lifeiscarbon®

Finnish Text Book

The Guardian newspaper in the UK has an interesting article about a novel that’s just been published in Finland in which the entire narrative consists of mobile phone text messages.

The Last Messages tells the story of a fictitious executive in Finland who resigns from his job and travels throughout Europe and India, keeping in touch with his friends and relatives only through text messages. His messages, and the replies - roughly 1,000 altogether - are listed in chronological order in the 332-page novel written by Finnish author Hannu Luntiala. The texts are rife with grammatical errors and abbreviations commonly used in such messages.

“I believe that, at the end of the day, a text message may reveal much more about a person than you would initially think,'' said Luntiala, who also is head of a company that keeps databases on people living in Finland.

Louise Loves White

Always start from scratch. Everything is possible until the opposite is proven. Every decision must have a good reason.

So read the ground rules of the design studio of Louise Campbell, another of our favorite Scandinavian Designers. The results of this doctrine are designs that are playful and experimental, and push materials and manufacturing processes in interesting new directions.

lifeiscarbon® agree with the suggestion that the combination of Scandinavian rationalism and femininity, and perhaps her dual nationality, give her work its unusual edge.

Positive Melancholy: Slavic Style

I think we mentioned that we’re suckers for a good story and for old Scandinavian companies that are still going strong. Well, here’s yet another one and it's a chance for us to introduce you to one of our favorite Finnish brands.

In 1938, the manufacturer Ivan J. Paolovski arrived by train in Helsinki from Vyborg, which was under Russian occupation at the time. He then founded the world’s most northerly match factory in the dark, uninhabited and wild woods of Eastern Helsinki.

It turns out that Ivan practiced Asceticism and his ideology gained many supporters in the form of highly motivated factory workers who also happened to benefit from the company perk of going camping every other Saturday. Apparently ‘the light of life’ was growing at the match factory and it soon grew into an entire sector of the city. East Helsinki was born. Today, IVANAhelsinki is still one of the largest match factories in the world.

By the way, did we mention that IVANAhelsinki also manufacture clothes and accessories?

Sound Of Silence - Part 2

Yesterday, whilst writing about The Flounder art project we were reminded of a series of art installations at Gardemoen Airport in Norway that genuinely serve the needs of travelers. Back in 1998 when Oslo's glittering new airport was built, eleven Soundshowers designed by the Artist Anna Karin Rynander and Engineer Per-Olof Sandberg, were installed in the main terminal and new railway station.

The intention was to create a new kind of facility for visitors in a public place - a refreshing shower of positive and calming sounds. As visitors enter circle shaped floor marks, sounds begin to play. The sounds are clearly audible for the user but virtually suppressed for others due to the shape of the cleverly designed sound lens.

Each Soundshower is equipped with a computer, a digital sound library and a control program that contains random parameters and rules for how the sounds are assembled. Since the sound streams are composed in real time, unique experiences are created for each visit.....

Love And Misery In Scandinavia

As usual we’ll start with the basics, but for once we won’t mind if you skip over our ramblings and immediately take a listen to the track below. It is, without doubt, one of the most beautiful and haunting tracks we’ve ever heard. We simply can’t stop playing it..

Love And Misery is a duet between Tobias Froberg from Sweden  and Ane Brun from Norway, and is taken from her latest album Duets in which she collaborates with a number of different musicians. Ane Brun is well known in her native Scandinavia but Tobias Froberg is yet another case of 'love the track but don’t know who it’s by'.

His story sounds eerily like that of Jose Gonzalez. An artist from Sweden that no one here has ever heard of, has one of his songs used in an electronics commercial (this time for Panasonic rather than Bravia) and suddenly gets huge amounts of press and airplay in the States. Leaves Sweden for tours of the US and UK, and hasn’t looked back since.

Sound Of Silence - Part 1

The Flounder is a rather curious sound installation situated at Straumen in Inderøy, Norway.  Created by the composer, musician and computer programmer Øyvind Brandtsegg, the piece has actually been built over a pre-existing sculpture by the renowned Norwegian sculptor Nils Sigurd Aas (1923 – 2004).

We won’t pretend to fully understand the technology behind The Flounder but apparently the sound installation makes use of a loudspeaker technology to transfer sound to the metal in the sculpture. Sensor data and sound signals are influenced by natural parameters such as high tide and low tide, the time of year, light and temperature. The music created therefore reflects the nature surrounding the sculpture.

Don’t let the technology put you off taking a listen to the eiry sound of The Flounder. What you’ll hear will obviously depend on the weather at Inderøy but do allow time for a proper listen. When lifeiscarbon® took a listen, it initially sounded rather like a Stockhausen composition but after a while it became rather hypnotic and soothing, somewhat akin to the effect of listening to whale song.

A Magazine About People

Magazines We Love: Part 6

Time to write about the best magazine in the world. If you don’t believe us then don’t take our word for it, listen to what the French magazine Palais (edited by Palais de Tokyo in Paris) wrote about it in their November 2006 issue: Carl's Cars is the best magazine in the world.

As if that wasn’t praise enough, last year Carl’s Cars was awarded the prize of Gold Winner in the Magazine of the Year competition by The Society of Publication Designers in New York

Not bad for a humble independent magazine that was started in Norway in 2001 by Karl Eirik Haug and Stéphanie Dumont. Amazingly for such a beautifully designed magazine containing so many handsome cars and good looking people in far flung places, there are only six people working on it on a fulltime basis, although admittedly they do get help from a further 25 familiy members who are more or less regular contributors. lifeiscarbon® talked to Karl Eirik Haug to find out a little more about Carl and his cars.....

carbonarts™: Birgitte Lund

When looking at paintings by the Danish artist Birgitte Lund, it’s easy to see clear references to modern art history - Mark Rothko, Art Brut and New Expressionism – but inspiration also comes from a diverse range of sources such as graffiti art and satellite imagery.

