entangled flux

Der Himmel Uber Berlin Falk & Ganz

2011-06-26T07:05:00.004+01:00

Peter Falk - Der Himmel Uber Berlin (Wings of Desire) , 1987

The Berlin Wall and Kristallnacht

2009-11-09T17:41:00.024+01:00

Berlin is staging the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Mauer (wall) demolition today.(Berlintwitterwall) Theme park-like (re) constructions steer tourists through the cold war topography. The “Festival of freedom” and daily fireworks are under way privatising various public spaces. Cavalcades of black idling limousines lined Bernauer street today. Mauer mobs recreate the wall on social media. A spectacle of remembrance.

Amnesia seems to have befallen the public consciousness about another historical anniversary: The Kristallnacht. Today is the date that commemorates the Crystal night pogrom. On the 9 to 10 November 1938 "eliminationism" became sanctioned by the German state. Mob law ruled in the Night of Broken Glass, wrecking 1,400 synagogues (video), homes, shops and human lives. Hordes indulged in an orgy of destruction, destroying sacred places, demolishing shops and homes leading to the final 'assault on humanity': the holocaust.

Today the 'death strip' is walled in acoustic assault from mega building projects, the new conflict scape. Howling chainsaws eradicate the trees as obstacles to lucrative real estate. Broken party glass litter the streets and powerful fireworks detonations pollute and fill the dark sky with disoriented birds.

Meanwhile walls are being constructed around the world.

Zeitkunst - Chamber Music and Contemporary Literature

2009-11-08T16:34:00.011+01:00

The Festival Zeitkunst für Kammermusik und Gegenwartsliteratur (Contemporary art, chamber music and contemporary literature) is on. An ensemble of chamber musicians actors and authors perform music and texts for two days in Villa Elisabeth, Mitte.

The delightful Ardeo Quartet's performance of György Ligeti: String Quartet Nº 1 Métamorphoses Nocturnes was stunning. (Video)
Bela Bartók was performed by Christoph Ehrenfellner, Sergey Malov

The multilingual texts seem to concern themselves with mental states, family and existential orientations ("Dasein", "Befindlichkeit"). Ubiquitous offspring and prams lingered through the texts . Zeitgeist Mitte?

Update: 7 pm session:
Arnold Schoenberg and unintentional sounds of a toddler sounded incompatible.
Christoph Ehrenfellner, Gustav Mahler and and Anton Webern were performed passionately well.

The collaborate team effort of all and the place provided a good ambiance.

Clearing Berlin Mitte 07 - 08

2008-04-22T19:02:00.001+01:00

Made with Slideshow Embed Tool

More eradicationg trees in 2007

Transmediale.08 - a customer interface experience

2008-02-04T19:47:00.000+01:00

Hand over the data
The Berlin "House of World Cultures" featured this year's interdisciplinary digital art and culture 'festival'. Having travelled from the other side of the globe we joined the queue to get tickets for the whole event. The condition of purchase of this (5 day) ticket was to divulge our personal data. Oh well, we thought this was maybe a 'German thing', part of 'a normal customer transaction'. Other participants also entered into tacit agreements to en-trust their data in exchange for entering the event space. Despite suspending disbelief and trusting in good data practice, the disproportionality was disturbing. On various occasions participants challenged the collection of their data in discussion times.

Once disenfranchised, we received plastic barcodes to be worn around the neck to identify us when accessing the different spaces. Additionally a stack of dead tree materials was handed over as the 'tickets' for the day.

It appears an irony that one of the main sponsors of the event, The Federal Agency for Civic Education (Die Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung), has as its mission to 'facilitate democratic consciousness and facilitate active political participation'. Being in the business of media literacies, the incongruity of the practice of enabling and containing seems striking.

Customers navigating management-centred logistics
For the opening session in the auditorium, a massive crowd piled up. When the floodgate opened there were 4-5 staff standing at the door and o n e person with o n e handheld scanner (with reading problems). As with most sessions, this one was late too.

On enquiry we were told that “we are trialling a new ticketing system”. This guinea pig factor did not aid the flow of the digitally-branded customers. The environments of "questionable hierarchies” seemed to take very little consideration of the customers' requirements but seemed to be designed for the convenience of management.

Each human gatekeeper interpreted the code of logistics in their own idiosyncratic mode. This in turn dis-oriented the guest into an erratic array of Kafkaesque way-finding. The inconsistencies in the conditions of entry ranged from no identification at all, to most of the time 'the bar code is ok on its own', to rarely barcode plus pulp-version of a ticket.

