TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

10:40 AM
Posted by jodi rose

woke up to a dreamy snowy morning
magical
everything downy and soft with new snow
covering up the old yellow and grey
on the bus ride into arabia
(suburb named after the ceramic company,
media lab lume is in their old factory)
all the coloured wooden houses in pasila
like gingerbread cakes, layered with icing
out of a fairy tale
for me it's magical and enchanting
but i guess for the Finns it's just another snowy day
the road clearing machines are out driving around
with their front end shovels - according to someone
the amount spent on clearing snow each year is 5
(or 0.5 I can't remember am very bad with numbers)
of Finlands gross national product. but there would be no
industry or product if everything stayed covered in snow, so...

am very glad to have people like john and sophea around
makes the research process far more intuitive
if you can have conversations about things
that take place quite naturally and don't have to chase up an expert
in some office or different world who may or may not have any idea
how to realise the plans you have

anyway, now I don't need to spend €500 on a new 3G phone
and there is one at media lab we can borrow and test with
introduced myself to tao, one of the lecturers here, who teaches
interactive television and cinema and is curating a section of pixelache

saw the most vibrant colourful fabric on hammiente from the tram
swirly geometric abstracted flower/chaos shapes in pink and red
on a white background - very finnish
may have to start redecorating juha's puistola apartment
very exciting have the option for homewares and non moveable stuff
although it is only 3 months, feels like could be here for years

especially since spring is coming
eventually
it't here in southerrn europe, 20° in seville yesterday
still -8 up here, and the birds haven't migrated yet
very late spring, everyone says it's cold for this time of year
but I'm happy to have a final blast of winter
get right into that melancholy poetic vibe
can see why scandinavian design is so light and clean
everyone wears coloured reflectors during winter, it's so dark
shaped like bats or hearts or cartoon figures - trying to find one