Information gathering 1

Maybe I’ll go to the library later, could be a fun trip. But for now I’ll browse the web a bit instead.

Here is a mini essay I compiled from stuff found on the web.

Dolphins – by Ola Persson

The origin of the name dolphin comes from ancient Greek, and looks like this: δελφίς
It means “with a womb”. Fish don’t have wombs because their not mammals. There is a lot of different dolphin species, about 40 or so. Some dolphin species recently became extinct like the Yangtze River dolphin that probably died out in 2006. A lot of other river dolphin species face an uncertain future. So if you don’t want the species to be more 30ish donate some money for dolphin research. Maybe at http://www.wwf.org/

The dolphin I think about when I think about dolphins is usually the common bottlenose dolphin. Also the common bottlenose dolphin seams to be the one commonly held in aquatic zoo parks. This is the dolphin species I’m aiming to become.

Some more facts then, dolphins are considered smart, even though people you consider dumb are probably smarter then dolphins. They have great hearing, far superior to humans but probably hear trough the jaw somehow. They have echolocation capabilities but no smell. Instead of smell they probably taste the water. Be sure to write all this down, you never know when stuff like this comes in handy…

Dolphins are a pretty new thing species wise; they evolved about 50 million years ago. They actually used to be land living animals and returned to the sea to fill the niche of big surface dwelling predators that had been empty since the dinosaurs disappeared. Japanese researchers found a Bottlenose dolphin in 2006 with the remains of back legs, and it caused quite a stir in the creation/evolution debate. I’m not taking sides in that debate but I didn’t find so much information about how god created dolphins on the web so this essay will mostly be on the evolutionary side.

Anyhow I will create my dolphin as a polystyrene sculpture and then create a mold and cast it in some sort of rubber. If someone thinks of a better solution I’m up for a debate.

The to do list

1. Find out more about dolphins.
2. Build dolphin suit based on my newly learned information.
3. Find someone who has dolphins and talk them into me swimming with their dolphins. (If it doesn’t involve me dying. Or is too dangerous for one reason or another.)
4. Send invoice.

Also I’ve been informed that an editor has been assigned on my project. Jacob Åström of Great Works. Let’s hope this blog is big enough for us both.

In an Absolut world I would be a dolphin.

When I was younger I used to be a diver. Once a week I went to the bathhouse and snorkeled for an hour. I always loved water and even more so being deep down in it. I used to watch the movie “The Big blue” a lot because it’s about diving and also is a good movie. It’s about a couple of divers pushing the world depth record of diving without tubes. Somewhere near the end of the movie (might even be he final scene, got to watch it again…) the main character dives so deep that he don’t have air enough to get back up and decides to stay. It’s a very emotional scene of when he calmly stays at the bottom surrounded by darkness. Slowly a dolphin emerges into what little light there is and the diver follows the dolphin into the darkness leaving all possibility of reaching the surface alive. It’s a poetic scene and I translated into that the diver becomes a dolphin himself and reaches some sort of calm state and comes to ease with himself and the world.

My friend thought that the dolphin saved the diver. I don’t think that makes any sense.

When I was asked to come up with an idea for something on the topic of “In an Absolut world” the scene came back to me. Mostly because I was a bit off in the meeting and was daydreaming about things that happened ages ago. In an Absolute world I would be a dolphin, I want to become one I said. I want to construct a lifelike dolphin diving suite and swim with other dolphins in this suite.

Somehow I got a “go” on the project. GR8!

Time to start.

Ok, now it’s time to start. Welcome to my blog! It’s the first page in a new chapter of my life. The first stumbling steps of my still wobbly legs, I’m reborn! Or not really reborn yet, the whole project is still in its womb. But I will be soon.

Where shall I start? I’m really enthusiastic about the whole deal, but I don’t want to spill all the beans at once. Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Ola Persson. I’m 28 years old and live in Stockholm, Sweden. I run a small design workshop I like creating stuff. Doesn’t really matter what, as long as I keep myself occupied. I’m a restless soul.

A couple of days ago I got a really strange brief. The company Great Works asked me on behalf of Absolut Vodka to come up with a vision about "In an Absolute World". I did and the client liked it. This blog is going to be all about that project.

The journey just begun and in my next post ill tell you all about the idea I presented! Over and out / Ola

Hi

Alright! The blog is up! Gotta go, I'm in a hurry.