/ WHY ARE WE HERE?
Six months ago we had not given Svalbard much of a thought. We can even say that we did not know anything about this group of islands.
In the beginning of January 2011 we came across an article. The article was one page long telling the story of a deserted mining-community in a
post-Sovjetic vacuum at the end of the world.
The text was accompanied by a photograph showing an abandoned room in a worn-out building in the village of Barentsburg.
This captured our interest and awakened our curiosity. Something about the desolated, abandoned and extreme in this setting, at the world’s most northern end, fascinated us.
Fascination was the take-off point of our journey and the starting-point of our project.

We brought cameras, audio-recorders, notebooks, our computers & our open minds.
This resulted in an archive of experiences, video-, sound- & photographic material.
Our project has been a search and an exploration driven by curiosity and intuition. Our result is our experiences, our thoughts and reflections before, during and after our trip, where the people we met on Svalbard plays a central part.
76°N – 81°N is a collaboration-project between
Mina Karami, IKDC & Julia Zajac, DKDS.
We want to welcome you to a discussion on what design is & what design can be.

/ WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
After having spent 3 months on research we decided upon making a research-trip to Svalbard. We wanted to experience this place & society first-hand.
The premise of our journey & research-method was to try to disregard the things we had learned so far.

/ THE MOST BEAU BEAUTIFUL THING YOU CAN EXPERIENCE IS THE MYSTERIOUS, IT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL TRUE ART AND OF ALL SCIENCE