Mit år 2010

184 visninger på et halvt år ikke meget at bygge en kunstnerisk eksistensberettigelse på.
Der findes nogle kunstnere som har den holdning at de skaber fordi de gerne vil skabe og at det dybest set ikke betyder noget for dem om der er nogen der oplever deres kunst. Den type af kunstnere er jeg bestemt ikke. Det betyder bestemt noget at der er nogen som vil opleve det jeg laver. Hvis ikke der var det kunne det være lige meget. Jeg har hørt om en tysk forfatter som mente at hvis der bare var syv mennesker som ville læse hans bog så var det arbejdet værd. Det er en fascinerende tanke som jeg langt lettere kan forbinde mig med end den om at det er lige meget med "tilskuerne".
184 er så mange gange min video The T-Archive er blevet set siden jeg udgav den på youtube den 17. jun 2010 . Jeg har modtaget en del positive tilbagemeldinger og et par lunkne og en del hvor jeg kan fornemme at de synes det er lidt synd for mig at jeg bruger så meget tid på at lave noget så verdensfjernt og "mærkeligt". Selvom dette bestemt ikke er noget imponerende "resultat" af en temmelig omfattende arbejds indsats vil jeg alligevel udnævne udgivelsen af The T-Archive til den vigtigste enkeltbegivenhed for mig personligt i det år som er gået.
Omkring selve udgivelsen var der det forunderlig sammetræf at et band som var med til den fest som meget af handlingen i The T-Archive udspiller sig omkring spillede en gratis koncert på havnekajen udenfor skuespilhuset. Det var i alt hast lykkes mig at få kaldt nogle venner sammen til en lille fejring med et par flasker Champagne nede ved denne gratis koncert. Jeg var så rørt over hvor mange der dukkede op med så kort varesel.

(Her ligger The T-Archive hvis nogle skulle have lyst til at se eller gense den. )

2010 var året hvor vores families økonomiske situation krakelerede. Min kone var uden indtægt siden ophørselen af hendes revalidering aug. 09 og jeg stod alene med et udgift niveau som jeg ikke kunne magte. Da jeg i februar stod der dybt desperat og ikke kunne se hvordan jeg kunne brødføde mine børn tænkte jeg "Hvad kan jeg som jeg kan brug til at finde vej ud af dette.. jo jeg kan få folk i tale over internette.. det er det jeg hår brugt kræfter på og dygtiggjort mig i de seneste år.." så besluttede jeg at prøve at bruge denne evne til at iscenesætte et "nødråb" over internettet. Og jeg fik skabt opmærksomhed om vores situation og de sociale myndighedder kom ind vores families liv. Det var nu som de mange velmenende mennesker ikke rigtigt kunne hjælpe os. Jeg ende ofte i opslidende og sjældent konstruktive diskussioner om ansvar og grundlæggende værdier. Till gængæld blev jeg vikar på et bosted for fire "krævende" beboere og det var en stor hjælp. Både økonomisk i det jeg fik nogle flere penge imellem hænderne pga arbejdet, men ikke mindst personligt. Jeg kom i en ramme som hjalp mig enormt med at forstå min egen hjemlige situation og hvor jeg fik lov at øve nogle situationer som jeg havde vildt meget brug for at kunne håndtere derhjemme også.

År 2010 har for mig været et barsk år med fattigdom og hårde sociale og medmenneskelige udfordringer, men det har også været et år hvor jeg har taget skridt og håndteret opgaver som jeg ikke troede muligt før. I det heletaget synes jeg at dette tema med at opløse grænserne for det mulige, for perceptionen og for hvad der overhovedet er virkeligheden er ret betegnende for det år som er gået i mit liv.

Lad mig ønske alle et godt og lykkebringende 2011.

Flickr billeder fra mit og familiens år 2010 for dem som er interesserede og endnu ikke har set dem.


