HYBRID PRACTICES

Exhibition at the Gallery of Design and Architecture, Tallinn
11.–25.01.2013
 
 



HYBRID PRACTICE - from general to specific

Exhibition at Hobusepea Gallery, Tallinn
27.11.–16.12.2013
and in Kuressaare Castle, Saaremaa
26.03–25.05.2014
 

RHIZOPE

Conference “ Art&Science – Hybrid Art and Interdisciplinary Research”, Estonian Academy of Arts, 30.05.-1.06.2014.
Exhibition “RHIZOPE”, Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design, Tallinn, 29.05–24.08.2014.

VIDEOINSTALLATION - MY SEVEN HEADS

Residency at Atelierhaus Salzamt (Linz, Austria)
Participation of TALLINZ exhibition Linz 11.01 - 9.03.2012

LUDO ERGO SUM 2011

Media artist's exhibition
PLEKTRUM festival
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In 2011 the festival's exhibition programme introduced novel ideas and experiences in one of the most popular galleries in Tallinn through a variety of projects that present exciting combinations of science and art. Modern technologies enable to create endless variations and striking environments that was brought to visitors during the festival by the bright explorers and artists of new media. The gallery featured interactive audiovisual installations that, in one way or another, included the audience in the exhibits and invite them to play along.
Exhibition curators:
Marge Paas (Estonia), Piibe Piirma (Estonia), Ferhat Sen (Turkey).
Participants:
Gregory Lasserre and Anais met den Ancxt (scenocosme, France); Reha Discioglu (Turkey); Timo Toots (Estonia);
Roberto Pugliese (Italy); Tapio Matilainen (Finland);
Ferhat Sen (Turkey)

HOLY COW 2010 - 2011

Robotic experiment, public event
Authors:
Maarja Kruusmaa, Madis Listak, Jaan Rebane, Piibe Piirma
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On the 1st of January 2011, Estonia replaced it's existing currency, the Estonian Kroon, with the Euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) and Eesti Pank were carrying out a mass media campaign, including four TV spots, to support preparations for this changeover. The European Union's Minister of Finance has approved the official exchange rate at changeover to be 15.6466 EEK for 1 Euro. Tallinn University of Technology's Center for Biorobotics has been working in cooperation with the Estonian Media Artists Union to offer an alternative way of changing money from Estonian Kroons to Euros. They installed a robotic Holy Euro Cow that offered Estonian citizens the possibility to change 1 Kroon into 1 Euro at an exchange rate of 1:1, instead of the official rate 15.6466. To exchange the money, the 1 Kroon coin has to be inserted into the cow's mouth. After a short delay 1 Euro coin dropped out from the cow's other end. This interactive art project was installed in downtown Tallinn, and was one of several cultural events, celebrating Tallinn as the European Cultural Capital 2011. Through this public event artists, inventors and researchers aimed to deliver a message valuing the old currency of Estonia and the fiscal politics of the Estonian bank. These have formed the basis of the fast growing Estonian economy since entry into Europe in 2004, while at the same time welcoming the Euro that has been the holy grail (or holy cow) of the official policy of the Estonian bank and government for many years. The exhibit offered a memorable way to mark this historic event, by offering a symbolic currency change during the cold and dark Estonian winter.
See video

FUTURA MORGANA 2010

Audiovisual concert, PLEKTRUM festival
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The multimedia show FUTURA MORGANA was based on the idealistic future utopias from the 20th century. Those ideas are a wonderful contrast to the reality of the 21st century, which has turned out to be something else than the beautiful harmony and paradise of dreams that was hoped for. Instead, the people of the contemporary success-oriented society are turning into dreaming robots, which are a necessary extension to technology - little figures that can push the button when necessary. The live show combined electronic sounds with acoustic stringed instruments and old populist newsreels with funny animations.
Authors of the idea:
Piibe Piirma, Jane Suviste, Shawn Pinchbeck
Music: Shawn Pinchbeck and String-quartet
With the participation of the "Opera Quartet" (Estonian National Opera) including Kerstin Tomson, Henno Soode, Eivin Toodo, Mati Leibak
Videos and screens:
Piibe Piirma and Jane Suviste
See short video

THINKING MACHINES 2010

Exhibition curators Marge Paas and Piibe Piirma
PLEKTRUM festival
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For centuries, people have dreamed of creating a twin for the human but modern times prove something else - technology that has become tiny and easy to use enables us to create "thinking creatures" that significantly differ from their creators. They are shaped by their function while the human-faced conqueror of the earth belongs to the realm of fairy tales.
Artists have also been very interested in the development of technology throughout time. Be it a cheerful toy, a socially critical installation or a smart design - the exhibition room belonged to the thinking technologies for 10 days as part of the Plektrum festival! One of Plektrum festival's key events invited everyone - both children and adults to play, discover and enjoy. The gallery belonged to our artificial friends for ten days and answered the question posed as the main subject of the Plektrum festival WOULD YOU LOVE A ROBOT? with the words SURE, WHY NOT?
Participants: Miliki Stellans and Hobilabor (Hobby Lab, EST), Alo Peets and Artur Abels (University of Tartu Robot Club, EST), Merle and Erki Kannus (EST), Kärt Ojavee (EAA, Centre for Biorobotics, EST), Eszter Ozsvald (Kitchen Budapest, Tisch School of the Arts, HUN), Kristel Laurits (EST), Ulla Fredriksson (SWE).

