Snowing again here....many thought last week that Spring was not so distant and then pow...30 cms of snow in 24 hours....Tuesday we had a workshop on "Affordances of Connectivity and Communication: A Dance Thru Cultural Texts" by the fantanstic Truna which combined many areas of interest for me: reading visual images, constructions in technological interfaces (these web browsers are so boxed in it drives me crazy!!!), narrative beyond the boundaries of the text (context) and cultural and gender readings.....this continued yesterday with a workshop on active design....fascinating working in groups and projecting ideas thu cross cultural formats. It was a great day which continued on with a visit to the Umea Design School where we (Truna, Magnus and I) presented HUMlab to a small group of students and techers there. It is a great school, very popular (150 applications for 10 places in postgrad course)with a high standard of work produced. We were shown around and saw a 3D printer, a mould cutting machine and a digital 3D modelling set up.....I would like to implement some of the point 3D modelling techniques with world design using the ReachIn machine we have in HUmlab...a plan fo the future.

Speaking of future I have made a webpage for the musical collective LIVJA to attempt to get some gigs in the coming summer. There is a concert from the band linked there and an Mp3 I made with the Funk Service International collective from Skelleftea, plus info about the other memebers of the band and links to their sites.

A new week is about to spring forth with the dawn tomorrow......How has the weekend been...Today I witnessed something I have never seen before: an ice hockey match. Where I grew up the only ice was in the fridge, I remember someone opened an ice rink in a nearby town and it lasted about six months before being turned into an indoor cricket arena (non-Commonwealth readers have just lot the thread there). So this was an experience. Points of observance:

1. They go really fast on those skates
2. For a country which does not permit professional boxing matches, I am surprised ice hockey is allowed and is popular as it is a damn violent game.
3. For the first time I have seen a Swedish crowd really lose control and many inhibitions without (much) alcohol.

The home team won and I must admit I was impressed. The speed of the game is amazing.

Yesterday was Saturday so we indulged in the Lordags Goodis (Saturday candy) ritual which much of the parenting population of Sweden seem to follow. It gives us something to say on the other six days of the week when it is not Saturday (No!) but leads to gluttony on the appointed sugar-hit day. It is perhaps a contributing factor to the binge drinking phenomenon I have witnessed in many parts of Sweden on the weekends (Saturday Licorice Shots if you are a good boy).
Speaking of drinking I rarely do these days but did on Friday night when we farewelled a work colleague who is retreating to the peace and space of the rural life?..Good luck Erika and Tommy. After just a few whiskeys and a couple of stouts I was feeling seedy on Saturday morning?.stumbling off to buy candy for the barn?.my God I sound like a Suburban Swede!!!
Friday was a day of distributing CD?s in my home town. I shifted 10 units as they say in the biz?Placed in shops around town (Garageland Records, Antiquarian Books, Mingus) and gave away a few to valued and influential persons. If anyone reading this wants to listen (or buy- 100SEK) 65 minutes of contempory white-boy didgeridoo structures mixed with field recordings made in Ladakh and drums, bells, clap sticks and Tibetan singing bowls?.mail me.
Thursday was the day of the opening the Adobe Atmosphere world I?ve been working on for four months. Attended by about 10 avatars it was a really enjoyable experience. The last hour was really quite stressful but kinda fun in an adrenalin charged way. A public version of the world will be online soon and the address will be here.
Monday to Wednesday was spent doing 7 hour days in the lab working on the world and 4 to 6 hours at night working on two papers I?m writing at the moment; one for a conference in June and one a scholarship application.
Which returns me to the idea of Monday??..tomorrow I begin a short course in International Issues in Education, which deals a lot with power, method and history in educational techniques?..should be interesting. Up till now I thought Dewey was a decimal system??.see ya

THIS IS WHERE I HAVE BEEN IN GEO-POLITICAL TERMS (INCLUDES AIRPORT STOPOVERS OF LONGER THAN 5 HOURS - Milan and Tokyo):



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

It has been three days now since returning from the wilds of Jokkmokk but I'm still feeling tired. Slowly I regain wakefullness, it will be sometime around Friday that I feel 100% again I think.
That said, it was a fantastic experience! Meeting new friends and learning so much about music and in conection to the Moblogging project, about technology. To travel with friends from university and introdue them to the friends I have in Jokkmokk was great as it joined two previously seperate portions of my life. I suppose that is what the Blog did in effect, perhaps more so as it was viewed by people I know in Australia, the United States and Europe.
As I move on in the field of Information and Technology I see so many examples of the metaphor of weaving: the weaving of narrative threads, the weaving together of points of reference, the weaving together of people and ideas.
I suppose thats why they call it the web???

I feel almost like Im retreating into the calm of my own blog at this point as things are getting somewhat hectic with tomorrow being the grand day.....It has arrived...the Jokkmokk experience.....

Web address: http://www.humlab.umu.se/jokkmokk2004/
Blog: http://blog.humlab.umu.se/jokkmokk2004/
Map: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mapshells/europe/sweden/sweden.htm
The website for the market is http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.com/

This will be great, intense, sleepless, active and exciting etc. etc. I hope we can bring some of the unique qualities of Jokkmokk in winter to the blog and I play well on Saturday night (must remained focused on why I am going to Jokkmokk in the first place: MUSIC) I've just finished putting together my first CD which I will take along with me, primarily to annoy my fellow bloggers with in the car on the way up: the didgeridoo trance drones can distract one from driving....perhaps something more melodic would be better.
I shall not blog here for a few days me thinks however the next few days........well....lets see shall we?