SV faculty of University in Bergen 40 y 2010

Here is a film in Norwegian grounded in interviews with some key figures.

https://www.uib.no/svf/artikler/2010/10/jubileumsfilmen

Design in Practice/"Design i praksis" new book

"Design i praksis: designledelse og innovasjon" (in Norw.), exhibited in Norli bookstore, Oslo, October 2010. Photo: Birgit Helene Jevnaker.

31.10.2010
This autumn, we, Per Farstad and myself, have finished our new book with Universitetsforlaget.

APPROACHES FOR DESIGN AND INNOVATION. The book is dealing with creative challenges and opportunities for designing and innovating in projects with others in realworld situations. Ten transdisciplinary work approaches are introduced for projects of many kinds - in service or product development, concept development, innovation and design. We suggest the work approaches are potentially relevant across several design disciplines and other making and planning disciplines including management, and especially in the current situation where both design and management fields seem to be under scrutiny and transformation.

PERSPECTIVES ON CREATING SOMETHING. No doubt, there are currently many new or latent problems surfacing in and across projects and organizations. From many years of work practice, studies and teaching, we have learned how students as well as scholars and practitioners are often striving with both innovation and developmental work including the conception of something new and different. Or how to actually renew and strenghten something already proven to sustain its actual or potential values? These are among the questions we explore throughout the book, drawing on research and experiential insights from realworld examples.

DESIGN ISSUES AND COLLABORATIONS. The book builds on the premises that platforms and collaborations for good designing are something that is constructed and unfold in practice. It thus delineates and discusses a number of design and developmental issues and seeks to provide new or synthetized perspectives, work methods/tools, and knowledge that we suggest can help something new or existing to become attractive as well as viable in practice. This is however a continuous and often complex challenge but one that we as humans can work on - with and for others.
Any experience, comment and suggestion that can help us to improve this, is welcome. birgit.h.jevnaker@bi.no

See more on Universitetsforlaget

Walid al-Kubaisi inspiring Anne Grete Preus

www.pluto.no/.../mk.kveld/ Walid_al_Kubaisi.htm
photo of Anne Grete © Marcel Lelienhof
Courtesy: Anne Grete Preus, see http://tinyurl.com/yl8l2rs

Anne Grete Preus' Lille Hjørne:

Fra julepresang til åpningssang (IN NORWEGIAN)

Det begynte med en fin julegave sist jul. En kjær venn ga meg et abonnement på Dag og Tid. Jeg satte stor pris på gaven for denne nynorske kulturavisa var et nytt bekjentskap for meg og jeg likte både tonen i bladet og mange av artiklene. En omtale av Peter Norman Waages bok ”Jeg” tiltalte meg spesielt, forøvrig en fin og original kulturhistorie. I omtalen brukte skribenten ord som glød og inderlighet, ord jeg er fortrolig med, men som dessverre har gått litt av moten til fordel for et litt anorektisk norsk som ofte preger de mer seriøse tidskriftene. Hvem var denne skribenten som kunne skrive om Wergeland så jeg for første gang ble nysgjerrig på mannen bak barnetog og norsk nasjonalisme? Walid al-Kubaise – ja han er nok ikke født og oppvokst på Lillestrøm eller Norheimsund tenkte jeg. I neste nummer av min julepresang (veldig fint å gi en gave som en får mange ganger!) leste jeg min første artikkel i Kubaisis serie Blekk og Blod og ble enda mer imponert. Håper dette blir en bok så jeg kan lese denne fine og personlige artikkelserien i sammenheng! Jeg har en god, gammel venninne som reiser mye i Midtøsten og arabiske land med et stort kulturprosjekt. Etter flere måneder på reise i disse himmelstrøk har hun også funnet en kjæreste der nede. Jeg følte dermed det var på sin plass å inkludere følgende lille melding i en av mine rapporter fra gamlelandet. Kjære M, …. Alt vel osv osv…….. PS Nå er også jeg blitt fan av en araber! Han heter Walid al-Kubaisi. Sporenstreks fikk jeg en mail tilbake som var en mail med to adressater:
Kjære Anne Grete og Walid ! Dere er tvillingsjeler og jeg er glad for å sette dere i forbindelse med hverandre så får dere selv sørge for å treffes. Hilsen M
Jeg tok oppfordringen på strak arm og bare noen dager etter satt jeg på Walids al-Kubaisi kontor i Dag og Tid og drakk kaffe mellom de overfylte bokhyllene. Den samme varmen og nysgjerrigheten som jeg hadde sett i artiklene hans lyste ut av de brune øynene. Med meg fra dette møte hadde jeg to gaver. Det var en diktsamling av Muhammad al-Maghout Gleden er mitt yrke, som Walid hadde oversatt til norsk og hans egen artikkelsamling Norske poteter og postmodernistiske negere. Begge skulle få betydning for meg i skrivearbeidet.