“I always use working titles for the series of painting I am working on. For a few years it was Close Up - Far Out. Inspired by satellite photos and views of earth seen from space but extracted in a very abstract way, never copied. Many of these ‘landscapes’ could as well be inner geographies, mental, psychological sensations, atmospheres, emotions.”

As the second installment of our carbonarts™ feature, lifeiscarbon® is proud to introduce the work of Birgitte Lund and present a gallery of the artist’s Close Up – Far Out series.

Resteröds New Range

Like most people, we’re always curious to see the latest collections from fashion designers but we’ve always had a slight problem with the whole issue of timing. Now that Winter has finally arrived in Scandinavia, with snow on the ground outside and temperatures continuing to drop, we’ve suddenly realized that we lack certain essentials like a good pair of gloves and a warm scarf. However, with January sales coming to an end, stores are already stacking their shelves with clothing for the Spring. To confuse matters further, the round of Scandinavian Fashion Shows are just about to start and designers will be previewing their new Autumn Collections.

So, with us living through Winter 06, stores selling for Spring 07, fashion shows revealing Autumn 07 and fashion designers already thinking about Spring 08, what should we be writing about on lifeiscarbon®? We assume that we should write about what ever is the newest and latest. But are we right? Why not send us an email and let us know what you’d like to read about? We love to hear from our readers with either suggestions as to how we can improve the site or tips about artists, designers, products and bands that we should be covering.

In the meantime, and just before the Scandinavian Fashion Shows preview the new Autumn Collections, here’s a quick look at the latest range from one of our favorite Swedish fashion brands Resteröds.

Slippers Are The New Sneakers

It’s time for us to admit to another weakness. As well as having a thing for bicycles and monochromatic color schemes, we’ve also got a soft spot for companies that hit upon a successful product and refuse to change the design or manufacture of it – ever! If customers are still loyally buying a company’s original product, why should they change things and run the risk of loosing the secret of the product’s success? If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

Our friends at Manolo.se have introduced us to Docksta of Sweden, yet another traditional Scandinavian company that have been manufacturing their original product unchanged for over 80 years.

Young Norwegian Design Talent

The first furniture collection from the young Norwegian designer Kim Thome, draws inspiration from the use of unconventional materials and surreal forms. Unlike many of the Scandinavian designers that we’ve written about, functionality and purpose are not necessarily the most fundamental elements in Kim’s designs. When lifeiscarbon® talked to him earlier, he explained;

“I approach furniture like sculpture. I am quite interested in abstract form and proportions.”

Take a look below are some of Kim’s designs, which range from snake inspired lights to crocodile inspired loungers and include a stool inspired by Spanish bull fighting.

New Knife Range From Normann

They’ve served us well over many years but we must admit that we’re growing a little tired our trusty set of Global knives. So we are delighted that our favorite Danish design company, Normann Copenhagen, have launched a new range of kitchen knives.

There’s not much we need to say about the new range – the pictures below speak for themselves – and, as we’ve come to expect from Normann, the new knives are yet another example of stylish and functional industrial design that focuses on user friendliness.

Tokyo Style From Copenhagen

We love the latest collection of t-shirts from 1206 in Denmark, another of our favorite Scandinavian design collectives. The Spellbound collection, their third collection, has been inspired by images of dreams and nightmares:

"Creatures that travel from other worlds into ours. You meet them in twilight forests, dance with them at secret parties and follow them in their life laying oozing eggs, parading with umbrellas in rainy weather and twisting through whirly neon tornados."

Since their inception, 1206 have somehow managed to span the thousands of miles between their two inspirational homes, Scandinavia and Japan. Their t-shirts effortlessly combine the organic design style of Tokyo with the stylishly clean design style of Copenhagen and have the high quality and attention to detail that's usually associated with clothing designed and made in Japan. No wonder they have dedicated fans on both sides of the world and that their limited edition t-shirts sell out fast.

Swedish Fashion Moves Upmarket

Our friends at fashion.psfk have posted an interesting piece on the Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz and their plans to take on the upmarket high-street stores with the launch of their new chain, provisionally called Cos.

"Increasing competition from supermarket clothing ranges and trend-right fast-fashion offerings from value retailers such as Primark has led to flat sales for H&M, and the company have decided to follow in the footsteps of their rival Zara who have seen positive results from their upmarket brand, Massimo Dutti."

Retail Week reports that the first UK branch of H&M's new chain will open in Easter at the Liberty store in Regent Street, London. There are also plans for outlets in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands but interestingly none mentioned for their Swedish homeland.

New Life For Danish Electropop

Time to let you in on one of Scandinavia's best kept secrets. Carpark North is a Danish electropop/synth rock band comprising of Lau Højen (guitar/vocals), Søren Balsner (bass/vocals) and Morten Thorhauge (drums, percussion, effects). Despite the young ages of the band’s members – two guys are 24 and the other is 23 – Carpark North have proved themselves to be skillful musicians and computer programmers.

Back in 2003 the band's debut album, the self-titled Carpark North, breathed much needed new life into the Danish Electropop scene. The album, which was produced by Joshua, a.k.a. Jon Schumann, who has also produced albums for Kashmir and Mew, included the band’s first hit single Transparent and Glasslike.