Esineiden Valtakunta - Tangible Cosmologies

The goal of the CD-ROM was to produce an interactive and artistically challenging work from documentary material (film, interviews and photographs). The project`s production scheme started out just like a traditional documentary film: the authors travelled around Finland filming and interviewing the collectors. An interactive framework was created to preserve the authenticity of the stories, but with a shattered story line, thereby allowing a non-linear experience.

The design of interfaces reaches through every level of the work; each collector interface has its own unique character. It concentrates the visual information on the most essential aspects while giving space to the impressive stories of the collectors.

The main interface of the Tangible Cosmologies is a tree of paths. The paths are made of 16 mm film. By moving along the film paths, the frames become alive showing different situations between man, nature and object. Along the paths - attached like fruits to a tree of common history - are the tales of the collectors` personal histories.

The sections of six collectors were chosen to have larger interfaces than the other 24. They represent different collector types, which are discussed further in the book. They are the camera-, the butterfly-, the Walt-Disney-, the bird-watcher-, the salt-cellar- and the TV-set-collector.
Examples of other objects the collectors gathered:

military and aviation technology
helicopters
railway tankers
scalextrics
film, TV-series and comic strip toys
old tractors, chain-saws and agricultural machines
Finnish military uniforms and military parapharnalia
stuffed animals and hunting equipment



			"We `ve often wondered whether we`re quite mad. It`s all so exciting. Your hands tremble when you spot something and you just hope that no one else will grab it first."
	Collecting things has become a hobby for an ever-expanding group of people in recent times. One motive behind it would see to be a desire to master one`s environment, so that the wish to impose order on things frequently finds an outlet in mastery over the overwhelming flood of objects and images created by the machinery of mass production.

The Tangible Cosmologies-project was a collaborative work producing a book, a film, a CD-ROM, and a photography and multimedia exhibition. Each outcome of the project is an independent artwork reflecting the same content from different perspectives. While the CD-ROM contains the stories of thirty collectors who tell their life in their own words, the book analyzes their stories in relation to the historical spectrum of collecting, museums and modern consumer culture.The exhibition took place in the Museum for Modern Art in February of 1997. The CD-ROM was directed and designed by Hanna Haaslahti. The script for it was made in collaboration with photographer Veli Granö who had the original idea for the project.

		Screenshots from the CD-ROM The goal of the CD-ROM was to produce an interactive and artistically challenging work from documentary material (film, interviews and photographs). The project`s production scheme started out just like a traditional documentary film: the authors travelled around Finland filming and interviewing the collectors. An interactive framework was created to preserve the authenticity of the stories, but with a shattered story line, thereby allowing a non-linear experience. The design of interfaces reaches through every level of the work; each collector interface has its own unique character. It concentrates the visual information on the most essential aspects while giving space to the impressive stories of the collectors. The main interface of the Tangible Cosmologies is a tree of paths. The paths are made of 16 mm film. By moving along the film paths, the frames become alive showing different situations between man, nature and object. Along the paths - attached like fruits to a tree of common history - are the tales of the collectors` personal histories. The sections of six collectors were chosen to have larger interfaces than the other 24. They represent different collector types, which are discussed further in the book. They are the camera-, the butterfly-, the Walt-Disney-, the bird-watcher-, the salt-cellar- and the TV-set-collector. Examples of other objects the collectors gathered: military and aviation technology helicopters railway tankers scalextrics film, TV-series and comic strip toys old tractors, chain-saws and agricultural machines Finnish military uniforms and military parapharnalia stuffed animals and hunting equipment

"We `ve often wondered whether we`re quite mad. It`s all so exciting. Your hands tremble when you spot something and you just hope that no one else will grab it first."