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BarCampCopenhagen: Ça plane pour nous!

BarCampCopenhagen Logo
BarCamp wiki / BarCampCopenhagen

Ça plane pour nous! …. Ça plane pour nous! … Ça plane pour nous! … Ça plane pour nous! Nous! Nous! Nous! Nous! Ça plane pour nous! uh-u-u-uh! Ça plane pour nous!

I går holdt 3/4 af folkene bag den næste BarCampCopenhagen, planlægningsmøde.

Planlægningsmødet var rigtig hyggeligt (som videoen vist viser) og hvis i kigger derovre, så er der bonus: det var nemlig også produktivt (som det faktum, at vi “sådan set” er klar, viser).

Først og fremmest fik vi lagt skinnerne, i form af to højglanspolerede spor, der kommer til at hedde:

  • Geeky sh*t
  • Kangagoo?

Temaet for de to spor bliver hhv. et teknisk (Geeky sh*t) og et ikke-teknisk spor (Kangaroo?). Emytlogien for Geeky sh*t skal findes i den forrige BarCampCopenhagen, for Kangaroo? Siger jeg: FGI!

Hvis du vil “svæve” med os, så sig til! Vi har plads til i alt 50, og det tal nærmer vi os, hvilket vi er benovede over – TAK for interessen.

Ellers har vi brug for stole, sponsorer (mad, drikkevarer, t-shirts, wi-fi udstyr, gaver) og talere (vi er sådan ca. halvt besat).

Næste BarCampCopenhagen afholdes den 25-januar-2008 hos Beaconware, Gl. Kalkbrænderivej 10, kld. 2100 kbh Ø. BarCampCopenhagen afholdes i overensstemmelse med retningslinjerne for afholdelse af en BarCamp, men sådan generelt er de:

The Rules of Bar Camp

  • 1st Rule: You do talk about Bar Camp.
  • 2nd Rule: You do blog about Bar Camp.
  • 3rd Rule: If you want to present, you must write your topic and name in a presentation slot.
  • 4th Rule: Only three word intros.
  • 5th Rule: As many presentations at a time as facilities allow for.
  • 6th Rule: No pre-scheduled presentations, no tourists.
  • 7th Rule: Presentations will go on as long as they have to or until they run into another presentation slot.
  • 8th Rule: If this is your first time at BarCamp, you HAVE to present. (Ok, you don’t really HAVE to, but try to find someone to present with, or at least ask questions and be an interactive participant.)

by Tantek Çelik as parodied from The Rules of Fight Club.

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Blogs Bookmarks Design Education/Undervisning Kim Blog (English) Kunst Music Photography Resources

Done “shopping” for events for the Copenhagen Kultur Natten 2007 – it WIIL be GREAT

 Media(345,1030) Front Illu 2007Today October 12th-2007 is the day of the cultural event of the year in Copenhagen, “The Night of Culture” or Kulturnatten, and I’ve just finished “shopping” for events.

You can build a custom program on the web-site, unfortunately it doesn’t have a URL or a feed so that I can share it directly with you.

This year it seems like my theme will be Passion, Science and Christianity. Below is a list of events that I’ll try to mange to attend – it will be tough, and I’ll let the “Instincts be my shepherd” and stay for long in the places where I feel good vibes, and I’m very confident in my instincts.

It does look like my fix-points this year will be Kastellet, Botanisk Have, Humanistisk Fakultet, Glyptoteket and Marmorkirken. The previous years I had an extensive program as well, but I ended up spending hours at the Copenhagen HQ of The Danish Refugee Council, but since they’re not open this year, I might manage more.

Really there’s only ONE event I’m not going to miss, and that is Ars Nova singing English renaissance music in Marmorkirken – last year they were spectacular, and this year they’re issuing a new CD on the Kulturnat, I’ll be first in line to get a copy.

From the previous years I’ll HIGHLY recommend the Exhibition at Thorvaldsen’s Museum, the lights are turned off, and the statues are illuminated, it’s just fantastic, for me it’s been there done that this year however.

Rundetaarn is always too crowded, and the midnight concert this year is just too mainstream for my taste, but I loved it two years ago, and the storage room above the church is just wonderful.

