Daniel Ciskowski’s speciality is emergency in public, especially in hospitals and senior centers. Originally from Poland, Daniel moved to Germany after completing his electrical engineering studies and arrived in Kirkenes two weeks ago to work as a service technician for Häberlein, a Bavaria based company that designs, makes, installs and maintains emergency call systems. His team ensures that the little button by your hospital bed will bring nurses and doctors flying to your bedside in a desperate moment, and Daniel enjoys the thought that his job saves lives. There is a lot of programming, norms and regulations to stay on top of and the system he and his colleagues are building has to work and it has to work precisely and without fail.
An alarm will activate at the nurses’ station when for example a call cable in a shower is pulled, or when an emergency ball is triggered with pressure in a bath, or even in the floor alerting a fall or in a door frame, letting senior center staff know of a night explorer heading out for an adventure.
Daniel’s time in Kirkenes has so far been smooth, smoother than his german colleagues who stumbled on some gender bureaucracy. Progressively, German ID cards don’t state the sex of the person, so the Norwegian office hit a wall in processing the new Cadolto staff as they could not officially confirm the sex of the burly men in the office…
Daniel is one of around 150 people toiling at the site every day, making sure that the hospital will be safe and sound. You might not have the pleasure of meeting him in the flesh as he is only in Kirkenes for another week, but rest assured his handiwork might just save your life one day. Mr. Ciskowski agreed to donate 15 minutes of his day in the name of art and dressed in the 50 meters of XXL cable that nicely mirrors his important, but not so visible contribution to the inner workings of the hospital right outside the main entrance.
Häberlein, Daniel’s company, is a subcontractor of Cadolto who is in charge of the upper floors of the new hospital. Cadolto is based in Cadolzburg in Germany, a city of 11 000 inhabitants. It was a big event when some 330 modules that make up the hospital left the premises for a 3000 km journey to Sør-Varanger and it was an equally big event when the turnkey modules paraded through Kirkenes just a couple of weeks ago. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
Daniel posted bravely to varied responses from his colleagues. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
Who would have thought ventilation ducting had such wonderful tonal range and photogenic qualities. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
Follow ongoing construction of the new hospital via webcam here, before sunlight fully disappears at the most northernly tip of Norway from mid-November to mid-January. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
© Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
After the lovely meeting with Daniel on site we moved on to a second rendez-vous with a fine selection of soon retiring waiting room chairs. Thank you Jan Sørgård and Geir Dørmænen for transporting the goods. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
The chair on the right used to belong to one of the chief physicians in the 1950s. The little one on the left usually holds a bromeliad plant in the X-Ray waiting room. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
© Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
The new hospital will have uniformed furniture and all of these guys will head towards new adventures elsewhere. © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
Did you know you can fit seven regular chairs, one wheelchair and a table into one Fiat Punto? © Karoline Hjorth & Riitta Ikonen
Time is a ship that never casts anchor 