Music with a needle - no room for this art in Oslo?

BRYLLUPSFESTEN: Utsnitt fra 'De fire årstider'.
Foto: Leonard B. Jansen, Setesdalsmuseet/NRK

NRK reported today, Thorvald Moseid's fantastic 62 m embroidery is not to be exhibited after all in Oslo's new opera in Bjørvika.

I do not know the full detailed background for the decision (e.g. whether the architects, opera directors or art committe members were ever offered the opportunity to "design in" this art work from the outset rather than considering it's spatial integration afterwards, etc. It seems to have been suggested by a recurrent initiative by Oslo University's former music science professor Bjørkvold leading to a recent consideration, which so far has not succeeded). Anyway, I hope it is possible to find another attractive room for it in Oslo soon.

Because Moseid's art work such as the Four Seasons really deserves to be exhibited in a good place to be seen by the public including international guests, see some background info provided by Bjørkvold here ... http://www.freidig.no/glimt2006.html

When it was first exhibited in 1977 people were queing up as to a rock concert, says Jon-Roar Bjørkvold. So it is a shame just to store away this unique piece of art. Rather, it deserves to be exhibited and experienced recurrently in an accessible place for the public. Being part of the crowd who enjoyed seeing it in 1977, I expect this decision heard on the news today will trigger serious efforts and a creative search by "whoever it may concern" as soon as possible: to ensure that this art work will become exhibited again on a regular basis and preserved.

Why, you may ask. To give a quick background Thorvald Moseid (1917-2000) was a magician with his embroidered works. Born in Setesdal, a valley in the south of Norway with cultural traditions back to medival times at least, he was inspired for example by old myths (e.g. Orfeus and Euridice) as well as Middle ages embroidery techniques. However, he was able to recreat the myths and themes and transform them into something highly special.

The Four Seasons has a moving gestalting of man's lifeworlds throughout the year conveyed through the colorful embroidery (a project that took 16 years of the artist's lifetime). Perhaps one may say that Moseid conveyed a celebration of not only myths but life itself through his colourful threads.

The Four Season work is currently owned by some of Norway's publishing houses Aschehoug and Gyldendal (and it was for some years exhibited in Norwegian University Academy Press's previous HQ building). It is not however the first time a unique cultural gift or large works of art strive to find a public room in Oslo... I wonder who will pick up the challenge and resque this "music with the needle" (Bjørkvold's term) for the public good and future generations...

New MoD learning project 2008

From last year's MoD 07/photo B.Jevnaker
Conversation in shared space seems to be an important ingredient

MoD 2008
This is a joint learning project for both business and design students organized by a small team at BI Norwegian school and the Design faculty of KHiO. The project started for the very first time in early January 2007, although building on various previous initiatives (from Scandinavia, Island as well as the US, Europe and probably also seeds from elsewhere).

A 2nd MoD project, MoD 2008, between BI + KHiO hast just started, from 7 January and runs in 3 intensive weeks, with some introductory lecturing offered earlier (a couple of days before Xmas). It was also run in three weeks January last year. The basic structure and organized flow is principally the same (although you can never step down into the "same" river twice, as Heraclit proposed).
This time we have the advantage of building on last year's good experiences incl. reflections on what are potential important learning ingredients
- (e.g., preparation in a team with dedicated faculty and offering and following a rich program with high quality lectures incl practice-based guest lecturing, briefings on the task and overall learning process, time for group processes, clear milestones for presentations, room for dialogue, Q&A/supervision, flexibility as to kinds of ideas/settings for students' concept proposals, etc. May come back to this later on).

We're now at the end of the first week with intensified lecturing and team work; we offer students a daily program incl. time for group work (that's essential). Impressions so far are as interesting as last year! See http://modoslo.blogspot.com/
A new ingredient this year is thus the modoslo blog as a digital site to communicate our MoD activity, the blog was initiated and created on Blogger Sunday 06/01.08 by me, just-in-time before the start-up. The faculty team have found this useful (such a blog is of course not excellently organized but a fresh experiment (and we've experienced e.g. triggering group presentations but also limitations such as difficult to post or link lecture presentations not posted elsewhere).
For people who know Dori (dean of Design faculty at KHiO), they will perhaps know that he also has his own blog - where he post photos and reflections also from this collaborative project with BI, see http://www.dorigislason.com

One of the advantages of blogs is that they can be open and we've invited in all student groups and also guest lecturers as contributing authors to the MoD blog.
An experience last year was that we did not have such a shared digital communication space to provide messages and project related postings.
As KHiO, BI also has an extra net solution for its students, BI has a Blackboard facility (only for students enrolled in BI courses, thus not open for KHiO students. The same goes for KHiO's system, you need to sign in. ...That's one of the reasons why I got the idea of a MoD blog as a communicative space in addition to the partly "closed" extranets). It shall be interesting to see how it can become useful and what are the potentials and limitations of this extra effort.
Birgit

Simone Beauvoir 9 January 1908, still relevant 2008

Today it is 100 years since Simone de B. was born, we need to recap some key facts found on the internet:

- Born and educated in Paris, Simone de Beauvoir was among the first women permitted to complete a program of study at the École Normale Supérieure.

- She contributed significantly to the development and expression of existentialist philosophy.

- In Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) (1949), de Beauvoir traced the development of male oppression through historical, literary, and mythical sources, attributing its contemporary effects on women to a systematic objectification of the male as a positive norm. This consequently identifies the female as Other, which commonly leads to a loss of social and personal identity, the variety of alienation unique to the experience of women.
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/beav.htm

In Norway, she was remembered on NRK as well as newsapepers, see the former e.g. http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/bakgrunn/portretter/1075762.html