thank you everybody
what an honor to be here today is it
possible to communicate with somebody by
reading his body a strange topic but in
order to understand all of this a
background story is needed in order to
connect all the dots what you will see
behind me on the screen an explanation
for this will come a little later in the
lecture
I grew up in the northern country far
removed from the fashion world when in
the winter the Twilight the Stars the
moonlight and the Northern Lights were a
part of growing up in the winter the
universe seems so close and in the
summer the Midnight Sun made the days
endless it created an environment to
give a child a vivid imagination when I
decided to go to school I was faced with
the fact that there were no fashion
schools in Iceland I’d read in a weekly
magazine that this school in New York
there were teachers like Calvin Klein
and Donna Karan teaching and helping our
students it caught my eye and to make a
long story short I graduated the first
Icelandic student from Parsons School of
Design and right afterwards went to work
in the industry for the most influential
fashion designers in fashion across the
Atlantic I consider myself extremely
lucky to be able have done that today I
have my own company
I learned how to knit when I was nine
years old it was my grandmother who
taught me how to knit I come from a home
where all Home Economics was a part of
the household in the world of folk lore
studies I’m a perfect example of how
tradition is passed through generations
I’m married to an architect and creative
conversations and aesthetic is
definitely for sure a part of our
what is the aesthetic that determines
what we are and why we choose it its
aesthetic something we are born and
raised with is it acquired how do we
come about this aesthetic in the world
of fashion it is extremely important to
understand beauty the fashion world is
obsessed with beauty and the paradox of
the fashion world that in order to
capture the moment it often becomes out
of touch with reality in my world
aesthetics and beauty has been
challenged in every sense of the world
I wanna introduce you to my son
Alexander my son Alexander is a 23 year
old boy born with multiple disability he
is without the doubt the happiest person
I know he smiles he sings he hums he
gives hugs he takes a woman’s hands and
kisses said he in his own little world
has created an incredible beauty within
my world when parents are faced with the
fact that there are no no sicknesses
there is nothing there’s only a hole in
order to try to diagnose we spent our
first six years trying to find within
different medical systems across the
Atlantic a name for a disease or a
syndrome that he might have and when he
was about six or seven years old we were
visiting one of the specialists and I
said in front of the doctor and he told
us that Allyson who might have something
called mucopolysaccharides and before I
even asked whether it was a disease or a
syndrome I raised an eyebrow and asked
the doctor it was a word from mary
poppins the movie it was kind of a
defining moment when you have nothing
only a hole we decided that we were
going to live a very happy
MARY POPPINS life and that for sure we
to live my life with Alice Center has
been a journey of endless adventures his
morning songs that he sings sometimes in
the bathroom can be a great Christmas
songs or they can be sung on a hot
summer day in July he takes me on a road
to a different dimensions in dealing
with daily lives and he is without the
doubt somebody who does not observe
anger he doesn’t play social games he is
really in the moment right here right
now for that he has actually made me
with all the beauty of the fashion world
and with all the beauty I have at home
it’s the paradox a really truly
wonderful paradox when he speaks and
when he communicates with us it actually
came from the defining moment when he
was about six months old and his father
was holding him like a beautiful newborn
baby and he had wiggled his bottom just
a little
and there it came the first smile the
first response that we ever saw
from that moment I actually started to
look into his body by doing that I
started noticing all his little
movements the facial muscles the eyelids
the eyebrows the relaxing muscles in his
the way he sat in the chair the way
shoulders were backwards the way he so
beautifully put his hand out there were
no sound except for a very low tone one
syllable huh but not everybody hears but
I did what he started go to school he
introduced me to some of the most
beautiful people I’ve ever met some of
his classmates that I got to learn
throughout the years are have the inner
spirit of a two-year-old who doesn’t
love a two-year-old
the beauty within them is so magical
Mary Ellen mark the American photo
journalist and photographer was asked in
2005 to do an exhibition and photographs
for the morning paper she came to the
school and she met this young boy in
swimming class she was photographing the
students she was so impressed and taken
he melted her heart and it was one of
her favorite days taking photographs she
came to my store
later that afternoon and we found out
that it was my son and to make a long
