Berlin mit Berlin

The corrosion of time and being "too late"

2012-01-21T13:03:00.000+01:00

When Tacita Dean tried to film the Chalon-sur-Saône Kodak factory in France, which had stopped producing film, she was told she had come too late. "I like too late," she replied (Schama, 2011) and went on to create her work Kodak (2006) which Simon Schama describes "one of the most visually compelling of her works". Six years after Dean's Kodak, the company has filed for bankruptcy accumulating debates about film and digital media.

"While the television tower filmed in Fernsehturm owes its continued survival to its suitability for adaptation to tourism, the government building whose windows provide the screen for Palast was demolished a few years after Dean made her film. Similarly, although the Kodak factory in France continued to make X-ray film for a short time after it stopped 16mm production, its premises were demolished in December 2007 to make way for new industries." (Manchester, 2009)

Manchester, Elizabeth (2009) Kodak (2006) [Online]
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=91369&tabview=text [21/01/2012]
Schama, Simon (2011) Tacita Dean talks to Simon Schama. [Online]
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b94bfcb4-e973-11e0-af7b-00144feab49a.html#axzz1k5RDnVhM [21/01/2012]

Moss, Ceci (2010) Kodak (2006) - Tacita Dean. [Online]
http://rhizome.org/editorial/2010/apr/14/kodak-2006-tacita-dean/ [21/01/2012]

Accuracy of collective/collaborative memories

2012-01-15T21:31:00.002+01:00

"Memories are always being negotiated, fought over and shaped by the memories of others." (Fernyhough, 2012)

We sometimes "wrongly incorporate information that has been provided by other people into our own memories," notes Fernyhough (2012). This is also known as "social contagion" caused by the "pressure to fall in line with the memories of family, friends and colleagues" which we often resist, but we occasionally fully believe in "other people's mistaken recollections of the past" (Fernyhough, 2012). In a study conducted at the universities of Hull and Windsor showed that "non-believed memories" (beliefs we no longer think are true but keep experiencing as memories) are reported by more than 20% of adults, showing that we constantly edit our memories, rely on others while "sometimes rejecting their veracity altogether". Memories are shaped and reconstructed by the self who is doing the remembering, and the stories change when the person's beliefs and emotions change (Fernyhough, 2012).

"Collective memory has an extraordinary power, and it stems from the collaborative, reconstructive nature of memory itself." (Fernyhough, 2012)

We are engaging in "collective remembering" when we mark Remembrance days or anniversaries and there are other less formal ways of "publicly remembering the past". Social remembering, or "memory collaborations" can "diminish the accuracy of our memories, and groups of people sometimes remember things less effectively" than the individuals' remembering. How communal memories and its relation to personal memories or how collaboration helps and hinders memory" are still unresolved.

Fernyhough, Charles (2012) Shared memories and the problems they cause. [Online]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/14/shared-memories-problems-they-cause [15/01/2012]

Collective and public memories

2012-01-15T15:14:00.000+01:00

"Memory has always been a social activity... and our appetite for collective nostalgia is undiminished." (Bell, 2012)

Memory has long been stored "outside of our own individual bodies" and has been social, claims Bell (2012). The changes we are seeing today shifts where the information is stored, from a note on a shelf or a camera to "behind small screens". Bell argues that "our appetite for collective nostalgia" has always been aided by social events, memorial days and monuments such as statues and plaques. The web has become an accessible and very public "repository for our lives: a place to store memories, to be reminded, and to find other people's memories too".

Collective memory can connect and reconnect "us to things we need or want and would otherwise be without," Bell claims, and further argues that we might become more open and honest about our personal and complex histories as we get used to digitised memories.

"After all, memories aren't just about recalling singular facts, but making connections within a complex network. Why not use technology to help extend and enrich this network?" (Bell, 2012)

Bell, Alice (2012) Memory in the Digital Age. [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/14/memories-in-the-digital-age [14/01/2012]

Your present vs. future self

2012-01-09T17:00:00.000+01:00

Daniel Goldstein claims that "there's two heads inside one person" - cool and hot - or the present self and the future self, and they are engaged in "an unequal battle". The present self is tempted by various present desires and is in control, whereas the future pursue higher reasoning although it is absent and weak (Goldstein, 2011). He also talks about commitment devices, which are ways individuals try to commit to the future good, how we pursue something we can't see or feel and try to diverge ourselves from temptations: over-spending, or eating donuts.

Goldstein, Daniel (2011) Daniel Goldstein: The battle between your present and future self. [Online]
http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goldstein_the_battle_between_your_present_and_future_self.html
[08/01/2012]

GDR lost generation

2012-01-06T21:48:00.004+01:00

Lothar de Maizière, the last GDR prime minister, attending the Korean-German Consultation Committee on Reunification, says the South Koreans are uninterested in what the North wants.

"They say: 'It's up to us in the South to solve the unity problem. We have the money.' Well, it was no different with us. That was, of course, the German problem. Afterwards there can be a very pronounced feeling of colonization... Historical ruptures always leave behind a lost generation." (De Maizière in Gutsch, 2012a)

De Maizière also notes that "the Koreans basically don't want unity to cost too much, and I tell them it will cost much more than you can imagine."

The last GDR defense minister Rainer Eppelmann, another German delegate, says "I've realized that the South Koreans are trying to figure out a way for the North Koreans to remain in the North after unification... The South Koreans were talking about border controls. I'll be damned! They seriously intend to close the border after the wall has fallen!" Kim Chun Sig, South Korea's deputy unification minister, says "that is also a very sensitive question. Let's put it this way: Perhaps the North Koreans could remain in their homeland, yes? And we will help them" (Gutsch, 2012a).

Kim doesn't seem to know whether the North Koreans want reunification, as he claims "we have no information about this... we don't know. We only have the defectors who tell us that the conditions in the country are very poor" (Gutsch, 2012b). According to Kim, around 35% of the 19 to 40-year-olds see Korean unification as an important political issue.

"The desire to unite is continuously ebbing. South Korea's older generation has long since lost touch with friends and relatives north of the border. The younger generation has never had a chance to meet. Viewed from the South, North Korea is a distant, uninhabitable planet. It's not even possible to hop across the border for a quick look, as West German schoolchildren used to do on field trips to East Berlin." (Gutsch, 2012b)

Gutsch, Jochen-Martin (2012a) Seoul Searching: Germans Give Pep Talks on Korean Unification. [Online]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,807123,00.html [06/01/2012]
Gutsch, Jochen-Martin (2012b) Part 2: 'I Will Live To See Korean Unifiaction [Online]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,807123-2,00.html [06/01/2012]

Erasing the border of art and life

2012-01-05T23:05:00.001+01:00

The Global Contemporary exhibition at ZKM in Karlsruhe showcases post-1989 art practices that have emerged as a result of political changes.

Guy Ben-Ner shot Drop the Monkey (2009) with all materials cut live on camera while the artist made over 25 trips between Berlin and Tel Aviv [Site Gallery, 2012]. Ben-Ner "picking out the conditions and the process involved in the production of the work itself along with arguments for the pros and cons of the mingling of art and life as a central theme" and highlights "the present-day state of (artistic) diasporic identity as marked by inner conflict and melancholy" (Marten, 2011) with a messsage he writes onto his T-shirt "I WISH, I WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE".

"At the time of Drop the Monkey I was living in Tel Aviv and my girlfriend was living in Berlin. I decided to use that commission as means to see her every once in a while and create a movie that should talk about the proper or improper use of art. The constraints were quite unique, erasing the border between my life and the piece I was working on." (Ben-Ner in Donovan, 2010)

Donovan, Thom (2010) Guy Ben-Nerby. [Online]
http://bombsite.com/issues/111/articles/3443 [05/01/2012]
Marten, Antonia [2012] Guy Ben-Ner. [Online]
http://globalcontemporary.de/en/artists/94-guy-ben-ner [05/01/2012]
Site Gallery [2012] Guy Ben-Ner: Spies. [Online]
http://www.sitegallery.org/archives/3163#.TwYMZTX4WSo [05/01/2012]

Creating Photo Opportunities

2012-01-04T11:36:00.000+01:00

"They linger in and as memory; as we look at them we reflect, try to make something out. Images seen from a railway carriage or car; flicked over in a magazine, or flickered in front of us on a television screen... Each image makes distinctive, subtle but insistent interplay with us, with our memories, desires, hopes and feelings." (Crouch, 2009)

Photo Oppotunities by Corinne Vionnet is a collection of images of tourists' destinations around the world. Images are created from around 100 photographs posted online. Vionnet wondered if "we were trying to reproduce the image that we already know. How much does the image - through films, advertisements, postcards, the internet - influence our gaze? Are we trying to reproduce the image of an image?"

David Crouch notes that viewers are "affected by the image, usually but not always visual, that someone else has already taken and that we have seen" and that photographs provide a referencing point to "a memory or something we wish was in our memory, like a longing, or provocation amongst others". He also claims that images "enrich the mixture in which we place our own experience" as they "share mindspace with stories, with sounds, with friends who have shared with us of these same places and other similar ones they have, or want to visit- and why they want to do so".

"Our photographs are personal and shared reminders, and come alongside the making of myths in a popular visual culture of our own, sharing experience of 'being there', in vivo. Shared popular visual culture includes friends' photographs and stories, postcards we have received and sent; narratives that background their pictures." (Crouch, 2009)

Crouch, David (2009) Photographs, experiences and memories. [Online]
http://www.corinnevionnet.com/site/1-photo-opportunities.html [04/01/2012]
Vionnet, Corinne [2012] Photo Opportunities. [Online]
http://www.corinnevionnet.com/site/1-photo-opportunities.html [04/01/2012]

Documentation and live imprisonment at Hohenschönhausen

2012-01-03T20:01:00.001+01:00

Franziska Vu's exhibition Detained [Inhaftiert] combines photographs with interviews of Stasi prisoners, to create an exhibition to reflect on recent German history. Vu's collaborative "live-imprisonment" (DPA/The Local, 2009) project in 2009 at the Stati prison Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Stasi prison, with former prisoner Carl-Wolfgang Holzapfel planning to live in a cell for a week, ended with Holzapfel's psychological distress [Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, 2012].

DPA/The Local (2009) Emotional strain ends former Stasi prisoner's live re-enactment [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/society/20091102-22971.html [03/01/2012]
Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen [2012] 24/7 Stasi-Live-Haft [Online] http://www.stiftung-hsh.de/page.php?cat_id=CAT_1&con_id=CON_1516&page_id=867&subcat_id=CAT_1&recentcat=&back=
[03/01/2012]
Kulturring in Berlin [2012] Inhaftiert/Detained. [Online]
http://www.kulturring.org/konkret/inhaftiert/index.htm [03/01/2012]

B
Herschdorfer, Nathalie (2011) Afterwards: Contemporary Photography Confronting the Past. London: Thames & Hudson.
Rosenberg, Steve (2009) Reliving Stasi isolation - for art. [Online]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8333148.stm [03/01/2012]

UK should hand over Stasi files: poll

2012-01-01T15:24:00.001+01:00

Three out of four participants of the Guardian poll said that the British government should hand over the files containing the names of Britons who spied for the Stasi to Germany. 1056 (75.8%) were in favour and 337 (24.2%) against. The poll is now closed.

