PHOTO ALBUM OF NUUK BABYLON

A block perched on a hill-top flying over the land, no landscaping, no gardening. It is like an alien space ship from ‘Denmark’

Indigenous building is the type of settlement where the accommodation is an integral part of nature and climate. Indigenous peoples are people, communities, and nations who claim a historical continuity and cultural affinity with societies endemic to their original territories that developed prior to exposure to the larger connected civilization associated with Western Culture that is driven by globalization, profit and efficiency measured in consumption. Historically architecture has always been indigenous, wherever on earth. The settlements are part of nature and when the people move away, the building becomes again part of the environment. This is common in Iceland where the old farm-houses are but a little grass hill in the landscape when the people have moved away. The same goes for the log cabins in Norway that become part of the forest floor when they are left.

The typical Corbusien Machine: Villa Savoye (1929), the machine for living in. Celebrating nature but not participating in it. Standing free from the land and indineousity.

Nuuk is a different town. It is a kind of a New Babylon, many examples of which exist in Modern Architecture. There the theory is that the building is a machine for living in (Corbusier), where the building comes from the machine production philosophy, often stands like an alien object in the landscape and enjoys nature from the ‘removed’ distance, almost like looking through a television screen. The Situationist Constant wrote a concept art/architecture philosophy about one of his projects named New Babylon. There the architecture stands in the Dutch landscape, floating over and not participating in nature or climate, but making its own climate: the urban one. Constant writes of the New Nomads, in my mind the ‘other nomads’ as opposed to the ‘real’ nomads. There is no more available an existential space for ‘real’ nomads, they do not exist, the colonized Western world has taken over everywhere.

From the art piece New Babylon by Constant. Tere the architecture is free from land and creates its own nomadic space in urbanism.

Nuuk is a ‘Nuuk Babylon’ where the architecture is non-indigenous, in some cases not touching the land, alien from the land, imported and in opposition to the local (whatever that is) indigenous settlements. The Greenlanders in Nuuk are ‘New-Nomads’ connected to the internet (I am sitting writing this in Nuuk, on internet, fetching references on Google and Wikipedia etc.), the people here (especially the teenagers) are fashionable like in any other town and the supermarket supplies avocadoes and whatever I need for my ‘cultured’ lifestyle.

I have been looking out for this ‘visiting’ element in the built environment, how the houses are here in a kind of a temporary state, looking like they just arrived and might leave soon. The colours are great and remind of the palette of multi produced cars brought into any land. The colours are from the palette of the factory not from the land itself. Even the name Greenland is a propaganda exercise, made up by Icelandic Viking Eric the Red, who settled here first of Western people and wanted more people to come from the ‘Old World’ to the ‘New World’ of the Inuit.

These days we are a small group of people from CIRRUS spending a short time in the capital of Greenland, Nuuk looking at the visual culture. We make decisions about what to look out for while we observe and meet people. Here is a link to a small website that communicates our findings and thoughts.

In Memoriam photo display of the great building that the school has been in for over 100 years.

Here is a link to a photo album from the Academy, old, new and opening party

My school is moving. The National Academy of Art is finally being assembled in one location. My understanding is that this has taken decades to realize and I have been involved in the building process since I arrived here early in the year 2005. I can not reflect on the history before my arrival, but only say that it has been a long and tiresome process to develop the campus that we are now moving into.

The Academy is located in Seilduksfabrikken, an old industrial textile complex on the Akerselva River and the name means: ‘The Factory that Makes Sails’. A stronghold in Norwegian tradition that has existed all from the Viking era actually being fundamental for the Vikings sailing and finding my homeland Iceland in the 9th century and little later America. The urban plan in Oslo has located various institutions of the creative industries along the Akerselva River. This river that runs through the city is the reason for the town developing actually as an industrial mill town 300 years ago.

I have assembled a few photos from the process of moving out of the really great old building on Ullevalsvei, a place of large history and with a soul. Here are also some images from the new premises, a place that has a historical soul from making sails and housing various Oslo creative companies, but now it is our time to create a new soul in the place. We look forward to the day when the students arrive in end of August and at least I intend to concentrate on the positive issues rather than noticing the small problems that are part of moving in.