På side 11 i artikkelsamlingen beskriver Walid hvem han er i en liten orddans i identiteter. Og plutselig slår det meg at dette er en sang! Jeg mailer på nytt til Walid og spør om han kunne tenke seg å skrive denne teksten sammen med meg. Selvfølgelig svarer denne vennlige mannen ja og vi avtaler et møte ved mitt kjøkkenbord. Etter et par treff og en god kaffe på benken ved siden av Welhaven statuen på Riddervollsplass har jeg fått så mange gode bilder og tanker at det er nok til mer enn en sang og jeg innser at dette må bli en sang om Walid og om at vennskap handler mer om sinnelag enn at en har hatt samme pålegg på skolematen. Noen dager senere sendte jeg først utkastet til hovedpersonen og mottok igjen et vennlig svar. Hvor lite Oslo er fikk jeg forøvrig bekreftet når Marcel Leilienhof kom innom Rainbow studio på en liten reseach før han kom for å fotografere meg i innspillingsarbeid med tanke på coverfoto. Jeg hadde akkurat startet med den første grunnsporet på Walids sang og medprodusent Jan Erik Kongshaug og jeg prøvde ut litt ulike tempo. Før jeg hadde sagt noe om låta forteller Marcel at han kjenner Walid godt. Fin fyr, er den presise beskrivelsen han gir og jeg blir enda mer fornøyd med at jeg har skrevet denne sangen! Før Marcel er ferdig med sin befaring er sangen spilt inn.
I går kveld var Walid en av mine gjester da jeg inviterte alle som har hatt noe med Nesten Alene å gjøre på en ettermiddagsfest på mitt kjøkken. Jeg føler av og til at jeg har besøk fra en ungdomsklubb når jeg nå om dagen treffer de fine folka på Warner Music. Er det gjengen der som blir yngre og yngre eller er det jeg …… har tross alt hatt Warner som tilholdsted for arbeidet mitt i 22 år!
Etter at Erland og jeg fremførte sangen holdt Walid en fin tale om identitet for oss. Den konkluderte med at Ibsen tok feil! I løk-scenen fra Per Gynt letes det etter en kjerne i mennesket, men Walid sier det er lagene som er vår identitet og løken bærer frukter når vi planter den ut i menneskenes hage. Da kan den blomstre selv om den er lag på lag og ingen kjerne har! Å se disse unge menneskene bli like forført som meg når Walid sjonglerer med ord, kiler Ibsen under haka og sender takknemmlige tanker til Gilgamesh og forteller om sine 5000 år gamle tårer, var en fantastisk opplevelse.
Både julepresangens avsender og min barndomsvenn M var sammen med oss på kjøkkenet denne kvelden da Walids sang avsluttet sin tilblivelsesreise. Det skal bli spennende og se om den har nok i seg til å komme seg videre på en egen hånd.

Oslo , 7.nov 2009
Publisert 08 Nov 2009
Tilbake
design © treepixel 2008
photo © Marcel Lelienhof

PERSONAL COMMENT: I found this by chance a couple of days ago. What magic, I thought, here two of my favorite poets had come together by good chance circumstances and a song was born. A lesson to learn is to continue give the special Dag & TId newspaper as gift to friends for Xmas! Then good things may happen...

Read SaftSuse from Berlin!

http://saftsuse.blogspot.com/ thoughtful pieces in Norwegian. 

*from my daughter.

2009 Year of Astronomy

It is four hundred years since Galileo Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) constructed his version of the telescope.

Courtesy to Wikepedia:

In 1609, Galileo was, along with Englishman Thomas Harriot and others, among the first to use arefracting telescope as an instrument to observe stars, planets or moons. The name "telescope" was coined for Galileo's instrument by a Greek mathematician, Giovanni Demisiani, at a banquet held in 1611 by Prince Federico Cesi to make Galileo a member of his Accademia dei Lincei. The name was derived from the Greek tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo#cite_note-3

Wave is here! New conversational beta email

How would a new email or digital conversational tool look like if we could start anew?

