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Day 17 – Thursday 20/7/17
Weather conditions: 18degrees, grey skies
The rain held off today, which was great as I was going out on my first extended field trip. I picked up the Serlachius van at 12pm and drove 30km to check out a mill in Juupajoki, which I had spotted from the bus on my return from Tampere the week before. Although the mill was fenced off I was still able to get close enough to get some decent recordings of the log feeder, which is a beast of a machine. I spent an hour or so there recording different aspects of the saw mill. The day was very productive. Earlier on I spotted an area that had large piles of cut wood stacked up ready to be picked up by a lorry sometime in the near future. I decided to stop and do some filming. I wasn’t there 10minutes when to my delight a lorry quietly pulled in, I couldn’t believe my good fortune. It took the driver an hour to load up, this gave me plenty of time to document the procedure both visually and sonically. I couldn’t have spent many more hours on location but I had to return the van back to the museum by 5.55pm.
Day 18 – Friday 21/7/17
Weather conditions: 18degrees, grey skies and rain
10am, I was interviewed by local reporter Heikki Vesterinen. On completion I reversed the tables and interviewed/documented his stories/reminisces of the forests and lakes.
12 - 2pm: prepared for my artist talk. This included setting up the sound equipment and hooking up my computer to the monitor.
3-3.30pm: rushed lunch.
3.45pm: photo shoot with Mänttä artist/curator Pirjetta Brander for local newspaper. Pirjetta is undertaking a 3mth studio residency at Alekanterin Linna.
4.15pm: Artist talk commences.
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Twenty-one people came to Friday Coffee to listen to Pirjetta and myself talk about our work. Although, this time round I actually spoke about the B–CSC and sound recording as I am doing another artist talk on Wednesday with Ignacio. I have to say I was in good form, very animated and I could see people were engaged. They enjoyed looking at the microphones and finding out what each was used for. Pirjetta, who has curated this years Mänttä Art Festival, which is happening at Pekilo [gallery] now, gave her artist talk in Finish. I assumed it was about the Art Festival, but regardless, I had plenty of questions. I had been to the festival and found it somewhat eclectic so I was keen to get some background information. I very much enjoyed the soirée, which aptly describes Friday Coffee. Visitors and artists were treated to wine, cheese, scrumptious strawberries/raspberries, chocolate, nuts and other tasty treats. Of cause there was tea and coffee. The event had wound down by 5.30 but doors remained open till 6pm as advertised. We packed up and called it a day.
Day 20 – Sunday 23/7/17
Weather conditions: 20degrees, cloudy with blue skies
Another productive day in the field. I picked up the van at 11am and headed back to Juupajoki saw mill. This time I planned to do visual documentation. I took a new route, to explore a back road that I had discovered the day before while doing location recording on my bike. Unfortunately this recording session came to a grinding halt when the rain set in. Taking the long route to Juupajoki was fortuitous. I’ve discovered a number of places close to Mänttä that I’d like to document, which are accessible by bike, this I will do over the next week or two. As I have mentioned in an earlier journal Mänttä’s environs are incredibly quiet, there isn’t a day that goes by when I am made aware of this. I spoke of the truck silently pulling in when I was documenting the log pile. I recorded its departure, which I thought would be a nosy affair. I imagined the truck would roar as it was fired up and groan under the weight of the logs. However, it slipped away discreetly with the levels remaining in the green.
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