The blog of a norwegian caught between the worlds of sight and imagination
From the isar ventures quite a few months ago. Ventured the same streets today as it was lovely weather (but very cold).
Track to go for a Sunday: Jesper Ryoms – Hold On
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As the MacBook decided to not collaborate anymore it has been harder to keep this blog alive. I went to a mac reseller shop in mailingerstrasse yesterday and it was at least promising that service would be covered by apple care. I was surprised how fast they were in detecting the issue, took less than 20 seconds and they had a full diagnostic.
This week I got to freelance for a few days which was fun because it involved the really last steps and seeing things come alive. Two of my colleagues have now left Munich and so it stresses the question of the future. I’ve had a dream since I was 16 and this is what I’m pursuiting. The sooner I can get the mac back I can prepare myself a little better.
This is it for now. I’ve got 16 rolls of neopan to shoot before I leave munich.
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a first try at posting via mobile; somewhat more timeconsuming but interesting to have the possibility..
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Reviewing old photos of mine, I realized these never got posted.
120 tx vs 135mm velvia @ hk ´06.
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Matthew Lyons shares some unique analogue illustrative scenes on flickr. Definitely worth having an eye on his work, it´s got a very distinct signature, color palette and storytelling perspective. Matthew contributed to a post for iso50 on his process from idea to creation which is quite interesting on the matter. It really does not matter how you format it´s initial roughness, as long as you know technique and keep the vision alive.
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Michal Chelbin is one of my true heroes in the world of imagemakers trying to create a vision.
Always loved her work and can much recommend going to see her, if you should be in a city where she is exhibited. Michal has been featured in Aperture and won several prizes, among them her homecountry Israel.
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Experience Mobile Mobile from James Théophane Jnr on Vimeo. Very cool installation. Via SmashingMag
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There are only a few things left reminding me when a Friday is just that day. One is that I have no force left. I feel quite exhausted after this week; sleep is messed up and a new deadline is up. Above that this week is my last week at work in Munich. But it also comes in the name of change. It leads to fear but at the same time a form of relief. I have been the intern for 8 months. I never did not have work to do. Countless hours. Inspiring talks. Great lunches. Travels. Discussions. Encounters. Much. And Much more.
I wanted this to last longer, but I have come to peace with myself about dealing with not knowing what is ahead. It used to be an interesting feeling. This time it feels different though. It may be a force of nature, a call for something else. We will see.
For the first time, I actually have no more film in my cupboards that need to be processed. This week I got them scanned, and saw them for the first time this morning. There were frames in there I had forgotten I had taken, and those are some of the nicest moments. After all, memory has sandlike features; it may not be firm, but it dissolves and travels and reconfigures continuously. Sometimes it feels like memory pieces displace themselves, yet they are not gone, they just find new places to go, and you have to find those again.
So now, it is time to scan again, since I have the time and can´t wait. This man has a repair shop close to karsplatz in Munich. He repaired a camera my friend asked me to help him with. I was picking it up. And then I said thank you so much for selling me the 50mm 1.4 zuiko – for the olympus. He did not remember that, but he remembered me and went on about with his very likable French (so unexpected in this country).
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A series of diptyches taken last October; it might just grow. They might be speaking in tones of romaticizing the area, but there really is something exquisite and clean about the place, in that it might sparkle imagination or zoom out and seeing cultures cross. What I´ve wanted to do is capture the experiencing of this place. I know half a million people go through her everyday, but the experience by itself is something interesting, particularily for the young and oriental.
One korean guy travelling with 4 girls. They had been through Switzerland and Paris, and they happened to sit in on the same wagon as me. We conversed, joked, misunderstood. Later we bumped into eachother by the entrance and I was amused by his manner of posing for photos. His spirit caught onto me and I decided to take the Hasselblad out and finish the color film. He showed me polaroids he had taken during his trip and I was impressed with the vividness and flavour of the “prints”.
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I hope we don´t stop photographing the small things around us. The last days I´ve seen black and wondering what course life is going to take.
I found the walk of these two men quite a story. They had no conversation together, well assuming htey were not in the awareness of eachothers company, and yet they behaved, composed the same behaior and crossed eachothers lifeline so close without realizing the parallelness.
I want to keep photographing but I´m finding it hard. Things are changing. On the long run things are becoming a bit cyclical and that might not be the best thing. I wish for the sun to meet us. To write this, is perhaps to be inspired by the om1 and its master :)
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Of the very little I know, I know that I as soon as I finish my master degree I will take my camera with me and fly to Madagascar.
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Recently created London Design Consultancy KIWI & POM electrified a crazy specter of luminance to these chairs. ”
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January 1st, 2010; Binary date followed with slide play.
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In between it all, it´s really something of it´s own seeing it the way the Coen brother´s do.
