Greven

I snaped this phot of my good friend Greven the other day.
Greven is a very profound character that can some time be a little bit scary to watch. You can read more about Greven on his web Here

Sick and smiling kids from Sierra Leone, Vest Africa

After I returned back from Sierra Leone I made the blog post – Back from Sierra Leone.  And i started to see a trend in my blog statistics. A lot of search result are clicking in with searches  combinations like “ happy smiling african kid” or “happy children Sierra Leone” or “Malnutrition children sick” I have been thinking about how to react to this, and I though I would showcase some more of the different photos I have laying around that shows exactly that. Since I made that blog post, different people have contacted me in order to use one or more of the photos for various things. I like it an,d it shows how the web 2.0 is working as it should. One of them is “DJ Ino” who choose to use it as a front cover for his CD. check him out Here.

I received this fine little danish poem for the previous post about assistens kirkegården. It´s made by a very good friend of mine, a good writer with a good heart! Louise Rosengreen, She is blogging in danish at this link. HERE.

Du er ikke kommet af jord
og du skal ikke tro
du kan få lov til at blive
i den
heller.

And I suddently had a chance to upload a photo i took from a long time ago:
>>>System er ikke i krise, Systemet er krise!!<<<

Back to the photos of the kids from Sierra Leone and Masanga:
Happy children, smiling children, all kids from Africa.

And the sick kids suffering from malnutrition just next door are there too.

An open head at Nørrebro

I haven´t been able to keep up with my own blog, since I have been working with my company Kadaver and the organization Masanga. There are many blog posts taking place in my head, and soon I will have them online too. An interesting one that I have thought about the last couple of days is the creation of the new Metro at Assistens kirkegården at Nørrebro´s runddel. There are a lot of citizens in Copenhagen who are extremely angry about the fact that the Metro Company are violating the peace of the graveyard. And apparently the Metro company haven´t been 100% clear and honest about their intentions AND the politicians have been sleeping when approving the plans…bummer!

I am still trying to figure out what I think about the situation. I live next to it and I see it every day… Personally I am looking forward to have a Metro station nearby, be course the public transport in the area is pretty heavy at the moment. On the other side I don´t find it appropriate to vandalize the graveyard as they do. When it all comes down I value the Metro system higher having this spesific location, than if they should re-allocate the traffic at Runddelen. That would create a damn mess for a long time. I do find it disrespectful for the people who have relatives at the graveyard! When things like this happens I always get impressed abaut the Danes eager to express how bad the situation is. Facebook groups, demonstrations and signature collections are quickly mobilizes. And I always wonder if it helps? As for now I can´t think of a situation where it did, and I am sure there are situations where it helped – and if you know of it, please fill me in. Just looking at the past couple of years at Nørrebro and some causes the public have been against; Danish troops are still in war…(which is sad)  Ungdomshuset at Jagtvej 69 got trashed down any way… (which is a tragedy!!) And now the churchyard? Again and again there are policiance to blame and to point at. On my way to the office this morning I ran into Anne Vang, politician from Social demokratiet. She is an old friend and the female leading candidate representing the social democrates. It made me reflect even more when I further down the street came by this statement on the wall of Assistens Kirkegården – Skønne Danmark (lovely Denmark) – A statement that I entrepritate as full of ironi for the current situation.

Flash mob in Copenhagen by Kadaver

For a long time the foursome of Kaospilots, Kadaver, have been dreaming about Combining business with the good cause. A phenomena that is also referred to as Social Innovation. Last friday October 9th. on the Danish “culture night” Kadaver kicked of a Flash mob at “rådhuspladsen” – the municipality square. The Flash mob was an act for climate change; Do you want to sunbathe in October in the future? The Hopenhagen campaign encourage people to sign the UN climate petition in order to state the need for change.

Here is the Video that was recorded during the event.

Appriciating life

This blog post is going to be about an experiences I had about a week ago.
The Small things that makes me smile.
I was deeply into a debate with me good friend, Rasmus, about the Danish society. About the changes that are ongoing at the moment. We both remember for some years back when we where proud of being Danish. Especially when meeting people while traveling. The fact is that I am not proud now. I can hardly identity me self with a country that keeps such a narrow mind to the rest of the world. The development of the Danish folk party and the growing support is in my eyes frightening.

The latest episode in the Brorson church where police forces brutally kicks out a small group of Iraqs who used the churche for shelter. Is yet an other black spot on the paper. It is yet an episode where I am embarrassed of being Danish!! read more here. So our debate was heavy! it means something to us!!

While walking and turning the subject upside down and seeing it from different angels I get my eyes on three young tourists in the middle of Copenhagen. They are looking at a map, and talking English/American with a New York accent. After we past them, I stopped and I told my friend – This is a chance to give some foreigners a good impression of Denmark!! So I walked up to them and asked if they needed any help? I happen to know Copenhagen quite well. They needed food, some vegetarian options, local area, typical culture etc. I guess they where 22 – 26 years old. They had been in Copenhagen for 4 hours, and they where thrilled with the guidance and the helping hand. We left them, and the episode had lasted for approx 4 minutes.

It took us 4 minutes to leave the impression that “Danes” are helpful. Our debate continued.

2 hours later we where on our way home. Getting close to the café where we directed the New Yorkers, we thought it could be interesting to hear their thoughts on the subject. By coincident they came walking, just in that very moment where we wanted to find them. We stopped our bikes and asked if they liked the food. They absolutely loved it! (said with a great New york accent) We started to chit chat back and forth about the place, the culture, every thing – big and small. regular small talk.
After a little while we came into the subject of their stay here in Denmark. One of them says: We are dancers, and we gonna do a performance here in Tivoli. It turned out that they are part of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company! – now, I don´t know anything about dancing, but it happens to be my girlfriends living, and she has been talking so much about that specific company. I told the dancers so, and I also greeted them for being dancers in one of the worlds best dance companies. One question let to an other and 5 minutes later I had two free tickets for the show…
The best possible surprise for my girlfriend.

This was a short story from my life and an encouragement to all danes about starting to “re-brand” Denmark to a more friendly place! All change comes from within… I think someone told me that once…

As an end to this I want to show you some photos of the Hip Hop group SNAVS from Århus. They are shooting a promotion Video down by the harbor in Århus.

The four great girls:

Ida Laub Von Lillienskjold

Lisbet Kokholm Nør

Linette Normann Christensen

Anne-Teresa Høj

Likemind 18th. Sept. Copenhagen

Likemind is very simple concept. You meet up at a café, drink a cop of coffee and talk with the people who are there… The meeting starts in the early morning hours and by that it differs from the “classical” mingling sessions where you drink cocktails and hid behind your business card. Likemind is about meeting young entrepreneurs and other creative and brave minds – where they are! Meet the person behind the business card and hear about interesting projects, life philosophy, travels or dreams. Have an early morning coffee and start out your friday with a smile. It happens once in a month and you are welcome!

Looking forward to see you @ Café din nye ven.
contact: Info@kadaver.dk

MASANGA INFO NIGHT, SEPT 10th

Back from Sierra Leone

being back from Vest Africa means alot of things! New eyes on the way we live our lives in the vestern world, a lot of new insight in what to work with and how for the organization Masanga. And last but not least a quick and stabil internet connection… In the previous post i wonted to show some photos from the Hospital compound and surroundings. These photos are not meant to offend anyone or brake any rules from the provider of this WordPress blog, the photos uploaded with the simple purpose to spread and share reality and my experiences. So it goes out to my friend Kim Thue who wanted to see the photos “asap” here you go. (check out Kim´s work at this link –> here! i like it a lot, and in only few days he will travel to Masanga to take a lot of potrets of the locals and our staff members. I am very much looking forward seeing that.

