Storslået Strik i Hendes Verden

I denne uge (nr. 48) er Lisbeths bog Storslået Strik omtalt i Hendes Verden - og fire af bogens modeller er gengivet i det lille ekstra strikke-tillæg, der følger med bladet. Modellerne har fået nye modeller, så at sige - trøjerne er fotograferet igen. Her er en af dem.

Har du lyst til at se mere end bare de fire modeller, kan du købe bogen (den koster 248,-) ved at sende en mail til bestil@fiberfeber.dk
Se meget mere om bogen på www.storslaaetstrik.dk

La Biennale di Venezia - 319,332 visitors

The 52nd International Art Exhibition closed November 21st, with an outstanding result in terms of visitors: 319,332 people attended this year’s exhibition in 165 days. This has been the most attended Biennale of the past twenty-five years and one of the most visited in the whole history of the exhibition, the organizers say.

Since its opening, last June, the 52nd Biennale has been the most visited art show in Italy. The 42 free entrance National Pavilions spread around the city of Venice, hosted in historical buildings and churches, have been visited by more than 827,000 people. The 34 free entrance Collateral Events set up around Venice and the lagoon islands attracted 650,000 visitors, ca.

The accredited press to this year’s Biennale reached the record number of 5,691 journalists (4,661 in 2005), 3,927 of which from 60 foreign countries (particularly from Germany, United Kingdom, USA and Eastern Europe) and 1,764 from Italy.

Read the whole story at labiennale.org

The Importance of Being a Designer

Yesterday, on a train ride across Denmark, I reread Dr. Mario Garcia's wonderfully simplistic manual of designing news on paper and on the web, "pure design" (2002), to which I had the privilege of contributing to with examples of our work together at redesigning Jyllands-Posten's Sunday supplements, a.o. I never read a book that lived up to its title as this one, and it's on my all times' top five of books.
In the introduction, Mario, who on his company's website says that he is "first and foremost, a teacher", argues that theories about newspaper design hardly exist, but that the roots of newspaper design are based on practical realities (I quite agree):
"Clarity and simplicity [should be] foundations for all we do as designers. If the story is told with clarity an simplicity, then indeed, "what you see is the story". That, after all, is the most important part of our job. However, in our work, clarity and simplicity relies more on the designer's instinct than on theory".

The last bit made me think of a quote by another great American designer, Paul Rand (1914-1996), which I saw for the first time in David Carson's magnificent book "2nd Sight". The quote is also about the special gift, and importance, of the designer:
"The fundamental skill of a designer is talent. Talent is a rare commodity. It's all intuition. And you can't teach intuition."
In Carson's wonderful (though not expressively simple or pure) interpretation, Rand's words look like you can see in the image above.

Two wonderful gifts - instinct and intuition. Listen to them, fellow designers! Never let them down!

Per Højholt med håndholdt

Gittes monologer - dén med tartelettern', og en hel del andre, læst af Per Højholt selv i Haderslev 1983. En times herligt genhør og gensyn med en stor digter - filmet med håndholdt kamera, som at være der selv - er nu tilgængelig på det Kongelige Biblioteks hjemmeside:
www.kb.dk/da/nb/materialer/haandskrifter/HA/hoejholt/hoejholtfilm.html

Grafik på en valgaften: DR og JP bedst

Valgtema på dr.dk
En valgaften er en enestående mulighed for at bruge grafik på nettet til at vise tal, der konstant ændrer sig. Hvem klarer sig bedst under stemmeoptællingen, hvor mange stemmer får de forskellige fløje? Selvfølgelig skal man skrive og fotografere dén historie, også på nettet, men en grafisk fremstilling giver det umiddelbare overblik over talsituationen.

Under det danske folketingsvalg den 13. november 2007 tog jeg en runde på de store danske nyhedsmediers hjemmesider på valgaftenen, for at se om de ville prioritere den grafiske fremstilling af den løbende optælling helt ud på forsiderne af deres websites. Gennemgangen afspejler altså ikke de specialsider, de fleste medier havde oprettet med fyldige resultatoversigter, kun forsiderne.

