Central Park Archives sound walk Central Park Archives sound walk

Central Park Archives sound walk

launch of the prototype interface

The pilot phase of Central Park Archives culminated with a launch of the interface and a curated walk that demonstrated the workings of the website interface, in the Allotment gardens of Maunula’s Central Park.

Artists Susanna Ånäs and Ali Akbar Mehta, in collaboration with Arun Ganesh from Mapbox and technical support from Palash Mukhopadhyay, developed a locative map interface as part of their M-cult Residency in Maunula.

Visitors experienced the archive on-site, by walking in the forest. Through the walk, the audience/participants explored the hybridised physical+digital space through stories, interviews, and ambient soundscapes presented as audio files, as well as photographs and archive documents. Through the website’s “exploration mode” they found the mapped elements by following the increasing volume of the sounds as they grew nearer and other directions provided by the interface. With aerial photos from previous decades, the map interface also makes visible the geographical changes to the Park, the Maunula area, and its surroundings.

The first collections include Allotment Stories, Flying Squirrel Mating Games, General Plan 2050 Protests, and a selection of Maunulan Sanomat newspaper stories about the Central Park. The collections of sounds and photographs were edited by Kalle Kuisma, Iida Nissinen, and Minna Tarkka with contributions from Susanna Pitkänen and Antti Viren. Further material will continue to be processed and added to later editions of the interface.

Event details:

Central Park Archives sound walk
Thursday, September 24, 16:00-18:00

Continuous minibus transportation from Maunula House (Metsäpurontie 4) to walk venue and back. Herb tea, coffee, and lingonberry pie serving at the Maunula allotment gardens.
Welcome!

Annet Dekker, Susanna Ånäs, and Ali Akbar Mehta will discuss the project right after the walk in the Rehearsing Hospitalities online programme by Frame Contemporary Art Finland.