PLACES: MONTH #001
"a first video of public places shot to begin with while in uppsala commuting often to stockholm to get my passport to bring my son for a holiday at the seaside with my mother and eventually shooting some places in her city in vicenza but then making it back to sweden after she treated us badly and there visiting the city of nykoping where we landed and then going for a very rainy camping holiday in the island of aland with my russian friend pyotr and filming several places but still not really knowing where to point the camera as well as whether to avoid including people in the video such as my friend but also later back in uppsala my polish friend jacek with whom we took a big walk to the countryside"
PLACES: MONTH #002
"still a rainy summer hindering me and my son to be much out but then getting my best friend francesco to visit us with his new girlfriend elena and bringing them around the countryside with a period of nice weather and even making it to dalarna going with them for quite some hikes but again with a bad rainy weather setting in at last making it quite depressing for august and i to be in uppsala but nonetheless discovering some nice places during our walks in the forest and filming not so much paying attention to have him in the camera also going quite often with him to playgrounds"
PLACES: MONTH #003
"enjoying some a bit of an indian summer in uppsala and filming around our new neighborhood and in the city also venturing quite far with august all the way along the fyris river to the malaren lake but then having to commute quite a lot for teaching in the design academy in stockholm and filming also inside these semi public premises getting to film towards the end more interesting spaces such as the view from the viking burial ground west of uppsala both in a nice day and later with the snow falling turning the landscape quite white and finding right in the landscape a sort of aesthetic to pursue"
PLACES: MONTH #004
"month of filming beginning in uppsala with quite some snow making the city a bit miserable and filming also often in similar places like picking outside august primary school and outside the swimming pool to suddenly fly with the whole family to northern italy and from there travel by train all the way to rome filming the amazing places of the capitol before going to perugia and filming the surrounding with the camera unable to handle the strong light at times yet managing to get beautiful views of small medieval towns like gubbio and the surrounding mountains so beautiful it broke my heart to go back to the misery of the swedish winter"
PLACES: MONTH #005
"a month filming mostly the public places of uppsala turned miserable by a long winter but discovering the beauty of the surrounding landscapes and really filming some beautiful scenes especially from the viking burial sites covered in snow quite in contrast with the grayness brought forward by socialism with the compounds filmed especially while taking care of august in the short daylight after his school"
PLACES: MONTH #006
"still filming some miserable winter scenes in uppsala making it quite hard to film public places also due to the cold and the darkness unable to film so much while briefly in helsinki before returning to sweden and find a nice and almost spring like weather with at last some sun and some sightseeing with august of not just the usual playgrounds but also of our favorite viking mound before out of the blue ending up in florida and from there taking a cruise where liselott had a conference to the bahamas and exploring the caribbean island with august filming a few of its hidden places outside the city port"
PLACES: MONTH #007
"public places filmed at first in the bahamas checking out some of the colonial heritage there and exploring around with my kid august before returning to florida and filming around orlando especially while waiting for him and his mother to go to the disney amusement parks but also making it to crystal water to enjoy a day on the beach walking quite extensively there and getting fully sunburnt and after spending a bit more time cruising around the car made neighborhood in orlando returning to a gray and rainy sweden however turning increasingly brighter and at last also spending some time in stockholm visiting the royal drottningholm"
PLACES: MONTH #008
"having a easier time filming with the summer setting in and documenting public space in stockholm before making it to italy and filming in venice while hanging out with my friend davide and my american curator friend jason waite before taking more solitary explorations of my vicenza while visiting my parents and seen for the last time my beloved grandfather now confined in a retirement home and filming also the beautiful scenery around it before exploring with davide milan and discovering the beautiful cimitero monumentale there at last then returning to the more dull swedish landscape"
PLACES: MONTH #009
"filming at first the idyllic midsummer celebration at the vallonian mining town of osterbybruk places to the film in and around uppsala turned brighter by the sun and often going for a swim before going off for a long hike in the fjall mountains by the norwegian border in storlien and exploring the beautiful ridges there despite the weather being most awful and then back to civilization at last traveling with my family to italy and finally to my home town crowded with tourists but not high up in the mountains where i guided the family of my chinese colleague and filmed the nice scenery with also a bit of filming at the sea-side while my colleague kept in quarantine at my parents infected by swine flu"
PLACES: MONTH #010
"still touring the daughters and wife of my chinese boss around northern italy at first taking them high up in the mountains of my native highland and then taking them for longer tours to verona and garda lake and trento making it back to sweden at first filming the usual landscapes but then getting to travel a bit around and filming more beautiful scenery especially with the nice summer weather also filming in stockholm during the gay pride and then back in uppsala filming more of the malaren lake there turned beautiful by the usual short lasting summer"
