I died twice from running over spider ants

Everyday life in the era of The Institute.
Mikael Jansson

Life trickles in from the outside

"The Doctor: I understand, all right. The hopeless dream of being - not seeming, but being. At every waking moment, alert. The gulf between what you are with others and what you are alone. The vertigo and the constant hunger to be exposed, to be seen through, perhaps even wiped out." /Persona
Valeriu Catalineanu

my Day

"Today is my turn, to look back, to look forward, to close my eyes but still be able to see that something is missing. The sun has burned out the sky. That burned spot in the clouds corresponds with the burned spot in me. I am still smiling, though..."
Ksenija Spanec

TV dinner by the pool

It is utterly important to use new inventions for the benefit of the Citizens, declares The Institute. When television arrived and invaded the living rooms it was already decided that the main purpose of the media should be "Marketing, Brainwashing and Propaganda". The Institute officially named it: "Entertainment, Education and Information."
Jan Bernhardtz

catch the arrow

The Institute says: Amor vincit omnia.
For the lovers Ms Medusa and Mr Warrior: Catch the arrow first or you might be the victim.
Sanja Buterin

unseen

No recipient specified.
Ulf Fågelhammar

not a smoke screen

It is smog generated by The Large Engine that has replaced them all.
Mikael Jansson

One Large Engine...

...replaces them all. No overload protection.
Jan Bernhardtz

The Observer

Panopticon is a type of building created by the Institute (who picked up the idea from J Bentham). It allows a single watchman to observe the inmates without them being able to tell whether they are being watched or not.
Sanja Buterin

an image of the world

”The flight from the name ’bourgeois’ is not therefore an illusory, accidental, secondary, natural or insignificant phenomenon: it is the bourgeois ideology itself, the process through which the bourgeoisie ideology transforms the reality of the world into an image of the world, History and Nature. And this image has a remarkable feature: it is upside down” - Roland Barthes
Valeriu Catalineanu

reality-correction

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”― Carl Jung
George Holroyd

Behind closed doors

All important decisions by The Institute are made secretly, without leaving any digital shadows or footprints. Most of the citizens are unaware of this.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Coming out of the shadows

This could be good news or bad news.
Mikael Jansson

Angels exist

Homer, the aged poet: Must I give up now? If I do give up, then mankind will lose its storyteller. And if mankind once loses its storyteller, then it will lose its childhood./”Der Himmel über Berlin"
Valeriu Catalineanu

Sleeping Beauty

"This is my princesses room, in my princesses castle. Those are my birds of paradise watching my restful sleep. They glitter and shine all around me. My heart is a piece of gold. My little world is perfect."
Ksenija Spanec

Trolls

The Institute is very interested in hiring trolls ( internet trolls are widely used by The Institute) However the genuine trolls are not easy to find as they live in caves and isolated rocks. Emissaries sent to negotiate contracts with the trolls have simply disappeared.
Jan Bernhardtz

Absence

I am here
Thesis antithesis abrasax
You also I /Gunnar Ekelöf
Valeriu Catalineanu

Don't look

On my way back to the Retreat I have to pass a dark alley. I keep telling myself "Don't look back!"
From a loudspeaker I hear really scary music. 
Jan Bernhardtz

disobedient rabbit

The Rabbit was punished  for not doing what the Institute said. So I am told. 
Sanja Buterin

Rabbit down

Once in a week I am allowed to take a walk outside the Retreat. However The Institute never fails to scare and intimidate me. Like the death of the rabbit. I watched it suddenly fall on its back without any apparent explanation...Really scary.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Mysterium Coniunctionis

"Swedenborg writes: 'The angels are troubled concerning the darkness on earth. They say that they can see hardly any light anywhere, that men live and strengthen themselves in lying and deceit, and so heap up falsity upon falsity.” /From A Blue Book by August Strindberg
Valeriu Catalineanu

soft and relaxing

Rats, thugs and creepy cars have stirred up feelings and made people nervous. The Institute knows that if it takes two steps forward it has to take one step back. Loudspeakers are therefore put up everywhere and the Nerve Net Laboratory has created a playlist with soft and relaxing music. The idea is to calm down people ( if they begin to show apathetic behavior after listening, there is an alternative playlist with funny dance music)
Ulf Fågelhammar

little rats

"Little rats are hiding in the dark places. Spying on us and on each other too. They are having little talks behind our backs. They are biting with little bites without stopping. It makes us used to it, so we do not realize anymore that we are bitten.That's the point..."
Ksenija Spanec

The Institute tries to intimidate us...

