In my BA project, I travelled to Tanzania with a MFS stipend and experienced humanitarian architecture up close - by following architectural group Asant Collective´s project in Tanzania: a new Children Centre for a small non-governmental organization called ECONEF. 

I have worked with social questions / responsibilities regarding our role as interior architects in developing countries - often feeling like a anthropologist.

In my design part, I have re-drawed the layout for ECONEF´s planned new orphanage after a analyse of the existing orphanage, culture and traditions.

The presentation “Responding through design” addresses the use of the ecological notion of response diversity (Elmqvist Et al. 2003) as a frame to develop naturecultures. It does so by focusing on the practice of design, making explicit the type of performativity that design proposals could enact by devising complementary responses designed to support the life of specific beings in specific ecosystems. The talk elaborates upon examples from the project Dispersal machines, part of my postdoctoral research entitled Symbiotic tactics and financed by the Swedish Research Council (2013-2016). Dispersal machines proposes two complementary artificial systems that attempt to minimise the damages by a moth (Spodoptera frugiperda) on crops (corn and soy predominantly) in the agroecosystems of Córdoba, Argentina. The proposals attempt to biologically control this species by interventions that disseminate and/or host species that predate or parasitize the moth at different stages of its life cycle: a diurnal response, based on the dissemination of parasitized eggs of the moth by a tiny wasp (Telenomus remus), as well as a nocturnal response, based on the placement of bat refuges that feed on the adult moth.

Interspecies care demands response-ability (Haraway 2016); the challenges being the development of a practice of design tuned to respond dynamically to multi-scalar phenomena and multi-species abilities. Addressing the “semiotics of hybrid natures”, the presentation reflects upon “abilities to respond” and the notion of semethic interaction (Hoffmeyer 2008) as it relates to the more general semiotic term, semiosphere. With this context in mind, it addresses pattern-making through design, co-evolutionary possibilities, and the human capacity to respond through design, and design as a form of response. 

This essay commemorates the 30^th anniversary of the publication of Félix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies. It does so by proposing a ‘diffractive’ reading of the book, suggesting latent potential in each of the overlapping “ecologies” that conformed the ecosophysketched by Guattari. 

There are mainly two aspects of The Three Ecologies addressed in this essay. Firstly, the understanding of the general frame of the interrelation of the three ecologies as an “intersectional” approach. Secondly, the understanding of this form of intersectionality as a possible platform to acknowledge other-than-human ‘intersections’. Through the essay I exemplify with one of my own design projects to help situating the claims and the questions raised. Finally, I propose a multimodal explorative framework of the three ecologies to explicitly articulate human and other-than-human beings inter and intra-relatedness. 

koncentration, konstruktion: Fragment, Plasticitet, Konsekvens

Ett Assemblage

I essän koncentration, konstruktion: Fragment, Plasticitet, Konsekvens- Ett Assemblage sammanställs ett urval kritiker, konstnärer och filosofers texter som diskuterar kapitalism, teknologi, plasticitet och affekt. Parallellt med teorierna är mina egna tankegångar och narrativ placerade tillsammans i ett assemblage.

Essän diskuterar mediakritikerns Herbert I. Schillers:​ Culture Inc. The Corporate Takeover Of Public Expression​ (1989), företagens framväxt och ökande dominans i USA efter instifningen av den konstitutionella lagen “Bellotti” (1978); följder av företags rättighet till yttrandefrihet, och den ökade betydelsen av inpaketeringen av kulturella meddelanden för produktionsmedlen. Förenar citat från bland annat Slavoj Žižeks (The Pervert's Guide to Ideology) i detta.

Texten lyfter därefter fram bitar av filosofens​ ​Catherine Malabous bok ​Vad ska vi göra med vår hjärna? ​(2008)​ o​ ch diskuterar ​Plasticitet vs. Flexibiliet,​ och ​“Den neurala världen och kapitalismens anda”.

Andra utdrag från teoretiker (och konstnärer) såsom Donna Harraway, Steven Shaviro, Mark Fisher, Hito Steyerl, N. Katheriene Hayles och Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s essäfilm- The Pain Of Others​ återfinns i essän.

