View allAll Photos Tagged differences
There are 12 hard to spot differences between this original image and the altered picture posted next to it.
No prizes for guessing correctly, just a bit of fun. :-)
Photo: Buchanan Bus Station,Glasgow, 28th March 1981.
There is a clear difference between looking at the camera AND looking at me. Two very different things
The Doctor and Leon are getting into a heated discussion about the supernatural and the existence of zombies. "My dear man, according to the best and leading scientific minds, and leading experts, there is no way zombies exist! And as for the supernatural phenomenon, it's just science yet to be understood!" Leon, looking somewhat miffed at this so-called expert, snapped back, "And the events in Raccoon City? A mass hullusion were they?"
The Sognefjord is Norway's longest and deepest fjord with its 205 km and 1303 m at its deepest (SNL states 1308), including Sognesjøen which is at the far end towards the North Sea. The Sognefjord has the deepest point on Norway's coast. The fjord is 176–180 km from the innermost Lusterfjorden ( Skjolden ) to Sognefest , and 206 km to the outermost reef (then Lake Sognesjøen is also included). The width varies from around 1 to 2 km in Lusterfjorden to 4–5 km from Leikanger and beyond. Measured from the threshold to Skjolden, the fjord is 174 km. The middle part of the fjord is surrounded by mountains of around 1000 meters and in the inner part the height difference between the bottom of the fjord and the mountain tops is 3500 metres. The highest peak right by the fjord is Bleia at 1,721 metres, which gives a 2,850 meter height difference. Around the inner part of the fjord, the landscape is alpine with pointed mountain peaks, steep mountain sides and glaciers. As an extension of the fjord arms, long and deep valleys extend in all directions, including Jostedalen , Lærdalen and Årdal with Utladalen . The Sognefjord is the world's longest open (ice-free) fjord. The Sognefjord is the world's third longest fjord.
It is located in the middle of Vestland county (formerly Sogn og Fjordane county to which it helped give its name) and stretches from Solund on the coast in the west to Skjolden at the foot of Jotunheimen in the east (northeast), where the fjord arm is called Lustrafjorden . The fjord and the land around it make up the Sogn region, often divided into Outer, Midtre and Indre Sogn. The length from Rutletangen to Skjolden is 186 km . Sogn makes up almost 60% of the area in Sogn and Fjordane, or around 11,000 km 2 . The twelve municipalities in Sogn have a total area of 10,671.55 km² and 37,063 inhabitants (1 January 2014). The land around the inner part of the fjord is called Indre Sogn and includes the long fjord arms. From Leikanger onwards, the country is called Ytre Sogn . The outer part of the fjord has few and small fjord arms. The fjord arms are like hanging valleys under water in that the bottom in the side fjords is often much shallower than the main fjord with a height difference of over 1,000 meters in some cases. The main fjord has a threshold at its mouth to the sea, while several of the side fjords have thresholds at the mouth of the main fjord.
The Sognefjord cuts so deeply into the country that it is only 15 km from the innermost arm at Skjolden to mountain peaks such as Store Skagastølstind in Jotunheimen. The water flow usually exits the fjord. The rivers create sandbanks where they run into the fjord, for example at Gudvangen, in Lærdal and in Gaupne. These sandbars are constantly expanding and changing shape.
The Sognefjord, especially the inner part, is surrounded by mountain massifs which are alpine in the inner part and more rounded in the outer part. The innermost arms of the fjord continue as deep and sometimes long valleys, including Lærdal , Årdal with Utladalen , Nærøydalen , Sogndalsdalen , Fjærland , Fortunsdalen , Aurlandsdalen and Jostedalen . The transition between the fjord and these valleys is determined by sea level, and the boundary has moved outwards at the uplift. Some of the side valleys, such as Vik and Fresvik, would have been hanging valleys in the same way as the Feigedalen if the Sognefjord was drained.
Name
Amund Helland writes " The Sognefjord's real name is Sogn , while Sogn is now used only for the surrounding landscape, and was thus already used in the Middle Ages. As a landscape name, the name is a masculine word and has undoubtedly been so as a fjord name as well." The name is connected to the word "suction", which probably refers to the suction or the difficult current conditions that are created when the water flows through the fjord mouth and over the threshold.
Geography
Large parts of the fjord are surrounded by steep mountains. Kvamsøy at Balestrand is a small island separated from the mainland by a short, shallow strait. Outside Balestrand there are small fjord arms and at Veganes ( Dragsvik ferry quay ) there is a significant branching with the Fjærlandsfjorden .
Municipalities
Municipalities with shoreline to the fjord, counted from west to east:
Solund
Hyllestad (north side)
Gulen (south side)
Høyanger (on both sides of the main fjord)
Vik (south side)
Sogndal (north side)
Aurland (south side, around the Aurlandsfjord)
Lærdal (south side)
Luster (north side, around Lustrafjorden)
Årdal (around the Årdalsfjord)
Depths
The Sognefjord has only one threshold which is at the mouth and the threshold is around 165 meters deep. The area beyond the threshold is called Sognesjøen , which is sheltered by islands to the north and south; there is no threshold outside Sognesjøen that has free circulation towards the ocean.
From the inner parts at Årdal or Skjolden, the fjord gradually deepens outwards (westwards). Between Fodnes-Mannheller and Rutledal-Rysjedalsvika, the bottom is at least 800 metres. The deepest part is approximately at Åkrestrand and Vadheim. The outer part of the fjord (at Losna and Sula ) has a marked threshold with depths of 100 to 200 metres, where the fjord bed rises abruptly from a depth of 1,200 meters to around 100 meters over a stretch of 5 km at Rutledal. In Lake Sognesjøen there are several small troughs (with depths down to 400-500 metres) with thresholds between them. Across the fjord, the bottom is partly completely flat with less than 1 meter variation in depth over a 2 km cross-section. The bottom is covered by fine material (clay) which at Vangsnes is up to 300 meters thick. Seismic shows that the greatest depth to the bedrock is approximately 1,600 m, but loose masses with a thickness of 200–400 m mean that the fjord bottom is nevertheless flat. Seismic surveys at Vangsnes have revealed a 300 meter thick layer of clay at the bottom.
Between 50 and 180 km from the mouth, the fjord bed is relatively flat. Almost all side fjords form hanging valleys to the main fjord. For example, the mouth of the Fjærlandsfjord is well over 400 meters deep, while the main fjord is close to 1,200 meters deep just outside the mouth. Vadheimfjord's mouth is 400 meters deep, here the greatest depth is over 1300 m. Ikjefjord's mouth is only 50 meters deep close to where the main fjord is at its deepest. In large parts of the fjord, it is "abruptly deep" in that the steep mountain sides continue just as steeply underwater.
