the big idea...

...trying to unscramble the big idea and the key communication points with Nina at Kafé Kaos. A fitting location for our present state? Not really. We feel we have it all and know what it is, but we are trying to get our heads around the categories, and around what is what.

after some struggles we also start wondering wether finding "the big idea- sentence" to guide all further development is the only right way of developing exhibitions... We wonder partly because we feel that even if we do lack the sentence we can't see how finding it is going to change the manuscript and the way we are working with it.

Building

Trying out some ideas in cardboard...

Three focus areas II

Three pods with distinctly different atmospheres.

Tomatoes - visual, tactile

Cardamom - aroma, mechanical theatre

Chocolate - taste, aroma "magic interface" "new media"

With this audience we need to be very direct. But how? Open questions that are not moralistic. But we shouldnt be afraid of having a moral.

Kulturminneåret 2009 - Part II

Fiskeboller i karri is now officially a part of Kulturminneåret 2009, The Norwegian Year of Cultural Heritage 2009!

Today I had a very engaging conversation with Sidsel Hindal, the project manager, where she suggested a variety of ways the project can tie in to other projects that is in the making. It seems other people are inspired by the idea; maybe we can make it a National network?

We have also received 25 000,- nkr from Bergen Kommune (Thank you, BK!)

Museumssenteret i Salhus

The museum centre in Salhus is a gem of a museum! Situated in an old textile factory it has beautiful locations and interesting permanent collections that are well presented. In the glass on the photo you can see the reflections of the windows overlooking the harbour. When in Bergen take the trip!

Mexican Pretzel

In the series of mixed food; I came across this Mexican Pretzel on the trainstation in Leicester...

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Three focus areas

• Potatoes (or should it be tomatoes? Annechen said the use of tomato in Norwegian cuisine has exploded...)
• Spices (only one spice? like cinnamon?)
• Chocolate!!! (ofc!) (Milkchocolate - a small piece of Norway...(?))

Webinar

I just ended the last of four webinars based on the book "Digital Museum - transforming the future now."

I wanted to join the webinar also because I was interested in the format. And I must say it was quite a pleaseant way of being at a seminar, while still enjoying the comforts of my best chair ;-)

A lecture these days is normally a PowerPoint presentation and a voice, and so this was not so different. I guess the major difference was the lack of smalltalk in the coffee-break... networking not being so obvious... but still happening through the chat window. :-)
And my questions were answered :-)

It was also quite nice to get an extended overview over what is happening, particularly on social networking sites and how some museums are using them. For some art museums the use and also the benefits are obvious, but for history and cultural museums there are also ways. Maybe ways that are even more interesting - like this example from Museum of London's "London's Voices" exhibition.

Going into production!

The time has come to move the project into production. We will start the development of the "smell/picture" and the "how are you connected to the world" installations. The timeframe we have - with opening in march next year - forces us to focus. Which is a good thing.

For a while now I have felt as if the installation needed more ideas... but it was allways intended to be a small installation in order to have time and means to work out the details. A small gem.

So I have decided to start the production by contacting the following for consultations:

BEK - Bergen center for Electronic Art - for the interactive elements of the installations. Because they are the most experienced on interactivity in a 3d space.

Tveit&Tornøe - For ideas on the physical structures of the installation. Because they are energetic, creative and available. They are here in the same workspace that I am at KhiB, which makes contacting them low-threshold.

For the development of the script I have already spoken to Nina Svane-Mikkelsen who also wrote the script for Havlandet. Because she is the only one (in Bergen at least) who actually understands writing scripts for exhibitions. And her own PhD is focusing on exhibitions and new media.

Kulturminneåret 2009

Next year is the The Norwegian Year of Cultural Heritage 2009, and they are focusing on cultural heritage in Everyday life, and writes that

One approach involves highlighting the development of cultural heritage in Norway.

Sounds like Fiskeboller should be part of that?! :-)

Prøvekluten

Prøvekluten at Høgskolen i Volda has accepted Fiskeboller as one of their projects this year :-) We are invited to spend time in Volda in June this year.

