AbstractIn the heart of Paris, you will find Sweden?s only cultural center abroad. Since the early 70?s a wealth of cultural activities has been offered, and every year the center receives more than 100,000 visitors. The center is a branch of the Swedish Institute (Si), a public authority which promotes mutual relationships between Sweden and other countries through culture, education, science and business.

The purpose with this qualitative interview study was to try to describe, through a phenomenological viewpoint, the meaning that Counter-Strike players put on there contemporary world. We started to explore this Game World with field research studies on the world?s biggest Game exhibition Dreamhack in the city of Jönköping. This helped us to develop our main question for this study.The thirteen participants of the interview were selectively chosen from a Game Café in the city of Karlstad. They were interviewed with five questions that dealt with their experiences of playing Counter-Strike and their experience of time perception in their world.

The purpose of this work is to develop and test a design process where quick decisions and model building has a prominent role. The goal is to develop a number of products and build prototypes to be shown during the Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies spring exhibition 2012. I?m also writing a report describing my work.To reach my goal I have each day during the first phase conducted a short research and found a concept based on that days name day. Then I have continued in the workshop and worked with three-dimensional models.

The purpose of this study was to analyze recent appropriations of works of art in advertising. Why was art infused into magazine advertisements, how were the works of art tampered with to achieve commercial goals, how well did they function together with the ad copy? What did these advertisements want? What did the artwork contribute to the commercial message? These were some of the questions asked in the study that involved a closer look at four appropriations: one based on a battle painting by the Swedish 1900th century artist Carl Wahlbom, with a commercial message printed on top;  one a collage including an 18th century portrait of Marie Antoinettte by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun; one advertisement was influenced by Dutch 1700th century still lifes, and, finally, one paraphrased Velázquez?s famous painting Las Meninas from 1655. Companies behind the advertisements featured a Swedish trade journal, a fashion exhibition in Paris, a shop for kitchen utensils in Stockholm, and an up-scale department store in Madrid.The ads, in different ways based on works of art, were evaluated as reasonably successful commercial messages. These ads, however, hardly qualified as works of art in their own right ? if that was the intention.

To maintain production in high salaries countries and strength in competition against other companies, it is today more important than ever to maximize production, offer a wide spectra of products and be able to deliver on the customers desire of shorter and shorter delivery time. Flexible production and short time spent on die changes is vital to achieve these desires. The interest for die changeover time reduction grew in the same pace as the demand for increased product variety grew. SMED as a method of reducing time spent on die changeovers were developed in between 1950-1970, by the Japanese Shigeo Shingo.The purpose of this thesis work has been to investigate the result of SMED in a die casting facility, and compare the result from it with the result considering time spent on die changeovers when investing in new equipment. The goal is to implement a thorough investigation by using the SMED method at Tenhults Pressgjuteri AB and make a brochure that have to be simple to understand, in purpose to draw interest to the advantages of using SMED as a method.Commissioned by the Swedish foundry association Swecast, the work has been carried out by studying die changeovers at Tenhults Pressgjuteri AB, where filming and interviews with the operators have been included in the analysis.

The purpose of this work is to develop and test a design process where quick decisions and model building has a prominent role. The goal is to develop a number of products and build prototypes to be shown during the Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies spring exhibition 2012. I?m also writing a report describing my work.To reach my goal I have each day during the first phase conducted a short research and found a concept based on that days name day. Then I have continued in the workshop and worked with three-dimensional models.

The purpose of this work is to develop and test a design process where quick decisions and model building has a prominent role. The goal is to develop a number of products and build prototypes to be shown during the Carl Malmsten Furniture Studies spring exhibition 2012. I?m also writing a report describing my work.To reach my goal I have each day during the first phase conducted a short research and found a concept based on that days name day. Then I have continued in the workshop and worked with three-dimensional models.

The main purpose of this master thesis is to give the reader a picture of the experience of art and of its room in the public libraries, but above all to examine the phenomenon temporary art exhibitions in public libraries in the county of Östergötland. The study is limited to a specific activity of art, namely temporary exhibitions in libraries. Geographically, the investigation is limited to the public libraries and their branch libraries in Östergötland. Time concentrates on the present situation in 2000 and 2001. Methodologies are partly observations in some libraries, partly qualitative questionnaires to all primary libraries and their affiliates in Östergötland.

