Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.09.2014, Qupperneq 15

Experience real
Icelandic cuisine
Bankastræti 2, 101 Reykjavík
Tel: (+354) 551 4430
info@laekjarbrekka.is
www.laekjarbrekka.is vurl.is/i/laekjarbrekka
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The only kitchen
in Reykjavík open
to 23:30 on weekdays
and 01:00 on weekends Vesturgata 3B | 101 Reykjavík | Tel: 551 2344 | www.tapas.is
RESTAURANT- BAR
Taste the best
of Iceland ...
.. in one amazing meal
Icelandic Gourmet FEAst
6.690 kr.
Starts with a shot of the infamous
Icelandic spirit Brennívín
Followed by 7 delicious tapas:
Smoked puffin with blueberry
“brennivín” sauce
Icelandic sea-trout with peppers-salsa
Lobster tails baked in garlic
Pan-fried line caught blue ling
with lobster-sauce
Grilled Icelandic lamb Samfaina
Minke Whale with cranberry & malt-sauce
White chocolate "Skyr" mousse
with passion fruit coulis
areas, they obviously didn’t own
iPhones and iPads, but they could
then just turn up with a cheap
smartphone and download Bio-
philia. It was the biggest explo-
sion for the project travelling
around the world.”
Whilst most teachers proba-
bly spend more time trying to get
their pupils to put their phones
away rather than using them
in class, the approach met with
positive feedback. “The science
and music teachers didn’t have
any props, but they could down-
load everything there and then,”
smiles Björk. “We got a big reac-
tion from them, saying they could
now teach about gravity and stuff
without any extra tools. So now
we’re trying to put all of Biophilia
version 203 inside the app.”
Biophilia 203 is an advance-
ment of the project designed to
integrate it into Nordic school
curricula. “It’s tricky, because
the reason I went into it was that
so much of music education is just
sitting with a book and a pencil,”
Björk says. “It’s ridiculous. And
now, because of this new fund,
and talking with all these special-
ists—super fun people, actually,
like an astronaut woman from
Denmark and an astrophysicist
from Finland—we’re trying to
almost capture the spirit of Bio-
philia and put it in a book. So it’s
a contradiction, and I’m kind of
fighting like a rebel teenager go-
ing, 'Nooo!' But there’s gotta be a
way where you can suggest how
the lesson is taught, without it be-
ing carved in stone.”
Björk is keen for the Biophilia
education programme to remain
a lively, stimulating, enjoyable
experience that keeps the kids
thinking, making and moving.
“There are still games,” she says,
with enthusiasm, “we’re trying
to weave it into the text that the
students have to stand up, and do
things with sticks, and things like
forming a circle, and each kid is a
different note. Fun things that
don’t cost any money to do.”
As the city-residency concert
series moved around the world,
the Biophilia project connected
with many new institutions in
each new place, giving Björk the
chance to interact with a wide
variety of people. “I loved it!” she
exclaims. “I went for a meeting at
San Francisco Science Museum—
me and my assistant James were
sitting at some long table to meet
the other scientists that worked
there, trying to teach average
kids about space. I met totally dif-
ferent people and really enjoyed
it. It was in the spirit of how we
started doing it anyway—we
didn’t really have a budget, we
bought things on eBay and pro-
grammed ourselves with Macs—
we went for nine months to Puer-
to Rico and just put it together
ourselves. The whole thing was
about putting a lot of energy out
and seeing what came back. Now
it’s a big collaboration with all
these people—I don’t own it. It’s
been really healthy for me, to let
it be whatever it is.”
After such a long and inten-
sive effort in bringing the proj-
ect to fruition, Björk is moving
on and working on new music,
but she is still putting in time to
help the programme continue to
flourish. “I feel ready to tie a rib-
bon on it now,” she says. “We had
a meeting yesterday at the minis-
try of education and I was laugh-
ing, saying, ‘Oh my god, I need
like three coffees’—my head is to-
tally in my next album right now,
it was hard accessing that part of
my brain again—the repressed
pedagogy philanthropist per-
son. And that’s totally fulfilled, I
can tell you, she’s sitting burping
somewhere.”
15
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2014