The Rosenholz (Rosewood) microfilm images "contain 280,000 files giving basic information on employees of the foreign intelligence arm of the former GDR" and were obtained by the CIA shortly after the opening of the Wall. The "files relating to Stasi activity in the UK were given to MI5 by the Americans in the 1990s" and "they will be made available, unredacted, to scholars and historians" if the files are returned to Germany, disclosing British Stasi collaborators for the first time (Pidd, 2011).

"Asked by the Guardian why Britain refused to hand over the Rosenholz files, the Foreign Office, which handles press requests for MI5 and MI6, said: "We don't comment on intelligence matters." (Pidd, 2011)

Pidd, Helen (2011) Stasi files row as Britain refuses to return documents to Germany. [Online]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/28/stasi-files-row-britain-germany [01/01/2012]

Should UK return Stasi files to Germany?

2011-12-30T15:24:00.000+01:00

The Guardian is running an online poll on whether the British government should hand the East German secret police files over to Germany.

What do you think?

The Guardian (2011) Should the UK hand over Stasi files to Germany? [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2011/dec/29/uk-stasi-files-germany [30/12/2011]

Postcards from lost countries

2011-12-30T15:21:00.001+01:00

This clip shows an interactive project due to launch on 10 Jan 2012, made from a collection of 25 postcards sent from 11 East European countries between 1975 and 1991 (Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion, 2011).

Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion (2011) Farewell Comrades! (Interactive) [Online]

http://www.gebrueder-beetz.de/en/productions/farewell-comrades-interactive-wt [30/12/2011]

Artline Films & Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion [2011] Farewell Comrades. [Online]

http://www.farewellcomrades.com/ [30/12/2011]

Fragments of Holocaust

2011-12-28T11:16:00.003+01:00

"I think that we can only see the Holocaust in fragments, and these fragments are individual lives and individual deaths, and this is the only measure of things." (Bałka in Davies-Crook, 2011)

Mirosław Bałka's exhibition Fragment is about the collective experiences of the Holocaust with focuses on video works. He claims that the only way to understand life is through "the consciousness of the fragments" and not in "big numbers – the ones discussed by historians" (Bałka in Davies-Crook, 2011).

Davies-Crook, Susanna (2011) Disassembling Bambi. [Online]
http://www.exberliner.com/articles/interview%3AMiros%C5%82aw-Ba%C5%82ka [27/12/2011]
Vernissage TV (2011) Miroslaw Balka: Fragment at Akademie der Kunste Berlin. [Online]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm455zOuVHY [28/12/2011]

Tate Channel (2009) The Unilever Series: Miroslaw Balka. [Online]
http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/47872674001 [28/12/2011]
White Cube (2011) Miroslaw Balka at Akademie der Kunste, Berlin. [Online]
http://whitecube.com/news/miroslaw_balka_at_akademie_der_kunste_berlin/ [28/12/2011]

Minds of North Korea

2011-12-23T15:03:00.002+01:00

"However he abused his long-suffering people, the fear they must now be feeling is surely real." (Taylor, 2011)

Kathleen Taylor, a neuroscientist and author of Brainwashing, claims that North Korea's control is "far from total" and the collapse of the government could be very rapid (Taylor, 2011). She concludes that "not all the tears are genuine" in mourning for Kim Jong-il, "but nor are they all fake", as he offered stability.

Taylor, Kathleen (2011) Has Kim Jong-il brainwashed North Koreans? [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/dec/20/kim-jong-il-brainwashed-north-koreans
[21/12/2011]

Locked-up memories

2011-12-22T23:08:00.000+01:00

Søren Lose's exhibition Relicts, on GDR-era Berlin and collective memories, was closed.

Excerpt from the Brandts website.

The city of Berlin has been exposed to an unusually high number of historical events and periods which have been decisive for world history. This is what Relicts is all about: Berlin as the setting for the East-West conflict of the cold war years, of Communism and Capitalism; of past and present; regime versus the individual and the concept of Utopia – the notion of an ideal world.The exhibition features works, such as Curtain, 2011, which refers to an interior decoration from the East-German Unity Party’s assembly hall in Palast der Republik in the former GDR. The work is reminiscent of a stage curtain with strong authentic institutional aesthetics but at the same time also anonymous and neutral. Wall, 2011, consisting of reconstructed fragments of the Berlin Wall, embodies the post-war period and the segregation of East and West. After a narrow claustrophobic passage comes the work Flag, 2011, referring to a wall decoration in the aforementioned assembly hall, where one can see black and white photos. They form collages from an era, a particular period, a particular place. The earlier work Monument for Amnesia, 2009, mimics the helter-skelter like fashion of beams found in a construction site. Furthermore, the monumental Ghost, 2011, a reconstruction of a now demolished Lenin monument from 1970, is presented. Lose's fragmented version does not appear glorifying but rather abstract and dystopian. Finally, a number of objects, texts, photos are exhibited in display cases. The reinterpretation of Lose’s sculptures functions as a focal point for the exhibition; the sculptures act as relicts, as historical and situational signifiers for the GDR’s cultural and political ideologies.

Relicts combines several mythological narratives and significant historical buildings to unveil the fictitious,constructed and complex layers of meaning within history.

Brandts [2011] Søren Lose: Relics. [Online]
http://www.brandts.dk/en/current-exhibitions?option=com_exhibitions&view=article&id=89 [18/12/2011]
e-flux [2011] Søren Lose's Relics. [Online]
http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/soren-loses-relicts/ [18/12/2011]

"Being there but not there": In a Lonely Place

2011-12-20T22:23:00.000+01:00

Gregory Crewdson's photographs are "projections of a story" he might have heard, "trying to search beneath the surface of things for an unexpected sense of mystery or something that's secret" [Crewdson in the Loyal Library, 2011]. They capture "the moment of transition between before and after" where he uses twilight for its evocative effects (Crewdson in Helmore, 2006).

Crewdson creates his scenes similarly to a film production using sets. In his interview projected in his exhibition In a Lonely Time, he also speaks about photography of truth and photography of fiction, and how the he merges the two approaches together to create tensions between detachment and intimacy, of "being there but not there" [Crewdson in the Loyal Library, 2011].

Amie Siegel also works on the relationship of documentary and fiction, which I will explore and experiment for my Berliners' project to raise questions about the coexistence of objective and subjective histories.

Apperture Foundation [2011] Gregory Crewdson. [Online]
http://www.aperture.org/crewdson/ [19/12/2011]
Fletcher, Kenneth R. (2008) Gregory Crewdson's Epic Effects. [Online]
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/gregory-crewdson.html# [19/12/2011]
Helmore, Edward (2006) The witching hour. [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2006/oct/04/photography [19/12/2011]
Royal Library, The [2011] Gregory Crewdson: In a Lonely Place. [Online]
http://www.kb.dk/en/dia/udstillinger/crewdson.html [19/12/2011]

Delayed images of Palast der Republik

2011-12-07T23:33:00.001+01:00

"The building was completely sealed," said Klapsch, "so an utter stillness lay over everything. It was a strange feeling." (Spiegel Online, 2010)

The photographer Thorsten Klapsch deliberately delayed publishing his Palast der Republik photographs until the demolition was completed, to avoid being seen as a "political gesture" (Spiegel Online, 2010).

Spiegel Online (2010) Memories of East Germany's Showcase: New Book Reveals Last Photographs of Berlin's Palast der Republik. [Online] http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,717697,00.html

[07/12/2011]
Klapsch, Thorsten [2011] Palast der Republik. [Online]
http://www.thorstenklapsch.de/architecture/palast-der-republik/ [07/12/2011]

Thomas Demand's National Gallery

2011-12-07T23:32:00.000+01:00

Thomas Demand creates "a strudel of putting sculptures and photographs and concerns of painting into one" by constructing life-size scenes to photograph. He talks about his exhibition National Gallery which coincides with the anniversaries of the foundation of the Federal Republic of Germany and the opening the Wall, "two pivotal historical events in German history" (This is Tomorrow, 2009). Focusing on the collective memory of Germany, Demand describes his intention to capture "society falling apart and a new one forming" (Demand, in Bound, 2011) through a raided Stasi office.

Office (1995)

"The tacit nature of this work's Germanness is striking. Imagine walking through an exhibition by Joseph Beuys devoted to the idea of the German nation without having to notice that this is the theme. Impossible. For Gerhard Richter, even more impossible. With Sigmar Polke, Hanne Darboven, Anselm Kiefer, Isa Genzken or Martin Kippenberger--for any of the photographers of the Becher school, too--a reflection on Germany and the traces of its history in the present could only be patent, unavoidable. Is this Demand's lesson: that Germany is now no different from anyplace else, that it is at last a normal, self-confident European nation like any other, unburdened of the memory of its historic tragedies, free of the guilt and resentment that have weighed so heavily on Demand's precursors? Has the effort of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past), a process as cumbersome as the word, been completed, or has it simply fizzled out?" (Schwabsky, 2009)

"...What counts as destruction, and what counts as 'ours,' depends on your viewpoint. In 2002 the German Parliament voted to demolish the Palast der Republik, the grandiose seat of the former East German Parliament... It had been closed since 1990, and the idea was to replace it with a replica of the kaiser's castle that had once occupied the spot. The German Parliament sought to efface part of Berlin's living history in favor of sham historicism. Nothing that belonged to the GDR, according to powerful elements in Germany today, could possibly be 'ours.'" (Schwabsky, 2009)

Bound, Robert (2011) News Report: Thomas Demand. [Online]

http://www.monocle.com/sections/culture/Web-Articles/Thomas-Demand/ [06/12/2011]

Schwabsky, Barry (2009) A Makeshift World: On Thomas Demand. [Online]

http://www.thenation.com/article/makeshift-world-thomas-demand?page=full [06/12/2011]

This is Tomorrow (2009) Thomas Demand: Nationalgalerie. [Online]

http://www.thisistomorrow.info/viewArticle.aspx?artId=155&Title=Thomas%20Demand:%20Nationalgalerie

[07/12/2011]

Illner, Peer [2011] Demand's Politics of Paper. [Online]

http://introducingart.com/ISSUE%206/CONCEIVE/Peer%20Illner.html [06/12/2011]
MoMA [2011] Thomas Demand [Online]
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/116 [06/12/2011]
Tate Channel (2008) Meet the Artist: Thomas Demand [Online]
http://channel.tate.org.uk/media/26519199001 [06/12/2011]

Echo by Bettina Pousttchi

2011-12-07T20:28:00.001+01:00

Bettina Pousttchi in 2009 created a photo installation of Palast der Republik on the facade of Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, a temporary gallery built where the Palast once stood. In her interview, Pousttchi talks about different times represented by two clocks, and her focus on media reality rather than factual reality. Pousttchi also notes that the Palast had changed its meaning after the fall of the Wall, to symbolising "reunified Germany and Berlin" (Pousttchi, 2009).

