YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS IN MOZAMBIQUE
The Fortalezza is often used for small exhibitions, concerts and other public events. The sign says: Exhibition of young entrepreneurs “the idea to work”
A fundamental part of design is entrepreneurship. We have different conditions to deal with it, promote and support. My participation in Mozambique is somewhat similar to when I was (and when I work) in Reykjavik. Both places are building up a creative industry and very much of it depends on young people, designers, musicians artists and social entrepreneurs. The industries that are developing are different to the traditional ones of grand projects like power stations selling electricity to heavy industries, fisheries and agriculture. The grand projects are the pets of politicians looking at economic stability and participation in international trade. While these grand projects are happening there are young people (and also of course older ones like my age) trying to generate new things, entrepreneurial activity in some cases to be able to live of what they love to do: to create things, solutions, events. And often linking together new initiatives through their skills or dreams for change. My own perspective is always the same: The Triple Bottom line meaning that results should in some form generate profit for the tree fundamental things: People Planet Profit.
Here is a photo album from the exhibition
In Iceland we started very early in the Faculty of Design and Architecture in the Iceland Academy of Art running projects with the Reykjavik Business school, initiating new ways to address issues, for business or social change. This type of initiative I also introduced in my school in Norway, the Oslo National Academy of Art. There we also ran projects where students of design work with students from the business school BI to create business and social initiatives.
The Report first published by UNCTAD in 2008 and now in new edition (United Nations Creative Economy Report 2010) states results from extensive research that design, entrepreneurship and generally creative industries are the most effective sectors in society to support diversity and gender equality as well as economic prosperity. I suggest to anyone who is interested in this to download this report and at least browse through it. The diagrams and tables are very helpful.
It is great to see an exhibition of small initiatives where young people are creating objects and solutions for trade and social facilitation. I am encountering with increasing regularity small initiatives like this, people are all over setting up business, or designing products that hopefully come into production and give profit. Of course the new Design and Art Academy (ISArC) is a key factor in these changes and I hope I will have time to follow its growth into a fundamental part of Mozambican society.
Some of the work displayed in the exhibition. Here is a photo album from the exhibition.
May 2, 2011
Tags: academia, crafts, DESIGN, entrepreneurship, maputo, mozambique Posted in: AFRICA, DESIGN, ISAC - KHiO, MOZAMBIQUE 
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MONA in MAPUTO
My friends in Mona-Trio are playing in Joburg this weekend and I wish them luck while knowing they do not need luck they are very pro in their preparations. I went to the studio last week to see their run through of the program and take some photos. I have realized that what I like most is grab images of action and movement like dance and music. I enjoyed myself greatly, this is a kind of a metal sound, rather different to the more Marrabenta sound more common in Maputo, a city of great creativity in design, art and music and more intertwined than in most places. Actually I always say that the cidade here in Maputo is more like my 101 in Reykjavik than anywhere I have been in my life. Maybe that is why I really like to be here – it feels like home while being completely different!
Here is an album from my visit to the studio. I would love to see this band in Reykjavik in the Iceland Airvawes Festival. They would fit in.
Hard playing in the studio.
April 30, 2011
Tags: band, maputo, metal, mozambique, music, rock Posted in: AFRICA, DESIGN, MOZAMBIQUE, MUSIC Comments Closed
PARK PROJECT IN MAPUTO
A banner on the fence to the park. It has all been fenced and has guards on the gates, something that is sensible for the darker hours.
There are many ways to motivate design students but the most effective motivation to work hard is real projects. We have been so fortunate to be asked to participate in the rebuilding of the new Parque dos Continuadores in the center of Maputo. I remember this area two years ago as a no-go area, really just a disregarded grass area with lots of rubbish. But now it has been properly rebuilt and a rainbow of crafts and objects stalls have been set up. I am not here reflecting about the quality of the things that are for sale, but in between there are quite proper objects. But our school has to address the development of artisan things that can be developed in the country. Tourists come in small buses or just individually to wander around, see the offers that are abundant and to sit in the two restaurants that have been set up. Both the restaurants can be recommended, one sells local Mozambican cuisine and the other is Italian or pertains to be. The location is an excellent location to gain introduction to variety of Maputo culture in one location. It even has a wifi field for those that have to be connected.
The pond in the park with view to the restaurants. Idillic spaces.
