A project named 'Genealogy' by definition must describe where it's author is coming from, and this by definition poses some questions.

If you come from a middle class white background anywhere in the industiralized world, can you reasonably argue that your geographical background matters? Or is what defines the genealogy of your group actually the lack of definition? I will argue that more than likely your parent's house looks much the same, as does your book, video and CD collection. You wear similar clothes, (this is increasingly true across gender barriers as well) have identical political views (liberal socially, conservative fiscally) and as nations become obselete, your national history has bacome blended with that of the rest of the western world, as they rapidly are conglomerated into pacts and treaties.

As individuals lose the references that define their physical existence; they gain in adherence to fan communities. They may no longer know what their grandmother's maiden name is, but they will know whom they prefer given the choice of Blur or Oasis, Mac or PC, Shipper or No-romo. As lines of communication are lost between generations due to lack of knowledge of each other's pop mythology (Elvis or Tommy Steele? Paul or John?) new communications are formed beteween countries as young people go see the same tour, play the same games -with each other- in real time, and wear and eat the same things. Popbands in this environment form a sort of utopian messengers, travelling from continent to continent

spreading their word to youngsters who all by now speak their langauage, which invariably is English. Movies and comics travel so fast from their country of origin, that they now often are not even given a new title in the recieving country's language.

Given this it is logical that this genealogy project speaks mostly of books, none of which were originally in Swedish. There's a reference to Alice in Wonderland; (the white rabbit), Le Peit Prince (The boy in green), some of the literature I was given in undergraduate school (The Yellow Wallpaper, given to my class as an example of the Gothic Novel), a cityscape that could be any city in Europe, three drawings, not all featured here, about animation (24 frames a second) and a thought on museums in colonial countries like France and England, which is where I spent a good deal of my vacations when I was little: this drawing is called 'Hee-haw'.

It is now more important than ever to understand popular culture, as the driving force behind what ultimately defines a modern westerner's identity. The number of available references are becoming fewer and fewer, and the slightest variation in how they are treated has enourmous consequence for their ultimate interperetaion and meaning. With an attentive eye toward the interests of high-school kids one can stay on top of our cultural landscape, avoiding the quagmire of washed-up academia, obselete like an old piece of software; at once stale and dangerous.