Thomas Metzinger and his Self-model theory of subjectivity
August 26th, 2010

Been watching the three Leibniz lectures "Niemand sein. Ethik, Menschenbild und die Auflösung des Selbst im Zeitalter der Neurowissenschaften" by Thomas Metzinger. There is a shorter English version – his talk Being No One at the UC Berkeley 2005. Totally recommend to expose yourself to these mind-expanding ideas.

From MIT Press: "According to Thomas Metzinger, no such things as selves exist in the world: nobody ever had or was a self. All that exists are phenomenal selves, as they appear in conscious experience. The phenomenal self, however, is not a thing but an ongoing process; it is the content of a transparent self-model. In Being No One, Metzinger, a German philosopher, draws strongly on neuroscientific research to present a representationalist and functional analysis of what a consciously experienced first-person perspective actually is. Building a bridge between the humanities and the empirical sciences of the mind, he develops new conceptual toolkits and metaphors; uses case studies of unusual states of mind such as agnosia, neglect, blindsight, and hallucinations; and offers new sets of multilevel constraints for the concept of consciousness. Metzinger's central question is: How exactly does strong, consciously experienced subjectivity emerge out of objective events in the natural world? His epistemic goal is to determine whether conscious experience, in particular the experience of being someone that results from the emergence of a phenomenal self, can be analysed on subpersonal levels of description. He also asks if and how our Cartesian intuitions that subjective experiences as such can never be reductively explained are themselves ultimately rooted in the deeper representational structure of our conscious minds."

Thanks to Tobias Gallé!

RIP Christoph Schlingesief (1960-2010)
August 21st, 2010

This post has to be in German. If you do not know the exceptional estate of Christoph Schlingensief familiarize yourself! Now! No excuses accepted.

UPDATE, August 25th: The New York Times obituary.

Heute morgen habe ich den Text Radikale Demokratie von Reinhard Heil und Andreas Hetzel gelesen. Und heute nachmittag erreicht uns die Nachricht des Todes von Christoph Schlingensief. Etwas viel für einen sonnigen Samstag. Jetzt werde ich tun, was Schlingensief nicht mehr wollte, Rotwein trinken. Ich werde auf seinen Mut anstossen und hoffen, dass sich sehr bald eine adäquate Nachfolgerin zeigt.
Verdammt, was für ein riesiges Loch.

Geschockte Patienten.

Aus Hotel Ruhe: "Mut zum Gegenwind, Mut zum Verkannt-werden, Mut zum Alleiniger-Rufer-in-der-Wüste-Sein. Christoph Schlingensief hat dem deutschen Film und der Filmförderung den Zerrspiegel vorgehalten, und er hat das Theater und die Oper revolutioniert. Die Geschwindigkeit seiner Gedanken ist legendär, um seinen Assoziationsprüngen folgen zu können, bedurfte es Intuition."

Der letzte Eintrag aus seinem Blog: "07-08-2010- DIE BILDER VERSCHWINDEN AUTOMATISCH UND ÜBERMALEN SICH SO ODER SO ! - 'ERINNERN HEISST : VERGESSEN !' (Da können wir ruhig unbedingt auch mal schlafen!) Wie lange war es still... lange stiill. stoße jetzt nach ca. 3 wochen auf das letzte video hier. habe ich gleich gelöscht. wen soll das das interessieren? vielleicht sind solche vidoeblogs oder einträgen nur dann von intererrägen, wenn die angst zu gross wird. die angst, weil diese kleine illussion von --- aber nun nach den knapp 4 wochen scheint es anderes zu sein. die bilder (ixen) sich aus... da ist ja kein sentimentaler schmerz. die bausupsanz ist erstaunlich gut... und nun? wieder ein neues bild? wieder infos zu neuen dingen, die ,...... ja eigentlich was ?..... alles sehr oberflächlich und rechtschreibefehler häufen sich die dinge .... das baut läufz seit tmc auf. der appetetit läßt rasant nach. - ARD- TATORTREKA7 ...(warum werde ich icht nicht denn nicht wenigstes einer meiner halbwegs siution normalererenen situatuin aufgeklärt. so macht es mich nur traurig, piasch und"

Aus Radikale Demokratie: "Im radikaldemokratischen Diskurs, dem etwa die Schriften von Claude Lefort, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Etienne Balibar, Jacques Rancière und Jacques Derrida zugerechnet werden können, wird Demokratisierung als unend­liche Aufgabe begriffen. Im Mittelpunkt der Ausführungen dieser Autorinnen und Autoren steht mit unterschiedlichen Akzentu­ierungen und Konsequenzen der Gedanke, dass Demokratien agonal verfasst sind. Demokratische Ausein­ander­setzungen über die an­gemessene Einrichtung des Gemein­wesens lassen sich aus dieser Perspektive nicht in transzendentalen Rechts- oder Vernunftprinzipien verankern. Daraus ergibt sich die Forderung, dass die Mitte der Macht leer bleiben muss (Lefort), dass Demokratie im Kommen bleibt (Derrida), dass sie sich also niemals eine endgültige, durch einen Rekurs auf universelle Prinzipien ver­bindlich abgesicherte Gestalt geben kann und sollte. Es ist aus dieser Perspektive gerade eine Leerstelle im Zentrum der Gesell­schaft, die diese zusammenhält. Die demokratische Auseinandersetzung – auch über die Möglichkeits­be­dingun­gen der Demokratie – kann und sollte  nie zu einem Ende kommen. Als wesentli­ches Anliegen des Diskurses der radikalen Demokratie könnte man eine Verteidigung des Po­li­tischen, verstanden als Kraft der kollek­tiven Selbstinstituierung einer Gesellschaft, gegenüber der Politik, verstanden als Verwaltung des Gemeinwesens innerhalb etablierter Parameter, begreifen, die sich praktisch etwa in einer Forderung nach der Demokratisierung von Bürokratien, Wirtschaft, Bildung und Wissenschaft ausdrückt."

Bill Bernbach (1911-1982)
August 20st, 2010

From The Enduring Legacy Of Bill Bernbach: "Most readers come away from their reading not with a clear, precise, detailed registration of its contents on their minds, but, rather, with a vague, misty idea which is formed as much by the pace, the proportions, the music of the writings, as by the literal words themselves."

Visual Poetry by D.A. Levy
August 19th, 2010

Learned at least two things today. About D.A. Levy and – with no direct connection – about the meaning of 420. Am very grateful for the elucidation.