The human factor - access denied
On the last day, in the final hours, the electronically readable identification was all of a sudden insufficient after 5 days and the human door-management decided to prevent visitors from accessing an exhibition space. Appealing to the humanoid's reason was ineffective as he continuously parroted “I have my orders!”. He insisted we obtain additional paper proof (ticket) and that our barcode alone was invalid. An abundance of additional human door-personnel rushed to do the face-work. All colluded to not recognize their own identity tag which we had purchased and had brought us into all sessions. In the end, access was denied to paying guests.

Not only was customer relationship management an alien concept, but also to

evict people from their chosen seats, as “we forgot to reserve them”,
be forced to hand over additional photo identification to obtain a translation gadget,
assault the senses with a humming, vibrating sound-system (during the Maturana session)

The architecture of conferencing was frontal and hardly facilitated discourse. Missing presenters was another aspects to conspire to irritate the 'audience'. At least this time, unlike TM 07 one didn't have to bring their own chair.

Interface design of an event must allow for heteroglossia, contestation and it must offer more than an irritated central nervous system. Providing access to the services purchased and refraining from 'information-sharing' without consent would constitute a sustainable practice.

> More on the usability-bungle in "Getting A ticket For Transmediale Takes Longer Than Opening A Bank Account" by Joaoflux

transmediale

Women in Art animation

2007-06-03T12:41:00.000+01:00

via Eggman913

Frankfurt

2007-04-18T15:58:00.000+01:00

Time in Frankfurt (or Bank-furt, home of the Frankfurters and the Frankfurter School) in full-on asparagus & strawberry time at the market (Bornheim Mitte). All trees seem to be in full flower. Lilacs scent the streets.Trees are well protected with iron bars from cars here.
Sleeping near the zoo, incorporates the exotic screams of the night into true urban 'wilderness' dreaming.
Delighted that Cafe Kante is finally free of toxic fumes.(Update: No it is not, staff are now standing in the door, puffing it in)
Image:Graffiti, Frankfurt

Re:publica in Berlin

2007-04-12T21:52:00.000+01:00

Attending sporadically events at the re:publica in Berlin. 'Living in web 2.0” is organised by Markus Beckdahl (Open Net-politics), Johnny Hauser (Spreeblick), many unconferencing helpers and sponsors.
A regional web 2.0 is coming of age and offering their services to the mainstream (enterprise). Many of the 'participatory' fora are frontal lectures and podium discussions.

'How to blog in a company without becoming a company blog'...by Jörg Möllenkamp, an encouraged Sun blogger was a spot-on presentation. Integrity and a clearly defined usage are important in staff blogs. Unlike traditional corporate communication strategies social media can remedy an emerging crisis immediately. Press release blogs, or 'old school' communications are out.

A stark contrast was this un-presentation, 25 min. to get the pc set up on stage. This 'humour'-based cultural presentation allowed the participatory crowd to shout off-the-top-of-the-head captions to shown images. A hit with the audience, raging applause after the 60 min.were over.

The mystery of it is that at the following session in the same space, a migration occurred out of the room progressively. The Belgian Regine Debatty from 'We make money not art' was (as far as I know) the only presenter in English. She had an open and very engaging style of interacting with the people in the room. Love her blog, work and presentation. Only explanation I could come up with that so many left is: a) she links her work to issues in first life, un-sexy? b) intolerance to European multililingualism? (not the local vernacular).There should be an audience/mob appreciation as well as instantaneous comment to presentations.

The German bookmarking service Mr.Wong claimed to have overtaken del.icio.us. Intending to cater for a local clientel (only), it now aims to become global. Why not Mr. Cabbage?

Was in some of 'How web 2.0 changes political communication'. The strain to get the mainstream political process and parties to adopt other modes of thinking and communicating. Within the blogsphere Lumma mentioned the gaping absence of substantial chains of discourse as is common in the Anglo-centric social media scene.
Back tomorrow for the last day, happy that such a thing is staged...

Good work on OSS by New thinking
Informative stuff in German: Netzpolitik
re-publica
Important stuff being 'twittered' during presentations
Update: 130407 more post re-publica thoughts on place-blogging here.

