SRG Guidebook 2025

Some Background Reading OR A Code Of Conduct

Thanks for your interest to find out more about the Sauna Reading Group.

The Sauna Reading Group is an attempt to force one traditional format into another.

It is, as the name suggests, a reading group hosted in a fully functioning sauna cabin. A research tool to calmly, slowly, closely, examine authenticity, process, context and awkward interaction.

I am interested in how we navigate the communal rituals of sauna and reading group, and how the demands of each one might benefit the other.

For each session I invite a small number of guests to join me discussing a short text about a theme tangentially related to the sauna experience. That could be isolation, personal space, out of body experience, health, boredom, nudity, small architecture, or our relationship to the elements.

They have mainly been hosted in the basement sauna of the Finnish Church in Rotherhithe, but also in other public and private saunas around the UK and Europe.

Sessions have either been self-organised by me or at the invitation of an interested group or organisation. Do get in touch if you would like to be involved. This document will evolve as the project does.

- Barry Sykes

Founder, Sauna Reading Group

The Sauna Reading Group Sequence (Steps 1-10)

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Including an selection of optional reading, listening, singing, laughing, drawing, breathing & feedback exercises.

- THE GROUP can be large or small. But between three and ten works best.

People come by invite, word of mouth or other connections. But it is rare for everyone to know each other.

- DRESS CODE is generally swimwear and towels, often with a traditional sauna hat to regulate the head temperature.

- THE HEAT will control your movement, so go in and out of the sauna cabin whenever you need to. The conversation should adapt accordingly. The conversation will naturally shift as we move in and out. Silence is always fine.

Listen to each other and your body. Say only what is needed.

- SAFETY & RESPECT are crucial to the process. For this to be a satisfying experience please respect each others opinions, bodies & personal space.

- ACCESS to most saunas always seems to involve some steps up and down. If this is practically difficult for you then I can arrange assistance or a more accessible solution. Other access needs – BSL, large type, better lighting etc. can also be accommodated with notice.

- the changing area and showers at the saunas we use can often be informal or open plan. But we always work together to make sure everyone is comfortable.

Just ask me if you’re unsure about anything.

- DOCUMENTATION of the SRG is kept to a minimum, with a few discreet photos agreed on by the group. Attendees are encouraged to document too if they wish – in photos, drawings, diagrams etc. then invited to share with group permission.

- SESSIONs often HAve A CO-HOST who I select the text with and suggests other guests. This has been a great way to open the process up beyond my frame of reference and to start the conversation in advance of the reading group happening.

- THE CONTEXT of each sauna is always significant. For example the Finnish Church sauna is in the basement of a place of worship and community centre, but it is interesting to consider why each sauna is where it is and how it is used.

- THERE IS NO FIXED STRUCTURE to the session as I’d rather let the heat guide our activity. Conversation flows naturally but can also be encouraged with various group exercises: reading, listening, note taking, silence, singing or some useful question prompts.

- POST SAUNA DRINKS are always an enjoyable part of the process, allowing us to discuss our discussion, or not. Usually somewhere close by - a pub, bar, terrace, public square.

- Always aSK ME if you are uncertain about any part of this process. My aim is for you to feel as comfortable as possible during the reading group. This handbook is designed to answer most questions but if anything is still unclear just ask. My contact details are on the back page.

SAUNA READING GROUPS SO FAR... #1 Friday 4th March 2016, 7-8.30 pm - The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Discussing ‘TheStrange Case of the North Pond Hermit’, Michael Finkel, GQ magazine, 2014.

Attending: Simon Willems (UK), Hans Rosenström (FI), Elina Suoyrjö (FI) #2 Saturday 27th January 2018 - Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Lumsden, Scotland Discussing an extract from Dr Anthony Storr's 'Solitude', 1988. Selected from the

SSW Edge Effects Library. and 'The Stranger in the Woods', Michael Finkel, 2017 Attending: Current SSW International Artists in Residence, SSW staff. #3 Friday 2nd March 2018 3-5pm - The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Discussing Marlene Haring's 'Report to an Academy' 2015.

Attending: Vesta Kroese (NL), Marlene Haring (AUT) #4 Friday 28th September 2018 7-9pm - SOLU / BioArt Society, Helsinki, Finland Reading 'Auto-Immunity: A Self-Destructive Service' by Emma Balkind, 2018..

Attending: Mari Keski-Korsu (FI), Yvonne Billimore (UK)

#5 Friday 16th November, 2018, 2-4pm - The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Reading Carolee Schneeman's 'Parts of a Body House', 1957-67.

