Britney Spears by Hannes Fossbo

While heading to Sneakersnstuff, run into Galleri Kocks - lucky me - where candles claimed öppet and invited you to the interior. 11 months of work gravitating around The Pop Princess aka Britney Spears.

Lucky me that, after being dazzled by how had the artist shadowed only by means of colorful crayon - I just LOVE that technique and I could kill someone to learn howto - I was asked:

- Which was your favourite?

What triggered some longer and more interesting conversation. Hannes Fossbo, smiling in suit with a Britney badge, explained why her and nobody else "Only a matter of boredome you know. I was just there, one year ago, cold evening at home, googling arbitrary names. Then, realized how famous was her from the incredibly high google-hits count"



A figure that turned out to be more interesting, when reflecting on how Britney personalizes the American Dream, the Capitalism and if you let me, the Global Economy itself. Exactly, the golden era that seemed so perfect just broke down.

Why? Because that way of living was just no longer sustainable. Same for our beloved Little Miss America. She, ended up as victim of the media that - funnily enough - had crowned her golden locks some time ago while us, well, we'll end up as victims of this capitalist crave for what wasn't truly required, all these externally-generated concerns and pressure to buy, have, eat and show that bring nothing but tremendous unhappiness.

Thanks Hannes, for a great chat and best of luck - I do believe YOU are a GREAT artist!

View Post

Who am I?

Sunday morning, 8AM.

A great time for waking up, for taking a walk, for discovering something breathtakingly reflective and new in Magasin 3 because, what could be cooler than a modern art museum hidden on the old freeport district?

On the way there, aided by the map.

I guess... It's always nice to have a clear goal,

And maybe, the easiest way for getting to it seems to follow the marked path. Follow the line, don't think, just do what they want you to, what seems logical and correct because... If they say so, should be because they know better, right?


But sometimes, apparent logical and traditional reasoning brings us to crossroads that, unless counting on tones of criticism and initiative are more impossible to solve...


Which is what I love the feeling you get after two lessons in K'fack. Learning to make up your OWN mind is the most important kecture - and maybe the hardest to get taught, at least, in Technical Schools - you can hope to pass in your life.

But somehow I reached my goal, so here it's what expected me upstairs...




Some others, tried to focus on the meanwhile. Which is why BETWITXT made me think so much. If you are not happy in the meanwhile periods of life, you'll never be happy when - if being enough lucky - reach your goals.

Cosima Von Bonin - "Seasons in the abyss", 2006 Mixed media, 2 x 2 m (podium)

But le Grande Finale was yet to come from Christian Boltanski's mind.


Who are you?

Is the question asked to and hopefully to be reflected inside the viewer's mind.
From human evolution, to heartbeats, from stereotypes to self-perception of the own persona to the itching sensation that remains... Hours later, when trying to fall sleep.

The others.

Maybe trends are just the aggregation from the evolution of many people's perception of themselves, merging our illusions with others whom we share future personal goals with, just the behaviour that results from inner plans, beating inside our chest that, we might have not shared yet... But keep thinking of, anyway.

Having my ill heartbeat recorded was kinda cool...

I don't know, but I'm just happy of being able to question... Which is much more than what could I have said not so long ago.

View Post

Guerrilla Marketing

Luxury hotels in Stockholm - Sheraton, Grand Hotel, Radisson bl a - bombarded with Club Privé's flyers. Blame my innocence but I thought these things didn't happen here, in the land of equality, respect and papaledighet.

After observing they way of a group of middle-aged, nuptial-ring wearers, spanish b'men gazed - like deer hunters - a beautiful asian-looking girl... Started to question my views.

And it's just maybe the fact that a growing single frequent-travelling generation of professionals demand having fun after the meeting. Some made business out of it, like networking dinners where you share table with other lonely-interesting people during the b-trip evening.

Who makes the money out of Privé? Aren't we going backwards like kräftor?

View Post

Green Living?

Mens sana in corpore sano.
-Décimo Julio Juvenal

For nobody's interest just as an introduction to provide some credibility to my stats... If you were about to describe my diet, the shortest and clearest-cut as well as fair enough would be to say that I eat like a rabbit. Fruit, vegetables, everything raw, nothing transformed or cooked in any way - apart from some sill & caviar.

My rubbish bag tops off sooner than what I expected and, I really didn't get why. C'me on! If I'm throwing nothing! Well... Nothing in terms of food, quite a lot of packaging though.

Kinda of funny, right? Green-living, green-eating and green-acting as a well-known established trend, but who is laughing at the joke am I? Carrying my not-a-plastic-bag to ICA to happily come back with a tones of PVC around my veggies? Such clutter of trays, tight plastic coverings, bags, transparent boxes... you name them, is doing nothing good for the environment.