History walk in Berlin, Dorotheen Graveyard

2007-04-09T19:31:00.000+01:00

A walk in a graveyard in Berlin, Mitte (the middle of Berlin):
History has its presence there:
The philosophers Fichte, Hegel and Marcuse
The writers Brecht, Mann, Seghers, and actor Weigel
The musicians/composers Dessau, Dohnanyi, Eisler
The German resistance fighters Bonhoeffer and Dohnanyi
The visual artist fighting Nazi Germany with political collages: Heartfield
The industrialist Borsig and the inventor of the ubiquitous free-standing cylindrical advertising columns all over Berlin, Colonne Morris: Litfass
The agriculturist Hartig inventing sustainable forest management in 1790.
And many others

The Dorotheen Graveyard is in Chausseestr.126 next to the Brecht-House/Restaurant (smoky) and opposite the Borsig-house. There is a pleasant, well-kept atmosphere in the place.

The machine IS us

2007-04-08T11:38:00.000+01:00

The global 'megamachine' of a hierarchically organised conglomerate of homo sapiens and their technology constitutes their power over the Earth. Usurping every niche on this planet this hybrid swarm appears omnipotent against 'nature'.
The American historian and sociologist of technology Lewis Mumford provided the terms 'megamachine' and 'technics' amongst others in his investigations into civilisation.
Erich Fromm points out (To Have or to Be?,1976) how the symbiotic reliance on such a social/technical machine leads to actual impotence of the individual. As long as s/he is integrated in it, power is bestowed onto the person, in the degree of hierarchical participation. At the margins of this web, reliant on ones own powers, one seems to be helpless 'like a child'. But don't they adore the hierarchical machinery and their machines: their petrol motors, the ICT strands/rays connecting all, the intelligent agents as interlocutors – the entire noosphere...They provide the self-assurance to be 'great', omnipotent, without it one feels disabled.
After-thought to 'The Machine is Us/ing us'
Image: Sculpture in Berlin, Mitte

Logging Berlin (Mitte) continued...

2007-04-05T17:18:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately more of the same: More trees have to go: Weinberg Park,(stumps in 'protected public green space': 080407, trees go whilest more space is privatised) Tieck str.,Acker Str. (2 stumps in front of new development).

Disappearing trees, grave and ambience...Berlin/Mitte

2007-04-05T16:57:00.000+01:00

Once there was a green park with sculptures reminding of violence against the Jewish population in Grosse Hamburger street, Mitte. In 1943 the Gestapo ordered the destruction of the cementery. Moses Mendelsohn rested at the park entry. Now the Mendelsohn grave-stone and most mature trees have disappeared.

The Machine is Us/ing Us - a final ? version...

2007-03-30T19:14:00.000+01:00

As mentioned previously, the interactivity between the medium and user is continously developing. The latest update on the machine is here:

Rapid cascading climate change

2007-03-16T17:45:00.000+01:00

Talk about rapid collapse of the Arctic ice and an associated cascading climate change are on the agenda. The Northern Hemisphere has had the warmest winter since 1880. Expressed concern is not so much the loss of biodiversity of an icy niche, or agricultural areas – but will the European ski industry survive.

The increase in temperature seems to be wholeheartedly welcome here: Each urban park is packed with sun-seekers rolling on the ground (Liegewiese). Smoking parents wheel their asthmatic kids out more. Leisure-time driving is more fun, Berlin-style parking too. The most common flower seems to be an array of orchids on window sills and in shopping windows. Flown in from distant tropical lands where it is claimed that they are threatened or endangered.

Programmers to generate rapid news

2007-03-14T20:00:00.000+01:00

Journalists in the business of gathering, editing and disseminating news are being supplemented/ replaced by “news programmers” . As dead-tree editions go, web 2.0 programmers are needed to be the editorial staff.
Via Radar
Graffiti: Berlin Mitte

The bottom-up participatory motorised community

2007-03-11T19:33:00.000+01:00

The global motorised community is desperately searching for technological fixes to be able to continue (driving) as before. In Berlin and other cities they are having themselves on by stuffing the rainforest into the tank, employing mobile GIS/GPS to navigate the clogged arteries, mobiles sensing buidling sites. Web 2.0 will help to fight for 'cheap fuel'. Streetscapes gets auctioned to drivers looking to put their motorised tin on public land. The bottom-up 'massive public objection' of the motorised community in London against 'pay-as-you-drive' regulation sends a clear signal of 'the people's' will regarding climate change and urban life. The right to speed is fiercely defended.

More and bigger cars means that emissions, causing death and sickness in the cities, have actually risen. ”Despite improvements in vehicle technology, more and bigger cars mean that emissions from road transport actually rose by 26% between 1990 and 2004.”

