Graduation: Check! --> Norway here I come!

After handing in a not-quite-finnished written presentation after the deadline I was far from sure that I would actually pass.... Sure there were good things about the report... like the cool frontpage logo that Abbas made and some chapters were cool, but I had a strong feeling that it didn't really make sense to some one who knew nothing about the project.

I was tired as shit when I returned to Aarhus and I had to search deep inside to find the last bit of energy that could push me over the finishing line - presenting the project to a three-person panel consisting of Paul Natorp (The teacher who has followed my project and head of studies at the KaosPilots), Nanna (Knows the KaosPilot stuff) and Karen Thomsen (Executive producer at Nordisk Film the biggest production company in Scandinavia)

(Thank you/jo for the picture..)

I found the energy, and I made a great presentation. The prototype of the strategy tool I had developed turned out really nice (the colorful stuff on the right) and I had models and stuff covering the whole wall behind me which worked really well. I presented freely without any written stuff in my hands. And listened carefully to the questions before answering.

Half way through the Q&A-session I started to feel I had done well. The questions showed that they had understood everything and that they were convinced about the quality of my work. So, I started relaxing. Relaxing from a month of really hard preassure. I had worked all the way through the night before the presentation and I suppose my eyes were in need of some lubrication... So when i got a question about what I was proud of... well, I started crying. Sobbing I managed to say: - That I didn't give up. I started laughing at my own crying and my three censors offered me water which I accepted.

After my presentation and the questions I sat down out on the terrace with some of my team mates. Paul, Nanna and Karen seemed to have a lot to discuss because it took them an hour and a half to write the feed-back and decide on a grade. I got a 10 on the wierd Danish 13-scale (where 13 represents "reinventing the field", 12 does not exist and there are five levels of failing). So, ten is good, and considering that I thought I'd flunk only a few weeks earlier it is really great.

After giving me the grade I got a question that really surprised me: - What happened to Chelsea? I told them that she is coming to Stockholm in August. Before leaving Karen Thomsen gave me her card and said: - Have a great summer holiday and call me when you are back at work.

Wednesday I am doing a workshop about Interactivity and Public Journalism at NRK in Oslo.

We are the pool

Yesterday me and my danish musician-friend Rasmus got an idea to go swimming at the Metropolitan Pool which is around the corner from where we live. But it was a "members only"-thing. We got really pissed of 'cos we were so stoked about our swimming-idea. I didn't really want to let it go so I started lookin' around for another place to go.

Suddenly, through Drayton a Couchsurfing accuaintance of mine, I stumbled upon an art collective and through them into something fantastic. I found out that there is an old public swimmingpool in Brooklyn that these awesome people are trying to revitalize. They started up an organization called "Poolaid"and made this fantastic event around it.

...but that's not all. They teamed up with a bunch of Brooklyn-based indy bands, like Nada Surf, The Giraffes and made this awesome music video.

Sing it! WEE ARE THE POOOL!



Ok, I don't know who reads this, but let's all give it up for Brooooklyn!

...my only question is: Where were the civic journalism people?

This is what community is about, and the kind of thing that all kinds of people can gather around (Ok, judgeing from the video there were primarily ageing hippsters and their kids...but In my little dreamworld they could even have succeeded to team up with the chassidic jewish women who swim at the Metropolitan Pool on wednesdays but... maybe they don't like Nada Surf..) I put all these thoughts within brackets because I think it was brilliant just the way it was and those people who did it were just heroes...the only real regret was me being on the wrong side of the Atlantic when it happened.

...once again I start thinking about rituals. The pool is just a symbol, the artists lead the ceremony and the people dance 'til they're delerious. ;)