Wave is here from Yesterday 28 May 2009, as beta /Google wave. 

Congrats, exciting news.

See an exclusive probably first interview here with the founding team incl two Danes Brothers Lars and Jens Rasmussen and Stephanie Hannon (the two brothers are serial innovators, see the originating of what became Google maps elsewhere): 

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/28/exclusive-video-interview-with-the-google-wave-founders/#comments

WHO WAS HE? Arne Dørumsgaard 1921-2006

Arne Dørumsgaard with a family cat
(courtesy: Norsk lydinstitutt, I presume, not me! I took some other photos of him when visiting him in Oct 1991)

Rediscovery of this renaissance man, see new article in the newspaper Dag og Tid (in nynorsk, "new" Norwegian)

Litterært storverk utan like

Av ARVID BRYNE, 20.11.08

I 25 band har Arne Dørumsgaard (1921-2006) gjeve oss kremen av poesi frå Kina, Japan og Korea, samstundes med at han presenterer diktarane og deira tid.
http://www.dagogtid.no/nyhet.cfm?nyhetid=1419

PETER OPSVIK and ULLA BRANTENBERG - awarded Anders Jahre Cultural Prize 2008

Anders Jahre Winners 2008.
Courtesy photos Anders Jahres Humanitære Stiftelse

Yesterday, designer Peter Opsvik and glass artist Ulla-Mari Brantenberg received the Anders Jahre's Cultural Prize 2008, together with two young talents (Daniel Rybakken and Tuva Gonsholt) the prize winners had helped selecting.
Because I have a special research interest for designing, I will focus on the designers here. According to the press releases, this is the first time a designer receives this prize.
In collaboration with the prize winner, a young designer was also awarded, as already introduced this was Daniel Rybakken, educated from Industrial Design, AHO.
Congratulations to both designers Peter and Daniel!
The award ceremony was in Oslo's Gamle Logen, and the prize winners surprised the audience with a shared music performance - Peter Opsvik is a good sax player but few had expected Ulla to sing. It was terrific my brother told! Sadly I was not there but Princess Astrid was! (see link below to Kongehuset).
See more on the prize and prize winners here http://www.ajhs.no/scripts/ingress/read.pl?id=080630103026-95
http://www.kongehuset.no/c26939/nyhet/vis.html?tid=73195

Sitting with movement and variation. Opsvik is known in design milieus and beyond because of his contribution to innovating sitting. Among his commonly used designed products is his Tripp Trapp chair that "grows with the child" (produced by STOKKE). He has also designed a variety of human-centered chairs or "sitting tools" for people to sit actively at home, in the studio or elsewhere (including the balans and rocking-wise chairs codeveloped with STOKKE, now sold through Varier). Further, Opsvik has codesigned a range of office chairs and conference chairs for work settings aiming for "movement and variation" (codeveloped with HÅG, cf. especially the HAG CREDO and the HAG Capisco, the latter is a sadle-like chair. I sit in it at BI everyday, it feels very good for my back and whole body!).

Rethinking sitting. There are of course many sources of inspiration behind what has crystallized as "Rethinking sitting" (Opsvik's new book, 2008). Among the fundamental inspirational sources was the Danish dr. Mandal working on improving school children's seating possibilities, and Opsvik met Mandal and other specialists involved in ergonomics at HAG.
Furthermore, another critical source is the Norwegian Balans design group with its alternative sitting conception and models brought forward by a group of four in the late 1970s, i.e. three designers one of them was Peter Opsvik, the others were Svein Gusrud, and Oddvin Rykken and all of them worked with Hans Christian Mengshoel, an inventor who has been attributed for the concept. At the time all of them interacted in various ways to create an alternative sitting, which eventually contributed to the new thinking. Also a few companies became involved in this co-creation and further development such as HAG, STOKKE and RYBO).
Although complex design work often involves team work, it is a significant contribution over a life-time by Opsvik (who also is a musician and designs artistic cupboards). No doubt, his efforts have been crossing disciplinary and other borders, and this was explicitly acknowledged by the prize committee headed by Åse Kleveland.
For more elaboration on Peter Opsvik, Stokke and HAG and their design collaborations, see research articles and reports on my website:
http://www.bi.no/Content/AcademicProfile____37600.aspx?ansattid=FGL98006&siteid=2D93E6C6062086B2C12571C4005B9DF5&type=pages

DØRUMSGAARDSEMINAR in Polytechnic Society - Autumn program available now!

