09. developements

A busy and yet somehow uneventful week has passed since my internet went down. Some of that time was spent on the completion and presentation of our first AD project, finished Friday,  in which around thirty groups of four researched, visited, drew, modeled, and analyzed in various 2 and 3 D mediums different housing developments in and around the city. The whole presentation was quite neat, with several quite different approaches to social housing spanning over one hundred years all being analyzed from a modern perspective using modern methods + ideas. Plus, it was on the program for Copenhagen Architecture + Design Days, which made the whole affair seem a bit more professional. I only have these shitty images of the presentation + my project, but I have a pdf format of what I was working on, and supposedly these will all be put into some kind of a book form, which I hope they distribute.

pretzles, cheap wine, talking heads

Humlebyen (“Hops-Town”), 1886

After that was done, I tried to figure out  this “vibrant european nightlife” you hear so much about. Not too much seems different yet; just like in the states, everyone is louder, drunker, and happier than you are. But, I must have had some fun, because I didn’t get to bed until around 5. There was a neat party in an underpass which was kind of rad to see.

The Danes are also really, really good at graffiti.

Mostly I just walk around. I enjoy very much just spending the evening not going anywhere, and then picking a quiet spot, hopefully near some water, and having a beer or two. Actually, I guess this describes my afternoons as well. Like any city, Copenhagen tricks you into thinking you have to spend money to be happy, but mostly I have just been getting used to the air + to the map, and avoiding anything with walls. Today I decided to start going to places on purpose, and between classes went to the National Museum. This museum is mostly concerned with archeology, cultural anthropology, and ethnology. Truly fantastic exhibits of the tools, clothing, and household objects of cultures around the world. The exhibit on Danish prehistory was very striking and had many high points: traveling from stone to iron, watching tool craft develop; imagining the terrifying but somehow hilarious  clash between Cro-Magnons + Neanderthals leading to the latter’s extinction; very well persevered and quite haunting mummified remains in carved oak coffins, buried in full dress and jewlery; and some spectacular rune stones.

But, that was not even the bulk of the museums content. They had an excellent Aboriginal exhibit, which I hope they translate soon, and some equally fascinating displays on the peoples of Iceland, Greenland, and Alaska. In general, they made quite a effort to cover as much of the globe as possible. The feature exhibit was on Egyptian amulets.

Their exhibit on modern danish history was quite good, mainly because it included many banal objects. I at least, am of the belief that these are the things that define us more than our ‘great works,’ so I appreciated the showcasing of all the ugly 50′s furniture, mass-production toys and household things, pokemon cards, Beatles singles, coffee pots, and all that. Quite neat in the context of the rest of the museum. It is an comforting thought, that. What will be left of all cultures is that of which we are least proud, but that which is most commonplace. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.

Tomorrow I will buy a bike, I hope. This weekend my program is taking us on a trip through Jutland.