I, seriously, do not get the point. Even worse, this doesn't scale well either. How can fresh food carry a greater amount - and even more damaging - of package than junk-food? Is anyone caring 'bout that? Are you more concerned about how should the ECO logo look to be more appealing? Or how to make people internalize the relevance of your CSR program to pay that profitable premium?

View Post

Esta es la vida, del emigrante.

I drop everyday around Kista Galeria. Neither do I like it as a shopping mall, even less as a place for lunch. However, I find the mix quite interesting. On one hand, the card-army, bluetooth headset in one ear, smartphone on the hand, constant boring work-centered conversation overall. On the other, the naturals. That massive amount of immigrants - kinda funny - who like I did, moved to Sweden in the search of a shiny new life in the full-of-opportunities to learn, work and be-happy Scandinavian society.

More than 2 years being regularly around da hood and I still cannot help gazing the women who still wear the scarf. Well-educated, sitting beside me at school; fashion and beauty conscious - even obsessed - but still sticking to their roots, to their religion, to the scarf, to Ramadan.

I don't understand why. I don't get what's the power of the scarf. So, after being stroke of seeing a girl wearing - in this fashion - my beloved, recently bought & trendy leopard-printed scarf I tried to wear it myself. Just for fun, to see what happens.

I felt uncomfortable at the beginning but, then started to realize the power of hiding. They say that you are slave of your words but owner of your silence and it's just maybe that, combined with the tendency of sticking to something that all of us have.

However, my concern goes further from the surface, drowning in the perturbing question about the future: What will come out of such a fast-growing group whom, despite being merged in a completely forward-thinking and equalitarian society, sticks to its traditions and probably to tremendously old-fashioned social roles too?

Well... Let's play some Manu Chao - in Spanish ;P, anyway.

View Post

Shoot what you mean.

Moderna Museet might be having a Birthday all through this year but, its soul becomes everyday more forward-looking. A heart beating faster day after day whose blood's sped up with inner renovation, outrageous artists on display, disruptive voices and various events to spread the arty soul among the community - so official geeks, like the one on the QWERTY right now, are no longer extranous but keen on art.

That I wished for me too, while blowing those 24 candles yesterday night, to keep my soul open and never feel bored but amazed of what reality hides beyond the eyeshot.

But getting back to what I was about. When I have a B'Day, I bring my friends home for some strawberries & bubbles. When Moderna has a B'Day, brings a ballet:


Judge by yourself

No clue? Well... That's what was he trying to say:


"It’s quite a special task to exhibit Cullberg Ballet and dance students at Moderna Museet. The installations will among other things question our notion of time and look at art criticism as a phenomenon. The installations are created with the pressure of only one week’s rehearsal time which adds a special energy and shows Cullberg Ballet’s talent for improvisation."
Alexander Ekman

Frozen there, struggling to steer within that storm of thoughts - while hands-on camera, by the way - everything stopped with a dejà-vu in the back of my head - no, I don't have eyes there yet ;) And suddenly - as Jobs'd say - dots merged into a clear path.

From dancer to bailaor, from Cullberg to Amargo, from Stockholm to Madrid, from September 2008 back to 2005, to a teen broken heart healing in front of the show... DQ, Pasajero en Tránsito Unlike sets for a common glass cabin isolating the human.

DQ was - among other things - a reflection around Hikikomori as much as what I clearly perceived yesterday pictured canned emotions.

Stigmatize my simplicity, but maybe the inapprehensible answer for last wedneday's WHY? is more inferred from the overall circumstance rather than weird mental issues that happen to be ordinary in Finland. Maybe is just the lack of effort - which is actually quite common - that comes hand in hand with that everything ready-to-reach what bores this generation - Katharina referred them to - what eventually turns against themselves.

My concern has however more to do with the increase on the number of boredom-derived psychomaniacs who - funnily enough - use the net which could be the actual cause of their issues (i.e. not learning to love or relate in a corporal way) to distribute their user-generated bloodbath.

If they continue to grow so steeply, a downward spiral of fear and violence might boom in front of more faces too.

View Post

Float and...

Sometimes I imagine a Trendspotter's kids going to kindergarden:

- My father is a fireman, he saves people by putting out fires. And yours?
- Mine, he's a banker. He pretends to help people but he's actually ripping off them as much as he legally can, so smart and cynic... That's how we got our Villa! What 'bout yours?
- Mine, he's a trendspotter. He... He... He well, we forecasts The Future.
- Do you mean that he's a crystal ball or something? Nobody can do that... Your father's just a swindler!!