Löpande i texten är mina egna narrativ fördelade längsmed och i kontrast gentemot teorierna som lyfts fram. Som bitar till ett assemblage men som också på olika sätt behandlar det subjektiva och subjektbildandet. Vilket sker i olika textformat under rubrikerna: Interview: Madonna​, ​Skulptur, Fördelning av en tidslinje, Replokalen, Berlin 2019: Nirvana 2019, Selected Songs By Year.

Our value of people and craft are linked. With the rise of fast production 

industry, and the lack of transparency when it comes to a role of consumption, we have become detached from making processes. This detachment is 

detrimental to our understanding and empathy for other people but also to ourselves. It perpetuates disposable ways of living and keeps us reliant on 

disposable consumption. 

Craft is an undervalued tool which can be utilised in historical learning as well 

as anthropological study today. In doing so, we are able to understand more about humanity by inspecting craft through the ‘three facet’ lens. We are then 

able to develop empathy for other people and other cultures, through the non- tangible space created during the process of crafting. For those who do craft, 

this recognition is empowering and enables cultural ownership. It also empowers us as individuals, when we are able to produce something ourselves 

and physically see the learning process. 

This means we can recognise who has made our objects, and appreciate the 

time, skill and commitment which goes into the undertaking. This encourages us to appreciate objects, to consider our ways of living and move away from 

disposable consumption. 

Through a comparison of the relationship to craft that is held in Peru, with that 

of the relationship we hold in the UK, and broadened by my experience living and teaching in Sweden, I conclude that industrialisation and colonialism has a 

role to play, but ultimately, the power and potential of craft, is physically in our own hands. 

I propose using the ‘three facets’; Utility, Aesthetics and Connectivity, as a way to break down the information documented through craft, to analyse, at a deep 

level, what can be gained from craft appreciation. 

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sammanfogningsmöjligheterna mellan skaft och redskap med tånge som förutsättning. Följande frågor ställs i rapporten: Hur kan skaft och redskap sammanfogas med hjälp av tånge?  Hur kan man förstå de praktiska dilemman och möjligheter som uppstår när man ska sammanfoga ett skaft och en tånge? För att svara på frågorna tillverkade jag fyra skaft efter skriftliga instruktioner, och applicerade sedan de kunskaper jag förvärvat i tillverkandet av ytterligare åtta skaft. Jag dokumenterade observationer under arbetet, och sammanställde de steg som ingick i skaftningen. Processen analyserades efter Esko Mäkeläs perspektiv på kreativa processer i slöjden.

Förutsatt att man väljer att forma skaftet efter att det limmats på tången, kan man säga att en skaftning består av sex steg:

1. skissning, 2. förberedelse, 3. bearbetning, 4. limning, 5. utformning och 6. ytbehandling.

Tången påverkar främst vilken metod som är lämplig eller enklast för att bearbeta skaftämnet och göra plats för tången, det vill säga steg 3.

De tekniker som finns för att skafta ett redskap kan med få undantag delas in i två huvudgrupper, baserat på om steg 3 bearbetning- är grundat på sågning eller borrning. Under de olika stegen i skaftningen präglades arbetet och valen jag gjorde av olika kreativa och gestaltande överväganden och berodde helt på hur ett steg påverkade slutresultatet.

ABSTRACT

This text process a design pedagogical research executed in Arvidsjaur during the fall of 2011. The formulation of questions that this study circles around regards how combining design and narration can be used in the development of design pedagogy. Also scrutinized, how did the formulation of this research affect the outcome and what means, in addition their attendance, did the people who partook contribute with?   

The purpose is to find a pedagogic angle that moves focus away from the finished product and onto other aspects of the design process. To clarify, by investigating how narration adapts as a tool during a design process this research seek to enlighten ways that we comprehend, and make use of, our surroundings while working towards a common - designed - goal. What comes about when gathering a group of people and asking them to represent Arvidsjaur by designing a cup?