story short two years later there was a
photographic exhibit at the National
Museum in Iceland and those are the
photos you see here behind me and you
can’t for sure see the two-year-old
spirit what my son has actually taught
me with beauty and body is that we use
our body in everyday life
it’s we use a body to analyze the
perception that we have of the world and
we use her body to speak and by speaking
we make ourselves understood and then we
use hand movements and other body
effects to emphasize the words we are
speaking when all of that is taken away
how do you communicate my son has
actually made me learn to see a new
dimension in communication the tiny
little sounds I know when he’s hungry
thirsty and it’s a hug he’s sad he’s
lonely and he’s happy I like the
metaphor of talking about our homes as a
black box the black box that we store
our family and the things and our life
and we make we make our beautiful box
beautiful and and we store all our
emotions and happiness and sadness into
that box
and in that box we also ask other people
to live with us it’s also the home for
the other people in her life my son’s
life living with my son’s life can be a
can be can be a ride down a gravel road
he is not the bump in the road
it’s everything that comes with him when
wheelchairs come in plurals and all the
other equipments that he needs in order
to keep his daily life the world of
esthetic goes away he creates for me an
amazing artwork on the walls every day
that only gets bigger and it’s in
constant changes the way he creates this
is with his wheelchair when he strikes
the walls
it’s a beautiful artwork first I thought
it was really bad now I actually think
what he has done for me is the fact that
he has taken me out of his educated me
in the world of normality and broken
down the walls of basic hadi he has made
one syllable words a communication that
we could all learn from and use he is
also shown me that we can use her body
to communicate just by giving the
attention that we need the individual
he’s also made me seen the other people
in our world that we most do not pay
attention
– for me that is very important that we
actually start paying attention to them
and what we can learn from them for me
he is today a mentor he is he’s changed
my aesthetic I live with his influences
on my life rather than he living with
mine and he has been my mentor in every
aspect of my life so for all of you out
there that have disability in your life
please pay closer attention to the
people and find a way to communicate with them thank you
what an honor to be here today is it
possible to communicate with somebody by
reading his body a strange topic but in
order to understand all of this a
background story is needed in order to
connect all the dots what you will see
behind me on the screen an explanation
for this will come a little later in the
lecture
I grew up in the northern country far
removed from the fashion world when in
the winter the Twilight the Stars the
moonlight and the Northern Lights were a
part of growing up in the winter the
universe seems so close and in the
summer the Midnight Sun made the days
endless it created an environment to
give a child a vivid imagination when I
decided to go to school I was faced with
the fact that there were no fashion
schools in Iceland I’d read in a weekly
magazine that this school in New York
there were teachers like Calvin Klein
and Donna Karan teaching and helping our
students it caught my eye and to make a
long story short I graduated the first
Icelandic student from Parsons School of
Design and right afterwards went to work
in the industry for the most influential
fashion designers in fashion across the
Atlantic I consider myself extremely
lucky to be able have done that today I
have my own company
I learned how to knit when I was nine
years old it was my grandmother who
taught me how to knit I come from a home
where all Home Economics was a part of
the household in the world of folk lore
studies I’m a perfect example of how
tradition is passed through generations
I’m married to an architect and creative
conversations and aesthetic is
definitely for sure a part of our
what is the aesthetic that determines
what we are and why we choose it its
aesthetic something we are born and
raised with is it acquired how do we
come about this aesthetic in the world
of fashion it is extremely important to
understand beauty the fashion world is
obsessed with beauty and the paradox of
the fashion world that in order to
capture the moment it often becomes out
of touch with reality in my world
aesthetics and beauty has been
challenged in every sense of the world
I wanna introduce you to my son
Alexander my son Alexander is a 23 year
old boy born with multiple disability he
is without the doubt the happiest person
I know he smiles he sings he hums he
gives hugs he takes a woman’s hands and
kisses said he in his own little world
has created an incredible beauty within
my world when parents are faced with the
fact that there are no no sicknesses
there is nothing there’s only a hole in
order to try to diagnose we spent our
first six years trying to find within