Echo (2009)

Pousttchi, Bettina (2009) Bettina Pousttchi: Echo / Temporäre Kunsthalle, Berlin / Interview. [Online]
http://dai.ly/clCHFt [07/12/2011]

Pousttchi, Bettina (2009) Echo. [Online]
http://www.pousttchi.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=54
[07/12/2011]

Christoph Niemann on politics of immigration

2011-12-04T16:20:00.001+01:00

"Too often in politics, very complex subjects are being turned into sound bites, so it’s easy to take them apart" (Niemann, in Kaneko & Mouly, 2011).

To provide context and "to help keep things in perspective" on immigration debate in America, Christoph Niemann drew "a parallel between current immigrants and early settlers" for the New Yorker magazine cover. The artist also claimed, "cartoonists, not politicians, should be the ones who condense political discussions into simple images" (Niemann, in Kaneko & Mouly, 2011).

Kaneko, Mina & Mouly, Françoise (2011) Cover Story: Promised Land. [Online]
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2011/11/cover-story-christoph-niemann.html [04/12/2011]

Sanchez, Ray & Steiner, Laura (2011) The New Yorker Thanksgiving Cover Takes On Immigration. [Online]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/23/the-new-yorker-thanksgiving-cover-takes-on-immigration_n_1109462.html#s495708&title=November_28_2011 [04/12/2011]

Forgotten town of Wünsdorf

2011-12-04T08:58:00.001+01:00

In 1994, the population of Wünsdorf decreased from 60,000 to 6,000 as the Russian forces left. The town once hosted the headquarters of Soviet forces in East Germany, and was "a Soviet city in the heart of Germany" (Rüger, 2011) but is now forgotten.

"Walking around the empty rooms, halls and corridors, it takes some imagination to picture this rambling, deserted complex filled with thousands of people... The light falling on the faded pastel-colored walls and on the flaking paint of the doors give this military architecture a nostalgic atmosphere. Here and there, one finds objects left behind, such as a broken piano lying in the dust, its legs removed." (Rüger, 2011)

Rüger, Jörg (2011) Abandoned Soviet Outpost: Glimpses of a Forgotten, Forbidden City.
[Online] http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,800658,00.html [03/12/2011]

Skhizein by Jérémy Clapin

2011-11-21T23:52:00.001+01:00

Jeremy Clapin in his animation Skhizein created a character, Henry, who has been shifted 91cm from his physical self. It is an "exploration of the metaphysical implications of place" as well as self-separation highlighting Henry’s confounded psychological state. The "main character is ultimately hounded by his own displacement, reassuring himself, 'I am here, I am here, I am here...'" [Barnum-Swett, 2011].

Barnum-Swett, Daniel [2008] Skhizein: Jérémy Clapin 2008 [Online]

http://iffboston.bside.com/2009/films/skhizein_iffboston2009 [21/11/2011]

Film by Tacita Dean

2011-11-20T14:52:00.000+01:00

11 minutes Film by Tacita Dean is the first work in the Unilever Series devoted to moving image. Projected onto a 13 metres tall white monolith in the darkened Turbine Hall, it "celebrates the masterful techniques of analogue film-making as opposed to digital" [Tate, 2011a]. Dean explains one of the element of the Film to be "about everything that exists beyond the rational self" [Tate, 2011b].

Tate [2011a] The Unilever Series: Tacita Dean. [Online]
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unilever2011/default.shtm [19/11/2011]
Tate [2011b] "It's all about metaphor": Tacita Dean. [Online] http://tacitadean.tate.org.uk/ [19/11/2011]

BBC Radio Norfolk interview

2011-10-31T10:19:00.000+01:00

On 30th August I was interviewed by Matthew Gudgin on BBC Norfolk about the Berlin Wall - built 50 years ago that month - and my MA exhibition on Berliners' post-Wall perceptions.

My NUCA exhibition profile's been moved to another page.

Politics at Checkpoint Charlie

2011-10-25T00:18:00.000+02:00

Stand off at Checkpoint Charlie in 1961 only affirmed "the Four Power status of the city," notes Colitt (2011). Military officials and diplomats of the Allies were able to cross the Wall after the hostile confrontation at the border 50 years ago, while Berlin remained divided. It takes 28 years for the Wall to open up.

Colitt, Leslie (2011) Berlin crisis: the standoff at Checkpoint Charlie [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/24/berlin-crisis-standoff-checkpoint-charlie [24/10/2011]

Ruth Gwily for NYT OpEd

2011-10-15T19:34:00.004+02:00

Ruth Gwily's illustration for the NYT OpEd. The image above is from the NYT article online. The image below creates a silhouette from negative spane.

Gwily, Ruth (2011) in Holmes, Anna "The Disposable Woman" [Online]

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2011/03/04/opinion/04oped_1.html [15/10/2011]

VisualizeUs (2011) NY Times Op-ed design [Online]

http://vi.sualize.us/view/c2bcbef0c08c9e4c05a9d9ee3e02e095/ [15/10/2011]

Wall perspectives

2011-10-14T20:19:00.002+02:00

Exhibition at Museum Villa Schöningen.

Golden Section Graphics News (2011) Mauerperspektiven [Online]
http://goldensectiongraphics.blogspot.com/2011/09/mauerperspektiven.html [14/10/2011]

Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung [2011] Jugend Opposition in der DDR [Online]
http://www.jugendopposition.de/index.php?id=1 [14/10/2011]

The Connected States

2011-10-14T05:08:00.004+02:00

A map created from a data of mobile phone calls shows how people connect in the US, within states and across state borders.

MIT Sensible City Lab [2011] The Connected States of America [Online] http://senseable.mit.edu/csa/interact.html [14/10/2011]

Ratti, Carlo., Sobolevsky, Stanislav., Calabrese, Francesco., Andris, Clio., Reades, Jonathan., Martino, Mauro., Claxton, Rob. & Strogatz, Steven H. (2010) Redrawing the Map of Great Britain from a Network of Human Interactions [Online]
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0014248 [14/10/2011]
Calabrese, Francesco., Dahlem, Dominik., Gerber, Alexandre., Paul, DeDe., Chen, Xiaoji., Rowland, James., Rath, Christopher. & Ratti, Carlo (2011) The Connected States of America: Quantifying Social Radii of Inﬂuence [Online] http://senseable.mit.edu/papers/pdf/2011_calabrese_et_al_socialcom.pdf
[14/10/2011]

Ampelmännchen turns 50

2011-10-07T05:01:00.000+02:00

The East German pedestrian icon Ampelmännchen, proposed by traffic psychologist Karl Peglau, turns 50. It first appeared in Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin, and was once scheduled to be removed from East German pedestrian lights after the unification, to be replaced by an updated design. It has since developed into a commercial brand and a symbol of Ostalgia.

Ampelman.de [2011] We are the People [Online]
http://ampelmann.de/html/geschichte_english.html [07/10/2011]
Ampelmanshop [2011] http://ampelmannshop.com/ [07/10/2011]
Gödecke, Christian (2011) Ampelmännchen aus aller Welt: Auf mein Zeichen: los!
http://einestages.spiegel.de/static/topicalbumbackground/23604/1/auf_mein_zeichen_los.html [07/10/2011]
Gödecke, Christian (2011) Men in Hats: East Germany's Cult Pedestrian Signal Turns 50 [Online]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,790133,00.html [07/10/2011]

Art Worlds After 1989

2011-10-01T14:59:00.000+02:00

The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989 on globalization and geopolitical shift.

Jermolaewa, Anna (2008) Kremlindoppelganger, Fotoserie, je 50 x 35 cm, gerahmt, 2008 [Online]
http://www.jermolaewa.com/works/kremlin_doppel.html [01/10/2011]
Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe [2011] The Global Contemporary. Art after 1989
[Online] http://www.global-contemporary.de/en/[01/10/2011]

Cross-border Facebook friends

2011-10-01T14:16:00.001+02:00

Peace on Facebook has created a graph based on the numbers of friend connections between people of different regions, religions and political affiliations. The image above shows connections made in regions Israel-Palestine, Albania-Serbia, India-Pakistan and Greece-Turkey (Peace on Facebook, 2011).

Social Interactive with Facebook, UNESCO and the Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab have created the visualisation above, using "networked technologies to transcend identity-based difference, and cultivate connectedness across conflict divides" [Social Interactive, 2011]. It is also "creating live-action video diaries" where "video stories will catalyze a powerful global outreach campaign to foster cross-conflict friendships in each region" [Social Interactive, 2011].

Peace on Facebook (2011) Friendships on Facebook [Online] http://peace.facebook.com/ [01/10/2011]

Social Interactive [2011] Friends witout Borders [Online] http://www.socialinteractiveinc.com/case.html

[01/10/2011]

German separation visualised

2011-09-30T17:00:00.003+02:00

Several Zeit Online data visualization Deutschlandkarte highlighting the German divide. The image above shows that there is only one out of more than one-hundred board members of Dax listed companies is from the former East (Block, 2010a). The maps below show a distribution of first names in East and West based on data from a 1998 phone directory (Block, 2010b), and unmarried parents (Block, 2009).

Block, Jörg (2010a) Deutschlandkarte: Dax-Vorstände [Online]
http://images.zeit.de/lebensart/2010-10/d-karte-44/d-karte-44-thickbox.jpg [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2010b) Deutschlandkarte: Ost-West-Vornamen [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/40/Deutschlandkarte-Vornamen [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2009) Deutschlandkarte: Nichteheliche Kinder [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2009/53/Deutschlandkarte-53 [30/09/2011]

Block, Jörg (2010) Deutschlandkarte: Eiscafés [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/35/Deutschlandkarte-Eiscafes [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2010) Deutschlandkarte: Drogenfunde [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/41/Deutschlandkarte-Drogenfunde [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2010) Deutschlandkarte: Wo wird gearbeitet? [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/43/Deutschlandkarte-Arbeit [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2011) Deutschlandkarte: Einkaufen im großen Stil [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2011/18/Deutschlandkarte-Shoppingcenter [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2010) Deutschlandkarte:Wohin es Ausländer zieht [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/04/Deutschlandkarte-04 [30/09/2011]
Block, Jörg (2010) Deutschlandkarte: Lottospieler in Deutschland [Online]
http://www.zeit.de/2010/04/Deutschlandkarte-04 [30/09/2011]

"Tell us about the revolutionary changes"

2011-09-30T12:04:00.000+02:00

Goethe-Institute (2011) "I was enthused and happy" [Online]
http://www.goethe.de/ges/pok/dos/dos/mau/enindex.htm [30/09/2011]

an idea for multiple narratives

2011-09-30T11:39:00.000+02:00

"Inside the exhibit space, visitors step into a media field composed of 40 seven-foot screens. As the screens come to life, visitors discover a 12-minute immersive film. A kaleidoscope of images and sound surrounds them. They are enveloped in a rich narrative about the pattern of progress, told through awe-inspiring stories of the past and present. They are inspired to think about humankind's quest for progress, and about making our world work better, today." (IBM, 2011)

IBM (2011) An Exploration into Making the World Work Better [Online]
http://www.ibm.com/ibm100/us/en/thinkexhibit/ [30/09/2011]

Multiple overlays of non-unified histories

2011-09-29T13:08:00.003+02:00

"In November 1989 the wall came down, and West and East Germans began rediscovering each other; but the socialist and capitalist cultures have been slow to merge. Since reunification Germany has been searching for new patterns of self-recognition." (Stih & Schnock, 2009)

The past is present and remains in "multiple overlays" in Berlin. The histories of buildings, sites and people have build up "multiple overlays; street names are changed overnight, structures are reshaped and reborn," they note, and that "spaces without borders" in the city cannot provide the same sense of freedom people felt arriving to the isolated West Berlin surrounded by the physical concrete barrier "that once ruled the lives of Berliners are mostly erased". This creates edifices "to retell the complex story it symbolized" (Stih & Schnock, 2009) that I see as two sides of a coin.