The material used emanates from observations, narratives, images and finished artifacts – all deriving from a set of workshops held in the city of Arvidsjaur. To partake in the workshops was voluntary and the invite began with the question/statement: Design and narration? An ethnographically inspired method preceded the structure of the study and hence made it impossible to foreordain what would occur before arriving in Arvidsjaur. By placing the gathered material and observations along with a set of selected theories, such as sociocultural learning and social constructionism, I wish to enlighten and point out qualities, along with weaknesses, that this study occupies. 

Beyond a written contribution, and the work on the field, the research resulted in a number of designed cups. These cups were photographed, processed, and depicted in three different ways – as posters and as a series of photographs. These images were on display during an exhibition at Konstfack in December 2011. My contribution to the exhibition was meant as a continuation on questions regarding design and narration. What happens e.g. with an item when it is displayed in this matter? When moved from one context to another? It is thus a way to stress the importance of questioning and challenge the way we apprehend our surroundings and what we chose to enlighten or leave out – a comment on a stirring development. I did not wish to explain to the viewer what the cups narrate; they were made to reveal something on their own. How they ultimately are received becomes yet another way of pointing out that how we experience something is dependent on a variety of circumstances.

Bio-based products is a hot topic for the future. The industry needs new materials and production methods. This project is looking at the consequences for industrial design when creating bio-products. The time perspective of the project is 30 years ahead. A future scenario was created based on extensive trendspotting research. The result is a product together with new design tools.

This salt and pepper shaker is grown with the use of bacteria that creates a biofilm. The bacteria are killed after the process and the biofilm remains. This growth process allow variation and give unique results every time, which opens up for an emotional bond to the product. Also if it breaks, it can heal itself, and you can keep on using your favorite shaker.

The result of the project is a proposal of how to deal with randomness in the design process and industrial production.

I Detaljer stiftar vi bekantskap med museiarbete, musik och munskydd; med asatro, norskhet och tunnbrödsbak; med litteratörer och kungligheter; med prästval, poliser och prostitution. Allt detta iakttaget genom detaljens prisma. 

Nitton kulturforskare kastar ljus över de små detaljernas stora betydelse. De betonar att detaljer är prismatiska. Att det lilla rymmer nycklar till det stora. Att detaljen och helheten är obönhörligt förenade. 

Bokens tema kuggar in i en kulturvetenskaplig tradition som handlar om att i varje led av forskningsprocessen vara uppmärksam på detaljerna. Förmågan att se detaljernas analytiska potential kräver såväl kunskap som hantverkskunnighet, och detta är något antologins författare visar inspirerande prov på.

Det tvärvetenskapliga projektet SYN-TES. Människa, färg och ljus. Syntetisering för ett sammanhållet kunskapsfält har pågått på Konstfack under 2010-2011, med finansiering från KK-stiftelsen (ref. nr 2009/0195). Projektet har omfattat ett femtontal nordiska färg- och ljusspecialister från företag och olika akademiska discipliner. Alla deltagarna har dessutom arbetat med annan forskning och/eller utvecklingsarbete om ljus- och/ eller färgfrågor. I arbetet med SYN-TES har gruppen regelbundet hållit interna semina- rier där olika kunskapstraditioner kunde närmas varandra och där gruppen gemensamt formulerade grunderna för ett sammanhållet kunskapsfält som innefattar både färg och ljus. I anslutning till detta har det genomförs ett antal under- eller sidoprojekt kring avgränsade frågeställningar, delvis med finansiering från Energimyndigheten (projekt nr 32266-1 och 34528-1)

Det övergipande syftet var att skapa förutsättningarna för ett sammanhållet kunskapsfält som innefattar både färg och ljus, ur ett mänskligt perspektiv. I denna rapport sammanfattar vi huvuddragen i denna ”syntetisering”, med tonvikt på frågeställningar och processer. De mer konkreta resultaten av seminarier och subprojekt redovisas i en serie separata rapporter. 

In this project I let sorrow speak through the objects and give the absence a place to be present. Through the creating process and material shaping, I portray the complexity of my own sorrows. Personal, but not private. With my examples and my objects I want to arouse something personal touching on the theme of grief.

