When my three-year project Pondering with Pines officially ended at the end of the year I was already fairly sure that junipers would be my next companions, and I started a small tumblr-blog called Joining Junipers. I’m not going to form any other separate blog for junipers, but I did create a media archive with the same name on the RC platform, Joining Junipers. Although this is not a formal project I will gather material about my encounters with junipers there. I’ve already chosen three junipers to have conversations with, two in Helsinki and one in Stockholm. With the juniper in Stockholm I speak Swedish, with the Juniper on Harakka Island Finnish and with the one in Suomenlinna English, in a series called With the Juniper in Suomenlinna. The project as a whole is called Joining Junipers, because Joining the Junipers would assumably mean linking together junipers rather than me joining them.

The most important thing that happened to me during this year of wars and disasters are the two cats Pipo and Pompe that came into my life in July and radically changed my days. There were other exciting things, too, old and new projects and people, some of them listed below, but nothing as overwhelming as these two characters whose wellbeing I am now responsible for and whose constant benign presence I can enjoy.
 

 
Projects and ongoing events in 2024
As an auspicious start for the year I was elected honorary member of Artists’ Association MUU (2024-), see here, and an interview in Finnish, here.
Pondering with Pines – Miettii mäntyjen kanssa – Funderar med furor (2022-2024), my main concern and a development and continuation of my previous projects related to trees was concluded this year, although I will continue working with the materials. See presentation in English at Uniarts website, the three-lingual blog here and the archive on the RC, here. One example is The Pine of the Year – The year of the Pine, see here.
I have had the opportunity to participate in the project Gifts from the Sentient Forest, which will continue in 2025, see project website and my personal archive on the RC.
The podcast Talking with Trees – Puhetta Puille – Talar med Träd on Soundcloud, here will continue in some manner.
Animal Years via qr codes on location on Harakka Island, see map here was temporarily out of function, but will be repaired in the Spring.

Exhibitions, events and performances in 2024
Tala om det för Tallen (Tell it to the Pine) in Hippolyte studio 1-24.11.2024. See here.
With the Pine in Kaivopuisto Park 2-3-1 at Muu Mediataidetori 17-21.10.2024.
Männyn kanssa – With a Pine – Med en fura, Telegraf gallery on Harakka Island 20.8.-1.9.2024. Se here.
Citizen Pine, installation as part of City is sound, city is quicksand 21-23.5.2024.
Screening of With the Master Pine – mix and Dearest Pine Tree in pop-up exhibition, Yögalleria 10.4.2024.
Rakas Kuusi (Dear Spruce) in the compilation Tuhon ja tunteiden metsä or Trees and Destruction by AV-arkki at the Tampere Film Festival 7 and 9.3.2024. See program book.
Day with Pine in the MUU Gala compilation at Taidekeskus Itä, Lappeenranta 17.2.2024.
Listening with a Pine (mix) as part of the program The Strolling Creatures of Light at MUU Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre 27.1.2024.
Performing in Auringonvihreä – hommage to poet Gunnar Björling by Sanna Kekäläinen at the Helsinki Observatory 25-27.1.2024.
Pondering with Pines – Conversation in Three Languages, exhibition at Muu Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre 7-21.1.2024. See info. Small review in Finnish here.

Publications in 2024
How to Do Things with Artistic Research – Animal Years Revisited. Acta Scenica 65, University of the Arts Helsinki, 2024. See here.
Arlander, Annette, Barton, Bruce, Householder, Johanna and Man, Michelle. 2024. “The Work of Sharing: Discussing Performance in the Mode of Performance”.Performance Philosophy Journal Vol.9 No.1 (2024): Performance Philosophy Problems, 121-135.
“Workshop with a Pine” in Mend-Blend-Attend: Advancing Artistic Research, Proceedings of the 13th SAR International conference on Artistic Research, 86-95.
“Revisiting the Rusty Ring: Ecofeminism Today?” A video essay from 2020 reprinted in Special Retrospective Issue of PARtake: The Journal of Performance As Research, 6(2). See here.
“Writing to Trees with the Trees – experiments in NIROX and Mustarinda” in Taub, Myer (ed.) Forests and Fences, London & New York: Routledge, 2024, 29-47.
”’Kertaa ja koosta’ – työmenetelmä ja julkaisumuoto” [Upprepa on sammanställ – arbetsmetod och publikationsformat] in Järvinen, Hanna (ed.) Miten tehdä esityksellä [How to do things with performance], Tampere: Vastapaino 2024, 191-223.
Conversation in Jatun Risba, Daniele J Minns, O.Pen Be: “Queering ecologies to cultivate unity”, Antennae issue 64, 2024, 165-176.
“Practicing with Trees” in Sondra Fraleigh and Shannon Rose Riley (eds.) Geographies of Us: Ecosomatic Essays and Practice Pages, Routledge 2024, 219-224.