The next couple of photos are from our TFC, where we take care of children suffering from Malnutrition, unfortunaltly our little friend here on the first photo died two days after the photo was taken. May she Rest in peace.

Here you have Maria one of our medical students from Denmark doing a quick examination of the child in the morning hours.

The last photo here from the TFC shows a small happy camper with a great smile.

I got the possibility to join a Hernia operation, and the guy really needed that surgery! He is all good now, and this operation took about two hours in local anesthesia. It makes a big different for the locals that they can get these kinds of operations nearly for free!

So when walking around the compound you get to see many different things. There are a lot of happy kids and smiling people, and also people who are sick or needs help. I will upload some different photos to give the best possible impression.

Here you see a Gold digger taking a quick shower.

This man is nearly blind and still working in his rise fields.

In the end i will upload one of a million of photos with kids smiling and wanting to have their photo taken

Masanga Hospital – Sierra leone

I have now been In Sierra Leone for a bit more than a week. I am at the moment situated at the Masanga hospital ground in the middle of the jungle. A fantastic place and a dramatic place at the same time. Life is both beautiful and terrible at the same time. It becomes very clear how much needed this hospital project is when being in the surroundings of it. Meeting the locals, seeing their kids with malnutrition and hearing them coughing from malaria. At the same time you meet smiling people greeting you for being here and wishing you welcome to their country. The mixture of illness and happiness is amazing to experience! I have been around a lot to dig deeper into the different parts of this ever expanding project i have been a part of for so long. The impressions and experiences are indescribable. Some of the person barriers I run into is to pull out my camera and “snap” the people I meet. Luckily the kids love to have the photo taken out in the villages, and in the hospital when the patients are ill, the photos are for documenting our progress in establishing and rebuilding a fully functional and operational Hospital. One of our main problem is that the patients we get for treatment are the Last minute once, which means we often can´t save them. We are currently trying to solve that problem be getting out to the villages and help the locals on an earlier state. So far we have been successful with that, and will continue to find solutions for pro-activism!

I have uploaded some of the photos I have captured during these first days here. They show the illness and the mixture of happiness. the First two are from a stroll through Masanga village with my friend Rasmus Dahlin. He was here for two years ago as one of the two first volunteers for the project. I am not joking when I say that the whole village knew who he was! It was a warm welcome with many smiles! -here are some of them.

“”"”the internet is too unstable to upload photos to wordpress… i try to get them on the facebook page named MASANGA here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/edit/?id=112195932544#/pages/MASANGA/112195932544

The next two are from our TFC, where we take care of children suffering from Malnutrition, unfortunaltly our little friend here on the first photo died two days after the photo was taken. May she Rest in peace. And this little fellow is a happy camper smiling and saying funny sounds!

At last there is a photo of how bad Hernia can look like if it does not get treated on an early state. The operation took aprox. 2 and a half hours and the man is now up and walking again. I have never seen anything like that before!

thats it for now! – more to come! /the photos will come when i hit a better connection…

back from Skt. PetersBurg

for the last 6 days I have had the plesusere to be in Skt. Petersburg in Russia with Viva La Renovation. My job was to photo document the tour and together with a small documentary team create media attention about our project. For that reason I have been active on a different blog for the last couple of days, and I will encourige you to tjeck it out. —> click here there are some more great videos and photos.

Here is a photo of the preparation for the first workshop

And here is a video to give an idea of what we where doing.

Nana Dall

Here you go my friend, a great photo of you! with smiles and joy! sommertimes and an unsure future ahead of us. Keep dansing and smiling and more flowers will come your way.

thank you and the rest of team 13 for a great weekend in Århus!

FCK – Brøndby 4-0

After a crazy experience watching the local fight between FC København and Brøndby where FCK overrulled with a score on 4-0. A lot of haterad found place between the supporters, and here is a photo seen fra the FCK support scare towards the BIF ultras. They do not like each others. I found it interesting to be in a crowed expressing so much rage towards people they don´t even know.  honestly they could be working together side by side in the everyday life. I think it is interesting to see this in the perspectives of communities. -how you gather around something you like – or something you hate… which foundations greates strongest relations, and which foundations do you want to be a part of? I would love to hear your comments on this. I find the most motivation based on things  I love. but I find the biggest solidarity in a crowed focused on something they are against.

Report– Done

And now the final report is delivered! it has been a hell of a ride with great learning’s and a lot of turbulence’s! Of course we celebrated and here is a photo from the garden BBQ party out at Torben Brandt´s amazing surroundings!

thanks to all of the great people from team 13 that I have spent the last somewhat close to 3 years with – for a great day and night!

In the photo we have ( from the left) Amalie Villesen, Mille Obel Høier, Nana Dall. Great girls!

Hanging out in Cph

I spent some time the other day with my good friend Mark Beanland. Here is a snap shot of him in a reflecting situation.
Mark and I study together, and I will encurige you to check out some of the work and thoughts he is blogging about.

http://learningful.wordpress.com/
http://markhbeanland.wordpress.com/

Viva La Renovation

We had a great workshop with Viva La Renovation in the Location Renovation out in Valby. Viva Is about to sharpen up on the Identity and the workshop for finding the exact ID was facilitated by Poul Natorp and kristin Birkeland. It was a very positive day with what I will call a good outcome. There is a lot more to work on, no doubt about that.

As allways Vivanister is colorful to be around. Here are two shots of day, that I like.

First we have Mathias and Rasmus being focused in the conversation happening next to me.

Here we have Louise Hebøll and Kristin Birkeland, lovely colorful ladys

Jeg Glemmer, Hvert Forår, Hvor Lækker DU Er… !!

Likemind

When i was staying in New York, i came by the monthly coffee meeting Likemind and that really tricked me. I therefore signed up for getting the event to Denmark. We are now about to run the second round -coffee – talks – laughs – hang out – people -

We where about 30 people last time, and the athmosphere was great! hopefully we can get even more people to come and share their stories and proffessions with us this time.

If you are in Copenhagen and find this interesting you shold feel free to join the Facebook page for freequent updates (not spam). here you can also see pictures.

follow the likemind meetings on twitter too: http://twitter.com/likemind_cph

Likemind Copenhagen are arranged by
Kadaver and Café din nye ven

happy birtsday dear blog

I just realized that i have been blogging on this blog for a bit more than one year now. It has been a pretty interesting learning about the Internet and the possibilities within blogging. -a great way of communicating ones thoughts, work, opinions and other material such as photos or just different experiences. I just looked through some of the photos on my hard drive, and i came by this one from the day i made my first blogpost. -sort of a memory thing of why i made the blog too… staying in Shanghai and wanting to share that experience with the folks back home. Any way. Here is a shot from one of the many authentic areas in China. i like it a lot in black and white colors, it makes it look old i think.

INTRO FORLØB OM MASANGA

Photo practice

During this Sunday I went for a photo-practice-session. My task was to capture “bodies in Motion”. I went to the skatepark near Fælledparken in Copenhagen and met a nice skater with a colorful outfit. This was the result:

And for those interested, the photo is captures with ISO Lo80, f 22 and a shutter speed of 1/8 to get the movement in the photo.

Pecha Kucha Night #10

Last night i did a performance at the event called Pecha Kucha. It´s a conceptualized way of presenting your ideas and projects. basically you have 20 slides or elements and then 20 seconds per slide. Based on that you are to tell about your project, idea, business, art installation or dream. I made a presentation about the power of networks and what possibilities that lies within sharing thoughts, dreams and projects. I based the presentation on how the hospital Masanga was created and how I am working and building the Ambusanga project.

