Royal Palace sprint in Stockholm
The snow has finally melted but they brought it back for the event. We swedes just can’t get enough of snow. Royal Palace sprint in Stockholm today. Part of the world cup and we get this prime view from our office window in Old town. Not bad?
Colour by Numbers at Telefonplan, Stockholm.
We don’t have that many hours of daylight in the Winter (the other way around in the summer though), but to compensate we’re the world champions of lightning! If you ever been to a Swedish home you’re very likely to see tealights, candles and number of lamps. And what about outside? Well actually you don’t have to worry about getting lost in the dark, so leave that flashlight at home. Streetlight 24/7 of course, but there are also innovative exceptions. At Telefonplan (“Telephone Square”) in the suburbs of Stockholm, where I live, there’s a creation that not only makes art out of light, but also let you alter it online! Telefonplan has been an innovative area for a long time. The area used to be the main location for one of Sweden’s largest companies Ericsson (widely known for the Sony Ericsson mobile phones). Now you find Konstfack or University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in the former factory premises.
You can actually use your mobile phone to control the lights in a permanent light installation in the tower at Telefonplan. The installation is called Colour by Numbers and is a collaboration between the architect Milo Lavén, the artist Erik Krikortz and the interaction designer Loove Broms. Check out that link and try to alter the tower. Not in Stockholm? For you’re convenience there is also a live cam. So check it out: Colour by Numbers.
Actually Sweden in you pocket is not far away. Earlier this year we launched the blog you’re now reading. Still some polishing left to do (please let us know what you think!), but at least we make some progress—one step at the time. The blog CMS (content management system) we’re using is WordPress, which makes it easy to install new plugins that makes the portal even better. If you have a smart phone your experience is something like below. To the left a mobile version or template and to the right the blog if you turn that function off (actually there’s a slider in the mobile template footer, so you can easily do it yourself) and blog is there out of the box sort to speak. Still looking ok, right? It’s partly because we’re on a mission to nuke flash on or websites and it’s going pretty well. The top navigation on both Sweden.se and this blog is now built-in HTML5. Sweden.se/watch is also in pipeline, so mobile film is around the corner.
Mobile blogs.sweden.se in an iPhone, using a mobile template to the left and Safari to the right.
If you’re still reading I would like to mention the RSS-feeds. They have had somewhat of a revival lately and they’re pretty much involved in everything that makes out the web of today. Below you se how our RSS feed can look. Actually the design it’s up to you, depending of the reader of your choice, but the point is that blogs.sweden.se is available however, whenever and wherever you want (even offline on a plane). Check out the “RSS feed for this page” link in the blog header and add it to your RSS reader (ie reader.google.com). Are there any improvements to make? Let us know!
The "apple-touch-icon.png" on an iPad
blogs.sweden.se RSS on an iPad.
New Director-General of the Swedish Institute Annika Rembe's first day at work
Annika Rembe did her first performance as Director General of the Swedish Institute this morning. Happy times for the employees at the office and one more reason for cake early in the morning.
If you just happen to stumble upon this blog, blogs.sweden.se (and Sweden.se) is a web portal produced, operated and developed by the Swedish Institute, a public agency that promotes interest and confidence in Sweden around the world.
Invasão Sueca ("Swedish invasion") ticket for the Taken by Trees and Anna von Hausswolff shows.
Invasão Sueca (“Swedish invasion) is a music project put together by the Swedish Institute. For the sixth year in a row a couple of indie bands tour in Brazil and put Sweden on the map. Friday night the pit stop was São Paulo and the venue SESC Pompéia. This night Taken by Trees and Anna von Hauswolff entered the stage in front of 700 people and the crowd turned out to be really excited. No wonder why because the voices of Taken by Trees (aka Victoria Bergsman) and Anna von Hausswolff respectively, are ones that are easily recognized.
Where Taken By Trees is gentle and catchy folk pop, Anna von Hauswolff’s music makes comparisons to singer/songwriter Kate Bush inevitable. Your expectations should be sky high and I’m afraid the clip below doesn’t make her justice 100 percent (listen to her on MySpace as well!). The sound is somewhat poor (recording live music is really tricky), but i hope it captures the atmosphere of her performing the song “Old Beauty, Du kan nu dö”. This tune is actually my favorite from her album “Singing From the Grave”.