In contrast to a number of other fjords, not every single part of the Sognefjord has its own name. Only the outermost part has its own name - Sognesjøen . However, there are many fjord arms. From west to east these are:
Sognesjøen
Straumsfjorden
Bjørnefjorden
Nessefjord
The Sognefjord
Lifjorden
Bøfjorden
The Risnefjord
The Ikjefjord
Vadheimsfjorden
Fuglsetfjorden
Høyangsfjorden
Lånefjorden
The Finnafjord
The Arnafjord
The Inner Fjord
Framfjorden
Vikbukti
The Esefjord
Fjærlandsfjorden
The Vetlefjord
Sværefjorden
The Norafjord
Sogndalsfjorden
Barsnes Fjord
The Eidsfjord
Aurlandsfjorden
The Nærøyfjord
Amla Bay
Lærdalsfjorden
Årdalsfjorden
The Lustrafjord
The Gaupnefjord
Climate and fresh water
The fjord colored by meltwater from the glacier.
Terrain formations and distance to the sea lead to great variations in climate along the fjord. The outer part has a mild and humid coastal climate, while the innermost part has an inland climate with cold and dry winters.
The amount of precipitation decreases strongly inwards into the fjord. Lærdal lies in the rain shadow and has very little rainfall, while west-facing slopes further out have a lot of rainfall and there the rainfall often increases with altitude. Brekke and Takle in Ytre Parish are among the places in Norway with the most rainfall. North of the Sognefjord lies the Jostedalsbreen, Norway's largest glacier, and parts of the meltwater drain into the Sognefjord. Wind conditions are strongly influenced by terrain formations. In winter, the dominant wind direction is out the fjord or out the side valleys in the form of so-called downwinds . Fall winds can be very strong and have a major impact on cooling and icing. The slopes and valleys along the inner parts of the fjord have a partially mild climate and are fertile, which makes the area suitable for growing fruit and berries, among other things. The slopes along the fjord partly have large conifer forests, including in the roadless area of Frønningen .
The fjord receives fresh water mainly from the rivers and very little precipitation directly on the fjord's water surface. In the inner part of the Sognefjord, the total supply of fresh water during one year corresponds to a depth of 33 meters if it were distributed over the entire area of the fjord. In spring and partly in autumn, the top 2-3 meters of the fjord are brackish water , especially in the side fjords. The salt content in the surface is lowest in summer and autumn. In June 1954, for example, 5 ‰ salt was measured in the uppermost meters of the Lustrafjord, while at great depths it was 34.5 ‰. Regulation of the waterways for power production has led to a larger proportion of fresh water flowing into the fjord in the winter. The most extensive regulation is in Aurland, Lærdal, Årdal and Jostedal. Regulations affect temperature in the surface layer and icing. In the inner part of the fjord, the rivers are fed by high mountains and glaciers.
The rivers Lærdalselvi , Aurlandselvi , Flåmselvi , Mørkridselvi , Henjaelvi , Grindselvi , Hamreelvi , Njøsaelvi , Kvinnafossen , Sogndalselvi and Jostedøla flow into the Sognefjord and normally have spring floods in June. [3] Lærdalselva has the largest catchment, followed by Jostedøla and Aurlandselva, and these three have roughly the same water flow (around 40 m 3 /second). The Årdalsvatnet drains to the Sognefjord through the short Åreidselva or Hæreidselvi through the Årdalstangen . The Eidsvatnet in Luster drains into the Sognefjord just by Mørkridselvi in Skjolden . Regulation of the waterways for hydropower has resulted in a more steady supply of fresh water throughout the year. Without regulation, 92% of the fresh water would have been supplied in the summer half-year from May to October. Several of the large rivers flow into fjord arms.
Geology
The bedrock along the outer and middle part of the fjord consists mostly of Precambrian gneiss with orientation east-west and northeast-southwest. The islands of Solund consist mostly of Devonian sandstone and conglomerates , while the interior (eastern part) consists mostly of Caledonian gabbro , anorthosite , granite and phyllite .
Jostedøla's material transport (in the form of sludge) involves sedimentation in the Gaupnefjord of 10 to 20 cm/year near the river basin, and 1 cm/year 2 km from the river basin. The river transports 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of silt annually. The sludge concentration from Jostedøla is at most 1 g/litre. It is particularly at Gaupne that the meltwater from the glaciers is marked by the color of the water.
Icing
According to Helland, it was common for the ice to settle on several of the fjord arms every winter, including on Aurlandsfjorden, Nærøyfjorden and Årdalsfjorden. In the winter of 1888–1889, Lusterfjorden was iced over for six months straight. In the deepest parts of the Sognefjord, there is a year-round temperature of around 6.5 °C, according to Helland. Outer parts are almost never iced over, not even the side fjords. The inner parts can be frozen for several weeks at a stretch. Among other things, inner parts of the Aurlandsfjorden and the Nærøyfjorden freeze easily. Lærdalsfjorden is usually ice-free except for the very innermost part, while it has happened that Årdalsfjorden has been iced up to Ofredal and has been an obstacle to ship traffic. Historically, Lustrafjorden has often been iced over as far as Urnes. The Barsnesfjorden has often been covered with ice. In the Nærøyfjord it happened (among other things in the 1920s and in 1962) that the liner was unable to enter the fjord due to ice and had to dispatch at the ice edge.
Streams
In the Sognefjord, incoming current is hardly noticeable and is most noticeable in strong westerly winds. Outgoing current dominates and is particularly strong in spring and summer. At strong tides, the tidal flow can reach over 1 m/s (2 knots ) around the pier and headland. The Sognefjord is covered by a layer or stream of brackish water of up to 10 meters (varying with the seasons and supply from the rivers). Beneath the brackish water, a current or intermediate layer at a depth of 150 meters goes in and out of the fjord and below this lies the main basin, which has some connection with the ocean beyond the threshold. Together, these three currents contribute to the fact that the water in the fjord is replaced on average within 8-10 years, so that the fjord has life right down to the bottom. The brackish water layer has less density and therefore does not mix easily with the deeper layers. The brackish water that flows out of the fjord slowly mixes with the layer below so that the salt content increases at the same time as the brackish water layer increases up to 10 times the amount of fresh water supplied. The brackish water that flows towards the mouth must be replaced and sets up an incoming current in a slightly deeper layer.