Thanks to Helen Schneider!

by Paul Auster
August 18th, 2010

“To think of motion not merely as a function of the body but as an extension of the mind. In the same way, to think of speech not as an extension of the mind but as a function of the body. Sounds emerge from the voice to enter the air and surround and bounce off and enter the body that occupies that air, and though they cannot be seen, these sounds are no less a gesture than a hand is when outstretched in the air towards another hand, and in this gesture can be read the entire alphabet of desire, the body's need to be taken beyond itself, even as it dwells in the sphere of its own motion.

On the surface, this motion seems to be random. But such randomness does not, in itself, preclude a meaning. Or if meaning is not quite the word for it, then say the drift, or a consistent sense of what is happening, even as it changes, moment by moment. (...)

In the realm of the naked eye nothing happens that does not have its beginning and its end. And yet nowhere can we find the place or the moment at which we can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this is where it begins, or this is where it ends. For some of us, it has begun before the beginning, and for others of us it will go on happening after the end. Where to find it? Don't look. Either it is here or it is not here. And whoever tries to find refuge in any one place, in any one moment, will never be where he thinks he is. In other words, say your good-byes. It is never too late. It is always too late.

To say the simplest thing possible. To go no farther than whatever it is I happen to find before me. To begin with this landscape, for example. Or even to note the things that are most near, as if in the tiny world before my eyes I might find an image of the life that exists beyond me, as if in a way I do not fully understand each thing in my life were connected to every other thing, which in turn connected me to the world at large, the endless world that looms up in the mind, as lethal and unknowable as desire itself. (...)

Consider the word "it." "It" is raining, we say, or how is "it" going? We feel we know what we are saying, and what we mean to say is that it, the word "it," stands for something that need not be said, or something that cannot be said. But if the thing we say is something that eludes us, something we do not understand, how can we persist in saying that we understand what we are saying? And yet it goes without saying that we do. The "it," for example, in the preceding sentence, "it goes without saying," is in fact nothing less than whatever it is that propels us into the act of speech itself. And if it, the word "it," is what continually recurs in any effort to define it, then it must be accepted as the given, the precondition of the saying of it. (...)

It happens, and as it continues to happen, we forget where we were when it began. Later, when we have traveled from this moment as far as we have travelled from the beginning, we will forget where we are now. Eventually, we will all go home, and if there are those among us who do not have a home, it is certain, nevertheless, that they will leave this place to go wherever it is they must. If nothing else, life has taught us all this one thing: whoever is here now will not be here later.

I dedicate these words to the things in life I do not understand, to each thing passing away before my eyes. I dedicate these words to the impossibility of finding a word equal to the silence inside me. (...)

I realize in the end that I am probably powerless to affect the outcome of even the least thing that happens, but nevertheless, and in spite of myself, as if in an act of blind faith, I want to assume full responsibility. (...)”

From Disappearances – Selected Poems (1988) by Paul Auster

Thanks to Nicola Richter!

Waltzing with Mantovani
August 11th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "The version of Charmaine by the Mantovani Orchestra is used quite often in comedy to provide comedic effect whenever a romantic situation is created."

by Pawel Althamer and Artur Żmijewski
August 10th, 2010

Saw this piece on the weekend at Maastricht's Bonnefantenmuseum and was glued to the screen by its humour, courage and emotional impact.
From culture.pl: "Resembling Althamer's student-era work is also the film series, recorded with Artur Żmijewski, called The So Called Waves and Other Phenomena of the Mind (2003-2004). The films document Althamer exploring various ways of non-rational cognition, which he deems to be means of broadening human perception, using consciousness-altering substances (LSD, peyote, hashish, the truth serum) or hypnosis. (...)
One of the films of the So Called Waves... series is Weronika (2004), showing the artist 'discover the world anew' during a walk with his daughter. In many of his works and actions, Althamer tries to persuade the viewers to perceive the world around them more creatively."

Paintings by Chris Wool
August 6th, 2010

From the New York Times: "Here is a fine time capsule. In the 1980's, Christopher Wool was doing a Neo-Pop sort of painting using commercial rollers to apply decorative patterns to white panels. One day he saw a new white truck violated by the spray-painted words sex and luv. Mr. Wool made his own painting using those words and went on to make paintings with big, black stenciled letters saying things like Run Dog Run or Sell the House, Sell the Car, Sell the Kids. The paintings captured the scary, euphoric mood of a high-flying period not unlike our own.

In 1989 Mr. Wool created a series of word paintings on paper for a tome called Black Book. The 22 pieces are exhibited for the first time here, in an elegant wrap-around installation. Each page bears a nine-letter word broken up into a stack of three-letter groups. Blocky nine-inch letters spell the names of disturbing character types: terrorist, anarchist, mercenary, paranoiac, and so on.

The percussive typography joins the verbal content to aggressive and somehow morally imperative effect. With minimal means, Mr. Wool conjured a world of political anxiety that the novelist Robert Stone might have envisioned."

by Chrissie Abbott
August 3rd, 2010

Found via the wonderful My Love for You Is A Stampede Of Horses.

You can not afford to miss this!
July 19th, 2010

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes was made for Channel 4 in the UK by Guardian journalist Jon Ronson. His 2004 article, Citizen Kubrick, is the basis for the documentary.
From the Guardian: "Stanley Kubrick's films were landmark events - majestic, memorable and richly researched. But, as the years went by, the time between films grew longer and longer, and less and less was seen of the director. What on earth was he doing? Two years after his death, Jon Ronson was invited to the Kubrick estate and let loose among the fabled archive. He was looking for a solution to the mystery - this is what he found."
(Thanks to Stephan Telaar!)

Thus: 53, 55, 56, 57, 60, 62, 64, 68, 71, 75, 80, 87, 99.

1953 – Fear and Desire
1955 – Killer's Kiss
1956 – The Killing
1957 – Paths of Glory
1960 – Spartacus
1962 – Lolita
1964 – Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
1968 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
1971 – A Clockwork Orange
1975 – Barry Lyndon
1980 – The Shining
1987 – Full Metal Jacket
1999 – Eyes Wide Shut

The Dream Before by Laurie Anderson
July 15th, 2010

From Dangerous Minds: "I'll cop out and leave it to our able Dangerous Minds readers to discern the meaning of the shared birth date of Benjamin the leading German Marxist philosopher (who would have been 108 years old), Derrida the French founder of deconstruction (80), and Curtis the lead singer of the century's most existential pop band (54). If you went to a liberal arts college from 1980 onwards, you probably have your opinions about it.
And so, please enjoy some fragments of the lives of these auspicious birthday boys. Party hats & thinking caps ON!"

Fragments for Walter Benjamin

Wesendonck-Lieder by Richard Wagner
July 5th, 2010

Sag, welch wunderbare Träume
Halten meinen Sinn umfangen,
Daß sie nicht wie leere Schäume
Sind in ödes Nichts vergangen?

