We were to go on stage as late as 23:00, and were a bit worried about people leaving early, but as we went up there the place was even more packed with people than with the earlier bands. People were in a good mood, and our vocalist Linn Hege pushed them even higher with her special northern sense of humor.
We had so much fun, and people seemed to really enjoy our versions of Goldfrapp, PJ Harvey and Juliette and the Licks! They were even screaming for more as we went off the stage. The band is boosted with positive energy and meeting soon to plan the future. Keep tuned, more to come ;)
Erased & Replaced is preparing for the concert at Blå on the 9th of June! :)
Set list:
Ooh la la (Goldfrapp)
Who the fuck (PJ Harvey)
Hot Kiss (Juliette and the Licks)
New bandphotos:
More photos here
Filed under: Encounters, Environment, Excursions, Science and Technology Studies | Tags: Encounters, Environment, Science & Technology Studies
I took a trip to a big recycling station in Oslo to see what people throw away, and hopefully talk to them about why. There was quite a long line of cars going into the station, and it took me about 20 minutes to get in. When I drove into the area I pretended to be there for the same reason as everybody else, to throw something away. I wanted to observe before I revealed myself. I brought my camera, which might not have been such a good idea because it made people nervous. I took a few photos down in the containers, not of people as they threw things into them, but only of what was already down there. I heard someone whisper behind me, “hm, why is she taking pictures?”. The situation was a bit uncomfortable. I felt like I was there to expose someone, and that people felt exposed, caught in the act so to say. I could not get my self to ask someone for an interview because I was experiencing such strong discomfort by the situation, and was struggling with the feeling of getting too close to people, like I was disturbing them in a private matter. In addition, I found no opening remark that could be disarming. No matter how I rephrased my opening line, I felt like I was standing there raising my finger at people, accusing them of something and moralizing. There was a stressful atmosphere at the site, people were running to and from their vehicles with “rubbish” to do away with. It seemed to me that they just wanted to be very quickly done with this uncomfortable, boring but necessary task. I can imagine the relief they felt when they were driving out the gate – finally rid of that old junk! I tried to chat with some of the older guys that worked there. They were nice and confirmed that people throw a lot of useful stuff. Although there is a container for reusable things for Fretex to pick up and sell in their stores, much is still thrown in with other materials in the waste containers. Probably because people either do not know that there is a Fretex container, they can not be bothered to be doing that much sorting and therefore throw everything in the same container, or they simply define some of the usable stuff not to be usable. After a while one of the guys in the staff approached me and told me that there were some people wondering what I was doing, since I was taking pictures, it was not allowed to take pictures on the premises. I replied that I was only looking at what people were throwing away, since I was writing my thesis on waste, and I did not think it would be a big deal looking around since the station is a public place. Well, the guy did not agree that it was a public place and told me to clear the matter with a woman at the office. If not, I could risk being “thrown on my head into one of the containers”. Oh dear, I said, and began to walk towards the office. On the way there, I was very unsure about the whole thing and decided that I had to figure out a new strategy before talking to the office people. I sneaked back to my car and drove off.
The discomfort I felt, and the discomfort I interpreted into the people who were there actually says something about how I and probably many others feel about disposing of things. There are in many cases negative emotions tied to the act of disposal. This immoral contribution to our materialistic culture. That is probably why we often postpone the act itself for quite a long time. People store things in attics, basements, cabins, try to sell it or give it away. It is only when none of these options work, that most people drive it to a recycling station or a landfill. I think that this is the last resort for many people. For others it may certainly be the easiest way out, the most effective one if they want to get rid of something as quickly as possible. These people ignore the negative emotions the might have regarding wastefulness, if they have any, and just do what they have to. Whilst driving out the gate relief comes to most people. The stuff can be forgotten about. Out of sight out of mind, isn´t that how it is?
(Above: The Fretex container)
So, I have been processing this experience in my mind since last friday, and decided to try again. This time I am going to clear it with the right people at the office. I have already sent an email making a request for the permission to interview people while they are waiting in their cars to get in to the station. Hopefully they will be more open for an interview in this situation. The reply came quickly from the office, but the email was passed on to the right person and I am still awaiting the response.
——
To be continued…
Det finnes stunder
da alle ord er grå
da sorga er et høstsyn:
et vissent sevblad frøsi fast
i isen på ei å.
—
Det finnes stunder
da alle ord er små,
da lykka er et vårsyn:
ei solgnist i en dråpe dogg
som siger langs et strå.