Fish
The Sognefjord has herring and good sprat fishing . In the outer parts of the fjord, salmon has traditionally been fished with wedge nets . Salmon warp or "sitjenet" is a traditional method of salmon fishing and skilled players could catch a lot of fish with this method. Hook nets and drift nets have dominated in modern times and do not require the same active fishing as warp . The salmon's migration in the fjord is controlled by currents on the surface and the warps are placed where there are favorable current conditions where, due to the current, the salmon are driven close to land on their way into the fjord. In Leikanger and Balestrand there are many good places for sitejnot with Suppham being by far the best. Good salmon rivers such as Lærdalselva, Aurlandselva and Årøyelva flow into the Sognefjorden.
In the outer part of the fjord (Gulen and Solund) there is some fish farming. Several of the waterways are known for good salmon and sea trout fishing , and five of the rivers have been designated as national salmon rivers. Lærdalselva has a salmon-carrying stretch and has had by far the largest population. Aurlandselva has historically had a good catch of sea trout. The Sognefjord is among the most important in Norway for anadromous fish species. Norwegian spring-spawning herring are fished in the fjord, especially in the outer parts, as well as some coastal sprat.
In the Sognefjord there are plankton algae which in other Norwegian waters and the occurrence follows the seasons. In general, there is little occurrence in winter due to low light, diatoms bloom in March-April and are dependent on the supply of nutrient salts, in May-June diatoms and flagellates bloom in connection with the spring flood, in summer there is a varying population, new blooms in the autumn in connection with, among other things, floods, and married species can occur all year round.
Tourism
The Sognefjord was established as a tourist destination in the 19th century, among other things, with the establishment of Fylkesbåtane. One of the targets was Gudvangen, which in 1889 received 79 large tourist ships with a total of over 10,000 passengers. In 1889, 4,500 travelers came with the county boats. The German Emperor Wilhelm visited the Sognefjord and Balestrand for the first time in 1890. The emperor subsequently visited the Sognefjord 25 times. The fjord itself and the surrounding area with Jotunheimen, Jostedalsbreen and several stave churches have made the Sognefjord one of Norway's most prominent tourist destinations. Balestrand, Vangsnes, Aurland and Fjærland were among the early destinations for English tourists in the 19th century.
History
It has been the Guest of Death
It has sailed on a Torden
It is christened in Rædsler vorden
that has plowed the Sognefjord
from Forthun to Sognefæst.
If you have forgotten your Lord's Prayer,
do you remember a prayer to pray:
learn it from the wrath of God!
imagine, Sinder, then present
in a Bath on Sognefjord!
Henrik Wergeland
The Sognefjord has been an important transport artery since ancient times. The gulation was probably held near the mouth of the Sognefjord and probably because it was practical to hold the meeting where the ship lay along the coast met the great fjord. From the innermost arms of the fjord it is a relatively short distance to the inland villages of Eastern Norway, particularly through Lærdal to Valdres over the moderate mountain pass Filefjell . Lærdalsøyri was from the 17th century an important market and meeting place. There, farmers from Valdres, Hallingdal and Gudbrandsdalen sold slaughter, tar and other products from the interior and bought fish, salt, hemp and iron from the fjords and from Bergen. Around 1300, the authorities established a shuttle station at Maristova at the entrance to Filefjell. The first drivable road between east and west was built over Filefjell in 1792. From 1843 the paddle steamer "Constitutionen" plyed the route between Bergen and Lærdal, the county boats took over the route in 1857. The road over the Sognefjellet was built as a carriageway in 1938. The Flåmsbana connected the Sognefjord to the railway network in 1940. Stalheimskleivi , between Voss and Sogn, was built in 1850 and turned into a road in 1937. It has made it possible to transport agricultural products , fruit , berries and fish between the villages in Sogn and Bergen .
From 1785, the Trondhjem postal route crossed the Sognefjord by boat between Rutledal and Leirvik in Hyllestad . In 1647, a postal route was established between Bergen and Christiania. The post then took 7-8 days via Gudvangen, Lærdal and Valdres.
It was difficult to get to the Sognefjord by sailboat and the yachts could lie for many days or several weeks at the mouth waiting for favorable wind conditions. East wind was favorable out of the fjord, while south to Bergen, wind from the north or north-west was needed. To enter the fjord, a wind from the west was necessary. The steam and motor boats revolutionized transport on the fjord and these had completely taken over in the early 20th century The county boats were established in 1858 with boat routes on the Sognefjord and to Bergen as an important activity.
In 1934, a ferry route was established along the fjord from Vadheim to Lærdal. From 1939 until the Lærdal tunnel opened, there was a car ferry between Gudvangen and Lærdal - first the ferry went to Lærdalsøyri itself, from 1966 to Revsnes when a road was built there to shorten the ferry route. In the 1990s, the ferry connection Revsnes-Kaupanger was replaced by Mannheller-Fodnes , and after this Kaupanger has only been used by the tourist route Gudvangen-Kaupanger-Lærdal. The road system between Sogndal and Jølster on national highway 5 , including the Fjærlands tunnel , created a ferry-free road connection on the north side of the fjord.
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of 385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .
Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .
Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.
In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.
The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .
Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).
Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .
For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.
Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.
The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.
The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .
Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.
More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.
Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .
In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.
Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .
Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .
Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.
Stone Age (before 1700 BC)
When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.
Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.
The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.
In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .
It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.
Finnmark
In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.
According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.
From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.
According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.
Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)
Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:
Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)
Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)
For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.
Finnmark
In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.
Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)
The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century
Simultaneous production of Vikings
Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:
Early Iron Age
Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)
Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)
Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.
Younger Iron Age
Merovingian period (500–800)
The Viking Age (793–1066)
Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .
Sources of prehistoric times
Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.
Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.
Settlement in prehistoric times
Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.
It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.
Norwegian expansion northwards
From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.
North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.
From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.
On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.
The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".
State formation
The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.
According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.
According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.
Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.
According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .
With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.
Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)
The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .
During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.
The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.
In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .
Emergence of cities
The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.
It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.
The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.
The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.
High Middle Ages (1184–1319)
After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.
Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.
Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages
Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.
There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.
Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)
Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasan
The age difference between the two vessels is not as great as one would think by looking at them. The Gato Class Submarine USS Cobia, on display at the Maritime Museum, was constructed in late 1943 while the Kaye Barker across the river started life as the Edward B. Greene a mere eight years and two months later in January of 1952.