Stih, Renata & Schnock, Frieder (2009) Open Space: Berlin After Reunification [Online] http://places.designobserver.com/feature/open-space-berlin-after-reunification/11657/ [29/09/2011]

Digital and linear

2011-09-29T10:25:00.000+02:00

Monteiro (2011) discusses linear and interrupted narratives, and how multiple media (images, videos) can support the story without fragmenting the flow by giving iPad apps examples.

Atavist.net (2011), distributing "original nonfiction storytelling" apps, uses Periodic Technology to combine audio, video, photographs, maps and/or timelines to the story.

Atavist.net (2011) Our Platform [Online] http://atavist.net/licensing/ [29/09/2011]

Monteiro, Pedro (2011) Story, interrupted: why we need new approaches to digital narrative [Online]
http://www.niemanstoryboard.org/2011/09/08/story-interrupted-why-we-need-new-approaches-to-digital-narrative/ [29/09/2011]

Laurent, Olivier (2011) iPublish: Photojournalists turn to the iPad to tell their stories [Online]
http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/report/2110147/ipublish-photojournalists-ipad-tell-stories [29/09/2011]
Laurent, Olivier (2011) National Geographic photographer ditches website, turns to the iPad [Online]
http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/q-and-a/2111082/national-geographic-photographer-ditches-website-ipad [29/09/2011]

Thoughts, experiences and perceptions

2011-09-27T00:04:00.000+02:00

"Philosophy estranges us from the familiar not by supplyingnew information but by inviting and provoking a new way of seeing… once the familiar turns strange, it's never quite the same again. Self-knowledgeis like lost innocence, however unsettling you find it, it can never beunthought or unknown. What makes thisenterprise difficult but also riveting, is that moral and political philosophyis a story and you don't know where this story will lead but what you do know isthat the story is about you." (Sandel, 2009)

Sandel, Michael (2009) Justice: What's The Right Thing ToDo? Episode 01 "The Moral Side of Murder " [Online] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY&feature=player_embedded#![26/09/2011]

Printed past present

2011-09-26T03:08:00.000+02:00

Jasonepowell (2011) Looking Into the Past: Crowd Watching the World Trade Center Burn from the Brooklyn Promenade, September 11, 2001. [Online] http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonepowell/ [26/09/2011]

Memory, repression and a soldier

2011-09-26T00:22:00.000+02:00

A cover of the NYTimes Magazine, designed by Nicholas Blechman, hosts both features on Homeland Security, and trauma and repression through a combination of an illustration and a photograph. A soldier drawn with lines is placed over a landscape photograph with a house and a car, with text and the Magazine logo. The landscape photograph is visible only through the semi-transparent soldier.

Blechman, Nicholas (2003) How Far: New York Times Magazine [Online]
http://www.nicholasblechman.com/illustration [25/09/2011]
Slater, Lauren (2003) Repress Yourself [Online]
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/23/magazine/23REPRESSION.html?pagewanted=all [25/09/2011]

Cross-Pacific comparison of narratives

2011-09-25T20:15:00.000+02:00

"Westerners are the protagonists of their autobiographical novels... Asians are merely cast members in movies touching on their existences." (Nisbett, in Osnos, 2011)

Developmental psychologists Jessica Han, Michelle Leichtman and Qi Wang asked four- and six-year-old American and Chinese kids about their daily lives and what was on their minds. It was 1988. The results showed that the American kids "had made twice as many references to their internal lives—their likes and dislikes, their moods—as had the Chinese children" (Osnos, 2011).

Peter Hessler claims that the Chinese people "didn’t like to be the center of attention, and they took little pleasure in narrative". This is due to the way that Chinese philosophy devotes a central emphasis to group relationships and context—as distinct from the traditions of individualism passed down from the Greeks, claims Richard Nisbett, who specializes in cross-cultural psychology (Osnos, 2011).

Osnos, Evan (2011) Storytelling in China and America [Online]
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2011/09/storytelling-in-china-and-america.html#ixzz1YzIrqlrq [24/09/2011]

The Street of Ambiguous Narratives

2011-09-25T19:13:00.002+02:00

"Everyone can talk about their memories of the time and explain a bit about how things were." (Christa Holtei, in Smith, 2011)

A picture book Die Straße ("The Street") illustrates "the history of Germany's turbulent last 100 years through the prism of a single street" with a focus on the Third Reich period, as well as "when the rebuilding of Germany began" after the war (Smith, 2011). Its illustrator Gerda Raidt notes the problem of addressing such event "without directly confronting the children with the horror" and has "tried to incorporate little hints all over the pictures" - a grocery store with its window smashed and shards of glass littering the pavement, a black mourning sash hangs over a portrait of a man, a portrait of Hitler has been stashed away in the attic...

Raidt also notes "it's better if you have to ask for yourself, rather than having everything explained to you" and the prewar political developments depicted in the street scenes are intentionally ambiguous. The idea of depicting the history of the Third Reich without explaining it is a relatively new approach in Germany (Smith, 2011).

Smith, David Gordon (2011) Where's Adolf? Tackling Germany's Nazi Past in a Children's Book. [Online]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,788117,00.html [25/09/2011]

Holtei, Christa and Haidt, Gerda (2011) Die Strasse: Eine Bilderreise durch 100 Jahre [Online]
http://www.beltz.de/fileadmin/beltz/leseproben/978-3-407-79444-4.pdf [25/09/2011]

Playing among the Ruins

2011-09-23T20:08:00.000+02:00

"While the Wall stood, the people longed for liberation and Berlin came to symbolize their fight for freedom. This enthusiasm still remains and the free spaces dotted throughout the city are what make the present Berlin such a ‘special place’. The micro-utopias presented ‘here’, these special places that we are permitted today, are expressed through videos, paintings, performances, etc., by 18 artists and projects that have gathered together from around the world to base themselves in Berlin. The history of society that replaces ideology, the reconstruction of stories, the relationship between spaces and identity brought about by intervention with the city, are questioned through performances, art, information, bodies, and urban spaces, demonstrating a spectacular creativity with a new phase of sensibility." [MOT, 2011]

Nevin Aladağ
John Bock
Phil Collins
Omer Fast
Fuji Re-United (Simon Fujiwara & Kan Fujiwara)
Isa Genzken
Katharina GrosseAlicja Kwade
Simon Dybbroe Møller
Kirstine Roepstorff
Anri Sala
Matthias Wermke & Mischa Leinkauf
Ming Wong
Haegue Yang

Saâdane Afif
Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda
Christian Jankowski
Institute for Spatial Experiments
(founded by Olafur Eliasson)

MOT [2011] Berlin 2000-2011: Playing among the Ruins. [Online]
http://www.mot-art-museum.jp/eng/2011/berlin/ [22/09/2011]

DDR Disneyland

2011-09-23T19:54:00.000+02:00

The giant Ferris wheel at Spreepark was erected in October 1989 for the 40th anniversary of the foundation of Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR) - a month before the Berlin Wall was breached. "The borders were opened, and the whole of West Berlin became the preferred playground of the colour-hungry East Berliners." (Alas, 2010).

Alas, Joel (2010) Berlin’s Ruined Theme Park. [Online]
http://joeldullroy.blogspot.com/2010/11/berlins-ruined-theme-park.html [23/09/2011]

Berlin, weekend, always at dawn

2011-09-23T18:26:00.002+02:00

"In the sallow morning light, Berlin's makeup seems about to crumble, and a transformation happens: things, buildings, places you have seen a thousand times before appear strange and new. In a while, nothing will look the same. The urban landscapes in these photographs are mostly places in transition, waiting for their reshaping. This leaves the chance for a sequel: how will these places look in a conceivable future?" (Schirrmeister, 2010)

In a photo series Plain City, Frank Schirrmeister attempts "preserve a particular vision of Berlin... as the city reinvents itself with dizzying speed" (Schirrmeister, 2010). He scrutinizes the popular image of the city "beyond the facade, delve into the deeper layers". He has been photographing the cityscape since 2006 with a large format camera, always at dawn during weekends to capture traces of life through the emptiness.

Frank Schirrmeister (2010) Plain City. [Online]
http://places.designobserver.com/feature/plain-city/22469/ [23/09/2011]

Happiness gap between East and West

2011-09-21T06:17:00.000+02:00

Is the glass half full?

Happiness Atlas shows people in West German states feel happier. Life satisfaction of men and women in the East are lower than in the West, which the survey claims is caused by the income gap between two regions and higher unemployment in the East. The survey also points out a slightly lower level of health and cultural activity.

Income based

The "Glückslücke" - or the happiness gap - is narrowing, according to the survey. In 1991 East Germany's satisfaction score was 6.0 compared to 7.3 points of the West Germans - the gap of 1.3 points. Today, it stands at its lowest since unification at 0.3.

Deutsche Post AG (2011) DPDHL Glücksatlas [Online] http://www.gluecksatlas.de/cms/index.html [21/09/2011]

Raffelhüschen, Bernd., Moog, Stefan., Vatter, Johannes., Köcher, Renate. & Oswald, Andrew J. (2011) Glücksatlas Deutschland 2011 (2011), p.34. Bonn and Munich: Deutsche Post AG and Albrecht Knaus Verlag.

Siems, Dorothea (2011) Zufriedenheitsstudie: Vom Glück, ledig zu sein und in Hamburg zu wohnen. [Online]
http://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article13616435/Vom-Glueck-ledig-zu-sein-und-in-Hamburg-zu-wohnen.html [21/09/2011]
The Local/emh (2011) Happiest Germans live in Hamburg. [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/society/20110920-37707.html [21/09/2011]

Voting trends of East and West Berliners

2011-09-20T17:03:00.000+02:00

The Berlin state election result highlights the voting trend of Berliners. The Berliner Morgenpost map shows constituencies with the most popular party: the centre-right Christian Democrats (black) are based in the West and came out first only in one constituency in the East. The Social Democrats (red) are slightly spread out. All constituencies where the Left (purple) came out first are in the East, showing its roots as the successor of the East German ruling party SED. The interactive map also shows the polling stations where individual parties performed well: The Free Democrats which lost its seats seats in the state parliament is largely a Western party, whereas the far-right NPD performed better in the Eastern parts of the city. Greens and Pirates show strong urban support. It is also possible to see that immigration is largely to the Western side of Berlin on this map.

West Berlin

East Berlin

These infographics by Tagesschau also display how East and West Berliners voted. The SPD gets even support on both sides in contrast to parties such as the CDU and the Greens performing considerably better in the West. The Left picks up five times more support in the East and comes in second.

