Tiina Lapola

Sonic children in the landscape

Finnish sound & media educator Tiina Lapola, who helps partner organization Hai Art in some projects with children/youths, was proposed to take part in Playing the Rural Landscape series of artist residencies, one of which took place in October 2015 in the rural village of Fataunços (municipality of Vouzela). Tiina developed a series of workshops with local children using field recordings, improvisations with electronic music and explorations with voice, movement and expression. She created a final audiovisual piece using all these collected materials.

Hearing forest whisperings, gnomes and fairies laughing are the universal substances associated with childhood as part of their imaginary world. In the rational world only kids have the privilege of expressing their experiences of the invisible or unseen as real. At some point (nowadays unfortunately younger and younger) you are expected to grow up and start using your senses in appropriated and accepted ways suitable for the operating environment based on performance orientation. Seeing a tree as a tribe and the leaves as its people is a possibility for understanding the importance of cherishing all life. Connection with the nature and seeing the fragile yet abundant renewal is a gate way into understanding the diversity in people and cultures and the richness in it.

Tiina Lapola hopes that connecting sound art with the invisible world and environmental awareness in her works could give people new perspectives in understanding and appreciating childhood and the necessity of it in us relating more aware with our existence in later stages of life. When working with such nuanced subjects a sound artist could be facing bias and people questioning the meaning / importance of sound art where as the capability of children in facing something new without prejudice is an auspicious zone for sound artists to work in.

Tiina Lapola (1982) was born in Mölndal in Sweden but grew up in a small rural village called Lumijoki in northern Finland. She is Hai Art’s educator in a sense of MAKER. She established her DIY (do-it-yourself) and DIWO (do it with others) practices. Tiina has invented the outdoor bicycle artretki trips and has managed Hai Arts media & makers LAB for the last 2 years. She studied textile design and manufacture in the arts and crafts school of Ilmajoki (2002). In 2015 she started training for post-graduate studies to be a specialized instructor for children and young people. She has studied soundarts along side Hai Art practice, Antye Greie-Ripatti and visiting soundartists. Her goal is to take advantage of sound art and other experimental art forms to prevent the social exclusion of young people from society and improve children’s and young people’s social competence. When grown in rural areas of natural importance is reflected in her making and the creation process.