Slipping Codes
11 photographs with text
The idea for Slipping Codes was born during my journey through Hungary in 2002. There I was struck with a deep lingual irritation since the Hungarian language sounds very much like my mother tongue Finnish even if I could not understand a word.
The language and the codes kept slipping away. It got more and more difficult to understand what was happening around me. I had took a book of Hungarian phrases with me but I realized that the proposed sentences had nothing to do with the reality of my travel. They might be a help when dealing with hotels, tourist offices, cleaning services or shopping etc. but for me they sounded quite virtual as if they came from another planet. The small book was not a communication help but an absurd travel company.
Slipping Codes is a work with 11 black and white photographs which have been taken with a digital camera. Quite different from usual touristic photographing they are too dark and not sharp enough. In this way I try to give expression to my desorientation. The images do not deal with any touristic attractions but with trivial codes and sceneries in public space though there seems to be some mystery and irritation in them. (When photographing these details I was frequently stopped by security services teams because I did not seem to behave like normal tourists.)
I have combined the photographs with some abstruse but then again suitable sentences and fragments in English and Hungarian language out of my book of phrases. Especially the phonetic version of the Hungarian sounds to me like dada aphorisms without any further meaning. Together with the mysterious images they seem to create new travel virtualities.
As an artist I am occupied with notions of home, identity and remembrance. Being a migrant I am especially interested in the subject of living between two cultures. In imaginary borderlands I am searching for spatial in-betweens where a “third“ way of creative living and working can develop. Travelling leads me to new spaces and perceptions.

JOKINEN©2002

Born in Helsinki, Finland
Photography, film, installations, performance,
art in the internet, participation projects, community art
Founding member of the artists group 5te Ebene (interactive net art)
lives and works mostly in Hamburg, Germany
Links: hybridenmuseum
          festival-eigenarten_sehnsuchtsformeln