Results from the district council elections also show a similar East-West divide, although the boundaries have changed slightly since the Wall.

Die Landeswahlleiterin für Berlin (2011) Wahlen zu den Bezirksverordnetenversammlungen 2011: Partei mit dem jeweils hoechsten Stimmenanteil. [Online]

http://www.wahlen-berlin.de/wahlen/BE2011/ergebnis/karten/Bvv/bvv_bez.asp?sel1=1052&sel2=0651 [20/09/2011]

Tagesschau (2011) Abgeordnetenhauswahl Berlin 2011. [Online]
http://wahlarchiv.tagesschau.de/wahlen/2011-09-18-LT-DE-BE/index.shtml [20/09/2011]

Tröger, Julius and Pätzold, André (2011) Abgeordnetenhauswahl 2011. [Online]

http://www.morgenpost.de/berlin-aktuell/article1768373/Ergebnisse-der-Berliner-Abgeordnetenhauswahl-2011.html [20/09/2011]

Berlin election 2001

2011-09-20T15:24:00.000+02:00

The direct successors of the East German ruling party the Democratic Socialists won 23% of the vote in the 2001 Berlin election. With more than twice what they won soon after it was reunified in 1990, "they are now eager to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, whose 30% put them ahead of the Christian Democrats in the city for the first time in 26 years" (The Economist, 2001). The Economist noted that Chancellor Gerhard Schröder "is not keen to see his party cosying up to the heirs of the sorry regime that kept Germany—and its capital—divided for 40 years" - and Klaus Wowereit was apparently "keeping his options open".

[Wowereit] would have preferred to prolong his four-month-old coalition with the Greens. But the two parties did not win an overall majority. He has now started talks with the Free Democrats, with a view to a three-party coalition. Even that would give him only a five-seat majority. With the ex-communists, he would be 13 ahead. He is also reluctant to exclude a party supported by nearly half of all who voted in the former Soviet zone of the city. (The Economist, 2001)

East Berliners felt "they are treated as second-class citizens," The Economist claimed. The CDU had scored only 24% (17 points less than in the city elections two years earlier) and "The party's national leader, Angela Merkel, rushed to absolve herself of any blame... to become the centre-right's candidate for the chancellorship in next year's general election" (The Economist, 2001).

The Economist (2001) Berlin's election: Democracy, it's wonderful. [Online]

http://www.economist.com/node/836021 [19/09/2011]

Full throttle unification

2011-09-20T15:03:00.000+02:00

Following the only free election in the GDR history in 1990, the LA Times journalist Tyler Marshall reported "the pace of German unification once again moved toward full throttle" (Marshall, 1990). At his first post-election press conference Lothar de Maiziere announced, "as a clear sign of the growing together of Germany, the wall should be removed as fast as possible". De Maiziere's Christian Democrats had won the election, although short of a clear majority.

De Maiziere also called on the Social Democrats and the Free Democrats for discussions to join his "grand coalition", but did not invite the Democratic Socialist Party which won 16% of the popular vote, possibly reflecting "a level of anxiety among East Germans about the impending political changes" (Marshall, 1990). The Social Democrats seemed ready to compromise on their more measured pace toward unification.

"We will not disappoint the expectations of the East German voters," the West German prime minister Helmut Kohl said (Marshall, 1990).

Introducing the West German deutschemark into East Germany was viewed crucial step toward unification and "to halt the flow of East German refugees to the West" (Marshall, 1990) as a West German spokesperson "cautioned" against rapid monetary union. More than 140,000 East Germans had crossed to the West for permanent resettlement since the start of the year.

Share prices on the Frankfurt stock exchange soared 17 points and Deutschemark "strengthed against most major currencies and financial analysts voiced buoyant forecasts," Marshall (1990) wrote, "as municipal employees cleared away the debris of post-election celebrations in East Berlin".

Marshall, Tyler (1990) E. Germans Seek Coalition, Vow to Destroy Berlin Wall. [Online]
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-20/news/mn-650_1_east-german [19/09/2011]

Narratives of lost languages

2011-09-19T09:57:00.000+02:00

The Last Silent Movie (excerpt), 2008

Susan Hiller "orchestrates voices of the last speakers of extinct or endangered languages" selected from audio archives in The Last Silent Movie. Apart from subtitles the screen remains black with "the framework for the audience to reflect on the speakers and the conditions that may have prompted the loss of their language". There are 24 etchings created from oscilloscope traces of the voices [Tate, 2011].

The Last Silent Movie 2007
Single channel projection, with sound; 24 etchings on paper
Duration 20 minutes
British Council CollectionX35136

ArtReview (2008) Susan Hiller, The Last Silent Movie. [Online]
http://www.artreview.com/video/video/show?id=1474022%3AVideo%3A333692 [19/09/2011]
Tate [2011] The Last Silent Movie. [Online]
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/susanhiller/room14.shtm [19/09/2011]

E-flux (2011) Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art. [Online]
http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/10110 [19/09/2011]
Susanhiller.org. [2011] The Last Silent Movie 2007. [Online]
http://www.susanhiller.org/Info/artworks/artworks-lastsilentmovie.html [19/09/2011]

Compressing time and perceptions

2011-09-18T16:11:00.000+02:00

Under a flight path near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Bryon Darby photographed every plane over 90 minutes and added them into a photograph. "Compressing an hour and a half into one apparently single moment" for Seventy Flights in Ninety Minutes, Darby recreated the experience of "living in a flight path" (Darby, 2011).

Darby also compressed images - 82 photographs captured on a motorway - to create Entire 101 Freeway Loop, 91.2 Miles in 82 Minutes, giving "a glimpse of many different times and places in a single frame" (Darby, 2011).

A method of "querying and aggregating" photographs can be seen at The Color Of, an attempt at answering "a potentially complex and abstract question in an objective manner, by using simple algorithms on data originating from subjective human perceptions" [The Color Of, 2011].

Darby, D. Bryon (2011) Time Frame: 82 Moments on the Freeway, in One Photo. [Online] http://www.good.is/post/time-frame/ [18/09/2011]
Darby, Bryon [2011] Commute. [Online] http://www.bryondarby.com/photos/flight-paths/ [18/09/2011]
The Color Of. http://www.thecolorof.com/#find [18/09/2011]

Berliners go to polls

2011-09-18T12:27:00.000+02:00

"It took a while for people to notice. After the brief euphoria of unification in 1990, the West’s subsidised industry and the East’s socialist enterprise collapsed alongside each other." (The Economist, 2011)

Berlin's "creative richness is inseparable from its economic poverty" (Berliner Zeitung, in The Economist, 2011). The city's unemployment rate remains higher than any other states at 13.3% - national average is 7% - although since 2004 the city has created jobs at a faster pace than the German average. Today in the polls, the incumbent Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit who has been in office for ten years is expected to be re-elected for another 5 years term, although he could run as a candidate for the federal premier, as did the former West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt did.

The Economist (2011) Berlin’s elections: The cost of cool. [Online] http://www.economist.com/node/21529075 [18/09/2011]
Kulish, Nicholas (2011) Berlin Hopes Growing Tech Community Will Lift City’s Economy. [Online] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/world/europe/berlins-tech-scene-offers-hope-to-economy.html [18/09/2011]

Trabant, the wall and distinction

2011-09-08T10:34:00.001+02:00

I walked to NUCA yesterday to dismantle my installation Edifices of Separation and saw a Trabant drive pass me. I never saw the East German car in England before, and it disappeared surprisingly fast in to a dot. It was like having a four-leaf clover blown away in a gust.

The exhibition was successful and I have a distinction for my MA. I met a political scientist and his partner who liked my work. Ed specialises in former-USSR and East Europe and lent me his book After the Wall: Confessions from an East German Childhood and the Life That Came Next. We agreed to meet for coffee next week. I also received an email from Rory Maclean, the author of Stalin's Nose, although he couldn't make it to my private view.

Being on BBC Radio Norfolk, arguments with the building maintenance section about hiding a fire hydrant and a red horse bucket (to collect rain water leaking through the ceiling) juxtaposed to my work, spending a whole day to find out why my work stopped working, running around town to find headphones NUCA would not lend out... the last month of the course has been a steep wall to climb. I'm now viewing the scenery around it and will talk to Shaun about my path post-MA.

Screens 1 and 2

2011-08-18T14:14:00.007+02:00

From top: Screen 1 and Screen 2

I have had to alter the Screen 1 soundtrack, to better fit with Screen 2 soundtrack I pieced together. It's more subtle and lingers on longer with slower fade ins and fade outs.

Lingering Edifices of Division

2011-08-18T09:54:00.002+02:00

Critical Evaluation on Berlin mit Berlin [B/B]
[PDF]

Transcript of interviews

2011-08-18T01:52:00.004+02:00

[PDF]

Berlin mit Berlin [B/B]

Screen 2

Interview Transcript

2011

Translation/interpretation by Virginia Renalis and Natali Mahn

Günter Bormann

Lawyer of BStU (Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic

[00:00-00:48] I think there are still differences. So, I’m fifty-five years old, for me the German division, East and

West Germany

, was part of my education, of my experience. But even younger people who are now twenty years, they are perfectly aware if they are from West or

East Germany

. We have a lot of young people here, in our federal agency, which do vocational training, they are twenty-years old, and I’d like to put some the question if I meet this group of these young people, “are there still differences between East and West?” And they’d say, “Yes, there are. Look, these three people, they are from the Western part, but that’s not a problem for us, we get along.

Frieda Bialas

Healer

[00:50-01:20] Wir wollten eigentlich noch hier auf die andere Seite der Mauer gehen und mal gucken, wer da so rumläuft und so, aber wir sind gar nicht mehr hierher, wir sind dann zurück. Und es ist heute noch so, dass ich sehr genau weiß, wann bin ich in West-Berlin und wann bin ich in Ost-Berlin. Ja, hier kenn ich mich aus, wenn ich natürlich auch nicht rüber fahr, dann kenn ich mich drüben auch nicht aus... Das ist auch die Straßennamen hier, weiß ich das relativ gut, aber alles was da ist, ich hab keine Ahnung wie die heißen.

We originally wanted to go to the other side of the wall and see the people walking around there and so on, but we didn't go there anymore, we then went back. And it is still the case today, that I know exactly when I'm in West Berlin and when I'm in East Berlin. Yes, I know my way around here, if I obviously don't go over, then I don't know my way around over there. Also with the street names: here, I know them relatively well, but everything that is there, I have no idea what they are called.

Frank Rieleit

Teacher

[01:22-01:34] Just look at who are near to me, once I meet people. And people who are near to me are mostly from the West, or from Western countries.

Uta Erler

Bank Employee

[01:36-02:04] If you see our children - my son is thirty, my daughter is twenty-seven. Both of them have connections to people which are living in the West, but their normal sphere is in the East. And I for myself would not prefer to live in the West. I don’t… I can’t tell you why.