PLACES: MONTH #011
"quite much in stockholm planning our upcoming life in shanghai and meeting my chinese boss living there and taking advantage of the beautiful summer weather to film the city almost as a farewell roaming through the public places filled with life unlike during the gray cold season and later flying out with my family to my native highland and exploring many beautiful mountains also more in the trentino side with small august managing to climb quite many of them and also filming my native town from the distance and up close"
PLACES: MONTH #012
"filming a bit more of conventional public spaces in my native highland touring it by bike with my stepfather and then walking around venice and filming the city up until sunset to then make it back to uppsala still filming more of countryside places there before at last departing for good with my family to shanghai for a new life there but instantly trying to search for some green there shocked by the amount of pollution and exploring the southern side of the city quite extensively with my son august building a network of places with green areas where to take him"
PLACES: MONTH #013
"our first period living in shanghai getting quite shocked about the amount of traffic and exploring the city with my son august always on my side trying to find some parks and places not so crowded where to enjoy some nature and walking the city extensively beating mostly the french concession but then also exploring the middle of town"
PLACES: MONTH #014
"visiting for the first time the other side of the river in shanghai going to the fancy pudong and realizing how lifeless it all is standing just as an empty facade to the city but really finding much more life and interesting public places to film keeping in the near of the french concession particularly next to the jing'an temple and mostly in xujiahui park where i tried to make it almost daily with my son august but also exploring together other parks before making it briefly to sweden for my exhibition there and feeling i no longer wanted to have my family in shanghai desiring to go back to the cleaner air of sweden finding my wife back in shanghai quite distressed and not willing to leave china"
PLACES: MONTH #015
"still in shanghai now with my son august going to school and finally getting my boss over from sweden after his daughter had a nervous breakdown and with him traveling to potential clients like in the city of wuxin but also at the science and technology museum filming the surroundings and also while with august doing more filming of public places exploring the art district where i once had an exhibition via my curator friend jason waite exploring also the more touristic parts of town like the old city and the city center still being the only foreigner there then traveling back to sweden to attend my solo show in uppsala and on the way back getting stuck in helsinki with a pilot strike grounding me there and taking the opportunity to film the city roaming it quite extensively then back in shanghai trying to make it mostly to parks with my son avoiding the constant pollution"
PLACES: MONTH #016
"experiencing at first the coming of the cold season in shanghai and depicting the misery of many public places with several struggling people there like at stations but also depicting some of the more touristic small sites like little souvenir streets and later following my chinese boss to more important public sites especially around the science and technology museum with whom we collaborated depicting and almost surreal imperialistic vision erased by the very pollution and smog that was required to produce it and later with my boss leaving staying alone in the city with august discovering nicer and more traditional sites also with the more sunnier days bringing us to parks despite an ear infection he had which took us to a giant hospital complex at last convincing his mother to travel outside the city during our holiday and making it at first to the gorgeous city of hangzhou at last experiencing the real chinese character and its former balance between the artificial and the natural walking by the beautiful lotus paths by the river and up a buddhist temple on the hills and across the city filming the essence of a almost vanished china destroyed by foreign ideologies"
PLACES: MONTH #017
"after much exploring with liselott and little august discovering a nice old part of hangzhou but recording at night with not such a good camera and soon after flying to kuala lumpur venturing in the not so nice city there just trying to get a picture of the various places before traveling to a small island on the west side and finding a small spot not so strict as the other muslim places enjoying our time there and exploring the sea with a canoe filming also more remote areas even venturing across the island on foot getting almost attacked by wild dogs and monkeys in a damp at last making back to inland malaysia exploring there the not so interesting cameroon highlands with its tea plantations but a lot of mud especially trying to hike with my family never able to really come to any interesting views with always the vegetation covering all the heights"
PLACES: MONTH #018
"still in malaysia now leaving the disappointing highlands to spend some time in the capitol city making it at last back to the grayer and colder shanghai at first following my chinese boss to different meetings but then eventually keeping with little august and trying with him to be as much as possible in the city parks away from all the traffic and keeping in the dead winter nature with some occasional sunny days but always surrounded by people"
PLACES: MONTH #019