Here is the flyer from the event, it was a great experience to see the diversity of presentations, project and people. I will encourage you to watch out for the next event.

3D street art

I got this link just now trhough the online social network Twitter where you can follow me and the Ambusanga project. I found it as a reply to my earlier post about street art in copenhagen.

i think this video i spretty amazing, I love the stop-motion effect in it, the story, the time perspectives, the frees effects and the outcome! – enjoy!

The small beautyful things of Copenhagen

I was strolling home on a Saturday afternoon, the sun was nearly shining and the city seemed hungover from a good Friday.. Some of the beautiful things about walking in Copenhagen are the small things that decorates the city.

First i came by this piece of street art, with the writing on it, saying: Forget my name. and then the “for” is tagged. When i saw it, my thought was that it had to be realated to the artist “husk mit navn” (remember my name – for the none danish readers)  so i started to look it up when i got home, and i found some interesting stuff: Apparently Basco5 have experienced the same when initiating the campaign.

By walking further I came by one of many abandon bikes in Copenhagen, I see them and i think of the great project named Baisikeli, that deals with this issue by helping people in Africa at the same time.

In the very end of my walk, just before getting to my flat i finally had my camera with me to document two of my (at the moment) favorite street art pieces.

Now some say graffiti is vandalism, other say graffiti is “spamming”, I will like to post the question: which of these 3 messages are most valuable? 1) The cheap flight ticket with Sterling? 2) The real estate agency Nybolig? or 3) the tag ELSK (love) as an encouragement to spread love?

I will choose no. 3 at any time!

New week starting soon, time to focus on Ambusanga.

::Copenhagen By Night::::

The other night after a long day of snowy weather and smiling people, I chose to take a long walk through the city. Around One o´clock at night I came by these views of Copenhagen, more exact Nørrebro. I moved here for not long ago, back in Copenhagen from Århus. A change of city I have been waiting and longing for. My time in Århus has been irreplaceable due to the education and the extremely nice people i met. Though I do think Århus is a bit small in the long run.

Any way, here are some photos from my walk. A lot of people has asked me lately if I “photoshop” my photos before posting them on the blog. Normally I correct them a bit, Yes. And then the next question goes: don´t you then manipulate the photos? To answer this question; these photos from Copenhagen night time are 100% untouched. Then you can judge yourself rather it´s manipulative to use photoshop or not. (I have croped the photos, but not color corrected them)….

Enjoy:

Nørrebrogade


SorteDamsSøen

tag clouds

The other day i heard of a webpage named Wordle, so today i checked it out. And by adding the text from my blog i got this visual word cloud showing the context of what i have been writing about.

when time changes

The last day at the Kaospilot education in Århus has now taken place. Yesterday was kick-off for focus on final projects. The journey through the educational program has been amazing so far! From now on i will focus on my final exam (and all the other projects by the side)… when searching around the Internet for inspiration to the Ambusanga project i came by this short video introducing shortly where i have been the last two and a half year.
see it here:

:::::Thoughts

The other day I sat down to empty my mind, lot´s of thoughts are running through my tiny head at these days. The final project on the last semester is approaching really quickly and the end of the education era is closing in. In order to empty my head for all thoughts i sat down with my laptop and typed down what ever came to my mind. All concerns, hinders, frustrations, tasks and thoughts. All of them in 15 min. From that I made a “To Do List” and one by one wiped them out. My head felt lighter and could start focusing on the next big assignment in front of me. More of that will shortly follow.

While searching around for inspiration, knowledge and updates in society I came by this statement:

The photo is from a webpage named “zero carbon caravan” a group of people protesting for a Carbon neutral planet. as they state on the page: “We are making our way to Copenhagen without using fossil fuel transportation. Along the route we’ll connect with local groups to establish an itinerary of ‘zero carbon conferences’ to build momentum for zero carbon awareness.”

i think is´s a good and needed initiative and i like it a lot. Maybe Viva La renovation should team up with them on the last bit of the caravan.

Financial brakedown or not, there is still a planet to be concerned about.

::::Grandmom::::

X-Mas

Every 4th year, x-mas is celebrated with my mom´s side of the family, this year we where 32 people for 2 days. Enjoying each others company, playing around, going for long walks, making great food, talking, debating, storytelling, hugging, dancing, singing, drinking, kissing, jumping, laughing, sleeping…

To see what the danish newspaper Politiken said click HERE

Strolling by the wather, From left: Marie, Signe and Marlis (Knud and Ditte in the background)

Urd and Eva

By the water; Tom and Lene

Thea reflecting on x-mas day

During Night time we had story telling from the older generation to the young generation, passing on knowledge and experience from when they where young. -the so called “old days”-  In our society tradition are quickly leaved behind in our rush for development. In the below situation Knud Rasmussen is telling about how it was to grow up on a farm in the country side. It was an experience without comparison and it made me think “what will i be telling in 60 years from now?”

Knud Rasmussen

In the end i would like to post to potrets. One of Kai Steendahl and one of Knud Rasmussen. Two men with passion for our society, Two beuatyfull men that have had a big impact on me in my life. Two human beings that i simply love.

Kai Steendahl, the most interactive reader on this blog!

Knud Rasmussen.

saying goodbey to New york::::And everything that goes with it

Last day in New York City. An other amazing adventure has been written. Here are some pictures from the last couple of days, some of the things i will miss when starting a life in Copenhagen.

Enjoy

Central park West side, 88 street.

Bicycling Against Oil Wars, A quite statement. Lower east side, Manhatten

Homeless man sleeping at subway station 14th street Union Square

A Guitar shop with a HandMade Gun-Guitar

A Memory wall of tiles from 9/11 next to Saint Vincent hospital

Random people taking a nap in the subway

Sunday evening on Brooklyn Bridge.

42nd Street 3rd Avenue, just outside our office

42nd Street 3rd Avenue, just outside our office

XXX 2 XXX

xxxxxxX The Usual Suspects Xxxxxxx

We plead guilty to the charge of having a beer in the streets of New York.

PHOTOS

From time to time I get comments on the photos on this site. The other day a friend asked me where he could see some more photos? and I answered on my flickr of course. He then asked: and how do I find your flickr then? —-> this was the moment i realiced that i now have had a Flickr account for about a year, without really using it, or introducing it on my blog…. for that I apologies!

I will there for now introduce you to an other page where you can see even more of my photos: http://flickr.com/photos/steendahl

And for those of you who haven’t checked out the PhotoLetter concept, Check it out here: http://sorenbosteendahl.wordpress.com/photoletter/ and subscribe for free by leaving a comment…

How romantic can it get? …

Finally we got a place to live, where we can cook… We will enjoy this for the next 2 weeks…

For dinner we heard The Raconteurs, “Together”.
The lyrics really stroke me, and i have written some of them down for you. I am fan of Jack White and Brendan Benson’s philosophy: First you have to learn how to live, and then live and learn…

I guess you are the one that knows when “you know how to live” … I am still searching …

Here are the lyrics:

….

You want every morning to be just like
the stories that you read but never write
you gotta learn to live, and live and learn
you gotta learn to give and wait your turn
I´m only concerned

I´m adding something new to the mixture
So there’s a different hue to your picture
A different ending to this fairytale
And no sunset into which we sail

You want everything to be just like
the stories that you read, but you can´t write
you gotta learn to live, and live and learn
you gotta learn to give, and wait your turn
or you’ll get burned

East Harlem I love you, Inside out!

