I shot and developed a test film for our upcoming Flying Gardens. For the final films I intend to use recipes from an artist Elian Mikkola: a developer from used coffee grounds and for the reversal process Elian’s eko bleach.
In this test I developed half of the film only as negative and the other half as positive. As a developing solution I used Caffenol C – developer (instant coffee+vitamin c and Caffenol C with eko bleach.
RESULTS:
Negative development was successful, but the postitive did not really work. The problem was probably that I under re-exposed the film. I will have to do some further testing..
Greetings from Denmark! We got a ride to Copenhagen from Sweden by two very lovely German travellers. Me and Maisa spent couple days in Copenhagen eating good food and cyyyyycling!! <3 Folkehuset Absalon soon became our favourite place to get good lunch.
The wind during cycling might’ve been too much for Maisa and couple of her leaves have lost a bit of colour and some pieces. Nevertheless, she’s still going strong! Maisa likes to tickle my calves with her long vines while I pedal and I think she’s a bit too brave with that. I hope she doesn’t get tangled but I guess it’s none of my business if she’s going for that adrenaline. We both fell in love with the brilliant cycling paths and culture in Copenhagen.
We thank our kind host Gabriella for the past days. It’s time to continue to the West coast, wohoo!
I have seen house plants as a form of decoration. They bring colors, vibrancy and character into a space. I have never felt a deeper connection to a plant. It might be the reason, I have had trouble keeping my plants happy. I think I have finally grasped what it means to have a connection to a plant. Perhaps it’s a short of connection you would have with a domesticated animal. A feeling of care and empathy towards it. A feeling that maybe you even understand each other.
Musician and independent scientist Ben Jordan explores in his video essay if sound really affects plant growth. He goes briefly through the history of research and literature in this field and then conducts an experiment himself.
His approach is obsessive and curious, which I like. In his experiment he was rabbit holeing into every possible variable, but the video still manages to keep up a good and entertaining tempo. Jordan makes science about it and the evidence is super interesting, but I think it’s not so much about a trial on optimizing the growing of crops, but more about finding connections between us and plants. Oh plants apparently like to enjoy sound waves also!
Jordan is claiming that anthropomorphism (projecting our human feelings on other species) is a problem in science and I do agree in some sense, but is it necessary for creating empathy?
Inspired of this essay, I did a sonic journey with my tiny Scindapsus pictus (silver vine). I chose an album “Sisarusten toistuva uni” from a Pori based musician Juho Toivonen. (https://discreetmusicgbg.bandcamp.com/album/sisarusten-toistuva-uni) I sat down on the floor, put the plant between me and the speakers and set the record on.
The album begins with a forest like atmosphere, where beautiful melodic tunes seduces you into a sensual and nostalgic trip. At some point you find a campfire and someone sitting on its side drumming. I lifted the plant and started to examine it closer. I gave it some water and held it on my lap. I felt the primitive bass tune resonating in my body. Like waves the music flowed through our matter and finally faded away.
Maisa and I are spending this week at a friend’s house in south of Sweden. We will spend midsummer here. Maisa has gotten back the flavour of spending multiple days by the same window. I think she is growing new leaves! Maisa’s leaves turned a bit yellow after cycling in Åland for a week and I also got sick. So now is the time for recovery. Next week we will continue to Denmark stronger than ever!
Hejhej! Me and Maisa are now in southern Sweden! We decided to explore a bit further by catching a bus from Stockholm and we’ve had a good swim in Marsholm. Maisa is feeling quite curious about the local cows.
We bicycled to Snäckö to catch a ferry yesterday. Thank you for the loveliest people at Lolo’s restauraunt for ice cream and helping out with a ferry ride to Skarpnåtö! <3 Me and my house plant Maisa were quite excited about continuing our travel on boat. Maisa got some nice throwbacks to her previous adventures on cargo, you know, when she moved to Finland.
Olemme saaneet käytöstä poistettuja kuormaliinoja lahjoituksina niin yrityksiltä kuin yksityishenkilöiltä Satakunnan alueella. Kiitos kaikille lahjoittajille! Olen viime viikkoina pessyt liinoja, poistanut metalliosista ruostetta ja öljynnyt kiristimiä. Pestessäni liinoja olen odottanut jännityksellä mitä värejä lian alta paljastuu.
Both companies and individuals around Satakunta have donated us cargo straps that can’t be used anymore. Thanks for all donators! Last weeks I have washed the straps, removed rust from the metal parts and oiled the ratchets. When washing the straps I have been waiting eagerly what colors there is under the dirt.
Kuormaliinoja odottamassa pesua. / Cargo straps waiting to be washed.Katsokaa näitä värejä pesun jälkeen! / Look at the colors after the wash!Osassa liinoja tahdon säilyttää koukut, niin silloin täytyy jynssätä käsin. / I want to leave the hooks on some of the straps so then I need to wash them by hand.Lyhempiä koukullisia ja niin herkkuja värejä. / Shorter ones with hooks and so delicious colors.Yksi super ruosteinen ja juminen kiristin. Tarina tämän kanssa jatkuu ehkä myöhemmin. / One super rusty and stuck ratchet. The story with this one might continue later.Kuinka virittää kuormaliinat ylöspäin koukkujen etikassa liottamisen ajaksi? / How the Cargo straps stay upwards while the hooks are in vinegar water?Tällasia ohkasempia käytöstä poistettuja liinoja kaivataan vielä. Laita viestiä jos sinulta löytyy turhana! / We are still looking for these smaller cargo straps. Send us a message if you have some you don’t need!
Kirjoittelen myöhemmin vähän kuormaliina-asutestailuista Laura Liljan avajaisiin. Myös tuosta kiristimestä saattaa kuulua.
I will write later about cargo strap outfit tests for Laura Lilja’s exhibition opening. You might hear from that one ratchet as well.
The workshop is part of our research and aim to do a fully plant based documentative short film about our upcoming flying gardens. More info about that soon!
The workshop was held at Filmverkstaden in Vaasa. Also thanks to Moa Cederberg and the artist community at Malakta who generously hosted us!