Every cm of the city gets penetrated 24/7 by desperate automobiles drivers. Hinderances, like curbs, greenery, playgrounds etc get conquered by large 4x 4. Pedestrians are chased by them on the pavement. Most courtyards (Höfe) have their green lung eliminated and turned into chimneys. The German fetish for “ the German's dearest child” makes non-motorised living creatures “..the largest single obstacle to free traffic movement."

The bottom-up participants in mobility seem to have no interest in 'stopping the planet from burning'. The 'love affair' with private and unsustainable mobility will come to a grinding halt. The Lumpenleisure will be in for a long emergence. Peak oil will bring about different living arrangements. Relearning to do everything very differently.
Graffiti, Berlin, Mitte
Cartoons summing it all up

Smoke-free restaurants/cafes in Berlin

2007-03-10T18:18:00.000+01:00

Some cafes and restaurants in Berlin where on can breathe not so toxic air: (updates will continue)

Cafes:
- Swingdiele, Charlottenburg - 30s/40s ambience, events (0307)
- Cafe Menge,Mitte, August Str./ Cnr. Grosse Hamburger Str, down to Earth cup and not so sweet cake. (0407)

Restaurants:
- Lulla, Spandau, Havelstr. 21 - Italian in the Altstadt (06)
-MITTEeins, Johannisstr. 20, Mitte 'Energie & Vitality'

Other:
-La Focacceria, Fehrbelliner Str/Cnr Zionskirche
-Viv-Lounge, Schönhauser Alle 10-11, Prenzelberg - Bio stuff (07)

Partial rights to breathe:
-PAPPA E CICCIA, Mitte, Schwedter Str. 18 - no smoking before 6pm, Italian (0407)

see also:
Nichtraucherfuehrer
The international scene - one day even Germany might make it.

Australian Desert Dreaming exhibition

2007-03-09T19:29:00.000+01:00

Off to the Australian Traumzeit/Dreaming exhibition. Once past the smoked out foyer there they were, caught in a glass and steel box, three levels of wonderful Central and Western Desert Art. Their iconography links the producers to the topography of the Earth and Lifeforces. The screened film showed the bearers of the oldest continuing living culture on Earth re-enacting the flow of space/time. Rupture is brought about through colonialisation and dislocation.Through this the nexus of land/country and human order is exchanged for an interchangable life 'like ants' in Paris, Berlin, N.Y. etc. converting all to stuff and stuff to cash in a space/time-machinery of seemingly 'unlimited resources'. Mentally taking off, first into a global hyperreal fantasy-land and later conquering New Found planets, just to do the same thing over and over again.
More images of Papunyatula production
Berlin Exhibition here

Participatory tree-mapping tool for urban landscapes

2007-03-08T20:03:00.000+01:00

Logging Berlin seems to coincide with developmental needs rather than moths or dead-wood-dangers in this urban environment.

In some cities bottom-up organisations look after their urban landcape by planting and caring for trees. Residents get involved in improving their immediate habitat, enhancing the value of their homes and doing something about climate change. Friends of the Urban Forest in San Francisco have now launched an open-source tree-mapping tool (MapGuide)for all to participate in. Through various electronic fieldguides the neighbourhood can access the database of public trees through “an interface a la Google Maps - color illustrations over aerial photography that's easily recognizable and packed with information. “ The economic or environmental benefits of maintaining green streetscapes can be directly translated though Stratum (for Street Tree Resource Analysis Tool for Urban Forest Managers) . Each tree can get a monetary value attached to it. The software can be linked to Google Earth and Wikipedia.

And here in Berlin? There are enough geeks innovating, often the First Life is not deemed to be a field worth doing things with. Maybe one day when toddlers in Mitte are being taught not the car brands but get to name a tree or a bird in their habitat, - then...

Logging Berlin

2007-03-01T19:05:00.000+01:00

A look at Berlin from above shows the perpetual buildingsite made of cement and stuff. Green spaces are rare (or are converted). The few urban trees are chopped and no one seems to notice. These are some views of Wilmersdorf (Well-being arcades!),Mitte (logged parks) and Friedrichstraße.

From the book to web 2.0 - a video revue

2007-02-14T00:11:00.000+01:00

The early 'how to' of the Gutenberg Galaxy was apparently communicated in this way. A few years on in the electronic age, the video "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us" is eagerly gobbled up by the 2.0 machinery. Mutations arise and conversations develop.

Concerns of urban dwellers

2007-02-05T16:02:00.000+01:00

Urban (Finnish) dwellers are putting (singing) their concerns. Do watch and compose your own.

Entangling the flux of data

2007-01-21T20:21:00.000+01:00

Graffiti, Berlin