Love Love Love
Mikkel

låst

Tænk så står jeg her. Efter års overvejelse er jeg kommet frem til en beslutning. En beslutning om en vigtig symbolsk handling og så opdager jeg gud hjælpe mig at det ikke er muligt inden for loven, at gøre denne handling.
Jeg vil separeres fra min ægtefælle, men stadig blive ved at bo sammen.
Det kan måske lyde som en mærkværdig ide at blive separeret uden at flytte fra hinanden, men vores situation er også usædvanlig og "mærkværdig" blandt andet på grund af at der er psykiske sygedom i relationen. Vores relation er igennem årene blevet en meget udviklende, skolet, indøvet sublimeret kunstart. Et forhold af "høj kvalitet" og med mange værdifulde elementer. Men jeg synes samtidig at det er et forhold som helt har forladt det vi almindelig forstår ved et ægteskab og i særdeleshed det som jeg selv kunne ønske mig af et ægteskab. Derfor var det måske også rimeligt nok at også forlade betegnelsen ægteskab for vores forhold. Og dermed også forlade nogle af de genside forpligtelser som hører til denne betegnelse.
Jeg kan i øjeblikke ikke se det som en social/moralsk forsvarlig mulighed at forlade den konkret konstellation En egenlig skilsmisse hvor man flytter fra hinanden ville være for "blodig" i vores situation. I hvert fald på kort sigt. Vi har børn sammen og min ægtefælle er på nuværende tidspunk så "låst" i sin psykiske konstellation at hun ikke ville være i stand til at opsøge eller modtage hjælp, ej helder at tage vare på børnene eller tage vare på sig selv hvis jeg flyttede. At hun skulle flytte fra mig og børnene er på det nærmeste utænkeligt. Derfor virkede den symbolske opløsning af ægtepagten som et rigtigt godt første skridt at tage. Og jeg kunne mærke at jeg nu var afklaret og parat til at tage dette første skridt så jeg begynder at undersøge hvordan jeg skal gribe det an. I den undersøgelses proces finder jeg ud af at det ikke er muligt. Se her:

Fra statsforvaltningens hjemmeside:

Først lige lidt baggrund:

"Når I bliver separeret, gælder hverken den gensidige troskabspligt eller fællesejet længere, og det betyder, at I skal dele de ting, I ejer. Når I bliver separeret, arver I heller ikke længere hinanden. I er dog stadig gift, selvom I er separeret, og det betyder, at I ikke kan gifte jer igen med en anden, før I er blevet skilt."

Og her kommer det så.

"Separation forudsætter, at I flytter fra hinanden. I kan dog fortsat bo sammen i op mod 2-3 måneder, hvis årsagen er, at en af jer skal finde noget andet at bo i."


Rimeligt chokerende når jeg nu endelig efter år havde truffet den vigtige sybolske beslutning.

På første side i Statsforvaltningens pjece om skilsmisse står der:

"Alle, der er blevet gift, kan blive skilt"

hmm... Det gælder åbenbart ikke mig.

The main projekt of mine

In a month's time, my main project have been to code an interactive website that could keep track of some playgroups and afternoon events in my son's class. The very idea of these afternoon activities is mine but I went to a meeting where we discussed the idea and I think it was a pretty tough equation to solve and I were soon intrigued by how I could make a online solution that could track the project's many facets. I worked on this as I said a couple of weeks and I learned to code some PHP which I could not before. Now I finally finished the project.
Whether this system will ever come into use, I really do not but I've put a demo out open for all. It could be that someone needed just such a system. In that case, I'd be happy to give away the code and helps with customization.

Here is the demo version of the system

The project is in Danish but if you're not-Danish-speaking and want to see it you can see it through
google translate

I'm glad that now I broadly can leave behind the coding project because I am eager to return to what I really have as my current main project. My real current main project is to remake a picture book that I have created a few years ago into a video slide show for YouTube.

love
Mikkel

Dream after the matrix

Oh now I'm being inappropriate again, but ok I have a good excuse. It's not something I've constructed by waking consciousness, it's something I have dreamed. The image and the text is an adaptation of a strong dream I had the other night after having seen the movie "The Matrix" (read previous blog post)

The Matrix; A perfect staging of the movie experience

Well then, I had seen the matrix. Ten years later than most others. Found a discarded TV with VHS player that stood in front of a house with a note on it saying that it worked just fine and that anybody could just take it.