The organization of the park is led by an architect Ruy M. Santos, a very capable organizer that we met on the first formal visit of the students to the park. He gave a presentation of needs and potentials. He also told about how they have built up the park very much based on sponsorships in addition to official funds. The design students in ISArC have been asked to work with the benches in the park, simple concrete slabs that can easily work as a platform for creative solutions or elaborations. This is what we have been doing for two weeks now, meeting in the park, doing physical surveys discussing needs and potentials. It is great to work as a designer with actual projects and in situ. We have of course been through strange silly idea processes and serious elaborations.
We are coming to presentation phase when the students have to make presentable proposals in a form that Ruy can use to take to potential sponsors for financing the ideas.
Here is a photo album from our work.
A simple concrete bench that the students are asked to elaborate. One never knows what will come out.
April 29, 2011
Tags: academy, crafts, DESIGN, maputo, mozambique, parc, tourism Posted in: AFRICA, ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, ISAC - KHiO, MOZAMBIQUE Comments Closed
NÚCLEO – MAPUTO
The sign over the entrance to the arts gallery
Núcleo de Arte is an old institution in Maputo. It is an important cultural and artists’ centre in the city. It is a collective for artists under the name of Associação Núcleo de Arte. It is the oldest collective of artists in Mozambique. Seated in an old villa in the center of Maputo the Núcleo has played a significant role in metropolitan cultural life for decades. Over one hundred painters, sculptors and ceramists are members of the Núcleo, which regularly stages exhibitions on its own premises and over the last few years has actively participated in exchanges with artists from abroad.
Art from weapons after the War.
The Núcleo became well known for their project transforming arms into tools and objects of art. It played an important role for reconciliation after the war in Mozambique. The Peace Agreement in Mozambique, signed on 4th October 1992, marked the end to sixteen years of civil war. During the years after the war ended artists in Núcleo got involved in an extraordinary project. In workshops, members made works of art out of AK 47 machine guns, landmines and hand weapons.
Invincible optimism, resilience and confidence in human capacity take shape in the sculptures. The war tools provided inspiration for the creation of sometimes fragile and elegant, sometimes robust sculptures with the messages: Wars can be overcome. Reconciliation is possible.
Every day it is inspiring to go to Núcleo to chat with the artists, drink a simple ‘clara’ (or preta) and just enjoy the confectionary for the eyes. But on Sunday evenings the place becomes transformed into the coolest club in town. They always stage bands, both local or from Mozambique and sometimes from outside. It seems that it does not matter what the other places do they can never reach the level of cool that Núcleo has. The scene on Sunday evenings is very casual, starts early and usually is over by 22:00. This is completely different to other music or party events that normally get going around 23:00 and go on into the early mornings. This makes the Sunday evenings nice since there is less desperation to party and party but to meet up with friends and enjoy the music. In Maputo this is my favourite venue, both on Sundays and also during the day when one can just walk in and talk to the artists or just take a voyeur tour to see the art being made. Here is a little photo album from Núcleo.
Nucleo hidden behind a fence and normal street. On the left of the photo is the arts space that houses exhibitions and on the right under the corrugated roof is the canteen, the bar, the stage and the artists studios.
April 25, 2011
Tags: art, DESIGN, gallery, maputo, mozambique, music, weapons Posted in: AFRICA, ART, DESIGN, ISAC - KHiO, MOZAMBIQUE, MUSIC Comments Closed
ISARC STUDENT IN WORKSHOP IN CAPE TOWN
The article in the Times in Cape Town. You can print out a good copy of it here.
Craft producers from throughout the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have been participating in a workshop in Cape Town. This has been funded by the Kellogg Foundation and facilitated by the Cape Craft and Design Institute (CCDI).
The participants in the workshops are given time in the facilities and gain opportunity to meet active designers and crafts people from Cape Town. One of our ISArC design students Walter Zandamela had the opportunity to participate in the workshop and actually came back here to ISArC full of further enthusiasm that showed itself when he was working in the workshop that I organized with the KHiO gang. Walter explored new materials and made a range of objects in product design that we did explore when he came back to Maputo. Here is an article about the workshop form the Cape Town Career Times from Monday 18th of April. It is great that the efforts are communicated out to other potential participants and institutions that might organize similar activity. I am always more and more believing in small intensive activities for skill development rather than grand schemes that fall flat and are milked by strange operators that are actually more interested in themselves rather than the results.
Walter and Henrik from Oslo developed this product from discarded wheels for urban agriculture.
April 24, 2011
Tags: academy, cape town, DESIGN, mozambique, product design, workshop Posted in: AFRICA, DESIGN, MOZAMBIQUE, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
MELBOURNE MORNING RADIO AT MID-NIGHT IN AFRICA
Emily (standing) during public consultation (0r human centered design) in the Docklands in Melbourne during the early stages of setting up their urban farm.
