Overview

Played in bands. Released music. Directed short films and music videos. Wrote films and tv-series (that never saw the light of day). Created street art that went viral and was featured in books and magazines. Still spend a non-trivial amount of time playing with music, film, art and technology.

Then

In my youth and early adult years, I was an eager creator. I wrote and directed short films and music videos. I played in bands, was involved in multiple album releases and played gigs at local venues in Bergen. And I created art, mostly in the streets.

My films and music endeavours never took off. Quite the contrary. Short films and music videos pre-YouTube were a niche-thing, and the audience was primarily people at local film clubs and friends who got hold of a VHS or video-CD of our films. Most of my later film- and tv-scripts were never even read by anyone, with two exceptions. One exception was a humor show that was evaluated for screening by NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting), and later by a large production studio before being turned down by both. The other was a mini-series designed for viewing on mobile screens which received thumbs down from the same production studio for being way to niche (which it certainly was at the time, this was 2008).

My music bands played multiple gigs at local venues in Bergen, and we released several albums. But I can hardly claim much success here either, with around 7 monthly listeners these days for our band on Spotify, and a total of two plays on national radio. Not two million, two thousand or two hundred. Two.

But some of my art projects kind of took off. I got attention online (before that was really a "thing"). Had work featured in a few art books with international distribution, and in international magazines and media. And I had work featured in an international group exhibition at a German museum.

Now

To some, these descriptions of relatively unsuccessful artistic projects might seem somewhat depressing. But I do not view it this way. Even though objective performance outcomes is the dependent variable in most of my research and teaching as a strategy professor, the outcomes did not really matter for any of these projects. I engaged in all because they were fun, and because I truly enjoy the creative process of playing around with ideas, experimenting and every now and then realize something.

Fast forward till today, my "artistic" output has declined considerably the last ten years or so. But I still spend a non-trivial amount of time playing and experimenting with music, film, and other artistic projects. I also spend more and more time fiddling with and exploring new technology.

As before, I engage in such projects for the sheer joy of the creative process. Not because I have an urge to share the outputs with anyone. And this is also why you won't see a single project on these pages (although I am happy to share in more intimate settings).