Internet – internet – internät???

I faced a strange language problem the last weeks – the word Internet - it’s an essential word in my life and I’m using it without doubt extremly often. I used to translate this word from the english original (the) Internet and the result in Swedish looked a bit like this: “Internettet är viktigt…” (or if I again mixed up the en or ett “Interneten är viktig…”) – translated: “The Internet is important…” This led to strange facial expressions of my dialog partners untill someone explained that there is not such a thing like the Internet in Swedish.

It seems that the Swedish language is using the word Internet without a the – who could have guessed that? But I was pretty sure that I have seen/heard this mysterious internettet thing. So I decided to consult the wise council www.sprakradet.se and the final offical answer on that issue: You can write it Internet, internet or swedish version internät (Note: internät is pronounced almost the same way as I(i)nternet). If you’re using Internet do it without a the, internet do it with a the and internät is definitely a the.

All I can say now is WHAT??? Does this imply now that everytime I talk in Swedish about the Internet I need to indicate which form I’m using right now?…I’m more confused than ever. Help! Me foreign, me don’t know.

The funny thing though, the Danes and Norwegians already assimilated the word into their grammatical system, for them its absolutly correct to say internettet which could lead us to further intresting implication concerning fast and flexible assimilation. But not today – instead a note to myself: Next time I feel the urge to talk about internettet I’ll talk to my Danish and Norwegian classmates.

Information society

This post is a fast recap of the last two weeks and our first project so called “Information society” which ended yesterday with the oral presentation of each groups special assignment.

DAY 1

Try to get som orientation: Where is my desk?, With whom I gonna share my workingspace?, Why is the Internet not working?, What’s the reason to start so early in the morning?, Why do all the others have a Mac?, Where is my networkcable?….

Introduction into Information Society: What is this project about,splitted into small grupps, each grupp gets their special field – ours is the Advertising industry.

First lecture: “Trendspotting and Future Thinking” with Magnus Lindqvist (Pattern Recogniton) – generel trends in the digital media.

Meeting with my fellows: Confusion about our assignment, what, when, why…to do?

DAY 2-5

Lectures by Paul Collins, Interactive AD (Åkestam.Holst), Katarina Graffman, ethnograph and trendanalyst (Inculture).

Workshop with Delhaize – a food retail company – the topic: How can the future workingspace looks like?

Meetings, research, reading, discussions, cookies, much coffee, less sleep…

DAY 6-7

Lectures by Jonathan Briggs (theOTHERmedia), cofounder of Hyper Island, Ted Persson (Great Works).

Setting up my blog – never thought it would come to this, but it is part of the project and so I will obey with mixed feelings.

Meetings, discussions, cookies, even more coffee, almost no sleep at all…but there is a light at the end of the tunnel…getting some structures and ideas how to present our results.

DAY 8

Finishing touch, clipping, writing, testing.

DAY 9

Presentationtime! Everyone is nervous and excited…Wow, I am really impressed of all the different, creative and well done presentations and the feedbacks are definetly helpfull. All in all we managed well, time to relax a little and enjoy our victory.

Now its time to get prepared for the next project, which is about Flash and AfterEffects.

Having our first selforganized workshop for all the Flash and AfterEffect noobs in our class – me one of the biggest noob ever – but is wasn’t that bad, Greg, Marcus and Martin were patient and me so thankful – and in the end: It’s aliiiive!!!!!!!! My first animation was really spinning, I am soooo pro.

Hyper Island – what’s that?

Hyper Island is the name of my school – with focus on digital media and digital arts. Right now Hyper Island is educating in Sweden in two cities; the Karlskrona department for international students with English as the main language and the Stockholm department for those who prefer Swedish or Stockholm or both.

The remarkable thing about Hyper Island?

For me it is defintely the philosophy behind the school, forget about teachers, classrooms and rigid schedules, it is all about creating a learning atmospher that reflects the industry as close as possible. In concrete, we are working permanently in small groups and on projects (which includes deadlines, specifications, etc.), no teachers who are telling us whats right or wrong – kind of the path is the goal thing – no classrooms, we are all sitting together in one big room and if I need to know something, lets say: “How can I create a fabulous animation in flash?” I will ask one of my classmates who is a flash-pro and he/she will pity me and explain it to me in slow motion.

So in the end it’s not all about becoming a cutting edge pro in all the digital tools but it is equally important that we become great teamplayers and learn how to learn.

Getting now curious about Hyper Island? Check out our homepage: www.hyperisland.se