Helsinki « Candy Chang

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The Trucks of the Sidewalk Riffing off the ground signage dividing bikes and pedestrians in Helsinki… a more nuanced edit by anonymous on my block on Uudenmaankatu…	Immigration Graffiti The tables tell the story in Finland’s immigration office in Malmi: Chechnya 09, Espana, Israel, Be cool, Kosova, Moskova, 30.9.2008 Today, Kurdistan PKK, Kill Bill, Estonia, Turkey, Ahmad 2010-1-13, Iran, Unite, Somali, Vive la France, Hello Everybody!	With Great Safety Comes Great Drunkenness It’s Josephine’s birthday and we’re dancing at Siltanen and sometime in the a.m. we decide to move the party to Redrum. Some people take taxis (although nothing in Helsinki is far) and some people bike. Andreea and I walk and one of the first things we see is a drunk guy on the other side [...]	Expat for Beginners I’m watching Google Translate re-calibrate in real time as I enter Finnish into the text box, and it’s making government mail kind of exciting: “In order… In order to fall… In order to continue to be on Social Security… In order to include the Social Security system you must submit a new oleskelulupanne…” By the end it falls [...]

Helsinki at Noon Low winter sun and Le Soleil Est Pres De Moi by Air makes even riding the bus romantic.	Pebbles After Helsinki’s first big snow, the City sprinkles pebbles on the sidewalks to give pedestrians grip over the ice. How many pounds or kilograms of pebbles they must have, I’m not sure, but they continue to add more after each snowfall until the Spring (who am I kidding, Summer) when they sweep it, store it, [...]	Wonderland Turku, Finland If it’s going to be winter, then let it be WINTER. The Big Ship by Brian Eno on repeat while gliding on a train through soft Finnish snow forests.	Free Maps Finland offers free local maps in choice public spaces like Helsinki’s train station and outside of Turku’s tourist office (above, demonstrated by the lovely Suvi). Just push the button and out pops a handy guide and a welcoming feeling.

Navigating Your Wine Fun and classy signage in Helsinki’s Alkos that includes over 20 icons to help customers feel out potential food pairings. The duck with the holes? Game birds ha.	The Day After This is what the sidewalks look like during Vappu, the Finnish May Day celebration where students dress like race car drivers (academic jumpsuits color-coded by university department) in sailor hats (graduation caps)… and everyone drinks large quantities in public space… until the next day, when it’s capped off with a “quaint” picnic in Kaivopuisto Park with the [...]	5 Ways to Redesign a City Rachel Abrams, Creative Director of Turnstone Consulting, wrote a cool article “Five Ways to Redesign a City” for the UK Design Council magazine about ways interaction designers can tackle urban issues in various cities around the world. She includes good ol’ Helsinki and its public transportation-tracking tools with a little Atari reference from me. Watch the [...]	A Food Made For Radio Behold mammi, a traditional Finnish Easter pudding made from rye flour and malt that tastes like the dregs of your cereal bowl and is better served in mood lighting. How does the color of food affect the way taste is perceived? Food coloring is a common ingredient in chicken mcnuggets, salad dressings, sandwich buns and [...]

Crowdemployment & microsalaries When companies are trying to make the Latest Thing, there are lots of rules about keeping things on the hush hush. Nokia House, the headquarters just outside downtown Helsinki, is ripe with security. Every door in the ginormous complex can only be opened with a personal electronic gadget, and the design floor is even off-limits [...]	Things I Didn’t Think About No free streaming tv here! Hello bit torrents… U.S. magazines cost as much as books! Now eating while reading Time is for fancy days… There’s no peanut butter and people think PBJ sandwiches are grody! Gots to tell people what time it is…	The People’s Map What are your favorite places in Helsinki? Add it to the collaborative Google map here!	North by Northwest How do you feel comfortable in a city? For me, part of it is knowing what direction I’m facing. This was an easy thing to do in NYC where I was always aware I was walking north on Mott or west on Spring. As one of the first planned cities, Helsinki actually has a grid [...]

Fun Finnish Apt Customs II No lobby mailboxes here – Finnish postal workers deliver your snail mail directly to your door (through a door slot that makes receiving your mail semi-frightening as it drops to a crashing heap). So tenants’ names are posted on their doors in official plaques that make everyone look like upper office management.	Music for Sleeping James made a new mix called Kylmä Musiikki (Finnish for “Cold Music”) that’s really good music to pass out to. Check out the tracklist full of soft and heartbreaking classics from Brian Eno, Oval and DJ Shadow, and download it here!	Two Birds, One Dish Rack Going apartment-searching in Helsinki has been a fun introduction to different customs for small-space-living. Here’s one that should be spread to all mankind – Dish racks are installed like shelves in a bottomless cupboard above the sink where they can drip, dry, and be stored away in one fell swoop. And I brought my standalone [...]	From Dots to Discus Three neat works from the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art… Rita Roos by Anne-Karin Furunes. Half-toned face made from punched holes and shadow. Dot matrix meets minimal art! 15 Excavator by June Bum Park. A sped-up video of a construction site is layered with crafty hands to look like they’re directing the crane. Real world as [...]

Weird Bench Formations in Helsinki Small talk turned into performance art…	Art of Packaging Customized storage for guns, pipes, and medical tools at the National Museum of Finland. The art of packaging, ritual, and making your things feel special.	Keeping You Posted Not only does Helsinki have a tram system that tells you exactly when the next one will come, but they have a neat map of bus lines moving in real time. An arrow notes the bus direction and the icons jolt every few seconds like a city version of Asteroids. No more fidgety gazing into [...]	Sunrise, Sunset Morning in Helsinki in January is like one long dawn and the afternoon like one long sunset. It’s actually kind of romantic and I’m finally awake for that time when the sky goes from dark to dewy and is good to reflect by, but this time it lasts for many hours and it doesn’t mean [...]