Context Provocation Mythogram (Part 1 on Lost by David Shrigley) (part 2 on The Messenger - by Bill Viola)
I had seen the grey and white pigeon with black bits, on a number of occasions. It seemed to have a habit of standing in the gutter at Gorbals Cross, even in the pouring rain. Why it seemed indifferent to the wet, when everyone else in Glasgow was running for shelter, I could only wonder at. Then I saw this notice Sellotaped to a tree in a park. It had an intriguing strangeness about it, so I called the telephone number, but it was unobtainable. There was a cold wind blowing when I returned to the park, but it brought with it a faint aroma of baking bread. I moved in close to the advertisement, to try and understand its logic, but suddenly a colder gust tore the scrap of paper from the tree, and as I watched, it soared away and fluttered in a huge grey Glasgow sky.
What was the significance of the advertisement? Glasgow must have a million pigeons, all of them grey and white with black bits, so why would anyone need to advertise for one that's 'lost', and then by the same token imply that they didn't want to find it anyway? I began to suspect that there never had been a pigeon, and that something quite different was lost. But how do you find what's lost, when you don't know what you're looking for?
There does seem to be a pigeon living, so to speak, in the visual language of the notice. It's an ideal, not a physical pigeon. A kind of word pigeon, which seems to be hinted at by the addition of the letter 'd' to the word pigeon, suggesting a creature hybridised from two words:
pigeon: a bird with a heavy body and short legs, sometimes trained to carry messages.
pidgin: language, not a mother tongue, made up of elements of two or more other languages.
Is what is sought a normal sized, mangy, grey white and black, nameless bird, with short legs and a heavy body? Is it sometimes trained to carry messages in a language made up of elements of two or more of the languages? This is not so confusing, because any text carries at least two themes. Some are read in the words, and the others can be read between the lines. By doing this, and accepting that there is only language, we can try to understand the difference between this ideal pigeon and a pigeon-shaped physical thing.
Supposing, for the sake of argument, that there are such things as pigeons, (and we can't tell from the advert that there are), we could make an inventory of things we think we know about pigeons. We could then say, that this is an inventory of assumptions that are implied by, and therefore used by the advert to kindle the ideal pigeon. They lie as it were, between the lines of the advert, but they affect the language it uses, and the way it looks.
Of all we think we know about physical pigeons, one important difference is that they live and die in a city of cliffs and ledges. They don't experience the city they shit on, and fly in, as the buildings of an urban social system. We experience their behaviour as a sequence of differences, and when we think we understand these differences, we make words for their different ways of behaving. Through language, pigeons are absorbed into the structure of the city; but they aren't aware of being absorbed into a world of words. They experience the city as pure spatial difference, and they don't need their language to indicate objects.
This is where the two languages of the advert seemed to conflict. Language for us is the means by which we try to organise the world, but between the lines, we see that language for a pigeon is not that at all. We could call this conflict 'poetry', and leave it at that; but that might divert us into art, and away from the city. If we are to find and read its lost message, we should really face head on, the dangers that the advert imposes on logic.
A pigeon's life is the defence of its pigeon-hood. Everything a pigeon does, is aimed towards its survival until that situation is impossible. Even its call. We hear a pigeon making a cooing sound that differentiates it from the other things in our frame of reference, and we say that one of the reasons that this thing is a pigeon is because it is cooing. But cooing is not metaphorical language, made up from various subtly different sounds that represent things like the eggs and nest. Although there are certain modulations of cooing, these are not differentiated from each other by their need to function in a language as a sign for something. Cooing is part of the sexual posturing of a pigeon, and because of this, cooing is the profound defence of its own pigeon-hood. As far as we can determine, a pigeon is absolutely its own most cooing thing - for itself and only for itself.
A pigeon is essentially an 'am cooing' thing, not a self-conscious 'I am cooing'. Cooing is pigeon; but that 'is', as an implication of presence, is only as far as we can say it with words, because pigeons aren't inside something called presence. And because pigeons have no need to represent themselves to themselves, they have not evolved a language that can elevate the self, that a pigeon could be conscious of, to the status of the genetically infinite.
Our consciousness of time as a linear unfolding of 'nows', centred on the present, supports a common language structure that is also linear. We talk in time, and we hear ourselves speaking at this present moment. Our language is made of words that are repeatable ideal values, derived from ideas and from things like pigeons. We hold these things ready for use, and at any time, we can represent them, so to speak, almost as if they are physically here. But to be able to communicate in this way, we need to suppress in a quite unethical way, that physicality of things, the unity of which is the very idea of pure spatiality, that profound exterior difference between any one present moment and the next, that would compromise and confuse the linear logic of language. We must suppress the physicality of things, or we wouldn't be able to speak, for living in the pure breadth of unlimited relativity. But the physical nature of pigeon shit is never experienced through discourse. The sanctity of our consciousness of pigeons is seldom contaminated by the abject orifice.
This necessary degree of colloquial insulation from the physical is reflected in our practical behaviour. We have a manual dexterity that enables us to arrange materials, and experience them as such. This is because our internal time consciousness predisposes these skills and materials to being for the sake of some future arrangement, and for some progress towards a better situation. We call this technical expertise, technē, which was for the Greeks, crucially, a practical experience gained from encountering the differences of the physical world, which they were part of.
This view from within the physical world was manifest in their art and architecture, and the Greek body and mind was no doubt fused to the planet. But this plural and diverse way of thinking was already being suppressed through the linearity of a language that had to be made to account for the capitalism and control of material wealth. Derrida's reference to Leroi-Gourhan's text, describes this:
"The development of the first cities corresponds not only to the appearance of the technician of fire, but... writing is born at the same time as metallurgy. Here again, this is not a coincidence... it is at the moment when agrarian capitalism began to establish itself, that the means of stabilising it in written balance accounts appears, and it is also at the moment when social hierarchization is affirmed that writing constructs its first genealogists... the appearance of writing is not fortuitous; after millennia of maturation in the systems of mythographic representation, there emerges, along with metal and slavery, the linear notation of thought. Its content is not fortuitous."
Through the centuries, this linear notation assumed an ascendancy that changed the way European people thought, and the type of questions they asked. Technical specialism and linear notation gradually came to repress what Leroi-Gourhan calls the "Mythogram" - a writing that spells its symbols pluri-dimensionally. Gradually, people asked less the question, why is this the way it is, and more they began to ask, what is it in its own structure? This change of purpose may be evidence that a 'culture' had begun to see itself as self-sufficient; but it was also the opening of technology, that paved the way for an unlimited globalized commodification.
