WIP – Work in Progress is a new – and hopefully recurring – event concept for artists and audiences interested in experimental music, sound art, music theatre, and interdisciplinary performance. It offers a chance to encounter new works and ideas while they are still taking shape. Come listen, join the conversation, and get a glimpse behind the scenes of the artistic process!
The evening features three works at different stages of development. WIP creates a space where unfinished work is seen as an opportunity – a space where many directions are still open and where artistic risks can be taken. The aim is to make the creative process visible and to offer audiences a unique insight into how new works are conceived and developed.
Each presentation is followed by an open discussion, inviting artists and audiences to exchange ideas, share feedback, and reflect on the works together.
WIP aims to pilot a new event format that gives artists the opportunity to test ideas, build collaborations, and take the first steps towards larger productions. In the long term, the goal is to establish a regular meeting place for the independent experimental music, music theatre, and sound art communities, as well as for anyone interested in experiencing how new art comes into being.
Project 1:
[Labyrinth] is an idea of an immersive music theatre performance-installation that explores the power of collective vocal rituals in contemporary society. The working group aims to explore how collective voices can empower, persuade, and mobilize. The core of the piece is going to be a physical labyrinth built within the space, functioning as an installation outside of performance times.
The piece is co-created by composer-performer Miika Hyytiäinen, vocalist-performers Sarah Albu and Annika Fuhrmann, sound designer-guitarist Jukka Kääriäinen, costume designer-visual artist Karoliina Korhonen, and librettist-dramaturg Susanne Kass.
During WIP #1 the working group will demonstrate and test out the structure of the labyrinth as well as some musical ideas and interaction with the audience.
Project 2:
[Survey] is a disjointed mix of scenes and fragments in different directions: an imagined hymn for ghosts of past labor movements, an exploration of breath and whisper and light, synthesized and acoustic voices… all in the broad veins of sound and story-telling. Are these from the same project? No. Will they be part of larger future projects? Maybe. Will they be interesting and entertaining? Probably, I think so.
Wilson Tanner Smith (USA/FI) is a composer, improviser, cellist, and theatre artist currently based in Helsinki, whose work at the edges of music and multimedia theatre often explores the alienations and ordinary absurdities we face in the world around us, and what they say about the people, systems, and structures we live with.
Project 3:
“kalama musi lili” — translated from the Toki Pona language, for example, as “Little Art Music,” “A Playful Hint of Noise,” or “The Little Joy of Noise” — sets things in motion [from play: what kind of song cycle emerges from a collaboration with artificial intelligence, combining a minimalist language with a maximalist sensibility].
Developed in 2001, toki pona strips language down to its bare bones. Its vocabulary of 123 words covers the entire range of human experience—which is why each word carries multiple meanings and can function as a noun or a verb. For example, “kalama” is a sound, to make a sound, a song, to sing, to rumble, to drum, to clap, to laugh, to beep, etc. [The 31-EDO tuning used in this song series] divides an octave into 31 equal parts [instead of the more familiar] 12. [That’s quite a lot!] These rules are [pretty much unknown even] to artificial intelligence—and it is precisely that ignorance[that is] the driving force behind the work.
Lyrics: Miika Hyytiäinen and AI
Composition: Miika Hyytiäinen
Recording: Miika Hyytiäinen (editing and sound design) and AI
Vocals: Iida Hirvola