Träume, die in jeder Stunde,
Jedem Tage schöner blühn,
Und mit ihrer Himmelskunde
Selig durchs Gemüte ziehn!

Träume, die wie hehre Strahlen
In die Seele sich versenken,
Dort ein ewig Bild zu malen:
Allvergessen, Eingedenken!

Träume, wie wenn Frühlingssonne
Aus dem Schnee die Blüten küßt,
Daß zu nie geahnter Wonne
Sie der neue Tag begrüßt,

Daß sie wachsen, daß sie blühen,
Träumend spenden ihren Duft,
Sanft an deiner Brust verglühen,
Und dann sinken in die Gruft.

(From: The Lied and Art Song Texts Page)

"In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false." Guy Debord
June 20th, 2010

Via the New Shelton wet/dry: "The Preface to the Phenomenology, all by itself, is considered one of Hegel's major works and a major text in the history of philosophy, because in it he sets out the core of his philosophical method and what distinguishes it from that of any previous philosophy, especially that of his German Idealist predecessors (Kant, Fichte, and Schelling).

Hegel's approach, referred to as the Hegelian method, consists of actually examining consciousness' experience of both itself and of its objects and eliciting the contradictions and dynamic movement that come to light in looking at this experience. Hegel uses the phrase pure looking at (reines Zusehen) to describe this method. If consciousness just pays attention to what is actually present in itself and its relation to its objects, it will see that what looks like stable and fixed forms dissolve into a dialectical movement. Thus philosophy, according to Hegel, cannot just set out arguments based on a flow of deductive reasoning. Rather, it must look at actual consciousness, as it really exists." (From Wikipedia)

by Laurie Anderson
June 12th, 2010

Yes, it's been a while but since I have been reminded this week it is now time to reveal that I still am a fan of hers. So, reconsider Home of the Brave (1986).

"Flying Birds.
Excellent Birds.
Watch them fly.
There they go."

"Well I was talking to a friend
And I was saying:
I wanted you.
And I was looking for you.
But I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you.
And he said: Hey!
Are you talking to me?
Or are you just practicing
For one of those performances of yours?
Huh?
Language! It's a virus!"

"O Superman. (...)
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come
as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go."

"Anyway, we got into their boat and left the island.
But they never stayed anywhere very long.
Because the woman was restless. She was a hothead.
She was a woman in love.
And this is not a story people tell.
It is something I know myself.
And when I do my job, I am thinking about these things.
Because when I do my job, that is what I think about.
Oooo la la la.
Yeah La La La.
Voici. Voila'.
Here. And there.
Ooo la la la.
Oh yes.
Voici le Langue D'Amour.
This is the language of love."

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1995-1986)
March 26th, 2010

From Wikipedia: "Jiddu Krishnamurti was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society. He constantly stressed the need for a revolution in the psyche of every human being and emphasized that such revolution cannot be brought about by any external entity, be it religious, political, or social."

Am currently working my way through seven talks and five Q&A meetings, which took place in Saanen, Switzerland in 1980. Reconsider!

by Paula Scheer
March 6th, 2010

From Identity Forum: "I never knew a designer that got hundreds of thousands of dollars to design a logo.  Mostly, designers get paid to negotiate the difficult terrain of individual egos, expectations, tastes, and aspirations of various individuals in an organization or corporation, against business needs, and constraints of the marketplace.  This is a process that can take a year or more.  Getting a large, diverse group of people to agree on a single new methodology for all of their corporate communications means the designer has to be a strategist, psychiatrist, diplomat, showman, and even a Svengali*. The complicated process is worth money.  That's what clients pay for. The process, usually a series of endless presentations and refinements, persuasions and proofs, results, hopefully, in an accepted identity design."

* From Wikipedia: "Svengali is the name of a fictional character in George du Maurier's 1894 novel Trilby. A sensation in its day, the novel created a stereotype of the evil hypnotist that persists to this day. (...)
The word svengali has entered the language meaning a person who with evil intent manipulates another into doing what is desired."

Gagosian Gallery's homage to J.G. Ballard
February 17th, 2010

From Dangerous Minds: "As a tie-in to the Gagosian show, Iain Sinclair, writing in today's Guardian, offers up a wonderful account of his trip to Shepperton, where Ballard spoke of the art and artists that most inspired him. When it came to such things, Ballard was clearly a lucid, passionate speaker. You can get a rare glimpse of this yourself in the '93 interview from British television."

From Guardian: "The incantatory manifesto, What I Believe, deploys Ballard's favourite device, the list, as he curates a museum of affinities: 'I believe in Max Ernst, Delvaux, Dalí, ­Titian, / Goya, Leonardo, Vermeer, Chirico, Magritte, / Redon, Dürer, ­Tanguy, the Facteur Cheval, / the Watts Towers, Böcklin, Francis Bacon, and all the invisible artists / within the psychiatric institutions of the planet.'"

(Painting by Ed Ruscha) 

Dr. Jane McGonigal
February 3rd, 2010

Tomorrow we have another round of final-year project's presentations at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. One of the students, Roland Sigmond, will present a concept for an alternate reality game.

From Wikipedia: "The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants' responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium."

That might be the reason why I was thinking about Jane McGonigal today. She just launched a new ARG called Evoke.
In 2006, Dr. McGonigal was named one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review.
In 2008, Dr. McGonigal was named one of the Top 20 Most Important Women in videogaming, and World Without Oil received the South by Southwest Interactive Award for Activism.
Check her out, she is really something.

is drawing dance.
January 26th, 2010

William Forsythe: "So I began to imagine lines in space that could be bent, or tossed, or otherwise distorted. By moving from a point to a line to a plane to a volume, I was able to visualize a geometric space composed of points that were vastly interconnected. As these points were all contained within the dancer's body, there was really no transition necessary, only a series of foldings and unfoldings that produced an infinite number of movements and positions. From these, we started making catalogues of what the body could do. And for every new piece that we choreographed, we would develop a new series of procedures."
(Thanks to Phillip Schulze!)

by DJ Sprinkles aka Terre Thaemlitz
January 9th, 2010

Always had this thing going for Terre Thaemlitz. Listen to some excerpts of his Midtown 120 Blues album.

From SFBG: "DJ Sprinkles is one alias in a vast arsenal overseen by Terre Thaemlitz, who also makes records under the monikers G.R.R.L., Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion, and Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion, among others. Thaemlitz's approach to electronic music is playful and dead up serious about its capacity for political content. His (or her, depending on your preference; Thaemlitz's gender identity is fractured and fluid) current release as DJ Sprinkles, Midtown 120 Blues (2009, Mule Musiq) opens with a thesis statement: House isn't so much a sound as a situation."