"some night shots of the northern part of shanghai coming back late from work after spending much time to finish off my work with the students at tongji but then slowly rebelling to the idea of working my chinese boss and breaking loose now spending much time with august in parks and making only once out of shanghai to wuxin getting more into a chinese atmosphere there before coming back to shanghai often making it back with my son but also his italian classmate filippo to the park south of the french concession but also visiting other parks in the city like a big cultural hub and some very interesting public places with the miserable gray and polluted weather becoming more crisp and sunny"
PLACES: MONTH #020
"still in china now venturing for some sightseeing with my family often as the only non chinese going now to the near suzhou discovering the beauty of classic chinese architecture and roaming with little august and his mother far and wide in the city not really visiting any of the private parks also later going for some days to an island in the the near of shanghai but finding it quite depressing and even taking a lonely walk alone in the night not really being able to depict the landscape there at last to return to our usual spots in the south of shanghai with a warmer and spring like weather going often to parks with august but also to a quite ugly monumental park wanted by the comunist party and taking august's grandparents around after they came to visit now almost exclusively keeping in the remote nature within the metropolis"
PLACES: MONTH #021
"still commuting a lot from the south to the north of shanghai to finish off my teaching at the university there with the city getting really in a feverish preparation for the expo with new boulevards being built but finding shelter with my son very often keeping in the parks and the jing'an temple not too far from us later giving up also my university teaching all together and assisting my swedish wife in her ethnographic studies going much around the parks to connect with old chinese people performing in various fashions and interviewing them"
PLACES: MONTH #022
"roaming around with my son very intensively the shanghai parks fully captivated by the life there with all its events and performances and much magic avoiding any tourist site or doing any of the things done by expats in their glamorous segregated communities and shopping site becoming with my son one with the chinese community until being forced by a new rule to leave the country every month to renew my visa and going with the whole family to hong kong finding a much more modern city yet very emptied out of the life we would find in shanghai with only few locals doing anything in the more western type of parks and really in the end finding the indonesian and phlippians women coming to the city to housemaids to bring life in these parks during their free time"
PLACES: MONTH #023
"still in hong kong going around quite a lot with my son while leaving his mom in a hostel with her constant headaches and with him even venturing out to a former pirate island exploring the whole place walking up and down the hills and almost swimming in a gulf filled with sharks later returning to the big city and walking some more around reaching some high up view before returning all together to shanghai and here just spending my whole time with my son in parks absorbing the traditional chinese life with the constant performing of its people and only once going to the touristic area of pudong filming there the new and empty side of chinese cities i almost never look into"
PLACES: MONTH #024
"making the best out of our stay in shanghai with our time there running out and still going much in parks but also visiting more of tourist attractions such as the old city and part of the world expo before actually traveling to tokyo and even here mostly going around alone with my son august with his mother at all times in the hostel not being so impresed of what remain of the old part of town trying to reach the parks as in china but finding completely a different scene with many homeless people queuing for food mostly in the near of yoyogi park where we spent many days"
PLACES: MONTH #025
"getting more insights in the life of tokyo browsing around with my son august doing quite many kilometers together and also meeting up with a former italian soccer player from a famous football team and with exploring more of the central part of town before heading back for once to sweden and getting sort of stuck there in the big open nature with not so much sun and a lot of kilometers to cover to find a change in landscape beside visiting often uppsala and exploring all corners of the city there mostly getting stuck in playgrounds to let my son play"
PLACES: MONTH #026
"still more days spent in uppsala mostly with my son but then also traveling alone to stockholm to try to get an english exam for a phd position i got in australia and staying at my artist friend mikael gorlaski taking my time to explore once again the city before returning to uppsala but from there also exploring more of the surrounding borrowing my parents-in-law old volvo car to go to lakes and bring my son to swim but also for many walks"
PLACES: MONTH #027
"a bit of a lame summer month to begin with while in sweden mostly making it to uppsala to let my children play revealing a bit of the destituted people in the public places there but also the beautiful scandinavian landscape talking long walks from the city back to our countryside and later going with jacek to jerusalem to teach young palestinians how to make movies of their condition there and getting myselrf to film quite extensively the city going also on illegal places such as over the roofs and around the old walls but also crossing into palestine proper and visiting towns there and focusing always in the filming of spaces upsetting however an orthodox jew who almost broke my camera in a park at night"
PLACES: MONTH #028
"going more in the depth of the west bank with my palestinian students and reaching the far front of a protest not afraid of tear gases unlike my polish friend jacek and managing to film the landscape under the riot also later making it back to israel and hitchhiking with jacek all the way to acco through telaviv and haifa later after sleeping in a beach near lebanon and getting encircled by drunk jewish militaries falling asleep on the train and ending up all the way south of the country in askhelon just hours before it was hit by the hezbollah with missiles and managing either way to film the landscape there also back in the more tranquil jerusalem with still some tension when filming in the near of orthodox jews"
