The End

I just realized this is the end of this blog. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to see my brother in Västerås again. And since he just moved, he hasn’t an internet connection installed yet. And next week, since I don’t have any lessons, I figure I might just go to Paris to see a very, very important person to me. I miss her and I’d love to see her. I don’t really know what to say, this being the very last input to this blog; but if I would just say one thing, I’d say that we already, in this moment, live in the future! It is already here. Like most people in my generation, I’m so accustomed to the globalization of the world that I’ve stopped thinking about it. Today, we can go see our friends all over, traveling being rather cheap and available for all. Next year, me and my fellow trend spotter Philip, will go to China two times to live, study and work. It is not at all strange. Just one or two generations ago, we would be adventurers. Today, it is perfectly safe and sane to go halfway round the world to do such things. One of the best things with this course is that it got me thinking more brightly about the future. To me, there will always be dystopias, but nevertheless, the world today is better, safer and more liberated than it has ever been. And I’ll think it’ll be even better in the future!

One thing that I also feel somewhat obliged to comment is the tragic school shootings in Finland. Just thirteen days before the school shooting in Kauhajoki, I wrote this post about the school shooting in Jokela (which you can read here: http://trendspottingandfuturethinking.blogspot.com/2008/09/fear-and-terror.html). One important conclusion is that people are ants. We do as others have done before us. The second Finnish gun man (which you can read about here: http://trendspottingandfuturethinking.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-school-shooting-in-finland.html) also put together a sort of press-kit, posted clips on YouTube and more or less copied the terrorist act in Jokela. Further, it’s all a question of time until something similar happens in Sweden, I’m afraid. The internet is the greatest invention of our time, but it has also made these two young men famous. And there is really nothing we could do about it. Or even should. Something in our world has changed. The technology of Internet, but also the ethics in journalism, has changed. And there is no turning back.

When thinking about the future, we must be aware of huge contradictions. Nothing is black and white. Some men thought the nuclear bomb would, with some game theory in the background, put an end to all wars. Some years later, people are worried that the nuclear bomb will put an end to all living species. In my predictions, on this blog, during the past weeks, I might have overlooked some things. The more you analyze things, the more you realize anything can happen, turning your analysis upside-down. In this course, I think that thinking about the future has been more important than the conclusions it reached. I’ve learned a lot, from my teachers, my classmates, and even myself.

It even feels a bit sad that it is over. I guess there is still a lot to be said, but, instead of going into that, I’d like to play this little video instead. Cause´ how can I better end this than to play one of the best bands there were, performing one of the best songs to one of the best movies ever made, based on one of the best books ever written? I present to you, the Doors, with pictures from Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The song is called: This is the end.



Thank You for Your Time!

Final Presentations!

Tonight we all had our final presentations in Konstfack! I was surprised by how good most of the presentations were. I especially liked “The Future of Teenagers”. That was a great one. I am kind of pleased with our own presentation, “The Future of Personal Finance” as well. As a matter of fact, our presentation isn’t finished yet. It is up and available at thisisnotapresentation.blogspot.com. The idea for the format of the presentation I had when I thought about a painting of a pipe by Magritte, saying “This is not a pipe” in French. At first, one may be confused, but after a while, one realizes that it isn’t a pipe, but a picture of a pipe. Likewise, our presentation today is not really the presentation – but more so a presentation of the presentation.



Go visit the blog, and you’ll have the presentation there. It’s available from any place, at any time. That's the way of the future!

Since I got home, I’ve been listening to Johnny Cash, which felt natural after all this talk about the future of personal finance =) And then I was suddenly in the mood for this really funny little cowboy game. Don’t start – it’ll get you addicted! I know it'll keep me up all night.

Smokin Barrels

A New Kind of Celebrity

I was just thinking about the classic Andy Warhol quote, when reading this article: www.aftonbladet.se/wendela/article3466170.ab



This 17-year old Norwegian girl Cathrine is protesting against all the responsibilities one can have when one turns 18, so she decided to do everything she can on her birthday: get married to a complete stranger, take a bank loan, get drunk and change her name – to Bunny Fökk. She seems like a really cool girl, with a very good sense of humor. In Norway, you can only change name every 10 years, but our girl Bunny doesn’t care =)

It seems being a bit odd can make anybody have their fifteen minutes of fame. The other really funny celebrity of this kind I heard of this weekend is Nick Pitera, who can sing this Aladdin duet all by himself. It’s kind of cool. Have a look for yourself.