So I wish you all a great Kulturnat, you just have to love Copenhagen for having the energy to set up such a massive event. And strange things happen on the Kulturnat, if you just let your senses guide you, and while you wait for my next blogpost, you can read about my experiences of the last two years here:

Events I hope to cover in 2007 – prioritised order – but my full intended program is 4 pages long:

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Blogs Computere og Internet Design Education/Undervisning Hackers Kim Blog (English) Music Technology Undervisning Videnskab

Show your love for science – Science After Dark @ City Hall Square

Researchers Night LogoFriday I went to the Science Fair – dubbed Science After Dark – that was held at Copenhagen City Hall Square (Københavns Rådhusplads), and I enjoyed it very much. I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I read that there would be live electronic music, I knew that I was going.

The first thing i noticed was that attendance, despite the location, was disappointingly low. I feel that it was because the venue looked quite uninviting, due to the fence, and the rather closed looking pavilions.

I also got the feeling that the PR for the Science Fair had been less than satisfactory.

ConDio – Controlling Audio

ConDio - Controlling Audio at RådhuspladsenAnyway, the first thing that grasped my eye was the ConDio, Controlling Audio. The ConDio is a device with which you can control the playback of sound, simply by moving physical bricks around on a table surface. The ConDio uses pattern recognition to determine the position of the different blocks, which translates into a specific function, for instance one brick changes the track that is being played, others applies filters.

It’s remarkably simple, efficient and intuitive to control a computer in this fashion, and it was a real crowd puller.

The ConDio has been developed by the medialogy branch of the University of Aalborg, and It was really great talking to the students that were responsible for the project. They were really feeding from the enthusiasm of the people that were looking at it.

I’m really envious that the students of today get to play with technology like this, to quote Haladjjan, the founder of Violet (manufacturer of the Nabaztag intelligent WiFi bunny):

“le début de l’internet a été une aimable kermesse… Maintenant les choses sérieuses commencent” – (translation: “the beginning of the Internet has been a friendly festival…Now the serious stuff begins”.

What a great time in history to be alive in.

Kim Bach – The failed scientist

I also enjoyed visiting the Bio Chemistry tent, where I had a discussion about how to bring science to the public (“videnskabs formidling”). The scientist in charge asked me it I’ve heard about Jens Martin Knudsen – and the regular reader would know that I just posted a tribute to him – we need more like him – since he was able to bring across complicated matters in lay-mans terms – we also discussed the great Richard Dawkins.

What I really hope is that someone could take up the reins from Jens Martin Knudsen, because we need those positive role-models from the scientific community to teach us the importance of understanding our world.

I also had a chance to redeem myself. I label my self a “failed scientist”. I’m really a product of the inspiration of the space program and the lunar missions, and when I was a kid, I desperately wanted to become a scientist – but “something” happened along the way – and it’s too complicated to talk about here – but I basically got fed up with boring educational system.

But it does seem like I have some basic scientific intuition, and I got some high marks from “the teacher” for thinking like a scientist, when I was observing the strange creature the Daphnia.

It was also interesting talking to the students from the Nano technology line. They’re looking into how to produce solar arrays that are less harsh on the environment, it turns out that you can use fruit juice from black berries as the base of a solar cell, instead of silicon – amazing.

Bend my circuits

But what I really enjoyed the most, was the tent dedicated to audio, which also included live performances from Dødskuglen, Rumpistol and Bjørn Svin (who I missed).

In the tent some interesting and simple demonstrators were set up, one was a Theremin that was controlled by a plant. You could actually play music by touching the leaves of the plant – very entertaining. Another was a tube with a number of nozzles from which gas could escape, and be lit, if you then played music, the sound-waves would modulate the flames – Daft Punk’s Robot Rock looked quite good “going up in flames”.

Dødskuglen plays with circuit bending, and they had gutted a lot of electronics with audio capabilities, for instance a couple of Furbys, that now looked – and sounded – like mean birds, and when you hooked them up to a keyboard, they were capable of making some wonderful noise.

Dødskuglen has their name from a dome shaped device, that is the center-piece of their show. According to them it’s filled with gutted electronics from Happy Meals and the like – I’m not surprised.

We also got a live demonstration of how to circuit bend – don’t try this at home – you might hit the AC power-supply and die – but if you’re careful, just take a cheap electronic keyboard apart, and try to apply some wire patches live – it was amazing to hear how the standard drum-machine suddenly went into a completely different state, and sounded completely different, only to return to it’s standard loop after being reset.

Kim Bach – The failed musician

After Dødskuglen, Rumpistol took the stage, and he’s using his computer in combination with analogue synthesisers to produce great electronica.