When I was in Cape Town visiting the art and design schools, plus some other social innovation organizations, I was asked to talk to Emily in Melbourne on her local morning radio about sustainability. This was interesting since I had to keep myself awake until after midnight (and sober) to connect to Melbourne on a fresh Monday morning. Emily herself is a force major in the Docklands in Melbourne, where she is part of a group that has started urban farming named Urbanreforestation. I was lucky to be allowed to participate in their first public consultation in late November 2009. I have a small blog about that here. They are all very enthusiastic working towards sustainability, Urban farming etc etc. Emily has herself now a very informative website blogging about the things she means are worth spreading, – a kind of a similar strategy as my blogs: to spread the good work.
Emily is addressing the A-Z of sustainability in her morning radio program and I got I, J, K and L from the alphabet. She asked me about the Iceland situation, what is happening there in terms of sustainability, something that made me write an irritated blog when I started thinking about the situation there. Then we spoke about joy one can have from having an environmental political position about how one takes part in society. In K we spoke about kangaroo meat that is interesting in the way that people do not want to eat in while beef production is very large. Beef is one of the least sustainable consumption that we produce, while she tells me that Australians cull kangaroos and destroy the meat. She told me that there are far too many kangaroos. Something in the balance of nature that has been disturbed.
Anyway it is always great to follow the work of the good people in Urban Reforestation in Melbourne, the design capital of Australia. I can recommend it.
Even though it might be uncomfortable for me to hear the radio program I have been sent a link to the interview. Here it is!
April 23, 2011
Posted in: DESIGN, PONDERINGS, SUSTAINABILITY Comments Closed
Mugendi M’Rithaa and African Design
I had a meeting with the highly sympathetic African design activist and educator Mugendi M’Rithaa in the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He operates in the Faculty of Design and Informatics. He is a co-founder of Design With Africa, a network for sharing a knowledge base and to be an open forum for debates and case studies on how design is emerging as a strategic development method on the African continent. The network states that they believe that Africa, with its constraints, community centered thinking, and raw 
commerce, serve as an ideal sandbox for global challenges and new business models. Design With Africa maintains that the role of designers is leaning increasingly towards more socially conscious design activities as is evident in the diverse contexts of Africa, Asia and South America. Socially Responsive Design (SRVD) is something that has been prevalent in my Faculty of Design in Oslo all the time since I took over there as a dean some 6 years ago. I had never met Mugendi in person before, only through internet media. But we found immediately out that we have quite many things in common and common friends in the design field. It was very stimulating to visit his faculty and learn, albeit slightly in the short time I had, about the work they are doing. Mogendi agrees with me that many schools of design in Europe and North America have integrated co-design methodologies at various levels of study and encourage their students to develop projects and activism that addresses current situations. We in Oslo came up with the name Socially Responsive Design and I like to point out our program in Design Strategy as I stipulate in our website. It is important that our students of design and of course immediately active designers are addressing new more open and strategic projects, both at home in Europe and globally like here in Africa.
My friend John Thackara took an interview with Mugendi published in Design Observer where Mugendi explains the issues that he is involved in. When talking about the African context he says that he wants to emphasize the need for social equity and cohesiveness as critical success factors of any sustainable design strategy.
Mugendi says to Thackara:
“Africa has a youthful population, and young people are driving change in music, theater, art and crafts — such as the vibrant multi-disciplinary activities showcased at the GoDown in Nairobi. There is also a sizeable film industry in Nigeria. And hosting the recent soccer 2010 World Cup in South Africa was a massive morale booster for the entire continent. Africa is the fastest growing region in the world for mobile telephony and we are producing some of the most innovative applications in that field like M-Pesa, a phone based money transfer system.”
An other common friend Saki Mafundikwa from Zimbabwe said
“Africa isn’t poor; it just doesn’t have a lot of money!”
This Mugendi refers to and I must admit that this is something that I am fundamentally realizing. The design guru Ezio Manzini said recently when we were in Oslo that if there might be a global disaster of sorts Africa would probably cope better than other regions because it is coping every day and everyone is a life entrepreneur. I decided to move to here to Mozambique years ago and I have been involved in various projects althought the main one is to develop ISArC, the academy here in Mozambique. An institute with great potential lead by director Filimone Meigos, a sociologist and journalist, film actor and with the passion of a poet.
There is very much small scale activity all over in Mozambique and in the other Southern-Equator African countries. I am learning about lots of movement of creative people around the region, music, dancers, artists and many other people within the performing arts. Design might be a bit behind, but that is more based on our definition of design as a closed system rather than the creative entrepreneurial spirit that prevails in Africa (and actually also in my home country Iceland).
