About the concept

My name is Simon Gripenberg. I'm an artist, graphic designer and magazine editor living in Pietarsaari, Finland. I believe in openness and a sharing community, hence Simon Shares. I prefer spending my time IRL. However, I made this site, since leaving a digital footprint is inevitable.

I prefer slowness. A non-reflective growth paradigm has generated climate change, biodiversity loss, social inequalities and economic instability. Our modern civilization has reached a dangerous level of efficiency and complexity. Having become a geophysical force we are now living in Anthropocene. Therefore I believe in simplicity wherever possible, and complexity only when justifiable and necessary. I think a shift in mindset and behavior is more important than further technical development, although we need both.

By profession I am a sculptor but I prefer working interdisciplinary, combining different techniques and materials. In my art projects I experimentally combine e.g. physics, scientific research and elements from nature. My art is partly influenced by technology, since I have also studied mechanical engineering. I raise questions about the different perspectives of sustainability; e.g. the social, the economic, the cultural and the environmental. My approach is critical but at the same time constructive; proposing alternative ways of thinking and even some possible solutions.

About the site

I built my previous website using a Wordpress template (here is a screenshot of it). After it was badly hacked I decided to resist complexity. I am also tired of heavy and slow sites filled with ads and banners. Content should be more important than layout. I decided to create this website using basic HTML and CSS code as well as scalable SVG pictograms. This website will function mainly as a hub guiding you to my projects in different media channels. My main priority is not chasing clicks and likes, so I am a very sporadic user of social media. I recently deleted my Twitter account since Musk decided to restore Trump’s account.

Although I'm a Finnish citizen, my mother tongue is Swedish. As an artist I want to communicate my ideas to as many as possible. My previous site was in Swedish. I was thinking about translating it into Finnish as well as English, but found it too time consuming. Therefore, I decided that this site will be maintained only in English, since most of you probably are familiar with this language. This saves me a lot of time; time that I can spend in the physical world, where I most want to be.

About the principles

The content on this website is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-ND license, if nothing else is mentioned (some pictures are under copyright). This means that you can share the content for non-commersial purposes as long as you don't modify it and remember to mention that I created it and that it goes under a Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-ND license. For further information click here.

You can contact me att simon(at sign)my domain name

 
 
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