They want it...

E-mail from Nils Kolle:

Styringsgruppa for utstillingsprosjektet Havlandet har nå bestemt seg for å satse på deg som formgjevar.
Gruppa oppfatta ditt konsept som det mest kreative, samstundes som opplegget ditt for produksjon og gjennomføring verka realistisk.

:-)

Supervision

Møte med Jack og Søren igår. Bra og interessant. Jack tok ledelsen og kom med mange gode ideer. Skal gå igjennom notatene i ettermiddag eller i morgen.

Jack snakker mye om ministre og FN og at jeg skal være den beste av alle stipendiatene. Jeg liker ikke å skulle være den beste. Jeg vil være god. (Dette høres norsk ut!). Men jeg vil ikke gjøre noe for å imponere en minister. Jeg vil ikke bli en del av FN systemet og reise hele verden rundt hver uke. Jeg mangler kanskje ambisjoner? Maybe like my father, who, as a freelance, loved not working. Loved just being at home og kose seg. There are other things than being known that will make me happy. And that’s what its all about. I think I will be just as happy working with a limited group of people in one small area.

I think we are part of a new breed. A new generation. Who do not want to let work and careers take over their lifes. A generation who want to have time. Who wants to let things take their time. And who value local over global. Small scale over gigantic. Who want to let time pass. Slowly. Just earn enough to be content.

I see no reason why I should rush things. These issues don’t go away. And it takes time to get this right. I will give them a preliminary version after this week, but it is vital that i manage to fit Jacks ideas into my project. At the moment they are his ideas for his project. My project might not be so sell-able and universal as his, but, as Grete says, it has to be what I really burn for.

Maybe its is something about how people fight back and how they keep their dignity despite everything that is done to them. Migrant workers being kept in hostels. Asylumseekers being kept in asylums.

Norway as a colonized country, nationalromantic, frigjøring fra sverige. Fighting for a countrys freedom. How did they do that? Asylumseekers today fighting in their countries, having to flee. Building a new kurdistan? Building a new south africa.

Norway – south africa - both peaceful liberations. Now building a new nation. What can Norway learn from south africas experience? What kind of project can i test out in Norway and then do in sa?

How can we explain the norwegian experience from poor to wealthy in 40 years? To a new audience. How has that formed us, as people and as a nation?

How about being a nordlending i Oslo? Could not get a house, etc

How about i work with the sjømenn and havfruer, og anne mette med resten, og at vi lager oss et firma til dette prosjektet, som hun og willy tar ut lønn fra, og jeg skal jobbe havmenn og hvordan bringe nytt publikum til museet…

Planing

This week:

• Write projectdescription
• Start working on the presentation at school
• Write to the Universities
• Settle dates with museum of Londons design department
• Look at the project timeline.
• Read: finish Sørens book

Emma had called back when I returned home. She had managed to squise me in on Thursday next week. At 15.30. Good. I really don’t feel comfortable having to wonder wether what i have to talk to jack about is so important i can justify “pestering” him. Well, what i have to talk to him about is 1) how much time i will have to schedule for the designprocess and if it is possible to fit in Havlandet (at the moment I don’t think so). And 2) if it is so that he thinks that i should work at the musuem, I need to get in touch with the people in charge, so that we can plan that. And 3) how we are to work in this situation.

I think Havlandet will be too much work, it is too many factors with lots of work on each of them. It’s a fulltime job for a year, which is what I have scheduled for it. It is just amazing that they are even considering the project among the two they want.

I also get stressed when i read what grete refsum wrote about how phd are valued after what institution they are from. Then i think “i have to get a phd from somewhere good!”. I forget that i am doing this because it is fun. And because these are questions i want to find out about. And that i don’t have to do it all at once. And that i don’t have to worry about what will happen after the three years. Things have a tendency of working out. Just look at me now. Suddenly i’ve got two projects i would love to do. And it isn’t the end of the world if i can’t say yes to doing Havlandet. Then i will do parts of it, and that will be done well, instead of all of it being in a rush.

Am working with the projectdescription, and think i have found a new structure for it.

Tomorrow i will go to a museum.

At my morning meeting today (with myself @ café rouge) I realized that I don’t have to understand the role of communication design just after the theoretical months. This will happen through the development of a design program (as I have already written in the projectdescription). And one way of cutting the project is maybe to focus on what it says in the english version of the project description. That I will “explore the role of communication design in the context of cultural history museums”, rather than developing a method which may be too grand.

Have spent the day re-writing the projectdescription. Have I come up with a new structure? Maybe, we will se tomorrow. I will go printing some copies. Tomorrow I will have to write to Sheffield and Leicester. Read Grete Refsums report from the design-conference in Tokyo. Very interesting!

In my morning meeting I also wrote down some of the ideas for the finishing exhibition, and realized I need to get a project-planner. And I was wondering how to be able to do parts or all of Havlandet. Maybe if I make it part of the phd? It is an exhibition that is very to the point in what I will be doing.

Called Jack again.
Emma, his PA called back and said he was fully booked the next week. Surprise. I said it was vitally important. She said she would try to fit me in and call back in the morning.

Fiksing og Havlandet

Dagen ble brukt til veldig mye fiksing. Det er SÅ VANVITTIG MYE FIKSING!! Og litt lesing. Har fått Sørens bok Menneskevidenskaberne og den er virkelig fin! Hans humor og gode formidlingsevne gjør boken lettlest og lettfattelig. Anne Britt Ylvisåker ringte og sa at de forferdelig gjerne vil snakke med meg, fordi de i øyeblikket står og vipper mellom to prosjekter og vårt er det ene! Jeg hadde aldri trodd at vi skulle nå så langt! Jeg er fryktelig stolt! Det er det første prosjektet som jeg har gjort alene og som deretter har nådd så langt.

Veiledermøte

Møtet med Søren var bra. Jeg har bestemt meg for å starte med å finne ut om arkitektur teori og metode og allminnelig vitenskaps teori. Får tilsendt Sørens bok Menneskevidenskaberne fra Studia i løpet av uka. Søren ville at vi skulle ha en plan med hvert møte og at jeg sender ham noe på forhånd eller at jeg kommer opp med et tema vi kan diskutere. Han forelso også at jeg satser på å skrive en artikkel om et halvt år – jeg sa at det kanskje var mer interessant om 9 måneder, når jeg også har vært i Leicester. Artikkelen kan da være en slags forstudie. Han sa også at det kan være enklere å skrive dersom en skriver til noen. Også må jeg jo selvfølgelig kikke på prosjektbeskrivelsen.