Ice Screams

Although a bit risky, I walked on the ice today. The temperature had been under zero for more than two weeks and the combination of snow, ice and sun just became too tempting. Beneath my feet, the ice monsters screamed at each other. Or was it perhaps a monster mother calling for her offspring or a bachelor monster in search of romance?

Every time I heard a scream, a tiny tremor went through my body but I kept my steady pace and had one eye on my fellow ice travellers. I was on my way back from Gunnebo Castle and on my way there I had listened to something completely different: The Naked Scientist. This particular podcast included a piece on vitamin D deficiency, something very common among people living in the north. I took it as a sign that I should be in the sun as much as possible, blissfully ignoring the fact that the sun rays are too week to have any impact right now.

Today was a nice contrast to the summer and all the days spent in sculpture parks. The 2011 photo competition is now closed. The most appreciated photo was the one from Marsvinsholm. Even my Mother liked that one best, although it was such a rainy experience. Winner of the lottery this year is my friend and colleague Anna. Thank you all for voting! I hope to take some good photos this year as well, why I expect to continue the competition!

Photo Competition 2011 – Sculpture Parks

The previous photo competitions such as the one in 2010, did not have special themes. This year is different. Looking back at my summer days, I realised that I spent a good deal of them in parks and gardens with wild and weird sculptures. All very different, and highly enjoyable.

Your job this year is to select the nicest sculpture park collage. Of course, it’s more fun if you comment on your choice here or on Facebook, but if you’re a bit shy you may send me an email instead. This competition is open to my friends and family. You can win flowers! Some money goes to charity! I want your vote no later than January 31, 2012.

Happy New Year!

Want more information about the locations? Check out Gunillaberg, Kivik, Louisiana, Marsvinsholm, Pilane, Tagel and Wanås!

A Touch of Frost

I knew it was coming. The day before, I had put my home-grown vegetables to rest in a basket with fine-grained sand on the balcony. I had brought my winter clothes down from the attic and now they were everywhere, breathing new air. I had bought two pair of black winter boots, with thick rubber soles to put between me and the ground, while waiting for the bus in the mornings.

I knew, and still it hit me. Hard. Despite layer upon layer with fabric, I felt naked. The first night of frost. Very much like a relationship gone cold.

Negative Space

In his new book, Negative Space, artist Noma Bar uses this feature in a very creative way. I very much like the dog-cat-mouse cover, but the dog front and back picture is also very appealing. Constantly questioning what is foreground and background. Which incidentally is a very good question when it comes to formulating agreements between partners involved in research and innovation projects. But that’s another story. 

I feel the disharmony the concept ”negative space” brings. It makes me remember the times I’ve struggled not to let a certain place become a negative space because of the events that took place there. Maybe that is also a question of defining what was foreground and background. Or perhaps rather what is.

What Touches Us

I was going through some of the boxes in my attic, when I found this poem written in my own hand on a piece of paper:

It sometimes happens when looking for
Lost objects, a book, a picture or

A coin or spoon,

That something falls across the mind - 

Not quite a shadow but what a shadow would be

In a place that lacked light.


As though the lost things have withdrawn
Into themselves, books returned

To paper or wood or thought,

Coins and spoons to simple ores,

Lustreless and without history,
Waiting out of sight
And becoming part of a larger loss
Without a name
Or definition or form

Not unlike what touches us

In moments of shame.



"Lost Things" by Mary Swann (as created by Carol Shields)

It was waiting to be found...Again...

From Åhus 2011

Metaphor Terror

The recent horrible development in Oslo demonstrates the difficulty facing those we employ to look out for potential terrorists. What makes a person go from talk to action? When should we take threats seriously? When are figures of speech just images? And what predispositions make us look and interpret in certain ways?

It’s only natural for a government initiative with the tag line “ Be The Future” to launch a Metaphor Program. The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) recently opened up for researchers to contribute in the development of automated tools and techniques for recognizing, defining and categorizing linguistic metaphors associated with target concepts and found in large amounts of native-language text in order to identify the conceptual metaphors used by the various protagonists, organizing and structuring them to reveal the contrastive stances.

Similar, critique regarding this program is only to be expected by someone who has organised his website according to a water metaphor: From the drainpipe, Half-filtered and Pure Water. Here David Allan Barker provides six elaborate arguments for why he thinks the program is the lamest idea he’s ever heard.

A more neutral approach is held by Wired blogger Lena Groeger. She manages to squeeze in three metaphors in her first paragraph and continues throughout the text. One of her links takes you to research regarding how metaphors impact how we think about crime and more importantly, how we act.

Yesterday, David Allan Barker posted a piece in his Pure Water section on how mental illness stereotypes used by media affect how we think about people like Anders Behring Breivik. This is not the first time Barker used queer theory to expand the thinking regarding mental health issues. I wonder if they take this into account in the Metaphor Program?

Is it a Jungle In Here?

Are you measuring an organisation's character by looking at the number and kind of Dilbert strips posted on the walls? Well, here's a new version on that theme. Kenneth and Julie Kendall checked out what kinds of basic metaphors were used by employees to describe the way they were governed in order to find out what kind of IT system that went well with what kind of organisation.

According to the Kendalls, government can be described as a machine, war, a journey, a society, a game, an organism, a family, a jungle or a zoo. Turns out that traditional  management information systems and expert systems go well with autocracy (machine) while computer-supported collaborative work and group decision-support systems fit better for enlightened absolutism (journey). Whach out for trying to deploy any kind of system in organisations characterised by panarchism (jungle) or anarchy (zoo), while almost any kind of systems fits a meritocracy (organism). 

What the article don't say is how you should communicate these facts to a potential customer…

From Gröna Rehab 2010