A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
Nordic Noir: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery
The countries of Scandinavia are routinely touted as peaceful, harmonious societies. Correspondingly, Scandinavian design is promoted as democratic, humane, and friendly. However, the reality is that Scandinavian history is fraught with military conflict, and that not all Scandinavian design is benign. These two less advertised trajectories in Scandinavian culture converge on the region’s military arms industry, which for more than a century dutifully has delivered deadly designs to an eager international export market. This article will ask why these arguably controversial objects seem to be able to “fly under the radar” of the official branding and public perception of Norway and Sweden as peace-nations, and explore how they vehemently challenge the canon of Scandinavian design in that they represent a type of material culture diametrically opposed to the delicate glass and elegant teak furniture normally associated with design from this region.
Nordic Noir: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery
The countries of Scandinavia are routinely touted as peaceful, harmonious societies. Correspondingly, Scandinavian design is promoted as democratic, humane, and friendly. However, the reality is that Scandinavian history is fraught with military conflict, and that not all Scandinavian design is benign. These two less advertised trajectories in Scandinavian culture converge on the region’s military arms industry, which for more than a century dutifully has delivered deadly designs to an eager international export market. This article will ask why these arguably controversial objects seem to be able to “fly under the radar” of the official branding and public perception of Norway and Sweden as peace-nations, and explore how they vehemently challenge the canon of Scandinavian design in that they represent a type of material culture diametrically opposed to the delicate glass and elegant teak furniture normally associated with design from this region.
Nordic Noir: Deadly Design from the Peacemongering Periphery
Fallan, Kjetil (author)
Design and Culture ; 7 ; 377-402
2015-07-03
26 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
weapons , military , guns , myths , historiography , Norway , Sweden , Scandinavia , Scandinavian design
Redistributive regionalism : Narratives on regionalisation in the Nordic periphery
| BASE | 2010
| Online Contents | 2016
| Taylor & Francis Verlag | 2016
Engineering Index Backfile | 1892