Attending: Karen Di Franco (UK), Irene Revell (UK), Mohammad Namazi (IRN)

#6 Friday 23rd August, 2019, 2-4pm -The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Reading an extract of Michael Lambek's 'How to Make Up One's Mind: Reason, Passion & Ethics in Spirit Possession' Attending: Anja Borowicz (POL/UK), Col Self (UK), Harold Offeh (UK) #7 Friday 24th January 2020, 2-4pm - The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Reading the essay 'Bodies in Heat' by John Christ, from a paper by Pia Lindman about her 'Hybrid Sauna' that placed a two-person divided sauna in the courtyard of PS1, New York Attending: Mine Erişir (TR), Olivia Glasser (UK), Wendy Liu (CN), Mika Meskinen (FI), Kimmo Raitio (FI), Bethany Wells (UK).

#8 Friday 21st February 2020, 12-2pm - The Finnish Church, Rotherhithe, London Reading the essay 'The Word Made Fresh: Mystical Encounter and the New Weird Divine'

by Elvia Wilk, published in e-flux journal #92.

Attending: Sarah Browne (IRL), Lucy Sames (UK). Natalie Boobis (UK)

#9 Friday 9th September 2022, 2-4pm - Beaconsfield, London

Reading an extract from 'Belonging: A Culture of Place' by bell hooks , 1990.

Attending: Alasdair Hopwood (UK), Charlotte Troy (UK). Mélodie Roulaud (FR) #10 Thursday 13th June 2023, 6-8pm - UUSI Sauna, Helsinki Special conversation to mark the 10th reading group, entitled 'Burnt Out: on the Problems (and Possibilities) of Sauna'. Co-hosted with Anna Talasniemi (FI).

Attending: Mika Meskanen (FI), Wendy Liu (CN), Sami Helle (FI), Mari Keski Korsu, (FI), Petri Sarrikko (FI), Bec Gallo (AUS). Miki Tokairin, (JP)

Sketch of Anna Talasniemi made whilst she was reading aloud during Sauna Reading Group #10 at UUSI Sauna, Helsinki.

EXTRACTS from some of the readings: Sometime in the 1990s, answered Knight, he passed a hiker while walking in the woods.

"What did you say?" asked Perkins-Vance.

"I said, ’Hi,’ " Knight replied. Other than that single syllable, he insisted, he had not spoken with or touched another human being, until this night, for twenty seven years.

- ’The Strange Case of the North Pond Hermit’, Michael Finkel, GQ, 2014. SRG#1

My body’s ability to distinguish itself became broken, and so my immune system would set off a chain of events any time that it detected a rise in histamine in my body. Any time I ate, slept, showered, caught UV light, was too hot or wore tight clothes, my body responded with a rash of hives on my skin and with spontaneous swelling of my extremities .

- 'Auto-Immunity: A Self-Destructive Service' by Emma Balkind, 2018. SRG #4

When you enter the Body House you walk south and north for a long time; you come to an open circular structure – a staircase of ribs, smooth and shiny white. You will see a fat knotted rope of black hair hanging down. The circular space become dark. Take off your clothes, leave them. Hoist yourself up the rope; the hairs spread out and become a carpet you crawl along. It has led you into the Cat House which is somewhere behind the eyes of the house.

- 'Parts of a Body House', by Carolee Schneeman's, 1957-67. SRG#5

The difficulty of private citizens to express themselves publicly is bound up with the market economy and leaves nudity to flaunt itself only in protected private situations or under the influence of alcohol or other substances. Also crucially important is the role of the image of the body in advertising where it functions as an agent in the flow of capital and the production of desire for commodities. The shame and fear of nudity in U.S. culture are inextricably bound to the body’s oversexualization and overcirculation. It is an eroticized body that the advertising industry has stripped of its anus, its vagina, its penis, its hair, as well as its lumps, odors and secretions, in order to function in the continuation of consumption.

- Bodies in Heat' by John Christ, on Pia Lindman’s 'Hybrid Sauna', PS1, New York. SRG#7

Some ideas the Sauna Reading Group has led to...

Sauna Hat With pockets for notepaper,

pencil & laminated business cards

Sauna Poses Drawing in the sauna with watercolour pencils and my own sweat.

Sauna Life Drawing Where I am both teacher and model.

Laugh-guss My invention of Laughter Yoga in the sauna.

continued...

Laugh-guss stickers

Sauna Poses Air drying clay,

pigment, and energy drink.

Post-Sauna Portraits

Moisture sodden extract, clinging to the shower wall, at the end of Sauna Reading Group #5.

Please contact me below if you would like to support, host, or attend.

Sauna Reading Group Est. 2016 Founder, Barry Sykes

contactbarrysykes@gmail.com #saunareadinggroup barrysykes.com

Colophon: Sauna Reading Group Handbook, Summer 2024. Text and illustrations by Barry Sykes.

All photos by Barry Sykes or The Finnish Church, London. © Barry Sykes 2025