Brugen af grafik prioriteredes meget forskelligt - fra ingenting eller det absolut minimale til en højt prioriteret placering af det omfattende talmateriale. Mest slående var det, at Ekstra Bladet (eb.dk), der ellers traditionelt har god grafisk tradition, slet ingen grafik viste, heller ikke på undersiderne. Måske skyldes det, at Danmarks dygtigste nyhedsgrafiker ikke længere er ansat på EB?

Gratisavisernes hjemmesider havde alle nul grafik - bortset fra Nyhedsavisen (avisen.dk), der havde en grafisk simpel, men fiks lille sag, hvor man i et scrollefelt over et søjlediagram kunne finde sin egen kreds' resultat. Denne model var Nyhedsavisen ene om, måske fordi den ikke gav det store overblik.


Berlingske Tidende (berlingske.dk) og BT (bt.dk) havde den samme minimale grafik - en rød og en blå søjle, der angav fordelingen mellem de to blokke. BT havde dog suppleret med et landkort - uden anden funktion, end at man kunne klikke sig videre til en side med mulighed for at klikke ned i resultaterne. Noget nødtørftigt.


Jyllands-Posten (jp.dk) - herover - og Politiken havde valgt ensartede opbygninger af deres forsidegrafikker: en samlet boks med søjler (styrkeforholdet mellem blokkene), en oversigt over mandatfordelingen samt overskrifter/links til andet indhold om valget. JP's i et elegant, let tredimensionelt design og med animeret, live opdatering af søjlegrafikken. Den praktiske tredelte oversigt over hhv. seneste valgnyhed, seneste valg-tv-indslag og seneste valg-radio-indslag, samt muligheden for at klikke sig vej direkte til ens egen storkreds på landkortet i boksen, gør JP's forsidegrafik til den næstbedste på denne valgaften.


Politiken (pol.dk) havde, i et yderst basic design, valgt at pakke så mange tal-informationer ned i boksen som muligt - partiernes stemmetal, procent- og mandatfordeling. Samt en nyttig graf over det forrige valgs fordeling - til sammenligning. Ganske praktisk. Til gengæld syntes henvisningerne til toppolitikernes blogs på pol.dk (i bunden af boksen) som spild af pixelplads - kun én (Margrethe Vestager) havde fundet tid til at skrive et blogindlæg på valgdagen, og det kl 11 om formiddagen.

Børsen (borsen.dk) prioriterede sin bedste plads, der hvor der normalt ligger en tophistorie, til en ren talgrafik - ikke en eneste søjle, der kunne give den hurtige registrering af hvad vej vinden blæste. Jeg savnede også en tydelig genvej til yderligere valgresultater i forbindelse med denne oversigt.



Information (information.dk) havde tænkt utraditionelt og suspenderet den normale netavis, for at omdanne sitet til én stor "gruppeblog", hvortil avisens medarbejdere på valgdagen emailede, sms'ede og fotobloggede. Information får point for det friske initiativ, ungt og smart, med Flickr-feeds af valgfotos i margin og det hele, men det var lidt svært at frigøre sig fra fornemmelsen af uredigeret, enmandsbetjent blog. Grafikken? Dén begrænsede sig til et par screendumps fra TV2 og DR's hjemmesiders grafikker. Dét giver ikke point.

TV2, der jo leverede en både underholdende og indholdsrig dækning på fjernsynet, havde ikke prioriteret grafikken højt på nettet. På forsiden kun et link via et grafisk ikon, men på den specielle side valg.tv2.dk var der dog et link til endnu en underside, hvor en forholdsvis enkelt udformet boks viste landsporgnose og et kort med links til valgkredsene. Ikke specielt imponerende af den store tv-station, der burde have kunnet udnytte informationerne og teknikken fra tv-transmissionen bedre.