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I could keep on scanning all night. A lot to catch up with. Although my brother is landing in half an hour, and it´s time for a brotherly weekend.
New York does not reply. But I still hope.
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Exploring Prague with misses mariposa. We were both fascinated about being in a new culture, and making the best of the little time we had there. Scanning more as I speak.
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A delicate compilation of visualizations by Kunal Anand. A great example of how gradients may enhance a visual landscape, and not the least what potential is in code.
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on my way to work today :) she did not even notice me.
today´s learning: whenever you write about somebody, they are the first person you meet next day. you happen to be late because you were up very late. odd.
don´t talk to chinese people about chinese noodles being thick, they won´t pronounce it right. auch
whenever you do not bring your film camera wherever, you most likely will see something of a very particular nature. regrets. kid over 2.20 meters. with semi midgety friends.
so this afternoon i finally found the time to deliver some of my films to a lab; they should be ready by wednesday. the whole waiting thing does something to your body.
very well then, it´s time to read a book :)
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A crazy long and content-rich day today. Supporting on photography for videomaking and stills. The unexpected things happen. I stress. There´s wine. It helps. I´m overwhelmed. Meeting people who have 1 million followers on twitter. Well, maybe that says enough. (it need not implicate so by default, but in this case i do believe so) Persons that have an impact. And little me comes in and gears up for some interviews. I get a bit intimidated. But the videos turned out pretty good in the end.
Got to greet the CEO of IDEO which is a very big thing for me. I am honored to have this chance (despite that they did not give me a seat for the dinner, but that´s ok). Short entry for now.
by the way, i don´t despise the 5dm2, it´s just that it´s not discreet in sound or size. have a video of this, want to play with that one day.
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She and her heart. That was such a good walk. Place and time were of no significance. There was barely another soul crossing our paths.
Northern Sweden / summer of 2009
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If you do not know me personally, well I can tell you that I am a student of interaction design; this means I am interested in the realms of the future and how we deal with digital technology. Naturally there will be some posts in here that concern this field of interaction design, but only because it is interesting, and we may benefit in learning from it. There is too much going on, if I don´t keep a track of any of it I will become a dinosaur.
Light Blue Optics have publicized a teaser of sorts of a technology worth becoming familiar with. Now that the transportation industry is implementing head up display systems on glass, prone to restrictiveness of information abundance, here is a version of the same technology applied to domestic surfaces. The difference is, well the mobility it seems. Considering the context in this exhibition display it is not as mobile as they´d like to show in their glossy/photoshopped renders, although this is fresh new so who of us knows, where the next step is.
“Light Touch™ is an interactive projector that instantly transforms any flat surface into a touch screen. It frees multimedia content from the confines of the small screen, allowing users to interact with that content just as they do on their hand held devices – using multi-touch technology.
Light Touch™ has Holographic Laser Projection (HLP™) technology inside which creates bright, high-quality video images in WVGA resolution. Integrated infrared sensors detect motion and turn the projected image into a 10.1″ virtual touch screen, so the user can control the projector and interact with applications simply by touching the image.”
They illustrate the concept of HLP further on their website.
I found this via itsnicethat, a good blog source for covering the creative industry. It´s not flashy and it´s quick and simple. I like that.
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Finding music on the web is like going to a zoo as a kid – and wandering this universe by yourself. You want to hear/see every different kind of touch. Unguided you might end up with looking at the same animals for too long. I am doing this though for discovery. I have long wanted to share my taste, because you might as well discover something with me. What interests me as much as the music is usually how the visual language of the albums and material accompanied with it perform/act/speak. For this occasion though I might drop that and allow that more for single features. This time a variety of music that not necessarily is the freshest, but which simply is my discovery for the month of January. And if succesfully it fits the mood of this time. So let´s kick this off:
1. Bon Iver – Stacks (Thomas Barfod Remix)
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2. Lindstrøm and Christabelle – Baby Can´t Stop (Aeorplane Remix 128)
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3a.Lusine – twodots
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3b.Lusine – Still Frame remix 128
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3c. Lisine – Twilight
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4. Apparat- Komponent (Telefon Tel Aviv Remix 128)
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5. Vibrasphere- tierra azul
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6. The xx – Basic Space 128
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7. Casino Versus Japan – Blue Vacation Part 1
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8. Byrne and Brian Eno – Strange Overtones
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Further ado on this tracks
1. According to his myspace Thomas Barfod looks to be somewhat of a figure in Danish festivals and electro labels. The whole thing of posting music online is propelled/driven by the fact that people are remixing originals. Sometimes I think it goes overboard and there is a fine line between credit theft, but inasmuch as I cannot claim a big bite of knowledge on music production I will leave my hat off and appreciate the fact that music is being promoted, it should be credited and the more it gets appreciated this should aggregate the salesforce supporting the artist.
