As New Year’s Eve approached I got increasingly desperate. An old friend had a party coming up. I’d see all the people who’re in Finland only for the holidays. It’d be very comfortable and incestuous.
My brother was feeling much the same. He’s been living abroad so long he didn’t have a party lined up at [...]

My grandmother found some old C-casettes of me and my brother singing and playing when we were very young. My brother is subtle and playful, while I sound aggressive and manic.
The same tapes also revealed that our grandmother read Darwin’s the Origin of the Species to us as a bedtime story. I asked her about [...]

My feminine alter-ego, my unwitting electronic double Mademoiselle Juhana Pettersson is now happily moored in the safe harbor of marriage. I have started to get trash mail addressed to Madam Juhana Pettersson. Miraculously, they have spelled the name right. The identity of the lucky man (or woman, since in Finland it’s possible for women to [...]

I have settled down in France with surprizingly little difficulty. Today, I spent four hours tracking down and transporting my freight shipment, but at least the computer within was in one piece and functional. I’ve noticed that the two things that make a home a home are my own computer and an internet connection. Always [...]

Moving is a bitch. Moving from Helsinki, Finland to Lille, France with virtually no budget is quite something else. After going though all the options, from travelling by train, car, bus or plane, and sending my stuff by post, as air freight or via a moving company I finally settled on flying. I fly on [...]

I just got a letter addressed to
Mademoiselle Juhana Lanti Pettersson
Sheilmanimkath 29 A 18
Finlande
I have to respect the Finnish postal system. Incidentally, it seems that I got through to stage two with my application to Le Fresnoy.  Off to France in less than a week.

The air in my room is getting stale. It’s too cold to ventilate. Minus twenty plus the wind. Opening the window for a moment creates the illusion of fresh air. The temperature inside drops quickly. The air is arid. The illusion is dispersed as the air heats up again. The stifling feeling is compounded by [...]

Protesting has become an arduous business. Running too long in the cold always leaves the taste of blood in my throat. I can’t think it’s healthy. After hours spent standing and walking outside with my right hand holding up the camera, the fingers don’t move on their own.
I left work at Hurjaruuth early today to [...]

I have been the nightwatchman for the Circo Aereo tent on the Aurora Field since Monday. The field is perfect. It is in the conceptual center of Helsinki; one can turn around and see, in turn, the Olympics Stadion, the New Opera House, Finlandia-House, the National Museum, House of Parliament, the VR Magazines, Kiasma, Sanoma-House, [...]