Here We lived for the last Month, this is the first thing you see when going trough the front door. And to describe the feeling, the closest i can think of is a well used Toilet at Roskilde Festival on a sunny day. The smell was harsh and stiff, a good mix of Piss, beers and rotten wood. Most likely there are more things to add to this list, things i don´t know about, and honestly don´t either want to know about.  It has been an experience of character to live out in Harlem. I am happy for moving. And I am happy for having the possibility to choose… opposite many others we met out there.

Today it´s thanksgiving and New York seems dead! -just like Shanghai did in the New Year holidays. Funny how these busy cities can turn into gost towns.

I am not sure if i have introduced you to a good friend of mine, Jacob Klintrup. He has been blogging for a while by now. Hi is a good friend and one quarter of KADAVER. check him out for inspiration.

happy thanksgiving!

Live Your Life, please.

Things are happening. as always… you could say. Time is flying! i have tried this before in a way; Impressions and new experiences are everywhere! They sort of floats around somewhere between my ears and behind my eyes. When i say i have tried this before, I am referring to the end stay in Shanghai. Slowly i am realizing where i am and being comfortable with it. The other day i went to church. Not be course of the mess in my head, more for the experience. I went along with Johannes and Louise Hebøll. We picked one of our local churches up in Harlem, more exact on 116 street. When talking about experiences and how to inspire people, a gospel singing church got something you don´t find anywhere in Denmark, at least i don’t know about it…. After the gospel singing started it only took 1 min before we where standing and clapping and Singing! We looked around and i think we where the funny ones to look at, our jaws where hanging on the chest… This was truly an including community! Everyone was welcomed, and nothing was “wrong”. If you wanted to scream out: HALUJA…! you just did it… God bless ya! When sitting/standing/dancing there i thought of taking a photo of this amazing situation. to visualize the describtion. -it just didn’t feel right! I don’t know why, but there was something that made me keep that camera in the bag, and just keep on smiling.

smiling and smiling

After an hour or so (honestly i got no clue about time in this situation) the singing stopped, and the “Father” went on stage. listening to him reminded me of Chris Tucker in the movie Rush Hour. What a fabulous way of presenting the bible in. I would like to state that i am not really a believer in the sense they where. Neither do i consider my self religious. What i therefore found interesting was the way how the bible got related to different every-day-life-situation. How we choose personal development and thereby effect our surrounding and how a majority of people present them self through their problems. Just think about it for a minute; when a friend of you asks how things are going, do you then tell about what is going well, or do you state your problems in life? My dishwasher machine is broken, My chain jumped of my bike, the bartender pored milk in my coffee…. etc. I got pretty inspired about these perspectives, though i had to sort it out from a lot of God and Jesus talk. The statement was -Live your life! only you can live your life, you can´t live your fathers life, neither your mothers. YOU can ONLY live YOUR life. That message i like, despite any religion preaching it.

So dear reader: who ever you are, “live your life” and live it your way!

_______

The other day I came by this:

The name of the artist who painted the painting in the forground of the picture is somewhere in my bag. I will post it, when i find it.

Fans…

Before the amazing experience of being in the Gians stadium, there was a TailParty going on in the parking lot… basically it´s Roskilde Festival with football fans… they grill and drink for MANY hours and then they enter the stadium. Good vibes and an amazing including atmosphere! (plus a lot of food)

This man was very happy for preparing the food for his friends and us…

here you see some of the parking rows with partying fans!

A classic Gians fan cheering for his team! – he had a powerful voice!

Johannes Too had a powerful voice!

The Ny Giants Home Game

People where playing before the big game, Here you see a Father and his son warming up to watch the game.

When the days disappears by:
Waking up -and feeling as I never really went to bed…
Walking towards the Subway -and thinking “am I all ready here again?”
Working – and not really understanding the calender…

have I been doing this much in so short time? and, am I really in the middle of November?

Walking around and experiencing New York City – and thinking back to the time where this experience was a dream…

Realizing that my head is close to overloaded…

…and then go to sleep…

Obama for Preseident

Shanghai Radio made a show from Time Square in New York during the election of the 44th President of United States of America. The experience of being there and feeling the unity of New Yorkers was indescribable. We were standing just outside “ABC news” studio, the atmosphere was tense. When it got to the point where Obama was elected the crowed went crazy! screaming, jumping, crying, hugging, yelling, smiling … silence… A person told me at some point, that this united feeling had not existed in New York since 9/11…

When Obama held his speech, New York held it´s breath. I wanted to take photos of the people listening to the historical speech, their faces and the look in their eyes was amazing. On the other hand I wanted to hear and see what he was saying to the world.

I will share some of the photos with you from that moment of people dreaming of new and better times.

“Yes we can”

This is what they saw on a big screen:

If you want to hear and feel this atmosphere, you should visit our radio page: www.myspace.com/shanghairadio where you also will be introduced to different upcoming bands.

Enjoy!

::::::NEW SHOW WITH SHANGHAI RADIO:::::::

I am proud to present a new show, new tunes, new photos!–> an indescribable atmosphere!!

Shanghai Radio covered the election of Obama from Time Square, New York. check it out on our myspace:

http://profile.myspace.com/shanghairadio

>>One of Many<<

A quick snapshot of the never ending avenues in the constant pulsing city.

Election coming up

I was scrolling through some of the photos from the other day, and this street art piece stood out to me. I don´t think it is intended for the election, but if Obama wins (and hopefully he will) this wall suddently gets a strong symbolic meaning. America is about to write History, and I am in the middle of it.
>> Snapped in a School Yard in East Harlem, the hood where I live at the moment <<

::::The Theater Of Life::::

I came by this wall today. :::: In The theater of life, You Too will have your moment:::: >> Become Your Dream <<
This wall is situated in East Harlem, New York City, where I live at the moment. I think it´s a strong message to send to the world, and it cheered up my heavy head from the Halloween night, only few hours ago…

I would like to post some photos taken in Central Park today, the light was extremely nice to practice manual settings on the camera. These are some of the results from today:

>>The view of NYC seen from the south side of Central Park looking North<<

>> Here we are on the East side, looking South, Camilla is the beautiful model <<

I also captured some photos the other night during Halloween. I was surprised to see how many people dressed up as something “not scary”. Here for example are two really sweet Indians. At least i didn´t find them scary….

>> Kids doing Trick Or Treat during Halloween-08 NYC <<

On my way home that night I came pass some road workers, I took this photo and I think it came out really well.

>> Road Worker on duty late night during Halloween – 08, NYC <<
Feel free to comment. I am impressed to see my granddad making the most comments on this site!
:::: KAI YOU ROCK ::::

NeW YoRk nEw yOrK

The trip has begun, New York is the target, Experiences, education, insights and curiosity are the agenda. Johannes and I have spend some time to settle in before the project kicks of. Later on today we gonna meet our client and specify our task. When that is done the project can start.

