Bicycling to Sommarøy

Last weekend was wonderful. I was in Tromsø visiting Lasse, and we spent a lovely if somewhat cold Midsummer bicycling and camping. I borrowed a bicycle from one of Lasse's relatives. Old but rock solid. A comfortable 55 km ride to Sandvik/Sommarøy with a rather strong wind against us. Camping on the beach, veggie-sausages, primus and warm clothes. It was rather cloudy so we didn't really see much of the midnight sun. We took an alternative route back home, 70 km but now with the wind helping us. Sun! A very well spent weekend.

Here's a video from Sandvik beach where we camped. Windy and deserted except for two dorky campers.

pleasant surprise

I need to have a presentable version of my fourth thesis-article, "Digital arenas and the subjectivity of the individual: changing rhetorics of the self", before 25th of August. To my surprise I have already worked quite a bit on it. Far from presentable, and a lot of writing, reading and rewriting remains. Yet I was pleased when I opened a somewhat chaotic and early version of it. I had kind of forgotten that I've already presented the core idea and elements of it on a PhD-course in April, and that I have been taking notes and done some writing already.

Seems I haven't totally wasted my time this spring.

Ph.D. course in Bergen: Technology and the Public Sphere

This Ph.D-course looks very interesting, but I can't come, as eh, I will most probably stay in Australia for three months after the aoIR-conference... (more later).

But oh, I would love to be there. Andrew Feenberg and Brian Winston are coming. The course is free of charge, includes lunch every day, and non-Norwegian students will be given a travel refund of 300 euro

Bergen, November 14-17, 2006

The relationship between media technologies and the public sphere is increasingly important. We will explore it theoretically and empirically during four days of intense academic activity.

Before the Bergen event we will close-read three seminal theorists. John Dewey was an American pragmatist who wrote about technology and the public sphere in the 1880s to 1930s. Marshall McLuhan was the hyper-sensitive medium theorist with oracle-status, writing in the 1950s to 1980s. Jürgen Habermas is the acclaimed wise man of the European public sphere, and has theorized its role in civil society since the 1960s. A range of articles from contemporary writers will also be discussed, among them James Carey, Chantal Mouffe and Graham Murdock.

In Bergen we will discuss the main topics during plenary sessions and debates, in parallel panel sessions and study groups, and in the evenings. Professor Andrew Feenberg (Canada) and professor Brian Winston (UK) have confirmed their presence during the course. They will give plenary lectures and take part in discussions.

For a detailed presentation of the Ph.D. course, see Kulturteknikker.

Practical information:

Doctoral students from all European countries are invited. The course is free of charge. Non-Norwegian students will be given a travel refund of 300 euro upon completion of the course. Lunch and coffee are served every day complementary of the organizers.

All students must write papers related to our topics. A first draft must be written before November 1st, and after reviews and critique during the seminar, the final version should be handed in by January 1st 2007. The course gives 10 ECTS points for the participants, and a diploma will be issued for those who complete.

If you are interested, please contact chief organizer Lars.Nyre@infomedia.uib.no before September 1st, 2006, and include a paper abstract of 500 words. The abstract should contain a description of your area of interest, method and theory. The criteria for selection of participants will be strictly academic, and the list of participants will be published on September 2nd, 2006.

The doctoral course is organized by Cultural Techniques (a research project in the Norwegian Council of Research), with financial support from the Department of Information Science and Media Studies and the Social Science Faculty at the University of Bergen, Norway. The course is promoted under the umbrella of the European Communication Research and Education Association.

writing is so much easier than talking

I was interviewed by Kai Sibbern in NRK's Verdibørsen after the Ethos-conference in May. The program was broadcasted this weekend. I listened to the podcasted version yesterday evening. Although what I say is quite alright, how I say it is definitely not!

Here's the most important thing I learnt from this specific interview: Do not try to say everything at once: I ramble on thinking of all the things I need to say, and I'm not at all able to prioritize. Words just keep pouring out in a rather un-organized way for about 10 minutes (gosh, that's long).

I'm not embarrassed. I just think talking is quite difficult, especially on radio.

information overload and nostalgia

I'm caught in a neverending whirlwind taking me from one debate to another, from private weblogs via metafilter discussions to reader-debates on db.no. I'm very anxious to see what my aoIR-paper will end up like.

This work has lead me to several weblog-posts about the Roskilde music-festival by users aged 18, 19, 20. Reading about their plans makes me so nostalgic! I had the best time there in 1993, 1994, 1995 (and a pretty good time in 1996). My friends and I being young, bold and beautiful, surrounded by quality music everywhere, sun (well 1993 was partly rainy, but still great), and the best atmosphere. 1994 was especially good, truely magnificent. It didn't matter that I had to hump around on crutches for most of the festival after an accident on the Rage Against the Machine concert where I found myself underneath a mass of people. Had to spend a few hours at the first aid camp and then at the hospital, but I was 19 and fit so some plaster and crutches were not going to be an issue.

I have to scan some old photos and post them on Flickr so you can see how good it was!

Now however, back to the whirlwind, see where it takes me.

iTunes rebellion

Financial Times reports about the Norwegian Consumer Council's (NCC) attempt to get Apple's iTunes in tune with Norwegian consumer rights.

MSN Music is not at all a better option (and impossible for mac-users). With the help of Jo and his friends over at NCC I've found bleep to be a very good alternative: DRM-free music from really good labels (such as WARP). But I want the ease and comfort of iTunes! I want to go to an online music store identical with iTunes but with fair treatment of customers.

Jo keeps track of the well deserved international attention they get.

self-portraits

"Besides, sometimes I take self-portraits and have to lean the camera to rocks and stuff". Blush. I meant to say "use the self-timer". I was at the Foto og Video-store explaining the (ultra-) tiny scratch-marks on my camera. I've had problems with my Canon Powershot S70 for a long time, and last weekend it totally died. Hopefully the lab won't make any problems and just repair the camera free of charge (I bought it 11 months ago). I have in fact been treating it carefully (despite the insinuations from the seller at the store). So why did I find it embarrassing to say that I occassionally take self-portraits? As if my flickr-photos do not already show a good share of self-portraits.

Ethos

It's been a busy week: I attended the Ethos-conference on Tuesday, arranged by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police and then a conference for scholars financed by The Norwegian Council of Norway's, research program "Communication, ICT and Media" on Wednesday and Thursday. The Ethos-conference aimed to discuss different aspect of privacy in a modern, technologised society and whether the right to privacy should in fact be constitutionally grounded. I was a little nervous for the Ethos-conference, basically because I was going to talk to a mixed (non-academic) audience (as well as a rather large audience), and because my given assignment was to give the middle-aged people an in-your-face presentation of how young people present themselves online. Yet clearly I didn't want to let young people down by one-sidedly criticise their online practices. My presentation went just fine, my voice didn't tremble, and I think I succeeded in giving a balanced point of view. My research is clearly very relevant in discussions of privacy, though the conference of course concerned much more (e.g. surveillance, commercial use and archiving of personal information).

Oh, digi.no refers to my presentation and research. It's ok, though the focus of the article is somewhat more worried than I am.