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!
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…
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
A quick snapshot of the never ending avenues in the constant pulsing city.
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 <<
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 ::::
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!
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!
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!
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!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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