Friends and Strangers is out

 

Friends and Strangers  is out. Friends and Strangers is a game that has been developed by åbäke and Per Hüttner to inspire new conversations. It includes 54 cards and 108 questions or tasks to be carried out by strangers to become friends and by friends to go deeper into friendship. Use it to turn a stranger into a friend (by getting to know them) or turn a friend into a stranger (by revealing unknown aspects of their inner worlds.) In order to make the most of the experience, we invite you to try to surprise yourself and thereby surprising others.

How it works:

There are no correct answers in this game, just an infinite number of reflections to share. Strangers and Friends has no losers, only players. Each card you draw has a question that

you discuss with the other players for as long as you like. Or it has a task that you carry out if you so wish. It is designed to be used in any situation: with your sister, at a family gathering or holiday, on a date or on a train. When you play Strangers and Friends you are NOT your values. You can test your own priorities. Why not try a stance that normally isn’t your own? Opposing positions should be fun. Make it your utmost priority to listen to the other person’s views. Agreeing is by no means a prerequisite. Rhetoric is welcomed, but synthesis of different opinions is not necessary. The mantra is “thesis, antithesis and prosthesis” rather than “thesis, antithesis and synthesis.” Avoid politics, social media and by all means polarisation between points of view. Prioritise curiosity, discovery and sharing rather than criticality. The goal is to have fun together, rather than striving to appear brilliant in front of others. Listening is more important than speaking (especially on a date!) and exchange more important than each person’s values and opinions. If you feel that you are being attacked, voice it. It does not mean that the other person is attacking you, it is time to move on to the next question. You can skip any question or activity that is not to your liking or that the circumstances make hard to carry out.

The publication has been supported by Längmanska kulturfonden and was published for Curatorial Mutiny’s 20th anniversary. Order your copy (12 euros + P&P) by dropping us a line on info [at] visionforum.eu.

IKFKOS in the Heart of Sami Country

Our sister organisation IKFKOS will carry out a workshop on a burial mound outside Krokvik, close to Kiruna in northern Sweden August 13-18, 2025. The work will focus on examining mankind’s connection to nature: to nature that is pulsating inside us and to nature which is sprawling and sprouting around us. Special attention will be paid to reflections about how contemporary Western civilisation breeds insensitivity to the natural vibrations within us and around us. We will reflect on how we, through rationality, have lost the connection to the outside world which is instead shaped by ideas and ideologies. This world view makes us focus on regrets about the past and the future and takes focus from life here and now. In the workshop we will investigate how, through traditional Sami and Kven knowledge and the arts, can reconnect to life in new and inspiring ways.

The group is made up of representatives from traditional Sami and Kven communities as well as practitioners in theatre, dance, music and visual art. The group will also be joined by an experienced medium. They will organise a public event at 15.00 on August 16. Please drop a line to info [at] visionforum.eu if you want to join the group.

xLEPH in Residency in Paris

The Franco-Swedish music collective xLEPH returns to La Generale in Paris for their second residency, June 2-9, 2025.

The collective has worked extensively with hypnosis and hypnotherapy in their performances and musical compositions in the last few years. For instance, in their performance at La Generale in 2023, both the audience and performers were under different levels of hypnotically induced trance.

During the residency they will synthesise and develop their work with hypnosis further. The residency will culminate in a radio-show for P-node, 8-9pm on June 9, 2025, entitled Hypno-collage. The radio show is a collective hypnotic journey. It brings together memories and traces of various artistic investigations where hypnosis has been used as well as snippets from preparatory hypnosic session. These are coupled with new music, new interviews along with real-time dialogues in the studio.

The hypnotic radio journey, is an artistic collage for anyone who is interested in music, art or the boundaries of the human mind and its perception of the world. The conversations will mostly be in French interspersed with shorter interludes in English. You can listen to it here. (https://p-node.org/residencies/xleph)

The residency is co-organised together with the EEGsynth association in Paris.

