Programme that you sign up for
Sign-ups for larps and workshops will open on Thursday April 4th at 20:00 EET, one week before Solmukohta. Most sign-ups will happen through a system called Konsti, using Kompassi credentials. If you proposed programme for AWiF or Solmukohta, you already have a Kompassi login and can use the same credentials for sign-ups. Otherwise, you can create a Kompassi login here: https://kompassi.eu/login?next=/
It’s a good idea to set up your Kompassi account ahead of the signups, so you don’t have to spend time creating an account when the time for signups arrives. Sign-ups for individual larps and workshops will happen on a first-come first-served basis.
Sign-ups (when they open): https://konsti.solmukohta.eu/program/list
The Programme is now published!
You can find the programme here
Note that A Week In Finland programme is in the same list, so scroll down for the programme for Solmukohta 2024. A few changes may still happen – the site will be kept up-to-date before and during the event.
Spontaneous programme: the official programme is just a beginning. All you need is space and time and you can bring your own programme item or party to Solmukohta. And it is good to check out our Guide to Hosting Programme, too.
(If you have any questions about anything you’re planning to do in terms of its legality or finding a suitable space, email the programme team (programme@solmukohta.eu) or tell us on discord.)
The party theme
Get corny, get colourful, get conceptual, get campy – however you want to do it, “it’s tacky but I love it” is the party theme.
We have plenty of slots for you and your terrible/amazing taste in music! No experience necessary – we should have some DJ equipment to use, but you can also just set up your most powerful playlist on your laptop and try your hand at filling the floor. Email programme@solmukohta.eu to get a spot, or say hello on the Discord.
The theme
The theme for this year’s programme is Kitsch.
Jamie has made a short video explaining the theme. You can check it out and get inspired: https://youtu.be/eK6mWnYohYo?si=WAyc4P1ZT_gRlbNe
Kitsch is a slippery term to define – it can mean an aesthetic that is (deliberately) cheap, joyful, in poor taste, sentimental, melodramatic, or tongue-in-cheek. Kitsch is related to mass-production and “common” art in the first half of the 20th century (the classic artwork is Coolidge’s Dogs Playing Poker or pretty much every Christmas card ever made), and novelist Milan Kundera even famously compared it with a totalitarian mindset when he wrote that kitsch is “the denial of shit”, an aesthetic where the dirty and shameful things in life are not allowed to exist. Disney and Eurovision continue in this “earnest” line of kitsch. However, after Pop Art, kitsch turned in on itself, becoming also a high art aesthetic where dirt, shame, and commonness became elevated – think films like Pink Flamingoes, The Fifth Element, The Room, and Doom Generation.
Kitsch is related to camp; usually kitsch refers to physical aesthetic objects, while camp refers to action or performance. Obviously kitsch can be many things and can be harnessed for many purposes.
We invite you to think about what is kitsch or camp in larp, and how they have informed your own designing and playing:
- Is there something inherently kitschy or campy about larping?
- Is it camp when we play with emotions in larp?
- When we larp historical periods, are we reducing those worlds to sanitized, nostalgic playgrounds? What can happen in those playgrounds?
- Is larp high or low art? Does it matter? How do we position ourselves? How do we take advantage of aesthetic fluidity?
- What is bad taste in larp?
- Is larp camp in the sense that we take something in bad taste and make it “high art”, and have we succeeded in this?
Solmukohta programme team
programme@solmukohta.eu
Hannu Sinervä, Suvi Korhonen, Jamie MacDonald and Laura Sirola