I am hoping for further dialogue with these very stimulating people and look forward to the meeting in Paris of the DESIS Network where we will meet up and compare notes (projects) and methods. This will be linked to the Cumulus Conference in Paris in May.
Student work in Mugendi’s Faculty in Cape Town, South Africa.
April 22, 2011
Tags: academy, africa, DESIGN, design innovation, mozambique, social design, social innovation, south africa, Zimbabwe Posted in: ART, DESIGN, MOZAMBIQUE, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
EMPOWERMENT, INNOVATION, DESIGN, PRODUCTION
The township where the centers are located.
I visited ENZA in Cape Town, or actually on the outskirts of the city. It is a registered non-profit and public benefit organization based in the Paarl/Wellington area near the city. It aims to empower underpriviledged women and girls to build a future. It is driven by the enthusiasm of the Icelandic lady Ruth Gylfadottir. The endeavor is furthermore driven by the support of her family and friends initially and also has a circle of wider contacts in finding finance and solutions for the many tasks that are needed to change the destiny of the women and girls. They are many who are forced to give up their babies for adoption due to their socio – economic circumstances. The centre concentrates on assisting them to rebuild their lives and become economically active and self sufficient.
The mid day sleep of the smallest in Norsa
Now, they have built a very sympathetic location in the midst of a township and it is next door to a kindergarten for children that is run by Norsa, a Community Care Centre that focuses on the development of community based projects with specific focus on families and children infected/affected with HIV/AIDS, TB and extreme poverty. The Norsa center next door has 90 children. I have put some photos from this here.
Excellent class and working room in ENZA. It is recently ready for operations and has already started reading and computer classes. It will be great to follow the continuation of the project. I hope I can go and participate in some product development.
Possible product from material that is used in agriculture.
They run reading classes in the afternoons for those that have no reading skills and they are going through the development process of identifying products and services that the center can provide so as to return profit to the women that come there. The idea is to develop skills for making products that can return profit that again goes into the further development of the society there. At the same time one understands the victory when the ladies get an opportunity to leave the center with skills and diplomas for learning and walk into jobs that give salary. Small victories are often the best ones. I was so fortunate to be allowed to walk around, talk to Ruth and some people there and we quite early started having ideas about things that could be developed. The work is in many ways similar to the work I am doing with my students and ex-curricular friends in Mozambique. The greatest victory is when they leave and do not need support any more. Here are a few images from this very well prepared institute.
If and when ideas develop further I will send out some more blogs. Today I wish them all the best and hope people can think of donating something to the project. You can access that on their webpage. I have put some photos here.
April 21, 2011
Tags: aids, community centre, DESIGN, HIV, product, south africa Posted in: DESIGN Comments Closed
The Balance, sustainability and controlling gestures.
Emily in Melbourne asked me a question this morning about sustainability and Iceland that starts me pondering. Sitting in Cape Town observing and thinking about sustainability I reflect about how my country Iceland somehow developed faster than we can handle. A country known for clean air, beautiful nature and ample natural resources. In my youth I remember regular news on radio and grown up talk about fishing, the weather (always changing) and of course the Cold War. Icelanders are by nature fast response people and have to be because of continuous natural extreme changes. Volcanic eruptions, impulsive weather, no fish in the sea, too much fish in the sea, harvest blowing away in hurricanes. It is the nature of Icelandic society to respond every day to current natural events. Our joke is that the national policy of Icelanders is this
“Hey mate! I am in trouble! Can you help me?”
I meet regularly people that admire Iceland for its use of ‘renewable energy’ – especially Canadians who obviously have received great news about Icelandic hydro energy and geo energy. But the story is not all that beautiful. I come to that later.
Fishing Control Systems in Iceland
As a kid I travelled with my parents (my father being an artist did not have a steady job) in the summers to remote places for work. One summer to a fjord in the East (Norðfjörður) where they worked in the herring boom, working 24 hours per day, hopping out in the middle of the night when the boats came in overloaded with herring. When the herring came everyone was happy. The herring was called ‘The Silver of the Ocean’. Then there came months and actually years when the herring disappeared. A national economic disaster that as a kid I remember the politicians talking about all the time on the radio. The talk came up in the 60’s that there would be a need to control overfishing somehow to create sustainable economy and stability. Government institutions were formed that decided how many tons of each species it is allowed to catch every season. In the media there is continuous argument between the fishing industry saying the specialists know nothing and forbid fishing when they are out at sea and see the silver swimming all over. The specialists on the other hand refer to research, annual measurements etc. Both arguments are understandable. Then in the 80’s government controls were increased, – a system of fish quotas was introduced. All in the need to control fishing, to try to form a system that would make the fishing industry sustainable. Yes sustainable, not to overfish but to control in an advanced system that we would also be able to fish in the coming years, not just this summer and nothing the next. A noble systemized solution to control our ambitions! Or to put it simpler: Our Greed!