—
Hans Børli
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As there seems to be baby-boom-time in my circle of friends, I often find myself in lack of a gift to bring to the first visit to meet the newborn. I decided to make some stuffed animals of my stash of left over fabrics. It turned into a family of bunnies steadily increasing in numbers. I have been experimenting with the different faces trying to bring them some personality. The ones in front of the picture are my first experiments where I chose the shape that multiplied through the back row of bunnies. A friend pointed out to me that the first row looks like they just died, which made another friend think of “The Book of Bunny Suicides”, a comic strip by Andy Riley. It is hilarious:
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Filed under: Quotes, Science and Technology Studies | Tags: Mary Douglas, Quotes, Science & Technology Studies
The struggle and the search for authenticity is haunting a lot of people. It is visible just by looking at people around you. Some still can´t let go of the thought that some people just are, that there are people unconscious of their appearance. Sadly, I must agree with Mary Douglas.
“There are no items of clothing or of food or of other practical use which we do not seize upon as theatrical props to dramatise the way we want to present our roles and the scene we are playing in. Everything we do is significant, nothing is without its conscious symbolic load. Moreover, nothing is lost on the audience.” — Mary Douglas
The source of the inspiration to the name of my blog, the delicious caramel (made by La Bretagne En Boite) I tasted i St Brevin Les Pins, France, July last summer has launched a webshop for their caramel products! Highly recommended ♥
http://labretagneenboite.wizishop.com/
A simple and low fat dessert or coffee break snack: Put about three big spoons of Kesam vanilje (or vanilla youghurt) in a small bowl, sprinkle a 1/4 of a biscuit and cinnamon on top. Yum!
“Wenn ich eine Weile ohne Lust und ohne Schmerz war und die laue fade Erträglichkeit sogenannter guter Tage geatmet habe, dann wird mir in meiner kindischen Seele so windig weh und elend, dass ich die verrostete Dankbarkeitsleier dem schläfrigen Zufriedenheitsgott ins zufriedene Gesicht schmeisse und lieber einen rect teuflischen Schmerz in mir brennen fühle als diese bekömmliche Zimmertemperatur.”
“Denn dies hasste, verabscheute und verfluchte ich von allem doch am innigsten: diese Zufriedenheit, diese Gesundheit, Behaglichkeit, diesen gepflegten Optimismus des Bürgers, diese fette gedeiliche Zucht des Mittelmässigen, Normalen, Durchschnittlichen.”
After posting the old childhood drawing, my book with Pushwagners Soft City came to mind. Obviously I was subconsciously inspired by great artists already in my early youth! My drawing is not dated, but mid/late 80´s would be a fair guess. Soft City which is a cartoon made by Hariton Pushwagner (Terje Brofoss, 1940), is, as it seems to me, about ordinary mass produced life with a touch of the 50´s.
I found a bunch of old drawings from my childhood. My dad put them together for me for my 25th birthday. So, I guess this is how people live. They eat, and talk, and make birthday cakes, and kill flies. Notice the poor lonely guy on the lower left. I think it´s raining.
(Mozart) “Das ist ja zum Lachen, du Drachen, zum lauten Lachen, zum Verkrachen, zum In-die-Hosen-Machen! O du gläubiges Herze, mit deiner Druckerschwärtze, mit deinem Seelenschmerze, ich stifte dir eine Kerze, nur so zum Scherze. Geschnickelt, geschnackelt, spetakelt, schabernackelt, mit dem Schwanz gewackelt, nicht lang gefackelt. Gott befohlen, der Teufel wird dich holen, verhauen und versolen für dein schreiben und Kohlen, hast ja alles zusammengestohlen.”
Another spring-clean-find. What an important task I had that day in life.
While doing some spring cleaning I came across my bachelor project which was inspired by The Shakers. I remember now why I was so inspired by the philosophy of these people concerning things. I am very drawn to their sense of simplicity, craftsmanship and space.
The Shakers originate form a group of persecuted Protestants in France, who fled to England in 1706. In 1774 they emigrated to New York, where they bought land, and called it “The New world “. Here they lived together in villages where each “unit” was responsible for the production of goods for personal use and for trade with other Shaker villages and eventually also with “the world”. Ann Lee was a leading figure in the Shaker group. She was also known as Mother Ann, or just Mother. Equality, pacifism, absolution and common property were qualities valued high in the community. The Shakers were very concerned with harmony between the spiritual and the physical environment with which they surrounded themselves. Simplicity, cleanliness, order, industry and perfection were the means to achieve the goal. Mother Ann emphasized that all assets should be functional and modest, not trendy and grandiose. She believed that the extravagance of an object caused the heart to open up to pride, vanity and lust, and that it destroyed the natural material and the practical purpose of the object itself. ”Anything with an precisely defined purpose, can be described as perfect because it answers perfectly to the purpose it was designed for.” When they built their houses, they were careful to plan for storage. This led to integrated storage in the walls. The storage was pre planned to fit their specific needs. Often there could be 3 to 6 people in one bedroom, and this created the need for separate storage. The storage was mostly made of drawers. Since there were so many people living together, it was important that all things had their permanent place, so that they would be easy to find for all residents. They had a great production of oval and round boxes for different things, which were color coded for content. They also made cleaning easier, by mounting pegs high on the wall in every room, where everything from chairs to hats and coats were hung. The beds had wheels, so they would be easy to move.
