Spring 2026 at M-Cult: A Season in Review
Season Wrap Up
As M-Cult prepares for the summer break, we look back on a vibrant spring season filled with workshops, performances, lectures, residencies, and new international collaborations.
Unboxing the M-Cult Archives
In January we continued our Unboxing the M-Cult Archives series, live-streamed monthly on YouTube. Each episode dives into the recent histories of Finnish media art and culture.
Lähiympäristömediapajat
In February we had the pleasure of launching Lähiympäristömediapajat (Central Park Local Media Workshops), which ran throughout the spring. Hosted at Maunula House, the workshop series brought together local participants to document and narrate their environments through different media: documentary film, sound recording, and meme-making.
We had the brilliant Jouko Aaltonen (director) lead a session on documentary practices in connection to Helsinki Central Park, Kalle Kuisma (M-Cult's Technical Producer) lead a sound recording and narration workshop, and Jenna Jauhiainen (artists and activist) explored memes as tools for counter-speech and activism. Listen to the jingle produced in the workshop by Karoliina Kanervo and Jari Kiviniitty on Puistoradio, Helsinginkeskuspuisto.fi.
Meaning Making Audio Documentation Series
Alongside the workshops, we launched Meaning Making, a new audio documentation series featuring conversations with artists and speakers from M-Cult's programme. The series asks: Who are you, what do you do and how, and above all, why? Listen to Episode #1 featuring Jouko Aaltonen, Jenna Jauhiainen and Kalle Kuisma.
New Members and Collaborations
March brought both new collaborations and new beginnings. We welcomed 12 new members and and kicked off our exciting new collaboration with Accton Art Foundation and Zone Sound Creative from Taiwan, introducing our Helsinki Central Park activities to our Taiwanese colleagues. The collaboration, titled In Between – Wetland and Park Forest, will invite artists to explore Helsinki Central Park and the Siangshan Wetland in Hsinchu. Stay tuned to learn more about the artists who will be working in these contexts!
Launch of Gaming the Civic Programme
The month also saw the launch of Gaming the Civic, a new multi-year programme exploring how digital games and gamification can open up new conversations about civic life and democratic participation. In this programme you will see newly commissioned artworks placed in public spaces, alongside workshops that bring together game designers, media artists, and anyone interested.
Inside and After asses.masses
In April Animal Farm met Pokémon met Final Fantasy when unemployed donkeys took over the stage. Artists Patrick Blenkarn and Laurel Green brought their game-based work asses.masses to Helsinki. Together with Helsinki-based performance maker and game designer Harold Hejazi, they unpacked how asses.masses was created, broke open its dramaturgy, and reflected on what happened when audiences moved from spectators to players.
Gaming, Body and Civic Realms
We continued the programme with a Lecture-Workshop day at Aalto University on Gaming, Body and Civic Realms with artist Nina Davies, curator of Arts Technologies at Serpentine Gallery Tamar Clarke-Brown, and researcher and experimental game-maker Leland Masek. Day concluded with fun and games: Speed-dating style of game design workshops – in 10 minutes!
Collaboration with AV-arkki and Finnish Light Art Society FLASH
On the collaboration side, in April we started our new partnership with AV-arkki and the Finnish Light Art Society FLASH as part of the Finnish Media Art Networks project, funded by the Finnish Arts and Culture Agency. The collaboration supports the internationalisation of Finnish media art and creates new structures for artists working across art, media, and technology.
New Residency Programmes
In May we were super excited to share M-Cult's new residency programmes: Helsinki–London: Recoding Realities (in partnership with arebyte Digital Art Centre and Finnish Culture Institute in UK and Ireland), Helsinki–Hsinchu: In Between – Wetland and Park Forest (with Accton Art Foundation and Zone Sound Creative, Taipei and Hsinchu), and Baltics and Nordics – Residing Non-linear Technologies and Sonic Worldings (with Titanik Gallery, Turku). We also launched our very own residency apartment in Vallila, Helsinki – a gift from M-Cult’s beloved founder Minna Tarkka.
Everyday Priorities Workshops
To wrap up the season, we were happy to host two brilliant workshops as part of Everyday Priorities – Art, Technology and Accommodations:
Ren Loren Britton is a researcher, artist, and trans*/disability activist whose practice sits at the intersection of technology, bodies, and justice. At Trans Library Helsinki, Ren presented Indexing for Disability Justice on Pleasure – Compensation, Compression & Weighted Blankets. The index is a provocation on how classification and indexing systems encode power, and how they might instead hold space for pleasure, access, and radical care.
Read more about Indexing for Disability Justice on Pleasure
Lee Tzu Tung (李紫彤, they/them) is a queer feminist artist from Taiwan whose work explores trauma, politics, and economic activism through digital and socially-engaged practices. At SOLU / Bioart Society, Lee presented The Body's Tale of Mercy & Vengeance (BOTAMEVE), which is a feminist fight club rooted in Crip Theory.
Coming Up Next Autumn
While M-Cult's activities pause for the summer, preparations are already underway for the autumn season. This September, M-Cult and Zodiak – Center for New Dance are joining forces for the first time, bringing a live performance that follows the uncanny trail from GTA V game worlds to TikTok trends to AI systems overflowing into bodies in public space. The live performance is part of M-Cult's Gaming the Civic programme.
The Inexorable Non-Player Character by Nina Davies & 2girls1comp
SEPTEMBER 5–6 | Saturday at 16:00 | Sunday at 13:00 & 15:00 |
| Dance House Helsinki, Cable Factory |
| 30 min | Free and open to all |
How game culture and the performed self of the internet intertwine into everyday life? The Inexorable Non-Player Character is a new live performance by artist Nina Davies and modding duo 2girls1comp, linking Davies' film Precursing with 2girls1comp's GTA V modification Dancing Plague. The performance traces how Non-Player Character movements travel from game worlds through TikTok into real-world bodies and back – into predictive technologies.
Mark your calendars – Full details coming soon, also on ZODIAK webpage!
Summer Break
As we head into the summer break, we would like to thank all the artists, partners, participants, members, and audiences who have been part of M-Cult's spring season. Your curiosity, creativity, and commitment continue to shape our programmes and communities in meaningful ways.
The M-Cult team wishes you a joyful and restorative summer. Perhaps our paths will cross in Keskuspuisto, where a fishy companion might lead you on a particularly spectacular walk!
We look forward to returning in the autumn!
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