Mad House Publication IV Out Now
Mad House Publication is an experimental online space for art. Launched in 2020, the publication has been visually and functionally redesigned during 2023. The redesign has been carried out in collaboration with Heikki Lotvonen, Kiia Beilinson and Hanna Valle. The two-dimensional style of the publication draws on web-specific HTML and CSS elements such as default fonts and gradient colours, as well as the game culture.
The fourth issue of Publication features Trash Lover, a playful online work compiled from the notes of poet and performer Elsa Töll. Tölli was the first online artist-in-residence in October. Artist, teacher and researcher Freja Bäckman and performer, composer and sound designer Tari Doris invite the user to participate in the creation of the Cutovers drone concert. The concert is accompanied by a series of texts and glossary written by Bäckman and Tari's description of the concert. Kirjastoesseet #3: "Käytännön harjoituksia" is a poetry essay written by performance artist, researcher and writer Pilvi Porkola. The essay can also be listened. Hunajanjyvä, created by visual artist Sadet Hirsimäki and sound designer Eero Pulkkinen, presents Riista Live, the new event space opening in the forset in Kauttua. With the exception of Tölli, the artists in the recent release have been part of Mad House's stage programme in autumn 2023. The aim is to support dialogue between live performance and online content, and to create a different life cycle for the works, also from the audience's perspective.
The Publication working group Heikki, Kiia and Hanna describe the new publication as follows:
The visual concept of Mad House Publication lives with the changing seasons. It brings the space and time of the outside world into the website experience. The colours and atmosphere of the publication are always influenced by the time of publishing of the issue, which this time coincided with the darkest period of winter. The colours in this issue are inspired by the scarcity of light, and its echo on the horizon as darkness falls.
The visual look of the publication has been strongly influenced by the Grid Drawing Club -editor developed by Heikki, which set new guidelines for the graphic design of the publication and thus challenged to think outside the box about the process of creating visual surfaces. The visualisations created with the editor consist entirely of elements written in CSS code, text, colours and shapes built into an invisible grid.
The site is a tribute to Internet art and DIY coding through the decades.
The works in this publication are designed to be experienced at leisure, over time and on a large enough screen. Some features are only available in the desktop version. We want to create a space where you can linger and explore in the face of an increasingly hectic and short-lived online culture.
The publication was curated and edited by Mad House Helsinki curator and artist Anne Naukkarinen, in dialogue with curator and artist Maija Mustonen.