Some kind of a systemized holistic solution for our future. I like to see this also in the perspective of thePeruvian Hernando de Soto who in his books ‘The Other Path’ (1989) and ‘The Mystery of Capital’ (2000) puts forward the thesis (in my simple understanding) that no nation can have strong market economy as long as most people remain on the outside looking in. He talks about two parallel economies – legal and extra legal. This results in an elite minority that enjoys the economy benefits while the majority of entrepreneurs are stuck in poor conditions on the outside – ergo: They have nothing measurable as property that they can use as collateral for creating economic activity (nothing that they can use to take loans in banks so as to start some entrepreneurial activity. Why do I wonder about this in the perspective of sustainability and Iceland fisheries?
Yes, as a result of the invented quota system, to control over-fishing a system developed where some people got rights to quotas for fishing and others not. Over the years after the introduction of this system of course the industry developed and those that own the right to fish have become property owners (the property being the fish in the sea, not even yet out of the sea!). The fish quota accumulated in fewer hands and many stopped participating in the fishing activity themselves. They just rented out the right and started buying other things like UK football clubs and other strange investments. Something that does in no way participate in the sustainable national economy. They are now named Quota Kings (and actually Queen) and a large section of Icelandic society despises them while at the same working for them. The conditions are over heated, the economy linked to bank systems and properties all over and of course collapsed in 2008 as everyone knows.
Before, just as the people in the 3rd world do not have infrastructure to document their properties to take loans, the people in Iceland went out fishing if they owned a boat or had access to the sea.
Kárahnjúkar Energy Station.
Now to the energy. The Icelandic nation is divided in half about those issues. Yes, maybe in the eyes of foreigners the hydro and geo-thermal energy is clean in the perspective of carbon outlet of coal or oil or gas. But how do we in Iceland obtain this energy? Iceland has today Europe’s largest hydro station creating electricity Kárahnjúkar. (I spent a few days in a tent few summers ago next to a beautiful waterfall Töfrafoss saying good bye since it is all gone now). The nation is divided in half about that condition also. To build this station large areas of the very sensitive Icelandic highland had to be drowned in water. Grazing areas for reindeer, for gees migration and so on and so on. And the creation of this energy is to supply electricity to global companies like Alcoa, a very non-environmentally friendly company producing aluminum, producing weapons and so on. For years the nation argues about this and there is no solution as yet. The people that maintain that they own the land for drowning say that they have the property right to make power stations while others (more urban dwellers) say that the land should be evaluated as a whole for the nation and it can not be destroyed for the profit of the few.
Now, living in Africa I do not see a solution, I just ponder. The Icelandic society has grown far too fast, capitalistic globalization has moved in with collateral capabilities and grand schemes are invented all over. Iceland is properly out of control and most visions of sustainability are missing. In my view, large parts of the nature and the economy that I come from and love is in such a mess that only crisis might be able to save it. But the people are not capable to deal with the current situation. Fishing is controlled by international companies, geo power rights are being sold to international companies (and I can tell you that geo power is no more sensitive to nature than any other. Parts of the highland looks like oil-rig Texas with roads all over, drill holes and complete destruction of grazing or outdoor areas). Please Canadians do not admire our ‘clean’ energy nor fishing controls.
What comes out of these ponderings of mine? I must apologize for the non-scientific writing but blogging is a form of putting thoughts out there. I have more and more come to the conclusion that small actions are usually much better than the grand system governmental or international gestures. This I see in the perspective of Icelandic economic history, in governmental actions and also here in Africa in NGO activity. Making grand gestures not in relation to the bigger picture. Anyway, who cares about the big picture while he is making money?
The hidden economy in the world is larger than the documented one that exists in the stock exchanges. To me, this is fine. People should be left alone to do what they do while education about sustainability, theTriple Bottom Line (people profit planet) and small gestures should be facilitated. Recently Ezio Manzini said: “Maybe if there would be a grand disaster in the world the African Continent could cope with it much better than our Western World.” This is a thought, they have less oversized grand schemes, they are small social entrepreneurs every day coping with what comes while we wait for systems to respond when they can not because they are so over elaborate. I could go on for ever here, the food in Japan was finished within very short time after the recent earthquake since the transport system was not working. The people that grows their own food (or are close to their support) can cope better. In the near future when energy is going to become properly priced we will not be able to buy exotic fruit in Iceland, we will have to depend on our own land and our own fish and our own energy. The same goes for Africa and everywhere.