Beate Schüssler

Teacher

[02:07-02:43] Ich denke, wenn man das langsamer gemacht hätte, erst mal das System so lassen. Ja, ich weiß ja auch nicht wie, aber erst mal so die Leute in ihren Kreisen. Man hat ja sofort angefangen die Betriebe abzuwickeln... Es gab eine Organisation, die dann die DDR-Betriebe verkauft haben. Und das ist alles an den Westen gegangen, haupsächlich. Die hatten kaun ne Chance selber zu sagen: "hier, wir möchten unseren Betrieb behalten oder verändern."

I think if you'd done it slower, leave the system like it was at first. Yes, I don't know how, but only the people in their circles. One immediately started to handle with the companies… There was an organization who then sold the East German enterprises. And they went to the West, mainly. They hardly had a chance to say, "here, we want to keep our enterprises or change them"

Martin Textor

Former Chief of Police Special Unit (SEK)

[02:45-03:12] Wir haben uns zusammengeschlossen und dann müssen wir auch für einander sorgen, das finde ich ist richtig. Aber ich sehe auch, dass in solchen Vereinigungen eben Probleme sind. Es gibt reiche Regionen und ärmere Regionen. Das muss man eben, wenn man zusammen kommt, muss man das ausgleichen. Wenn ich heirate, und ich bin reich, und ich heirate eine arme Frau, dann ist das das Gleiche; Dann bekommt sie auch Geld. Oder umgekehrt.

We have united and we must take care of each other too, I think that is right. But I also see that there are problems in such associations. There are wealthy regions and poorer regions. This you must, if one unites, you must compensate for that. If I get married, and I am rich, and I marry a poor woman, then this is the same thing; then she gets money. Or vice versa, yes.

Wibke Schüssler, Virginia Renalias and Roland Schüssler

Interpretor, and teacher

[03:14-03:46] Wibke Schüssler: They didn’t have the chance to develop by them selves or to…

Virginia Renalias: to decide.

Roland Schüssler: Die Frage ist natürlich, wollten das die Leute in der DDR. Der überwiegende Teil, die wollten eigentlich ganz schnell eine Angleichung, also einen Anschluss an die Bundesrepublik. Die wollten also ganz schnell an das Geld rankommen, also ganz schnell, dass die D-Mark eingeführt wird. Und dem hat man dann auch gerne, damals die CDU-Regierung, gerne Rechnung getragen.

Roland: The question is, of course, did the people in the GDR want that. The vast majority, they actually wanted a fast assimilation, so a connection to the federal republic. They wanted to get money quickly, so they wanted the D-Mark to be introduced quickly. And they were happy, at that time the CDU government, to provide this.

Martin Textor

[03:49-04:48] I heard… I heard it in the radio. It was in the night, on the bridge in the north of Berlin. I heard in the night, thousands of East German peoples came to this bridge, and they wanted to come to West Berlin. And I looked television and heard radio the whole night, and the next day when I go to my work. First I said to one friend of me, “Look for a car, we go to this bridge” and we went there, and it was… it was like carnival. All people lie in their arms, and tears run down and… many people from West Berlin stood there and they came and they gave them money… “Buy something to eat” or “buy a radio recorder” - it was sensation, sensation to have in East Berlin.

Beate Schüssler and Roland Schüssler

[04:51-05:40] Beate: Wenn ein Gebäude im Osten ein Ausgang hat, ne Tür hat, und im Westen ne Tür hat, und welchen du benutzen musst oder so, nach dem BRT wirst du bezahlt. Ich hab neulich ne Urteil gehört, wo jemand da gestritten hat. Das ist ganz krass.

Roland: Das man glaub es nicht. Die Wende ist wirklich schon seit fast 20 Jahren jetzt, ne? '89, '99... Ja. Und trotzdem gibt's noch diese Unterschiede und das ist echt, geht nicht.

Virginia: ...building, über ein bürgeramt oder so was?

Beate: Ich weiß nicht um was für ein Amt es sich handelte. Es war ein riesiges Gebäude mit zwei Adressen: Ost, West.

Roland: Wenn diese Ungerechtigkeiten dann mal behoben sind, nicht, dann haben wir sicher ganz gute Hoffnungen, dass es alles besser wird, ne.

Beate: And sometimes it's... If a building has an exit in the east, a door, and a door in the west, and which one you have to use or so, you get paid for that BRT. I've recently heard a verdict where someone argued about this. That was pretty blatant.

Roland: You can't believe it, you know. The turn is almost 20 years ago now, right? '89, '99 ... Yes. And yet there are still these differences and it's, not possible.

Virginia: …building, at a local public office or something similar?

Beate: I don't know what kind of agency it was. It was a huge building with two addresses: East, West.

Roland: If these injustices are corrected, right, then we certainly have very good hopes that things will get better, you know.

Frank Rieleit

[05:42-06:13] I find from the friends we’ve got from the East, I find it’s a … Bereicherung... what is that? Enrichment? Enrichment. It’s an enrichment, because I met people, who are German, and who are, but, they are much different from us. And to understand how they think, and to understand how they grew up, that’s an enrichment for me. And I hope my history is enrichment for them too.

Gerd Danigel

Photographer

[06:15-06:52] Ich kenn leider noch, leider noch, viele Leute, ich gehört dazu, die... die Mauer nicht aus dem Kopf kriegen. Die ist nicht mehr materiell da, aber die ist im Kopf da. Und immer wenn ich von, äh, ob das zum Mauerpark ist... ist auf der Straße die Mauer eingezeichnet. Und immer, wenn ich mit dem Fahrrad in den Mauerpark fahr, dann, und ich überfahr diesen Streifen, dann fahr ich in den Westen. Ich fahr nach West-Berlin… Ja, immernoch im Kopf.

I know, I know, unfortunately, still, unfortunately still, many people, I'm one of them, who don't get the wall out of their heads. It is no longer physically there, but it's there in the head. And every time I, uh, whether it's to the Mauerpark, the wall is marked on the street. And every time I ride my bike to the Mauerpark, then, and I ride over this strip, then I'm riding into the West. I ride into West Berlin. Yes, still in the head.

50 years of division

2011-08-13T01:00:00.005+02:00

Berlin Wall, 13 August 1961 -

I was interviewing a Berliner in Alexanderplatz. He was born in Berlin and grew up with the Wall, seeing the border from the Eastern side. He now lives in the reunified city, having longed for his homeland, East Germany, since it dissolved itself twenty-one years ago. I felt traces the Cold War division had left behind.

This project is based on socio-cultural observations in post-Wall Berlin. The city has lost most of the concrete divide, with some exceptions that exist as iconic backdrops for tourists, or in smaller pieces in souvenir shops. Euphoria has also faded, alongside empty political promises for blossoming landscapes, accumulating nostalgia and resentment. The divide is now in the mind.

I have been photographing the former border and architecture that has lost its political might, and documenting Berliners’ experiences. The fading and re-emerging scenes reflect collective memories that linger like mist in the psychological landscape.
From my NUCA MA Show Artist Statement

steel screen stands

2011-08-12T22:15:00.002+02:00

I've decided not to use the glass case for my display.

Since then, I've discussed with Kaavous the issue of holding the screens up on top of my MDF box/assembly, and decided to make steel stands, which gave me more choice of where to place the screens, over the existing stand. I have been working with Rachel in the metal workshop using plasma cutter and TIG welder to make these stands, which have holes on the base to let through cables for signal and power, and holes also for access to the control on back of the screen.

There is a slight wobble when the screens are fitted on, so I'll test and see how they work in the room, and see if I need to add extra support on the side.

adjusting Screens 1+2

2011-08-11T07:23:00.001+02:00

I have now added 3 seconds to Screen 1 and 2 clips based on a discussion with Terry and Nick last Saturday. I've emailed Nick about my plans for further changes, although this will be last-minute, to hear his views on it.

final week developments

2011-08-10T23:14:00.005+02:00

I am thinking of altering the soundscape due to unexpected circumstances. I plan to finish the sound (mostly of interviews) and reduce/cut sound from Screen 1 to avoid two screens separating away. I'm leaving myself Wednesday and Thursday for the last minute editing, once Nick is available.

The glass fish tank idea is also out, as the turned-over fish tank looked just like a turned-over fish tank, and not a vitrine. There is another problem pointed out by an artist, that having two screens inside the tank could heat up, even with a vent hole on top of the column. The replacement box would be made of perspex and I don't have the time to test that.

On the positive side, the column box is built, and I will be making metal attachments for the screens to be fixed on top of the column. I'll paint the box, probably with eggshell emulsion, once I cut out holes for vent (side, bottom), headphones (front, near the top) and cables (back).

Then hooks for the headphones. And transcript.

vitrine, column, assembly...

2011-08-10T13:50:00.002+02:00

I took a walk around the Castle Museum to get measurements for display cases and columns, as I struggled to imagine the size without any physical sense of it. Anna Green at the museum gave me a brief tour and also suggested that there might be an option of renting one (although I would have to drill holes for cables and vent... so this is unlikely to happen).

So, the height is to be around 1120-1150mm, length and width is to fit the glass fish tank in the NUCA basement.

Screen 1 [08/08/2011]

2011-08-08T08:21:00.002+02:00

Sound draft for Screens 1 and 2

2011-08-04T23:03:00.001+02:00

Nick and Terry have designed draft soundscapes for Screen 1 and 2. I feel that their work has a lot of power, and have had to discuss how sound had to be slow and calm. I have seen their work previously, but realised my work needed a lot more subtlety than I originally imagined. I have earlier realised I needed to compromise on my editing work, as I realised I was holding back Nick and Terry from working on it.

Through a meeting earlier with Shaun and Tom, I've once again realised it is important to have the plinth/column build soon. I need something to look at and work on, rather than thinking over it in my head. I've talked to Kaavous about this and will work in the Wood workshop next week.

Another issue I need to resolve is whether to provide the audience with transcript of the German interviews that will be played in Screen 2. I have decided not to use subtitles, partly because it would clash and distract attention away from images. Do I complete the narrative for the audience by supplying word by word information, or do I let the audience do that with their imagination?

As of now, I feel I should go for something in between, by supplying the info (also who these Berliners are) but having the booklet of transcript tucked away, so only those who wanted the additional data would access it.

Screens 1+2

2011-07-31T20:16:00.002+02:00

I've finished the Screen 2 draft, and have juxtaposed it with Screen 1. Although I have worked with Screen 1 in sight, there are some effects I am seeing as I see the screens positioned alongside each other. I have asked my sound collaborators for their opinions, and will be making further alterations.

Photoshoot, translation and editing clips

2011-07-27T21:13:00.002+02:00

I have been photographing at an abandoned residential building of a former USAF base in Western Germany. They are based on ideas I have been developping, and will be going back to capture more images on Friday.

I will be working on my translations and Screen 2 tomorrow.

ratio and size

2011-07-26T22:16:00.003+02:00

I have now changed the size and ratio of the clips for the screens I intend to use. I've spoken to Fran about how I could change the settings on Premier. Although this process meant remaking parts of the clips again, it was nothing like starting from scratch, which I feared it could have been. I've now put the file in Dropbox for Nick and Terry to have a copy of.

I've been talking to Phil, trying to find a solution to how I can best control 2 screens. This will be done with Mac Pro, MOTU Ultralite and Multiscreener (a MAX MSP program).