Today, the technical operations of our production lines dovetail smoothly and imperceptibly with linear language. These two modes of structural or systemic defence become synonymous in the word technology, which is the practical management of something called nature, within the voice of consciousness. This ideal world enables us to avoid grappling with pure awkward difference.
Pigeons are not technological. A nest isn't built from twiggy and feathery materials. As a pigeon grapples with the pure awkwardness of physical things, it's not aware of them as materials for progress. What we call materials for nestbuilding, are for a pigeon that exterior part of its own physicality, that must be arranged as a defence of its pigeon-hood. A pigeon is that properly constructed nest, the truth of which is only verifiable in terms of eggs and chicks. Pigeons are their own profound physical relationship with the planet, they are that very spatial exteriority of difference between them and the things they deal with, that one day just stops.
By calling on lost feral pigeon, the notice implies something of this. What is so disconcerting, or indeed dangerous about it, is that it plugs straight into that unnameable spacing, that was already there between one present moment and the next, before the very idea of representation. In other words the advertisement cannot be a representation derived from anything; the advertisement is a purely physical, and visual thing. You might say that its words were never voiced, or that its speech, which would always have been the easiest and most powerful way to represent and dominate things in the breath of its spirit, is immediately silenced by a pigeon that could never be present. Or even lost.
By implying that neither nests nor twigs exist as such - by making us think the one as a trace of the other - the advert is quietly and persistently subverting all urban technologies. By drawing on that very unremarkable ubiquitous thing, which is the absolute opposite to what is required for any marketable item, the notice introduces a lethal virus into the world of advertising. By calling with words, to a pigeon that could never be lost, the notice does violence to the logical structure of language. In fact, by the invocation of something that could never be present, the advert erases its own words as representations. Pigeons do not exist. This advertisement is essentially and profoundly untrue. The answer to the question 'what is lost?' is indeed 'what is lost?', or at least that voracious mode of questioning, and with it goes the assumption that texts relate to objects. Because it has used the ideal pigeon, as pidgeon, to silence its own voice, it hangs there abjectly, but quietly optimistic.
To write these things is to think towards deconstruction, and to be suspicious of the power assumptions inherent in a language of representation. The central currency of this language is the image. Which is why so much of traditional art practice has, in recent years, been called into question, by artists whose thoughts tend towards deconstruction. This may have something to do with what Joseph Kosuth was thinking about when he said in 1969:
"Being an artist now means to question the nature of art. If one is questioning the nature of painting, one cannot be questioning the nature of art. If an artist accepts painting (or sculpture) he is accepting the tradition that goes with it. That's because the word art is general and the word painting is specific. Painting as a kind of art. If you make paintings, you are already accepting (not questioning) the nature of art. One is then accepting the nature of art to be the European tradition of a painting - sculpture dichotomy".
Well maybe. It all depends on the context and the intention of the image. David Shrigley's advertisement for a lost pidgeon, as an advertisement in a world of advertising, is a static image that successfully interrogates itself to death, and by doing this, performs deconstructive surgery on its greater technological structure.
Context Provocation Mythogram Part 2 - on The Messenger by Bill Viola
A critical essay by Stan Bonnar
link to still from the video: www.flickr.com/photos/stan_bonnars_artworks/9640685983
In 1996, the church of England's chaplaincy to the arts and recreation in north-east England, commissioned the American artist Bill Viola to make a work in response to Durham Cathedral. The building of this great cathedral was begun in 1093, and it is considered to be one of the finest examples of a Romanesque-Norman architecture in Europe. Viola's artwork is a video entitled 'The Messenger', and this is how he describes the piece:
"A large image is projected onto a screen mounted to the great West door in Durham Cathedral. The image sequence begins with a small, central, luminous, abstract form, shimmering and undulating against a deep blue-black void. Gradually the luminous shape begins to get larger and less distorted, and it soon becomes apparent that we are seeing a human form, illuminated, rising towards us from under the surface of a body of water. The water becomes more still and transparent and the figure more clear on its journey upwards towards us. We identify the figure as a man, pale blue, on his back rising up slowly. After some time, the figure breaks the surface, an act at once startling, relieving and desperate. His pale form emerges into the warm hues of a bright light, the water glistening on his body. His eyes immediately open and he releases a long held breath from the depths, shattering the silence of the image as this forceful primal sound of life that resonates momentarily in the space. After a few moments, he inhales deeply, and, with his eyes shut and his mouth closed, he sinks into the depths of the blue-black void, to become a shimmering moving point of light once more. The image then returns to its original state and the cycle begins anew."
The scandal which ensued the installation was eagerly grasped by the national press. This response from John MacEwan in the Sunday Telegraph:
"On press day, journalists arrived to find to the Dean and Chapter in a flap. They had been legally advised to protect themselves against indecency charges by getting police clearance. Screens were being hastily arranged to hide the film from the general view, because the police had warned that the sight of 'appendages' might upset the public. As the Dean explained: A child who had been sexually abused might come into the cathedral and be disturbed by a large image of a nude male.
"The Dean praised the film: I only saw it this morning, but I think it is a great work of art. Canon Bill Hall, who commissioned the work, added to general approval that it was regrettable it could not be seen as conceived, in full view at the west end of the nave.
"Such verbal support cannot conceal the fact that by admitting the film can cause offence, the Dean and Chapter immediately put themselves in the wrong. To add humiliation to lack of judgement, they have also bowed to the secular authority of the police on a matter they claim to be spiritual. The ensuing mess is no more than they deserve. By turning a blue movie into a Blue Movie, there does indeed seem very good reason for an outraged member of the public to take them to court. The heavy breathing of the soundtrack is now far more scandalous than the screened-off nudity."
Viola's intention had been to make The Messenger: "...have this resonance with, hopefully have a dance with - on the positive side, - on the negative side maybe a conflict with this incredibly powerful place." But although he hopes that the work will have a perceptible interaction with the place, somewhere between dance and conflict, the result was off the scale. In Durham the messenger will inevitably be remembered as screened and censored, so it is worth trying to understand what happened.