(Manhattan seen from the Brooklyn Bridge)

When settling in we have done what we like doing the most; getting lost in the city, walk around, finding a way back and then get lost again. suddenly something happens and the experience turns out amazing. We ended up way-out in the middle of nothing in the industry area of Brooklyn, where we were told a new music scene had started. A new bar with a scene playing upcoming bands, a great atmosphere and 5 weeks old. There was literally nothing in the area, even though people came popping up, walking in the door. smiling, and enjoying the music. check out the venue space here http://www.thebellhouseny.com/

(Statue of liberty, seen from the Brooklyn Bridge)
Last night after walking the Brooklyn bridge when the darkness crawled over Manhattan, we wanted to check out a local poetry club. The plan was to chill and lean back with a beer and listen to some slamming political poetry from the local youths. We found the place and paid the entrance, went to the bar, got a beer and then started to move towards the stage. Here we began to pay attention to the crowd we where in, all dressed in black – gothic kind of people – very heavy metal inspired- and out of the blue a massive death metal band started to scream and play loud trash metal! we where standing in the middle of New york subculture for extreme heavy metal!! it was a setup arranged by a group called “heavy hitter inc” and different bands from all around had a short performance. They were extremely technically skilled and it was an amazing experience -though not expected-
The “so called dance” in the front of the stage ended up in a massive fight, suddenly the bass player jumped down from the stage and gave all he had to stop the fight… the music stopped and after a while the fight stopped as well. Both Johannes and I, was standing so far in back that we had no chance to either see what happened or stop what was going on… light got switched on, trouble makers kicked out, band members being upset for idiots destroying their performance and two Danes observing a New York underground subculture boiling. We left when the beer was finished.

So basically we have spend our time feeling the American culture, tasting the fast food, talking with locals and getting lost -not in translation this time, more in madness-

Here are some quick photos from the past couple of days -Enjoy-

(The classic yellow cabs all over the town, and More taxi drivers are Wanted…)

No More Corporate BullShit – Fuck Wall Street, i guess ” The financial crises” … ?

A nightclub got closed down recently, We were asked if we wanted to make a new… This art piece is placed at the front door

After conversations with some locals, and reading the statistics, it seems like Obama will win the New York State. We still haven´t met one single person who thinks Mc Cain is worth any thing…

–> more will come! and feel free to comment and ask questions.

Warming Up

While preparing myself for traveling to New York City, I came across this photo. The Photo captures the view I had from where I lived in Århus. This specific view I miss! I think it gives a special feeling when the view is endless… only the horizon is the limit. MANY hours has been spend just staring and thinking…. I am looking forward to capture the view in New York.

I am about to leave for my Internship as a senior at the Kaospilot together with my colleague and good friend Carl Johannes Borris. We will be working for a Company named Export-company started by Startup-company. Our task will concern research and understanding of Guerrilla Marketing and that should lead us to a Concept developing stage, where we can start looking at ways of dealing with alternative marketing.
luckily we have been hooked up with a friend of a friend where we can stay the first couple of days. From there on we will see what happens, and hopefully we find a flat to settle in, we are mainly looking at Brooklyn. I have used CouchSurfing a lot when traveling before, and from looking at the CS – NYC community online it seems as this trip will be a blast!
By now i am recharging my batteries for the trip, and getting ready for a smashing night out in Copenhagen!

I came by this photo today on a webpage named http://osocio.org/
the text written below said:
// “The visual above is from a few years ago and for me is says it all. Helping the poor with food, money and housing is extremely important, but change is even more important.
The campaign was made for Columbus Coalition for the Homeless (USA). Their mission is to work toward ending homelessness by educating the Central Ohio Community about homeless issues and advocating in a unified voice for social and economic justice for all people, especially those who are most vulnerable.
The campaign is made by Little Jacket Visual Communication.” // — quote ended –

check out the different websites for more inspiration, there is a lot of gooooood stuff there!

:::::::::::: MoRe wiLL cOMe :::::::::::::::

BOOK RELEASE – SOCIAL INNOVATION – A TRAVEL GUIDE

Århus d. 12/09 2008

Pressemeddelelse / Kultur / Bogudgivelse:

12. september udkommer bogen ”Social Innovation – A Travel Guide”, som samler de mange definitioner og begreber inden for social innovation. Læseren får et overblik – et landkort – til at manøvrere i en tid, hvor de sociale aspekter kommer mere og mere i fokus, også i forretningsverdenen.

Bogen er opbygget som en rejseguide med kapitler som The Landscape, Famous Travellers og Social Innovation in Action og henvender sig både til små og mellemstore virksomheder, sociale entreprenører, studerende inden for businessfagene og andre, der er nysgerrige efter at vide mere om social innovation.

Event på udgivelsesdagen 12. september
Bag bogen står team13, afgangsstuderende fra den kreative lederuddannelse, Kaospiloterne, i Århus. På udgivelsesdagen (d.12 September) lægger de kl. 09.00-12.00 ud med en workshop, der omhandler et konkret eksempel, hvor social innovation kunne implementeres. I workshoppen deltager ca. 150 studerende fra Arkitektskolen, Århus School of Business og Kaospiloterne.

Fra kl. 13-16 vil der være paneldebat om S.I. med deltagelse af bl.a. Thorkil Sonne fra det socialt innovative danske firma Specialisterne  HYPERLINK “http://www.specialisterne.dk” www.specialisterne.dk

Paneldebatten efterfølges af en reception, selvfølgelig med et lille glas garanteret god stemning, fysiske eksemplarer af bogen og ikke mindst mulighed for at møde forfatterne og paneldeltagerne. Et perfekt forum for at møde potentielle samarbejdspartnere eller lære noget nyt. Vi forventer 400 gæster. Det hele løber af stablen d.12 sept. i studenterhuset Nordhavnsgade 1, 8000 Århus C. Gratis indgang og ingen tilmelding. http://www.studenterhusaarhus.dk/

“Social Innovation – A travel Guide” er skrevet som afhandling på et 3 mnd. ophold i Shanghai, Kina, med arbejds paraplyen “hvad er Social Innovation?”

”Social innovation er stadig et relativt ukendt begreb, til trods for at det er helt afgørende for samfundets fortsatte sammenhængs- og konkurrencekraft. Det er derfor glædeligt at Kaospiloterne har produceret en rejseguide, som gør begrebet forståeligt og tilgængeligt”, siger forfatter og social innovationsekspert Tania Ellis,  HYPERLINK “http://www.taniaellis.dk” www.taniaellis.dk

Allan Webber, grundlægger af Fast Company har skrevet forordet i bogen. www.fastcompany.com

Social Innovation – A Travel Guide er udgivet under licensen Creative Commons, det vil sige, at bogen frit kan downloades, at det er tilladt at bruge bogen i undervisningssammenhæng, og at der frit kan citeres fra bogen, så længe forfatterne krediteres. Bogen kan downloades gratis på hjemmesiden HYPERLINK “http://www.socialinnovation.biz” www.socialinnovation.biz .

For yderligere information kontakt presseansvarlige:
Søren Bo Steendahl: tlf. 26225786 mail:  HYPERLINK “mailto:Steendahl@kaospilot.dk” steendahl@kaospilot.dk
Jacob Klintrup tlf.   51900082 mail:  HYPERLINK “mailto:klintrup@kaospilot.dk” klintrup@kaospilot.dk
Nicklas Peter Høg tlf. 21825316 mail: hoeg@kaospilot.dk

Tha BoyZZ

two black and white photos edited within RAW gray scale editing.

First one of Me, second of my very good friend Nicklas. (see his blog for more info, in the blogRole on the right side of the blog.

Enjoy!

The Great Wall in China – photos

Here are some photos of the 10 km long walk on the great wall! -what a trip! what a view! and what a crazy building!

Hope you enjoy the photos as much as i do!

Chilling around at Anholt

 

During the Summer 2008 I stayed at the Danish Island Anholt helping out my friend with his restaurant. here are some photos of the beautiful island!  

 

Masanga Project exhibition

 

The Hospital Masanga placed in Sierra Leone, Vest Africa, invites  

people with good hearts and helping spirits to a project exhibition  

on Sunday 8th of june. The purpose of the day is to inform about  

current and upcoming projects, and make it tangible to see what we  

and you can do to improve Masanga and Sierra Leone´s future. It is  

about involving as many people as possible. Seeing the crowed as a  

resource and extract knowledge and insights on different specific  

projects and areas.