Taken By Trees at the venue La Trastienda in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo: Sweden.se
Victoria Bergsman is the former lead singer of the Swedish indieband The Concretes and calls her exciting solo project Taken By Trees. Earlier this evening she did a show at La Trastienda in Buenos Aires, a show arrangend by the Swedish institute. This was actually the first show out of four (the other three in Brazil later this week). If her voice sounds familiar it’s probably because she provided guest vocals for the Peter Bjorn and John single and super hit “Young Folks“. You find some of her music under the name Taken by Trees in the music room at Sweden.se. Victoria’s got one of the most characteristic voice in indie music right now, if you ask me.
Anyway the show was great and the crowd excited. After the gig her fans were eager to the get one of her merch t-shirts. I was hoping to put up a video sample from the show, but I’m just too tired. We’re leaving Buenos Aires early tomorrow morning. Hopefully leaving some new fans of Swedish music behind.
Boca Juniors Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Do you recognize the Swedish flag? Photos: Photogamma
A couple of days ago Emma blogged about the result of the Swedish general election and the fact that a new party takes place in parliament, the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD). In history we’ve seen how importartant immigration and globalization has been and I have an interesting point to make. At the moment I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina programming a Swedish institute show featuring the Swedish artist Taken By Trees (more about that event later). Being here, absorbing this really cool and by all means vivid city, made me think about the various cultural influences here and that they seem to be the very soul of the city. Buenos Aires would have been nothing without its immigrants and the influences they brought here. Here you can probably eat some of the best sushi, pizza and cup cakes in the world, and nobody would ever question the fact that they all got here thanks to people moving here at some point. You also find big East Indian and Jewish communities in the city. Time, I think, will always make the discussions about the downsides of immigration obsolete.
A really cool story about how not only food and people travel in a global world, is the kit and badge of the Buenos Aires football team Boca Juniors. Maradona, Argentina’s own Zlatan Ibrahimovic, used to play for them. Do you recognize the team colors? Thinking about Sweden? Yes you’re right, it’s the yellow and blue of the Swedish flag. And how did this happen? The original jersey color was actually pink. Legend has it that in 1906, Boca played another team that used this strip to decide who would get to keep it. What happend was that Boca Juniors lost, and decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first boat to sail into the port at La Boca in Buenos Aires. This proved to be the Swedish freighter “Drottning Sophia” sailing from Copenhagen under Swedish flag. This resulted in Boca Juniors adopting yellow and blue as new team colors. Check out the 105th anniversary kit below!
So the next time you see Boca Juniors, remember the Swedish connection and what immigration is all about in a globalized world!
The Boca Juniors 105th anniversary kit. You just can't miss the Swedish flag.
We’ve been to New York City, the Seychelles and the Pyramides in Kairo! No just kidding… what you see above is just me playing in Photoshop with the new staff blog picture. To be techy for a moment, we have some blog development in the pipeline:
To wrap things up we’ve been running this blog for two months now, and we kind of like it. What do you guys think?
/per
Want an unobstructed view over Stockholm and a unique trip there? The Ericsson Globe is the way to go. Skyview is a funicular railway that takes you to the very top of the worlds largest hemispherical building. The Globe has hosted a lot of events over the years, so it’s kind of funny to find yourself on top of it for the first time. If you’re into hockey you might remember the World Cup of Hockey that took place here in ’96 and ’04. A hockey fan or not—the view was just great. At first you’re at bit confused over directions and then you find some of the landmarks like The Stockholm City Hall. Let alone the weather (we’re been spoiled with an early summer lately) and a somewhat cloudy sky, the scant 20 minutes were gone in the blink of an eye. I managed to shoot a panoramic film clip and took some pictures. Enjoy!
/per
Panorama view from the very top.
A Skyview trip.
Did you think we webaholics work hard around the clock in a dark room? Well, almost – but not always. As we’ve finally got some summer sunshine here, we decided to go wild and crazy at lunch time today. We took the ferry to Djurgården (which is just a few minutes’ walk from the office), where we had a fantastic picnic lunch. After a loooong hard winter even the most diligent Swedish Institute employees need a break. And it’s nice to be reminded of why Stockholm with all its water is such a great city to live in.
A well-deserved lunch break for Mikaela, Emma, Andrés, Johan, Rikard, Oliver and Per (the photographer in the left corner – there was a strange glow around him today…).
