There is something about the light in this building. From the outside, the Geoscience building at Stockholm university main campus doesn’t look particularly exciting. It’s just big and green and kind of blends into the surroundings with the trees and the grass.
But inside. The windows are huge, in the library and the classrooms, and in the entrance hall the walls are basically made of glass. And it must have been a conscious choice, to place the entrance hall, dining area and library facing south. On a sunny day like today, the light is drowning.
Knocking me down. Wiping out any thoughts about feature extractions from my head. I can only stand there, in the stairs, letting the light rush through me. Tidal waves and ocean winds, washed clean from any darkness and frustration.
I recently read this Buzzfeed post named 32 of the most beautiful words in the English language. Most of the words that were listed were long and pretty in that very obvious sense that I find quite uninspired. Like ethereal or luminescent. It’s like photographing flowers or the sunset – so obviously beautiful it’s almost nauseating. So. The list didn’t inspire me very much.
But, something that hit me, was that quite a few of the words described light in some way. And that must say something about us humans? That for us, light is something so essentially beautiful that we even make our language describe light with beautiful sounds.
Everyone I meet in the building today is happy. Victor and Giulio and Alberto, smiling. Sweden, it even turns seasoned sons of the Mediterranean into sun worshipers. And the glass walls of the Geoscience building lets it all in.
Katja Malmborg 