It should be noted at this point that The Messenger was also seen in art spaces around the country. I saw the work in the South London Gallery, and although the space was quite dark, being illuminated only by the video projection, there was little resonance with the building itself. I approached the work from this location. Under normal circumstances, the time that the cycle takes, would have involved the terminal expulsion of breath while underwater. This technological stretching of time could be viewed as a subversive commentary on the breath, the voice, and the spiritual dominion of man - a deconstruction of representational purity, glimpsed through an image of the very invincibility of man in fortress 'metaphor'. The authenticity of this view would be signalled by abject desperation, the symbol of a search for the means of linguistic suicide. But although the man is said to be desperate, there is nothing in his body language to suggest despair. That Viola's man is not distressed by any technological dislocation from the meaning of his image, might suggest a utilisation, rather than a critique of metaphorical language.
If this is true, it suggests that the messenger does not address the problem of time and language to the extent that's possible in video artworks. It may be that the water is a metaphor for the subconscious in unity with its physical surroundings, and that this is evidence of pluralistic thinking; but the apparent ease with which he uses metaphor, means that the image as an ideal narrative object, cannot be wrested away from a dominating subject. Because metaphor is essentially derivative and linguistic, its viability as a tool for use towards a greater understanding is in doubt, immediately understanding attempts to dig its way out of representational language. Viola stops The Messenger from drowning through the use of metaphor.
Although Viola reintroduces the human body into the Christian spiritual equation after its exile for centuries, he fails to convince the Sunday telegraph art critic, that The Messenger is nothing more than "... yet another example of body art, its concentration on the physical the reverse of spirituality." Yet surely, as one so involved in the mystical aspects of religious thought, it could be expected that an exploration of mind as body would be central to his project, and that the messenger's body would not be isolated from its own abject but nevertheless potentially ethical reality, by an envelope of spiritual consciousness. Nevertheless although bathing in a linear model of time, The Messenger is the catalyst that causes the very foundations of Durham Cathedral to shake.
It could be argued that what was being censored was not the nudity of the messenger, but the idea of ecstatic love as a way to God. Bill Viola writes that his work is based in unknowing, in doubt, in being lost, in questions and not answers, and he relates to the role of the mystic because of this. He is fascinated by the ancient Christian teaching called the via negativa, the basic tenet of which is an unknowability of God, who can only be approached in love - through the body as much as through the mind of the individual. By love, the soul enters into union with God, a union not infrequently described through the metaphor of ecstatic sex. The via negativa was eventually dominated by the more familiar via positiva of today, a method of affirmation that describes positive, human attributes such as Good and All-Knowing to the image of a transcendent God. But there is also an other aspect to ecstasy.
In his book Being and Time, Martin Heidegger disclosed ecstatic temporalising as primordial to the commonsense sequence of 'nows' we recognize as everyday time: "Temporality is the primordial 'out-side-of-itself' in and for itself. We therefore call the phenomena of the future, the character of having been, and the Present, the 'ecstases' of temporality."
He also disclosed temporality as the ontological meaning of care, and care as Being-towards-death, from which one might assume that ecstasy, both ontological and colloquial, encounters death in a way that would be threatening to the infinite linearity of English ecclesiastical time. In other words it could be argued that it would be necessary for the clergy to censor this aspect of ecstasy, even more so than the sexual aspect of the image.
Nevertheless, the attempt to censor many intimate moments of divergent thought, backfired, causing what might have been a gradual evolution of understanding, to become one of a least intended, catastrophic change, that plunged the people, the clergy and the shaman into an abyss of controversy.
To remember an important dream, is to begin to make sense of its symbols. Although these are events in time, what is important in a dream, is the way in which its images are patterned by the brain. This gives a symbolic picture of the subconscious state, and introduces a potential energy for change. To tell about the dream, is to make word signs that represent its symbols. In Durham, The Messenger may have inadvertently threatened the temporal power base of the Church, and provoked an abject dislocation in its language structure; nevertheless, because this is a shared experience, the first thing to change in light of this dream, might be the very language used to tell it.
The Messenger works because Bill Viola is immersed in the same linguistic structure as the church. He is able to open up this meaningful dialogue in a common language, that results in the spontaneous transformation of the situation. This is the only criterion for success. Most important though, is the need to recognize that it's not an artwork entitled The Messenger that people are standing around questioning, but it's their own ideas of what happened, that they are standing among as part of.
When Canon Bill Hall says that The Messenger is great art, he is defining great art within its context. This is close to what Donald Judd meant when he said, "if someone calls it art, it's art." Within that frame of reference, art becomes a word to use, to contextualise an act, to locate it in a social structure of the same name. Here there is a problematic difference of perspectives on art, from two structures that lay claim to ownership of the messenger. When the Dean refers to this as great art, he sees the entire situation at the cathedral as something that's going to profoundly affect his life. He no doubt is very sensitized to the abjectness of the whole situation. On the other hand, when The Messenger is viewed in the isolation of art, a sense of the abject that might signal an intention to bring death into the linguistic equation is missing.
Viola is happy for the work to be shown in art galleries around the country, because he also belongs to an art world structure. But here the problem centres on the definition of something as art. As long as this uni-dimensional conceptual pattern of a specialized social system called art, persists, it will place a barrier between an intention to deconstruct, and any functioning social system which that deconstruction intends to be part of. In this case it forestalls the necessity for art critique to delve into the contextual background of the work, which would reveal the situation as being truly subversive for its context, the Church. This seems to raise the question as to whether it would in fact be counterproductive to place artists-in-residence in such institutions.
To paraphrase Joseph Kosuth's earlier statement, an artist, being a thinker now, means to question the nature of functioning social structures. If one is questioning the nature of art, one cannot be questioning the nature of other functioning social structures. If a thinker accepts art, they are accepting the tradition that goes with it. That's because the word society is general and the word art is specific. The art world is a kind of functioning social structure. If you make art, you are already accepting (not questioning) the nature of society. One is then accepting that the human image can only really be reflected by art, and disseminated as such to society.
Nevertheless, art exists, and a defining factor of deconstruction is that it operates on the periphery of its own linguistic structure. It could be argued that if something is art, then by definition it can only deconstruct the languages of art. To be sure it filters through eventually to a broader church, as minimalist style, but to whose benefit? Although much of contemporary deconstructive art is difficult to commodify, it still submits to an art objectification, which capitalism would no doubt see as its last line of defence. If it is this linear, linguistic, capitalization of physical things that threatens to be erased by deconstruction, then capitalist thinking would need to maintain the Object, in order for its languages to be able to predict an infinity of its own presence. This objectification is a technological distance that corporate interest must proliferate to survive; but it means that people forget what proximity is for.