Talks, presentations and academic tasks in 2024
Opponent for Alexandra Ianchenko, “Estranging Trams: Atmospheres of Trams in Art”, Tallinn University 12.11.2024.
Lecture in the course Research through Art and Design, Aalto Arts 7.11.2024.
“Pondering with a Pine in the Park”, Metsäsuhdeklubin iltapäivä [Human-Forest Relationship Research Club] Metsä, kestävyys ja dialogi at Forest science’s day 23.10.2024, see here
“In Assemblage with a Pine” at PSi#29 Assemble in London 20-23.6.2024.
“Pondering with a Pine Near You” for the Artistic Research Working Group of PSi at PSi#29 Assemble in London 20-23.6.2024, see working group blog
”Miettii mäntyjen kanssa – miten kohdata puu subjektina taiteellisen tutkimuksen kontekstissa” [Pondering with Pines – how to encounter a tree as a subject in the context of artistic research], see <program for seminar in Lusto 27-28.5.2024.
Performance and response at Artistic Research Working Group online meetings 19.4. and 3.5.2024.
Presentation “Repeat, revisit, recreate – Revisit, recreate, reflect” at Helsinki Photomedia conference 11-14.4.2024.
Seminar with MA students of Contemporary Dramaturgy and Performance Research at Uniarts Helsinki 5.4.2024.
Seminar on autotheory, autofiction, autoetnography and performative writing for doctoral students at Uniarts Helsinki with Hanna Järvinen and Pilvi Porkola (2023-2024).
Seminar on Documentation and Sharing for doctoral candidates in Oslo 7-8.2.2024.
Lecture on documentation for MA students at SKH (Stockholms Konstnärliga Högskola) 2.2.2024.
Conversation with Karoliina Lummaa and Olga Cielemecka at Muu Helsinki Contemporary Art Centre 13.1.2024 See info
 
Thank you
for all these opportunities to collaborate with fascinating people and beings of all kinds, and best wishes for the coming year 2025!
 
 

QR codes are supposed to be reliable and practical but I have encountered some problems, again. This time, to my surprise, the free QR code generator program that I used in 2023 has changed owner or policy and now want to lease the QR codes for quite a sum each month, which is not an option in this case. Probably they have changed the static codes to dynamic codes (see screenshot blow) but how you can do that in retrospect, I cannot understand. Anyway, before I can make new metal signs and place them on top of the old ones, probably only next spring, the videos are temporarily visible on this page
 

Two grown-up male cats from Turku, Pipo and Pompeo, are now living with me and have already changed my way of life. Probably they will change my art making too at some point. For now I am learning how to take care of these miraculous beings:
 

Pipo

Pompeo
 
 
 

 
The first visit to the island after the ice break is always an experience and this time the rain made it special. The houseplants in my studio had survived the long period of drought and I was especially glad to see that most of the small aluminium signs placed around the island for the series Animal Years were still there. Moreover, the qr codes worked and linked to the videos online, as planned. The sign for the Year of the Pig on the cliff in northwest was detached and a friendly passerby had placed it next to the rail with the sign for the Year of the Monkey, where I could find it. I shall put it back somewhere near as soon as possible (in the image it is on my table). The sign for the Year of the Rat on the rock at the north-eastern shore had completely disappeared and I should order a new one. The other signs are all where they are supposed to be, as shown by the pictures:
 

To celebrate the leap day I will note a few events from the beginning of the year as a reminder of those great experiences. First of all I had an exhibition in MUU Helsinki Contemporay Art Centre, Pondering with Pines – Conversations in Three Languages 7-21. January. The material from the exhibition is available on this RC-page. There was a conversation with Olga Cielemecka and Karoliina Lummaa in connection with the exhibition on 13 January. Moreover, I was selected an honorary member of Muu, together with Irma Optimist and Terike Haapoja and we celebrated that on 19 January. Listening with a Pine-mix (2023) was part of a one-day exhibition “Strolling Creatures of Light” in MUU on 26 January. Participating in Sanna Kekäläinen’s performance Auringonvihreä in the Helsinki Observatory, reading Gunnar Björling’s poems in their original language, Swedish, at the end of the show was a beautiful experience in another way on 25-27 January. In February I had an online lecture for MA students at Stockholm University of the Arts on 2 February, led a seminar for Norwegian doctoral candidates in artistic research in Oslo 7-9 February and participated in the pre-examination of a doctoral dissertation jointly organised by Tallinn University and Åbo Akademi on 15 February. And the seminar on auto-theory etc. at University of the Arts Helsinki continues a few more times on 24 January, 14 February and 14 March. The Muu Gala compilation was screened in Lappeenranta on 17 February, including my small video Day with a Pine (2020) although I could not go there to see it. Another short video of mine, Rakas Kuusi or Dear Pine (2020) is shown in a screening compiled by AV-arkki, the Distribution Centre for Finnish Media Art, “Trees & Destruction” at the Tampere shortfilm festival on 7 and 9 March. And I will go to Tampere as a first timer to marvel at the ways of the film world.
For me the start of the year usually means instigating new processes, as I did this time as well. Only my visits to the pine by Essingeleden motorway in Stockholm will continue from last year. In Helsinki I chose four new pine trees in January to visit once a month: The Pine of the Year in Kaivopuisto Park that I will “play” blues harp for, two pine trees on the shore in Kaivopuisto Park that I will chat with in English, a pine on the shore in Drumsö that I will address in Swedish and a pine on the shore in Mustikkamaa that I will speak Finnish with. Disappointments are unavoidable, as many applications receive negative responses, and so are small accidents – during the last weeks I have had my teeth repaired several times – but I have to say that the year has commenced well. Let’s hope the tailwind will continue…