The Liminal in residency at Weld and Höjden

The Liminal, a new performance by Carima Neusser will be shown at Weld in Stockholm May 23-25 2025. You can order your tickets here.

The Liminal team with members from Sweden, Ireland, Finland, France, Portugal and Åland will be in residence at Höjden and at Weld in May 2025 to prepare for the event.

The Liminal is a mobile laboratory that moves between different European urban locations. The work is a collective investigation, where the team is actively involved in shaping the results. The final performance will be first shown in Stockholm and we hope that it will tour in Europe soon. The project is supported by The Nordic Culture Fund, Svenska kulturfonden, Kulturbryggan and co-produced with Vision Forum.

Trees and CO2 in Tunisia

Curatorial Mutiny and Vision Forum are organising an 5 day workshop in Tunis and Bizerte in Tunisia April 9-13, 2025. During the workshop the team will develop the project “Do Trees Dream of CO2” with their Tunisian partners.

“In our working process we focus primarily on trees’ and their inner signalling. We use the PepiPIAF technology to measure changes in their inner. This non-invasive technology is attached to a branch of a tree. It measures the changes in pressure and temperature inside the actual tree, based on how sap moves. It shows how a tree adapts itself to changes of temperature, season, and daily rhythm. From these measurements we can derive information about how the tree grows and to a certain degree how it adapts to outside changes. You can find more info about the PepiPIAF here. (In French only.) We also record the sounds that the tree makes as it grows using specially designed microphones. These sounds are then modulated by the data from the tree and by human digital musical tools.”

During the workshop the Franco-Swedish team will work will artists Soufia Bensaid and Hela Lamine. A public presentation will be held outside Bizerte on April 12. The program starts at 14h. Please drop us an e-mail (info [at] visionforum.eu) if you want to join. Participation is free, but the number of places limited.

Do Trees Dream of CO2 is supported by Kulturbryggan.

Alpha Xiao in Helsinki

Alpha Xiao is an experimental musical group using a portable electroencephalograph (EEG) and microbial activity to modulate designed audio samples in real time as well as a traditional Chinese flute called a Xiao.

Alpha Xiao has been in residency at La Generale in Paris March 26 – April 1, 2025 to prepare for the concert at Vuotalo Culture Centre, Helsinki. Their concert forms a part of Akusmata Polyphonic. Other performers include Koray Tahiroğlu and The Loopers’ Orchestra.

AKUSMATA POLYPHONIC 2025. Friday, April 4, 2025. Time: 18-20h Vuotalo Culture Centre, Helsinki.

Entrance is free.

Alpha Xiao’s participation in Akusmata Polyphonic is supported by the Nordic Culture Fund.

Alpha Xiao in Residency in Paris

Alpha Xiao is an experimental musical group using a portable electroencephalograph (EEG) and microbial activity to modulate designed audio samples in real time as well as a traditional Chinese flute called a Xiao. The two person constellation focuses musically on connectivity through rough sketches of compositions, sounds and themes. As brain waves and non-human life expressions influence certain dynamics of the sound, and vice versa, a type of feedback loop is generated between the activities of the technology and sound produced ad infinitum.

Alpha Xiao has been active in its musical exploration of mental and musical space since 2020. They often collaborate with other musicians and artists in different constellations such as Sebastian Campbell of God Mother, Petri Kuljantausta and Olav Westphalen. They have played extensively in various Stockholm venues, in Paris and they are preparing for a concert i Helsinki. Alpha Xiao has also created music for Fabien Guillermont and Toan Van Che’s full-length documentary “Reality Check” in 2024.

Alpha Xiao will be in residency at La Generale in Paris March 26 – April 1, 2025. During the residency they focus on new technology to modulate the flute’s sound in real time and make the influence of the EEG and microbes’ activity more central to their sound.

Listen to Alpha Xiao on Soundcloud.