Happy staff outside the entrance to the new complex in Seilduken

LUNGA is an arts festival/workshop for young people run by young people. This is run in the East of Iceland, in a narrow fjord with a small village named Seyðisfjörður. In July 2010 this took place for the 10th time. The young people allowed me to participate with a short lecture/dialogue about identity. This I did with my friend Goddur, professor of graphic design at the Iceland Academy of Art in Reykjavik, that is actually also just over 10 years old.

I had really good time following the work of the young people. The participants were around 110 students (over 50% from abroad) and many mentors and organizers. They worked in various groups concentrating on different issues like theater, music, performance, fashion, illustration etc. This photo album maybe purveys some of the ambient that was in Seyðisfjörður this week. I try to give short explanation with the photos so that people can get a idea of what is going on. If you are interested to participate next year (only young people allowed) follow the LUNGA website and write to them.

BP has been going through a disastrous crisis these months, and why? And who is blaming them? The US public and administration. The company was driven during the Nineties by a Lord Browne (CEO 1995-2007), a visionary entrepreneur who promoted innovation. In his time “the people with the best and boldest ideas were the ones who rose up the organization.” Lord Browne was an opera lover interested in climate change and renewable energy, even though he probably was none the better than most other managers at the time. I suspect his lobbying supported Tony Blair to participate in the invation into Irac mostly for economic pressures and fundamentally BP oil prospects.

Some interesting developments have happened since Lord Browne was replaced by a very different character Mr. Tony Hayward who very early said about his employers:

“Too many people working to save the world.”

He proposed to change the direction of the company to more aggressive professionalism while reaching out to new pastures or new oil fields. BP was in the forefront of oil exploration outside the East-Coast of US and actually Obama had changed the strategy of the country to open up previously closed areas for oil exploration. This he did only on March 31st this year. He did this to gain the confidence of voters for the elections this year and to follow the idea of previous president Nixon to increase the US reliance on home produced oil.

So, BP was acting according to the new US policy to seek more oil in its home terrain rather than in regions that have been difficult to control like Irac etc.

That Obama now sees BP as an irresponsible company pushing the limits of reach is hippocrisy, the work was within the US strategy, but now the US administration has to pretend it is angry and requires compensation etc for its fisher men and voters.

What I learn from this is that most organizations do not have ethical grounds when there is ambition for control of energy, military power or economics. None is to be trusted and the ambition to seek oil is damaging our existance. We should concentrate on the development of renewable energy: Energy that does not damage the environment and result in global environmental collapse.

The students working the final touches on their group work before presentation. This is the fashion gang in front and the product designers in the distance.

This week was the final week of the first formal semester in ISArC here in Maputo. Yes, ISArC is the name from now on. The leadership is developing vision and a comprehensive strategy for the school and the change in the name is part of that work. ISAC has actually been a difficult name since it actually comes from the bible and is not related to African culture. At least that is my opinion. The leaders headed by director Filimone Meigos have also started dialogue about the official website for the school and many other things that are neccessary for the formalizing of a Mozambican National Institute of Art, Design and Culture Education.

We had the final presentation by the design students this Thursday afternoon: One of the final projects this semester concentrated on transport design, where the fashion students looked at the use of uniforms and proposed types, the students in visual communication looked at information design as well as developing a profile for the public transport in Maputo. The product design students proposed a number of bus stop types, presented what is involved. Transport projects are very good tasks since they deal with so varied issues and are fundamentally interdisciplinary service design. Soley ran a transport project in ENAV last year that I participated in and it opened up many very interesting issues here in Maputo, where public transport services is still very underdeveloped. It is possible to see my earlier blog about that HERE

This work is of course first year level and has to be evaluated accordingly. The students come from various directions to the school; some from the ‘secondary level’ art school ENAV and others are actually teachers in that school today. Others come from private directions and some are civil servants. Therefore it is good to see how group work benefits them. The different capabilities support each other and they learn more. At the same time there is less focus in the final product or it is not complete.

Now the school takes the July ‘winter break’ and next semester starts the first days in August. The second semester will be run quite similarly to the first one albeit with one more course coming in. The next intake to the school happens in the longer ‘summer’ break in December/January. It will be great to start again and many things are planned for the second formal semester of ISArC. I fly home to Iceland for a small holiday and workshops.

Powerpoint presentation of possible logos and visual communication to the users.

Celebrities decorate themselves with eco-lifestyle! Celebrity David De Rothschild sails around in a boat made from plastic bottles. Is this a worthwhile effort or is it ECO-BLING?