ESTONIAN ROBOT STORIES 2010

Curator and designer of poster exhibition, PLEKTRUM festival
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Plektrum festival brought to the public robots in Estonian cultural history and presented visions of robot through collected images of films, animations, music videos, architectural visions, installation art and theatre performances.

MY DEAR PARANOIA 2009

Curator of media artist's exhibition
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Some of us think that governmental structures are monitoring us too closely ... some think the structures aren't watching them enough to protect them ... to some of us it seems like they are constantly being followed by unknown powers ... and some think that God almighty is keeping an eye on them ... some of us think they aren't good enough ... some think they are too good for the rest of the world ... some of us aren't happy with their bodies ... some of us have forgone their bodies and only act virtually.
Most of us have paranoias. We battle with our own obsessions and delusions. We have personality disorders and schizophrenia. We are surrounded by all-encompassing networks of conspiracies. We don't trust anything or anyone. Fears, taboos and delusions have preoccupied all minds and lead their own private lives within us, even when we're rocking at the club on Friday night. Obsessions and obsessive-compulsive disorders form a chaotic mish-mash in our daily lives, revealing themselves with no regard to the time and place. What do we actually fear or what could help us cope in our own way? How do we find inspiration? Is it our own body, failed relationships, the surrounding world of glossy magazines and media, politics, virtual environment or something else entirely? These are the questions that have inspired artists to work.
Participants:
Riin Rõõs, Eve Arpo, Piret Räni, Shawn Pinchbeck, Chris Driedzic, Susanna Hood, Piibe Piirma, Raul Viitung, Mare Tralla, Dagmar Kase, Merle & Erki Kannus, Karel Koplimets, Ernest Truely, Lea Giardin, John Auterman, Chris Johnson, Amelia Kantrovitztuuk, Nicole Nadeau, Karo Szmit, Alexandra David

TILINATOORIUM 4, 2009

Concert, artistic cooperation, digital visuals
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Tilinatoorium is a project continuing in time and space, where people who cannot play traditional instruments try to find new and unique ways to create music. This time Tilinatoorium will reincarnate in the Rotermann through the touches of iPod and electrons travelling through wires. Under the eyes of the audience, little boxes will be calculating really quickly, the membranes will be vibrating and the light will flow over all of it. A real wooden violin also tries to both feel with it and play on its own. Hello Upan on the violin, other instruments played by Piibe Piirma, Merle Kannus and Erki Kannus.

STUDENT'S EXHIBITION 2009

What you sleep is what you are - audiovisual installations
tutor and curator
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What do we do every night? Party, rest, think, try to fall asleep, snore, pretend to be "someone else", find ourselves in unbelievable situations, escape? The exhibition explores candidly, boldly and playfully what sleep is made of. Time passes even when our bodies need rest. We consider people as a source of bizarre ideas and unlimited possibilities during night hours. And dreams are universal - everyone can recognize themselves at the exhibition either through slumbering, sleeping or waking up. The exhibition consists of video and sound installations, that were made using video technology, digital and analog sound technology and many other materials.
Participants:
students of scenography at the Estonian Academy of Arts -
Kairi Kuuskor, Pille Kose, Kristel Maamägi , Maarja Noormets, Eve Ormisson.

MUSIC VIDEO WORKSHOPS AND SCREENINGS 2009

Teacher and co-curator
Cooperation with Herkko Labi and Marge Paas
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Cinema class meets PLEKTRUM
During the Plektrum festival we showed on the big screen the works that were created during a joint three day video art and VJ workshop of Collegium Educationis Revaliae and Plektrum experts. Everything that falls under the category "interesting soundscapes" - modern rhythms, runic songs and improvisation - have inspired the authors to create their first music videos. Travel stories, deep minimalism, introspective realizations and humorous surreal style of directing - this is an appropriate short introduction to the young author's video program.
Participants:
Saara Brigitta Vahermägi, Elisabeth Tamm, Hans Hendrik Alla, Helen Habakuk, Erik Loide, Ingel Vaikla

IDENTIPHON - SOFTWARE PERFORMANCE 2008

Authors:
Piibe Piirma, Riin Rõõs, Eve Arpo, Allan Paiste
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Our choices in supermarkets are registered through bar code readers and the information is calculated into financial documents. However, bar code readers can do much more than this. Using simple laser and computer manipulation, bar code readers can become the transformers of sound and visuals. IDENTIPHON is an audiovisual instrument, which is presented by four artists during audiovisual performance. The table covered with bar codes performs as keyboard on which the artists are selecting sounds and visuals. A simple everyday tool has found a creative use, refering to the human desire of identify everything around itself and to find deeper and creative essence in everything.
IDENTIPHON performance was held in CLAZZ club and bookstore RAHVA RAAMAT, it was a part of PLEKTRUM festival art program.