Matchvinderen i denne grafikkonkurrence var derimod Danmarks Radios website (dr.dk), der bedst af alle forstod at udnytte både grafikkens og nettets muligheder. Dels havde DR valgt at prioritere, så stort set hele forsiden handlede om valg (se ill. over artiklen), dels var hele to grafiske enheder både centrale og dynamiske - og naturligvis med automatisk, live opdaterede tal:




Et topbanner viste partilederne fra de 9 partier - som hvert tiende sekund skiftede plads for enten at ligge i rækkefølge efter aktuel størrelse, eller fordelt på de to blokke. Den første model skiftede ovenikøbet mellem stemmetallene og partibetegnelserne, for dem der ikke lige kunne genkende ansigterne. Meget elegant.
..
Mere informationstung, men lige så elegant, var den anden boks, opbygget med et kort (med links direkte til storkredsene), samt en femdelt oversigtsgrafik i bunden, hvor et enkelt klik på fanerne øjeblikkeligt ændrede grafen fra oversigtstal til procent, til procentændring fra sidste valg, mandattal eller mandatændring. Lynhurtig, overskuelig og effektiv.

Men ikke nok med det. På dr.dk havde man tænkt både frem og tilbage - og lidt i sjov. Under fanen "Dan din regering" kunne (og kan) man løbende sammensætte sit eget bud på en regering; under "Top 20" ses de personlige topscorerne fra valgene i 2001, 05 og 07; og når alle mandater er endeligt fordelt vil de kunne ses under "Hvem er valgt". Endelig kan man dykke ned i statistikken under "Mandater siden 1971", hvor en kurvegraf viser udviklingen, inkl. partier der ikke længere opstiller. Partierne kan klikkes til eller fra efter behag - for overskuelighedens eller sammenligningens skyld.

Den lynhurtige opdatering, overskueligheden, det interaktive og ekstra materiale (der gør DR's valg-grafik brugbar også fremover), samt ikke mindst modet til at lægge så meget information helt frem på forsiden gør DR til vinder af denne lille gennemgang. Grafisk topkarakter til dr.dk !

PS. Valgets resultat? Det fremgår af dr.dk-grafikkerne her nederst i artiklen. Jeg vil undlade at give karakter i den forbindelse, blot konstatere at vi ikke fik en ny statsminister i denne omgang.

Storslået Strik i Familie Journal

I denne uge omtales Lisbeth Tolstrup's "Storslået Strik" i Familie Journalen - og en enkelt af bogens opskrifter er gengivet. Fem heldige læsere, der svarer rigtigt på et (meget let) spørgsmål og sender svaret ind, kan vinde hver et eksemplar af bogen. Er du ikke heldig, men vil du bare gerne købe bogen (den koster 248,-) kan du sende en mail til bestil@fiberfeber.dk
Se mere om bogen på www.storslaaetstrik.dk

Hedy Lamarr's birthday - today!

Congratulations! Today is the birthday of Hedy Lamarr! Hedy was a great movie star in the first half of the 20th century, starting her career in the Czech film Ecstasy (1933). The film was highly controversial in its time largely because of a nude swimming scene. It has also been called the first on-screen depiction of a female orgasm, elegantly showing only Hedy's face, thus keeping the film a non-pornographic one.
The main part of Hedy's career, however, she was based in Hollywood, and she starred in movies like Algiers (1938), Ziegfeld Girl (1941), and Samson and Delilah (1949) - her biggest box office hit, playing opposite Victor Mature, produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille. The Female Animal (1958) was her last film.

Hedy Lamarr is not only known for her great beauty and her successful film career, she also co-invented the first form of spread spectrum, a key to modern wireless communication, used in mobile phones today. This is the reason why Ingeniøren, the Danish Engineering weekly newspaper where I work, has devoted half of page two in today's newspaper to a tribute to Hedy (ill. above). That, and the fact that I coincidentally exhibit a series of paintings with Hedy af the motif at Ingeniøren at the moment.
The combination of beauty and brains is - at least in Hedy's case - a remarkable one, as was Hedy's life in itself. Read about it in her fascinating autobiography, Ecstasy and Me: My Life as a Woman. A beautifully worn secondhand copy landed on my door mat just yesterday. I can't wait to read her story - again!
Hedy Lamarr would have been 94 today, had she not died January 19, 2000. Happy birthday, Hedy!

