BareBente

Category: design

  • earth, wind, fire

    earth, wind, fire

    I went to a little talk today, held by Mano Mark, senior geo developer at Google, for whoever at the Smithsonian who wanted to come. I learned some interesting things…

  • oslo mysteries

    oslo mysteries

    If you walk slowly enough, you see little things in Oslo. I came across a couple of mysteries.

  • the interview

    the interview

    A job interview in Oslo, that goes rather badly. How it turns out that the pro’s are not so pro, and how it is impossible to say ‘sorry’.

  • interfaces, their buttons and the village idiot

    interfaces, their buttons and the village idiot

    I stared at my friend’s washing machine. It has a million buttons, a big wheel, a digital display and a pile of little red and orange lights, with the odd green thrown in. I consider myself not a complete idiot, but have little patience with domestic appliances. They are here to make our lives simpler.…

  • words on walls

    Graffiti, street art, vandalism, drunken scribbles, guerrilla communication, culture jamming – call it whatever you want. Graffiti pieces focus on form, colour, technique; it is art, it is shape and message. The scribbles or stencilwork uses words and rarely seems to bother with the finer parts of typography or texture.

  • bachelor thesis: a walk in the rift valley, four million years ago

    bachelor thesis: a walk in the rift valley, four million years ago

    Bachelor Thesis: The Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program Database: Relating scientific data through time and space. Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Lars Bjørkevoll, Audun Hodnefjell, Bente Halvorsen

  • the bachelor years

    the bachelor years

    And so three years ended. Higher education. Just as I got good at playing the game, it is over. It was a mixed kettle; these three years. Most of the courses seemed exciting on paper, and a good handful of them turned out to be dreadful. Pointless. Insulting. Yes, digital media production is a new-ish…

  • images of no-things

    images of no-things

    Photos are not always meant to show something. Sometimes they are only there to contain shapes and colours. Sometimes, it is not a magic moment, but a play of light and an interesting composition. Could it surprise you?

  • Born in medieval times. the bookbinder, the GPS and the e-book

    Born in medieval times. the bookbinder, the GPS and the e-book

    I study digital media. I was born in the early 70′. I am a dinosaur. My fellow students are 15+ years younger than me – born in another era, on a different planet. We learn roughly the same things from opposite directions; we each hold an end of the stick.

  • An award for silence

    I have been given a peer-award for my blog. Linda, over at The task at hand found me a deserving recipient for the Arte Y Pico award. I am of course honoured. That someone reads what I write is flabbergasting; an award is mystifying.

  • pottery. art, craft and atomic weight

    pottery. art, craft and atomic weight

    I used to do pottery. In fact, I used to be a potter. A full year full time course in Derry, learning from the eminent renaissance man, Brian McGee, and I worked for a while as a production thrower. We build and fired electric, gas, raku and wood kilns, nearly blew up the building, made…

  • Large things, close up –

    Large things, close up –

    I like textures. I like odd angles. Beautiful concrete, several hundred year old wood, steel beams. Physical, almost abstract. Everywhere. Character. Decay. Details containing the whole. Childish attention to details.

  • Creativity and alphabet love

    Creativity and alphabet love

    ‘…qualities like quiveriness and vulnerability come to mind when I think of creativity… creativity requires a sense of smell, a palate to taste the scents that make brilliance. All life feeds upon the random. Creativity is the haute cuisine.’ -Douglas Hofstadter-

  • font conference

    I laugh and laugh – this is too good. A conference of fontfaces, deciding if Zapf dingbats should be given membership. Ransom interfers, and have taken Courier and Curlz prisoner, threatening to slash off their serifs. And what face saves the day? ..guess what fontface is my favourite..

  • Helvetica, gods of fonts. I don’t like the a.

    Helvetica, gods of fonts. I don’t like the a.

    I finally saw the much-trumpeted film. It was amusing; mainly for the characters in it – and I mean the designers, not the fontface. That helvetica is everywhere is no surprise. It is clean, bland, large, simple and good for signage. Generally. But the designers was the funniest bits. Some of them are clearly off…

  • Crop circles, math and outer space

    Crop circles, math and outer space

    I know a lot of strange people. Some of them are the kind you might think the most ordinary figures, until.. something seeps out. I know a guy who believes crop circles are made by creatures from outer space, the «wee folk» or «unidentified streams of energy». That is pretty off, but extraordinary coming from…

  • Letraset, academics and writing

    Letraset, academics and writing

    Went through some old notebooks, boxes and piles of stuff before moving here.. and the in the process found my old, precious Letraset book- it used to be a treasure, and a priced possession. Hands up, all who have done plaka lettering; meticulously drawing up and painting letters on awful quality paper. Thought not. Not…

  • Perfume for my x-mas tree, salt for my hair

    Perfume for my x-mas tree, salt for my hair

    Going to my sisters place is fraught with danger. She’s got a large basket with newspapers, economic tidings and interior magazines. It’s the latter that contains pitfalls. On one hand, I like to flick through others’ creativity; other ways to treat three dimensions. Bear in mind that all these magazines are worked over the same…