Rengo: Context, Experience, Process


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Symposium:


Title:
  • Rengo: Context, Experience, Process

Organiser/Presenter(s):


Statement:

  • WIRELESS EXPERIENCE

    Renga is a practice originating from medieval Japan, based upon collecive activity and linked-verse – each person contributes a poetic fragment which, when combined, creates a whole poem. Aware present their own contemporary experience of a renga session in the immediate surroundings of Arabiaranta.

    The collaboration between our multi-disciplinary group of 7 persons (John Evns, Iiris Konttinen, Meri Laitinen, Susanna Neiglick, Renita Niemi, Andrew Paterson, Niko Pyrhonen) began with sessions in June/July 2004, introducing renga rules, collaborative tools, self-documentation, design practice, mobile Media projects and systems.

    In mid-July, we shifted into an intensive workshop at a summer cottage, near Turku. Here we experimented with rapid-prototyping, exploring rules, logic and wireless media engagement. During this period, sonic media artist Sophea Lerner (AU/FI) joined the process as a ‘renga mistress’ for the group. Upon our return to Helsinki, we took part in renga sessions over limited time durations, in a specific location – Arabiaranta. These were archived using the Aware platform, including the significant contextual metadata of the activity.

    We invite small audience groups to the situated context of engagement for a guided tour (30-45 minutes) based on the group’s experience and memory of the collaborative session, a practice we call ‘rengo’.

    Aware developed as a multidisciplinary project initiated by John Evans (UK/FI), Markus Ort (CH/DE), Aki-Ville Poykio (FI) & ndrew Paterson (UK/FI)at Media Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki. Mika Raento (FI), CONTEXT group researcher at the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, contributes to the rengo project as a technical collaborator.

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