I believe and am convinced that everybody needs to get in touch with their grief at some point. Of course, we need to take the time to process it in different ways, but I would like to say that materials and objects can help us get in touch and act as a link we can all relate to. Only if we listen. Although my belief is obvious, I have become well aware that not everyone can or knows how to do so. With my work I want you to get this help. I want you to be present with the absence.

The essay elaborates on the fluidity of realities and different forms of shaping them. Realities can be created and thus must be imagined first and implemented second. Reality production happens on different scales: from the small design studio – where products and desires are created – to the big world stage, where political narratives shape global happenings. At the moment we are experiencing a global dispute about how and to what extend humanity should technologically interact with nature. Should humanity intensify the control of climatic issues through the use of technology or slow down and develop new modes of being in the world? Existing movements provide space for exploring new ways of being in the world such as posthumanism, ahumanism, degrowth practice and marginalized forms of knowledge production such as occulture. Those fields come from fundamentally different (research) traditions but overlap in their quest for new non-anthropocentric ontologies. The overlapping space of these movements is conceptualized as a form of New Romanticism which opposes mainstream reality production and includes the nonhuman in its worldview. Methods for shaping realities range from speculative design to (capitalist) magic. I intend to advocate for non-hegemonic ontological explorations in academic research through experimental speculative design methods. I have written in an explorative style in order to implement speculation as a method. I first begin by looking at a tradition of Romanticism as an “irrational” opposing force to scientism and note how tendencies towards the Romantic have crept into the impetus behind other movements. Afterwards I explore different forms of shaping realities and narratives. Then I will propose new narratives for care for the age of the Anthropocene, followed by some initial ideas of how to implement New Romanticism through methods of Speculative Design. I will conclude with a short summary.

This essay is a reflection on various layers which inform my artistic practice, and particularly expands on the background and research for my short film The Spirit, The Lamp & The Permanent Inhabitant. It's an attempt to describe how certain parts of my Gotlandic background influence and inspire my artistic practice, and also to show how reading, writing and critical reflection are important parts of my process.

The essay pays tribute to an oral storytelling tradition that can be found on the island Gotland, Sweden, but is also an examination into how tourism has affected human relationships, and speculatively, the relationship between humans and ancient spirits.

How are Nordic Spaces crafted in the Nordic Countries and in the United States? How do such spaces give shape to cultural heritage? Drawing on theories of materialization and ritual performance; this paper discusses vernacular gifts as a form of materializing relationships; crafting bonds and delimiting boundaries between regions and museums in the wake of migration. By highlighting vernacular gifts from individuals and groups to Scandinavian museums in the United States; I would like to address how gift exchange maps out boundaries; between inside and outside; below and above; distant and close; near and far. The paper will show how gift exchange plays a creative role when Scandinavian museums craft relationships with particular regions; nations; and areas recognized as Scandinavia and Norden.

Ever since the emigration from the Nordic countries the Old world and the New world have maintained an exchange of ideas, customs, and material culture. This cultural heritage consists of more than remnants of the past. Drawing on theories of material culture and performance this article highlights the role of gifts in mate-rializing relationships between individuals, families and organizations in the wake of migration. First, I build on a suggested coinage of the term heritage gifts as a way of materializing relationships. Thereafter, I map out the numerous roles which a Swedish bridal crown play in the United States: as museum object, object of display and loaned to families for wedding ceremonies in America. The trans-fers and transformations of the bridal crown enhances a drama of a migration her-itage. This dynamic drama brings together kin in Sweden and America and maps specific locations into a flexible space via the trajectory of crown-clad female bodies.

Drawing on actor-network theory and theories of performance, this article discusses gift-giving as an expansive form of materializing relationships and delimiting boundaries between nations, regions, organizations and individuals in the wake of migration. Initially, I discuss gift-giving as a way of materializing relationships and building networks. Thereafter, I map out the social life of the Värmland Gift to America, a collection donated by the Värmland province in Sweden to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis in 1952. I suggest the coinage of heritage gift as a term to describe gifts with dense biographies which contain and enact multiple performances that simultaneously create and recreate the idea of gift-giving in its role as an activity that binds people together. The analysis of the Värmland Gift shows how such a heritage gift kept on the move over time involves not one but a series of performances which have fostered dynamic transatlantic relationships for over fifty years.

