Academic work I // sketch for a presentation. I take a shower. Make a cup of coffee. Nescafe. Hotel room. I only pour half of it in my cup. Or I won’t sleep. I sit at the desk. I forget what I’m doing. Stare at the paper. Write the heading. The coffee. Tastes bad. Look at my cellphone. There is sand on the table. Look at the paper. Thoughts wanders off. The coffee. Tastes bad. Makes even real milk taste UHT. Why do phone cords always coil? Look at my mobile. Turn on my computer. The coffee. Surprisingly bad. I forget why I turned on the computer. Then I remember, though it wasn’t the reason to begin with. I switch to standby. One bullet on my list. I look at the coffee. Was it that bad? Yes. I finish it. Almost. I go insane. Push it away. Look at the mobile. Lean back in chair. Look out the window. Look at my mobile. Put down my pen.
Thought I // inspired by David Mosse. What if all the clever plans and schemes that policy makers go about developing serves no other purpose than being creative obstacles to those whose job it is to translate the politicians’ intentions into practice? Thought II // inspired by Tim Ingold. How might you rethink policy (understood as an attempt at a prescriptive design) when you take seriously that shape giving is a constant process resulting from people’s engagement with life, each other and their physical surroundings and not an execution of any grand plan?
Irrelevant detail I // green eyes. Her irises are at least twice as big as any I have seen until now. They stabbed me or no one in particular through the stench of urine. Two gigantic jewels hovering above the cardboard box. Oh! She was just a junkie.
Academic work II // field work. He holds out a plastic bag. I dont understand what he is saying, only that he wants me to look inside the bag. Guesstimate; there is about 40 boxes of pills in this plastic bag that he has brought with him into the computer room. He brings coffee and tea for the employees and the participants who have been referred to the ‘sickness benefit package solution’. He hands me a cup of coffee with milk and asks me who I am? Praises the employees. And then; the plastic bag. He intents something but I have no idea what. I look into the bag at the pills. I think he tells me that he wants to talk to his caseworker about the pills. I know nothing about pills. Here is what I know: He holds a string of rejected job applications; if he doesn’t get a job he wont be able to bring his wife to the country; the municipality has invested in a ‘sickness benefit package solution’ to get him full time employment; they pay around 1000 kr a week for 25 hour that are meant to put him ‘the citizen’ at the center and bring him closer to the labor marked. Here is what he knows about me: Nothing. 0. Zero.