A permutation poem by Brion Gyson
January 6th, 2009

"He's the only man I've ever respected in my life. I've admired people, I've liked them, but Brion Gysin was the only man I've ever respected." William S.Burroughs

From UbuWeb: "The Englishman Brion Gysin, one of the founders of the beatnik movement and inventor of such new formulas as the collage-novel, has composed his phonic texts on this principle. I am is a classic of the genre. Composed exclusively of permutations of the biblical words 'I am that I am', with ever more marked accelerations, he succeeds in rendering, from the initial nucleus, a crowd of 'I am's, the creation of the world in geometrical progression until it fades away in the sidereal silence."
Also check out Brion Gysin in UbuWeb Film.

TED talk The power of time off by Stefan Sagmeister
December 29th, 2009

From Motionographer: "One of those most intriguing parts of his talk is the idea that we spend around the first 25 years of our life focused on learning, the next 40 years are dedicated to work (and lots of it in our industry) and around 15 years towards the end of our lives are reserved for retirement. Sagmeister not only suggests, but has put into practice the idea to cut off 5 of those retirement years and intersperse them between the working years with creative sabbaticals."

Mark Pellington and Jon Klein
December 16th, 2009

Today, for no reason, I thought about Mark Pellington and Jon Klein's 13-part international series Buzz, which they created in the late 80s. This format had a huge impact on my work back then. From boing boing: "Buzz was a fantastic experiment in non-linearity and cut-up that drew heavily from - and presented - avant-garde art, underground cinema, early cyberpunk, industrial culture, appropriation/sampling, and postmodern literature. Experientially, it feels like what Mondo 2000 would have looked like as a television show, and in fact Mondo founder RU Sirius was interviewed on the first episode. Other notable contributors/subjects included William S. Burroughs, Jenny Holzer, Genesis P-Orridge, Syd Mead, and many other happy mutants. This was the future of television, circa 1988. Too bad it didn't quite pan out this way."
Amongst others Mark Pellington also directed the video clip for U2's One, which I still like a lot.

Maryanne Amacher (1938-2009)
October 31st, 2009

In June I saw her installation Brückenfindings at Cologne's Brückenmusik. She used the bowels of a bridge as her instrument. It was a mind-blowing experience to walk through this long and dark tunnel.
From NYT: "Maryanne Amacher, an influential composer whose experimental sound installations and multimedia works sometimes required full buildings to present their powerful melding of electronic timbres and live, natural ambience, died" on October 22nd.
"Ms. Amacher was drawn to extremes: some of her scores — for example, the music she composed for the choreographer Merce Cunningham's Torse (1976) — could be so soft as to be nearly inaudible at times. But more typically, she reveled in powerful, high-volume sensory assaults, combining high-pitched electronic chirping and solid bass drones to produce a visceral effect. (...) 
Ms. Amacher, who left no surviving relatives, taught electronic music at Bard College, beginning in 2000. She was also an important influence for a generation of composers who combined rock instrumentation and avant-garde sensibilities, among them Rhys Chatham and Thurston Moore. The documentary film Day Trip Maryanne, by Andrew Kesin, captures discussions and performance collaborations between Ms. Amacher and Mr. Moore."
Check out the Maryanne Amacher Archive.

by Nick Tosches
October 9th, 2009

From If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger...: "And, of course, that is what all of this is - all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs - that song, endlesly reincarnated - born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 - same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."

Sculpture by Mauro Perucchetti
September 19th, 2009

"Sycamore got to grow down to grow up
Young girl told the soul like baby's first cup
And when they bend you in two
And say too green for the fire
When all you want to do is be a part of the fire
All you want to do is be the fire part of fire
Like sycamores"
Bill Callahan: Sycamore

by Cyndi Lauper
September 15th, 2009

Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick, 

And think of you 

Caught up in circles confusion 

Is nothing new 

Flashback warm nights 

Almost left behind 

Suitcases of memories, 

Time after
Sometimes you picture me 

I'm walking too far ahead 

You're calling to me, I can not hear 

What you have said 

Then you say go slow 

I fall behind 

The second hand unwinds
If you're lost you can look and you will find me 

Time after time 

If you fall I will catch you
I'll be waiting 

Time after time
After my picture fades and darkness has 

Turned to gray 

Watching through windows you're wondering 

If I'm OK 

Secrets stolen from deep inside 

The drum beats out of time

Townes Van Zandt
September 6th, 2009

From idiolect: "I don't think, as a matter of fact, that I'm going to benefit from anything on this earth. It's more like that, I mean, if you have love on the earth, that seems to be number one. There's food, water, air and love, right? And love is just basically heartbreak. Human's can't live in the present as animals do; they just live in the present. But human's are always thinking about the future or the past. So, it's a veil of tears, man. And I don't know anything that's going to benefit me except more love. I just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap."

Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni
July 29th, 2009

Am not sure how many times I've seen this film. But I remember very vivid the first time: I was about 12, alone at home and not supposed to watch TV. Switched to Zabriskie Point by accident - well, back then we had only three TV channels anyway.  Three decades later I can easily see how the shock that masterpiece initially provoked when I was still a girl entered as a underlying theme into my life. The style, the music, the two main characters. Saw it again last night and in that sense it really was revelation. 
From Wikipedia: "It tells the story of a young couple — an idealistic, free spirited young woman, and an aspiring radical turned fugitive. They meet in the desert under bizarre circumstances, instantly connect with a fearless spirit, and then part with tragic consequences. When the fugitive dies in an attempt to reconcile his minor transgressions with the police his new-found lover's connection to the corporate and government establishment is psychologically and permanently severed when she visualizes the home of her corporate lover/boss exploding in slow motion."

Cut hands
July 18th, 2009

Had the great pleasure of being at the Salon des Amateurs in Düsseldorf last night to hear William Bennett play a live set. He chose to show Les Maîtres Fous to his music. Haven't seen the film in a while and it is still disturbing.
Jean Rouch always pushed the limit of his scientific research and is still a huge source of inspiration. From Wikipedia: "Rouch's practice as a filmmaker for over sixty years in Africa, was characterized by the idea of shared anthropology. Influenced by his discovery of surealism in his early twenties, many of his films blur the line between fiction and documentary, creating a new style of ethnofiction."

Summer 2009
July 11th, 2009

Exams are finally over. Seen some incredible projects which make me really proud of the students. Will upload some of them soon. Been totally exhausted from the week and went for a few drinks to hear my favorite DJ and funny friend last night. Check out some of his tracks.