Some weeks later I found the movie The Matrix (the first one from the trilogy) on a VHS tape along with dozens of other discarded tapes in our bulky refuse basement. This night I had the pleasure to try to see if I could get it to work and get seen the movie. I'm slightly crazy about discarded electronics and often pull discarded items home and test if they work and if I possibly can repair them or so. I was routinely prepared on a bit of hassle and not too sure whether I would get to see any movie that night at all. I had worn the TV up and put it on a chair. Got the plug into the socket and stuck the tape in and "voila" everything happened by itself there was a picture on the screen in ten seconds. Trailers and advertisements from the tape the whole thing just spun. The entire small television seemed much more advanced and modern than I had expected. Almost a little bit unreal.

And now here after I have seen this beautiful movie I can not help but think how perfect it was a prelude to just this movie. The retro technology represented in a VHS tape, combined with the the experience of it being surprisingly sophisticated at the same time. And than the way that this elements, the tape with the film, the TV with the player almost dropped in to my life as if it was all planed from somewhere outside the matrix. I don't know who to thank for this but it sure was a "Perfect" staging of this movie experience.

Love Mikkel

Feldenkrais method

A tweet from @rvisby to day stating that very seldom hard work comes back at one as something bad made me go back and find some text about movement and awareness that has truly meant a lot to me for at least twenty years now. To put this text up nicely and upload it to me homepage. It is the beginning of the book Awareness Through Movement by Dr. Moshé Feldenkrais. Feldenkrais was professor in physics and at the same time deeply in to body work. By being professor in physics he really is well founded on a theocratical level as well witch i find very satisfactory when I read it. Amongst other things he explains why "hart work" isn't always the best solution and that I like because I am not to keen on hart work :-)

OK here is the the linke to the 2 pages long Feldenkrais text

And I'v also put up the text in Danish:

Feldenkrais text in Danish

Is there anyone who will look through this (proofread) for me? It is only a few sentences.

Is there anyone who will look through this (proofread) for me? It is only a few sentences.
It's the intro to a youtube video that I am making out of a picture book I have made. if you would like to help me you can use the comment possibility below this blog-post to post you corrections / suggestions.

----------------------------------------
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So this is my attempt on a picture book for kids about sex. Or more accurately: This is the video-slide-show-version of this book.

I guess it might upset somebody because it mixes at lest three element that can all bring up strong emotional responses.

1. The book is about sex.
2. The aimed audience is children.
3. The book takes on a spiritual approach the the subject.

I am not planing to be controversial here. The being controversial is just at side effect that I realize could probably emerge. What I have tried to do is simply to make a picture book that present the subject in the way that I would like to present it.

The style of the book is inspired by the Rudolf Steiner movement, but I do neither officially nor semi officially nor in any other way express my self on behalf of this movement. I just like that style.

The book is available for free as PDF for printing or e-book reading from:

www.mimoart.ooz.dk/silver

Pludseligt Beachparty

Na'na (min datter) er halvsløj så vi (den lille firpersoners familie) skal nok bare slappe af. Vi vælger dog at tage et telt med ud på stranden for at være et rart sted og slappe af. Pga nogle trafikale mulighedder med cykel og anhænger og Na'na som ligger og sover i den vælger vi at cykle ud til bunker 3 på amagerstrand og da vi kommer der ud befinder vi os pludseligt midt i et kæmpe beach parti med pumpende strand techno fra dj pulten, boder og masser af mennesker i det rigtige-strandparty-smarte-outfit. Vi køber is og synker ned i nogle behagelige "fatboy" (Sækkestole) lige ved siden af DJ pulten og der bliver vi et par timer og bare chiller og kikker og lytter imens folk omkring os flasher fordele og bagdele og drikker Corona fra blå dåser og taler grinende med hinanden om hvem de har scoret eller hvem de har tænkt på at prøve at score og solen skiner som på Ibiza. Hvor jeg nød det og hvor er det bare typisk vores lille familie uventet at havne midt i sådan nogle oplevelser.

Te Quiero - Stromae translatet in to English

LittleCutieEvilThing made this nice verson of Stromae Te Quiero with the French subtitles. Then in the comments under the video on youtube some guys have made a translatin in to Englich. That is what I bring her (below the video window) with all respect to the peaople who made this. LittleCutieEvilThing for putting lyrics to video and ForJustice29 and CoctoRy for the translation. (you can find them on youtube).

"Te quiero" the title of that song is not French like the rest of the song but Spanish and meaning "I love you".