 

Therefor we invite you to:

 

-Insight and participation in different interesting and broad  

reaching projects

-catching conversations

-relevant speeches

-Interesting and well produced video documentary.

-live-story-telling by returned medical student.

-Beers, cake, soda, for a reasonable price

-Good vibes

-Conversations with bright minds.

 

The program

 

Doors open at 12.00 Sunday 8th june, Mejlgade 35 Århus 1.floor

-approx. 13.30

Presentation by chairman of the organization Friends of Masanga

-approx. 14.00

Short video documentary of the Hospital Masanga

-approx. 14.30

live-story-telling by returned medical student, Julie

-approx. 15.00

Introduction to the different projects presented at the exhibition  

incl. the Ambusanga project.

 

As for now we have 22 project to present, going wide from renovating  

houses to build and found an eye clinic or develop a Business school  

concept to educate entrepreneurs.

 

–>invite your network<–

www.masanga.dk 

 

more photos -here- 

 

Dolly Partyon & Le petit Andrés

 

Saturday the 24th of may, Gregers Mærsk Møller and Anders Toft played a super funky hard-rocking elctro set at Studenterhuset in Århus. The music was smashing and the beers tasty. Here are some photos from the event. 

Enjoy! 

 

Nicklas is chilling next to the Dj´s and the empty dance floor

 

Anders “aka” Le petit Andrés, click the picture for hotlink. 

 

Gregers “aka” Dollypartyon 

 

Anders “aka” Le petit Andrés 

 

One Day In Shanghai

During our stay in Shanghai, I created together with me friend Jacob klintrup, a movie illustrating a random day in the busy city. We made a Dogma concept with the following rules: 

-No setups, 
-Only one takes and no editing 
-All photos in chronological order
-A random day, where what ever happened – happened, no setups.
-The music played is the music from the day
-Only follow Jacob Klintrup
-All photos by me, Søren Bo Steendahl  

This has created a stop-motion video with 332 pictures and music from one day in shanghai. Due to a shitty quality at youtube i suggest you to click the photo below. Enjoy

// CLICK IT 

http://shanghaioutpost.dk/?page_id=65 

 
DONGTAN IK VILLAGE
ict by Jacob and Christian stolze

 

Going through Photos on the Hard drive…

While looking through my hard drive i came a crosse some photos i like. 

 

Nana & Gregers @ Anar club, Shanghai, china

 

Nagano, Japan

 

Tokyo, Japan, a friday @ 20.30 

 

Nagano, Japan

 

Summer Palace, Beijing, China

 

Summer Palace, Beijing, China 

 

Summer Palace, Beijing, China

 

Århus harbor, Denmark 

The organization “Viva La Renovation” is hosting a day of alternative and creative workshops! We host the day in order to introduce our new location and create a financial platform for our work with Roskilde Festival 08. 

COME AND PLAY WITH US AND BRING YOUR FRIEND! 

Random

a New show is up running at our radio station! www.myspace.com/shanghairadio , see the link in the blog role! the show is about art and our trip to an old Opium factory and den. We meet an very interesting photographer named Maleonn. www.maleonn.com He turned out to be one of the initiators who turned the old factory into a creative hub for upcoming artists. It is located at WeiHai lu 696 and has an extremely rough and raw appeal! We loved it and was lucky to get an interview with Kathryn Wilson a photographer from America who is on an internship in the old buildings. hear more about the place at the radio station. Shanghai radio is looking for upcoming bands who wants some free promotion, please let me know if you hear or know about any!

Ladybox is coming to Shanghai during this week. They are a Dj duo from Copenhagen and they are rocking the dance-floor! I have been offered a job as a photographer to follow the duo around Shanghai to different gigs and hangouts. The pictures are going to SoundVenue a big music magazine in Denmark. I am very much looking forward for the task! we are entering the final part of our outpost and Photographers from England Gloucestershire university are now here to work with us! we met them on saturday and partied till we dropped! -great gang! looking forward to learn more about photography!

quick update…//…

I still can´t upload pictures to this page when being in china… tough shit!

closing down the Fashion Hub marketing task force. The 5 weeks project is over, the first part of the outpost -closed down-. A lot has happened… so much that is has been difficult to grasp it all. therefore the inconvenient on the blog. The task we were to do for the Shanghai Fashion hub was shortly to “map out creative networks and hubs in Shanghai”. The group consisted of 7 strong individuals all ready to subtract as much learning and experience from the project as possible! Our result became a good looking book. The book contains our research material, pictures from the field and illustrations. It is all meant as an inspiration for the Fashion Hub, as well as pure fact about how the situation in Shanghai is at the moment. The idea about creating a “creative” book came from the impression we had of the Fashion hub. Inspiration and a picture of what moves in Shanghai was needed for them in order to market them self to the right people. By right i mean the people they were talking about, but not being in contact with. It all ended up in a hard working process for the 7 dedicated Kaospilots, long hours, many hours in front of the computer, not much sleep and layout and light discussions… coffee, nudles, rice, rice nudles and coffee… long chinese hours! We got the result we wanted and had a short and brief presentation afterwards. The one and only copy of the book was given to them with a memory stick, so they could copy more if needed.
The project ended there and we are now waiting for written feedback on our deliverable and cooperation during the 5 weeks.

I must say that this education again and again creates the possibility for me, to jump into unknown areas and try them out. I am overwhelmed with impressions from working with a Chinese governmental controlled company. experiencing rapid changes, chaotic decisions and enormous language and culture barriers/differences.

SES -Shanghai Experimental School-

Arriving back to Shanghai at 13.40 straight from The 4th International Chemical Fiber and Yarn Products Investments Seminar in Tongxiang Nicklas, Anders Fredsø and Søren went to SES (Shanghai Experimental School) to facilitate a workshop. We were given the task to do a lecture in a high school, for students having a series of lectures about “new ways of thinking, discussing and communicating”. We had more or less free hands in order to plan the one hour given. The only rule was “not to touch upon sensitive topics” such as Tibet/Taiwan and censorship… Phillip and Henrique had the day before done a similar thing (at an other school). We used the feedback they got as inspiration when designing our program. It was a rough task: 240 students, 15 years of age, semi English level and only one hour, 3 facilitators. 

The room we had was a huge auditorium where everybody was supposed to sit down all the time – a challenge since we had planned to move around with them a lot.

Nonetheless we started our program. There was a lot of noise but after a good solid Danish whistle (red. “pift”) there was complete silence! Great, we started our introduction of the three of us, Denmark and The Kaospilots.

We in our eagerness and confidence started without microphone – rather ambitious considering the room and the amount of people. After a little while the noise level and the amount of chitchat raised so we had to turn to the mic. The chitchatting in the young crowd became a thing that was there during the whole workshop – more on that.

So, we turned on the microphone and asked for 10 volunteers who would have the task of observing while participating and then give a brief evaluation in the end of the program – after some giggling and hesitation a brave young man stood up and soon we had ten people signed up for the job.

The first assignment was a listening exercise, focusing on good experiences. we asked the students to pair up, and “tell a story where you learned something in life”. The exercise is about listening and being listened to. When the first task was over, we asked them to tell/listen about a situation during their education where they learned the most. The outcome was interesting. The students seemed to have a hard time interacting with others than their friends. Shyness, precariousness and excitement seemed to be the key words for the students.