Matt Webb @ Copenhagen's Reboot conference
July 6th, 2009

Matt Webb is one really handsome Brit giving an inspiring speech with a wonderful conclusion. From boingboing.net: "It's a great Webbrant, thought-provoking, learned, wide-ranging, weird and great."

gives the 2009 commencement address at RISD
June 10th, 2009

Watch his inspiring, witty and humorous speech. From the RISD Site: "One of the world's leading thinkers on creativity, Sir Ken Robinson was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003 for outstanding achievements as a writer and tireless advocate for creativity, education and the arts. His latest book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything became an instant New York Times bestseller and has been widely embraced by leaders in business, education, government and the arts. In the late 1990s, Robinson was appointed by the British government to lead a national commission on creativity, education and the economy, which resulted in the widely acclaimed 1999 'Robinson Report,' All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education. His subsequent book Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative (2001) firmly established his reputation as one of the world's leading authorities on the value of creativity. Known for his ready wit and deep humanity, Robinson speaks throughout the world on the creative challenges facing business and education in the ever-shifting global economy. He has advised governments in Europe, Asia and the US; worked with international agencies and Fortune 500 companies; and guided some of the world's leading cultural organizations."
And RISD's president John Maeda introduced him. It might really be the best school for design nowadays...

Paula Scher
May 30th, 2009

Renown designer Paula Scher "believes failure is the secret to artistic success. 'You have to fail in order to make the next discovery,' says Scher. 'It's through mistakes that you actually can grow.' (...) The thing about your mistakes is, when everybody praises something, you don't learn anything. But when you do something terrible, you know what not to do. And that's fantastic. You also learn what you could do if you manipulated it a different way. You have to try these things. You have to see where the failure takes you. That's very scary and risky and also hard to do while you're trying to do something professional." (from an interview in Psychology Today). Also check out her TED talk Paula Scher gets serious on the difference between serious and solemn.

Joseph Campbell 1904-1987
May 21st, 2009

Joseph Campbell in The Hero's Journey: "When you follow your bliss and by bliss I mean the deep sense of being in it and doing what the push is out of your own existence. You follow that and doors will open where you would not have thought that there were gonna be doors and where there wouldn't be a door for anybody else and there is something about the integrity of a live and the world moves in and helps."
Essential reading: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

by The Knife 
May 9th, 2009

"One night to be confused
One night to speed up truth
We had a promise made
Four hands and then away
Both under influence
We had divine sense
To know what to say
Mind is a razorblade
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn't be good enough for me, no
One night of magic rush
The start - a simple touch
One night to push and scream
And then relief
Ten days of perfect tunes
The colors red and blue
We had a promise made
We were in love
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn't be good enough for me, no
And you, you knew the hand of a devil
And you kept us awake with wolves teeth
Sharing different heartbeats in one night
To call for hands of above to lean on
Wouldn't be good enough for me, no"

I wanna hold you hand
May 5th, 2009

From a site about the Sparks: "Even though 'Big Beat' was going to be a more stripped down album with more guitars and fewer of Ron's keyboards Russell Mael was going to do a lush, orchestral duet version of Lennon & McCartney's 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' with Marianne Faithfull. Producer Rupert Holmes did syrupy score for the song, yet Marianne Faithfull dropped out of the project at the last minute leaving Rupert Holmes, Jeffrey Lesser and The Maels with a score and no one to sing it. Russell Mael ended up singing the song, yet it seemed so incongruous even for Sparks, that this execrable orchestral assault produced by Jeffrey Lesser never appeared on an album." (via boingboing.net)

Crystal clear: Send in the clowns
May 1st, 2009

Coral, crochet, hyperbolic geometry and Susan Boyle.
April 29th, 2009

First, watch Margaret Wertheim presenting the Crochet Reef Project at TED. Margaret Wertheim writes about the interaction between science and mathematics and the wider cultural landscape. In 2003 she and her twin sister Christine (a professor at Calarts) founded the Institute For Figuring, an organization devoted to the poetic and aesthetic dimensions of math, science and the technical arts.
An then, read her article "Margaret Wertheim: Susan Boyle and The Beauty of Crochet" on Design Observer. From that: "Like everyone else on planet earth I have been moved to tears by Susan Boyle's amazing performance on Britain's 'Got Talent'. Any of you who haven't yet watched her on YouTube, do yourself a favor. I want to reflect here on Boyle's massive appeal from a very personal point of view, for I have spent much of the last three years managing a project that harnesses the creative energies of hundreds of middle-aged female 'nobodies.'"
As I write this, the video of Susan Boyle singing has been watched 47.427.374 times on YouTube, so far! And, maths at school could have taken such a very different path for me...

by Florian Fossel
April 27th, 2009

From Florian Fossel's portfolio on SHOWSTUDIO: "At first glance this serial of portraits seems to be a random compilation of people of all ages, social classes and different ethnics."
(Thanks to Manu Burghart!)

For example: Eric Satie
April 26th, 2009

From Daily Routines - How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days: "On most mornings after he moved to Arcueil, Satie would return to Paris on foot, a distance of about ten kilometres, stopping frequently at his favourite cafés on route. According to Templier, 'he walked slowly, taking small steps, his umbrella held tight under his arm. When talking he would stop, bend one knee a little, adjust his pince-nez and place his fist on his lap. The we would take off once more with small deliberate steps.'
When he eventually reached Paris he visited friends, or arranged to meet them in other cafés by sending pneumatiques. Often the walking from place to place continued, focussing on Montmarte before the war, and subsequently on Montparnasse. From here, Satie would catch the last train back to Arcueil at about 1.00am, or, if he was still engaged in serious drinking, he would miss the train and begin the long walk home during the early hours of the morning. Then the daily round would begin again.
Roger Shattuck, in conversations with John Cage in 1982, put forward the interesting theory that 'the source of Satie's sense of musical beat - the possibility of variation within repetition, the effect of boredom on the organism - may be this endless walking back and forth across the same landscape day after day... the total observation of a very limited and narrow environment.' During his walks, Satie was also observed stopping to jot down ideas by the light of the street lamps he passed.
(Thanks to Kira Bunse!)