CoctoRy
Translation - PART 1
"One day I saw her, and I immediately knew that,
That we will have to play those silly games
Jewelry, Kisses and tralala, sweet words and low blows
Insults, hits and so on and so on
No! Not mine but hers, yes
Our child will also become hers
And then, I guess the judge will be the one to insist
Imagine me, tv under the arm and my dirty jeans and all that...

I love her to death, but it's for life
We will say "yes" (I do during marriage), to life, to death

CoctoRy
Translation - PART 2

And even when we change our opinion
Even knowing we are wrong
We don't change life
So, just like everyone else, I will suffer from it
Untill death,
Te quiero
I would like to be her shadow,
But i dislike her
Te quiero
Even till the end of the world
Well, she'll even be there
Te quiero
Yes I loved her so much,
That I still do love her
Te- Te- Te quiero
I won't have choice, no
Untill death
Te quiero x2
Untill death
Te quiero,
Te-te-te quiero
Te quiero

CoctoRy
Translation - PART 3

One day I will see her again, and I'll know immediately
That it's ready for another tour of the piste (saying; it's restarted for the same shit)
One more world, A new Judge and then the smell of their piss (babies)
That becomes one time more just a bit repetitive

Imagine me in my old jeans,
But this time, homeless
Moral low, at the top of a bridge, a cliff or a building,
I'll look like an idiot if I jumped in the emptiness/nothingness

ForJustice29
TRANSLATION - PART 4

I love her to death but for life
We will say yes to each other, for life for death
And even with changing our minds
Even with knowing that we’re wrong
We won’t change life
So like everyone, I will suffer
Till death
Te quiero,

I would want to be her shadow
But I hate her,
Te quiero,

Even in the other side of the world,
And well, better she stays there
Te quiero

Yes I loved her so much
And I still love her
Te quiero,

ForJustice29
TRANSLATION - PART 5

I won’t have the choice, no
Till death
Te quiero(x2)

Till death
Te quiero (x2)
I love her to death (x6)

The T-Archive release fejring

Coco moon spiller en gratis koncert i morgen ved skuespilhuset og samtidig er mit video projekt the T-Archive kun et heste-mule-hår fra at være færdigt. The T-Archive er det kunstneriske projekt som har været mit hovedprojekt i cirka et år. En ca 8 min lang video som skal på youtube. Det helt underfulde i dette sammenfald altså; The T-Archive, Coco Moon og Skuespilhuset set fra mit synspunkt er at både Coco Moon og skuespilhuset indgår i selve materialet til The T-Archiver. Begge dele har været del af omstændighederne omkring tilblivelsen af the T-Archive. Oven i disse forunderlige sammenfald er der så et til lille forunderligt sammenfald. Det er ikke nogen hemmelighed at vores familie i den senest år har levet på et økonomisk niveau som sikkert fint flugter FN's internationale fattigdoms kriterier. Alligevel har jeg to gode flasker Crémant (Champagne) stående. Så den ligger da vist lige til højrebenet som man siger. Jeg skynder mig at få min video færdig inden i morgen og uploade den til youtube. Så tager jeg min to flasker Crémant under armen og køber en bakke en-gangsglas med stilk og så...

JEG VIL BLIVE NOGET SÅ GLAD HVIS DU KÆRE VEN ELLER BEKENDT VIL MØDES MED MIG VED

Det Kongelige Teaters nye strandscene ved Skuespilhuset 18/6 kl. 16:45

OG NYDE ET GLAS CRÉMANT VED VANDET OG HØRER NOGET GOD ROCK MUSIK OG FEJRE AT THE T-ARCHIVE ER BLEVET FÆRDIG OG UDGIVET. (To flasker er vel en 15-16 glas med lidt god vilje)

HVIS DU IKKE KAN SE MIG NÅR DU KOMMER SÅ RING 60450344

(Om Coco Moon Vil jeg sige at det er noget utrolig lækker Rockmusik. Næsten Toto artigt i sin lækkerhed men dog hårdere og med mere kant (og en meget lækker kvindelig forsanger.. så der er også noget til husarene ;-)).

lyt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gggH_aAjFdA

A short statement on music and life

OK it seems I can survive without having any actual sexual interaction. Survive under very low conditions. Survive with stress, failure, struggle and dissatisfaction if I just feel that there is room for "music" in my live. On the other hand side I believe I can't survive if i feel there is no room for "music" in my life even if these other basic needs was fully satisfied.