A while ago I was in a meeting in Oslo about design and creative industries, one of many. We were representatives of design education, the business and industry sector; and from the design promotion centre in Norway: NorskForm. When we were leaving, people packing away their laptops the ladies were packing their half litre water bottles into the handbags. The leader of the industry commented: “Market research has shown that up to 80% of women carry a water bottle in their bags. Still there is not one bag on the market that accommodates for this type of water bottle!”

Very interesting remark from the marketing/industry angle about responding to market needs. I and the representative from the design centre responded clearly: “We do not promote design solutions for carrying plastic water bottles. It is a wrong problem definition. There should not be plastic water bottles in the first place!”

This represents two fundamental differences in how design addresses problem definitions. The view of the industry is short sighted and irresponsible to global fundamental problems. In opposition to this trend designers should strategically work with city planners, engineers, politicians and environmentalists to create design solutions for people to have access to safe water without having to resort to the use of throw away plastic bottles. A fundamental right! The Romans addressed this problem, building viaducts for the transportation of good water directly into urban antique Rome to make life more viable. In various locations in Italy there are fountains of good drinkable water. Why do we create and promote such stupid solutions as the half litre plastic water bottle? I am from a country that provides super good water from the tap and still people buy water to carry with them!

Why do I write this? Because there has been a major project going on in the Pacific that many might know about. A ‘celebrity’ has organized a sailing trip from San Francisco to Sydney on a boat made out of plastic bottles. This is an admirable effort and we should support all those who make an effort to promote sustainable living. In the last Cumulus Conference (The global association of design, art and media schools) in Belgium, keynote speaker, design journalist Alice Rawsthorn, mentioned this boat as a great initiative for sustainability. I can tentatively support that idea while posting my doubts.

The Plastiki project , an initiative by celebrity David De Rothschild (yes of that family and an ex-boyfriend of Cameron Diaz) is to me uncomfortable project and this ‘itch’ has to do with problem definition. “To design is to solve human problems by identifying them” said Ivan Chermayeff, and there lies my discomfort. Plastic bottles are not solutions unless there are no other possible resorts. The use of plastic bottles is a fundamental environmental problem and we should work for finding solutions that help us stop using them. I hope that David De Rothschild and his gang will take this next step and concentrate on addressing fundamentals. Here is a photostream from the Plastiki voyage. In the conference in Belgium we landed a new (or we thought new) term for certain celebrity tendency to decorate themselves with eco attitudes: ECO-BLING. Like the writer Paulo Coelho says in his recent book, The Winner Stands Alone:

“The young all have the same dream: to save the world. Some quickly forget this dream, convinced that there are more important things to do, like having a family, earning money, travelling and learning a foreign language. Others, though, decide that it really is possible to make a difference in society and to shape the world we will hand to future generations.” My opinion is that we have to increase the number of these ‘others’ that he writes about, and those have to be fundamentally questioning and entrepreneurial, while the entrepreneurial ambition has to take second place to questioning every step of our acts.

My worry here is that the Plastiki project will actually reinforce the rooted belief in society that it is ok to buy water in plastic bottles since there are so great people developing ideas for the re-use of them. This is an incredibly sad situation and has to be turned around. There are more projects that are going in the same direction like the school classrooms made by the Phillippine dreamer and entrepreneur Illiac Diaz. These are built out of concrete inset with plastic bottles and many think this great.

But I also want to point out the great design solution promoted by inventor Michael Pritchard: a water filtering bottle named LIFESAVER. You can see his very inspiring presentation in a TED lecture HERE. It is these kind of projects that we should promote and support, not ECOBLING adventures.

A simple diagram of our metabolical life. What is crazy is how complex and energy consuming systems we have created in the last 100 years for ‘flush-and-forget- toilet infrastructures and for the production of food. The situation today is such that we can not sustain it longer nor develop globally. Last year for the first time more than 50% of the population on earth lives in urban areas and this will increase over the next decades. This system addresses food production and discharge.

The goal of the project is to create “a production unit producing safe and hygienic soil improvement agent and fertilisers for agricultural use with human waste”. (from SUSAN-DESIGN project text)

I have followed the SUSAN-DESIGN gang for some time. I met Karsten Gjefle, the leader of the project in the Norwegian Design Centre’s section named: Design Without Borders where we worked a bit together. The start up of the project has taken some time. One of the reasons is that the issue has not been popular in the media. People are not interested in this problem and issues like access to water, hunger, over-population and global warming have taken the lead. It is not to devalue those problems, but public awareness of the huge problems with sanitation and hygiene is limited.

