[artinfo] PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI!

[juha huuskonen]

PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI
www.publicopinion.fi
24 Jan-6 Feb 2005
Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki

ANNOUNCEMENT - 15 Dec 2004

PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI - an alternative Parliament House

PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI is an alternative Parliament House.
It will have its home opposite to the Finnish Parliament House, in Kiasma
Museum of Contemporary Art. The name of the project refers to the location
of the Finnish Parliament House - Arkadianmaki ('Arcadia hill') is the
Finnish Capitol Hill.

PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI will organise a series of public
Referendums on the Internet. The topics of the Referendums have been
chosen by artists and activists, who have created projects which offer
alternative views of how we can share our opinions and influence the
world around us.

Utopian World Championship is a worldwide competition in visionary
thinking. For PLAN*B FOR ARKADIANMAKI, they have decided to
present one of the competition entries from this year; an experiment in
direct democracy called Demoex, which has become a part of the
local decision-making process in the Vallentuna municipality of Sweden.

The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide a counterpoint to today's
"faster/cheaper" mindset and promote "slower/better" thinking. The
foundation has initiated a series of ambitious real world projects to
creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

Amorph!03 Festival gathered together the official representatives of the
Micronations for the very first time. Micronations are 'do-it-yourself
nations', nations which have been established by individual people or
artist groups.

2000.katastro.fi project collected the thoughts of the Finnish people
during the last weeks of the previous millennium. The Yes Men and
Kaulbach Society use creative means to criticize national and global
power structures. Homokaasu.org is a mystifyingly popular website,
which features projects requiring collective participation, such as the
Kill Everyone Project.

The voting period for PLAN*B Referendums is 24th Jan-6th Feb 2005.
The local audience can follow the progress of the Referendums from a
large-scale outdoor video screen. In addition to topics chosen by artists
and activists, one of the Referendum topics will be chosen by the public.
During the voting period, several discussion sessions and other public
events will be organised. The final results of the PLAN*B Referendums
will be submitted to the Finnish Parliament.

More information

PLAN*B website contains short descriptions of the Referendum
topics and introductions to all the projects. More information about
the PLAN*B program will be published in January 2005.

Web: www.publicopinion.fi  -  E-mail: info at publicopinion.fi

Phone: +358 40 570 96 17 / Juha Huuskonen