What comes to your mind when thinking about the sounds in Helsinki? Trams, seagulls, the wind… 4’33″ by John Cage? Helsinki is quite minimal in its sounds – a quality that makes it special but also reflects what’s not happening in the city, leaving you longing for more variety, volume and spontaneous noise. On the occasion of We Are Helsinki magazine‘s music issue, we thought about redesigning Helsinki from a sonic point of view. …(more)

Napa Books invited us to have a Helsinki book launch at their gallery on July 10. We put up a miniature version of the Science Poems exhibition first launched in Paris in June and had a book party. Kiitos Napa! In August, Science Poems will go to Berlin. …(more)

This is a mini catalogue of OK Do’s Science Poems exhibition, launched at the 0fr gallery, Paris, in June 2010. The exhibition will travel around the world in the form of the Science Poems book and small-scale displays. Welcome to our next Science Poems party in Helsinki on July 10 from 6 pm onwards at Napa Gallery (Eerikinkatu 18)!

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What is the relationship between human and celestial bodies, planets, stars and such? Are our characters tied to constellations, and fates linked to falling stars?

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The principles of quantum mechanics, the study of energy and matter on the subatomic scales, are difficult for the human mind to understand. We are accustomed to reasoning the world on a scale where classical physics is an adequate approximation. But quantum physicists deal with nature in a counter-intuitive way; taking it as absurd as it is, and being concerned with multiple realities. I think I know what they’re talking about, because I have seen glimpses of parallel universes, within the ordinary, stretching my concepts of time and space. …(more)

Having been asked to edit a publication (more information to follow soon) about young Finnish and Chinese views to architecture and placemaking, OK Do spent a week of March in Shanghai. The idea was not only to meet up with local architects and designers but also to take notes on Chinese ways of approaching life (and food). The photos for this story are taken with Qingdao, a local pocket camera from 1989 picked up on the way. …(more)

OK Do met Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, both designers and Royal College of Art (RCA) professors, to talk about their work at the intersection of design, art and science. We also asked them to name the 3 most interesting areas or concepts in which design and science meet. Dunne & Raby’s 1–3 list links to our forthcoming Science Poems exhibition and publication. …(more)

OK Do met Marc-Olivier Wahler, the director and curator of Palais de Tokyo, to talk about his recent exhibition trilogy in the intersection of science and imagination, and about practices of curating and interpretation. We also asked him to name the 3 most interesting areas or concepts in which art and science meet. Wahler’s 1–3 list links to our forthcoming Science Poems exhibition and publication. …(more)

OK Do met with chef Jouni Toivanen from the Helsinki-based Michelin star restaurant Luomo for a cooking lesson in molecular gastronomy. We prepared green tea ice cream. …(more)

The Science Poems mix sets out to explore the sound of science and the science of sound. The playlist ranges from sonic experiments and musical inventions to sounds and music deriving from science. But while science can be described as a systematic knowledge-base or a prescriptive practice, best sounds don’t usually make any sense. So listen, let dopamine set the mood and get lost in science. …(more)