Our first project as a duo was during the last year of our BFA, 2018–2019. The course assignment was to design a piece of furniture, collaborate with a producer and present it during Stockholm Furniture Fair 2019. The producer gave us a free brief with the only wish for it to be upholstered.

We wanted to make a social and sculptural piece for public space. It was in this project that the complexity of public space caught our attention. We found semi-public space particularly interesting and decided to start from a club scenario and thought about everything that was required by the context. The concept was to inspire movement in the room and open up for meetings between people. The form should not be solid, not break the pace of the space but rather adapt and reference the existing tempo. We sketched as much on the void and the shadow plays as on the material elements. Here we began to explore artistic research as something never ending – as a starting point, purpose and result. In addition to reading, writing and speaking, we also started doing experiments in interaction, materials and social phenomena. We did studies in anthropology without having the vocabulary for it. Rather, it was about experience and intention that took shape through intuition, trial and errors.

Through research we arrived at different levels of seating and ways to interact. A natural next step was to make the furniture modular. The chosen context did not necessarily require it to be comfortable but ergonomic. The material would be adapted to the club environment – indoors and outdoors. It was in this project that we positioned our approach to sustainability; that durability can equal environmentally conscious sustainability. The way the material is produced is waste effective and we intend for the objects to live forever. With this intention every decision carries weight and comes with responsibility.

We named the project what it was - “Seats”
‍

‍
6 years later, we can state that this project laid the foundation for our collaboration and our approach. Our practice is ever evolving but there is a sense of dna in materials, aesthetics, approach and matters of interest that were articulated with this project. Also the way we didn’t make anything upholstered kind of says a lot oopsy daisy

"You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been."

10/10 quote by Maya Angelou

‍

“Remember how far you’ve come, not just how far you have to go. You are not where you want to be, but neither where you used to be”

Rick Warren ...what?

‍

“If you don’t get serious with your money, you won’t get serious money”

OK Grant Cardone

‍

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there”

Lewis Carroll, makes u think

‍

“When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go”

Too much pressure Carol Burnett

‍

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself”

Andy Warhol mind blown

‍

That being said I’ll reflect on a some of our own projects to understand where we’re heading, in the meantime I suggest to you:

“The chapter that follows has something to do with the chapter that you just read unless it's the last chapter then you should start a new book or maybe watch a movie or take a walk”

‍

Dear readers,

We have been navigating towards inspirational quotes lately, this happens from time to time. These recent weeks we’ve been working on a project that I can’t tell you much about just yet. What I can tell you is that there is one quote that we come back to and “S” has helped us analyze it.

Live every day like it’s your last

If I would live every day like it’s my last I would

1. Spend all my savings the first day with this mindset?
2. Call my mom several times and not get anything else done?
3. Cry all day?

We suggest:

Live every day like tomorrow is your last

I believe this would make you more present today.

Stay tuned

Transcript started

‍

Josefin: Yes hello

Mira: Wait

Josefin: Okey

Mira: I'm gonna try to put off my Wi-Fi maybe it’s better now

Josefin: So the idea for this conversation I would say is to recap a little bit, or to analyze our practice as a starting point. Moving forward I'm thinking we're gonna go through what we have done in the past and why. What our intentions are for our practice as it develops.

Mira: Yeah. You started a blog that’s gonna be a book

Josefin: Yeah. I think it can be a fun way of exposing our work in a stage where we never get the opportunity to show it even though that work is what it's really about. Showing results in exhibition spaces or performances or events, that's I mean fun and all but not like the reason why we spend our lives doing it. So I thought it would be a suitable format for our process. And focus on the research.

Mira: We aim to be very transparent.

Josefin: Yeah. Steal away lol

Mira: Yeah, it's a weird tradition in this field. That you should keep your ideas to yourself. Until they are 100% done and polished.

Josefin: Yeah.

Mira: It creates an atmosphere.

Josefin: Mm and I think it results in lack of exchange.

Josefin: From my own experience working with this I think the best outcome is always when you manage to kill your ego and it's the main reason why we are working with a collaborative setup, it’s so fulfilling. You can't collaborate with everyone, this is fact as well, but I really believe in collective knowledge and the value of multiple perspectives.

Mira: yeah, maybe this is why we have a way in when it comes to talking about this because we are already so open and talking out loud with each other about our process. It's a big part of our work and research to just talk to each other and people around us

Josefin: We have created this environment where you can say whatever you want, it can be so stupid. It's very honest, a safe haven for creative ideas. When I say something that I might be afraid to say to someone else you see it very open-mindedly and you’re also not afraid to argue against it.

Mira: I think we trust each other.

Josefin: Haha I think we do. Maybe this is why we want to also showcase transparency. It’s towards other collaborators of ours and/or some kind of audience but mostly for ourselves because I mean, who's gonna read this blog. Although it's a bit scary to share unprocessed thoughts, doing it without knowing what it will become. I hope it will be interesting to also look back on what weird little details ended up being the core of a project or idea.

Mira: I have a cute little memory from school, it's also very stupid. It was a lecture with a guest teacher. And I don't even remember who it was, if it was a woman or a man, I don't know. But this person told our class about their process and that their source of inspiration is from everyday life. And I don't know if we were sitting beside each other and that's why we noticed it, but we both took up our pencils and wrote it down and then we looked at each other.

Josefin: Was this the woman that took inspiration from her walks?

Mira: I don't remember.

Josefin: Because I remember there was an artist, she was I think a painter and she took morning walks every day and took photos throughout the morning. Then she basically just painted what she saw and I always feel silly in a good way when I think about it.