In the year 2002 a commission wasappointed by the government and taskedto clear up possible flaws in the lawgoverning spatial planning (Plan ochbygglagen, PBL). The commission's reportlaid the foundations for a new law whichwas adopted by the Swedish parliament onthe 20th of June 2010 and is scheduledto come into effect on the 2nd of May2011.The purpose of this thesis has been toexamine the changes made in the new law,primarily from a civil-rights point ofview, focusing on the appeal process.This is a highly interesting subjectconsidering one reason behind the newlaw was to simplify and streamline theplanning process while keeping civilrights intact.Through a comprehensive literature studyand interviews with experts the currentplanning process was mapped out andrelevant changes in the new law wereexamined. After the study had beenconcluded we were able to distinguishseveral areas that underwent especiallyinteresting changes;The requirement of a plan program wasremoved and the exhibition process wasremoved and replaced by a writtenreview. Individuals were given thepossibility of requesting a plan notice.The different spatial plan documentswere merged into one single document andthe number of responsible authoritiesfor spatial plans is no longer limitedto one.The study has shown that the aspirationfor a more effective spatial planningprocess has mostly been conducted at theexpense of individual rights.The single biggest obstacle forachieving a democratic planning processis learning how the law works and howthe spatial planning process isimplemented, this is has been proven tobe a very hard and time consuming taskfor individuals to undertake..

The aim of this essay is to debate the narrow contextualization of the works of Swedish artist Maria Friberg, in which she is interpreted as a female, feminist artist engaged in masculinity studies. Art reviews and exhibition catalogues regarding a great part of Friberg?s work have formed the core body of information in this study, selecting the more recent works entitled Still lives (2003- ) as the main focus. These show a change in Friberg?s artistic expression.Subjects concerning group belonging, identity and existential questions have always been present in Maria Friberg?s art, but they are more clearly expressed in her latest works.

This degree project has been carried out by Niclas Andersson and Sebastian Zwahlen, students of the Innovation and Design Engineering Program at the Faculty of Technology and Science at Karlstad University. The project was carried out during the spring 2010 and includes 22, 5 ETCS credits.Initially the group had contact with the company Mavis möbler AB. Mavis gave the group the task of developing a new bedroom product. To assess the needs and problems of bedroom behaviors, an extensive questionnaire and several interviews were made. This became the starting point for further work.According to the results uncovered during the market research a vast problem was found with temporary clothing storage.

This thesis was written during the autumn 2007. I wanted to understand the situation of the contemporary architecture in a perspective broader than merely the Swedish. I asked myself what remained of architecture if one would eliminate purely functional, aesthetical and ecological aspects. With help from literature I interviewed theorists in architecture, practitioners and a philosopher to hear their thoughts regarding what architecture can or should be about. The result of the interviews and the literature studies constitute the two initial parts of the thesis.

The aim of the essay is to explore how so called ?safe spaces? are built, and the part that creativity can play in this construction. The essay also explores the duality of idea-based social work that at the same time strives to support vulnerable groups and strives to make social and political changes. The essay has its empirical base in the RFSL Ungdom project ?Tusen bilder, tusen ord? (A thousand pictures, a thousand words).

The subject of this project focuses on how Landscape Architects by their profession can explore and directly make a difference in the cityscape. This paper documents the process of art - based research practice. The purpose of installing temporary activities is to encourage people in the city to discover, participate and invite people to be more playful in the city. My experience of interaction in public spaces comes primarily from the education within landscape architecture, from site-specific art installations I have performed in different cities and from observations of landscape architecture, street art and urban life in the cities of Vienna, Berlin and Linköping. It is fascinating and inspiring to see how the urban space can invite and allow visitors to participate and therefore feel invited to the open space. As a landscape architect I wish to create urban spaces that are useful and inspiring for their visitors. The projects main question: How can you make temporary landscapes that encourage outdoorinspired activities at selected locations in the city? is answered by practice based research, an approach in which theoretical research are developed through practical experiments in the designing- and implementation process.

The following report comprises my bachelor´s thesis in Industrial design, 30 hp. It is executed in collaboration with Bonum senior housing, who has been the client and assignment- maker of this project.The goal was to design a bench for their entrances, which could represent not only the needs of the target group but also Bonum as a trademark. The work is done with great care for both human kind and the environment, with sustainability as beacon.The design process has been followed.Initially, you will find the definition of a bench for entrances, the framework including inclusive as well as sustainable design, a function- and market analysis followed by the inspiration part of the project. Getting to know the target group and their specific needs has been essential for this work.Investigations about what senior house living and senior products are and what the target group thinks and feels, has been done. As a result, two ?personas? has been developed.With the help of a purposely chosen group of people, surveys and ergonomic studies has been executed, as well as prototype-testing.The fact-finding has formed the stable and unavoidable foundation of this project, which later on gets more creative and idea based.