Sources/More about Hedy Lamarr:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
The official Hedy Lamarr site: www.hedylamarr.com
The Hedy Lamarr Foundation: www.hedylamarr.org
Torpedo in a Piano - A Tribute to Hedy Lamarr, the Schablone Sisters and the Sad-Eyed Ladies of Advertising: www.pryds.com/torpedo

Art or Reality? - La Biennale di Venezia

From SNDS Magazine 3|2007 – Dansk version
Communication and attitude to the reality that surrounds us are essential ingrediences in the many exhibitions that until the end of November form this year's Biennale di Venezia - the 52. International Art Exhibition.

Text and photo: Lars Pryds pryds@mac.com
What in the world does a review of an art exhibition – albeit the world's largest and most rich in tradition of its kind – do in a magazine like this? Well – sometimes it's a good thing to turn things upside down and let yourself be inspired by how other kinds of visual artists work. With the title, “Think With the Senses – Feel With the Mind” the Biennale does exactly that – it encourages you to think of things in a new way.

Besides, today, you won't find many artists isolating themselves in a cold studio with a (warm) nude model, forgetting the world that surrounds them. The contemporary artist relates to the real world – both the near reality and the global one – just as much as any of the SNDS members working in today's news media.

Even the same techniques and ways of expressions as those of the media are often used by the artists – for instance, in this year's Biennale, photography and video are predominant, often in combination with, or as part of, installations. The narrative style, however, is different. The artists let the message quietly evolve, and the point of the narrative is not (always) evident in the split second, as is required by a news story in a tabloid newspaper. Besides, artists have the liberty – as reporters have not – to alter the truth just a tiny bit so that the message and the personal comment stands out even clearer.

Not surprisingly, much of the art depicts war, human misery or terror in this world – which can be a little depressing. And one could ask, if there is no room for the pure art – the "art for art's sake" – but if the answer is no, maybe it is not so strange.

Some artists work in a kind of dialogue with the other media. Both by seeking inspiration for their projects in new media, but also, in a more manifest way, by taking elements from for example newspapers and use them as part of the artwork. Jenny Holzer (USA) takes documents from the American authorities and enlarges them on enormous canvases. The Spanish artist Ignesi Aballí has cut out thousands of headlines from newspapers and compiled them into collages.

In other words: In fine art, there are plenty of references to "our" reality – which again is nothing but a small window to the real world. SNDS Magazine has squeased the window open, and on these pages we show you a glimpse of what we saw.


COLLAGE Ignesi Aballí from Spain used the daily newspaper as a starting point for a whole of digital prints of collages, each measuring 150 x 105 cms. Cut out headlines – called ”Lists” – are grouped in series with titles like ”Deaths”, ”The Wounded”, ”Drugs”, ”Corpses” etc.
Quietly, this enormous accumulation of similar, statistisc listings gives the headlines a much stronger effect than they originally had in the newspaper. In Aballí's own words: »The newspaper passes through my hands every day, and I thought that before throwing it away I could use parts of it. I thought about what content would help best to represent reality withou making it specifik, without it losing its objectivity, without limiting it to a time, a specifik day.«

PAINTING Jenny Holzer uses documents from the American government and the FBI from the war in Iraq, from the Middle East and Guantanamo as the base material for her large canvases. She gives a sober and precise description of what information has been officially released to the public, and particularly what has not. In this image, a size A4 ”Detainee Summary Page” – with all words crossed out have been enlarged to 2 x 2.6 m. What use is a document like that to the press or the public?


SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION Jorge Pineda's installation ”I’m Leaving: North” is a strong piece. A boy – a wooden sculpture in natural size – is placed with his back to us in a corner. His arms look like burned pieces of wood and have made desparate marks on boths walls, leading to the corner. How is this even possible? Should it be happening at all? The symmetry of the installation is at the same time orderly and disturbing. Jorge Pineda very clearly on the boy's side. According to the catalogue the title refers to impossible dream people on the southern hemisphere have about moving to the north.