different medical systems across the
Atlantic a name for a disease or a
syndrome that he might have and when he
was about six or seven years old we were
visiting one of the specialists and I
said in front of the doctor and he told
us that Allyson who might have something
called mucopolysaccharides and before I
even asked whether it was a disease or a
syndrome I raised an eyebrow and asked
the doctor it was a word from mary
poppins the movie it was kind of a
defining moment when you have nothing
only a hole we decided that we were
going to live a very happy
MARY POPPINS life and that for sure we
to live my life with Alice Center has
been a journey of endless adventures his
morning songs that he sings sometimes in
the bathroom can be a great Christmas
songs or they can be sung on a hot
summer day in July he takes me on a road
to a different dimensions in dealing
with daily lives and he is without the
doubt somebody who does not observe
anger he doesn’t play social games he is
really in the moment right here right
now for that he has actually made me
with all the beauty of the fashion world
and with all the beauty I have at home
it’s the paradox a really truly
wonderful paradox when he speaks and
when he communicates with us it actually
came from the defining moment when he
was about six months old and his father
was holding him like a beautiful newborn
baby and he had wiggled his bottom just
a little
and there it came the first smile the
first response that we ever saw
from that moment I actually started to
look into his body by doing that I
started noticing all his little
movements the facial muscles the eyelids
the eyebrows the relaxing muscles in his
the way he sat in the chair the way
shoulders were backwards the way he so
beautifully put his hand out there were
no sound except for a very low tone one
syllable huh but not everybody hears but
I did what he started go to school he
introduced me to some of the most
beautiful people I’ve ever met some of
his classmates that I got to learn
throughout the years are have the inner
spirit of a two-year-old who doesn’t
love a two-year-old
the beauty within them is so magical
Mary Ellen mark the American photo
journalist and photographer was asked in
2005 to do an exhibition and photographs
for the morning paper she came to the
school and she met this young boy in
swimming class she was photographing the
students she was so impressed and taken
he melted her heart and it was one of
her favorite days taking photographs she
came to my store
later that afternoon and we found out
that it was my son and to make a long
story short two years later there was a
photographic exhibit at the National
Museum in Iceland and those are the
photos you see here behind me and you
can’t for sure see the two-year-old
spirit what my son has actually taught
me with beauty and body is that we use
our body in everyday life
it’s we use a body to analyze the
perception that we have of the world and
we use her body to speak and by speaking
we make ourselves understood and then we
use hand movements and other body
effects to emphasize the words we are
speaking when all of that is taken away
how do you communicate my son has
actually made me learn to see a new
dimension in communication the tiny
little sounds I know when he’s hungry
thirsty and it’s a hug he’s sad he’s
lonely and he’s happy I like the
metaphor of talking about our homes as a
black box the black box that we store
our family and the things and our life
and we make we make our beautiful box
beautiful and and we store all our
emotions and happiness and sadness into
that box
and in that box we also ask other people
to live with us it’s also the home for
the other people in her life my son’s
life living with my son’s life can be a
can be can be a ride down a gravel road
he is not the bump in the road
it’s everything that comes with him when
wheelchairs come in plurals and all the
other equipments that he needs in order
to keep his daily life the world of
esthetic goes away he creates for me an
amazing artwork on the walls every day
that only gets bigger and it’s in
constant changes the way he creates this
is with his wheelchair when he strikes
the walls
it’s a beautiful artwork first I thought
it was really bad now I actually think
what he has done for me is the fact that
he has taken me out of his educated me
in the world of normality and broken
down the walls of basic hadi he has made
one syllable words a communication that
we could all learn from and use he is
also shown me that we can use her body
to communicate just by giving the
attention that we need the individual
he’s also made me seen the other people
in our world that we most do not pay
attention
– for me that is very important that we
actually start paying attention to them
and what we can learn from them for me
he is today a mentor he is he’s changed
my aesthetic I live with his influences
on my life rather than he living with
mine and he has been my mentor in every
aspect of my life so for all of you out
there that have disability in your life
please pay closer attention to the
people and find a way to communicate with them thank you
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