the dale sko hack
In the Dale Sko project we will meet something else than the Swap-O-Rama-Rama,
even if it has some similarities. Here we will see how the small change and protocol
approach can affect design practice and we will investigate its relation to mass pro-
duction. The protocol approach to mass production creates new settings for inter-
action and participation, in a milieu dominated by standardized and sequential
delegations and strict hierarchical lines of command.
Dale Sko factory in Dale i Sunnfjord is situated about 150 kilometres north of Ber-
gen on the Norwegian west coast. It is a century-old factory with a significant his-
tory of production but is today reduced to a small unit working with a small line of
shoes. The production involves a lot of manual labour so the shoes are handmade,
albeit the process is machine supported. The factory employs about a dozen work-
ers today, down from about 250 workers twenty years ago. As its low budget does
not allow the factory to keep up with the shifts of fashion it survives today mainly
by producing folk dress shoes and steady orders from the governmental depart-
ments such as the military or the police.
I had the privilege to work with Dale Sko when I was artist in residency at the Nor-
dic Artist Centre in Dale and working on a collection of gaiters. We worked to-
gether producing the gaiters in a very friendly atmosphere and later I started plan-
ning on an project investigating how designers could possible “hack” the modes of
production at the shoe factory. After a year of preparations with organization,
bringing people together and applying for funding the project could be launched
as a three-day workshop in April 2006.
The invitation of six prominent Norwegian fashion designers to Dale, all of whom
in some way defined themselves as Norwegian in their style of fashion, was central
to the project. They were accompanied by a fashion photographer, a stylist and a