Wednesday, 10 September, 4–6 pm, Frame Visual Art Finland

HIAP in collaboration with British Council, Helsinki Design Week and Frame present:

Peer-to-Peer event with Angela Washko & Alex Young (US) and Tobias Revell (UK) with guest commentator Juha van ‘t Zelfde (Lighthouse, UK).

Tobias Revell is a critical designer from London. He runs his own practice conducting exhibition and research projects examining design and technology. Revell also works at Superflux as a designer, teaches design at the London College of Communication and the Royal College of Art and is some-time foresight researcher with Arup. He is going to be looking at some of the changes taking place around Helsinki and the design and making scene here, reflecting on his knowledge of what’s happening in London. Revell is also going to be doing some experiments with the implementation and design of alternate network structures like mesh networks.

Angela Washko is an artist and facilitator devoted to mobilising communities and creating new forums for discussions of feminism where they do not exist. Washko’s practice is research-based, employing data as storytelling tool to create prototypes for actions by others. “Misusing” software, Washko attempts to intervene on public opinion regarding proper etiquette, appropriate lifestyle choices, and limited gender designations. Washko is currently working on a public access TV show and performance persona departing from data sets she’s extracted from Bravo TV’s Millionaire Matchmaker.

Alex Young is a research based artist, designer, and curator whose practice explores the motivating factors and end results – and the subsequent potential for disconnection between the two – in the construction of the built environment. Young’s work interrogates sites of social, architectural, and technological change by employing critical and experimental historiography in analysing the often contradictory ideologies that fuel the future present. In Helsinki, Young is working in collaboration with Angela Washko on a new project SERFnet, exploring the role of language in cultivating today’s networked peasantry.

The event is part of the Helsinki Design Week programme. The largest design festival in the Nordic countries will be held on 4–14.09.2014.

Tobias Revell was invited to Helsinki in context of the Design Residency Programme organised by the British Council, in partnership with HIAP and Helsinki Design Week.

Angela Washko and Alex Young are in Helsinki in context of HIAP Residency Programme. During their residency they have presented work at URB Festival in August and will show their new piece in September in Alkovi Gallery.

Snacks and drinks will be served