These political processes through which art appropriates, commodifies, and neutralizes the ethical impulse of deconstruction, thwart even the most determined attempts at linguistic suicide. To be art, it must have at some stage controlled unpredictability for its own pre-diction as art; it must at some stage in its own future, be able and willing to look back on proximity, as something that happened before it became art. And yet it is that very unpredictability of proximity that allows fluid discourse to find its own democratic level. Deconstruction seeks democracy in the silence of the artists voice, but this is inevitably only a demonstration of how to deconstruct. If art is to transcend its own objectification, a new art tendency must be conceptualised from which the whole of art can be deconstructed. If the whole of art could be viewed by the whole of the population, from the multitude of tiny intimate moments in time that would motivate such a tendency, then the silence would be intense.
To begin to recognize what factors might characterise this tendency toward democracy in art, we might refer to Simon Critchley's book, The Ethics of Deconstruction, Derrida & Levinas. In this work, Critchley draws on Emmanuel Levinas' thinking on ethics.
"...Levinas is preoccupied with the possibility of an ethical form of language, the Saying, which would be irreducible to the ontological language of the Said, in which all entities are disclosed and comprehended in the light of Being... the Saying is my exposure - corporeal, sensible - to the Other, my inability to refuse the Other's approach. It is the performative stating, proposing, or expressive position of myself facing the Other. It is a verbal or non-verbal ethical performance, whose essence cannot be caught in constative propositions. It is a performative doing that cannot be reduced to a constative description."
A tendency towards democracy in art might germinate in this spatial relation to the other. Language opens up the issue of HOW being in relation to the human other is articulated, ethical or not, but prior to language is the Saying, as the "...sheer radicality of human speaking... as the very enactment of the ethical movement from the Same to the Other", as the very unnameability of the trace. Art might raise the issue of its own transcendence in this space, as a performance in the unpredictable proximity before the Other.
At issue here is a tendency within the ontological language of art, to say 'Yes' to the unpredictable Otherness of the Other. If as Levinas states, the Saying is my corporeal and sensible inability to refuse the Other's approach, then it makes sense to perform art in a space of maximum unpredictability. This does seem to suggest that the whole of art might best be deconstructed in public spaces that are unrestricted, and in which the Other is not a predictable object in the artistic field of vision.
Unrestricted public space is full of people, who come close in an unpredictable way, but who are nevertheless capable of forming the 'we' who can in this present moment, demanded justice, or take a political decision for the justification of any issue. Art is such an issue, but deconstructive art, as a signification that raises the question of signification, could be a means to rediscover the sheer proximity necessary to democracy.
I want to refer back to the mythogram, but now as a clearing for the writing of stories whose symbols spell themselves pluri-dimensionally, and as a deconstructive continuum for ethico-political decisions. A tendency to open democratic space.
website - stanbonnar.net/
Den bosch candids - 24-08-16 - 35mm
Do not use my pictures without permission - but feel free to visit my website: www.gevoeligeplaten.nl
difference |ˈdif(ə)rəns| noun
a point or way in which people or things are not the same: the differences between men and women.
• the state or condition of being dissimilar or unlike: their difference from one another.
• a disagreement, quarrel, or dispute: the couple are patching up their differences.
• a quantity by which amounts differ; the remainder left after subtraction of one value from another: the gross margin is the difference between the total cost of the goods and the final selling price.
• Heraldry an alteration in a coat of arms to distinguish members or branches of a family.
verb [ with obj. ] Heraldry
alter (a coat of arms) to distinguish members or branches of a family.
PHRASES
make a (or no) difference have a significant effect (or no effect) on a person or situation: the law will make no difference to my business.
with a difference having a new or unusual feature or treatment: a fashion show with a difference.
ORIGIN Middle English: via Old French from Latin differentia (see differentia) .
Sometimes the differences are not so distinct.
FYI - Just some minor color correction and cropping here...no digital trickery.
Photographers checking out the “Mannequins Making A Difference” event during the Blue Water Festival
Port Huron, Michigan
The difference in geometry is subtle. The tourer has a longer wheelbase and reach, a sloping top-tube, a less compact rear triangle, and a taller head-tube. The tourer's tubing is far beefier.
Full write-up at tomsbiketrip.com/2012/05/kona-sutra-2012-touring-bike-fir...
From a photo I took a couple of months ago. I added in a parchment-esque texture and set the blend mode to "difference."
Not my normal type of imagery but I really liked the outcome. Dark but artistic. Kind of reminds me of a wood-print.
Yesterday, when I stood here I couldn't see Arran nor could I actually see the beach or the sea! Today, albeit a little misty out at sea our weather was lovely and warm and sunny!
Stay Safe and Healthy Everyone!
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!
'Detail Differences'
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www.gcrailway.co.uk/support-us/
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"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."
― Douglas Adams
"I told the writers there are no bad ideas. And they really took that to heart."
― Liz Lemon, "30 Rock"
~~~
People say lots of silly things about failure. For instance, my high school principal tried to inspire/lecture us at our graduation by telling us, "If you don't have a goal to aim towards, you'll never miss your mark." I think this was just a confused version of "Aim for the moon, because even if you miss you'll end up among the stars." But to this day, I can't be sure if he was being stupid, sarcastic, or secretly ingenious at some deeply meta level.
Here's another thing people say: Failure is not an option. Words that have been muttered more than once by desperate men right before they make a really bad decision.
Some pretty dire stuff can happen when we refuse to accept defeat, refuse to acknowledge our failures or even our capacity to fail. When the stakes are so high, we might feel justified in resorting to all kinds of bad behavior we'd never excuse when failure *is* an option. Those words -- "failure is not an option" -- are really just another way of saying, "I had no choice." Really? None at all? Forgive me if I chock that up to lack of imagination.
Am I saying we should embrace failure and learn from our mistakes? Sure. But let's not fetishize failure. Let's not get so comfortable with failure that we use it to excuse mediocrity and broken systems and bokeh lighting.
A popular saying in Silicon Valley these days is: Fail fast, fail often. Such advice is easy to follow when the cost of failure is relatively low, when there's not much more than 1s and 0s at stake and you can always write a new bit of code. But it quickly becomes obvious how terrible an idea it is when failing fast and often means creating basic employment instability for workers, churning out cheap gadgets that just end up in landfills because nobody actually wants them, and burning through natural resources on an already feverish planet in pursuit of get-rich-quick schemes on a massive scale.
