We started OK Do a little over a year ago to have a home for independent thinking and doing. Designers by background, we wanted to use our skills and methods in work that avoids traditional categories and disciplinary boundaries. The idea of stepping beyond the realm of design – to the borderlands of art and science – was the starting point of the Science Poems project, too. Natural science felt particularly fascinating for us as it deals with things physically present in our everyday lives yet often beyond our abilities to sense or conceptualise. Seeing design and art as good tools for asking questions and visualising the invisible, we set out to explore the field of natural science in a very subjective way, trying to understand it as well as find cross-disciplinary ways to talk about it.

A book and exhibition on the topic were launched in June 2010 at 0fr galerie in Paris, where we invited six designer and artist friends to present their ‘science poems’. Ranging from fashion exploring electromagnetic space to a musical composition derived from DNA base pairs, each exhibition piece dealt with a particular field of natural science: astronomy, biology, chemistry, earth sciences, physics or cross-disciplines. The book features presentations of the works in the exhibition, discussions with some of our favourite science poets, articles about subjects such as parallel universes or spiritual science as well as various other experimental science writings and images. Edited by us, it is designed by Åh, the London-based studio we have worked in close collaboration with since the beginning of our existence. Other contributors include friends with wild ideas about science.

Science Poems London presentation at Donlon Books / X Marks the Bökship.

After Paris, the Science Poems book travelled around the world together with small-scale displays. Coming from Napa Books in Helsinki and do you read me?! in Berlin, its last presentation was held in London at Donlon Books / X Marks the Bökship with a reading of ‘From Big Bang Machine (with love)’ science fiction short story by author Maria Candia. The story by the Helsinki-based novelist (also known as Megatron Braineater) presented the genesis of a man-made universe written for the book, while we served the guests a mixture of ammonium chloride, ethanol and water wearing chemist coats specially created for the drink lab by fashion designer K.I. Kinnunen. Made out of space blankets, the costumes reflected Kinnunen’s Science Poems exhibition piece, Faraday Suit, bridging techno-romanticism and retreat and exploring clothes as not only physical but also philosophical interfaces between the internal and external worlds.

Space blanket chemist coats by K.I. Kinnunen.

“Science Poems is a project that will never end.”

Science Poems is a project that will never end. Having taken part in the topical discourse around merging disciplines through artistic excursions to the field of natural science, playing with human perceptions of reality, in the future we would like to join our forces with scientists in practice. We will continue the discussion about science with a mathematician and a Waldorf psychologist at the Applied Freedom symposium and exhibition by the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design on 26 January, 2011. More information to follow.

Science Poems London presentation at Donlon Books / X Marks the Bökship.

"Knowledge can improve one’s intuition. The goal is to not let either overpower."

Preparing for the ten-minute reading, the gallery visitors were asked to pick up a personally topical tweet from the printed archives of Maeda’s Twitter philosophy. Each tweet could only be picked once. I went for:

Twitter
Mon Jan 11 11:26:22 +0000 2010
Edu Knowledge can improve one’s intuition. The goal is to not let either overpower.

Subscribers to the reading were also encouraged to think of a question for the oracle. Considering Maeda’s reseach into the necessary role that artists and designers play in the 21st century creative economy, mine had to do with career advice.

Visiting Maeda in his (physical) sandbox upstairs of the gallery was an interesting experience. Somewhere between McKinsey Consulting on tour, self-help and Twitter of the real world, the event felt relevant and meaningful. Drawing in the sand of his box, Maeda talked about art and science, the loneliness of working on Skype, and the future of OK Do (based on a brief introduction). OK Do’s fortune cookie:

Live
Thu Nov 18 18:50 +0000 2010
”It’s good to write because people can read.”

Inflatables (1971) by Ant Farm in Volume magazine #24, 2010.

“It’s what I do that teaches me what I’m looking for.” – Pierre Soulages, 1953

1. Cultural introspection

Founded in San Francisco in 1968, Ant Farm was an architecture, graphic arts, and environmental design practice ahead of their time. The group described themselves “an art agency that promotes ideas that have no commercial potential, but which we think are important vehicles of cultural introspection”. Interested in movement and impermanence, Ant Farm were self-nominated commentators rather than actual practitioners of architecture. They mainly operated through the display of experimental artefacts. Yesterday, I witnessed a similar approach in 79.89.09 performance by Slavs and Tatars, “a faction of polemics and intimacies” with a narrative strategy to read the recent past, focusing on Eurasian culture.