SUSAN-DESIGN has initially been concentrating on a twofold pilot project in Uganda: urban slums in Kampala and schools. This is a very interesting project, dealing with the technicality of the product, the business model so that running toilet services makes a profit and organic agriculture.

An image showing the Uganda project and a simple mobile toilet designed by the Norwegian designer Sarah Keller.

Now they have developed a new product for instant ecological toilet systems in crisis areas, like Haiti at the moment. The model is the same for working with the shit and piss (in separate systems) how to transport it and process so that it becomes a safe and good fertilizer for organic agriculture.

An instant toilet made of cardboard designed by Norwegian designer Jan Kristian Strömnes. It is flat-pack and can be sent in large volumes fast. As can be seen in the image the toilet has separate containers where bags for the shit and piss are placed, then transported to a system that processes organic fertilizers.

Sustainability.

But the greatest argument for SUSAN-DESIGN is that it addresses issues of environmental sustainability. The ideal of the system is to create a closed system for our life cycle, where we do not rely on extremely expensive and unattainable water toilet systems like used in our western world and incredibly energy demanding production of artificial fertilizers for food productions. Organic living, harmony with nature is fundamental while the business model should also generate profit. The Triple Bottom Line evaluation methodology is the basis of the philosophy of SUSAN-DESIGN. I ask everyone to study the projects and to promote it in the media.

And if you happen to be in Copenhagen on the 29th of June next go and visit this Designers Talk - Design to Improve Life

The Danse’Artes project is moving in strides. Construction is in full action and sure has to be since the first opening ceremony is planned next week on the 23rd of June. The project is a great initiative of artists and entrepreneurs in Mozambique. I admire the stamina and hard work that they are putting into the preparation and work. Gilles and Cecilie participated by placing their projected mural in the complex by great invitation of Maria Helena Pinto, primus motor of the project, – or that is what I have come to understand.

This is the plan of the project. The entrance is from the right, where a small guard house will stand. The mural by Gilles and Cecilie is to the right of the entrance way. The list of activities housed is:

1. 1 grand dance theatre
2. 2 changing rooms
3. 3 six artist in residence apartments
4. 4 accommodation buiding for local artists
5. 5 kitchen and utilities
6. 6 offices, admin
7. 7 cyber cafe
8. 8 gym

Rejao is responsible for covering completely the house that is to accommodate the local artists. He has chosen to paint only in black and white. The mural illustrates a story about dance. The mural by Gilles and Cecilie is seen in the background on the boundary wall.

The plan is to complete the project within the next two years. There is a crowd of local workers there casting contrete, they actually cast the concrete blocks on site, just like used to be done in Europe before everything was mechanized.

An architectural 3d representation of the project. The guard’s house is the one in the front. The house accommodating local artists is the small one on the right, this is the one that Rejao is painting now. The cyber cafe is the small building with the yellow tower/symbol on the left of the entrance behind which is the theatre and furthest in the background are the two story houses with apartments for artists in residence.

Here is a collection of photos from the mural painting activity and work on site.

As those that have followed my work for a while know, I have been working in Mozambique supporting the establishment of the promising new and first National Academy of Art (Instituto Superiore de Artes e Cultura, ISArC) in the country. This is a state school, with its own administration and teachers. The school was formally established on September 3rd last year and preliminary teaching started on September 8th. Now the first proper semester is coming to a close with a number of good local teachers, nice group of students and formal timetables etc. It has been great following the progress and today there has been signed a formal agreement about the cooperation between the new school and my institute in Norway, KHiO: The Oslo National Academy of the Arts. I returned to Maputo few days ago from meetings and planning that took place in Oslo and brought the signed agreement and a message from the rector of my school Cecilie Broch Knudsen to the general director of ISArC, Filimone Meigos, who has now also signed and sealed it.

This is a stepping stone in the continuation of the work that I have been doing in Maputo during the last year and completes my dream of creating a good cooperation between Mozambican education in design and the same in Norway. I hope that the cooperation can spread wider in the North, but the director if ISArC has already signed similar agreements with schools in countries that are closer to Mozambique culturally like Spain and Portugal. The photos show the rectors and I am looking forward to the next stages in our work, when designers, teachers and design students from the two schools start to meet and work together.

Filimone Meigos and Cecilie Broch Knudsen in action in their respective institutions.