What. Sound art residency
When. August 2021
Where.  Haparanda
Organizers. Haparanda Municipality and Resurscentrum för konst in collaboration with HapKult, Tornedalen & CO and Svefi.
Who. Marko Timlin (born 1973 in Karlsruhe, Germany)
Website. www.timlin.de

Marko Timlin is a German-Finnish sound artist, installation artist, performer and composer. His artistic work centers on the technical, aesthetic and philosophical development of kinetic sound sculptures, dynamic light installations, performances with self-made sound machines and multimedia theater plays.

"During my artist residency I strive to explore Haparanda’s residents, buildings, flora and fauna, transnational character, architecture and sounds. This might result in a collection of colors, forms, memories, images, soundscapes, smells and feelings that I aim to transform into a new artwork." 
 
His artworks are based on the following experiences, insights and principles:
 
• I find it absolutely fascinating to merge the human world (physical reality) with the machine world (electronic + digital)
• Already in the 1980s I made control systems to connect acoustic instruments with Atari computers, samplers and synthesizers
• These systems offered totally new sonic and aesthetic possibilities
• Nowadays I use electro-waste for my works, discarded devices that I rescue from the thrash
• First I open, clean and study them
• Then I resurrect them to a new artistic life
• Electronic devices reveal their true beauty after they are dismantled and their originally hidden interior becomes visible
• Complex circuit board lines resemble networks of blood vessels
• I spend a lot of time with this e-waste wondering: how does it work (electronics), how does it sound (listening) and how can I use it artistically (inspiration)?
• I connect this e-waste with highly modern, self-made control systems
• I put this e-waste into a totally new context: from dumpsters to museums, galleries and stages
• I love machines that have no practical utility and are only meant to create beauty and cause surprise
• My work highlights the possibility of a respectful and equal coexistence of man and technology
• I love kinetic artworks whose physical movements produce sound and light
• Since my machines work mechanically they are bound to the laws of physics
• My machines sing, rattle, vibrate, rotate, glow and shimmer
• Visitors are often surprised by their gentleness, fragility and euphony
• I follow the old dream of mankind: to breathe life into the machine
• To avoid enslavement it is extremely important to use technology in an imaginative and playful way
• Erkki Kurenniemi said: „technology won’t take control as long as man can misuse it”
• My vision: musicians, dancers + actors on stage with interactive machines
 
Timlin’s works have been exhibited and performed world-wide including at Whitebox New York (USA), Sound & Sight Festival Montréal (CA), Fylkingen Stockholm (SE), Kiasma Helsinki (FI),
Mal au Pixel Festival Paris (FR), E:vent gallery London (UK), MIMstuudio Tallinn (EST), Neues Museum Nürnberg (DE), Espoo Museum of Modern Art (FI), Digital Media Festival Valencia (ES), EMTRCC Nanchang (CN), Lofoten Sound Art Symposium (NO) and Pori Art Museum (FI).