PART 2 : IN THE STUDIO
Details of exploration:
An experiment in collective reading. A reading practice exploring the sounding of voices within an enclosed space, the moments of synchronicity and overlap as well as silence.
Prompt: At a designated moment, begin reading the texts that you had written in response to the prompt/score ‘What is Agreed Upon’. Feel free to move around the space. Allow moments for silence and for listening to the others’ reading. Continue until you reach the end of the text, then remain silent.
PART 3 : RECORDING
[Headphones are recommended for listening to the recordings]
To the right are recordings of each of us reading our texts generated in response to the prompt, What is Agreed Upon?
Invitation to you — the reader/listener: Explore the sound files by playing, pausing, muting — the recordings can be played singularly and in combination. We are interested in possibilities of the space — or even textorium — that is opened up in the act of (listening to) reading?
PART 1 : MARKET SQUARE, Vaasa, June 2022
Details of exploration:
Prompt: This phase of exploration was initiated by the prompt What is Agreed Upon?
Duration: 30 minutes writing.
Location/Position: Edge or perimeter of the square. We define the edges of the square as the point where the cobbles end.
What is agreed upon?
What do we agree upon? Where do I want to sit? Where are you? Where does it begin? Do we agree? We know a time for starting — 09.10. We are approximately in the same space. “We” — already an assumption of agreement. Where is this “we” and do “we” agree? What do we agree upon? The temperature is sixteen degrees. I know this from the LED screen on the building at the edge of the square. It is 09.12. But does the temperature feel warm or cool? How is the feeling of this space, this square? Do we agree upon that? Are there even any facts to name, to speak of? And what is a fact — is this something that is agreed upon? By whom? What are the facts of this place? Can I count them? I can count twenty-one bikes, but further on I can see others, but cannot count them for sure. What can I not see that you can? Similarly with the number of trees — I sit beneath one, up close, others are clearly seen, recognisable even by the leaf. Whilst others are partially occluded by stalls and cards and trucks and banners and signs. I could not say with any clarity how many trees there are in this square. Not from this perspective, I would have to move. And in moving, other things become occluded from view. My view, my perspective, is only ever partial.
I move — it is 09.20. Closer to the men at the café, sitting outside, all wearing caps and glasses, mostly of a certain age, but it is difficult to tell. It is difficult to tell. I am struck by this phrase — what becomes difficult to tell? Ambiguities. Uncertainties. Indeterminacies. What is it that is difficult to tell? And what is it that is easy to tell? Is this what we agree upon — that which is easy to tell? But what is easy to tell?
So much speculation — what do they agree upon, the men in caps and glasses? What do they agree upon? They are talking together, an arm waves out to gesture a point well made. They are also reading the newspapers. Between reading and conversing, what do they agree upon, what is difficult to tell?
“They” — already marking out some difference. “They” are not “we”. But who are the “we” and who are the “they”? Do we agree upon that, and what is it that we agree upon?
Even the most seemingly neutral observation is filtered by so many things, a particular lens, a specific perspective or attitude.
How do I remain at the edge? Am I already in the market square? This edge between being in and out, between observing and being observed. Are these definitions already clear and precise? Am I already observed, by whom?
I decide to move — it is 09.27.
A man comes over and speaks to me in Finnish and I smile. What did we agree upon, did we agree? Opacity of language, the unknowing when one does not understand.
I take a photograph. Did we agree upon that?
Agreement.
What do we agree upon?
What do we share?
What is in common?
What do we collectively see, hear, smell, touch, feel?
Can the feeling of a place ever be agreed upon? Feeling is such a contingent experience, always singular.
Rules. The rules of the square. Can I discern them and are they agreed upon? The parking of bikes and scooters, in places left in lines, at other moments scattered as though just abandoned.
Floor markings — signalling the change in zones. What does the cobble stone signal? In places, a diagonal line of stones cuts across the grid of pattern. Circular patterns protect the roots of trees. A Decaux sign hums as it changes from one advertisement to the next. I lean against its edge — the humming gets louder.
A line of upright metal poles holds a series of flags and banners, brands and logos and signs meant to inspire. The poles themselves are scarred and marked with tapes that have been applied and removed, marking the once trace of posters placed illicitly, unagreed, unsanctioned. There are certain things that are sanctioned in the square, and certain things disallowed.
Sanction. Prohibit. Rules. Permissions. Conventions. Expectations. Habits. Presumptions. Ways of doing things.
What do we agree upon?
9:11 a.m. 16°
What is agreed upon.
An area has been drawn. Marked, limited, defined and settled upon. We are here, all five of us. Maybe 7 at some point. I rotate my head and see one…two… only two so far.
Is “the square '' the inside of the limit only? Until what point is the square considered being a square?
Are the buildings belonging to the square? Where is the agreement with the square? Who is the agreement with? Who decides? Who proposes? Where is that conversation happening?
The bicycle goes in its lane. The cars and buses follow the lines. Go, stop. Move. You sign a contract and the city gives you a card. An agreement for driving. Walking: limited by the circulation of the vehicles. Walking, go wild. Step, stretch, forget, get lost, encounter.