Hordaland fylkeskommune did not find it in their hearts (or budget) to give us the 50 000,- we applied for... not surprising; there are many projects applying and little money to be handed out :-)

Konseptutvikling

Brainstorming med Joanne; min og din utstilling på lørdag. Joanne veldig konkret i utformingen av utstillingen, har tanker om bygging av rom, bygger rommene før vi har innholdet. Plutselig blir jeg den akademisk konservative, brainstormingen fungerer fint og vi får definert en hel del ting i forhold til farger og det grafiske. Tre nyanser av beige over til gull. Tre nyanser av grønt. Svart/hvitt. Mønstre – blomster. Lag og gjennomskinnelighet.
Men blir det for vakkert? Målgruppe. God design er ikke nødvendigvis riktig design.

Vi lager rammer før vi har bildene. Det er greit å jobbe med design konseptet, de grafiske snittet, utforske et visuelt språk. Men vi må ha innhold før vi kan lage en en installasjon. Brainstormingen gjorde at det ble klart, så det er et positivt utslag.

Trenger vi en tekstforfatter nå? En som kan jobbe aktivt videre med tematisk konsept... hvem skal gjøre det i så fall?

Etter å ha lest Joanne Jones-Rizzi, Contextualizing Culture i Exhibitionist vol.27:

Unger trenger å starte med seg selv, å ha en følelse av hvem de er etnisk, nasjonalt, kulturelt.
Phyllis A. Katz: når og hvordan utvikler barn holdninger til etnisitet, rase og kultur?

Why is cultural understanding so important?
We want to foster kids cultural curiosity. We want all children to feel valued.

Plakat i museet:
”Help us with a new multicultural exhibit”
”What do you want to know about people who look different from you?” ”What do you want others to know about you?”

Vårt konsept (litt utvidet)
• Alle har mange identiteter (Hva er din forbindelse til verden?)
• Forskjellighet innen én gruppe (”Norsk er ikke én ting”)
• Kultur forandres hele tiden (Lukten av Norge)

Hvorfor er kulturell forståelse viktig?
Vi ønsker å stimulere barns kulturelle nysgjerrighet. Vi vil at alle barn skal føle seg verdsatt og del av et eller flere felleskap.

And more generic play

Trying the blogging feature on my new phone + the new photoDJ...

Idées Vagues

Easter is over, extremely early this year. It has eaten quite a chunk of March so the month has been entirely occupied with applications for funding (to Hordaland Fylkeskommune, Prøvekluten and Stipendiatprogrammet) and presentations. The presentation at the Stipendiatsamling went well, although I messed up a bit in the end... I guess that is where my thoughts are the most fuddled too so it actually made that fact very clear to me.

When it comes to the funding bit; yesterday I was informed that we have received 200 000,- NOK from Stipendiatprogrammet! With the 75 000,- NOK from Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen it is starting to look like proper funding ;-D

I also got an e-mail from Amanda Steggel about the aroma installation and we have had an e-mail exchange about possibilities and restrictions. Very nice.

On the coming Monday I am doing the "key note" for museum educators in Hordaland. Trying both to say something in general about what exhibitions could be and present the project. It is a heavy job to do the writing, mostly because it seems there is so much I want to say! There are so many themes I would like to explore, but it is so boring to try to write out the whole argument. I must find a way to relax with the writing...

new computer :-D

Finally! The new computer is in da house!
Here is a portrait it has taken of itself; I am still playing with Photobooth...

Stipendiatsamling

We are at the twice annual gathering of the research fellows. I held my presentation yesterday, Transformation, and it went quite well. People seemed to enjoy the thoughts behind Fiskeboller. Will post those images friday.

I am playing with Photobooth.

Interviews and organic design development

According to my project plan I was supposed to do interviews with museum professionals in March. However, due to easter being early this year and a couple of presentations in March I will move the interviews to end of April/May.