Technology at Partys

My brother had a party in Västerås yesterday. He has just bought a new apartment and invited some old friends of ours. It was awesome to see these people, as always. The gathering was a pretty conventional one. We met up, ate dinner and dessert and then we drank alcohol to two o’clock in the morning. We did it the way people always have. But then, something happened who got me thinking on how technology sometimes changes our behavior. My childhood friend Jon showed me this new iPhone of his. I played around with it for a good half hour. I was impressed! It is truly the supergadget of today. My friend also brought Singstar and Guitarhero, and so, we sang karaoke and competed playing the plastic toy guitar. I completely sucked, even though I play the guitar for real. My friend hesitated a bit, bringing these stuff, thinking some of the married, religious people in my brother’s old med class would think he was silly, but we all had a blast in the end. I wonder what kind of party gadgets we’ll have in the future. Today, the industry for toys is something one associates with kids, primarily. In the future, maybe we’ll see a lot more of things like Singstar and Guitarhero, marketed to grown ups.

The Future is Bright, After All

There isn’t much of the course left, and I must say all this thinking about the future has gotten me in a sort of overall optimistic mood. In one management course on Stockholm School of Economics, one of our teachers mentioned that in the modernistic era, nine out of ten people have this mindset that the future is much brighter than the past and those who don’t dream back to some state of the lost Eden. In that moment, I felt I belonged to the minority. Perhaps that’s why I was very, very moved by the Swedish film Farväl Falkenberg last year. You who have seen it can probably figure why. There is this little line in the film: “Jag tittar bakåt”, which I in its context thinks summarizes and opens up the whole story.



I look back at things and times way too much. I live in my past and value memories more than the moment. I miss people I had and lost. I can’t get over it. “Vad man har betyder inget, vad man mist betyder allt” to make use of another Hjalmar Söderberg quote.

But then I realize the best is still to come. Funny things happen all the time. Life takes new turns. I’ve never thought so much of the future as I’ve done the recent time. And I like it. I think we’ll make it there.

The Future Fashion World

I’ve heard that trends within fashion are no longer what they used to be. In past times, every trend in the western world had its origin in Paris, France. The trends were distinguished and lengthy. Nowadays, the fashion is said to be developed simultaneously in so many places one don’t know where to look. The era of the supermodels has diminished. Maybe the fashion houses realized it wasn’t in their economical interest to hype some models extremely more than others, having to pay the price for it afterwards. Coming to think about it, most of the famous supermodels I know are already in their end of their career or long past it: Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, Twiggy, Cindy Crawford, Gisel Bϋndchen, Elle Macpherson, Marilyn, and so on. The supermodel as a phenomena is likely to disappear I guess.


Kate Moss still has something to offer though.

And then I found this site, which I think can be kind of symptomatic for the future fashion world, at least great parts of it.

http://stockholm.youcatwalk.com/
http://london.youcatwalk.com/

People strive for individuality. The sites YouCatwalk sites are decentralized and personalized, I think. In the future, lots of fashion labels probably will be too.

Movietime!

Tonight, the whole class went to a cinema on Hötorget, Stockholm to watch Wall-E. It was a really pleasant initiative, I think, and it was all very enjoyable! People think I’m joking, but I’ve always loved Walt Disney films. Wall-E was quite interesting allegorical piece too, I must say. It was about this charming little “Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-class”-robot who meets the love of his life – and saves the planet! For a children’s movie, it was kind of dark. One corporation had taken over the markets completely, making all the people zombielike marionettes. Wall-E is the Messiah of the story, finding a hidden piece of a plant that could make the world bloom again; enabling all the humans to return to earth. I really like the references to other movies in this one. If you want a summary of them, I found this page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/movieconnections

It’s late now, and I will go to bed. Until next time, keep the world tidy!