Visualgreenland's Blog

Imagined space is a project about “Blok P” in Nuuk, Greenland, and the people who have or are living there. Blok P was the largest residential building in all of Greenland, and the largest building in Nuuk. It contains around 150 apartments and it is said that approximately 1% of the total population of Greenland lived in this building. During next spring it will be demolished and all the inhabitants will be relocated along with a lifetime of memories. Many of the inhabitants had been living there for most of their lives. The blok is now a ghost town with only few families left. It will be our home while we portray some of the people who have or are still is living there. Hopefully we will end up with an honest document of the lived life in within a historic apartment blok in Nuuk, based on interviews, sound field recordings, photos and video.

ACTION NUMBER TWO HERE

visualgreenland — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:28:56 +0000

This autumn we are continuing our project in Nuuk – (and hopefully wider in Greenland at a later date). Three students from Copenhagen are in Nuuk now studying one block of apartments and they are collecting the material on one special site named IMAGINED SPACE.

Imagined Space is a project about “Block P” in Nuuk, Greenland, and the people who have or are living there. Block P was the largest residential building in all of Greenland, and the largest building in Nuuk. It contains around 500 apartments and it is said that approximately 1% of the total population of Greenland lived in this building. During next spring it will be demolished and all the inhabitants will be relocated along with a lifetime of memories. Many of the inhabitants had been living there for most of their lives. The block is now a ghost town with only few families left.

The action designers this time are: Sarah Bodil Hansen (graphic designer), Matylda Rasmussen (graphic designer) and Käthe Stougaard Kofoed Espersen is filming for documentation.

We want to involve designers and creative people more in the work that the locals are doing in developing communication and presentation of the culture and living in Greenland. This is just first introduction to this second step in developing design-action in the country by our schools and hopefully we will be able to gain access to support both from the local culture and from the outer specialist institutes that can help the development.

Here is a small image from the other blog:

NAPA INSTITUTE MEETING

visualgreenland — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 09:24:36 +0000

Conversation in the meeting room in the Nordic Institute. The group explaining the project. Katja Nyborg from Napa on the far left.

Our project: VISUAL GREENLAND is one of a number of design strategic projects that I am participating in. It was a course run by our Cirrusnetwork, a network of the schools of design and art in the Nordic Region. This one was specifically enjoyable since we all were in Nuuk for the first time, meeting a culture that is both very close and from far afar. I decided that we should only look at the visual aspects to the Nuuk culture and make a kind of a synchronic study, meaning seeing today as it looks like (of course through the eyes of the foreign voyeur. To go for only visual aspects narrowed the study and made it possible in the short time we had for the visit. I would really like to visit the town again with product and clothing designers to look at other design and production factors.

Presentation in the seminar room of the Nordic Institute. From left: Dori, Katja Nyborg, Boas Møller, Maya, Sarah, Joane, Mats, Leise, Heikki and Arnor.

We were warmly supported by the leader of NAPA (the Nordic Institute in Greenland) Leise Johnsen and all her staff. We got seminar facilities and internet where we held the meetings between our individual voyages into the visual world. We discussed classifications and delegated tasks like: BUILDINGS – SIGNS AND LOGOS – GRAFFITI – LETTERS AND DRAWINGS – TYPOGRAPHY – PLAY – and many more things that we have collected on the website. We were also so lucky to be in Nuuk during the Nuuk Rock Festival and managed to see a few of the bands there.

On the penultimate day we had a meeting with the staff in NAPA to explain our intention with the project, how we are looking and what might come out of it. We have also made our first links to this very large part of the Nordic community and the Cirrus Network that I am the leader of wants to create stronger links there. Now we are planning a small booklet that presents our findings and hopefully generates more interesting projects in design.

Nuuk cemeteries

visualgreenland — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:26:49 +0000

As far as I could see there is three cemeteries in Nuuk. They all share a common feature with the wooden white crosses. The graves are all placed in a quite strict grid which at first glance gives them a very uniform appearence. Then I noticed was the small crosses in between the larger ones which are childrens graves. At a closer look the graves are decorated with artifical flowers and toys and other small objects. In one of the cemeteries it is easy to see wich graves are the newer ones since the artifical flowers fades in the sun and leaves the older graves more colourless than the newer ones which are really poppin’ with colour. I think the crosses reflects the equality we all share in death. The temporary wood will go away faster than stone, and to me this suits the nature of death in a good way.

Click the image underneath for my facebook album.

Sea and Blocks

visualgreenland — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:19:20 +0000

Sea and Blocks

The Departure – Goddur Album No. 6

visualgreenland — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:29:12 +0000

ALBUM NO. 6 Goddur

Structuralism – Goddur Album No. 5

visualgreenland — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:35:06 +0000

ALBUM NO 5 Goddur

IDEAS ABOUT NUUK BABYLON Dori