2. Multisensorial arrangements

Indy Johar of strategy and design practice 00:/ presented an interesting take on spatial arrangements during his recent lecture at The Architecture Foundation in London. Talking about how architects should relearn their skills, he shared an example of a project where they used the programming of school bells to solve an issue of congestion in corridors as an alternative to redesigning the school interior. [Apropos, I just learned that some people work as “hushers” outside Japan clubs, making sure the sounds of performances or people entering and leaving the venues won’t cause disturbance on the streets.] Note to self: think the unthinkable, think multisensorial.

“There is no safety beyond being relevant now.” – Wolfgang Tillmans, 2010

Wolfgang Tillmans at Serpentine Gallery, 26 June - 19 September 2010. Photo courtesy of Gautier de Blonde.

3. Relevant now

Last week, photographer Wolfgang Tillmans talked about the time-bound art of turning a piece of paper into a highly charged and complex cultural object at Frieze Art Fair. With work varying from elaborate documentation of life around him to abstract chemical and material experiments – or from nightlife to still life – Tillmans’ motto is that no safety lies beyond being relevant now. For him, that is currently the observation of mundane, unfamiliar things such as motherhood and sports.

OK Do having BLESS candy tops for dinner.

The German title of the collection, ‘pleading for the present time’ says it: the BLESS state of mind is all about this very instant and the joy that comes along with being “present”. Celebrating the here and now, Désirée Heiss and Ines Kaag focused on food and different ways of having it in their Spring/Summer 2011 designs. The collection aimed to redefine the co-existence between nutrition and clothing, and proposed modifications to eating habits through, for example, new ways of sharing food among friends. It included not only edible garments, or jewellery that could be used as tableware, but also S/M/L trousers that adapt to changes in the body, being able to grow or shrink according to fluctuations in one’s size.

The presentation took place in an old church turned into a home in the heart of Bastille. In the manner of an installation, the models – friends of BLESS – were placed in different, open rooms and given various tasks to perform around food and drinks: some served champagne from a pyramid built as a piece of architecture in corner of the hall, others compiled Bloody Marys in the kitchen or took popcorn baths in the bathroom, while we were placed in the teenagers’ room with Japanese shoe designer Masahiro Kikutani and asked to wear gummy lace and liquorice tops which we were to eat during the show. Style-free and gender-free, as characteristic to the label, we wore classic multicoloured BLESS pieces underneath the candy topping.

Champagne wall and jewelled food.

From our point of view, the evening was a sweet and sticky human experiment. Having been confined to our room during the presentation – and given the instructions “just to entertain ourselves” while there – we projected our inner teen spirits onto the situation and tried to make the best out of what the environment had to offer by not only eating the garments but also talking, taking naps on the bed or playing Kraftwerk LPs on a record player found in the corner. Unaware of what was happening in the other rooms and somewhat at sea in front of the photographers who came to capture the event, we felt conscious about our activities and the fact of being observed. Our modelling took spontaneous turns from playing out the fashion fantasy to attempts of ignoring what was going on outside our room. In the end, it seems that the figment took over.

Popcorn bath.

- Better Dreams book project by Martti Kalliala, Jenna and Tuomas Toivonen
- Anni’s Master’s thesis about OK Do
- OK Talk book: design dialogues between Helsinki and London
- Science Poems London
- Supporting the champions in Punavuori, Helsinki through events with Kokoro & Moi
- A Stockholm event with Bygg
- Mr. Children
- Thinking about what OK Do will be in 2011

An overview of OK Talk and HEL YES! pop-up restaurant.

Making Places

The first event brought together six creative practitioners – Åbäke, design practice; Nene Tsuboi, designer and artist; Sarah Ichioka, director of Architecture Foundation; Teemu Suviala, co-founder of Kokoro & Moi; Tuomas Toivonen, musician and co-founder of NOW for Architecture and Urbanism and Finn Williams, urban planner and founder of Common Office – as well as an audience of fifty people.

Using different disciplines and projects, as well as the cities of London and Helsinki, as starting points, the discussion focused on the creation, evolution and essence of places. The panelists, having experience in making places through graphic identities, public saunas, events or urban planning, talked about utopian ideas and practical solutions, participatory spatial practices as well as the role and significance of localism and globalism, or planning and spontaneity, in their activities.

The gathering was complemented by Antto Melasniemi’s mushroom brunch, and it also included the London launch of Tuomas Toivonen’s Urbanism in the House album that continued on a boat ride in the canal, and was celebrated by listening to the record in the Islington Tunnel.