Stupid example - I know - but, isn't it the way many Corps' react to Trendspotters? Are they really right when doing so? I guess that when you're big and fat, it's easy to think that you know your market, that you know your market, that you know your competitors and that moment, usually matches up the day your amazing-so-far growth... Stalls


A balloon over The City on such a calm afternoon. Who spotted it? And how many, who were too busy spending their lön... Missed the spectacularly magic pink object? Stupid, huh? Maybe this is just the way the vast majority acts when dealing with trends.

To me, trendspotters are social resonators who, without knowing why exactly, have a need to observe, to gather - like sick of social diogenes syndrome - and that count on the outstanding ability that allows them to group their observation into flowing clutters of people, moving into one direction, changing the world almost transparently for the majority but, significantly enough for them to rise an eyebrow.

Like guitar strings that when picked will remain vibrating only on their natural resonant frequencies, they will only react to significant changes. But, as a bit more advanced that dumb chords they are also able to take the step forward and translate that social resonating movement into something that drives your business through an even more successful path.

View Post

The future of... Knowledge

"I don't believe in degrees but, I do believe in knowledge"
Caroline Mörnås

The first day I met her, I ended up sharing some red wine and magically discovering that, regardless of being swedish vs. spanish, we strangely were pretty much the same person. Sometimes life sculpts your mindset as if it was simple clay, sometimes only those who were modeled under simmilar craftsman's hands can understand each other just by gazing on their eyes...


But anyway, the point is not to say how important my friends are for me but to focus on the first B'Day present I got this week: The A-M-A-Z-I-N-G talk by Piers Fawkes

His focus on the intersection of Community, Company and Creator - specially - really summarized my perception of reality - strengthened since I got the dream job in the big corporation. I'll not get deep into that, but it basically means that Corporations are quite fucked up these days.

Anyway, I was trying to get to what expertise means nowadays and to what it will mean on the not-so-far future. First and foremost, I share my life with a Citizen Engineer one of these Experimenters mentioned also in The Ten Faces of Innovation. He loves fixing, soldering, creating stuff with his hands. Without getting any money out of it, he just does it because it's fun, because he spends a great time overcoming challenges and eventually, making the thing, work - lucky me, by the way, who didn't have to worry about assembling the bäddsofa.

People like him, like the external community of developers that deliver apps to Google for free -more information on the innovative and successful Google's business model - are to me those entrepreneurs who will drive future successful trades and trustworthy products.

But, as later Tunnelbana's dilation put on stage, is this the ironic end of the standardized education that projects like Bologna Process are after? I mean, if it non-standardized-free-communal-vocational learning has repeatedly been proved as being more effective in terms of delivering professionals that, just because of loving and believing on what they do, stand out and push that specific area forward, further than anyone else.

Is passion - when spiced up with available information - killing Academia?

As an engineer, I do agree with Mareike in that there will always be many complex basics that must be taught in shcool, or through a quite traditionally standardized way - regardless of innovation, physics are not so easy to change... - but, given the soaring technical - scientific, in general - development, I guess that those staying really in the forefront, being truly disruptive are more likely to come from that commune of self-learners who, without being taught, learnt.

Like real entrepreneurs, they don't know what they see so, they take control and change the world the way to be how they imagine it should.

Isn't that scary? In this western society where a polarization of youngsters is more than obvious - like Katharina Graffman pointed out "I call them The Bored Generation" - having über- vs non- motivated at all... What would happen with those who don't have a passion or, let's be positive, are not that lucky of having found it yet? In the Diploma Apocalypsis, what will be enough for those to get a job and make a living?

I don't know and, I don't care, seriously. Maybe this is just the backlash that the generation who found everything served in a silver tray need to wake up, smell the world and discover that, they have more in front of their eyes than pansticking their faces and being the prettiest dancing queen.

I just wish that I could turn that clock back in time, but knowing myself as good as I know me now and to modify the way so that, instead of being at big Corporation I could deal with strategies and stories to reach into consumers' minds, research markets to lestablish meaningful links between trends and brand heritage.

I do believe in expression, in meaning, in perception. But that's another story, I guess... And well, having some cards to play in my hand, I'll make the most out of what I do have now... A great challenge to learn everyday from those who count on the experience. Maybe I'm just an existentialist consumer who thinks that knows though she doesn't have a clear clue on what she actually is good at. I'd better try, give everything and see what happens.

I'm not bored of it yet - and I guess, that's the most important, right? Having a different challenge to overcome everyday, no boredom but stimulation! ;D

View Post

Blogging om Bloggar.