Neville Brody
April 23rd, 2009

With an attitude
April 20th, 2009

Been thinking about these two grand ladies the last couple of days. They manage to look even better the older they get. Brilliant designer Andrée Putman (not only for the interior design of my favourite plane of all times) and top artist Cindy Sherman (not only for evoking all that egoism for altruism). Absolutely admirable - in every aspect.

by Kent Rogowski
April 3rd, 2009

Spring is finally here! From the 20x200 website: "Love=Love is a series of surreal and spectacular landscape photographs that were created using pieces from over 60 store-bought jigsaw puzzles. Kent Rogowski deconstructed the original idyllic images first by removing flowers and skies from each puzzle and then by re-combining them to form disorienting and fractured montages."
April 25th, 2009, Kent Rogowski's first European solo show will open at the In Focus Gallery in Cologne, Germany.

by Tomas Schats
April 1st, 2009

Kenneth Goldsmith
March 27th, 2009

Am in the process of researching online archives and the most impressive, inspiring and likeable is UbuWeb. Its founder, publisher and patron saint is Kenneth Goldsmith. He has done an incredible job collecting 1000 avant-garde films among other outsider arts and made them available online. If you'd like to get to know him better, watch "Sucking on words: Kenneth Goldsmith" (2007), a film by Simon Morris. Kenneth Goldsmith in the documentary: "I believe that information management is the way we are writing now and will continue to write in the future. (...) There is enough language in the world, that we need not create any new language. (...) The interest is in the remix, the accumulation and the filtering. We become intelligent agents."

Sculpture by Kevin Francis Gray
March 26th, 2009

Watch Johnny "Guitar" Watson perform Superman Lover. Listen to Marathon Man by the French house group The Supermen Lovers. And, as a consequence, spring might show up. Turquoise it is. Can't wait no more.
"Look, look up in the sky,
Come on look, look, look
And you'll see me flying by"

The Peter Saville principle.

Amazing short film
March 14th, 2009

It has been a long time that any design struck me. "Please Say Something" by David O'Reilly did. The animation is about a troubled relationship between a cat and mouse set in the distant future. It won the Golden Bear for best short film at the 2009 Berlinale. From Motionographer: "Doing what other people don't is how O'Reilly rolls. Narrative risk-taking, boldness in aesthetic simplification, and self-imposed creative rules lead to epic creation. PSS is strange, insanely original, and some of the most authentic storytelling you'll ever see." I couldn't agree more.

Danah Boyd
February 20th, 2009

One of the most inspiring, challenging and lovely students I ever had the pleasure to work with pointed me to Danah Boyd's blog today. Never before I have read an About Me page online that made me so curious to get to know that other person. Thanks, Nina Juric!

by Dmitry Orlov
February 15th, 2009

From boingboing.net: "In this lecture hosted yesterday by the Long Now Foundation, Dmitri Orlov describes the Russian economic collapse of the 1990s, and explains how he thinks an American decline/collapse would differ."
Quote: "If you still have a job, or if you still have some savings, what do you do with all the money? The obvious answer is, build up inventory. The money will be worthless, but a box of bronze nails will still be a box of bronze nails. Buy and stockpile useful stuff, especially stuff that can be used to create various kinds of alternative systems for growing food, providing shelter, and providing transportation. If you don't own a patch of dirt free and clear where you can stockpile stuff, then you can rent a storage container, pay it a few years forward, and just sit on it until reality kicks in again and there is something useful for you to do with it. Some of you may be frightened by the future I just described, and rightly so. There is nothing any of us can do to change the path we are on: it is a huge system with tremendous inertia, and trying to change its path is like trying to change the path of a hurricane. What we can do is prepare ourselves, and each other, mostly by changing our expectations, our preferences, and scaling down our needs. It may mean that you will miss out on some last, uncertain bit of enjoyment. On the other hand, by refashioning yourself into someone who might stand a better chance of adapting to the new circumstances, you will be able to give to yourself, and to others, a great deal of hope that would otherwise not exist." A must read!

by Paul Virilio
February 9th, 2009

During my years at university we spent a few days at the stormy coast of the North Sea studying and drawing bunkers. Today a post at the, always inspiring, Design Observer evoked some of those long forgotten memories. From The Morning News: "Approximately 1.500 bunkers were built during World War II along the French shores to forestall an Allied landing - 'the Atlantic Wall'. Decommissioned after the Allied invasion of Normandy, this elaborate defense system now lies abandoned. At the age of 25, Paul Virilio stumbled upon these relics with his camera and began a study that would continue for 30 years. His 1975 book, Bunker Archeology, has recently been translated into English and reprinted by Princeton Architectural Press: an inquiry of war and its structures and a personal memoir of exploration, merging technical analysis with philosophical questioning." Also, go and check out the images.

Kevin Kelly
February 4th, 2009

From The Quantified Self blog by Kevin Kelly: "The central question of the coming century is Who Are We? What is a human? What does it mean to be a person? Is human nature fixed? Sacred? Infinitely expandable? And in the meantime, how do I get through all my email? Or live to be 100. We believe that the answers to these cosmic questions will be found in the personal. Real change will happen in individuals as they work through self-knowledge. Self-knowledge of one's body, mind and spirit. Many seek this self-knowledge and we embrace all paths to it."

Barney Bubbles
January 29th, 2009

"Bubbles' sleeves are graphic constructions, offering multiple points of interest, dispersing the viewer's attention. He showed that the visual language of design - type, symbol, pattern, shape, often reassembled in unfamiliar configurations - could be a powerful, exciting and subtle medium for involving a popular audience. Although conditions often conspire against such freedoms now, he is a leading figure within the evolution of intelligently reflexive design. Known but unknown. It's about time the slower moving design history books caught up with him." (Rick Poynor on designobserver.com)
To do some research on Barney Bubbles read Julia Thrift's feature, go to this new blog about Bubbles and check out John Coulthart's post. Or consider Paul Gorman's book Reasons to be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles - but read Rick Poynor's review first.
In any case, when talking about the design for covers there is no getting around Barney Bubbles.

Hawkwind 10 Seconds To Forever
In the tenth second of forever I thought of the sea and a white yacht drifting.
In the ninth second of forever I remembered a warm room where voices played.
In the eighth second of forever I thought of the life I would not lead.
In the seventh second of forever I thought of a leaf a stone, a plastic fragment of a child's toy.
In the sixth second of forever I saw your mouth whispering something I could not hear.
In the fifth second of forever I thought of the vermillion deserts of Mars, the jewelled forests of Venus.
In the fourth second of forever I could remember nothing that I did not love.
In the third second of forever I thought of rain against a window, I thought of the wind.
In the second second of forever I though of a pair of broken shades lying on the tarmac.
In the first and final second of forever I thought of the long past that led to now and never... never...

Five rules for directing
January 26th, 2009

Jim Jarmusch: "Rule #5: Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: It’s not where you take things from - it's where you take them to." (from MovieMaker magazine)
Thank you, Eric Baker!

Unique Bird Photography
January 25th, 2009

From Rick Lieder's website: "An ordinary bird feeder, an ordinary day: and the ordinary, beautiful, eternal ballet of survival, flight, and falling, the aerial acrobats forever in motion, a rush of speed and feathers past the wondering human eye."

