THE BREAD Nordiska museet Foto Kerstin Bernhard

BACKGROUND Sept – Dec 2009 Active collecting: 1 month Project group: Elin von Unge, Diana Chafik (50%), Cecilia Swanström (internship) Methodological focus Document contemporary bread culture in Sweden Basic idea: To collect online To explore a new method as well as a new field. Foto Kerstin Bernhard

WHY COLLECT BREAD ONLINE? PRIMARY AIM: ”to try out new forms of communication by using new media” (NORSAM) An existing COMMUNITY online To explore social media as a TOOL FOR COLLECTING To explore social media as a NEW FIELD for human interaction Foto Kerstin Bernhard

OTHER AIMS MLA: Connecting museums, libraries and archives. Make museum collections VISIBLE and KNOWABLE. INCLUSION: Inviting informants/visitors to participate in museum work. DIALOG: Museum – visitor AND visitor – visitor ARCHIVING: How to best archive a digital collection? EVALUATION: Is the Bread Bank model a productive method? Foto Kerstin Bernhard

HOW DOES IT WORK? nordiskamuseet.se/brod

RESULTS

VISITORS

COUNTRIES

FROM WHERE?

CONTRIBUTIONS 193 answers Ca 200 ”quick questions” 2/3 women From north to south (more from Stockholm ca 35%). Ages from 11 to 90 Few pictures Foto Kerstin Bernhard

BARRIERS? Read and write Know Swedish Access to Internet and a computer Basic knowledge of computers Exposed online Foto Kerstin Bernhard

DID IT WORK? 11 QUESTIONS THEME QUESTIONS RECIPES QUICK QUESTIONS ARCHIVING Foto Kerstin Bernhard

TELL YOUR STORY When our mother was newly wed she came to the farm. Her mother in law wanted to teach her to bake ”tunnbröd”. It was seen as a prestigious and difficult task. The bread had to be big, round and thin. When mum finally managed to bake an ok bread her mother in law drew a cross in the ceiling. /Ingrid

ACTIVE CHOICES What is your attitude towards bread commercials? Is there a bread commercial that you noted especially, why? Pågen has a line of products that I think is counterproductive. They give their bread names like ’Finally’ and ’For sure”. My wife and I dream of hacking in to their website to publish false pictures of bread with names like ’What ever’ or ’Not really’. /Marcus Carbs or no carbs, that is the question!? I have type 2 diabetes and try to eat according to the GI-diet. That means not a lot of bread. But bread tastes so good! /Marianne

Do you rather eat the same kind of bread or do you vary? In the latter case, what type of bread and what brand? I NEVER buy Pågens since the bread is transported all over Sweden in trucks. Why can’t we buy bread in local bakeries like in other countries? /Anne-Maj STRATEGIES

SPIRITUAL To bake bread is like meditating. You deactivate your brain for a while and then you can just be. Sometimes you get philosophical when you stand and knead the dough and think about life in general. / Albin

THE STORIES MEMORIES – a need to remember and tell others AWARENESS: The informants made active choices when choosing to eat or not to eat bread. Baking as A SPIRITUAL ACT The ART OF BAKING is very much ALIVE Foto Kerstin Bernhard

CONCLUSIONS Social media – both tool and field Online communication interlinks with ”real life”. To capture a whole phenomenon today we need to visit both places. Continue to evaluate – who do we reach? Excluded groups? – What kind of topics are suitable for the medium? – How archive digital material?