Artist Interview - Satu Jokinen
Welcome Satu - it is nooooo secret that I adore your Ugly Medieval Cats deck! Thank you for bringing true artistic texture to our tactile game and joining us for a chin-wag and meow!
- Hello Katie, aww, I’m pleased that you enjoy the deck, much appreciated. Thank you!
Why Medieval Cats!? Do you see them as ugly?
- I wanted to make something fresh - considering that we’re only 60-70 generations away from the creation of some of the original kitties, and how short a time period humans have inhabited this planet for, the original Medieval beasts were birthed in a fraction of the shadow of the planet’s sundial. I would like to see more of ‘The Long Now’ type of thinking in general. In terms of cuteness or ugliness levels, I think it is clear that cats didn’t quite have the same position in our lives as they do now. Seems that they were mainly domestic beasts utilised for mouse slaughtering services. I suppose they are like lovers - we can choose to see cuteness or all their ugliness. But, essentially, I chose them because I could hardly look at them at all without IRL LOL’ing my raisins off. I hoped they would have the same effect on other people in that way so I could add a little light into their lives and make them smile.
"You are the Prime Minister - what is the first thing you do?
- I wonder if it would be possible to start blurring parties. The world around us is much more real than the human divides we are trying to enforce on it, such as political parties. It would be wonderful to see less fighting, and more collaboration based on science and data perhaps.
Why did you want to draw/design?
- If you mean why I chose to do it by hand (aquarelle) rather than digitally at this time, the idea was to honour the brilliant work of the core Flick crew in creating card games with real attention to detail and, in a way, haptic feedback so the deck becomes almost tangible. Generally, I think that our lives these days lack texture - everything we see and touch is smooth - that it has partially contributed to our loss of connection with nature.
What do you currently do?
- I’m in the process of wrapping up all the things in my life which have started to feel like snow from bygone winters, and starting afresh. I still do freelance, but I have new directions brewing, a new company under way. I want to align my core beliefs and ethics with what I create in life, and what I leave behind when I die. Is it just a pile of waste, or can I use the energy that I have to communicate deeper questions? Can I be a force for good, or a catalyst at least? Must I not at least try? If all goes well, my next games will be ever so hot. If you mean what I am thinking now, I am about to shoot out in a hiding place in the woods by a lake - I may need to knock out a fish and bleed it to death for nutrition. Failing that, there are plenty of mushrooms and berries in the forests this time of year.
What or who inspires you?
- People, friendships, (I have a lot of friends, many of whom inhabit rather different worlds), nature, culture; music, art, film, dance, etc. Conversations that attempt to rake the depths and question and shake the rigid formulas our minds tend to get stuck in. Life can feel like we were born into a game and never get to question the rules. I suppose that is the nature of the social contract, and probably why I am drawn to games design. Perhaps paradoxically, solitude can also be extremely good for refreshing inspiration. So I often seek that, although solitude plus animals is equally, if not more, nourishing.
Do you have favourite things/objects/topics to draw?
- Anything and everything. I have a lot of classical art training in my background - being 100% artist stock - so I have a fondness for anything from live drawing to the smell of oil paints (which probably contributed about 50% of my calories when I was a toddler). Horses have always inhabited a special place in my heart and I learned to draw them from a young age. Such power, such big hearts and a kind approach to their surroundings. Quivering nostrils, always on the lookout for sabre tooth tigers. Maybe they have more of the Long Now way of thinking?
How long did it take you to design the deck? What were the challenges, if any?
- It was definitely an intense few days of work after the initial research. I had to check with an IP lawyer about the possible copyright situation, but that was straightforward. In terms of the work itself, I wanted to do it very authentically, so I chose not to use black paint, for instance, but instead mixed shades of blue and brown for the dark areas.
What are you working on now?
- If you mean in terms of my actual digital work, there are many projects at various stages. I am luckily entangled particularly in the younger female target audiences and music and AI, for instance. I am writing a lot and planning exciting things. I am also soaking willow branches in the lake, in order to make a new basket for my undercover escape foraging trips. I made a new plug for my boat out of wood, but I plan to make it shorter today because it is too long and keeps coming off in the middle of the lake. Quite inconvenient.
What does art mean to you?
- It means many things. Most fundamentally, it is part of my hard wiring - one without which I cannot live. I aspire to go through life with my mind wide open to everyone’s thoughts, so my head is a busy place. Art is finding an expression and order, or meaning, for the chaos within. Finding questions is often its fundamental quest. Art is also a shared syntax with which humans can attempt to connect and grow. It is the free playground of ideas that can affect philosophy and, thus, science, as well as a structured practice of often lifelong scholarly endeavour for some. It is a fundamental part of the human endeavour to find answers and conquer space whilst creating our meanings within the connections we cultivate.
Are you into video games? If so, which ones?
- The term video games are interesting. What was ‘video’, again? Games as a medium for connecting with the minds of people interests me a lot. Also as an expression of people’s yearning to create and engage the brains of others. In a way, games can be an integral part of the mycelium of human condition, and, to carry on in the same rhizome of enquiry, hopefully create transition - like a mushroom of action. I don’t really play enough games for fun these days - it becomes laborious research into the choices of other games designers - but the last game I truly and fully fell in love with was Pokemon Go. There’s this fabulous game out there called Flick Solitaire, though! Marvellous work.
Do you prefer tea or coffee?
- Oh my god, are we going there? Airing our addictions online for all to see? In an ideal world, we would all get enough sleep not to need that artificial caffeine boost. The neuroscience there appears to be that it isn’t really a boost, even. Note to self: must try to quit, again. Spare a bit of Amazon and other such irreplaceable havens of biodiversity… (One can dream.)
Play with our moody medieval moggies in Satu’s beautiful hand-drawn deck Ugly Medieval Cats - FLICKIN’ MEEIIOOOOW!