Nene Tsuboi, Benjamin Reichen, Sarah Ichioka, Teemu Suviala, Tuomas Toivonen, Finn Williams and Jenna Sutela.

Anni Puolakka, Nene Tsuboi, Benjamin Reichen and Sarah Ichioka.

Tuomas Toivonen and Finn Williams.

Teemu Suviala, Sarah Ichioka and Nene Tsuboi.

Antto Melasniemi, the chef of HEL YES!, and breakfast.

Urbanism in the House by Tuomas Toivonen.

Strategies of Participation

On Thursday 23rd, five speakers – Céline Condorelli, architect and founder of Support Structures; Ulla-Maaria Engeström, founder of Thinglink; HyperMarketo, communication platform; Karen Mirza, artist and founder of no.w.here and Suvi Saloniemi, curator at Kunsthalle Helsinki – and a small audience came together for a discussion about Strategies of Participation. Using tools such as an off-schedule (inspired by Brutally Early Club) and a potluck breakfast to which all the OK Talk visitors brought their favourite ingredients, we aimed to create an intimate atmosphere for sharing thoughts about encounters, interactions and collaborations.

The discussion evolved around topics such as spatial, cultural, psychological and communicative support for participation, self-production, online markets and communities as well as the concept of ‘non-participation’. Looking at strategies of participation from the perspectives of art, interaction design as well as cultural production of events and exhibitions, we also talked about the meaning of institutions, alternative cultures and friends in participatory projects.

The potluck breakfast, coordinated and cooked together by Antto Melasniemi, ended up including everything from fried British portobellos to Finnish crispbread.

Céline Condorelli, Ulla-Maaria Engeström, Jerome Rigaud, Karen Mirza, Suvi Saloniemi, Anni Puolakka and Jenna Sutela.

Céline Condorelli and Ulla-Maaria Engeström.

Jerome Rigaud, Karen Mirza and Suvi Saloniemi.

A potluck breakfast.

Audience at the OK Talk on Strategies of Participation.

Borderlands

The third OK Talk London dealt with the borderlands between different disciplines and featured five speakers – Revital Cohen, designer; Martti Kalliala, architect and one half of Renaissance Man; Zak Kyes, graphic designer and founder of Z.A.K.; Max Lamb, designer and Aamu Song, designer and founder of Company – and a record-breaking audience of nearly one hundred people.

The discussion revolved around the blurring of boundaries between design, art and other fields with an emphasis on collaborative practices. It explored the role and characteristics of a designer in an increasingly interconnected world where the ambiguity of professional identity, often connected with varied locations, people and modes of practice, was, in many ways, seen as an asset. The panelists also looked at the idea of designers creating their own economies, the culturally varying ideas of the concept of design (in Chinese, the word for design literally means ‘dream-shaping’) as well as the relationships between architecture and music, or design and science.

A salmon and potato breakfast was served by the HEL YES! restaurant.

Revital Cohen, Martti Kalliala, Zak Kyes, Max Lamb and Aamu Song.

Revital Cohen, Martti Kalliala and Zak Kyes.

Max Lamb and Aamu Song.

OK Talk London tabloid and a salmon and potato breakfast by HEL YES!.

Audience at the OK Talk on Borderlands.

OK Do thanks all the OK Talk participants, it was good!

According to Antto Melasniemi’s plan, instead of an entrance ticket, the participants were asked to bring a breakfast ingredient each. Tuula Pöyhönen’s home was a perfect backdrop for making breakfast and enjoying the discussion.

Taking a fresh view on spatial practice, the discussion looked at the creation, evolution and essence of places. Using Helsinki and London as starting points, it revolved freely around placemaking in relation to cities and citizens, planning and spontaneity, as well as infrastructure and spirit of spaces. It will be documented in a publication following the series of events in Helsinki and London.

Shohei Shigematsu and Nene Tsuboi

Hanna Harris, Amanda Levete, Shohei Shigematsu and Nene Tsuboi

Bryan Boyer

See you at OK Talk London on 18, 23 and 25 September at HEL YES!, Wenlock Road 1-3 as Part of London Design Festival! The OK Talk London tabloid will be out on Friday, 10 September.

Photos courtesy of Petri Henriksson.

Instead of presenting the Science Poems book from A to Z, we decided to do it through chemical substances and compounds from NH to OH in respect to NH4Cl + C2H5OH, the drink recipe of the evening.

NH4Cl + C2H5OH is a mix of Ammonium Chloride (NH4Cl), the building material of carbon black coloured Finnish candy called salmiakki [something most Finnish people remember making in their chemistry classes at school] and Hydroxyl-Carbon compound (C2H5OH) also known as alcohol.