I recommend to everyone to read the blogs by Sharon Astyk: ‘The Chatelaine’s Keys’ – Finding keys to the future . . . . and trying not to loose them in the mess and her book: Depletion and Abundance. To read the blogs of John Thackara, Ezio Manzini and many other that are trying to participate in the steering of this strange wrong course that we are on.
April 17, 2011
Posted in: DESIGN, ICELAND, PONDERINGS, SUSTAINABILITY Comments Closed
A NEW PARK FOR ARTISANS AND CULTURE IN MAPUTO
A big sign on the park fence invites people to the new location for artisans and culture.
The old Parque dos Continuadores was rather dilapidated when I first saw it. A bit scary and not to go into at night. Now it has been transformed and great stalls have been built for displaying work by crafts people and to sell tourist objects and clothes. Some of the things that are for sale are very nice and some is culture-empty stuff as is the norm all over the world.
Beautiful spaces, ponds and restaurants. Perfect place to linger and watch.
The park also has two restaurants, one with authentic Mozambican food and the other a kind of an Italian cafe/restaurant. It is pleasant to spend time there and I am seeing regular increase of visitors all the time.
Our students in ISArC are now starting a project developing ideas about how to give character to the concrete benches that are around the park. This could be very appropriate project for the students and it will be fun to see what they come up with in the coming weeks. We are going to spend some time in the studio working on method and ideas and then see how the students will work in groups for the execution of the proposals that gain the acceptance of the organizers. It is great to run actual projects with students, it locates the work in society and stimulates hard work.
Here are some images from the park and of students working on location.
The ever important wifi.
April 14, 2011
Tags: academy, art, artisan, crafts, DESIGN, maputo, park, tourism Posted in: ARCHITECTURE, ART, DESIGN, ISAC - KHiO, MOZAMBIQUE Comments Closed
The Startup Kids
The York News and Features says that Mark Zukerberg Won’t be the only Twentysomething Tech Founder with his own Movie.
The Startup Kids is a documentary about young web entrepreneurs in the U.S. and Europe. It contains interviews with the founders of Vimeo, Soundcloud, PlayFish, WordPress, Posterous and many others who talk about how they started their company and their lives as an entrepreneur. The documentary also compares the different environments, resources and attitudes of entrepreneurs on either side of the Atlantic.
The Startup Kids Trailer from The Startup Kids on Vimeo.
The Startup Kids is a project run by two ladies in Iceland that have their own startup company focusing on social gaming. The are old timers in board plays since kids and developed their own board game in Iceland in 2009 that sold out. They are now developing gaming for the internet.
They are located in an innovation centre down town in Reykjavik, two floors of redundant bank space from the properly dead GLITNIR bank. The best use of dead business is to grow new business, but a more healthy one than corrupt banking. See here a some thoughts about that from John Thackara.
April 12, 2011
Tags: DESIGN, entrepreneur, startup Posted in: DESIGN, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
WA GUNE QUARTET FIRST CD AVAILABLE
The stage at the end of the concert. Cabocha on left playing the various drums, Cheny on the sofa with the Timbila, Zito to far right on drums and Nene behind the two lady singers, Thobile Mcincinini and Bongiwe Dlamini.
The TIMBILA is a musical instrument in Mozambique, like a Xylophone. It is traditionally associated with the Chopi people from the Inhambane Region in Southern Mozambique. The instrument should not be confused to the Mbira, a handheld instrument that is believed to have originated in Indonesia. The Timbila has up to nineteen keys, and up to eight may be played simultaneously. Sound amplification is managed by using resonators made from the spherical hard shells of the Masala Apple, one mounted under each key. The tuning of any key is achieved through first roasting the wood around a fire and then shaping the key to achieve the desired tone. But for us ignorant people it is a traditional type of a Xylophone in Mozambique.
There are various famous players of the Timbila in Mozambican culture and it has amazed me how many know how to play it since it seems actually quite complicated. The Timbila band that I most admire (since I am not a traditionalist) is a funky amplified band with its leader Cheny Wa Gune. The band goes normally I think by the name Wa Gune Quarteto. The band comprises Cheny himself playing the Timbila, Nene playing the electric bass, Zito running a very tight rhythm on drums and Cabocha on various African drums. They have managed to package some very simple tunes with strong rhythm with the pure Mozambican flavor. Marrabenta music up to various funky rock tones.