COLLAGE One week's front pages of a Palestinian newspaper, nicely framed. Sounds a bit boring, but French artist Marine Hugonnier has replaced all the photos with squares of pure colour and geometrical patterns. These are, in fact, pages cut out of a book by Elsworth Kelly (a minimalist painter, who exhibits elsewhere at the Biennale). Thus, Hugonnier brings together two completely different types of information – one that reports from the world's disorder, and another that tries to describe aesthetics and order. The two opposites meet, and the result is surprisingly harmonic, not least because of the correlation between the areas of pure colour and the classic Kufic script.


VIDEO The Armenian participation in the Biennale has the title, “Who is the Victim?” and is made up of several video installations by Sonia Balassanian. The one that made the strongest impression was two film sequences, projected onto two walls in a corner. In one of the films, an Armenian soldier tells us the story of his experiences at war, in a very apathetic way. In the other, the wife of another soldier tells the story of the years, when she tries to uphold a normal life, while her husbond is away at war. Her tale ends, when he is brought home to her, dead, only two hours after she has given birth to their youngest child. Who is the victim?


VIDEO We (especially those of us who were once boys) know the feeling: the joy of playing with a football. Paolo Carnevari’s 12 minutes long video “Bouncing Skull” shows just that – a boy, expertly dribbling with a football. Not in a stadium, but i a vacant lot, with shattered buildings in the background. What tremendous adaptability, we think, playing in a place like this. After a while it becomes clear that the football is not a ball, but a human skull. And after the film, we see in the credits that we have been in Belgrade, and the film was shot on the site of the bombed-out headquarters of Milosevic's Serbian army. Thus Canevari makes a strong statement about the violence of war, and how easily young people adapt to the realities of the violence. (Foto: PR)

PHOTO Neil Hamon photographs soldiers' portraits. In an unusually good quality, we think, considering they depict situations from the battle fields.Until we realize, that several of the portrayed soldiers are identical – and that the photographer, born in 1976, could not possibly have been on location in the first or even the second world war. Alas, the photos are fiction, situations staged by the photographer, but the perfect presentation brings us close to the personalities of the soldiers and gives us something to think about: What kind of reality will our young people meet, when we send them to war? (Foto fra kataloget).



PHOTO There are absolutely no people in Gabriele Basilico’s portraits of Beirut, bombed to pieces. Eight large prints radiate both beauty and aesthetic silence, all the more disturbing because of the motifs – destroyed buildings, empty streets. Basilico is more or less the opposite of the paparazzi, who without mercy chases the sensational picture. In his own words: “My job is to photograph cities. I have been doing it for many years and am very familiar with the ritual nature of the necessary acts related to exploring the urban fabric. But a wounded, outraged city need a very particular kind of sensitivity, expects special attention, of participation but also respect.”


INSTALLATION The I’Istituto Italo-Latino Americano’s palazzo in the Dorsoduro-area houses one of the recurring exhibitions under the Biennale flag. This year the Institute has invited 21 artists from the Latin American countries. The Cuban artist Wilfredo Prieto has opened his “White Library" – 6000 white books with blank pages on bookshelves covering all the walls of a room. In the middle of the room, a table with open books and newspapers, also with blank pages. This installation, quiet, powerful, and simple as it is, lets you make your own interpretation of its meaning. As in a "real" reading room in a library, this room causes lower your voice, to think, and even to read, although what you read from the white pages may vary indefinitely.

FACTS: La Biennale di Venezia - the 52nd Internationale Art Exhibition
June 10–November 21, 2007
The Biennale has two main parts:
– A centrally curated exhibition presenting more than 100 artists from all over the world. The theme this year for this part is “Think with the Senses, Feel With the Mind” and is shown in the main building of the Giardini, and in the Arsenale, the former naval station of Venice.
– Participating countries, who chose artists to exhibit in the national pavillons in Giardini, and in palazzos in the city. This year 76 countries participate – the highest number so far.