...by positioning cars in odd places. Really scary.
Jan Bernhardtz

rebellion and creativity

"Nothing like art, makes us free. No rules and no limits for our imagination, which flies and gets even stronger in the dark days of the Institute's dictatorship. Maybe this is the secret of mankind development? Rebellion and creativity, secret ingredients which will lead us out of this darkness."
Ksenija Spanec

when Beauty arrived...

...she was greeted by the Beast. ( To avoid awkward and embarrassing situations, ask questions before attending social events.)
Jan Bernhardtz

the unity and conflict of opposites

“A world in which there are monsters, and ghosts, and things that want to steal your heart is a world in which there are angels, and dreams and a world in which there is hope.” /Neil Gaiman

George Holroyd

the thugs are marching in

Where did they come from? - Are they the critters you will find if you look under a rock? No matter what - The Institute will offer them a more favorable position.
Ulf Fågelhammar

Invitation to a game of chess

the winner takes it all.
Rosario Puglisi

Much remains unknown

You never know what's waiting around the corner.
Jan Bernhardtz

Old shoes

"I believe... That I am only here and only now. And tomorrow, my legacy will be those old shoes that I wore so carelessly, so shyly, so indignantly, so happily, so sorrowfully, so...."
Ksenija Spanec

Gathering clouds

Wrong season for a gathering storm. Blossoming cherry trees everywhere. Blackbirds.
Ulf Fågelhammar

a siren

"I close my eyes and I become a siren. My prince will never come, but at least my nightmares are far away."
Ksenija Spanec

Special offer from The Institute's Travel Agency

Last minute! A place in the sun. All included. 
Ulf Fågelhammar

Fluxus cat

My cat is of a weird sort: she argues that she has become a vegetarian.
Denis Bozic Bogovic

and The Institute will provide it

“If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.” ― B.F Skinner
George Holroyd

"even Jesus would never Forgive what you do"

"You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins."
Masters of war/Bob Dylan
Ulf Fågelhammar

a place under the sun

"If we will want it strong enough, will we find our little place under
the sun? Or is it just a wishful thinking of our controlled minds?"
Ksenija Spanec

Dislocated

Windows without a house makes little sense. 
Jan Bernhardtz

broken glass

Protection and transparency is the concept of windows. Sometimes they can be used as mirrors. A broken window will offer less protection but you can still look through it. 
Antonio Sánchez-Barriga

Vanished into thin air

i opened the window today, it was nothing there. The Institute tells me it is freedom.
Eva Brandin

For real

I turn my back on the fake windows and watch the shadows on the wall. At least they are for real.
Ulf Fågelhammar

A beautiful view

Many of us live in bunkers. But The Institute cares about our physical and mental health. Everywhere there are beautiful views to watch (often projected images on the damp walls)
Arne Persson

It is not about home improvement

"Sometimes, I want to clean the windows of The Retreat. What’s holding me back?”
Hanna Lindgren

the rubble speaks

Collect knowledge slowly and patiently - even indirectly.

Jan Bernhardtz

the first duty

"We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men."/George Orwell
Arleen Hodge

putting the pieces together

In the reflections you can glean the truth. If you really look. If you dare. The home of those who did, because they'll know.
Rickard Falk

only three words

I am here.
Rosario Puglisi

Mastophobia

Is it respect for the object of worship? Is it the fear of fulfilling? Is it the fear of showing our basic instincts? Is it the fear that we will slip into the realm of the unknown?
Denis Bozic Bogovic

The head

" My life was quite short. The hunters killed me and have eaten my flesh. But they decided to keep my head. They will hang it on the wall...so my existence made some sense after all. What about you? Have you figured out the meaning of your own lives?"
Ksenija Spanec