Merlin Bauer and Manu Burghart
January 24th, 2009

My dear friend Manu Burghart is a brilliant designer with interest in various areas. Her current project involves giving shape to a book about Merlin Bauer's Liebe deine Stadt project. This initiative, on the often unloved architecture of Cologne, has kept my interest over the years. I have great respect for Merlin's unremitting energy. Now I had the chance to see the first layouts of the documentation and it looks stunning. A must have!

Die Hamletmaschine / The Hamletmachine (1977)
January 10th, 2009

5
WILDHARREND / IN DER FURCHTBAREN RÜSTUNG / JAHRTAUSENDE
Tiefsee. Ophelia im Rollstuhl. Fische Trümmer Leichen und Leichenteile treiben vorbei.
OPHELIA
Während zwei Männer in Arztkitteln sie und den Rollstuhl von unten nach oben in Mullbinden schnüren.
Hier spricht Elektra. Im Herzen der Finsternis. Unter der Sonne der Folter. An die Metropolen der Welt. Im Namen der Opfer. Ich stoße allen Samen aus, den ich empfangen habe. Ich verwandle die Milch meiner Brüste in tödliches Gift. Ich nehme die Welt zurück, die ich geboren habe. Ich ersticke die Welt, die ich geboren habe, zwischen meinen Schenkeln. Ich begrabe sie in meiner Scham. Nieder mit dem Glück der Unterwerfung. Es lebe der Haß, die Verachtung, der Aufstand, der Tod. Wenn sie mit Fleischermessern durch eure Schlafzimmer geht, werdet ihr die Wahrheit wissen.
Männer ab. Ophelia bleibt auf der Bühne, reglos in der weißen Verpackung. 

5
WILDSTRAINING / IN THE FEARSOME ARMAMENTS / MILLENIA
Deep sea. Ophelia in wheelchair. Fish wreckage corpses and body-parts stream past. 
OPHELIA 
While two men in doctor’s smocks wrap her from top to bottom in white bandages. 
Here speaks Electra. In the Heart of Darkness. Under the Sun of Torture. To the Metropolises of the World. In the Names of the Victims. I expel all the semen which I have received. I transform the milk of my breasts into deadly poison. I suffocate the world which I gave birth to, between my thighs. I bury it in my crotch. Down with the joy of oppression. Long live hate, loathing, rebellion, death. When she walks through your bedroom with butcher’s knives, you’ll know the truth. 
Exit men. Ophelia remains on the stage, motionless in the white packaging.

by Harmony Korine
December 28th, 2008

Harmony Korine's debut film Gummo had a huge influence on design back in 1997. Still love the title sequence. I saw his second movie Julien Donkey Boy at the Berlinale in 1999 and was struck by Werner Herzog's performance and deeply disturbed by the experience Korine provided. Today I watched his latest work Mister Lonely (2007) and a rather weird chain of associations let my back to another mind-blowing cinematic discovery: anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch - more precisely his film Moi, un Noir (Me, a Black). He is considered as one of the pioneers of Nouvelle Vague, of visual anthropology and the father of ethnofiction. And obviously he remains a huge influence on contemporary filmmakers. Rouch is a giant and Korine still worth checking out.

Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664)

Eric Baker's "Today!"
December 16th, 2008

Received another unexpected and inspiring mail - this time from Eric Baker. "Eric Baker Design Associates is a Manhattan-based design firm established in 1986. Eric teaches the history of graphic design and corporate identity at the School of Visual Arts, and has twice received National Endowment for the Arts Grants for independent design history projects. He is inveterate collector of books and ephemera." (from designobserver.com)
Each morning, before starting work, Eric spends 30 minutes looking for images that are beautiful, funny, absurd and inspiring. And he then sends them to interested people in an email. Thank you, Eric, for your outstanding research and for putting me on to that mailing list!

Ed Ruscha
December 14th, 2008

From Wikipedia: "Since 1964, Ruscha has been experimenting with painting and drawing words and phrases, often oddly comic and satirical sayings. When asked where he got his inspiration for his paintings, Ruscha responded, 'Well, they just occur to me; sometimes people say them and I write down and then I paint them. Sometimes I use a dictionary.'"

from The Perfect Human
December 10th, 2008

Lars von Trier's favourite film is Jørgen Leth's The Perfect Human (1967), it ends with the words "Today, too, I experienced something I hope to understand in a few days". Von Trier gave Leth the task of remaking this short film five times, each time with a different obstruction given by Von Trier. By now I don't remember how many times I have seen the superior documentary The Five Obstructions which resulted from this provocation. It is an all time favourite of mine because every time I watch it new insights emerge - on fandom, failure, freedom, depression, competition, role models, rules, expectation, challenge, subjectivity, vodka before noon, and so much more. 

First few lines of the poem by Roy Campbell
November 25th, 2008

"With breath indrawn and every nerve alert,
As at the brink of some profound abyss,
I love on my bare arm, capricious flirt,
To feel the chilly and incisive kiss
Of your lithe tongue that forks its swift caress
Between the folded slumber of your fangs,
And half reveals the nacreous recess
Where death upon those dainty hinges hangs."

by Barnaby Barford (photo above)
November 24th, 2008

Via boingboing.net: "Here's Tom Waits in a YouTube video singing the Depression-era "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?", lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)":
"I was building a dream
With peace and glory ahead.
Why should I be standing in line
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad,
I made it run
I made it run against time
Once i built a railroad,
and now it's done
Brother, can you spare a dime? ...
Once in khaki suits,
Ah, gee we looked swell
Full of that yankee-doodle dee-dum!
Brother, can you spare a dime?"

Bruce Sterling
November 18th, 2008

"It's not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.
Do not "economize." Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It's melting the North Pole. So "economization" is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.
The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don't seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones.
They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects. It's in your time most, it's in your space most. It is "where it is at," and it is "what is going on."
It takes a while to get this through your head, because it's the opposite of the legendry of shopping. However: the things that you use every day should be the best-designed things you can get." (Excerpt from The Last Viridian Note by Bruce Sterling)

John Lobb, shoemaker
November 17th, 2008

Handcraft rules. Visited the beautiful John Lobb shop on St. James's Street in London this weekend. Can't afford even a single shoe - yet. But desperately want at least one pair in my life time.

Francis Bacon @ Tate Britain
November 16th, 2008

"His images are indelible, irrational and beyond summary, and his modest ambition for them - that they should be as vividly realised as possible - has surely turned out to be true." (Laura Cumming) Exihibition runs until January 4th. Do not go on a weekend.