The ChitChat was ongoing, and getting the attention was a hard mission even with the microphone. We therefore improvised a focus exercise. Everyone had to close their eyes and hands. During a timeframe of two minutes they should then -in deeeeeeep silence- and with closed eyes, slowly open their hands for the two minutes. It was a great experience to see the silent site of the students as well, at least for two minutes…

The next exercise was a short version of “Take A Stand” . The four corners was divided: Agree, Strongly agree, Disagree, Strongly disagree. After announcing the idea behind the exercise, about different opinions can lead to great dialogues and most likely new insight as well. We gave the statement that: “Education is more important than experience.” The room became alive! Noise level was turned up… talks, laughter, disagreement, agreement, chitchatting and good vibes was in the room. Suddenly the room was divided in two large camps. Surprisingly the majority of the room was standing at Strongly disagree and Disagree. Few brave ones stood on the agree and strongly agree site. We now opened the floor for talks and encouraged the students to take talks with students from different corners. The talks we understood seemed great and interesting!

As a sum-up we invited our announced observers to come to the stage and present their impression of the day. This was in order to get feedback from the group and to leave the room with a feeling of knowing how they (the student) found the day.
Their new insight and feedback was smashing! “I learned how important communication is! how much i can learn from my friends, just by talking about disagreement on various subjects!” sentences like this was presented to the whole group by our observers.

We had a warm thanks from the teachers, and were asked if we wanted to come back next week… For an even bigger workshop! Lets see what will happen!!

We can by now conclude that the cultural difference also exist in a young age! That similarities between teenagers also are present!

All in all we 3 guys can say that this was great experience, a lot of fun and a thing that we would definitely not have been without!

Good times! Strong People! Good vibes! Impressions galore!!

Big up from Anders F, Nicklas and Søren

Anti Iraq demonstration in Tokyo

While being random in Tokyo, playing football, drums, hackysack and hanging out. We came by a demontration against the war in Iraq. There were shit lots of police and not that many participants in the demonstration. My friend Nei Kodama told me about the Extremely right-winged Japanese government and the few who dared to stand up and go against it. We were looking at some of the few… -his bandana says UNITE  Shortly after the police started to drag people out of the demonstration. Some ended on the ground with violence, some got arrested. Nei was quickly on his feet to help the demonstration I came after. We were now in the middle of an in-fight between Japanese Police and angry “peace lovers”. I lost Nei in the middle and now only had my camera and common sense to stick with. I must say that the Adrenalin was pumping around as Japanese Police forces started to push me and yell in Japanese.    There was a lot of old people in the demo. And the fight stopped quickly after. I had the taste of Japanese Police rod. Not as a Punch just as an aggressive direction guidance…  the demonstration continued peacefully from there and we ended up playing some drums and had a great time!  Here we are hanging out playing drums in a park, just before the demonstration took place Tomorrow we will b leaving for Nagano. I am looking forward to see the country side of Japan.  

Next stop Japan //

wake up call, 06.00 metro take off from Chansu lu st. to people square. 06.30 departure towards Science and Technology center. 07.00 Maglev train departure towards Shanghai international airport in Pudon. two words about the Maglev train: it toke of at 07.00, and 30 km later and no less than 7 minutes i stood in the airport. The train gets a speed of 400 km/h … it was an extreme experience to travel with that speed above ground!  the link to the train web page is: 

Arriving in Tokyo International airport without the home address for my friend Nei, was a challenge. At the immigration paper there is a slot saying: address in Japan. Trying to explain that i was going to see my good friend, and didn´t know his address was quit time consuming. Any way. after the third check for Narcotics and bombs I was free to enter Japan!!! And there i was in the arrival hall with no sight of my friend Nei Kodama. My plane was about 1 hour delayed, and i kept looking for a smiling japanese guy, with black hair, one and a half head shorter than me… impossible! that description fits all the japanese men in the airport… after a while i started to picture the scenario of not finding him. I had no telephone nr. no address… I went to the information disc and had his named called all over tokyo airport… Mr. Nei kodama, Mr. Soren is waiting for you in the reception….  Wupti! 10 min later a happy japanese guy came jumping! 

The day past by meeting his very friendly and kind family. Nearly all of them. New and interesting japanese food has been tried and the Tokyo is waiting to be explored! 

 

 

PHOTOS!

YES! there is a way….!I created this: www.flickr.com/steendahl and when the possibilities are there, you will find some on this side as well, to make it more inspiring!take care!  

Just an other day in madness…

The day is over, I am back in my bed at my couchsurfing hosts; Alicia and Britt. The day started at 09.00 and finishes at 23.45, one out of many days here in Shanghai. After group guidence with Fanny Posselt and Simon Kavanagh we continued our production of a book containing our research. At 16.00 we had an interesting meeting with an Italien named Marco. He is at the moment making a movie about the fashion hub. A movie that serves to present the place with the focus on attracting companies and artists. We quickly realized that both his project as well as ours were pretty much in line and could therefore be connected. -that we are working on now. At 18.00 we had a lecture coming in. Phillipe Tzou. He is the very same man being advocate for the Couchsurfing community in Shanghai. I had a great talk with him for about two weeks ago about the youth in shanghai. How the changes are happening within the culture and behavior. The lecture we were going to have had tree slots, as Nicklas Peter Høg so clearly wrote down on the team13 blog:

1) Chinese Family: the backbone of the Chinese society
In order to understand the Chinese society today.

2) Rural vs Urban China, this is the most crucial element to
understand the current economic,
social and political changes that are happening in China. the politics
of Hukou (permanent residency), migrant workers, under-educated and
illiteracy in rural china, but of course poverty in urban china among
migrants and poverty in rural china among farmers and peasants.

3) the youth in China today: understanding the “post 80 generation”
as you know people who were born after 1978 (but nowadays it’s called
after 1980) were all “results” of the single-child policy. this
created a whole lotta social changes in micro social behaviour and
then macro demographic, economic and even home-owning behavior.

The was extremely interesting and the guests who was there gave some impressions on Shanghai, seen with young migrant workers eyes. -A Social need they saw; The education of kids. That kids in the educational system are thrown directly into the rough real world, that there are no difference between time at school and time off.

Nicklas, Amalie and I decided to have dinner together after the session, 20.30. Nicklas and I went for the food. When we got back to the girls flat, there was a lot of chinese people standing in the doorway. all looking at us. The girls; Nana and Amalie were standing there as well, smiling all over their faces and saying in danish: -Just smile and pretend to be happy!!! -these people are the real owners, and we are seriously F*****!!!! So it turned out to be so, that the apartment they are renting from Hellen (former fashion hub contact person) is not hers… The owner of the apartment didn´t know that the girls lived there, and he had seen NO money! After a long chinese,english, danish back and forth it turned out to be “okay” … The girls needs to negotiate a new contract and find out what happened with the 10.000 Yang…

I am just happy for my couch! :0)

Again: pictures will hit the page, when i get to Japan! -on saturday the 15th of March.

Good night and Good luck!

Now i know

it´s due to the chinese government that i can´t upload any pictures here! I have to use proxys in order to get to this page, and apparently that hinders me in uploading any pictures. SORRY! i will have to wait until i get to japan. next week. then i will upload like the wannabe japanese photo dude i am!

We are about to end our research time for the Fashion hub. Now we are looking into making it into a book. it´s hard work, long hours and a lot of fun! i like it! my area of responsability is around the pictures going into the book. an area i like a lot.

when i have more time i will get some more writing done! -now i am falling asleep typing! tea just don´t work the same way as coffee!!

IF I KNEW…. Then what?