The aim of this dissertation is to analyse how conceptions of sexuality are interlinked with and formed through connections with different types of matter, and also to study what significance matter (that is, bodies, space and things) has in shaping and actuating norms, particularly heteronorms.

The study is based on transcribed semi-structured interviews and go-along interviews with persons who deviate from the societal norm of man and the societal norm heterosexual. In addition, the material consists of signposts, spaces, architecture, legal documents and texts found on websites.

The dissertation is mainly dedicated to the study of processes wherein bodies, things and space are linked together or separated. Bodies materialise as non-heterosexual (or heterosexual) in processes that entangle movements, spaces, things and language. Apart from analysing bodies as morphous, I also emphasise that the boundaries between bodies and things must be understood as transient. Things can integrate into bodies and limbs can turn into things. I also cast light on the fact that heteronorms are imprinted into matter such as the built environment. Boundaries are materialised, but LGBTQ- defined safe spaces are concurrently being formed. Such spaces tend to be transient in character. This stands in contrast to such things that tie into societal norms, which tend to survive the passing of time whether they be buildings, monuments or urban planning. Thus, norms are both created by and imprinted into matter. The memories, experiences and assumed needs of certain bodies and their ways of living together are given solidity. Spatially organised differences are, on the other hand, primarily accepted when packaged into events, temporary and clearly marked, which inadvertently highlight Sweden’s (imaginary) openness and diversity. 

Ätbara Andra handlar om skeenden där levande djurkroppar transformeras till ätbar materia, där de görs till ätbara arter och ätbara Andra. Boken kastar ljus på hur sådana skeenden görs friktionsfria men exempel ges också på hackande och kollapsande köttblivanden, det vill säga skeenden där djuren inte så enkelt låter sig transformeras till kött.

Ätbara Andra befolkas av en mängd mänskliga och ickemänskliga djur, av material, texter, tingestar, filmer och rörelser. Läsaren får bland annat stifta bekantskap med hästköttslasagne, bröstmjölksglass, ätna hundar, giraffen Marius, en virtuell slakthusvisning, köttslöjd, köttfria måndagar, köttmärkningar, branschorganisationer, gröna sommarhagar och nattsvarta tidningsrubriker. Tillsammans bidrar de alla till att producera normer för köttätande, karnism, liksom ätbara och dödbara Andra.

Utredningen behandlar konsekvenserna av utförsäljningen av allmännyttiga bostadsföretag ur ett antal olika parters perspektiv: hyresgästernas, kommunpolitikernas, de privata fastighetsägarnas och hyresgästföreningens.

Studien visar att utförsäljningarna har fått särskilt negativa konsekvenser för resurssvaga grupper som exempelvis ungdomar, ensamstående föräldrar, studenter och personer utan fasta anställningsformer.

En tilltagande segregering är synlig dels inom kommunerna såtillvida att människor med viss social och ekonomisk bakgrund koncentreras till vissa bestånd. Dels är segregeringen tydlig i stockholmsområdet som helhet. Välbeställda kommuner som Nacka och Täby, som sålt ut sina bostadsföretag och där bostadsbyggandet inriktas på boenden för höginkomsttagare, utgör drivkrafter i de segregationsprocesser där olika områden får olika socioekonomisk och etnisk prägel.

Mot denna bakgrund bör försäljningarna av kommunala bostadsföretag betraktas som en del av en mer vittomfattande utveckling – som såväl reproducerar som förstärker den sociala, ekonomiska och etniska uppdelningen av storstädernas bostadsmarknad.

