To Be or Not To Be

Hynek Pallas wrote a review of the new Xavier Dolan film "Tom at the Farm" in todays SvD. A phrase caught my eye. Actually a quote from another critic: Carl-Johan Malmberg. He said it about Dolan's previous film "Laurence Anyways" and it really hit me. 

Malmberg said that this film was about the question of how we can be to the one we love what we want to be to ourselves (in Swedish "hur få vara för den man älskar den man vill vara för sig själv"). 

I don't think I'll get the answer through watching any of these movies, although I'm sure they are good. However, I'm glad they brought me such a precise and true question.

Colour Hermeneutics

What comes to my mind when reading professor Jeana Jarlso’s article about how memories impact our impression of colour is that there is a kind of hermeneutics involved. Similar to how we must take into account the social context and intentions of a writer (any writer, not only those involved in the text that happened to go into the collection called The Bible) when interpreting a text, we need to apply the same perspectives when looking at a picture.

In 2001, I visited the Sistine Chapel and saw the restored paintings for the first time. As Jarlso points out when quoting the historian Michel Pastoureau, it is difficult to really know what the painting looked like when new since so many are different from then. We now have electric light instead of candles. Colours change with age and we don’t know if Michelangelo, Botticelli and the others intended for us to have another experience of the frescos than when they were fresh.

How do we remember colour? Was my first home really that blue? When did my mother’s hair turn from blond to white? And what colour do we really refer to when we say we’re feeling green of envy? That is, what colour did Shakespeare refer to? 

Fairphone - An Idea Worth Spreading!

Fairphone started in 2010 as a project of Waag society, Action Aid and Schrijf-Schrijf, aimed at raising awareness about conflict minerals in electronics and the wars that the sourcing of these minerals is fueling in the DR Congo. The campaign and research into the complex supply chain ran for 3 years. In 2013, they established Fairphone as a social enterprise with the aim of designing, creating and producing a smartphone and taking the next crucial step in uncovering the story behind the sourcing, production, distribution and recycling of electronics.

Already the campaign is spreading around the world in media such as The Guardian, Financial Times, Huffington Post, The Verge, Computerworld, Svenska Dagbladet and Der Spiegel. The plan is to manufacture 20.000 phones in the first batch and as of today 11,868 people have preorded one. Of course, they use smart story-telling techniques to get their message through. Which is probably one of the reasons Fairphone has been picked up by TEDx Amsterdam.

It can be argued that given the vast amount of components in an advanced electronic device it is impossible to develop a phone that is completely fair from a people-planet-profit perspective. However, I think Fairphone is definitely a big step in the right direction. Not only do they focus on sourcing material from non-conflict countries, worker welfare and the product life-cycle, but they also try to make it last longer by using an open technical design. In addition, the pricing is transparent. It is also an interesting example of social enterprising. Simply an idea worth spreading!

Pictures Don't Lie?

Recently I visited the Fotografiska museum in Stockholm. The major exhibition was Ruud van Empel's "Pictures Don't Lie" with stunning although eerie pictures. This is how the museum describes his work:

"From hundreds of photographic fragments, he compiles images that are genuinely lifelike in their appearance but conjure up a world that has never existed in this form. This paradisaical world is primarily populated by children, as the symbol of innocence, which is one of the major themes of his work. Despite their astounding beauty, these works are far from unequivocal, there is something not quite right: what is real here and what is not?" 

Even as an amateur photographer, you need to decide to what extent you want to manipulate your pictures. With a vast array of tools you have all kinds of options, from Picasa to Photoshop and beyond. Since the camera and you do not record the same image, is it really to change the picture if you want to enhance the blue in the sky afterward so it becomes the colour you remember it "really" was?

However, already in choosing motives and angles we add our opinion to the picture. So maybe the questions is not whether a picture can lie but who's story it tells? Which story do you want to tell?

And the Winner Is...

It took some time for me to get organised this year, but now we finally have a winner in the photo competition. My colleague Thomas Houze helped me with the lottery and the name he drew was my friend Mia Hillevärn from Jönköping. My sister Maria helped me deliver the flowers at a meeting which added to the surprise :-)

This year no clear winner could be seen among the photos though. Thank you so much for participating in my little competition! I hope it brought you some nice moments! It certainly did for me!