There are many things i would like to know. F.eks. how to upload pictures at this page… how to make it look nice and so on… Many hours have been spend in frustration towards the internet here in china! first of all the whole Proxy affair and the sensor of internet pages… then the set up at this blog… Therefor i have arranged a meeting with me good friend Henrique, who knows this stuff. -yes, you can read it as a cry out for help! i am looking forward for that. not just for my own sake but also for you as the receiver and reader of this forum.I would like to invite you to interact with this page, and thereby me, by commenting or emailing me. In that way i get more knowledge about what is interesting for me to publish and what is not. Otherwise i could just end up typing down every thing and in that way overload everyone…OUR PROJECT IS ROLING!The Shanghai fashion hub task force group now has a job to do! We are working full on, and having fun meanwhile. Our specific task is to: “map out creative networks and spaces in shanghai, discover their locations, locate their needs and basically research on as much information about what´s moving in the field of creativity in Shanghai.” That should then be delivered to the Shanghai Fashion Hub as kind of either Booklet, Book, poster -just something that represent the people that Shanghai Fashion Hub want´s to attract in the long run. We are all working long hours, due to the fact that mingling with the creative network often takes place during night time.If you know anything about creative movement in Shanghai, please let me know. 

Sunday in pulsing madness

If possible: then play CV Jørgensen, søndags seanser while reading this paragraph. that is describing my mood and smile pretty well.

it´s now sunday. The sun has been shining. I have had some cosy hangovers and some nice time alone. Alone in that sense that i have been walking around on my own. There are always people around you when being out on in the streets. I finally found a football field and sat down to enjoy the sun, my lunch and the view of happy chinese football players. Later on I randomly ran into a french girl in the street, we walked and talked for a while. looked at the city. observed the madness! I then got offered dinner by Anders F, Anders G and Mark in their new apartment. The dinner id over, the food was good, I am chilling out in the living room of the flat with the Norwegians girl crew. I have decided not to find a permanently place to stay. It is to much of a hassle, and there are so many wonderful people in this city offering couches, spare beds and madrases. I started to search in the Couchsurfing community online. A network i have been a part of for about a year by now. www.couchsurfing.dk it is a website for people who likes to travel, and who likes to meet travelers. By creating a profile you invite travelers to stay at your place. And you get access to couches all over the world. Lat friday there was a dinner party for the Couch surfing community in Shanghai. I joint in, and met a bunch of friendly and kind people! during dinner I had more than 5 different places i could sleep. Tomorrow i will be moving my stuff to a couchsurfer named Alicia. She has offered me a single room in her flat for as long as i like…! check that out! -a place to stay 2 month, for free! I am really looking forward to meet her tomorrow!

If i knew how to upload pictures on this site, they would be all over the page…! i most wait until i have had my “how to use the internet” lesson by our beloved internet nerd Henrique. this will happen on tuesday.

The group I am in, “the Fashionist mobsters” as we are called by some. We have by now received and answer from our client about the demands we made. Of course it was not on time and the result is a bit blurry by now. It does not look like we are going to Beijing witch is a pity. There are many things to look into tomorrow and this process so far has been EXTREMELY interesting to be in. tough, rough, hard, ignoring, frustrating, nail biting, ups and downs, etc. and on top of all this —> learning full! my task for tuesday is to write down my learnings and findings from the first two weeks project work. My experience of the cooperation between us as Kaospilots and The Fasion Hub as a client.

-check out from a tired mister Steendahl.

Blogging and rocking!

After a stroke of fever and a serious Asian influenza I am now strong and happy again! a lot have happened the two and a half day where i have been knocked out. We as a group, lost our client, end then had a new contact person. The next day we also lost him, and now have a third. Then To day that is also changed and now we have a fourth… If you find it hard to understand and follow, then don´t worry; so do I …. any way, we (the group) have now made some demands for our client that they have to live up to as a partner. We will get the answer tomorrow at 12. if we have no answers or a NO as an answer will go and find an other client. Yes it has come this far. It sounds, when said, as frustrations. But what i see here is hugh possibility for learning. -how can this be prepared in before hand, and what could we as Kaospilots have done different? Learnings that are crucial to focus at, and then again really hard to see when standing in the situation.
During my sick days I was offered Hedvig´s bed. Some of the team members are in Bambooland, and there are spare beds around town. We still have no place to live settled. I have a meeting with an Agent and a landlord tomorrow, so hopefully it will end out with a signed contract. And now it turns out that there a troubles with the paper work, apparently we are all “illegally” situated in Shanghai… So that we need to deal with tomorrow as well. I do think that the Risktaking element is about to be fulfilled. Then again this is one of the element i love so much, and this staying in the unknown as a group, was one of my goals before going. It´s going pretty well to succeed that! :0)
I made the Girls a chicken soup to day for dinner. I did it the best i have learned from my good friend Morten. And a brilliant experience it was to do it china. Be course a “whole chicken” here is a WHOLE chicken…
For those who don´t know about Shanghai radio, you should for sure check it out! My friend Carl Johannes Borris (al so from my team) is the Host of the program. I am the photographer. see the link at the right side of this page to follow the development.

The unknown?

What to do when being stocked in project work?
The Fashion Hub group are still in the unknown zone searching for the light. Our clint, the Shanghai Fashion Hub, has still not presented a project description for us. After a confusing meeting with the boss the other day, our group still stand with only questions and very few answers. As this is being typed we are in a waiting position. Simon our Team manager is in a meeting with Mr. Lee (the boss of the hub) The result of this meeting might be crucial for our further project work. Will we create a marketing strategy? Design a huge process? Develop Services for creative industries? or something completely different? As said before: The Questions are many, the answers are few. It is an interesting situation for the group, when looking at cooperation and personal ways of dealing with culture clashes and unstable grounding. We were from the start promised a place to stay, for free, at the Hub. Friday 3 days before moving in, the promises was canceled. So the situation to day, Monday the 25th is: No project so far, and no housing. Spit or challenges the group is smiling and looking forward to get some answers on the table.
Shanghai is still interesting, rough, inspiring, crazy, Hugh and friendly! we like it a lot.

A new Blog is born! Faster-harder-wilder!

After more than two weeks in Shanghai, I find my self looking into my computer screen, wondering were to start… How to write down experiences and impressions, findings and understandings -in a such way that it creates sense or understanding for the receiver. When that is said the “free flow” can start, and I hope you can follow!After a lot of frustrations toward the censorship of the internet by the Chinese government. I finally learned a way through the system! Now I can blog, for you and myself, your friends as well as my friends. Or basically for everyone!Some might think; Why is Søren on the other side of the earth? Others might think; -China… the place you as a kid are trying to get to when digging in the sandbox… What is he doing there? Well… I also ask my self that question.Why Shanghai? 
On the second year at the Kaospilots, the Team go together on an “Outpost”. To work, play, study, create, search and try to understand and experiment with our way of working in an other culture. A new setting, new surroundings, new culture, new mindsets, new trends, new ways of thinking and approaching challenges. I am here as a member of Team 13 with the working umbrella named Social Innovation. How do we understand Social Innovation in a chinese setting, how does it look like and how does it work? How can we harvest and share our experiences with others? 
As you might have discovered by now, are my head pretty overloaded with questions concerning the purpose of my stay in Shanghai. I freaking fucking love it! I personally find our task as a team extremely interesting! Social innovation is so huge a topic and still so undefined in Denmark, that our work and insight can become extremely valid.With this as my late intro to a long journey I will finish it off for today and get a good night sleep. The Jet-lag and the culture crash “chock” is over. I now remain with the culture clash and the different ways of dealing with it. So far I am overwhelmed with positive experiences and inputs. -looking forward to the days coming!Big up for technology!!