Sarah Öhrvall


The Bonnier Group's President of R&D one of the most inspiring speakers I have ever listened to as well as part of last years' Design & Innovation in Context - AMAZING - course. A small note for those of you who've just landed here:

" The Bonnier Group is a family-owned international media group based in Sweden. It has operations in more than 20 countries (...) comprises approximately 175 companies.

Operations cover most media formats and are divided into five business areas: Books, Magazine Group, Business Press, Newspapers and Broadcasting & Entertainment."

She pointed out something that a storyteller like me - I've been writing for 4 years in fotolog while last year I finally migrated to blogger - truly appreciated: Credibility and objectivity go no longer hand in hand. With a vast majority of the society taking more seriously semi-anonymous, subjective first-hand experiences rather than the theoretically objective journalists' articles... Where was her trade going?

I'm not going to talk about it but I will combine it with something I have observed around here - better said - around kids instead.

Who on the hell is Sofi Fahrman? Why does a even a cheap magazine has her name?

I mean, if I type her name in google... I get around 383000 hits, which is quite a lot.

Someone obviously bored about herself ;)

What Sophie thinks about herself doesn't match what some see down that fair head:

"She's the fashion editor of the Friday issue of a Swedish tabloid. Always wearing the up and coming trend (cut off jeans a while ago, long dresses last summer, now all the leather skirts..), making her seem "ahead of the curve" to the Swedish general public, when in reality it is noting new or original. Anyone who picks a copy of US or UK Elle/Vogue/whatever or reads a few posts on here will have seen it ages ago. It's like watching a mannequin. I'd like to say there was even a crumb of personal style in there, but it sure doesn't look like it."

"Her fashion skills seem limited to reciting whatever's featured in Elle to the general (celebrity-fashion-loving, tabloid reading) public... In that sense, she's good at what she does.
But in terms of personal style and her originality - there's none. Zero.
She's a fashion victim and I mean that in the worst, most sad, way."

from The Fashion Spot

A bland Stureplan blondine making a big B' out of what? Citing and telling?
Interesting when combined with a closer look on most of the teen's hanging around the city. They - instead of the over 18 students that struggle between classes, studiemedel and extrajobb - live at home with their parents, count on their parent's bucks to slösa on the latest trendy staple, make-up or hair style.

Nothing new. Teens are one of the most interesting target markets but, a blogger that drives their choices? She armed herself with a cheap though straight magazine, clear and simple enough for unsecure minds to spot just before hitting the store.

Flower prints? Pink nail enamel? She dictates next hit.

This is not about fashion whereas the worrying consumerism and lack of criticsm leading to a long-term market manipulability - in glossy format shipped every friday to your grocer's -of the soon-to-become adults.

View Post

Me, myself and I.

I guess I should have continued running after the rabbit for a longer while... But anyway, as I say in the header, the future is now, so I'd rather make the most out of it - no regrets allowed from day zero.

What happens with the rabbit then? Well, when what one dreams to become is too far from what one should become or what one studied for becoming... It's hard to change the direction of the accelerating boat - specially when it's plunging faster than fast.
Even worse when you are the invandrare who's not flytande in the local language and has neither proven nor relevant creative experience apart from 4 years of blogging, picturing and l'il more.

Just one week since I officially sold my soul to the big E and I have already realized how hard is to keep an eye on the future while you are enrolled in adult life - no wine on Tuesday, no fikas everywhere, no crazy saturdays... Just that alarm ringing at 6AM, the pile of unfinished and a house to keep clean, tidy with its respective fridge to fill up. It seems to get even worse, turning into a never ending race between J and K - guessed right? Just kids & job - but this was my choice and actually, I do not regret it.

Whether living the swedish dream or not, I'm quite happy with having a new gauntlet - a massive and extremely complex one actually - while - lucky me - I'm still surrounded by my personal rabbits.

Those I can still run after, either across the sky - like my beloved Yuta, the only person who would send you an sms asking to gaze the sky at midnight - or down to the darkness - like my crazy Fer, that person who's constantly featured on Japanese style magazines; from the charming Spanish sun and fresh grass - swedish always went to the nature, right Caro? - to the never-ending-interrupt-to-each-other talk on the way back home, on Landet or wherever - even critizing how hard swedish is while spending August within Bibliotekets walls beside Mareike. One gets a man's soul from the stomach and... That seems to be truth for me as well, while sharing sashimi with the eastern naughty eye or fika with the flying-from-east-to-west deepest and most mysterious dark skin.

These are my angels. Those, from whom I will borrow feathers to bring my wings back and start dreaming again, letting my imagination fly, towards the future.

Because to me... The magic of trendspotters is nothing but the ability to resonate with the society's vibe: Silence's talking out loud to everybody though just a reduced number of them can actually get the message hidden in its whispers right.

View Post