Writing. The pen has an agreement with the paper. The hands with the pen. The mind with the hand. The thought, the hand, the pen, the paper. Sometimes that agreement boggles and one of the subjects doesn't fulfil the agreement. It's usually the mind, the one which startles and doubts, then, it makes the rest doubt and the agreement is broken.
Groups agree on walking together, they agree on the distance between each of the individuals, and the speed from person to person without talking about it. Someone has to slow down. Someone has to speed up. An unspoken agreement is made.
I'm not sure if the trees have agreed to their confinement. Maybe they have. I only know that at some point we have agreed not to speak their language. And they have agreed not to speak hours.
We have agreed on a time. The time would be up in 3 minutes. And then, on to the next agreement.
I haven't agreed on being observed. But neither have anything in the square agreed on being observed and written by me. Agreed. Agree on disagreeing?
I move and observe. I move and look around. People, cars, a woman is speaking on the phone in the middle of the square. Hand on the waist. Hand on the phone. Phone on the ear. Left and right. Step forward, stop.
Casual modulation of agreements.
WHAT IS AGREED UPON
A place that shall be called Kauppatori, market place, Marktplatz in a city called Vaasa with one or two a to be found on Google Maps or on the little printed tourist map that was given to me last night that comes in Suomi, Svenska, English, Deutsch. A generic name, a no-name almost that could exist anywhere to be filled with. What has been agreed upon:
a statue with a raised hand
buildings on three sides
2 bus stations to arrive and leave from
4 digital screens
a big silver bench-stage
a lonely rose E-scooter
a mobile flower stand
a VAFFEL stand
a stand with golden rings
Two digital screens shall be placed on the back side of the bus station to project the word SILMÄASEMA. I’m reminded of the German word “Marktschreier” (Market screamer) for those
diejeningen, die ihre Waren laut feil bieten: “Drei Mark, Sonnenbrillen jetzt für nur 3 Mark!”
here in screen form
– 40% VAHINTÄÄN.
The screen buzzes, sounds like… How can something meant to be seen only be that noisy? Moving images that need to be fed with electricity shall be called market screemers or screaners from now on.
It has been agreed upon that four screeners shall be placed on the market place to sell, trade – for example sunglasses, women with sunglasses – to those that look at them. What else is agreed upon:
The center shall be empty.
Vad är bestämt i samråd?
What is agreed upon?
30 min i torgets yttre rand
9.10-9.40
Vi har kommit överens om var vi skriver på torget. I denna första del på 30 minuter skriver vi längs med torgets yttre rand. Exakt var torget börjar och slutar, varthän det sträcker sig är en öppen fråga. Den livligt trafikerade Esplanaden är en självklar gränslinje på den ena kortsidan men den motsatta sidan har ett mer otydligt slut då den avgränsas i en gågata. Torgets kullerstenar kan ge ett svar. Torgytan är lagd med kullerstenar medan gågatan är lagd med stenplattor. Det finns även infällda fasta bänkar på gågatan. Jag sitter på en av dem och ser i riktningen mot Hovrätten. Ett stråk för fotgängare. Bänkarna är placerade i rad längs med gågatan, men med en öppen yta bakom en högrest skulptur. Det finns bänkar på båda sidor om den öppna ytan. Mittemot mig, bakom en bänkrad, finns en annan skulptur, en abstraherad böjd människokropp i brons och rinnande vatten från flera olika punkter. Inte en fontän med sprutande vatten utan mindre vattenstrålar som böjer sig ner tungt. Ett fågelbad för stadsduvor. På bänkarna människor som inte känner varandra, och människor som gör det. Den öppna ytan blir en scen och varje person som korsar den blir påtittad.
Måsen som flyger över oss placerar oss i ett fågelperspektiv.
Sparvarnas tråkiga repetitiva läte.
En skolklass i rad avancerar i sakta mak.
Jag gick över den öppna ytan mot skulpturen. Att gå den korta vägen, snutten, kändes som en handling. Nu ser jag att den knäböjande skulpturen är placerad på en granitskiva och vattnet får rinna ut över denna yta. Allt vatten återtas inte av skulpturens omlopp utan droppar ned på gatan. Mörka områden bildas. Ett klistermärke med text, ett namn i en stiliserad stil och nederst står det antifascist black metal.
Jag fortsätter mot torget, på kiosken för turistinformation finns en bild, ett historiskt fotografi av staden och dess butiker. En av dem säljer sprängämnen jakt- och fiskeredskap.
What is agreed upon?
16° C // 9:10 a.m.
a person walks with two bags
shadows slant
walking is unidirectional
hold the bag for support
no parking at the corner
crows strut fly
doors open
the security guard steps out to check
water sparkles
light filters with a green tint
eyes on the phone
Wasa city bus is empty
tulips are blooming
dandelions are wilting
there is no place to sit
tricycle bicycle
coughing, spitting
the noise of the LCD screen
pink trench coat
catching reflections when passing shops
display arrangement
philology and cultural history
regularly appearing people
how to read a poem
political message
a relatively new subject
universally uncontested idiom
observably deliberate attention
European models
not directly represented
my activity
today
attempt to go beyond