Polytechnic Society/Culture and Media Group: This autumn we will remember and study Arne Dørumsgaard's works, e.g. how he interpreted poems from China, Japan and Korea.

Arne Dørumsgaard was a Norwegian multi-artist who lived in Marzio, Northern Italy. He was a singer, a composer, and collector. Thanks to his large collection of early recordings, we can now listen to all recordings made by Edward Grieg in Paris 1903. Eventually he gave his whole music collection to Stavanger city, thus contributing to the birth of Norwegian Institute of Recorded Sound (courtesy for the photo, imported from REC's website).

Polytechnic Society Autumn 2008. We've just finished hectic preparation of the autumn program in Polytechnic Society of Norway, and a number of interesting meetings and seminars are offered. For example, in our group Culture and Media, we are coarranging five meetings, including two particular book-related meetings (cf. authors Galtung and Dørumsgaard), one theatre performance backstage talk (Riksteatrets new Zivil play), and one visit to the new house for Dance in Oslo.

Here I like to point to the planned day seminar at Litteraturhuset in Oslo to present and discuss the works of Arne Dørumsgaard - especially his book series on Eastern poems and societies. More info on this artist's works and life in links below.

Note the respective dates for arrangements of the Culture and Media group:
- 29 Sept 18.30 Meeting with Galtung and others
- 14 Oct 18.00-20.00 Vulkan, Dansens Hus
- 6 Nov 18.30 Zivil performance with backstage talk, Riksteatret (discount for PF members)
- 18 Nov 10.00-15.00 Dørumsgaard-seminar

Most welcome, see details and terms in our folder (soon to be distributed) or on Polytechnic society's website:
See more in pdf file on http://www.polyteknisk.no/

For info on Dørumsgaard, see e.g.,

- in Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2006/jun/06/guardianobituaries

- info from REC: http://www.recordedsound.no/collections/arne_dorumsgaard.htm

- From A&B publishers, we learn about the 25 issues book series (in Norwegian):http://www.abforlag.no/

How was West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra co-created?

Curious about the originating of the West-Eastern DIVAN orchestra that we just heard in Oslo (20.8.2008, see blog entry 21 Aug), I visited the co-founder and conductor's own website, and want to share this story with you (courtesy to www.barenboim.com, accessed 24.8.2008, my excerpts and headlines):
-- A Chance Meeting:
"In the early 1990s, a chance meeting between Mr. Barenboim and the late Palestinian-born writer and Columbia University professor Edward Said in a London hotel lobby led to an intensive friendship that has had both political and musical repercussions. These two men, who should have been poles apart politically, discovered in that first meeting, which lasted for hours, that they had similar visions of Israeli/Palestinian possible future cooperation. They decided to continue their dialogue and to collaborate on musical events to further their shared vision of peaceful co-existence in the Middle East. This led to Mr. Barenboim's first concert on the West Bank, a piano recital at the Palestinian Birzeit University in February 1999, and to a workshop for young musicians from the Middle East that took place in Weimar, Germany, in August 1999."

-- Furthermore, we learn:
"The West-Eastern Divan Workshop took two years to organize and involved talented young musicians between the ages of 14 and 25 from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Israel. The idea was that they would come together to make music on neutral ground with the guidance of some of the world's best musicians. Weimar was chosen as the site for the workshop because of its rich cultural tradition of writers, poets, musicians and creative artists and because it was the 1999 European cultural capital. Mr. Barenboim wisely chose two concertmasters for the orchestra, an Israeli and a Lebanese. There were some tense moments among the young players at first but, coached by members of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Staatskapelle Berlin, and following master classes with the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and nightly cultural discussions with Mr. Said and Mr. Barenboim, the young musicians worked and played in increasing harmony.
The West-Eastern Divan Workshop was held again in Weimar in the summer of 2000 and in Chicago in the summer of 2001. It has since found a permanent home in Seville, Spain, where it has been based since 2002."
-- On performances:
"Each summer, following their workshop, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra gives public concerts; to date they have performed in Europe and North and South America, including at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh, Lucerne and Salzburg festivals. In 2004, they performed a historic concert in Ramallah, the Orchestra's first concert in an Arab country. In December 2006, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra went to the U.S.A., performing at Carnegie Hall and ending the tour with a farewell concert at the United Nations for outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2007, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra was invited to be in residence at the Salzburg Festival."
....and we may add, in 2008 they have among several places performed with great success in Scandinavia including Oslo.
Birgit, 24.8.2008
PS Interestingly, also the excellently improvising cellist Yo Yo Ma has immersed himself in crosscultural efforts, see the SILK ROAD PROJECT: www.silkroadproject.org
And Daniel Barenboim has accepted several citizenships including Palestinian, see his website (link in the headline of this blog entry). For more background on Barenboim from other sources, see e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Barenboim

"An independent music republic": West Eastern Divan Orchestra

Noa Chorin, Cellist for the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, photographed on the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Antonio Olmos Courtesy also The Guardian, 13.6.2008.