William Bennett
November 10th, 2008

A subversive, wonderful and challenging quote from William Bennett's blog: "What is the nature of the stories that you tell about yourself? The purpose they serve those who listen to them is not at all obvious, while themselves serving as the building blocks of who we think we are. Thus, the belief is the being, as is the reiteration. An old man once told me about the time he was shocked to be told by a doctor that he was dying and that there was no cure, and at that point he began to profoundly wonder what it meant to be a person who was dying as opposed to one that was living. And the further he entered the domain of that inquiry, not to seek answers but to just look around, the more he lived. As indeed would you and I."

The Songs of Scott Walker
November 5th, 2008

Bought the ticket for this concert, November 14th in London, months ago and always wondered how Scott Walker will manage to stage his last two albums without himself singing. Since yesterday the final line-up is online: Featuring Damon Albarn, Dot Allison, Jarvis Cocker, Gavin Friday, Michael Henry and Nigel Richards. Am so excited!

"To those of us who knew the pain"
November 2nd, 2008

I was twelve when my friend Vicky Tiegelkamp played a record of her older sister to me. It blew me away. And it was more than twenty years later when Justus Köhnke played Janis Ian on a party and reminded me of my teen emotions. Still love her records. Still listen to them. Saw an early live performance of her today. Simple, moving, beautiful, and timeless. 

Halloween
November 1st, 2008

Saw a beautiful sunrise this morning on my way home from a heart-warming party. Jamal Moss didn't make it. But some times drowning in music and friendship is just enough.

Herzensbrecher (Heartbreaker)
October 26th, 2008

Initially I went to see Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings at Museum Ludwig today, and it was a most welcome surprise to see that they were also showing about 60 or so of Thomas Bayrle's works. Thomas Bayrle creates graphic pieces from other images, multiplying and distorting motifs obtained from books, films, video art, graphic art. The basis for all his work is generally the same - the transformation of a repeated motif by anamorphosis, shifting into another image, creating a truly mind-boggling result. A must - the exhibition runs until January 25th, 2009.

Bewitched, bothered and bewildered - no more
October 15th, 2008

"For well you know that its a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder."

Gina X Performance
October 15th, 2008

A1. Nice Mover (4:30)
A2. No G.D.M. (Dedicated To Quentin Crisp) (5:55)
A3. Plastic Surprise Box (3:05)
A4. Casablanca (5:35)
B1. Be A Boy (4:00)
B2. Exhibitionism (5:00)
B3. Black Sheep (3:45)
B4. Tropical Comic Strip (5:05)
Unfortunately I can't find the lyrics of "Be a boy". We listened to Gina X Performance back in the early 80s and I've been reminded of this joyful experience last night. Thank you, Lena!

"O Superman" by Laurie Anderson
October 14th, 2008

"O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad. O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad. Hi. I'm not home right now. But if you want to leave a message, just start talking at the sound of the tone. Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you coming home? Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me, but I know you. And I've got a message to give to you. Here come the planes. So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go. And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said: This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the hand, the hand that takes. Here come the planes. They're American planes. Made in America. Smoking or non-smoking? And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. 'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice. And when justice is gone, there's always force. And when force is gone, there's
always Mom. Hi Mom! So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms. In your arms. So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. Your petrochemical arms. Your military arms. In your electronic arms."

Tilt-shifted
October 13th, 2008

"The German word 'unheimlich'is obviously the opposite of 'heimlich' ['homely'], 'heimisch' ['native'] the opposite of what is familiar; and we are tempted to conclude that what is 'uncanny' is frightening precisely because it is not known and familiar. Naturally not everything that is new and unfamiliar is frightening, however; the relation is not capable of inversion." Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny
Sydney, Australia-based photographer Keith Loutit creates lovely tilt-shifted time-lapse short films. His aim, he says, "is to present Sydney as the Model City, and help people take a second look at places that are very familiar to them." You can see more of his films here. (via boingboing.net)

Advanced style
October 10th, 2008

Enjoy the Advanced Style blog: "Proof from the wizened and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age." We all need role models - for example Iris Apfel (above), fashion iconoclast and true original.

Bruce Cockburn, Strange Waters
October 8th, 2008

"The Wit of the Staircase: From the French phrase 'esprit d'escalier', literally, it means 'the wit of the staircase', and usually refers to the perfect witty response you think up after the conversation or argument is ended. "Esprit d'escalier", she replied. "Esprit d'escalier. The answer you cannot make, the pattern you cannot complete till afterwards it suddenly comes to you when it is too late."
The blog by extraordinary Theresa Duncan († 2007) is still a huge inspiration.

Peter Saville
October 2nd, 2008

Finally there is a second reason to come back to London: the Scott Walker concert on November 14th. Also, I really look forward to having another inspiring, witty and far-reaching conversation with Peter Saville. The students know that I keep talking about this singular design hero of mine. I had the great pleasure to work with him on two projects and he always managed to challenge my perception and perspective. If you'd like to get the idea, read this article by Alice Twemlow. - By the way, my dear friend and wonderful designer Manu Burghart took that hilarious photo the last time we met him in London - his car, my shawl.

"That was it."
September 30th, 2008

I've always been interested in Stefan Sagmeister's work. His recent piece Obsessions make my life worse and my work better and its fate really got me. Just back from Amsterdam myself, feeling and researching obsession and in the midst of a misunderstanding I just love this artwork. What a wonderful coincidence.

Filed under: People

75th birthday
May 2008

The musicology department at the University of Cologne performed three of the movements from tektra (1979-80) by Roland Kayn to celebrate his 75th birthday. This rare treat took place on May 30th. Wholeness and nothingness - a wonderful evening. Roland Kayn (b. 1933) is a theoretical electronic Dutch/German composer, who draws more inspiration from linguists and information theorists than from other music or musicians. Here is a nice long stream of other compositions by Roland Kayn. Thanks Elmar!

Neil Turok's 2008 TED Prize wish
May 2008

Saw this mindbowing talk on ted.com. Neil Turok is working on a model of the universe that explains the big bang - while, closer to home, he's founded a school to promote math and science studies in Africa. Accepting his 2008 TED Prize, physicist Neil Turok speaks out for talented young Africans starved of opportunity: by unlocking and nurturing the continent's creative potential, we can create a change in Africa's future. In his talk Neil Turok recommends the Worldmapper for a different view on our planet.

Cologne DJ and Art Director Christian S.
May 2008

Went to an exceptional party last night in Cologne. We danced until the next morning - thanks to the DJ team Christian S. and Korkut Elbay (lost). Christian also does beautiful flyer art work. Invited him to do a seminar with the students at the Institute For Music And Media on June 5th.

Seen at Art Cologne
April 2008

Saw some stunning drawings by artist Jorinde Voigt at the Art Cologne fair. She calls them scores. Buy one for my birthday.