Detta examensarbete skrevs vårterminen 2022 på institutionen för bild och slöjdpedagogik på Konstfack. Med en utgångspunkt i teorier om materialets agens och kulturella traditioner tar arbetet ann den digitala kultur som de senaste decennierna vuxit fram med ett extra fokus på skolans elever och deras fritid. Frågeställningen Hur förändrar görandet relationen till digitalt skapande i skolan? Banar väg för en undersökning av den relation skolan och lärare har till elevernas egen visuella kultur och om görandet kan bjuda in denna till skolans rum. Genom en workshop i digitala spel blev blivande bildlärare vägledda att delta i ett digitalt kreativt görande och deras utsagor, både före och efter workshoppen, analyserades med diskursanalys som metod. Resultatet visade att de blivande bildlärarna har en blandad bakgrund och bekvämlighet i det digitala görandet och att det finns en oro i att eleverna är mer kunniga i en del medium än läraren. De blivande lärarna hade även blandade åsikter om det digitala materialet och dess effekt på processen där vissa menade att hantverkets agens påverkades negativt av handens frånvaro och andra såg datorn som ett hjälpmedel.

Utifrån detta arbete väcks det sedan nya frågor om det digitalas relevans i bildämnet och hur ett digitalt görande skapar behov för en ny sorts didaktik där det digitala materialets agens får ta plats och görandet möjliggöra att eleverna kan vara delaktiga i utformandet av den digitala kulturen. I arbetet diskuterar jag även behovet av att utveckla lärarutbildningen för att höja den digitala kompetens som lärarna innehar.

I diskussioner kring den högre utbildningens syfte ställs ibland bildningsideal mot vad som kan kallas ett nyttoideal. Sverige förenade studentkårer (SFS) väljer att knyta bildning till sin definition av en användbar utbildning där bildning utgör en "en central och oersättlig del", men inte förknippas med direkt nytta. Tillgång tillbiblioteksverksamhet är en förutsättning för utbildning. Bibliotek och bildning hör ihop och begreppet bildning nämns till exempel i nya bibliotekslagen: "Biblioteken i det allmänna biblioteksväsendet ska främja litteraturens ställning och intresset för bildning, upplysning, utbildning, och forskning och kulturell verksamhet i övrigt." Hur kan verksamheten vid biblioteken inom högre utbildning relatera till bildning och nytta på ett relevant sätt för dagens studenter? Traditionellt förknippas bibliotek med ett närmast absolut kunskapsbegrepp på så sätt att biblioteken har haft som uppgift att organisera och systematisera den samlade kunskapen i form av dokument. Biblioteken har också förknippats med urval och kvalitetskontroll och ett kanonbegrepp ligger nära till hands - läser man rätt böcker blir man bildad. Denna typ av lärdomsbildning kan anses bidra till personligutveckling och kulturell status, men sätts inte sällan i motsats till nytta. I en tid där informationsflödet är konstant och dokumentstrukturer löses upp är detta bildningsbegreppet inte längre gångbart. Traditionella publiceringsformer har visserligen flyttats över till den digitala miljön, men där existerar de tillsammans med nyare och snabbare kommunikationskanaler och gränserna blir alltmer otydliga. Filosofen Bengt Kristensson Uggla beskriver denna trend: "Det globala informationssystemet medför en horisontalisering av all kunskap, med konsekvensen att värderings- och kunskapshierarkier vittrar bort så att kunskapen i allt högre grad kommer till oss osorterad". Själva grundvalarna för biblioteksverksamhet har förändrats. Kristensson Uggla förespråkar ett bildningsbegrepp där tolkningsförmåga som innefattar selektion, värdering, meningsbildning och användning är en förutsättning i ett nytt informationslandskap. Ett sådant perspektiv på bildning förutsätter en aktiv pedagogisk roll för biblioteken i högre utbildning. Syftet med detta rundabordssamtal är att diskutera detta bildningsbegrepp utifrån ett högskolepedagogiskt perspektiv. Hur kan det tillämpas på högskolebibliotekens verksamhet? Kan den pedagogiska verksamheten utvecklas av att fokus sätts på studenternas tolkningsförmåga och begreppen selektion, värdering, meningsbildning och användning? Kan detta bildningsperspektiv vara till nytta förstudenterna i deras framtida arbetsliv?

