Governing Bodies mini-festival: Emergence & Microbes

Saturday, June 4, 2022 at 16.00 – 21.00

-free entry-

Welcome to join the international research group Governing Bodies for an evening of sounds and performances at Akusmata Saturday June 4, 2022. We start at 16.00 and will finish around 21.00. Feel free to drop in at any time.

FREDDIE ROSS (art historian): ethics of microbes, lecture performance
TINA MARIANE KROGH MADSEN: performance
JEAN-LOUIS HUHTA: performance
Till TILL BOVERMANN: performance

Photo by Till Bovermann

Governing Bodies is a group of artists, musicians and researchers who have met, discussed, cooked, eaten and made interdisciplinary art events about microbes since 2018. In June 2022 the group will travel to Helsinki where they will share their knowledge, experience and also learn from and with you.

In Finland special focus will given to microbes and emergence. Nature is filled with examples of how complex behaviours arise from relatively simple elements: we see this in how ants behave, or in how fish shoals or bird flocks interact. The term emergence is used to describe these fascinating manifestations of self-organisation that can, at first glance, seem inexplicable. Where does the extra injection of complexity suddenly come from? One thing is clear: these emergent phenomena can only be understood as collective behaviours — there is no way to make sense of them without looking at dozens, hundreds, thousands or more of the contributing elements. These wholes are indeed greater than the sums of their parts.

Festival program (1.-5.6.2022)

Wednesday, 1.6. evening
Listening in — diving into an ocean of emergent behaviour.
* 19.00 performance / deep listening at SOLU
* 20.00 EEG-synth experience / meditative one-on-one sessions (2-3 EEG synth sessions) – separate room at SOLU.
* 21.00 Food at SOLU

Thursday, 2.6.
Emergence is surrounding us — examples of emergence on macroscopic and microscopic levels and how they influence us and our life world.
* 10.00 breakfast at SOLU
* 11.00 Introduction to Emergence at SOLU
* 12.00 Kurt Johannssen (ABOUT TIME, CLUMPING AND THE COMPLEX) at SOLU
* 13.00 Lunch
* 16.00 Riina Hannula, Microbial Medi(t)ation (Yoga for Microbes, group exercise) at SOLU (or outside, weather permitting) Please bring/wear comfortable long-sleeved clothing, at SOLU
* 17:30 Bart van den Put: Retinalalian Group Hum_1 — breathing-sounding the retinal code, at SOLU
* 18.30 Annette Arlander “Letter to a Dead Spruce” video screening at SOLU
* 21.00 Dinner

Friday, 3.6.
On microbes and macrobes — scales of observation, behavioural patterns, and inter-system similarities.
* 10.00 breakfast at SOLU
* 10.30 Discussion about emergence with neuroscientist Veikko Jousmäki at SOLU
* 11.30 Till Bovermann Performative walk – City as Organism. (Departure from Solu.)
* 13.00 Lunch on the way
* 14.00-16.00 Sauna, Furuvik Rantasauna
* 19.00 Book release “Governing Bodies” at SOLU
* 19.30 The Experiences of Art as We don’t Know It and Governing Bodies. A round table discussion about creating books with trans-disciplinary content with the Freddie Ross, editor of Governing Bodies and representatives from Bioart Society. Moderated by MaiBritt Giacobini Arnér.
* 21.00 Dinner
* 22.00 Carima Neusser, Performance at SOLU

Saturday, 4.6.
Politics of emergence — layers of consciousness, layers of interpretation.
* 10.00 breakfast at SOLU
* 11.30 Carola Uehlken– walking through city, landscape, building? (Departure from SOLU) Please bring your own headphones and smartphone.
* 13.00 Lunch
* 16.00 Evening at Akusmata
– Freddie Ross – ethics of microbes – lecture performance
– Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen – performance
– Jean-Louis Huhta and Till Bovermann – performance
* 21.00 Individual dinner