distorted social formation, new configurations of living become a possibility. not just the result of a pre-revolutionary action, but more the end result of deepening dialogues with an Other who has been out of reach, behind that wall.

it is our hope that the dialogues initiated in the context of the Training Program will lead to real transformation and change.