Status on The T-archive

Why would this guy write in English when he is clearly not good at it? Why does he continue to dance and choreograph when he clearly lacks some talent?.. I do not know. Some kind of distinctive joy and thrill of life must be behind it.

Yesterday I had for the first time a fully completed recorded sound track ready for my project The T-archive. The T-archive is a small video art project of mine with both speak dance and music (approximately 7 minutes) aimed for youtube release. I could for the first time listen to how the finished soundtrack would sound. The result I have aimed for in almost a year now.

I listen and listen again and again and I'm a little disappointed. It is not really beautiful. It is not really sexy. It is rather a bit peculiar in my own opinion. But on the other hand, It is still my own beloved creation. I do love "my little retarded child" with all my heart like parents does :-).

love
Mikkel

Daily training session

Being in a situation which might well be described as a crisis I am thinking more heavily then usual about the structure of my lift. And strangely an idea have occurred that maybe it was time to bring back the ritual of a daily training session in to my life. Before the birth of my son who turned 11 yesterday I was very disciplined about my daily training ritual. I am not doing muscle strengthening and conditioning exercise like you would normally associate with training. Instead I have a repertoire of exercise based around Alexander Technique and Klein Technique and some other things. It's mostly small and slow movement with a lot of consciousness, sensing and visualization involved.

As my working days seem to form itself there seem to be a some free space of time during day where the kids is in school and kindergarten. That leaves space for some 30 - 45 minutes training session. I started to day. It was nice and the plan is that every weekday I will do my little training session. If I am home taking care of a seek child or the like it is fine that I don't do anny training, but else I should have this as my little daily ritual.

I dag vil jeg hylde Kat Boelskov

Kat holder i dag reception for udgivelsen af hende CD "Amateur" og derfor denne hyldest. Da jeg mødte hende i efteråret 09 var hun nylig hjemvendt fra et forsøg på en musik karriere i London. Hun var startet på en uddannelse som pædagog og havde både lagt musikken og hendes facebook profil på hylden. Men imens jeg kendte hende tog hun fat igen på begge dele og pludselig tog fanden (eller vorherre) ved hende og hun begyndet en proces. Købte en stor mac computer og musikudstyr lavede selv nye numre helt fra bunden på med computeren og stemmen som instrument. Lagde numre på myspace of facebook. Samtidig for hun hele den her selviscenesættelse på benene i det digtal univers, facebook, myspace, youtube, Last.fm og hvad det altsammen hedder. Den unikke stemme, de stærke personlig og velproducerede numre, den særlige karisma, hele hendes visuelle iscenesættelse og fremtoning og hendes benhårde netværks arbejde resultere i en hurtigt voksende fanskare og et hurtigt voksende sang katalog. Der er jævnlig efterspørgsel på en CD udgivelse fra fans så Kat beslutter at udgive en CD selv. Alle udvalgt tracks bliver så vidt jeg har forstået sendt til et eller andet fjernt hjørne af verden og færdig produceres og nu er CD' en ude og vi er inviteret til reception Så vidt jeg husker var det engang i april 09 at Kat lagde det først track ud på nettet. Der er sket ikke så lidt siden og det har være en stor inspiration for mig. Big up for Kat.

Kats facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kat-Boelskov/175909611062
Der er en lille player på siden ned til højre hvor man kan hører numrene.

Anmeldelse af Baby Blue, Betty Nansen Teatret (Steffen Brandt og Trine Dyrholm )

Betty Nansen Teatret:

BABY BLUE

Sange af Bob Dylan

Oversættelse: Steffen Brandt

Scenografi: Maja Ravn

Iscenesættelse: Kamilla Wargo Brekling og Niclas Bendixen.

Til 23. januar. Forlænget til 30. Jan.