Following this pattern, here’s a summary of the evening:

NH (Nitrogen + Hydrogen = Ammonium) stands for National Herbarium such as The Komarov Botanical Institute Herbarium in Russia, which hosts a collection of over seven million specimens of plants and fungi, many of them digitised in the institute’s virtual library from which Anna presented her selection.

Photo courtesy of Petri Henriksson.

Cl (Chloride) is for Celestial, or Céleste. Accordingly, Anni, in Paris at the moment, read mnemonics for remembering planet names on Skype. One of them went like this: Mon Vieux Tu M’as Jeté Sur Une Nouvelle Planète. However, as it was announced, the mnemonic was perhaps a little old-fashioned since Pluto was recently deemed not a planet at all. In 2006, The International Astronomical Union expelled it from the planetary club, calling it a dwarf planet not big enough to clear smaller bodies close to it.

Photo courtesy of Petri Henriksson.

C (Carbon) stands for Cargo cult science, a term coined by physicist Richard Feynman in the 1970s to negatively characterise research in the soft sciences (e.g. psychology and psychiatry) which he deemed pseudo-scientific. In addition to his science critique, Feynman is known for popularising the field of physics with accessible explanations. Inspired by his stories about a teeming nano-world for a 1983 BBC interview ‘Physics is Fun to Imagine’ as well as Yoko Ono’s proposal pieces for the artist’s book Grapefruit, Jenna presented her interpretations on Feynman’s thoughts as event scores to create an experience of science.

H (Hydrogen) is for Hollow sphere – particularly one composed entirely of carbon. We read about this sphere, buckminsterfullerene, from the glossary of the Science Poems book:

Buckminsterfullerene or buckyball (C60) is the smallest carbon molecule, fullerene, in which no two pentagons share an edge. It is also the most common in terms of natural occurrence, as it can often be found in soot. The structure of C60 is a truncated icosahedron, which resembles a soccer ball. The molecule was named by scientists after Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), an American architect, author and futurist. He developed numerous inventions, the best known of which is the geodesic dome shaped like a fullerene. The American sci-fi author Bruce Sterling (b. 1954) later coined the neologism buckyjunk, referring to future, difficult-to-recycle consumer waste made of buckminsterfullerenes.

OH (Oxygen + Hydrogen = Hydroxyl) stands for Laurie Anderson’s track ‘Let X=X’, starting from its third sentence, “Oh boy. Right again…”, marking the end of our presentation.

Photo courtesy of Petri Henriksson.

Finally, we made NH4Cl + C2H5OH and listened to Martti Kalliala’s ‘DNA Junk’ (download by right clicking), a base pair sequence of non-genomic DNA translated into notes through MIDI and played by a Roland TB-303 bass synthesiser.

Sound garden

In Helsinki, courtyards are often reserved for household activities, like garbage disposal or carpet beating. Other than that, they are mostly used for passing through. There are sounds that big bins make when they open and close, and the clatter of steps when people walk home. But were the inner yards featuring more gardens, tables and chairs – places to meet and hang around in – there might be a hum of longer and shorter conversations, jingling of cutlery and plates, and sounds that gardening creates.

Avian melodies

Some clichés are true: birds’ singing makes most people happy. And if Finnish people love nature, why not bring more of it to the city? If Helsinki would have more trees and small parks everywhere, there would also be more rustle of leaves, and birdsongs of different kinds.

Concrete music

How to make the most out of asphalt, the dominant flooring material of the city? We would like to hear more click-clacking of high-heeled shoes, tapping of the canes of older people taking the streets, rattle of skateboards and, naturally, the sound of bicycles skidding and braking.

World mix

With Finnish and Swedish as the official languages, Helsinki is already a bilingual city and other languages, like Russian, are heard more often everyday. Bringing more ingredients to the mix and creating a babel of languages along with their accents, dialects, volumes, rhythms and intonations, would make Helsinki sound more interesting.

Napa Gallery, Jani, Lotta and Martti.

Science Poems mini exhibition and Anni.

Books, Maija and Stella.

Paris photos and herbal drinks.

Jenna making drinks.

Benjamin and the party on the street.

Nene listening to DNA Junk by Martti Kalliala. On the left: Faraday Suit vest by K.I. Kinnunen. On the right: Higgs Boson by Anna Ahonen and Katariina Lamberg.

Kaira looking at Brain Forest by Nene Tsuboi.

Nene, a Science Poems artist and typographer for the Helsinki party.

Order Science Poems online through Napa webshop.