TRANSPARENT GENERATION 2007

Media artist's exhibition
Curators: Piibe Piirma and Jane Suviste
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At the exhibition, the members and friends of the Estonian Media Artists Union showcased interactive video, sound and photo installations where they utilised the media's own means to study our media-riddled society where a (seeming) flow of information, public access to personal information and the availability of nearly everything have become a part of our everyday life. We have a generation who exhibits photos, opinions and private information in various portals and blogs; who has a habit of 'googling' each new acquaintance; who can constantly be reached by phone day and night and can thus also be controlled and tracked; who are constantly watched by surveillance cameras, and are visible, public and transparent. Estonia is one of the leading e-countries and it has become the norm for Estonian citizens to visit various portals and blogs; otherwise, it is as if a person's identity is incomplete. The 'self' must be public in order to exist. The artists taking part in the "Transparent Generation" exhibition analyse and ask the question: how does the information society affect us? And what disturbing consequences can this have, in addition to the fact that when pretending to be sick at home, you have to turn off your phone in order to hide from your employer? To what extent do we realise that we are losing privacy as we make ourselves public and available? What is the real extent of us being manipulated by the surrounding advertisements, spam and information? And to what extent can we protect ourselves from it? Is our knowledge of our environment true; what share of our knowledge is just separate fragments and microscopic parts of the whole picture which everyone can 'assemble' as they desire? What do we gain from knowing that Britney Spears is pregnant?
Participants:
Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Sulo Kallas, Shawn Pinchbeck, Infotankistid, Liina Siib, Eve Arpo, Külli Mariste, Mare Tralla, Raul Keller, Riin Kranna-Rõõs, Andrew Mckenzie, Maiu Kurvits, Merle Kannus, Erkki Kannus, Erle Võsa-Tangsoo, Piret Räni, Piibe Piirma.

VIDEOCUBE 2007

Curator and artist of videoinstallation at the city centre of Tallinn
PLEKTRUM festival
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"Video cube - 25 000 EEK for m3" was an art installation that worked as a canvas for artistic videos and was situated in one of the most expensive areas in Tallinn. The piece was therefore making a statement about space, price, time and people. It tried to dissect issues such as social disbalance, "gray" real estate actions in the city and the common sense of people. Artists projected different video works to communicate their ideas on the meaning of space on this big video cube.
Participants:
Evelyn Müürsepp, John Grzinich, Toomas Theloff, Hille Karm, Jane Suviste, Eve Arpo, Eva Sepping, Piibe Piirma, Reimo Võsa-Tangsoo, Marge Monko, Tanja Muravskaja, Helen Melesk, Laura Kuusk, Õnne Luha, Dagmar Kase, Maiu Kurvits, Erki Kannus, Merle Kannus, Francesco Rapacciuolo, Aili Aamisepp, Erle Võsa-Tangsoo, Irina Gross, Kadri Klampe, Katharina Kleinfelder, Taavi Alas.

MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE - UTOPIAN FUGUES 2006

Artistic cooperation with Jane Suviste, Gerhard Lock and
Shawn Pinchbeck
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Each year, the Kultuuritehas organises the August Festival. At the 2006 festival, the Estonian Media Artists Union staged a multimedia performance called "Utopian Fugues". The performance was created together with classical musicians; it was an improvised combination of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, electronic sound improvisation and video manipulation. Based on the melodic structure of Bach's "The Art of Fugue", classical stringed instruments, electronic sounds and live video were included in the performance. Bach's music was treated as an open code which can be changed and supplemented. The perfect structure of classical music was complemented by ideas of industry and technology on video. The music acquired an additional, visual dimension - the video was a surreal combination of historic scratch-frames and a contemporary sign system, offering an ironic look back on the previous century when the technological progress and industrial utopias were thought to be the only 'saviours' of mankind.
Authors:
Jane Suviste, Piibe Piirma, Gerhard Lock, Shawn Pinchbeck.
With the participation of the "Opera Quartet" (Estonian National Opera) including Kerstin Tomson, Henno Soode, Eivin Toodo, Mati Leibak

EDITED MEMORIES 2006

Curator: Reet Varblane
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An exhibition of digital art by Piibe Piirma and Jane Suviste at the Tallinn City Gallery, 2006 The exhibition of digital art by Piibe Piirma and Jane Suviste, both members of the Estonian Media Artists Union, was an important event on the 'barren' cultural terrain of our media art. Politics and religion, nationality and ideological influences, consumer mentality and myths, historical memory and the virtual world - these are some of most important themes in the world view of today's people. This exhibition also focused on these familiar, contemporary issues which concern all people.
The digital art exhibition entitled "Edited Memory" consisted of two interactive video installations. Both artists looked at memories and deep-rooted attitudes as a useful baggage of signs, in order to understand the "databases" that we are supplied with. Jane Suviste painted a huge image of the brain on the floor; as visitors stepped onto it, they could listen to her memories of a "Soviet" childhood. Piibe Piirma had created an interactive book containing Bible texts, and visitors could browse through the book. The artist offered her own version of each story in the form of a video projection using contemporary sign systems.