In this case the remix is of Bon Iver, a name that swims much around the music sea, some name I´d have connoted with traditional without having been an eager listener of him, but in this remix comination of danish ´pump refining´it falls of as pretty good stuff.
2. Oslo fronting Lindstrom (short bio) twinkled with some Belgic Aeroplane culminates into this energetic track. Looks like Aeroplane is touring all over Australia the next months, it´s that summer hipster wave going on. This tracks has got attitude, swirling vocals, synth : a crossover between kid´s computer game world and fearless feminity fronting it.
via betterPropaganda
3.An impressive sound portfolio made this producer stand out. Lusine has played in Fabric London, and is currently working on the soundtrack for some feature film from what I read. If you are curious there is a short bio on the ghostly website, which is his label. Very pleasant!
4. Berlin based Apparat opens up for a downtempo vocal infused track. I recognize his music from some GU labels, there is something about the vocals that is so desperate, yet so unworrying. I have a hard time to describe it, what I do know is that it is not cliche.
For the geeks, he works with his own tool created in MAX/MSP framework. Effects are controlled by midicontroller.
5. Uppsala duo vibrasphere deliver some trancy but interesting tune here.6. I could not find much info on these guys, but they seem to have a crazy world tour in front of them.
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Fuji Provia 400. January 2009. Photoshoot with my friend Lars. A prolonged entry with his album and the work soon. . .
Last week Matt Brown aka co-op Henderson was in Munich for a few days to present his work to IDEO. It was very well received and entertaining. I´m glad he had the chance to share his work with the office. Later, together with misses A.H we went out for some beers, joked of the hofbrauhaus orchestra overgrandiosity, scared some neighbours with too many cameras, wacthed the town get very waster, as we slowly also forgot about the passing of time. It was a very funny coincidence how my neighbour ended up at Atomic Cafe just as we came in and happened to talk about him, and sms him. At that moment we were a regathered umeå crowd.
Matt has collected his work under one house now, and it was fun to see swissmiss (a design blog pretty many of us visit) posted two consecutive posts on his work. If it helps anything for me to help exposure his work here we go. (compared to swissmis- a kind of mouse and elephant comparison). Anyways, a very varied and distinct portfolio. I am keen to scan the images we made out in town that night. Matt worked on the future of food for his interaction design thesis; to the school more of an unchartered front, and so it did not go unseen, and it was rather very much attention around it. Seeing Matt develop his style has been good; there is something very original and technically right about his work.
You may find Matt´s website here: skrov
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2 days,7 ilford delta 120´s, 3 neopan 1600 and some regular ilford delta. What am I trying to do? well, the Madame and I have been reflecting on that on the trip back.
so last week we were planning a trip to Berlin, but it did seem a bit far fetched to buy train tickets there for the price of a trip where you could cross the atlantic. I don´t think so. Vienna was still an option but just for curiosity of possibility we checked Prague, and found a very good deal on a train/bus journey from Munich via Nurnberg. Took us 5 hours. We did some useful research on where to stay, and although none of us have been there we recognize that the older parts of Easter cities can pull of charm and offer something authentic. In the case of Prague that meant proximity to the castle itself, which we loved. It was very cold, I partly lost my voice (as I know it) on saturday, and it was tricky for misses Mariposa to not get caught by the motion of the cough and sore throat. This meant we had plenty of tea and took it generall easy. Even some shoes hopping was not a bad idea, given summer shoes won´t last much this winter. A little late to figure, but shopping is not a top priority.
We had a very awkward day today, very different from yesterday, twofolded though, a great morning with the slowest snow dive and beautiful light. we were listening to classical music in the hotel room in the morning, opened our windows towards the river and it was something i will always remember. i´ve never been so eager with my hasselblad.
there is little hesitating the statement, Prague is a work of Art! Now art is not about beauty only. It is a ground for communication, what is reality. It may be an escape, but with the tools at hand it is working towards truth, at least attempt wise.
In only these two days we had many encounters, those which were the regular meetings, for food or drinks, accommodation were of course mixed. i dare say we were lucky with the hotel but we have mix feelings for the attitude among some people we met. whenever that is the case you have to zoom into the landscape of tourism, and look at the fact that you are part of this conglomerate, and Prague does pull great force and god knows what crowds overall look like going in and out of this place all year long. anyhows, we are small dectectives who strive to find beauty but today we found ourselves in a complete discomfort on the return trip.
I am reminded by Obama´s speech at the nobel conerence, not of which originality should be claimed, but of who a big crowd will listen more carefully at, and that is which is the dark side of our existence, which cannot be denied.
my brave lady made a small clip with her new ipod on the train, while we were sitting next to what we believed was explicit anti semitism. her ipod is pink flash and we were sitting opposite isle of these very obnoxious people. we acted in with as if we were listening to music, but right now we would just be happy we are safe home and have what we recorded translated. I dare say it was not any good. maybe we will find a way of posting it. the only thing we know is that ( although we don´t understand german) we know when you hear a muslim prayer on a ringtone disrupt into the sound of a bullet, you are not surrounded by people of any good intentions.