Maybe the most obvious result of the fail-fast approach is that soon enough we find ourselves living in a culture of failure, surrounded by discarded half-assed projects and half-baked ideas that don't really satisfy anyone's needs. This is not a culture of innovation and creativity, but of laziness, clutter and distraction. "We'll let the consumers decide. We'll just throw everything against the wall and see what sticks," say the folks with nothing to lose. I have in mind an old sit-com scene where a woman cooking pasta take this advice literally and throws an entire pot of spaghetti against the wall. What do you get? Just a big mess and a bunch of hungry people.
What we may have forgotten along the way is that you have to cook the pasta first. That's what thinking is for, after all: imagining scenarios in your head, playing out different ways things could go, preparing for the possibility that things will go wrong so that when they do you don't end up with marinara sauce dripping from the ceiling. It's much quicker to clean up imaginary messes. So while I admire the can-do spirit that doesn't shy away from failure, I'd like to see more of us taking a moment to figure out what it is we really want, to think through our choices and the costs involved instead of outsourcing that part of the process and trying to rebrand junk as the price of success.
Maybe I'm starting to sound a bit too much like my high school principal, but I guess what I'm trying to say is: The fastest way to fail is to think things through.
~~~
#UULent #failure #choice #altar #meditation
On the left is Ladybellegate House,built around 1704.
The building on the right is part of the telephone exchange,built,I would guess in the 1960s or 70s.
Bull Lane,Gloucester.
2014 Singing Aurora Doll, boxed.
Review of 2014 Aurora Singing Doll
The new singing Aurora doll has many differences from the previous singing Aurora doll (released in 2012) and also from last year's singing dolls. She is 11'' tall (actually 11 1/4'' to the top of her head, or 11 1/2'' to the top of her hair), is dressed in the peasant Briar Rose outfit (without crown or necklace), is barefoot, and sings 25 seconds of ''Once Upon a Dream'' in a single segment when her left wrist is twisted. The 2012 singing Aurora doll is 17'' tall and dressed in her pink Princess outfit, with gold crown and pink heels, and sings 45 seconds of ''Once Upon a Dream'' in three segments when a button is touched in her right palm. The 2014 singing Aurora comes in a large box with large plastic window under a outer cardboard cover that is decorated with scenes from the movie Sleeping Beauty on the inside. That is similar in design to some of the collectible Mattel dolls of Disney characters from the 1990s. The 2013 11 1/2'' singing dolls had two outfits and one or two figurines of their sidekicks. This 2014 doll has only one outfit, but many more sidekicks, including a five animal depiction of the Mock Prince. Two of the larger animal figures, a rabbit and squirrel, are flocked to imitate fur. She also comes with a plastic basket, that she used in the movie to collect berries. Finally, the 2014 doll is $29.95, which is almost the same price as the 2012 17'' doll (which was $29.50), and $5 more than the 2013 11 1/2'' dolls.
Aurora's outfit consists of a satin dress and shawl. The dress has a black bodice, light purple skirt and light green blouse, all sewn together. The shawl is dark magenta, is single ply but hemmed, and a simple rectangular piece of cloth. It is tacked to her bodice near the waist in two places, which I left as is so it wouldn't fall off the doll. Her outfit is completely glitter free. It is simple but elegant.
Her hair is golden blonde, with gentle curls falling to her hips. She has some straight bangs over her forehead, and her iconic curly bang to over her left eye. It was divided into to sections in the back for shipping, but was easy to even out using my fingers.
She has violet eyes glancing to her left. There are a couple of short thick eyelashes at the far corners of her eyes. She has light rouge on her cheeks, and dark pink lips forming a friendly smile. Her face is very beautiful, from all angles and quite movie accurate.
She has the body of a 2013-2014 Classic Princess doll, except for her left arm. Twisting her left hand will start her singing ''Once Upon a Dream'' for 25 seconds. The wrist doesn't turn completely around, but does tilt up and down like a normal ball jointed wrist. Note that her left elbow is not jointed. Her right arm is fully articulated, with ball jointed wrist and elbow that have full freedom of movement. She has ball jointed hip, rubber legs with internal knee joints, and fixed angled feet. With bare feet she looks like she is tip toeing through the forest.
Purchase and Product Information
I just received today (Monday June 30) the dolls I ordered from the Disney Store last Monday, June 23. They included two copies of the new Singing Aurora Doll, and the new Jasmine and Maleficent dolls. All the boxes were crushed by the shipper, except for the Maleficent doll, strangely enough. It was as though someone sat on the shipping carton. However, all the dolls themselves are in perfect condition, and I am a deboxer, so it isn't that big a deal to me. However, I do want a copy of the Singing Aurora doll to keep in mint condition in the box, so I will be returning one of them to the store to exchange for a good copy when they get the singing dolls in.
I will post photos of the Singing doll boxed, during deboxing, and fully deboxed.
Aurora Deluxe Singing Doll - 11'' - Sleeping Beauty
$29.95
Item No. 6070040901048P
US Disney Store
Released online 2014-06-23
Purchased online 2014-06-23
Received 2014-06-30
A Wonder
Hearts will be singing as Aurora's song goes winging from our deluxe doll who serenades forest friends with the immortal tune Once Upon a Dream when hand is twirled. Beautiful golden hair and satin costume lend further enchantment!
Magic in the details...
• Fully sculptured Aurora deluxe singing doll
• Twist doll's wrist to hear Once Upon a Dream
• Lush rooted hair with beautiful styling
• Satin Briar Rose costume with shawl
• Includes basket accessory
• Comes with 11 forest friends on 7 play pieces, including the ''Mock Prince''
• Arrives in Storybook display box with self-stick fabric closure
• Celebrating the return of Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty on DVD and Blu-ray Disc
The bare necessities
• Ages 3+
• Requires 3 LR44/AG13 batteries, included
• Plastic / polyester
• Doll 11'' H
• Play pieces up to 5 1/2'' H
• Imported
Safety
WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD - Small Parts. Not for children under 3 years.
I was in two minds about buying this leopard print ‘Peggy’ skirt - I’ve already got plenty of those, of course. Now I see it on, it’s definitely become one of my favourites.
I'm using this as a PSA! This is a little different, not a very "artistic" photo but a photo none the less!
It's a side by side comparison of two different sensor cleaning kits. I had never cleaned my sensor before (had the camera about 6 years) and I assumed all cleaning kits were similar - NOPE. The one on the right was cleaned 2X with a name brand, green handle with triangular shaped swab after I cleaned the sensor with the brand on the left many more times. Not purfect but much better and WAY better than the uncleaned sensor.