Jeg har engang i et interview hørt Peter Høegs beskrive sit håndværk som en evnet til at modeler sproglig energi (undskyld mig Peter Høeg det er 16-17 år siden og jeg husker ikke din præcise formulering), men hvis vi taler om en performans kunstner eller en danser (hvilket Peter Høeg i øvrigt også har beskæftiget sig med tidligt i livet) føler jeg også at ideen om at omsætte, modeler scenisk nærvær eller perfomensmessig energi er en god måde at beskrive hvad performens kunstneren/danserens håndværket består i. Baby Blue er altså Betty Nansens teatrets Bob Dylan forestilling eller snare skulle man kalde det Steffan Brandt forstilling. Og af en og anden grund har han valgt at give sin forestilling en performance teater flavour med valget af Kamilla Wargo Brekling som instruktør.

Den her før omtalte evne for performans optræden er der efter min mening/erfaring meget få mennesker som overhovedet har udviklet en sans for. Publikum har udviklet en evne til at hører om en sanger rammer tonen, men om en performer så at sige ramme tonen i sit fysiske udtryk, sine bevægelser, sit blik, sin grounding, sin rumlige bevidsthed, moduleringen af sit fysisk nærvær er der ikke mange som har udviklet et "øre" for. ligesom det er en proces at opøve evnen til at kunne smage og dermed nyde vin, kaffe, cognac, opera etc. så er der altså her en sans for performens nærvær som meget få mennesker har opøvet og derfor negligere ligesom gæsterne i Barbette gæstebud ikke har opøvet en sans for nuancerne og værdierne i finere fransk madlavning.

Jeg har læst anmeldelser af Baby Blue som synes at der er noget forvirrende uklar performance pjat i baggrunden for en koncert med Steffen Brandt hvor han synger sine Bob Dylan gendigtninger. Som en person med en passioneret interesse for denne særlig kunstarte "at modulere scenisk nærvær" og ydermere som en person der er ven med en af de fire performer i baggrunde på forestillingen ser jeg naturligvis forestillingen med helt andre øjne end det rock/Dylan/teater interesserede anmelder korps.
Og denne sjældne synsvinkel synes jeg der kunne være værdi i at give en stemme i forhold til "den dejlige og kiksede forestilling Baby Blue" på Betty Nansen teateret.

Fra det synspunkt er det nemlig stykkets to alt overskyggede hovedpersoner, Steffen Brandt og Trine Durholm som også er stykkets svageste medvirkende (kædens svageste led). Bandets medlemmer har opøvet en sans for at være del af fælleskabet via musikken de frembringer sammen. Performerne/danserne har opøvet en sans for at være en del af fællesskabet via de billeder de skaber sammen og via alle de ovennævnte kvaliteter.
Men Trine Dyrholm og Steffen Brandt glider ikke ind i et harmonisk sammenspil hverken med bandet eller med performerne. De stikker ud som to stive porre på en knoldet kold vinter mark. Og det gør mig ondt for Guderne skal vide at jeg holder af Trine Dyrholm og i særdeleshed holder af Steffan Brandt. Og Trine Dyrholm stemme er jo smuk. Hun synger langt bedre end jeg havde husket det. En fyld mørk lyd som så kan gå over i en luftig falset. En langt bedre sanger end jeg havde forventet og en langt ringer "mover" end jeg havde forvæntet. Så vidt jeg kan se er meget af Trine Dyrholms kiksethed også tilsigtet. Hvorfor ved jeg ikke, måske for at gøre en dyd af nødvendigheden. Jeg kan slette ikke se denne Bridget Jones's artige kiksethed i Dylans elegante tekstunivers, men ok det det er en smag sag.

Ligesom mange af anmelderne finder jeg forestillingen kikset, men hvor mange af anmeldrene syntes at det er performans delen som forstyrrer synes jeg at det er hovepersonerene som ikke evner den genre som nu engang er valgt. På den anden side synes jeg forstillingens elskelig, charmerende, skønhedsmættede sårbare indsigtfulde, poetiske elementer og øjeblikke er værdifulde og stærke nok til rede den -til at kompensere for den manglende sammenhængskraft. Det var en mega skøn oplevelse ellers havde jeg jo helder ikke siddet her i flere timer og skrevet en anmeldelse af den.

"Zeige deine Wunden" siger den tyske kunstner Joseph Boyes og måske er denne udstilling af mindre stærke sider også et slags projekt for den ellers så ironisk distancerede elegant og tvetydige Brandt. Så tak for en dejlig oplevelse til jer allesammen.

