Withstanding Podcast Season 2

As a reaction to the inevitable standstill caused by the pandemic, institutions and individuals within the field of visual arts have had to halt production and rapidly maneuver to respond to the drastically altered situation. Institutional and independent actors alike have been forced to rethink their professional practices, as assignments, commissions, and daily work have been postponed or canceled. For many, this has made an already precarious situation even more vulnerable.

As we slowly approach a post-pandemic era, Withstanding looks into what lies ahead for the field of visual arts with curious eyes. What do we want to take with us to the future?  What to hold on to? What to leave behind? What to cultivate?

Envisioning a brighter future, Withstanding brings together art professionals from both sides of the Atlantic to share and speculate, care and criticize, and to dream of more just and sustainable conditions for artists and art practitioners at large.

Taking the form of a podcast, the series frees the listener from screens. Each podcast episode features a sound-based art work, including new commissions. The accompanying essays offer further reading and references on the topics of each episode.

EPISODE 6: ON FEMINISMS AND ARCHITECTURE

In this episode, the FCINY’s Curator of Architecture and Design Tiffany Lambert discusses feminist approaches to contemporary architecture with architect and scholar Lori Brown, and architect and organizer Arvind Ramachandran. What kind of questions do we actually talk about when we talk about feminist approaches to architecture? How do these practices and discussions currently look like in Finland and in the US? What kind of tools do feminist architects and scholars of architecture offer to the field? And, how do practices of care and activism look like in the field of architecture?

For this episode of Withstanding, multidisciplinary artist Jonna Karanka has made a special sound collage out of three pieces that have previously been published independently. The first part, “Bubbatalon” is inspired by singers who seek for an approval for their singing skills by posting YouTube videos and asking people to comment their versions of mainstream pop songs. "Bubbatalon" was first published on Kuupuu’s latest album “Plz tell me” (2020). The second part, “Zooah” was composed to celebrate the 28th anniversary of “Avaruusromua”, a legendary Finnish radio-programme that specialised in experimental music. The third part, which remains untitled, was created during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 as a way to explore inner and outer landscapes during the isolation periods. It was published on a fundraising compilation with 11 artists from six different countries, released by Sagome label in London.

LORI BROWN’s creative practice examines relationships between architecture and social justice issues with particular emphasis on gender and its impact upon spatial relationships. She is the author of Contested Spaces: Abortion Clinics, Women’s Shelters and Hospitals and editor of Feminist Practices: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Women in Architecture. Her current projects include Birthing Centers, Borders and Bodies andThe Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2015 with Dr. Karen Burns. She is the co-founder and leads ArchiteXX in New York City. She is Professor and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Syracuse University SOA and a licensed architect in New York.

Lori Brown’s photo by Laura Heyman.

JONNA KARANKA is a multidisciplinary artist working mainly with textile and sound. She was part of the artist-run space and collective Sorbus in Helsinki, Finland, between 2013–2020. She makes electro-acoustic music as Kuupuu, and plays in bands such as Olimpia Splendid and Hertta Lussu Ässä. She’s based in Sipoo, Finland.

Jonna Karanka’s photo by Tuomo Tuovinen.

ARVIND RAMACHANDRAN is a Helsinki based architect, organiser and stand-up comedian. Arvind believes sensitive built environment design can help confront oppressive societal structures, such as those that affect people without race, gender and class privileges. He is one of the founders of APAJA architecture collective, co-organises the Feminist and Anti-Racist Night School, co-hosts PoC Open Mic Helsinki, and was recently appointed deputy member of the Helsinki Urban Environment committee.

Arvind Ramachandran’s photo by Ella Alin.

FURTHER READING

In his essay Architecture with a Capital “C”, Arvind Ramachandran writes about his further considerations on the relations between architecture and care, evoked by the podcast discussion with Lori Brown and Tiffany Lambert. Continuing from the discussion, Ramachandran centres care both in relation to the planet and to each other.

“Widening our horizons as spatial designers, by expanding our toolkits to include care as a central component, is as relevant when it comes to thinking about the people we design for, as it is when evaluating the environmental impacts of our projects.”

EPISODE 5: THE FUTURES OF URBAN PLANNING

We begin the second season of Withstanding in the company of Efe Ogbeide from Helsinki-based urban planning office FEMMA Planning and NYC-based advocacy journalist and organizer Stephen Zacks. Ogbeide and Zacks discuss current questions related to participatory urban planning, as Ogbeide shares previous research conducted by FEMMA Planning in the suburbs of Helsinki. How to practice participatory urban planning that helps to create more livable, inclusive and equal city environments? How to implement hyperlocal strategies into a vaster planetary scale, as we are confronted with occurrences such as a pandemic or climate change.

The episode features the sound piece "focus.point.shoot" (2021) by DeForrest Brown, Jr. The track is a stereomodernist rhythm and soul commissioned for the 30th anniversary of the legendary Berlin techno club and label Tresor. As Speaker Music, musician and theorist DeForrest Brown, Jr. transmits a Black militant geopolitical awakening taking place in his home in the Black Belt region of the American South, in which African American descendants of slave class laborers vastly outnumber the white voting population in the 21st century. 

DEFORREST BROWN, JR. is an Alabama-raised, Ex-American rhythmanalyst, writer and representative of the Make Techno Black Again campaign. He produces digital audio and extended media as Speaker Music. His work explores the links between the Black experience in industrialized labor systems and Black innovation in electronic music. He has lectured at Spotify for Artists: Co.Lab, Brown University, Yale University, and has written for Artforum, NPR, Mixmag, and Afropunk. On Juneteenth of 2020, he released the album Black Nationalist Sonic Weaponry on Planet Mu, and Primary Information will soon publish his first book, Assembling a Black Counter-Culture.

EFE OGBEIDE is one of the founders of Helsinki-based participatory urban planning office FEMMA Planning. The office works toward a more inclusive planning practice where different interests and realities are taken into account. Efe’s background is in urban and human geography.

Efe Ogbeide’s photo by Caroline Suinner 

STEPHEN ZACKS is an advocacy journalist and organizer based in New York City. He is a contributor to Dwell, Oculus, Architect’s Newspaper, Abitare, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Brownstoner, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and Metropolis. His work has received support from ArtPlace, Creative Capital, Graham Foundation, MacDowell, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Warhol Foundation.

FURTHER READING

“Architects sometimes describe themselves as “world-builders” in that they literally design the world we inhabit. We started to employ the language of world-building on a planetary scale.”

In his essay, On Observing the Hyper-Local and Making Planetary Policy, Stephen Zacks continues to discuss the topics of the podcast discussion with Efe Ogbeide in the light of his work at the New York based non-profit Amplifier, Inc.

Withstanding is hosted by ELINA SUOYRJÖ, FCINY’s Director of Programs.

Visuals for Withstanding are designed by TSTO / JONATAN ERIKSSON.

Theme & editing for Withstanding are created and produced by RETAIL SPACE, a Brooklyn-based composing duo.

Withstanding is made possible in part by the support of the NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS. We are thankful for their support in bringing Withstanding to the public sphere, making conversations like these possible.