In different areas of handicraft and textile production, teachers, researchers, purchasers and others have to judge products based on different factors such as function, aesthetics, taste and so on. The whole process of designing – from ideas and visions to finished product – includes aesthetic judgements: In the first planning phase, several sketches are made that can later be changed, adjusted and further developed. When a product is finished, further judgements are needed: designers and artisans evaluate the result of their efforts, teachers judge the works of pupils or students and purchasers or consumers judge the suitability of the textile based on their particular needs. Because different persons make different choices when making or buying a textile product, it is interesting to study people’s experiences of fabrics as well as their reasons for making certain aesthetic judgments. This article presents a study of judgments and values expressed when designed printed fabrics were displayed for designers, teachers of textile crafts, consumers and schoolchildren. The present study shows that subjects make their judgements on the basis of formal, functional, cultural and emotional contents. These aspects should therefore be in focus in design work and design education.

”My father once picked a liverleaf and gave it to me. I was sad because it was a protected flower. I wanted to explain that to my father but I didn’t know how. Then I understood: it was this that made me sad, and not because I was some sort of nature activist when I was 6. I’d learned about the right of public access at nursery school, and my father hadn’t.”

Personal stories about Sweden based on various aspects of being Swedish in a globalized time. A time where different perspectives meet and hybrid identities arise, at the same time as the need for a national identity seems to be growing stronger. In my work I and a number of invited guests with widely different backgrounds, try to formulate and reformulate the concept of Swedishness. Can we through telling other stories, expand the tale of Sweden and make it contain greater variations?

I mitt arbete har jag utforskat det konstnärliga religiösa arvet och hur bilder, symboler och fysiska föremål är grundläggande för kulturellt konsensus. Jag har utforskat fenomenet i gemensam tro på något övernaturligt och abstrakt med hjälp av klädkoder, måleri, skulptur, text och rumslig gestaltning. Inspirationen har jag tagit från bland annat kyrkobyggnadens sceniska egenskaper, där föreställningar tar plats. Ett annat tema i verket är kopplingarna till ritualen och innebörden i handlingen, liksom betydelsen av ord och bilder för människors förmåga att forma en tro på något immateriellt. Upplevelse och inlevelse är viktiga delar i vidareförandet av budskap, både inom konst och religion. Min intention med det här verket är kort sagt ett experiment och en parafras på religiös visuell kommunikation, och att jag försökt samla den kärnfulla symboliken som blivit bevarad i det, utifrån min egen tolkning och erfarenhet. Vem eller vilka det här är för är egentligen inte det viktigaste i min mening, utan jag ser det som ett personligt undersökande av något som intresserar mig och förhoppningsvis andra med.

The paper intends to expand and deepen the field of craft, underline it and dissolve it and thereby demand new points of reference to work from, and doing so through the practices of crafts. Craft is traditionally closely linked with what we could define as a well-established concept, within a so-called Swedish identity. I will highlight different “pottering” works and should be seen as a variety of crackdowns, both historic and contemporary, where the object is to highlight the most relevant dominion in the crafts discourse. The paper also discusses knowledge of bodily work, the handicrafts of a fruit-carving artist and the handson-method of crossing concept: konsthantverk. From this a micro cosmos is reflected; these heterotopes represent and resonate, “are”, in this sense, antagonistic practices. We are dealing with power relations, bodily work, plastic flowers, watermelons, values, intra-activity, with the authentic - as well as with the technicalities of cutting the flesh out of a watermelon.

We walk through most of our everyday life without constantly thinking of what we are doing in that exact moment. I mean, that would be absolutely exhausting. Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Hand to cup, grab, lift and onwards to the mouth. But what is interesting is that we refer to these actions and doings as nothing. They seem to have no value to us at all. What have you been doing today? Nah, nothing. Nothing at all. As well in our commute to work. Sometimes we step onto a bus or train and when we take off our coat at work we almost don’t even know what happened between point a and point b. Does it seem familiar?  My work has come to evolve around our everyday routines. How in those moments of unconscious nothingness we actually do so many things and most of all encouter so many objects. When we walk through a door, pick up a tool, open a box, we grab a handle and the bodily encounter is made through the hand. I’ve come to explore how it seems that the hand has its own life when we are in this state. How the objects in our everyday call for the hand, directs the hand, makes a choreography for the hand. I have recorded the hands movement in different media in order to get a new view of something familiar and try to find new realities to what we think we know.  What happens when the hand and a handle meet in a routine? What does it actually look like? Why is it important to become aware of?  I believe by changing our attitude to things in our environment, we can also change the attitude to people around us. Changing perspectives on the most ordinary everyday chores can generate new thoughts about the commonplace and like the butterfly effect also create a more permissive society.  