Next week, I will convert the clip and then add the sound file. I will also purchase/make 2-4 "stereo socket 1/4'' → jack 2 mono 1/4'' jack plugs" for distributing stereo sound from each screens through MOTU Ultralite to headphones.

meeting with Terry

2011-07-23T14:59:00.030+02:00

I've had a meeting with Terry about screen 2 and sound.

Nick has previously pointed out how a music track I'd chosen would not work for the final project. I have asked for Terry for his opinion who then discussed the issue with Nick. It seemed that there was a misunderstanding to how we were going to use the track, and Nick will use the melody/tune and experiment referencing it in the project.

Sound for screen 2 (which Terry is working on) has issues which need to be resolved. I intend to play sections of interviews with Berliners I recorded in the city. Some are in German, but I find subtitles distracting to have with the images of the clips. One idea is not to use subtitles at all, although non-German speaking audience may find the context of the work harder to understand.

Mac pro, PD and the sound meeting

2011-07-22T03:05:00.007+02:00

I have arranged to use 2 LC15 screens, and will switch from 2 Mac Minis to a Mac Pro. The decision to switch is based on the idea of controlling 2 screens with PureData, rather than to have them run independently and risk time lags which might develop over the duration of the show. I will meet Phil about PD, once the Mac Pro arrives in his office.

I am also using an electricity cable from the wall to the column covered with a bridge to minimize risk of tripping. And 2-4 chairs.

The meeting with Nick was productive. He will take some music off and keep the sound to minimum, to pick up the subtlety of the images I have been working on, with a reference to Tacita Dean's work in Berlin.

"In constructing her narrative, Dean linked it with the passing of time, an obsession of hers; this is a meditation on the idea of transition. People arrive and leave, the waiters come and go, the sun rises and sets, the restaurant slowly changes. The visitor becomes both a spectator of and a witness to these movements, conversations and gestures." [Musée d’art de Joliette, 2011]

There an issue which I will consider based on his opinion, that he thought the style of the track I recorded previously was not suitable to be used.

PDR - Nachbild vom Verschwinden des Palast der Republik

by Nina Fischer, Maroan el Sani

DV, video projection, colour, 1 min. loop, 2004

I am reminded, through discussions with Tom and Shaun, that my work is subtle and needs a simple display. I am struggling to decide how far I should elaborate on the column/vitrine, so that my does not sink in to the background of the room, and at the same time not overpower my clips. I hope to resolve this issue by trying out the designs in the exhibition space once I finish the clip for second screen.

Musée d’art de Joliette [2011] Tacita Dean - Fernsehturm. [Online]
http://www.museejoliette.org/expo_temporaire/fernsehturm_en.html [21/07/2011]
Fischer, N. & El Sani, M. (2004) Nachbild vom PDR. [Online]
http://www.fischerelsani.net/pdr/pdr_n.html [22/07/2011]

column ideas 2

2011-07-22T02:40:00.001+02:00

Once I finish the screen 2 clip, I will test this idea out in the exhibition room (below). I've been stuck in thinking about various designs and feel that I need to move forward from that.

Screen 1 Rough 1 [with sound]

2011-07-20T23:48:00.008+02:00

Nick has composed the soundscape for my work. I'll meet him on Thursday and discuss what should be done to it next. I've been listening to it and making notes.

column ideas

2011-07-20T23:42:00.003+02:00

A model of a display based on suggestions by Kaavous.

front

back

back detail

I have also found a cube fish tank in the basement of college and have arranged to borrow it, as I need to test out a way it works for my project.

problem design

2011-07-15T13:08:00.000+02:00

Through a discussion with Shaun I've come to realise that the current gate design would overwhelm my clips. Although it's concept works with freedom/restriction of travel relating to the breaching of the Wall, its design draws too much attention away from the screen, and ultimately the clips...

I have spoken to Kaavous at the Wood workshop about redesigning it, and will be working on a less intrusive design. I will also look in to using Mac Pro, alongside 2 Minis, regarding controlling the 2 screens. The design would also need to consider where Pro (or Minis) would go. Housing them in a bench box is an idea to keep the screen plinth slim.

Disappointing Reunification: How the East Was Lost

2011-07-01T18:00:00.024+02:00

The West German currency Deutsche Mark of was introduced in East Germany 20 years ago today, although "the eastern German economy is still in a sorry state, and there are no indications that the situation will change" (Neubacher & Sauga, 2010).

"I would have sharply increased taxes and would not have pursued reunification with borrowed funds. There is quite a bit of self-deception in the notion that now, in the year of the 20th anniversary of reunification, we are congratulating ourselves on how wonderfully everything has turned out. The facts say otherwise: the high unemployment, the depopulated areas. And the phenomenon that people call "the Wall in our minds" still exists." (Grass, 2010)

Grass, G. (2010) SPIEGEL Interview with Günter Grass: 'The Nobel Prize Doesn't Inhibit Me in My Writing'. [Online] http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,712715-3,00.html [01/07/2011]

Neubacher, A. & Sauga, M. (2010) Germany's Disappointing Reunification: How the East Was Lost. [Online] http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,703802,00.html [01/07/2011]

clips 30 June, 2011

2011-06-30T09:38:00.002+02:00

I have made a clip which would be played on 2 screens, based on a discussion I had with Terry and Nick, that sound of one screen can connect to the other or imply that it is somehow linked to the other. There will be some clips which will crossover 2 screens.

without perspex

2011-06-30T09:23:00.011+02:00

This could be the answer to the column/plinth idea, without using perspex sheets. It combines ideas of travel and freedom of movement, one of the issues closely related to the opening of the Wall, as well as restrictions and authority. It would compromise the sense of time I would like to create by using an archived display with perspex, but would creates a frame and physical space with direction.

The top section (control unit) could host Mac minis, hang screens, and the electricity cable coming off from the base of the gate.

Dimensions of walk-through metal detector gates

The control unit should hold over 10kgs (Mac minis 1.37kg × 2, screens 3.5kg × 2, 2 perspex sheets, cables).

more clips 26/06/11

2011-06-26T23:45:00.001+02:00

Adverts on rotating column, just on the Eastern side of Oberbaum bridge, once a border crossing. East Berlin did not have adverts during the divide, but it was interesting to have 3 adverts with human torsos.

Another clip made of still images taken in Mauerpark. Flights take off from Tegel in West, and fly over to East. It reminded me of The Wall Jumper by Peter Schneider. Having 2 planes at different speeds to illustrate the still divided aspects of 2 Germanys.

more clips 02

2011-06-26T09:19:00.005+02:00

Reflection of Federal Chancellery on Paul Löbe Haus.

A Soviet tank and a statue of a Red Army soldier, on Strasse des 17. Juni, a West Berlin street named after the East Berlin uprising in 1953. The street lead up to the Brandenburg Gate, and stopped.

Sunset at Lufthansa Transfer Center in Düsseldorf airport.

This is an older clip of the one below, which I've changed the timing of merging, and has a slightly faster transition. This park was the border strip between East and West Berlin before the Wall was breached. Flea market, beer, karaoke, and May Day demonstrations.

A documentary of the park by Sally Mumby-Croft

4 more clips, and a sound meeting

2011-06-23T22:33:00.000+02:00

At the meeting Terry and Nick have suggested ideas on the relation of images and sound on two screens (I plan to have one screen for the clips I've been creating, and the other for interviews of Berliners). One idea is to have sound and the clips on both screens linked and have a single sound track to be played on 4 headphones: the other is to have quiet sound from the other screen playing in the background, but not sufficiently loud enough and thus encouraging the audience to pick up one of the other two headphones.

We have also worked out how Nick would work on composition/music and Terry on editing and mixing. Nick will start once I confirm which clips would be used, as well as the final sequences of the clips. Which could also lead to changes on transitions of the clips later on.

more clips

2011-06-22T08:52:00.000+02:00

This clip shows a metal gate on the Wall, and Berliners cycling or walking by. The perspective changes from viewing West, and then East.

Observation of the river Spree.

Photographs of sunset on Spree are used against the grain of time, with the sun rising and appearing in two.

Scenes shot from a boat on the river Spree, as it cruised by sites in Berlin.

A park with a border guard tower.

Reflections of buildings in East Berlin, and the TV tower.

plastic, sound and other issues

2011-06-17T20:28:00.001+02:00

I find out that 4 plastic sheets for my column/vitrine design would cost around £100, or £400 to have the edges polished for the corners and assembled. I will redesign the column with less plastic, or with alternative material.

I have talk to Carl for headphones and Mac minis, and it looked hopeful I'd be able to use 4 headphones and 2 minis.

I've also been creating clips.

There was a wedding party on a boat on the river Spree, and the group had just got off onto the riverbank. The Wall and the TV tower are in the background. The clip starts with a post-celebration image, and the balloons come back into people's hands. I'm planning on making a another clip with images taken at the same location, but subtly different, to portray uncertainty of memories.

These images were also shot on the riverbank which used to divide East and West. On the building that was once used by the East German border guards is an advert for Sky, which reads, I do not watch TV. I see something better ["Ich guck keine Fernsehen. Ich seh was Besseres." ]

Although this isn't visibly too clear.

Red phone and images of Lola Rennt. The film was shot in Berlin, where Lola fights with time and changes what was supposedly her destiny in the changing city, with multiple experiences of parallel timelimes.

blind critique

2011-06-16T21:50:00.000+02:00

This is the draft clip I made for the blind crit session today, with sound I added [not by Terry and Nick]. I'll make further considerations, tests and adjustments regarding the following points.

General

Quiet observations of everyday things, poetic, dreamy, subtle

Some surprises, revealing the hidden

Need to specify what the message is. How ambiguous or descriptive should it be, for the audience in England to understand

Don't overload messages (subjective nature of memory, on top of nostalgia, divide and loss)

Repetition of images were unnecessary, and some images dragged on

Length (7 minutes) seemed okay [this will be different once it's looped]

Sound

Sound at the end of the clip wasn't prominent enough [this would change when it's on loop]

Letting sound be sound works with images

Should relate directly to images, which will clarify the message

Some of these were surprising for me to hear, as my intentions were perceived in a different way (for example, repetition of images with different background sound was to enhance the sense of subjective memory). I thought it might seem too long and too subtle, but that didn't seemed to be a problem with the group I met today.

Considerations on Planer LC15 ANN 1000

2011-06-12T12:11:00.003+02:00

Issues I will consider in using Planer LC15 ANN 1000 for the MA Show are:

ratio/resolution of screen, from laptop or DVD player to the screen,
how to hang it inside the vitrine, and
resolving the reflection of the screen.

I will also contact Sandlant again, to ask if the plastic sheets could be cut to size, and mitred on some of the edges.

I am working on the design of the column/vitrine:

on how to hang the screen,
on connecting cables, and
where to place the speakers.

A column would allow me to hang the screen inside, which a NUCA vitrine (below) wouldn't.

