On shit

Author Bår Stenvik gave a lecture in Oslo yesterday, presenting his newly published book "Skitt: Mennesket, møkka og kulturen" (Shit: The person, the dirt and the culture). In the course of an hour, he described his own experiences with dirt, as well as many philosophical and cultural views on shit (which in Norwegian can mean faeces, but also any other type of dirt). Bår grew up on a farm - and later spent much of his young adulthood trying to escape the stygma of being a dirty farm boy. But while studying at The New School of Social Research in New York, he came to the same conclusion that Mary Douglas had written about long ago in "Purity and Danger" - that "dirt is matter out of place". Cleanliness and filth are primarily social constructions, not physical properties.

Stenvik's book contains nearly 300 pages about what we think about shit, together with stories about the "clean lines" of architectual modernism & kitchen design, social rituals, morality, shame, loathing and disgust. Great stuff!

However, my favorite example in this genre still remains the TV episode in Seinfeld where George attends a dinner with his girlfriend's family, and can't resist finishing off the leftover dessert:

Virtual travel in the Ottoman world

During 2011, UNESCO has celebrated the life of Evliya Celebi, an Ottoman traveller born in 1611. Over the course of forty years of the seventeenth century, Evliya Celebi wrote a book entitled Seyahatname - The Book of Travels - which describes his experiences with people in various parts of the world.
In London, a group of historians, musicians and multi-media artists were inspired by Evliya Celebi's work. They thought that this author could be a representative for larger social processes:

In the 17th century travelling such vast distances would have been no easy feat, yet in many ways these travellers embodied what was happening on a much larger scale worldwide. As we travel through Istanbul, London, Vienna and Cairo, we find that these stories and cities do not exist in isolation, rather they are intertwined and are influenced by each other.

In order to communicate these relationships, the project group decided to build a physical exhibition that would only be open for only a few days. The primary function would be to create a virtual exhibition on The Book of Travels. They write:

We really wanted to share the full experience of being immersed in the physical exhibition, and decided that the best way to do that was to share both the overall experience of standing in the room, and the ability to wander up close to each component and almost reach out and touch each panel.

The photo-mapping technique used is similar to how the Google art project has allowed virtual visitors to wander through various famous art galleries.
Although the physical/virtual exhibition was taken down in London, the project is still alive on the web and as a travelling exhibition. I notice that the British Council will be opening The Book of Travels in Thessaloniki just before Christmas this year:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-society-evliya-celebi-exhibition.htm

Zamzam - the water of pilgrimage

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of arriving at Oslo airport just as a charter flight with pilgrims returned from Mecca. The baggage claim area was full of men in taqiyah prayer caps and women in burqa robes, all searching for their luggage. Beyond customs control, throngs of family and friends stood waiting with flowers, food gifts and welcoming posters. Nearly all travellers had large plastic containers in cloth sacks on their baggage carts on the way out. Thats how I knew they had been to Mecca, even without asking them.

The plastic containers being wheeling out were filled with water originating from the Zamzam well, only a few meters from the Kaaba in Mecca. Millions of pilgims drink water from this well every year, and it is considered a miracle that it never dries up.

According to one story, Abraham's young son Ishmael was thirsty, becoming more and more upset when he wasn't given water. Finally, Ishmael got so frustrated that he started kicking the ground. At that spot, a spring suddenly gushed forth, allowing him to drink. That is where the Zamzam well is.

Zamzam water can also be an aspect in travel marketing, as Emir Aviation advertises a gift of 10 liters of Zamzam water for every person flying on a pilgrimage with them. Could this be the airline that the Mecca travelers I saw had returned with?

Other religions also consider water from certain sources to have special properties. Christian use of Holy Water and Hindu belief in the healing power of the Ganges are perhaps the best known. I had intriguing discussions with people about this while collecting material for the exhibition "Farewell - Death and bereavement in multi-cultural Norway". That exhibition was on tour for several years, but has recently been set up permanently at Oslo City Museum in Vigeland Park.

Automated music: the Phonola

Before the advent of the gramophone, tape recorder and mp3 player, inventors made constant attempts to develop automated musical instruments that could play pre-programmed music without the need for trained musicians. Barrel organs and music boxes had been around since the early 19th century, but these both required complicated systems of handmade metal pegs and levers, which were quite expensive and time consuming to make.

Eventually, a number of mass-produced paper roll systems were developed, where holes could be punched in various places to control the notes played on a piano. In the USA, the "pianola" or player piano used such rolls. In 1902, Ludwig Hupfeld unveiled a similar system in Leipzig, Germany, which he called the "Phonola".

Ringve Museum has a phonola from 1917 which it uses for demonstrating automated music rolls. Unfortunately, one of the problems of demonstrating with original instruments is that things break. Especially things that are close to a hundred years old. The video above shows the Norwegian conservator Jan Petter Brennsund studying and repairing the phonola's bellows system, which had developed holes in its rubberised fabric. The repair reveals a dilemma shared by Ringve and many other museums: Should the museum keep this object as a passive exhibit in order to better preserve it for the future, or do musical performances provide such educational and aesthetic value that some damage occurred through use is warranted?

Google art tours

Using the same technology as it uses for "street view" in Google Maps, Google has been allowing virtual visitors into a series of art museums for over a year now. Google calls it "The Art Project", and writes:

The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and some of the world's most acclaimed art museums. Powered by a broad, connected suite of Google technologies, the world's great works of art and museums are now within reach to an unprecedented global audience.

In vicariously travelling through a few museum galleries today, my experience has unfortunately been more of frustration than wonder. There seem to be large numbers of art works that I am NOT actually allowed to get near to, and many galleries are completely blanked out - in the same way that Google blanks out licence plates when photographing streets. The approved mode of use for The Art Project is apparently to focus on the specially profiled art works, while wandering the galleries gives the visitor a feeling of the exhibition rather than total access.

Blank areas in the galleries of course make The Art Project an excellent example of how complicated intellectual property rights can be in museums. Who's permission is needed in order to be allowed to show which pieces? But the general idea of the project is great. Perhaps I should try to appreciate endeavours for what they are, and not for what they aren't?

Drone developments

During a recent concert in Trondheim, flute maestro Shashank Subramaniam mentioned that Indian musicians owe Steve Jobs homage for creating portable computers that could provide good drone accompaniment on stage.

While drones have traditionally been provided by someone playing the stringed instrument tanpura, modern Indian musicians often replace the tanpura player with electronic "shruti" boxes or - more recently - an application on their iphone, mac or pc.

Does the spread of tanpura apps spell the end for the musical instrument tanpura itself? Although there might be fewer physical instruments being made in the future, the low cost and easy availability of such drone applications might lead to many more prospective musicians having tools available for them to practice and perform with - thus both increasing the number of active players and perhaps awakening audiences to insist on sometimes experiencing "authentic" tanpura accompaniment. Could this be a development to follow along with?

Ukulele libraries

The Trondheim Public Library has started offering ukulele packages to visitors. A ukulele, instrument case and instruction book which can be borrowed for a month at a time. The library has three sets to start with, and will increase the number if they prove to be popular.

The Oslo city library has been doing this for several years now - leading to quite a number of new musicians...