Jenna Sutela & Martti Kalliala (FI, 1983/1980)

Residency period: January-March 2025

jennasutela.com / amnesiascanner.net

Our residency was research-driven. During the three months at La Becque, we furthered our respective and common interests in generative audio techniques, linguistic experimentation, and open systems. We spent a lot of time in the sound studio, at the library, and on the mountains.

At the Open Studios, we presented our residency experiments in the form of a piece of music with aeolian motifs. Installed in the small chalet by the lake, with yellow filters on its windows and a smoke machine inside, the work was a collage of Jenna’s flute, wind machine, and vocal recordings, as processed and reconfigured by Martti. We described Fffffffflutes “exploring perception and reality through foley effects, onomatopoeia, smokey beats, and an unstable vibe” in the handout for the event.

While Martti ventured on an open-ended exploration in the sound studio (curtains closed), the waves and ripples of Lake Geneva inspired a text on quantum existence that Jenna presented both at Open Studios and later as part of a symposium at Institute Art Gender Nature at Basel Academy of Art and Design. The readings were accompanied by the wind machine, a friction-based instrument that’s used to produce the sound of wind. Likewise, the residency was so breezy and productive. Thank you La Becque! — Jenna Sutela & Martti Kalliala

Jenna Sutela (b. 1983) is a Finnish artist based in Berlin. Her practice explores biological and computational systems, including the human microbiome and artificial neural networks. The work spans sculpture, still and moving images, sound, and text. It often takes shape in an exchange with scientists and technologists as well as non-humans. Some of Sutela’s past work connects machine learning with the more-than-human world. Most recently, her installations have gone off the grid.

Sutela has exhibited at CAC Genéve, Swiss Institute, Haus der Kunst, Castello di Rivoli, Helsinki Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Liverpool Biennial, Serpentine Galleries, Moderna Museet and Kiasma, among other places.

Also born in Finland and based in Berlin, Martti Kalliala (b. 1980) is a founding member of Amnesia Scanner, an experimental electronic music and performing arts group created together with another Finnish artist, Ville Haimala. Founded in 2014, Amnesia Scanner’s approach is informed by a unique perspective on technology and the way it mediates sound-based art practice.

Educated as an architect, Kalliala is the author of many essays on culture, technology, and design, published in Harvard Design Magazine, Kaleidoscope, Flash Art, and others. Together with American artist and writer Emily Segal, he is also the co-founder of the alternative consultancy Nemesis.

Jenna Sutela and Martti Kalliala, La Becque, 2025, photo Aurélien Haslebacher