Med venlig Hilsen

Mikkel Meinike Nielsen

Synchronizing the look of your profiles on deferent social media platforms

How about binding your profiles on deferent social networks together by adding to them common layout theme?



Facebook doesn't offer the opportunity to personalize the look of your own profile and that i think is a pretty cool choice by facebook that giving many clear advantages. However as a visual and artistically directed person i love the ability to costumes the look of my own profile like you can do in many of the existing social media.

So I started on twitter and was thrilled by the "costumes profile layout" facility and out of that an idea raised to make my home page, my twitter profile, my youtube channel, my blogger/blogspot blog and my myspace profile all mirror the same layout idea. So the following is walk through of my take on it. Hopefully it can inspire someone who wants to do something simular ore be a practical help on the deferent layout possibilities of these deferent social media profiles.

I'll do this in five chapters.

1. Customizing twitter profile layout
2. Customizing my own homepage layout
3. Customizing youtube profile layout
4. Customizing blogspot/blogger profile layout
5. Customizing myspace profile layout

1. Customizing twitter profile layout



Twitter is the "new kid on the block" for me and it is my very favorite construction. The simplicity and transparency in the infrastructure and the clean design is simply beautiful.

That was when I wanted to customize the layout of my twitter profile that the design-connecting idea came about. I had chosen to take a little bit of the background image from my personal website and used it as a repeating pattern as the background on my twitter profile to create a cohesion between the two.

Adapt profile layout in twitter is of course simple and easy :-)

As I said, I found an interesting selection of the background image on my personal homepage and customized it with an image editing program (gimp) approximately 250 x 250 pixels size.

Then on Twitter start by going to "sittings" in the top menu. When you click it you will come to a page where there is also a top menu. Here you must select "design". Then you'll get a lot of "themes". I chose none of them but went down to the bottom of the page and selected " Change background image " and uploaded my background image. Then I went back and pressed the "Change design colors" button.

As you can see, you can choose different colors for various general page elements to change the color just click on big colored square then you get a palette where you can choose a color with the mouse. Notice the small number to the right of the palette looking like a5825a. This is the html code for the color. If you know the code for the color you want, it is easier to simply type it into the little box. Inspired by an other persons profile on twitter @pernillerosen I chose a black sidebar and a golden colored text.

My Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/mimeini

2. Customizing my own homepage layout




I was so thrilled about the look of my Twitter profile with the black box and the gold text that I decided to go back to my personal homepage and make a big change on it so that I also here could get a black box with gold text.
My personal homepage is a completely hand-hacked and hand-scripted project of mine. It has been a long process to make it and it will lead too far to go into how I made the changes on this page.

so there is therefore a delicate link between my personal website and Twitter. I had long uploaded videos to youtube, but it was only very recently that I realized I had a youtube channel and youtube actually trade a kind of social netwærk with friends, etc. So now the idea for pulling my youtube profile layout under a common layout of the theme like the other two sides

My personal homepage: http://www.mimoart.ooz.dk/

3. Customizing youtube profile layout



So there is now a delicate design link between my personal homepage and my Twitter profile. For a long time I had uploaded videos to youtube, but it was only very recently that I realized that that implied having a youtube channel and that youtube actually trade a kind of social network with friends, etc. And that I had a customizable profile layout on youtube. So now the idea for pulling my youtube profile in under a same layout theme as the other two sites came about.

So how to do that on youtube?

On the top menu you click the menu item "Themes and Colors" There are a number of templates to choose from. On youtube you choose a template and the template can then be adapted further afterwards. I chose the templet "8-bit" because it had the black boxes as I needed. After that I go below and select "show advanced options". The advanced options appears as a table in two colon to fit here, I have the pictures of them here under each other.



If you look at the image above there is an option to upload a background image and I did that and chose exactly the same image as on twitter and I checked the check-box that the picture should become repeated. Then I filled out the color coding as you can see in the picture over here. The interesting thing is the box that says "transparency". If you let Transparency to NONE your background image can not be seen between the boxes so I put the transparency to 100%.



Here is the second column you can see the color codes I've chosen and here I set the Transparency to None to get a solid black background for the text.

