Background
I was born 1970, and grew up in a small industrial town in southern Sweden. After school I earned my living driving a forklift in a window factory (the factory is nowadays closed down) But my thoughts were often somewhere else, leading to more than a couple of accidently smashed window panes. I became more and more interested in different kinds of alternative music. Especially the kind of soundscapes that could be called forth by using electronic instruments fascinated me. In the late eighties I started the band Sol Niger to get an outlet for this musical interest.

Culture, Digital Media and Dotcom Adventures
During the nineties I started to study European ethnology at Lund university. One thing lead to another and soon I was writing on my PhD which dealt with the cultural dimensions of digital media. I went to India to study the use of information technology, and I did some shorter fieldworks, mainly in Bangalore and Chennai. But as I was studying the role of IT in India, the feverish new economy and the dotcom-boom started to emerge in Sweden. I came in contact with the Swedish dotcom Framfab (an abbrievation for The Future Factory). I got the opportunity to follow the growth of the company from the inside. I did a fieldwork in one of the companies offices and I followed a group of people during some years. At the same time I was studying the loud business rhetoric which claimed that a new speeded-up networked and technology-driven world would soon reach escape velocity. Investors and customers we're welcomed to embark on the journey away from traditional societal bonds towards the stock-market heaven of uninterrupted positive trends. We all know what happened then. Onward and Downward. I was lucky to capture both the euphoric years of the new economy as well as the speedy decline. My analysis of these years resulted in my doctoral dissertation, which was written in Swedish and finished in May 2002. (If you are interested you can follow this link to some info about the book.)

After the work with my dissertation I have continued to deal with different aspects of the digital. My main focus has been on music and digital media, and the ways that the use of technology is related to creativity. In this work I also touch upon issues like innovation, copyright and originality.

The Inconspicuous - The Everyday... small things that matter
Since January 2006 I'm working in the research project "Home Made - The Cultural Dynamics of the inconspicuous" together with Orvar Löfgren and Tom O´Dell. The project is financed by The Swedish Research Council and will run for three years. Follow this link to read more about this project. My research within this project will look at seemingly inconspicuous practices and occurences that can be related to questions about new media, spatiality, affect and the senses.

Industrial Cool
Since 2003 I have also looked on the changing roles of traditional manufacturing industries. To grasp these changing roles I've used the term Industrial Cool. How can the growth of creative or cultural industries, as well as the decline of other industrial branches, be connected? I've written a number of scientific texts dealing with this topic. You'll find them listed on the portfolio page. At the moment I'm working on a book on IC. But my work with this phenomenon was also the starting point to mix science with art, and to use art as a tool for examinations as well as a way to express my scientific work not just in writing.

Mixing art with science
Through the last years I've tried to find ways to explore the possibilities to work with artists who could give alternative interpretations of scientifical concepts. Art may also be a way to expand the possibilities of ethnography and cultural analysis. I've done some attempts in this direction by exploring the concept of Industrial Cool. But I've also tried to make mixes of art and science that deal with other ideas than IC. Most notable, I've collaborated with filmmaker Anders Weberg. Together we have produced a number of artworks. Read more about this on the portfolio page.

HEX - Experiments in Arts and Humanities Research
Between January 2005 - February 2007 I've been coordinating a group of researchers at Lund university whose aim is to explore different roles for arts and humanities research. I'm still working with various projects within the group. Read more about HEX (In Swedish).