Besides being a failed scientist, I also consider myself a failed musician, but with the simple technology being showcased here, that is so much more fun and intuitive to control than a traditional instrument, I might be able to express myself – I know that I have some music in my head – maybe I can finally make some music – I know that I want a copy of the guitar simulator for the Nintendo DS called Jam Sessions.

A child’s mind

There’s a strange unifying synergy between science and music. When doing science and music, you really need to have a child’s mind, and like to play. That’s something I still, I’d say increasingly, possess – so I might still become a scientist/musician. It’s also noteworthy that a number of my heroes for instance RMS (Richard Stallman) and N (Peter Naur), actually play music themselves.

I went home after having had a great time, with renewed faith in our educational system, it seems to be producing playful scientists – I wished someone had told me that science was about playing, when I was a student.

I hope that Science After Dark will become a recurring event.

Show your <3 for science – make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!

I did, however, hear some rumours the Science After Dark has been frowned upon from the established scientific community. Come down from your ivory towers, Science is FUN and NOISY. Show your <3 for Science – make some NOIIIIISSSSSEEEEE!!!

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Blogs Kim Blog (English)

Hors jeu – The day we tried to kill the game

Down and out after the Euro 2008 qualifer against SwedenI used to love sports…

Boxing
– Muhamad Ali, George Forman, Kalule, Holyfield, Super Brian and even Iron Mike – one night ruined that – after sitting up all night – it was over before it started – Iron Mike had bit Holyfield.

Biking – in the 90ies Denmark finally had top-atheletes in a highly demanding sport – I woke up in 1998 – and it has never really been the same since then.

Association football – has always been my favourite sports – I remember the passion in 1984 – when Denmark finally qualified a major tournament, 1986 when the entire world admired the team that played the game so beautifully and 1992 when Denmark for the first, and most likely last, time won a major tournament.

During the entire period Denmark enjoyed a fairy-tale like status, and the fans – labelling themselves as roligans (a pun involving the Danish word “rolig” and “hooligan”, “rolig” literally means “quiet”.

All this has changed now – the only nice thing about it, is that we will now finally forget Jesper Olsen, because what happened yesterday is the most stupid singe act made on a soccer pitch by a Dane, and I’m not blaming Christian Poulsen – imagine the pressure the players are under – I’m talking about the idiot that charged the field.

The referee did the right thing, congratulations to Sweden for keeping it’s cool, and I’m feeling quite ashamed of being a Dane right now.

Until then, the “final” game had everything that I love in soccer, and it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Danish team fight like that, coming back from three goals down. We have to go back to Euro 1984 game against Belgium, that had some of the same intensity, and the similarities between yesterday’s match and the 1984 match are numerous, at one time the 1984 game was turning as hostile as it did yesterday.

Enki Bilal - Hors jeuSeeing the behaviour of the hooligans after the game, and I’m including the police here, made me feel like we’re not far from the dystopian visions of the future of the game by Enki Bilal in his excellent book Hors-Jeu. The cover show how the referees no longer are allowed on the field, for their own protection.

The winners yesterday were the hooligans, what used to be the greatest game on Earth – and the rest of us – lost.

Will the game survive? Most likely! – but something has to change.

#1 Ban the selling of alcohol on the stadium
#2 Perform a sobriety test before granting anyone access to the stadium

Until something changes, the game has lost a fan!

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Blogs Kim Blog (English)

reboot 9.0 – Day 1 got me pleasantly buzzed

Kim Bach - vi ses i...nåeh nej!reboot 9.0 – Kim Bach

Well, I had to attend reboot 9.0, but because of work, I didn’t really catch any of the (scheduled) talks/conversations/whatever, but who cares, it’s also about networking, renewing friendships etc.

What I did catch was great however, especially Human Lessons From Generative Art was really great, and the new technology that makes it possible to render in 3D, is awesome. I was a bit surprised that Marius Watz forgot to mention Mozart as a master of generative art, the myth – I believe confirmed – is that he used an algorithm to generate menuets, making it possible, still, to create original Mozart works.

I was also surprised that Marius, of Norwegian descend, hadn’t heard about the Norwegian digital artist Ann Lislegaard. Ann Lislegaard is currently (until august 7th 2007) displaying her great installation Crystal World at Statens Museum for Kunst – and it’s highly recommended.