Last Friday the 1st of April they launched their first CD, but they have been playing together for a long time as can be clearly heard when they play. I asked Cheny about a year ago about availability of his music for me and he responded that there is no use publishing CD’s since the music is immediately ripped and sold as bootleg on the streets. They have to gain their income from life performances. This is the common situation for artists here in Africa and is strange in the perspective of the Intellectual Property giants like Sony and family. But now there is a disk available, I am obtaining a copy and hopefully you can also buy the music soon on the web. There are available on Youtube a few videos for those interested, this one playing typical Marrabenta, very bad quality but informative, and this one where they are playing one of their more popular songs Jinji Jinji.
The band has now played widely in Europe, South America and in Africa. I propose to you to be on the look out for these fantastic musicians.
Here are photo albums from their performances that I have made. From 1st April in Franco, and From Rua des Artes last year.
Cheny playing the Mbira here, Nene Bass funking in the background
April 3, 2011
Tags: inhambane, maputo, marrabenta, mozambique, music, timbila Posted in: MOZAMBIQUE, MUSIC Comments Closed
DESIGN OF PATTERNS IN MOZAMBIQUE
The 2nd year students in Design working on their computers. All of them have their own computer in some form and software to experiment with patterns and form.
Maputo is a very vibrant city. I read last year (I think in the Economist – my favourite paper) that Maputo is the most culturally vibrant city in Africa. Well we can believe that if we like but it depends on what is being measured. The measurement does not matter but since I arrived here first time in April 2007, almost exactly four years ago I can confirm this. When I arrived first time the city reminded me of my good old home town Reykjavík in Iceland. There is some kind of a vibe in the place, a mix of hunger for action, so many people are artists, doers, all of them of course dance like a dream (something no white person can imitate). People are so creative here and are not afraid of having a go, – something that I have encountered in one of my other home towns Oslo. There I have often heard the phrase: “Is it allowed?” – Here, and in Reykjavik this is not high on the list of wonderings. People have a go. And only by having a go can one find out if it works (I like here to refer to the excellent lecture by Ken Robinson on TED).
I have got to know many artists here, actors, musicians and cultural activists, but the least I meet are designers. There are not so many in town – although I properly agree to the phrase: “Everyone is a designer!” And that is true, most of the students in ISArC have been making things of the design type for years. They make clothing, advertising, furniture, product solutions, but without the design education that is common in university academies in Western countries.
Sadly some of the culture here is nowadays flooded by very bad design, advertising, furniture from the incredibly capitalistic driven South Africa, that does not respect this culture in any way. I regularly meet South Africans that talk very degradingly about the conditions here, while not seeing the capitalistic driven slavery that keeps their own economy so vibrant, while being very flat and unimaginative in terms of design solutions.
Anyway, enough of brooding. The most important here in Maputo is the positive hunger for action, design and production. My students are making capulana design at the moment, commissioned by the Mozambican train company: Mozambique Ports and Railways . We are having fun making patterns, flipping forms, repeating, discussing production methods etc. Interestingly I did actually give a presentation about capulanas for my students of fashion in Oslo just few weeks ago. I post here a few images from the class activity.
Concentration making capulana patterns.
The capulana is a textile garment mostly worn by women in Mozambique, while it is more worn by men in Asia. It resembles a long skirt, the garment consists of a long piece of material wound around the lower half of the body from the waist to the ankles. Women sometimes wear the capulana so that its upper edge reaches the middle of the chest, tightly covering it. They are made of colored cotton and originate from the islands of Java and Bali. They are usually made of roll batik, using wax and colour dies. Similar garments are common over Africa and Asia with different types of names.
March 30, 2011
Tags: academy, art, capulana, DESIGN, maputo, mozambique Posted in: DESIGN, FASHION, ISAC - KHiO, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
10 YEARS OF DESIGN IN ICELAND – PAST DECADE
24th March 2001-2011
Today is ten years since we posted for the first time in Iceland an advertisement for applications to the new, first and only Design and Architecture Faculty in Iceland. Goddur, who is now the professor of graphic design in the Faculty made with me the advertisement that was posted in the largest newspaper in Iceland.
The photo displays the old main street in Reykjavik, Laugavegur, where are located the main fashion and tourist shops. In the photo stands a man with a newspaper. The image displays all the elements that design touches on in the mainstream of Icelandic society. Architecture that actually have been prominent in the urban dialogue (even being influential in power shifts in the Reykjavik Local Authority) Fashion, Clothing, Print and Signage etc. The text says:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHANGE THIS IMAGE?
