Protocols for Melting
Protocols for Melting: An Augmented Reality Walk in Helsinki and Riga, by artists Joonas Hyvönen and Līga Spunde
Art & Media Culture Agency M-Cult and Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art LCCA are happy to present Protocols for Melting, a new site-responsive artwork in the form of augmented reality walk by artists Joonas Hyvönen and Līga Spunde. The work unfolds in two special locations: in Helsinki’s Central Park and Riga’s Great Cemetery.
The focus of Protocols for Melting lies within park areas in the midst of gradual or rapid social and ecological alterations and in the importance of those areas to local communities. The artwork can be experienced as part of guided collective walks during the launch events in both cities, and afterwards independently until the end of September 2026 on site and on the project website which will launch alongside the work.
This collaboration is presented by M-Cult and the Latvian Center for Contemporary Art as part of LCCA’s 25th anniversary programme and continues M-Cult’s long-standing engagement with Helsinki’s Central Park. In Helsinki, the launching event is organised in collaboration with Maunula House. The project is supported by Nordic Culture Point, Riga City Council and the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia.
Protocols for Melting
Protocols for Melting is a site-responsive augmented reality walk by artists Līga Spunde and Joonas Hyvönen, unfolding through the forested trails of Keskuspuisto in Maunula, Helsinki, and the Great Cemetery in Riga. Guided by a custom-built “compass”, an animated avatar, walkers follow a looping path punctuated by geolocated digital interventions — AR trail signs that come alive in a darkly comedic tragedy of wayfinding under the late-capitalist attention economy.
Anthropomorphized and performative, these signs reflect internal struggles familiar to both activists and algorithms: the constant demand to be seen, the exhaustion it breeds, and the slow burnout of melting intentions. In Helsinki, the work draws from the recently introduced, often ambiguous park signage and local resistance to a proposed snow dumping site, exploring tensions between orientation, control, and ecological stress. In Riga, the piece shifts into a kind of celebratory funeral march, laying those same urges to rest amid the stillness of the cemetery-turned-park.
Protocols for Melting is part of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art 25th anniversary programme and the annual International Contemporary Art Festival Survival Kit, a series of performative walks and events titled Time, Dawn, or a Passing Train. The anniversary programme began with an almost 25-hour-long celebration in May in Riga and continues with monthly events until November 2025.
Music credits:
Helsinki walk – Lintu lensi oksalle, performed by Abelard Bäckman
Riga walk – Frédéric Chopin, Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35, III, sound by Waterflower
About the artists:
Līga Spunde (b. 1990) is a visual artist based in Riga, Latvia. She presents her works as multimedia installations, intertwining personal stories with deliberate fiction. The interpretations and use of recognisable characters serve as an extension of her personal experiences, tapping into universal truths. The work’s content determines the conception’s physical form leading the artist to use various media and materials in her installations.
Joonas Hyvönen (b. 1990) is an artist working primarily with digital media, film, and games. His works are often narrative-driven studies utilizing storytelling as an instrument of reflection. Hyvönen graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in 2016 with a Master’s degree in Fine Arts.
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