Taidetelakka project culminated in the release of the Wildness Makes This World -LP

Doctoral students of the University of the Arts Helsinki collaborated with a professional rhythm music orchestra

Picture of a LP cover
Jenni Latva Matthew Cowan and LKO: Wildness Makes This World LP-record.

Taidetelakka project organized by the Seinäjoki unit of the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts Helsinki) combined doctoral students Soila Sariola (Sibelius Academy) and Matthew Cowan (Academy of Fine Arts) and Master of Arts (dance) Hanna Korhonen alumni of the Theater Academy with multi-arts projects together with a professional rhythm music orchestra

Taidetelakka project was implemented in 2019-2021 and was funded by the University Consortium of Seinäjoki. At the heart of the collaboration was Laitakaupungin orkesteri, a professional orchestra of rhythm music from Seinäjoki. Together with the orchestra doctoral students and alumni of the University of the Arts Helsinki produced art content in the fields of dance, visual arts, music and improvisation. The purpose was to bring the activities of all the academies of the University of the Arts Helsinki to Seinäjoki in a new way.

Soila Sariola, who doctoral student at the Sibelius Academy’s Doctoral School of Music Education, Jazz and Folk Music (MuTri), created improvised sound installations with the Laitakaupungin orkesteri for two consecutive evenings in an empty business space in the center of Seinäjoki. The three-hour performance was completely improvised on both evenings, and the audience got to see it for as long as they wanted.

A stage work “Kehoon kudottu” was created in collaboration with) Hanna Korhonen (Master of Arts, dance) and the Laitakaupungin orkesteri. The work combines music, text and dance and was based on research material acquired by Marjo Kamila, PhD, and the Finnish Literary Society in 2015, which was collected under the title “Oma ulkonäkö muistoissani”.

The longest process in the Taidetelakka project was a collaboration between Matthew Cowan, a doctoral student at the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Laitakaupungin orkesteri, which changed its form and schedule due to the corona pandemic. As a result of the collaboration was a half-hour work that combines experimental soundscapes produced with various acoustic instruments and field recordings made by Cowan from Berlin. The multidimensional process went through the concept of wildness, its occurrence today, and how wildness could be expressed with the musicians’own instruments. The soundscape was part of the Wildness Makes This World exhibition on display at Seinäjoki kunsthalle. A limited number of LPs have been produced from the soundscape.