The concept of generative art, made me imagine the next (several) level(s):
What if we could preserve the “sprit”, in the form of algorithms, of the creative geniuses for posterity.

Actually Marius also forgot to mention the “original” generative artist: Lady Ada Lovelace. I just love this quote, in reference to Babbage’s Analytical Engine:

“We may say most aptly that the Analytical Engine weaves algebraical patterns just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves”.

Just beautiful, she’s my hero!

I left the venue at 30 past midnight, pleasantly buzzed, now looking forward to day 2.

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Music

Ånden fra 69 – Fest på Rådhuspladsen – iBYEN.dk

Ånden fra 69 - Fest på RådhuspladsenFest på Rådhuspladsen – iBYEN.dk

I morgen tirsdag den 3-april-2007 samles nogle “unge”, uvorne, lømler og lømlinder der skulle have smæk med køller, på Rådhuspladsen.

Der kommer også “nogle” musikere:

Programmet:

  • Musik og gøgl fra 15 – 18
  • Folkekøkken ved Nikolaj Kirk 17 – 19
  • Musik 19 – 22

15:00 Carlas
15:15 Patchanka
15:30 Folkemusikkens Nødhjælp
15:45 Yo’Akim & Miss Lucy Love
16:05 Teppop
16:20 Karl Bille
16:35 Nana Jacobi
16:55 Dansk Fløde
17:10 Ali Kazim
17:25 Jesper Lohman
17:35 Peter Ingeman, Stig Møller og Grev Lyhne
17:45 Tao Højgård
18:00 Pause
Under pause: A key is a key
19:00 69’er feat. Peter Peter og 3/5 Baal
19:15 Ivan Horn og Tore Eg
19:25 President Fetch
19:50 Nanna Lüders
20:00 Pato
20:25 Guddommelig Galskab
20:40 Gorilla Angreb
21:05 Ukrudt
21:20 Magtens Korridorer
21:45 Klezmofobia
22:00 Farvel og tak!

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Blogs Kim Blog (English)

Kulturnatten 2006: Is that a FireWire cable in your pocket or are you just happy to see me

On the 13th of October 2006 it was time for the great yearly Copenhagen event, Kulturnatten. Kulturnatten, means “night of culture”, and it keeps growing bigger and stronger with every year that passes.

This year I had. as last year, been quite ambitious in selecting the number of events that I would attend, “unfortunately” I started by visiting the “Frivillighus” on Nørrebrogade, and I stayed for almost 2 hours.

Well it was nice meeting some people that I keep running into, including the mother of my old friend Sporado – she’s serious KEWL.

Next stop was The Fredriks Church, better known as the “Marmor Kirken” (The Marble Church), the beautiful domed church in Copenhagen. They had engaged the vocal ensemble Ars Nova to do a mini concert. And it was fantastic, just listening to the voices “hanging in the air” after each part, the “hang time” seemed to be like minutes. It was a fantastic experince, and great to see a full church for once.

I also managed to talk a little about the history of the church with some people that were sitting next to me, they seemed to be impressed by my knowledge, “it sounds like it’s your passion” – “not at all”, I said, “it’s just due to my high age that I have such extensive common knowledge” – that being said I’m quite passionate about the Marmorkirke, it the most spiritual church in all of Copenhagen. Sunday, two days later, I made an observation:

Out side the church statues of the most important figures of the “Christian Peoples Church of Denmark”, are mounted, but there’s no women among them, that is a disgrace, but who should we nominate? I asked some girls outside the church, but they had no suggestions, I started thinking, and I came up with the Danish Jazz singer of African American heritage: “Etta Cameron”, not only a woman, but a good Christian, and she’s also an Immigrant of “colour”. But I’m open for nominations, Christianity is TOO important to leave to men.

Next stop was supposed to be “Orlovsmuseet”, but I falsely thought that it was located on Holmen, so instead I ended up at the School for Architects, and there something remarkably strange happened. In the main conference room was an art installation, but I missed the performance. I was lugging my camcorder, and a FireWire cable. The last fact was strange, because I didn’t bring my computer, anyhow, the performance had been controlled from two Apple laptops, and they had done a recording of it, that they now wanted to show, I overheard a conversation: “But I only have USB”, I immediately picked up on it: “Do you need a FireWire cable”, “YES we do”…”Wow that is really strange, you’re the only outsider around, and you have a FireWire cable!”, my answer: “Well that was the reason I was sent here”! I know this is just PURE coincidence, but it’s very strange, and makes you wonder if that was a sign from the divine providence. It was events like that , that made meloose mind last year…Hmm!!!