And then stating to the prospective applicants that if so, they should apply for a place in the new Faculty of Design and Architecture in the new Iceland Academy of Art.
I am not going to write here and now what has happened in Iceland during the past decade, but great changes have taken place, both to the good and to the bad. The 10 years that have passed have seen major changes in the Design Scene in Iceland, there is a critical mass of students and teachers today in the country participating in the dialogue and public debate. But there are also many small businesses, single designers and participants in the larger companies. It is great to know all these young people that are taking over and changing the picture that we posted 10 years ago.
Today also is the fist day of HÖNNUNARMARS (DESIGNMARCH) – A four day festival of design with conferences, lots of promotion events for products, fashion and otherwise, openings of exhibitions and so on and on. Look at the websites for more information, but what warms my heart is that exactly 10 years ago I did advertise for the first time access to this first university level education in Iceland in design after spending actually most of the 90’s preparing, arguing, planning, behind curtains work. Happy birthday all!
March 24, 2011
Tags: academy, art, decade, DESIGN, iceland Posted in: ARCHITECTURE, DESIGN, ICELAND, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
DESIGN DAY PRICE FOR EVIRONMENTAL ISSUES – ECO BLING!
A Box for Salmon
Last week I attended in Oslo a very entertaining day of celebrations among Norwegian designers: THE DESIGN DAY. This is an annual day run by the Norwegian Design Council, – a kind of an Oscars Ceremony for Norwegian designers. It is organized by the one head of the double headed Norwegian design promotion institutions: The Design Council representing the Norwegian industry and business while the other half Norsk Form (Foundation for Design and Architecture in Norway) is funded by various ministries and projects and is much more leaning towards social and environmental issues.
Here is a small photo album from the event
There were maybe two ok speakers, one quite out of touch and my friend John Thackara looking at the future of our planet and how designers can be actors in dealing with that. His presentation gave a picture of the global scenario and can be reached soon on the web. You can access his posts on the excellent site DesignObserver. One can now access podcasts of all the speakers of the day HERE.
As in such celebrations there were handed out prices for good design, in various classes, but I want to discuss the price given for the improvement of the environment.
This price was given to only one product. There there were actually only seven nominations in that category, much less as in some of the others, highlighting that this issue is not overst on the agenda of the Norwegian Industry, and in that perspective Norwegian designers. This situation is the absolute opposite to the projects that our students in the Oslo National Academy are doing. And I also admit in opposition to the agenda of the Design Council that has been inviting people to speak that work for social and environmental issues. Changes come slowly but they do, lets be positive although one grumbles!
I want to quote the directive for the jury: “The jury attaches importance to the measures that have been taken in the design phase to reduce or eliminate environmentally harmful behavior, or in terms of material choice, packaging solutions, the solution’s product life, logistics etc.”
The price was given to a polystyrene fish box for exporting salmon over the world! The explanatory text says that 834000 tonnes of salmon were exported from Norway in 2009 measuring around 40 million fish boxes! The act of giving this product a price for environmental improvement is a complete inversion of environmental evaluation, to make the boxes lighter to improve the logistics of global transport. Food transport is something that has gone completely out of control during the last decades. I must say that I do not mind that the Norwegian export industry improves its efficiency, but to award them a price for environmental awareness is completely ridiculous! I have written previously about ECO-BLING, a term that we made up in a Design Conference last year. I put a link to my thoughts here about how we Decorate Ourselves with Sustainability.
A whole load of plastic ready to go out in the world. Ca 40 million per year the text says
The development of this polystyrene box is evolution but not revolution. And today unfortunately we desperately need a revolution if there is not to be a global collapse.
With the corrections of the price for energy that we are going to see happen in the coming decade it is going to be very difficult to sustain the transport of food globally. Local production, urban farming, seasonal understanding of food consumption etc is going to become essential for the society of the future. I know that we in the North have very little understanding of the seasons in the consumption of fruits and vegetables, being able to buy mangoes, strawberries etc the whole year around. This will all change.
In the past I did participate in the workings of Norsk Form with the group of people dealing with design. They run many varied projects, from promoting design among youth, inclusion into Norwegian society, environment and Design Without Borders, a development agency. I know that the mental change is happening in Norway and this price will be seen as an amazing event in the future.
Here is posted the Jury’s argumentation for giving out the price, in Norwegian.
March 23, 2011
Posted in: DESIGN, PONDERINGS Comments Closed