The core question in this master thesis is: What happens to the essence of an object when it becomes out of date and is no longer in use? I am addressing the sense of dignity in once meticulously designed technical/mechanical items that now has become obsolete. The intention has been to investigate how to give new meaning to obsolete items and find new eligibility for their existence. 

The investigation was conducted through the development of a method: collection, analysis, deconstruction, investigation and resurrection of a number of O.T.M.I. (Obsolete Technical Mechanical Items).  

The resurrection process consisted of the (re-)writing of the objects’ narratives. These stories along with the objects’ parts, spaces and sounds created a frame for a scenography, a soundtrack and characters to act in a film to tell the story.

As interior designers we have the opportunity to transform space and fill it with stories. Imagination is an important tool: We benefit from having the ability to imagine, for instance, how different surfaces will reflect sound and light. Our imagination is highly visual. So I have transformed my imaginary world of Obsolete Technical Mechanical Items to visual and audial elements that support the content and values of a story through researching the objects, finding how to clarify and support the story. The Re-Story.

I mitt examensarbete utforskar jag allmogestilen i Skåne och för samman den med nordisk badkultur. Allmogestilen utgör ett betydande kulturellt och designmässigt arv som riskerar att försvinna på grund av bristen på tillräcklig restaurering av allmogemöbler och till och med olaglig export. Med inspiration från nordisk badkultur där aktiviteter såsom kallbad, rökbastu och dricka brunn är centralt omtolkar jag det moderna spat. Den reducerade estetiken som i vanliga fall associeras till den här typen av rum ersätts med den kraftfullt ornamenterade allmogestilen. Allmoge kan vara både en lyxartikel och något vardagligt, beroende på hur det används och värderas. Syftet för mitt examensarbete är att belysa allmogestilen genom att använda dess stilistiska element som inspirationskällor och genom interiören berätta en historia, i sann allmogeanda.Dessutom utforskar jag allmogestilens och ornamentikens förmåga att kommunicera budskap och historia genom materiella objekt.

: In our designed culture, every environment, object and picture is analyzed from the viewpoint of colour and light. Colour and light play an important role in social life and culture. This paper springs from an epistemological project about concept formation in the field of colour and light. Based on own observations and scientific and scholarly references it presents a graphic model describing possible constituent relations between colour and light experiences. Design is the art of using knowledge – implicit or explicit – about how humans perceive, experience, and relate to the world around. In design all senses are involved, but when dealing with colour and light we can confine ourselves to vision; designers must understand the conditions of visual perception. Human experience of colour and light has many sources; the given cultural context (conventional meanings of colour and light), the direct experience of the world around (colour and light expressions) and the basic perceptual functions (formal aspects of colour and light). There is need for distinct concepts and concise approaches to understand coherence of aesthetic and functional expressions. Design education calls for coherent and well defined structures that can be used to describe connections and distinctions between experiences of different kinds.

‘There Must Be Other Ways’ explores alternative approaches to wayfinding design. Through practical experimentation I explore how signs can give room to more complexity in language, can be made in dialogue with the people they depict, and can highlight under-represented ways of navigation.

The text focuses on three ways of working and ways of looking in wayfinding design that are so common in the practice that I identify them as norms: standardisation, simplification, and universalism. In three separate projects, I explain how each of those norms came to be part of the practice, share some of my experiences with them, and experiment with ways to challenge them. In Chapter 1, I try to include individuals and communities in the design process instead of following international standards. In Chapter 2, I show how to incorporate complexity in signage instead of hiding it. And in Chapter 3, I explore how wayfinding design can visualise otherness instead of holding on to universalism.