Now I was in a hurry, because I wanted to go the the concert in “Rundetaarn”, on the way there I checked out the light installation at “Thorvaldsens Musseum”, and the installation at the museum was very well executed, with beautiful shadows being cast. The most impressive was the central garden at the museum, I never noticed this before, but the museum is modelled on an Egyptian temple, and the light effect on the central statue of the Christ, was impressive, above in a window someone was playing the flute…It was just beautiful.

Reached Rundetaarn, only to be turned away, due to massive demand…Bummer! However: I’m not really regretting that I went see “the statues” instead.

That actually concluded my attendance at the official Kulturnat events.

Conclusion a great night, with lots of surprises and a number of GREAT events I missed, and some rather mind blowing experiences. And finally: I found out that I might be falling in love.

One more thing (LOL), Kulturnatten is becoming more and more like the old Copenhagen carnival, there seems to be a decreasing number of people that join the events, but more and more drunk teenagers.

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Education/Undervisning Lektiehjælpen (Danish)

1000 flere – WiKim

Kim Bach logo1000 flere – WiKim

Klik på linket for at gå til koordinations wiki siden for indsatsen på Nørrebro i forbindelse med Dansk Flygtningehjælps 1000 flere (http://www.1000flere.dk) kampagne “overskudskage”, der løber af stablen den 20-Juni-2006.

Jeg er koordinator for indsatsen på Nørrebro, mere præcist Nørreport Station den 20-Juni-2006. Vi står der fra kl. 15:30 til kl. 18:00.

Hvis du er interesseret i at hjælpe med at hverve frivillige, så kan du f.eks. udskrive denne flyer.

Kagebagende kampagnehænder søges – Hverveflyer 1000 flere(219K PDF)

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'i dag' (Danish) Blogs Bookmarks Lektiehjælpen (Danish)

Fup og fakta om flygtninge – 1000 Flere Kampagnen

480X60

Kære venner,

Dansk Flygtningehjælp har udfærdiget en test på viden om flygtninge, hvor mange rigtige får du?

Dansk Flygtningehjælp – Fup og fakta om flygtninge

Testen er lavet i forbindelse med “overskudskage” for 1000 flere flygtninge arrangementet, hvor jeg da kan nævne at jeg er koodinator for indsatsen på Nørrebro, eller rettere på Nørreport Station.

Så meld jer endelig som frivillige den 20-Juni, enten til undertegnede på 22 25 69 51 eller på mail, eller direkte til Tanja Skov Karlsen, Dansk Flygtningehjælp.

Send gerne et link til venner og bekendte der kunne være interesserede i at støtte denne sag.

Ses vi ? Det tror jeg nok vi gør!

———————– klip ——————————-
Giv “overskudskage” for 1000 flere flygtninge!

Kagebagende kampagnehænder søges!

Dansk Flygtningehjælp fyrer i anledning af FN’s Flygtningedag d. 20. juni en kampagne af, for at få DK til at tage imod 1000 flere FN-flygtninge årligt. Kampagnen går rigtig godt. Vi mærker stor opbakning på nettet, hvor vi samler underskrifter ind på www.1000flere.dk, og fik fin feedback, da vi gik på gaden d. 6.6. for at skyde kampagnen i gang. Super!

På Flygtningedagen kulminerer kampagnen med en landsdækkende kageuddelingsevent. I de største byer i landet giver frivillige “overskudskage” for at signalere, at vi har overskud til at hjælpe flere – OG for at indsamle underskrifter for, at DK skal hæve sit årlige FN-flygtningeantal.

Vil du være med til at bage kage og dele den ud sammen med andre frivillige, så skriv fluks tilbage!

Eventen foregår på Højbroplads, i Københavns brokvarterer og i landets 15 største byer d. 20. juni fra kl. 15:30 til ca.18:00.

Ser frem til at høre fra dig!

1000 flere hilsner!

KONTAKT:

Dansk Flygtningehjælps 1000 flere-kontaktperson:

Tanja Skov Carlsen

Kommunikationsafdelingen

Dansk Flygtningehjælp

Direkte: 3373 5177
———————– klip ——————————-

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Kulturnatten 2005

Friday october-14th was the day of the annual Kulturnat (night of culture) in Copenhagen.