The West Eastern Divan Orchestra performed in Oslo Yesterday 20 August 2008.
- We can play because we are a mixed group of people... We enhance each other! Said Daniel Barenboim, the conductor, to the audience after receiving recurrent applauding in the Oslo new opera (a white marble space with wooden interiors, designed by Snøhetta - a good place for such music and human events).
Co-founders of this orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (born in Buenos Aires 1942, Russian-Jewish parents) and Edward Said (Palestine-American author) took the name from a series of late poems by Goethe during his study of Arabic and Persian verse, Divan meaning 'the other', according to reporter Ed Vulliamy (see link below).
The orchestra when in Oslo played German music - from W. A. Mozart's concerts (Concert for three grand pianos, The "Lodron") and even R. Wagner (1 part of Valkürien), the latter with three excellent singers, Waltraud Meier, Simon O’Neill and John Tomlinson. - Though in the beginning I missed Rene Pape... who was originally scheduled (he was expected to rehearse also for Carlos: Pape is singing in this autumn's big opera event in Oslo, Verdi's Don Carlos, in late September (and he is also coming in early October). Yet, the singers who did perform Yesterday "sang each other up" as we say in Norwegian. It became very moving.
Nonetheless, even more interesting for me Yesterday was to listen to the vital interplays of the young musicians in this highly special orchestra encompassing musicians from Palestine and Israel to Egypt and other nations in the Middle East. "Each of these musicians are courages persons just to come here", explained the conductor vividly to us (the audience).

"They meet in Sevilla each summer" to rehearse, which fits this realworld story: Daniel Barenboim explicitly pointed to the old (but later destroyed) civic tradition in Andalucia - of allowing Jews, Arabs and other people to live and work in the same place(s) in Southern Spain (for more elaboration, see "Abraham's children", an essay by prof Trond Berg Eriksen, UiO, in Morgenbladet, 2007).

I guess it is also attractive for the young very good musicians to meet and work with Daniel Barenboim as well as other excellent music artists. Barenboim was recommended by the conductor legend Wilhelm Furtwängler already as an 11-year-old. Now Barenboim is recreating magic with the new generations of musicians from the Middle East and audiences worldwide.
Thanks for coming to Oslo!
Birgit

Ps let me add some extras,
- LINKS in English:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/jul/13/classicalmusicandopera.israelandthepalestinians
and www.danielbarenboim.com.
- LINKS in Norwegian:
1. "an independent, musical republic..." (Courtesy to Press news of the Norwegian opera and ballet):
"- For meg er dette en suveren, uavhengig republikk. I vårt orkester spiller israelere, palestinere, andre arabere og kristne i full likeverdighet. Musikken er vår store sjanse. Ordene tilhører den argentinsk-israelske dirigenten Daniel Barenboim som i morgen leder sitt West-Eastern Divan Orchestra på Hovedscenen i Operaen. Orkesteret ble grunnlagt av Barenboim og den palestinske forfatteren, aktivisten og professoren Edward Saïd etter at de to møttes tilfeldig i London i begynnelsen av 1990-tallet. Med bakgrunn i hver sin side av den palestinsk-israelske konflikten, fant de fram til en felles visjon for kunstnerisk samarbeid på tvers av politiske og religiøse skillelinjer.
Siden 1999 har det anerkjente orkesteret fungert som en musikalsk og politisk brobygger, de har flere cd-innspillinger bak seg og har spilt i konserthus over hele verden. Etter at Edward Saïd døde i 2003, drives orkesteret videre av hans enke Mariam Saïd foruten Barenboim."

2. For a field research reportage, see this article (courtesy to Morgenbladet, Oslo):
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8280192458170847866&postID=39684069094936102

3. For more on Intercultural dialogue, see a seminar 13 Sept 2007 in Oslo by UNESCO and Polytechnic Society: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8280192458170847866&postID=39684069094936102