Mira: It's just cute that we have always been drawn to the same kind of thoughts and ideas, I guess, even when they are considered obvious or silly or basic or whatever haha

Josefin: Yeah, and this is how we met through just being like minded and we knew that we wanted to do the same thing even though we had no idea what it would be. We just invested in this notion. If it doesn't sit right with me, it doesn't sit right with you with no exceptions, which is the most special experience I've ever had.

Mira: Yeah and now we find ourselves in a context that seems to really suit us.

Josefin: So far in this residency it’s really been the exchange with the other artists that has been most special.

Mira: Yeah, maybe we actually never before have been in a context with people like this, I don't know. I mean, we've been in contact with a lot of artists and designers before but people are so free in their way of thinking and maybe it’s because we have the time and the place to do it…

Josefin: I think it feels like it's quite similar to being in school but I think the main difference is that people have a practice now and they are a few years into their careers. We differ in age and people have shaped their thoughts in a way and that we all want to go in different directions. The hard thing in school I think was that you were such an easy target for influence and you could see that a whole class would go in similar directions. Whereas now everyone has been shaped in their own art schools and whatever and it's a greater exchange, I think.

Mira: Mm

Josefin: For us I think it's a crucial moment in our practice right now because we're going from being in Milan only in a design context. We’re taking active steps towards a more hybrid practice. We have created this framework that allows us to work without exterior expectations

Mira: I mean, we have expectations of ourselves.

Josefin: Yes.

Mira: That's almost maybe the worst.

Josefin: The worst kind of expectations.

Mira: Yeah.

Josefin: But should we talk about the expectations, why are they the worst?

Mira: Because this is the thing about not being employed. It’s on you. It’s on you to make sure it turns out the way we want it to turn out and we end up where we want to end up. And we have to know what we want, to be able to go there.

Josefin: And this is the reason why we are here doing this thing right now. It’s easy to just keep working, go along with opportunities driven by income because you have to pay your rent and then all of a sudden you’re in a space that you’ve been spending a lot of time and effort trying to avoid.

Mira: How is your connection? Because mine is very bad.

Josefin: Mine is good.

Mira: I think it's my phone because it's very hot now.

Josefin: It feels like it's finally settling in our minds how we can work, because it took a while to shake off the conception presented to us in school, the possible outcomes of an education. We always met in the longing for something else, but didn't know what it would be. And now that we’ve created this context over the period of five years, I think finally it makes sense also for us. We now know how to own the narrative and have built up the courage to go into different media. It’s a clear example of practicing something and following rather a drive than a direction and ending up in a place where you afterwards can analyze and understand that it’s where you wanted to arrive all along.

Mira: Mmm.

Josefin: Another memory I have from school, where you were taught to write about your practice and our professor encouraged us to have a punchline for your practice

Mira: I remember

Josefin: And I think that is so counter productive, at least for me it was, because I put on mental limitations for myself of how I should identify. Then I have this identity, which is really important in communication with others and all of a sudden, a few years down the road, I realize that this is not all that I could do, maybe the practice that I have now could be much more dimensional. I’ve really had to unlearn a few things to let my mind be open to whatever comes my way.

Mira: I wonder how we would be as teachers.

Josefin: I mean we would do like this, we would say something with so much confidence and…

Mira: then we take it back

Josefin: Haha yes! Actually the strongest memory I have of another professor, Andreas Nobel, who was both of ours favorite, was when he had this lecture about his thesis “Shady Enlightenment”. It’s about how a hierarchical view of knowledge has exerted influence on the fields of design. He discusses how knowledge cultures, which are strongly characterized by reading and writing, generate problems for the designer. And then at the end of the lecture, he was really like, “but also, what the hell do I know?”

Josefin: Encouraging us to question him, his lecture and his ideas about a thesis that are questioning in itself was revolutionary to me at that time.

Mira: And we’ve brought this into our practice.

Josefin: Exactly.

Mira: Is it maybe too early to talk about what our new project will touch upon?

Josefin: There's no context yet, there's no funding. There is no brief. And there's no collaborator.

Mira: The framework. Ourselves.

Josefin: yes, and the starting point is where we’ve just recently arrived? Mentally and physically…

Josefin: I'm noticing it’s so good with perspective and not only in the manner of the time that we give ourselves but also physical perspective, not being in Stockholm, for example. I’ve always had this as a tool when it comes to feelings, I can always go to my hometown Söderhamn and distance helped me understand. It’s so obvious now but I never really expected it to work so well for work as well.

Mira: It’s realizations upon realizations, also a bit scary

Josefin: My expectations are very high. I'll catch you later.

Mira: Crocodile. Nice talking to you.

Josefin: Bye.
‍

Transcript ended

Hello

I’m Josefin, 50% of Swedish Girls. It’ll probably be mostly me on here because Mira is not showing that much interest, which is a pity, it’s always very entertaining to read what she writes because her spelling is very creative. However we’re equally involved in the project that’s giving reason for this blog. We recently arrived in Milan where we will do a research residency for the rest of the year through the non-profit organization ViaFarini. We share a studio with a group of other artists and live in an apartment on the second floor.

We are here to start up the research for our next project, at the time of writing I don’t know what will become of it but the idea is to log the research in real-time. The content will serve as a transparent documentation of our process including highly intelligent observations and conversations, dynamics of our collaboration, a testimony of modern society and countless inspirational quotes. My intention is for this to become a book, like Issy Wood’s ”Queen Baby”, course literature even. So, I’ll name the first post “Preface” and would like to thank Kourosh Hekmatara for building this site. We limited the ways for anyone to interact so if you have a comment you can email us.

‍