An extensive catalogue in three volumes is for sale at 70 euro.
Apart from the art exhibition every other year (uneven years since 1895), the "brand" La Biennale also includes an International Film Festival (every year since 1932), a Biennale for Architecture (even years since 1975), and international music, theater, and dance festivals, and historical archive of modern art.
In the period of the Biennale, the museums and galleries of Venice have high profile exhibitions, so there is plenty to see apart from the Biennale itself.

More info labiennale.org

Published (in Danish) in SNDS Magazine 3|2007, October 2007.
Photos: Lars Pryds, except if otherwise mentioned.
More photos pryds.com/k#4bap

Denne artikel kan læses på dansk her på bloggen

Storslået Strik - in Copenhagen

Busy afternoon, lots of visitors, few books sold. That was, more or less, the result of November the 1st, when Lisbeth presented her book - Storslået Strik - in the gallery where most of the photos were shot: Galleri Lisse Bruun. A few people actually thought it was also the vernissage of the exhibition of my paintings, but it really was almost the opposite - as the exhibition ends Saturday after more than two months on the walls. Great to see you all - and I guess we will have to find alternative ways to sell the book. Lisbeth's calender is already heavily filled with appointments - she's touring the country, giving lectures in knitting teqhniques and showing the book. Check out on her website where you can meet her: www.storslaaetstrik.dk

In the meantime - enjoy these glimpses from the presentation in the heart of Copenhagen:


Mette Navne talking to Eva Lone


Anette Ørom checking out the book


Lars and Karen Bentzen talking to the gallery owner Lisse Bruun


Lene Berg and Helgi Jonsson seatet in the gallery's two-persons bench

Politiken - Denmark's finest, too

Politiken did it again! Having walked away with golden medals and the title of "Best of Show" at SNDS' Best of Scandinavian News Design Competition i Stockholm, and picked up the most prestigious prize of all - SND's "The World's Best Designed" from Boston, the Danish newspaper won another gold medal - this time awarded by the Danish Publishers Association - "Danske Dagblades Forening" (DDF) for the best Danish news design 2007. The golden award was given for a four page article about the rise and fall of Danish leader of the Radikale Venstre party, Marianne Jelved. Using no photos, "only" a handful of suburb drawings, and text laid out perfectly - and you have a great news presentation.

From 190 entries, the jury selected a total of 22 pages to be worthy of an award. Apart from Politiken's gold, seven silver awards were given - to Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten (two), Politiken, Ringkøbing Amts Dagblad, Fyns Amts Avis, Fyens Stiftstidende and Berlingske Tidende. The rest recieved Awards of Excellences.

Read the whole story at snds.org
See all the winners at DDF's website

A Bruce and a Ferrari

Although I don't take much of a fancy for shopping, I do buy things now and then. I couldn't resist he new Bruce Springsteen album "Magic", but it's not quite as breathtaking as "The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle", which is on my all-time top five*).

And now that the Formula 1 season is over, and with a Ferrari driver as the champion, I simply had to buy the beautifully designed scale 1:38 model of the F2005 when we stopped for gas the other day. The red Ferrari plastic toy car (Made in China) - although featuring wind-up back wheels to set it running across the table - does not quite live up to the cast-iron quality of my old gold decorated black John Player Special F1 Lotus, or even the soft rounded white Yardley McClaren-Ford M19A (both from Corgi Toys, Made in Gt. Britain, scale 1:36).

My shopping skills were, apparently, better some 30-35 years ago. Now think about that. Or maybe I should have invested a small fortune in a that Ferrari model car, we saw in the Ferrari shop in Venice a few months ago after all…




*) - the other four are Elton John's "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy", " Rock of the Westies", "Blue Moves", and David Bowie's "Hunky Dory", if you must know… Very close runner-ups are "I Robot" (Alan Parsons Project), "L" (Godley & Creme) and "Peter Gabriel 4".