Rethinking visual representation; notes on the folklorist and photographer Nils Keyland

The camera is a paradoxical instrument. It records, generally speaking, truthfully what is in focus, but it is the photographer who chooses what should be in focus. Therefore, in a sense, any photograph is nothing but a construction by the photographer. This paradox is of some importance to folklorists, ethnologists, and museum curators, I believe, as photographs often play an important part in our fieldwork, as source material in our archives, and as interpretive elements in our exhibitions. Photographs are taken, kept and archived because they are considered to represent valuable meanings for a folkloristic and ethnological understanding of culture and cultural history. At least we usually treat them in our research and in our writings as if they represent important fields of research interests.But, as with every source material, be it interviews, narratives, literary sources or whatever, photographs need to be carefully examined and evaluated. What do they represent? In this article I will discuss the question of representation, using as an example the photographs taken in the early 20th century by Nils Keyland, folklorist and curator at the Nordiska Museet and Skansen in Stockholm

Objects in the world and objects in museums

A growing number of museums nowadays collect objects directly from the society of today, from people's homes and places of work. These objects carry with them rich contextual information about how they have been used and arranged, for both practical and symbolic purposes. But when they enter the museum collections their primary and secondary identities seem to change place, and Daddy's birthday present turns into a pair of stockings.

Staden - en kvällsbetraktelse

Till ett annorlunda, ett strålande - lysande Stockholm kom en ge­neration författare och konstnä­rer och gjorde den moderna tiden till sitt tema. Bland dem fanns namn som Ivar Lo-Johansson, Sven Erixson och Arnold Ljung­dal. De lät sig fascineras och in­spireras av det Stockholm som just smyckade sig i elektriskt ljus och neon - modernitetens lysan­de signum. Om denna vändpunkt i Stockholms historia handlar Staden, en kvällsbetraktelse

Educational lighting and learning performance

The education of our children is one of the most important assignments for society. The facilities where education is conducted have been seen as one important part of a good educational result. In order to create good facilities the lighting situation has for long been seen as one important factor both concerning daylight and electrical lighting. The chapter describes the development of research that initially only could relate to daylight, but with the technological development within lighting was extended to the study of electrical lighting, first the incandescent bulb, then the fluorescent tubes and today the light emitting diodes (LED). The research has for a long time dealt with the visual conditions, but since the late 70s also non-visual aspects has been taken into consideration, not least after the discovery of the ipRGC in the early 21st century. The research in this area has grown very rapidly since and the knowledge has developed. However, much is still to be done. The research is only in the beginning. Results from recent research shows that there is a potential to create better lighting situations with the LED by varying intensity and spectral distribution. Furthermore the distribution of the light should be taken into consideration, and of course the visual aspect must not be neglected. We should also recognize the importance of daylight and how daylight and electrical light should work together for creating good lighting environments in the school