Hanna Hilt: Designing Culture
Stipendiat ved Kunsthøgskolen i Bergen, Avd. for design
Designing Culture has grown out of the need to identify the role of the designer in a changing museum context. The project wish to promote dialogue between the designer and other museum professionals.
My aim in Designing Culture is to design exhibitions, mainly of cultural history, and through the design process reflect on my role as an exhibition designer and on the process of designing exhibitions, and to map out some responsibilities in this process.
A girl listens to whalesong in the installation "Underwater sounds" in Havlandet, Stavanger, 2005.
The first of the two design projects was called /Havlandet/ (The Coastland). /Havlandet/ was one of four national exhibitions celebrating Norway’s one hundred years as an independent nation. The other three were situated in Tromsø, Trondheim and Oslo, the university cities of Norway.
The aim of /Havlandet/ was to increase the visitors consiousness about how our proximity to the sea shapes Norway as a nation and Norwegians as a people. Allthough Norway was one hundred years in 2005, the exhibition focused on the history of the last thirty years, on the present and on scenarios for the future. The exhibition was divided in five parts, namely Pulsåra (The Main Artery), Oppdagelsen (Discovery), Havteknologi (Ocean Technology), FARE! (DANGER!) og Spillet om fremtiden (Gambling
the Future).
/Fiskeboller i karri/ (fish dumplings in a curry flavoured bechamel sauce) is the second project. The aim of the project is to design a compact traveling exhibition that can be placed in various public spaces. The goal is to make the visitor understand that culture is dynamic. Culture is, by definition, the full range of learned human behaviour patterns. As patterns change when we encounter other people, culture changes. Through /Fiskeboller i karri/ we ponder the meaning of the term “Norwegian culture” as used in public debate. It celebrates the fact that Norwegian culture is alive and vibrant, and shows some of the ways that Norwegian culture is shaped and influenced by "the rest of the
world".
We will discuss these issues by focusing on one aspect of our culture, namely food culture. Food is only one part of our full cultural expression, but it is a vital part. All people have a relationship with food and it is an integral part in the social play between people and in their vocabulary. When people are angry with a slow, small minded mentality they think is typically Norwegian, they call Norway ”Potittland” (potato country). When did a South American tuber become so Norwegian that it defines the archetypical Norwegian soul?
Risengrynsgrøt (Warm rice pudding), pepperkaker (gingerbread cookies), makrell i tomat (mackerel in tomato sauce) and raspeballer (potato dumplings) are all examples of food we truly regard as Norwegian. But how long have they been around and when did they become Norwegian? They are made out of rice, sugar, potatoes, black pepper and cinnamon; ingredients that at some stage have been imported by travellers. By concentrating on one part of our culture, we hope to be able to say
something about the wider issues.