Photo Competition 2012

Looking back at 2012, I realize how many wonderful trips I've been on in Sweden and abroad, most of them in coastal areas. Which one of these eleven pictures do you like the most? Participate in my photo competition and get a chance to win flowers! Open to friends and family until January 31 2013. Send me an email or place a comment!

1. In February, I went to Copenhagen to evaluate a unit at the university. Very cold but I found a quirky downtown café to invigorate me. More pictures...

2. Next stop was Oslo where we had a BlueBio project meeting in February with our Norwegian parters. They took us to the new Opera House in the harbour, which was quite stunning.

3. Late in March, I went to a Horizon 2020 conference in Brussels. I had hoped for a bit of Spring, but the air was was still cold although surprisingly crispy. More pictures...

4. The Blue Bio team also met at Tjärnö, a marine research station in northern Bohuslän where we spent some of the few sunny days in June. More pictures...

5. Before the summer holidays, my boss took the whole Innovationskontor Väst to Varberg for a "work camp". We did lots of planning for autumn activities and in the morning I went out for a long walk down the coast. More pictures...

6. In July, my parents took me on a cruise to some of the most beautiful fiords in Norway. The best part was standing in the bow and seeing the sunrise when we were heading towards Bergen. More pictures...

7. Every year, the exhibition in Pilane changes. The combination of the art and the landscape on the island Tjörn is both tranquil and provoking. More pictures...

8. I'm very fortunate in having friends with passion for and knowledge of canoeing. This time we returned to Ellös in August and worked our way around some of the islands close to Orust. More pictures...

9. Late August, I went to New England on a study tour with a colleague. We spent 24 hours in New York and I had a glimpse Central Park, where I saw these guys. More pictures...

10. In November, me and Mum went to Laem Mae Phim south of Bangkok. One of the first nights, there was a local outdoor concert with a band called Playboy Repent. I think. More pictures...

11. In December I went to Stockholm to do a presentation at a SNITTS Masterclass. I spent some hours wandering about Skansen and Gamla Stan in the snow before it melted away. More pictures...

A Happy Accident

In 1993, Tommy Emmanuel released his album "The Journey". I attended one of his concerts in Melbourne early spring 1994 and the title suited me perfectly since I was on my first travel outside Europe. I spent almost six months in Australia that "winter", writing my PhD-thesis while staying at research colleagues at QUT in Brisbane and RMIT in Melbourne. Many trips and albums later, "The Journey" is still my favourite and looking back at that time in my life only brings good memories.

Now, almost 20 years later I find myself at my second Tommy Emmanuel concert, this time in my hometown Göteborg. The setting is the same, with Tommy and all his Maton guitars on stage. The tunes are new and they all tell a story in different ways. Some of them you have to design yourself like the not yet released Blood Brothers. A Beatles medley brings memories. Others like Drivetime, Tommy explains himself. And I'm transferred back to the time when CD players started to become common in cars and to trendy St Kilda, outside Melbourne where I used to play beach volleyball with the local party kids.

Tommy also tells us the story of how he started to play the guitar. He got one for his fourth birthday, born into a very musical family who apparently did not believe much in formal training. Listening to records and the radio, Tommy didn't understand that the base was a separate instrument. Instead he taught himself to play both the melody and the base on the same guitar. He called it a Happy Accident. Throw in that he played the drums in the family band and you get a very special and wonderful way of creating music.

He also reveals a more recent fairy-tale, one that develops in front of our eyes and we become part of it. The Youtube video of local guitar star talent  Gabriella Quevedo had caught his attention and after some Facebook interaction, she was invited to play at his concert after almost no rehearsal time together at all. Oh, she was really good and although she was clearly inspired by Tommy's way of playing it became clear to all of us in the audience that she will develop her own way of playing in time.

Leaving the concert, I realise that in addition to listening to remarkable and beautiful music I have also been taught several important lessons. Like "don't listen to people who say that some things aren't possible, especially if you have already done them" and "always encourage young people and let them shine when you can" and "be true to yourself do what you really love, and don't set fame and money first" and "support local brands if they are really good". 

And, of course, "look for stories to tell in various ways"!