According to Wikipedia there is only one Shaker group left living in the United States with three living members. The disappearance of the Shakers is caused by living in celibacy and building their community partly through adoption of orphans, which turned illegal in the 1960s.
Filed under: Environment, Politics, Science and Technology Studies | Tags: Environment, Politics, Science & Technology Studies
In our time the concept of waste has developed into a significant issue which concerns all of society; governments, industry, community, nature, science and technology. One could say, in the way that Bruno Latour claims there to be no Nature with a capital N, there is also no Waste with a capital W. Waste is a term constructed by humans. To define what is waste or not there has to be some social order to define it. A quick reading through some of the official documents released on the issues of waste in Norway reveals an array of definitions to different categories of waste and what goes into them. Industrial waste, municipal waste, demolition and construction waste, hazardous waste and so on.
Waste brings with it many problems. There are toxic chemicals, depletion of natural resources, emissions, various social problems of exploitation, health, poverty and loss of habitat to mention some. The problems are grounded in how society is constructed. The goal of the market economy is infinite growth through the steady flow of capital and goods. This flow of goods has turned into a flow of waste, because the timeframe in which the goods are perceived to usable is getting smaller and smaller. Low quality non repairable products, low prices (externalized costs), fashion and marketing are accelerating the turnover of material goods.
Governments are dealing with the issue of waste through laws and regulations. An increasing effort in waste management through government is certainly improving conditions caused by the effects of the problem, but at the same time some of the effort is being annulled by the vast increase in the amount of waste. In Norway the growth in waste has now passed the growth of the economy measured in GDP (Klima- og forurensningsdirektoratet, 2010).
As Annie Leonard writes in the book “The Story of Stuff” (2010), waste is not defined by what it is but by where it is. The definition of waste is interesting because it determines action taken on it. For my master thesis I have decided to look into definitions made of waste by the Norwegian government and how these definitions are co-produced with policy and technology development in the sector. How is the notion of waste conceptualized? How are new categories of waste formed? Who are the experts in demarcating the categories of waste? My assumption is that there is a need for a redifinition of the concept of waste which has emerged through time because it is now unable to deal with the problems caused by the out dated definitions
Bruno Latour´s bold statement “there is no Nature with a capital N” is refreshing (How to Bring the Sciences Into Democracy, 2004). Maybe the same would be true for the concept of Waste? As I have established through his thoughts; how waste is defined is a product of processes and relationships within the networks of sciences, natures and politics. To create new thought on the concept of Waste one must look at wastes (in the plural) intertwined in different networks. Again to compare with Latour´s concept of natures; issues concerning natures always have to do with specific natures; that river, that endangered species and so on. The same thing could be said about Waste. There is no such thing as Waste with a capital W. There is only glass, plastic, packaging, paper and so on. Therefore one must also talk about wastes in the plural. Latour claims the political power of the term Nature to be lying in its unity, in its singular use; “nature in general”. It is impossible for natures to play the same political role. For instance; how does industry protect natures? What force can the science of natures enact? The singular form of Nature has been created to be able to rival the singular form of Politics. It is a convenient ordering. I ask myself, is the same true for the unity of Waste? Does the unity of Waste give power?
(Hermine) “Begreifst du das nicht, du gelehrter Herr: dass ich dir darum gefalle und für dich wichtig bin, weil ich wie eine art Spiegel für dich bin, weil in mir innen etwas ist, was dir Antwort gibt und dich versteht? Eigentlich sollten alle Menschen füreinander solche Spiegel sein und einander so antworten und entsprechen, aber solche Käuze wie du sind eben wunderlich und verlaufen sich leicht in eine Verzauberung, dass sie in den Augen andrer Menschen nichts mehr sehen und lesen können, dass es sie nichts mehr angeht. Und wenn dann so ein Kauz plötzlich doch wieder ein Gesicht findet, das ihn wirklich anschaut, in dem er etwas wie Antwort und Verwandtschaft spürt, ja, dann hat er natürlich eine Freude.”
Norway:
The growth in waste has now passed the growth of the economy measured in GDP