My youtube canal: http://www.youtube.com/mimeini

4. Customizing blogspot/blogger profile layout



Blogger / blogspot operate a bit like youtube where you first choose a temple and since adjusts it. I chose a temple with a black background when I created the blog so now I just had to have the text color adjusted.

When you just log-in on your blogspot account you are at your dashbord. Now you have a little menu for your blog.
Edit Posts – Settings – Layout – Monetise
So click layout for the blog you want to customize
Then you get to the "Add and Arrange Page Elements" page. Her you have the tabs:

Page Elements | Fonts and Colours | Edit HTML | New Template

If you go in the Fonts and Colours tab you will find a palette where you can customize the colors of text and borders and so.

I did so. Afterwards, I would find out how I could get a repetitive background image into the blogger layout like I did on youtube and twitter, but it didn't seem like there was an option to do that. So I goggled and found some suggestions on how this could be done by going into "Edit HTML" and add some css code there. None of the solutions I tried worked for me. I also began to think that a repetitive background in this way would probably fill the entire background so also where the text was and I didn't want that.

Therefore I gave up on the repeated background image and decided to go another way around it. On the layout page on blogger there is a table entitled "Add and Arrange Page Elements". Here is the opportunity to insert an image both at the top of the blog and on the the side. So I made again an image of the background image from my personal homepage this time slightly larger. Put that as the top of my blog layout. Then I piked the little image I had used on twitter and youtube and put that in to the right side element of the blog layout.

There is a well illustrated tutorial on doing that here.
http://web-site-tutorial.blogspot.com/2009/04/here-are-tips-how-to-add-background.html

5. Customizing Myspace profile layout



Myspace was the hardest. I spent hours to figure out how to do it. When I had found out it was of course very easy. The information I could google was not working properly so therefore I really hope people who are struggling with this would benefit from this post.

You start by going to profile and select "Edit Profile" from the profile drop-box. This will take you to a page where there is a top menu where you must select "customize profile".



Unfortunately, the text on the screen dump (image) here over is Danish because I am Danish. But anyway first. Myspace profile has two possible states. Profile 1.0 profile 2.0. Many of the suggestions I found on goolge was to go back to Profile 1.0 and make the changes that way. This was not possible for me. I was forced to use the possibility's in profile 2.0. Many of the suggestions I found online was about going in under the section labeled css as you can see in the picture over here and then simply put a lot of CSS code in the box which appears when you click the link. As I tested, I found out that the code I put into the css box only worked for what is called "body elements" in css. That is to say text color, background color etc. It seemed also that links elements worked, but css coding to affect the tables, that I have previously had called the black boxes on the page where the text should stand did not worked. Eventually I found out what I had to do. I had to choose the empty template which I have placed a circular ring around on the picture above.

Then I pressed the css item on the menu and pasted the below code in to the little css code box in the myspace interface. You should be able to customize the values in this to your purposes with your html color codes.

body {
background-color:#000000;
font: normal 8pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color:#a5825a;
text-decoration:none;
line-height:100%;
}

h1 {
font: normal 13pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
}

h2 {
font: normal 18pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color:#ffffff;
}

p {
font: normal 10pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
line-height:110%;
color:#a5825a;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:link {
font: bold 10pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color: #ba825a;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:visited {
font: bold 10pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color: #ba825a;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:hover {
font: bold 10pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color: #c0c0c0;
text-decoration:none;
}
a:active {
font: bold 10pt Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif;
color: #ba825a;
text-decoration:none;
}

After that I had a solid black background and my gold text on top, but we still lacked the background image. On myspace background picture may be deployed in different ways.



Click advanced settings. This opens a box with five menu points: Background, content, modules, module titles and module text. Selecting one of these five menus will open up an opportunity to upload an image. If you upload an image under the "background" menu item the whole surface will be covert by the repeating image wallpaper. If you upload your picture under the "content" menu item. The image will fill the space around the modules. If you upload your image under "modules" the modules will be felled out with the repeating image while there is black around them. So I selected menu item number two from the top down "content" and that gave me exactly the look I was looking for.

My Myspace profile: http://www.myspace.com/mimeini

I hope this post has been helpful. You are very welcome to comment or contact me with questions. My mail address can be found on my website.

Best wishes

Mikkel