PLACES: MONTH #029
"beginning the filming of public places still in jerusalem showing the more mundane side of it as well as the very tensed gay pride with police on an alert for orthodox jews possible knife attacks and on my way out of the country getting basically stripped of all my equipment by the jewish police suspecting i was some sort of volounteer but managing to smugle my videocamera and keep on filming on our stop over in the very touristic prague walking with jacek the whole day up and down and across the famous vltava river there and after a very playing stay in the uppsala countryside leaving at last for boston and lodging with my family in brookline exploring the city with my son with my wife home working and us crossing over the charles river and falling quite in love with the many cities making up the whole boston"
PLACES: MONTH #030
"spending my time fully with my son going far to the east of brookline but also keeping very much in the city center around quicny market and the common before venturing quite down south to the blue hills getting a bit of an alpine feeling there reaching the main summits and filming boston from afar with my son walking non stop searching for the house of batman there and eventually finding an old cottage resembling it and back in boston also discovering the beaches filming there but not hanging out too much also given the cold water"
PLACES: MONTH #031
"again spending much time with my son with his mother always stuck to her computer and taking him out mostly to many of the nice playgrounds promoted by the obama administration before making it to new york city together staying at my old friend brian in brooklin and walking extensively through manhattan to central park but also back across the two southern bridges into brooklin making it there to the orthodox jew quarter and to the parks but also with brian reaching the quite decadent coney island before returning to boston and still with my son making it to much of the open air locations exploring the whole boston area"
PLACES: MONTH #032
"exploring with my kid the north east part of boston finding a bridge taking us there and also quite much keeping within the mit university campus with august doing some karate classes and often crossing the charles river making it across beacon hill to the boston common and then back and in general bringing him to many playgrounds after school and during his school hanging out very much in central cambridge meeting up with a polish professor there trying to work on one of his new york exhibitions and for the purpose even going to see the chelsea gallery there representing him and spending some days in the big apple"
PLACES: MONTH #033
"still in new york city following my girlfriend to some sort of an expo at the old and decadent site of a previous world expo park in queens and being quite revived of the presence of latino immigrants with all their street food culture and trashy vibe also later finding the same vibe exploring manhattan and ending up on a weekend day in central park finding once again a bit of the same festive and decadent scene later making it back to the misery of east cambridge where our apartment was and trying to save money covering long distances with my son to buy cheap grocery only later discovering how my wife was piling up the money she would get from sweden to be abroad and just saving them reproaching us for every penny we would spend"
PLACES: MONTH #034
"meeting my biological father for the first time in a quarter of a century in montreal and exploring the city with him showing me the places where we used to live with my mother and my twin sister but not really wanting to film too much not to disturb his narration and make me look like a weirdo but walking also the hills north of the city with a nice indian summer beginning to colour them and getting some shots of the city from up high prior returning with almost no stops to boston and there still exploring the north east of the city but also keeping it in the center bringing my son to many playgrounds andlater also bringing the family to the irish neighborhood to the south enjoying the beach there but generally getting quite in love with the new discovery my son and i made of the old and quite imaginative mount auburn cemetery all the way to the west"
PLACES: MONTH #035
"quite some filming around the boston area with the autumn setting in walking extensively with my son dressed like batman to fetch candies in the richer parts of town and also taking a nice walk in the green mountains with my new friend paul romano discovering the amazing landscape there reminding me so much of the alps later also discovering with my son the arnold arboretum in the opposite side of town but despite the distance trying to make it there quite often especially to the top of the main hill getting a nice view of the city to film and beside that roaming around the city often ending up with my son to playgrounds from where a bit of the misery of american life can be perceived"
PLACES: MONTH #036
"a period of intense exploration of the city mostly in cambridge to begin with but even venturing with my greek friend panagiotis and his boyfriend to the fancy house of my old friend brian's girlfriend near the legendary walden pond and getting to see more ponds in the area and also with august venturing with the metro to a nice park north of the city taking a nice and adventurous walk there beside often making it to the playgrounds in the central common and in the near of little italy doing our usual cheap grocery of discounted end of saturday products and after keeping quite much in south of boston in the beach there getting some cold days with the landscape turning really winterish at last getting snow and bringing my son with the sled even as far as to the nice hills of the arnold arboretum getting quite some reminiscences of my youth in the alps"