I am a little confused on how to continue the development of the design of Fiskeboller. It seems as if the design is just growing inside of me... Erlend Loe said in an interview with "Interiør" (1-2008) that the best ideas are the ones that stay with you, they go through a kind of destillation process and only parts remain. Often an idea is only good once you combine it with something else that has been around for a while.

Thats the way it feels with the exhibition ideas atm. They seem to be merging and shaping inside my head, without much of a visible output. At some stage they will be put on paper, and then into space.

The confusion I feel is because I am uncertain wether this organic way of working with the design ideas is ok, or if I should be more structured and exploring.

The smallest acceptable solution

In the smallest acceptable solution there will be aroma and projected images/text and a web solution.

In the (highly unlikly) case that the only funds we have for Fiskeboller i karri are private and from Kunsthøgskolen.

Producers

Through Amanda Steggell's website I found the name of the aroma designers she used for her Emotion Organ. Dale Air Aroma Design makes aromas for museums and shopping experiences. And it doesnt look that expensive either. :-)


Anne Mette Prestegård tipped me (even if she didint know) about using BEK for technical solutions on multimedia.

Both Trond Lossius at BEK and Amanda Steggell has completed their research fellowships in the same programme as me. It all stays in the family!

Design Methods

When I first started in 2003 there was very little inormation out there on the www. Last week I checked again. Lo and behold! Here is a nice article on Design Methods from Wikipedia. It says among other things that

Design Methods is (sic.) challenging to implement since there are not enough
agreed-upon tools, techniques and language for consistent knowledge
transfer.

Rita Marhaug said in a discussion once that

artists are not very true to method.

The purpose of design is to make something that doesnt already exist. Maybe you can not follow a recipie if you are to create something new? Just a thought.

Norwegian Traditions

Kaffistova promotes Norwegian food traditions. Warm ricepudding with raisins, sugar and cinnamon. "Risengrynsgrøt" was dreaded by purists when it first started getting popular around 1800. They were afraid it would take over for the true Norwegian rømmegrøt (porridge of sourcream)...

What has happened the last week

We have set up a list of potential sponsors and possible partners for "Fiskeboller i karri" and are researching our options. I met with Vigleik Røkke Mathisen from Museum Vest and he was very enthusiastic, both about the theme and about the idea of touring schools. If we team up with them, they could probably contribute personell, like educators and builders. Geir Sebjørnsen works at Museum Vest as a designer/carpenter and he is amazing on design details.

I have been asked to submit a proper budget to the programme comitee. This has made me think closely about worst case scenarios. The smallest amount of money we can raise is Nkr 125 000,-. If that is to be the case what is the most important thing to spend money on? It must be smell. Smell is the single most important sense in this project. Hopefully we manage to raise more funds!

What used to be

Thinking about origins of things and the paths they have travelled and are travelling. How did they protect their boats before there where exessive amounts of used car tyres?

new moodboards

...it seems that I keep turning out moodboards for this project...

Containers...

Back from an extended christmas holiday. Have been approved for "readmittance" to the fellowship programme!

However, after looking again at some of MMW's container projects, I got inspired to look into containers again for FiK... Apparently it is possible to buy used 20' containers for approx. 15 000,-. So I did some drawings and some thinking. Considering the problems of wheelchair access I started thinking about other types of disabilities. The combination of small and sound (and taste) makes the exhibition an interesting experience also for people with a visual impairment. And the combination of smell and images (and again taste) makes it interesting for people with an hearing impairment.

I would want it to be a seating area and thought about doing it with an organic shape and some soft surface, but that requires people to take off their shoes, and that again creates a whole set of problems relating to logistics, entrance threshold (mental ones :-)) etc. So maybe we just keep the organic shape, but make the seating of a hard, shoe friendly material.

Atm I am thinking of a sound, images, smell show that could take something like 10 - 15 minutes (or run continuosly when viewed in public) with visitor interaction deciding what section comes next. ("Is this the smell of Norway? Lean to your right if you say yes. Lean to your right if you say no. Why/not?") In this case the main development would be with the AV(S)-program and the interactive programming. As well as developing stable technical solutions.