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Living in a Laboratory: The Universe on an Island
- Andri Magnason, award winning Icelandic writer
- Monday, 6 February 2006
- 6:00-8:00pm
- World Room, Journalism Building
- Sponsored by the Office of the Scholars Program, CC/SEAS
Mr. Magnason will speak of words and deeds, ideas, imagination and propaganda. He will use Iceland as a case study and a reflection on the world in general. Living in an island with its own language you can face all the challenges you will face in other countries but the size of the population can force you to become creative and active. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the United Nations, Iceland now ranks #2 of 177 countries; Iceland has gone from poverty to this position in less than a lifetime. The riches do not change the human elements; the nation can go through periods of stability up to seeing very strong patterns of conflict, the level of violence or nonviolence just being a question of culture. The island can go from being a role model for the world, having a strong voice by voting for a woman president, tolerating progressive creativity and modern thinking, to supporting wrong ideas on the larger scale and harnessing natural resources before seeking creative solutions inside. Mr. Magnason will speak of his work and his cultural background, from old music and sagas to his production of Bonus Poetry, cheap poetry for the every day consumer. He will speak about the role of the artist, from taking on the role of a comedian, entertainer and even a clown to finding himself in a position where he has to take a stand, speak for a cause and hopefully make a difference.
Andri Snær MAGNASON is an Icelandic writer; he studied physics until he turned to Icelandic literature. Mr. Magnason has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and CD's. His novel LoveStar, was a bestseller and chosen Novel of the Year by Icelandic booksellers 2002. His children's book and play, The Story of the Blue Planet, was the first and only children's book to receive the Icelandic Literary Prize, it also received the Janusz Korczak Honorary Award in Warsaw 2000 and the West Nordic Children's Book Prize 2002. The Story of the Blue Planet has been published or performed in more than 16 countries; the latest performance in Toronto was nominated for 5 Dora Awards. Mr. Magnason has collaborated with various artists, mostly with a band called "múm."
He is vice-president of The Icelandic Writers Union, and board member of The Culture House in Reykjavík. Mr. Magnason has been involved with projects connected to the revival of Iceland's medieval musical heritage and Icelandic medieval manuscripts. Among them is the Poetic Edda from 1100, the most important source of Nordic mythology, one of the few places where mankind has preserved a whole set of gods and myths, with ideas from the beginning of a world to the apocalypse. The Edda has inspired artists like Tolkien, Borges and Wagner.
In recent years he has been active in the fight for preserving the fragile wilderness of the Icelandic highlands. He has held lectures about imagination and ideas for DeCode genetics, Shell, the Icelandic Stock Market, the Icelandic Phone Company and the Icelandic Marketing Awards.
Mr. Magnason is born in Reykjavik on the 14th of July 1973. He comes from a family of doctors and nurses. His father is a doctor, his mother is a nurse, and his sister is a brain surgeon. His grandfather, Björn Thorbjarnarson, was chief surgeon at the New York Hospital and professor at Cornell University. Björn wrote the bestseller: Surgery of the Biliary Tract, 1975. Mr. Magnason lives in Reykjavik; he is married and has three children.
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