ASP News

( Co-writer Christian Nicolai Støttrup Strange)

For this part we have attempted to identify the various levels of cultural interaction. The pavilion in itself is an artifact that is easy for the receiver to see. A lot of effort has been put into the design of the building, resembling a Möbius band, in order to convey the idea of what it is like to live in urban Denmark. The idea of the ‘Welfairytales’-concept, an espoused value, is, according to the group ‘when lifestyle, consumption and growth go hand-in-hand with sustainability and social considerations’(promotional material from ministry of Economic & Business Affairs, 2009). Both of these aspects serve to present the Chinese with the basic underlying assumption that Danes possess, which, as the group puts it, is ‘[…] (the ability) to act holistically with an eye for both the human factor and the global implications’(Ibid) . These are messages that the winning team has attempted to code into the construction and architecture of the building, when choosing materials and design feats such as the outer plating which resembles an urban Danish skyline. However, there is a risk that this message will be distorted in the process, that parts will be lost in translation and interpretation. But instead of seeing it as purely a message to be conveyed to the receiver, perceiving the communication process as one-way and the receiver as passive, the team has tried to integrate the audience into the setting, as they can interact with large parts of the exhibition, such as the city-bikes or having a picnic in the park, empowering the receiver, whom now becomes an active participant. This ensures that the Chinese are more capable of distinguishing special Danish traits, whilst seeing themselves as part of that image, fusing the two cultures together in the communication process.
The exchange of such a powerful artifact such as the little mermaid with young Chinese art in Copenhagen, is also a potent branding strategy that facilitates cultural exchange. Fear is that the Little Mermaid might be too potent, dwarfing the rest of the Danish exhibition, acting as noise on the channel that could disrupt the ultimate message that the group wants to convey.

Now let us asses the levels of culture, in connection with the competition for a design of an Expo- collection.  At a venue such as the Danish pavilion in Shanghai, it is important to fully and wholly encode the message in every way that you can. Everything is a message and everything can be used as a mean to promote Denmark and Danish companies. Therefore, it is only natural that staff and people with a daily appearance in the Danish pavilion themselves become part of the communicative process, through their appearance and behavior. The artifacts being the clothes worn and the espoused values being  based on the idea of the ‘Welfairytales’-concept as a theme, or as a chapter: Tales of where we are going. At the end, the wished decoding of this message, the message that the organizer want to convey, is to get the Chinese to look at the clothes and wish for “ future cooperation within technology and knowledge, but also within fashion and design. The collection must, in its own way, build upon this theme”.

This way of communicating also correlates to the Yoshikawa double swing model. It is nowhere stated that Denmark is trying to impose any culture on China, this aim is mainly to promote Danish culture and facilitate mutual understanding. The importance of staying true to one’s own culture is in this instance very important, whilst still actively trying to understand the other.

Also the use of bikes and picnics is a key artifact. It’s the embodiment both of rituals and ceremonies of Denmark, but as Schein says, an artifact is “what the observers see and feels but cannot reconstruct” (“What Culture Is and Does, Organizational Culture and Leadership”, Schein, 1997 ); that the Chinese will look at this and will not at first understand how this kind of behavior is of key importance to Danes.

One thing that Schein says is, that “it is especially dangerous to try to infer the deeper assumption from artifacts alone because ones interpretation will inevitable be projections of one’s own feelings and reaction”(Ibid). This is very interesting. That what the Danes try to organize via artifacts, might be deciphered in a complete different way. This also coincides with what Schein says about espoused values. That “Whatever is proposed can only have the status of a value from the point of view of the group, no matter how strongly the proponent may believe that he or she is uttering absolute truth” (Ibid)

Ultimately, we believe that the idea of making the visitors to the Danish pavilion an active part of the whole setup, is a brilliant way of ensuring the sort of dialogical communication that enables the viewer to see the special traits of the Danish culture and giving Danish companies an opportunity to display innovative solutions to urban problems and get valuable feedback, as well as getting in touch with decision-makers and consumers. The integration of the clothing into the setting is also a good way of promoting Danish design and solutions to the general public in China, as well as in Denmark. The fact that the audience themselves get to form an impression of Danish society instead of being told what to think is also a good way of promoting Danish values.