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Today I finished a 10 week project; it has been very much to complete the last days and its been a number too many late nights the last week tweaking timelines.
No room for failures of any sort.
After a certain point (such as the middle of the night) the focusing sharpness has simply a dubious efficiency, but writing this now, is only happening because I managed through it. Now I can finally find some time for all the other interesting things outside work ( work has also been interesting lately, although I sometimes wonder how incredibly strong pressure it must be when you are hired, when just being an intern can pull out a lot of your energy; as in: where is this path going to?). My lady is in town and since we now have seen Munich it would be interesting to see Berlin or go back to Vienna. Both are new for her. Philip, who studied in Umeå with me, is in Vienna and it would be great to see him again. Anyways we need to figure that out the next days. Or better, tonight. One very strong reason for going to Berlin is to go to “All Saints”, both of which we dig as fashion.
We are both a funny sight, cause we are both walking around the streets of Bavaria with our small olympus analogue cameras, just a model apart, and we now exchange lenses and all. We photograph the same people at different times without knowing of it.
For the time she is her, I don´t find myself doing any scanning of any sort. I do have plenty of film though, and really wish for an adventure to another city.
So for now, here are some frames I scanned from oktoberfest; they were frames that for me talked to you.
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A monumental tribute to the art of architecture and the art of photography. This is by far the most exhaustive and well done feature of its kind I’ve ever seen.
The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.
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Do you believe that imagination can be one the most valuable features of existence and conscience? The author of ´Where the Wild Things Are´has made a beautiful narrative which surely has alivened in many minds. Had the chance to watch this film tonight with my dear and it was enchanting and interesting beyond. The kid is such an admirable actor, it makes you wonder how many more kids out there have talent unscouted.
December and January are great movie months. It will be a root of this blog to bring to light good cinema.
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There is a seat for me in a flight in 8 hours, so this is going to be short. I´ve wanted to make a restrospective of this year, and I´ve been scanning all afternoon, some that I had scanned before (with a lame scanner) and some new ones. The waiting is a good moment. But I don´t think it´s right to post them now, and kill the night hours.
Anyways, it has been an unorthodox year. It started in a nightclub in London with Anna, where over three fourths of the individuals were on drugs. We were appalled, shocked and really not comfortable. The half year in Sweden was intensive with design work, and trying to find an internship. I had good support, and even a push to do it. I do think Umeå is a good place to be, but I was honestly quite drained and needed some change. Still hard to believe, I did find a design internship where I wanted it most, and I am still on it. It has introduced new challenges for the life I had in Sweden, but we have managed mostly pretty well. It was not always easy, and it also feels odd now, to have to choose between family or girlfriend.I am very happy that she will come to Munich in two weeks though, may it be snowy and adventurous.
From last year, a time very magical when we were by ourselves.
So I´m off to “Africa” tomorrow and I will write and post as soon as I can next year. Arrivederci!
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Velvia slide – one of the better films out there. The 100F is the less saturated version, and looking at the slide itself feels like a micro replication of the real thing. It´s so incredbly vivid. I made this frame in late August I think, quite the stretch down the isar. Scanned with epson v500.
note: I do not know if this refers to the limitations of a flatbed scanner or the slight compression to jpg, but the original image is much greener, so was the sight at view too. I have to try out some more slides, and get comfortable with color vocabulary, it seems intricate.
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So I have to admit that although film is king, there is something interesting going on with on the front-end of videomaking with digital slr´s. There is definetily two sides to this development, but it is actually possible to appreciate it´s temporal elevation of still images, when you can add personal piano sounds like the one that really makes this film. I wonder if any of my readers has played with a nikon 7d; it looks very promising.
This film has nothing to do with enlightening, but about feeling a mood, and such it goes under your skin. Beyond that though it unfolds a certain desire for the camera brand that usually makes an effort into UI and good mechanics.
Perhaps you just fall in love with the music (which sort of reminds of some theatrical piece, maybe “finding neverland”?), but it is the overall experience that is just nice for a december feel.
The First Snow, Canon 7D from Reid Carrescia on Vimeo.
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Quite the surreal take on motion imagery. This is yet another short gaining worlwide recognition, but with more of an abstract approach to ideas.
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Daniel Askill – WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO DIE from Cgunit on Vimeo.
“We Have Decided Not To Die is an unusual short film. A modern day allegorical triptych, three figures under go transformation through three rituals. Though not a story in any conventional sense, We Have Decided Not To Die succeeds in taking audience on an emotional journey. Aurally intriguing, often stunning and always beautiful, Danielís short film has been winning fans from around the festival circuit.“
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