Measurements of a NUCA vitrine

Joseph Beuys, vitrines, politics

2011-05-27T11:12:00.063+02:00

"Filled with with urban detritus, the vitrine memorializes the remains of a 1972 action performed by Beuys in Berlin following the left-wing May Day demonstration; he and two students used a red broom to sweep up the rubbish in Karl-Marx-Platz." (Barron, 2009)

In 1960s Joseph Beuys satirised the Wall by suggesting that it should be raised by 5cm "for better proportion" [Tate Modern, 2011].

Barron, Stephanie. (2009) "Blurred Boundaries: The Art of Two Germanys between Myth and History" in Art of Two Germanys: Cold War Cultures, pp.12-33.

Curiger, B. & Whiteread, R. (2010) The Process of Drawing is Like Writing a Diary" [Online]

http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue20/rachelwhiteread.htm

Tate Modern [2011] Track 6: Lightning with Stag in its Glare, Beuys and the Berlin Wall. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/beuys/mp3/06_berlin_wall.mp3

Beuys and the Berlin Wall

2011-05-27T11:12:00.000+02:00

Joseph Beuys' "entire artistic career was spent in its shadow. He'd satirised the wall in the 1960s by suggesting that it should be raised by 5cm, 'for better proportion'... Lightning with Stag in its Glare, came directly out of an installation that Beuys made in Berlin, in 1982, in the Martin Gropius Bau - notable for its close proximity to the wall and therefore a symbol of divided Germany. Beuys spent a week grouping objects together in the gallery's courtyard, as part of a temporary exhibition called 'Zeitgeist', 'Spirit of the Times'".

Tate Modern [2011] Track 6: Lightning with Stag in its Glare, Beuys and the Berlin Wall. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/beuys/transcripts.shtm#track6 [26/05/2011]

Tate Modern [2011] Untitled (Vitrine) 1983. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=963 [26/05/2011]

MoMA (2010) Joseph Beuys. (German, 1921-1986) [Online] http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A540&page_number=14&template_id=1&sort_order=1 [26/05/2011]
Tate Modern [2011] An audio tour of Tate Modern. [Online] http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/tours/materialslibrary/artwork14.shtm [26/05/2011]

Planer LC15 ANN 1000

2011-05-27T10:57:00.000+02:00

Specification: http://www.planar.com/products/docs/IBU/current_manual/amlcd/mn-planar-lc15-ann-1000.pdf [27/05/2011]
http://www.planar.com/products/docs/IBU/current_drawing/amlcd/076-0534-00B_MECH_OL_LC15.pdf [27/05/2011]

Displaying images

2011-05-21T00:51:00.003+02:00

How can I best display the images I create - is it with a projector, or a glass screen? After talking to Terry and Nick, I have been trying to determine how I should show my work. Without having a set environment for my work, it seemed impossible to design the accompanying soundscape.

I have in mind a plinth/column with glass, a vitrine, or something in between, to place a screen within. This seems more suitable than the large plastic-sheet projection idea I had previously, as I want bright images. My intention is also to show the screen as part of the exhibit, to give emphasis on the observational nature of my work, and a sense of archived documentation and reflection on history. The vitrine would be used if I am to combine a book in displaying the clips, and I'm also looking into a display column with glass windows.

Next week I will get measurements of the NUCA vitrine, and the screens (as well as weighing them, to evaluate how I could hoist them), and discussing it with Nick and Terry. I am intrigued about how we could design the sound scape for images behing a glass or plastic. I'll also check the control menu of the screens to see if there is a timer setting.

Bernauer Strasse

2011-05-17T17:17:00.000+02:00

A clip to experiment with transitions and discordance. I'd like to present a sense of uncertainty - as many Berliners felt throughout the unification process - and to maintain a level of ambiguous air, also a reflection on diversity of perceptions and experiences since 1989.

whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir & Winter Garden by Eve Sussman

2011-05-16T00:43:00.014+02:00

I manage to visit the Eve Sussman exhibition at Haunch of Venison on the last day, almost by luck. It's very last-minute organisation as usual, and I have left my camera at work.

Winter Garden by Sussman and Simon Lee changes subtly from one video clip - some as still as a photograph - to another. Windows of pre-fab buildings in former-USSR cities are shown on 3 screens, morphing from one to the next, illustrating the dream that once was being "destroyed in a patchwork of humanity" [Haunch of Venison, 2011]. These images left me standing, waiting for more, just so that I can find out what happens next... or does it? Then I see a passerby. How to tell the future from the past, v.2, by Sussman and Angela Christlieb also uses 3 screens, shot during a 72-hour train journey. The window frames in the screen blurs the sence of time, and I'm left to wonder what documentation/observation defines.

How to tell the future from the past v.2, 2009

Whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir is a film being edited live by a software, combining 2637 video clips with sound, creating "the narrative through unexpected juxtapositions" endless and never repeated (Haunch of Venison London, 2011).

shots from whiteonwhite:algorithmicthriller, 2011

Haunch of Venison [2011] Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation whiteonwhite:algorithmicthriller 2011. [Online] http://www.haunchofvenison.com/en/#page=london.current.eve_sussman
[13/04/2011]

Haunch of Venison London (2011) Eve Sussman | Rufus Corporation whiteonwhite:algorithmicnoir. [Information sheet]. p.1.

Christlieb, A. [2011] How to tell the future from the Past, v.2. [Online]
http://www.angelachristlieb.com/htttfftp.html [15/04/2011]

Rufus Corporation [2011] How to tell the future from the past v.2. [Online]
http://www.rufuscorporation.com/projects.html#_self [15/04/2011]

Bernauer Strasse

2011-05-13T02:23:00.000+02:00

books, memories and smell

2011-05-07T10:30:00.010+02:00

Considering formats of presentation. Last week, I was surrounded by personal history files collected by the East German secret police Stasi. These files are now stored at the government archive in an East Berlin district, in a block occupied by Stasi as their HQ.

The Stasi building complex in Lichtenberg, Berlin

There is a distinctive smell of old paper as I enter one of the storage rooms, of the files that altered many lives, that brings thoughts about Berlin's history and how it deals with its past, of the people's experiences I have heard in my interviews.

Based on this experience, I plan to try out variations of exhibiting using old books and documents, screens, to link memories, emotions. One idea is to cut out a book to fit a screen into it, so that depending on the pages you turn, different parts of the screen becomes visible. Sound enhances the clips I've been testing, and I could possible use smell also, to engage with the audience better.

I think of photographing the shredded/torn pieces on my next visit. Günter Bormann, who interviewed at the BStU library, says people's interests towards the files are changing after 20 years of unification, and not fading away. Perhaps how people perceive history - and the process of German unification - is changing over time also.

BStU [2011] Öffentliche Führungen. [Online]
http://www.bstu.bund.de/DE/Archive/OeffentlicheFuehrung/archivfuehrungen_inhalt.html
[07/05/2011]

Curry, A. (2008) Piecing Together the Dark Legacy of East Germany's Secret Police. [Online]

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/16-02/ff_stasi?currentPage=all [07/05/2011]

Faber, M. (2010) Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer – review. [Online]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/18/tree-codes-safran-foer-review [07/05/2011]
Matas, M. (2011) Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book. [Online]
http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html [07/05/2011]
Sinclair, M. (2011) Tree of Codes: the making of a die-cut book [Online]

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/april/tree-of-codes-making-of [07/05/2011]

Stafford, N. (2007) Anti-shredder aims to stick spy files back together. [Online]

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070508/full/news070508-9.html [07/05/2011]

More interviews in Berlin

2011-04-29T09:03:00.001+02:00

I've been interviewing more people in Berlin, which have been successful. Out of many emails I send out requesting an interview, I get few replies, and even less that agree to be interviewed. Connections of people have helped me a lot, as a Berliner I speak to would introduce me to another. I've not had enough time to talk to everyone I had contacts for, but hopefully I will have opportunities later on.

My understanding about the divide and how Berliners experienced it (some still do today) expands every time. It's interesting to reflect on the fact I thought more about recording sound of the city when I first planned this visit, and how it has developed into a different experience from what I expected originally.

I have made up for some of the unrecorded interviews.

Interviews in Berlin

2011-04-17T00:13:00.000+02:00

I have been interviewing Berliners. Some successfully, some not. I have left the recorder on pause thinking it was recording on two occasions... painful lessons. I'll just have to work on getting more interviews.

On the positive side, the wind jammer I made from a tupperware and tights has been working well, and when I interviewed a singer who was performing on Oberbaumbrücke, a bridge that once was a checkpoint, it didn't pick up any noise from the wind.

Tempelhof airport

2011-04-16T13:53:00.000+02:00

This clip was made from shots at Tempelhof airport. Or what used to be. The result of a referendum in 2008 which asked Berliners on the future of the airport showed a divide in opinion between East and West, as well as a low turnout of 21.7%. One Shot, a short film by Dietrich Brüggemann, also uses the runway of Tempelhof, an airport once iconic symbol of Berlin Airlift, with dialogs on integration.

One Shot by Dietrich Brüggemann

Brüggemann, D. (2011) One Shot. [Online] http://achtungberlin.de/programm0/made-in-berlin-brandenburg0/kurzfilme/one-shot/ [16/04/2011]

France 24 (2008) Tempelhof airport supporters lose vote. [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20080710-12983.html [16/04/2011]

Knight, B. (2008) A turd in Tempelhof. [Online] http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20080710-12983.html [16/04/2011]

Checkpoint Charlie [test with sound]

2011-04-11T07:49:00.005+02:00

This one is another test with background sound, and uses shots taken from 2 angles looking East and West. The first is shot from the Western side, with the "you are leaving the American sector" sign, and second looks at the Western side, with a convenient representation of McDonald's in the background.

The noise is recorded on the same street, where tourists, coaches and cars, cyclists all fight over the space. It's also the first trial in seeing how I short clips should follow the preceding one. This one just snaps to another.

Deutsches Bundesarchiv (1988) File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079005-0022, Berlin, Grenzübergang Checkpoint Charlie.jpg [11/04/2011]

Checkpoint Charlie [test]

2011-04-10T23:47:00.005+02:00

The first clip made from 4 still images, not 2. It's a little more confusing - and complex. I feel the changes are not simply from one to another, but mixture and accommodation of multiple perceptions. I'm trying to add an aesthetic depth to the clips also.

A food court with sushi, kebab and pizza has been replaced by McDonald's, which must have increased the value of Checkpoint Charlie as a tourist trap. The prop-guards will pose with you for €2 - or €1 if you're young and female. Some of them would cover their face with the American flag to prevent tourists capturing images without payment. This particular one had an aggressive attitude towards a family asking tourists for money, mocking them and calling them "gypsies". Perhaps he doesn't appreciate the capitalist competition.

Tourist Lovin' scenes at Checkpoint Charlie.

Traces of advertising in São Paulo

2011-04-10T16:30:00.001+02:00

Adverts ban in São Paulo created signs with colours removed and walls with traces. These images share similar visual effect with Sophie Calle's The Detachment.

beckspacing. [Online] https://adayinthalifeof.wordpress.com/tag/sao-paulo-advertising-ban/ [10/04/2011]

De Marco, T. (2007-08) São Paulo No Logo. [Online] http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonydemarco/sets/72157600075508212/ [10/04/2011]

Spurlock, M. (2011) The greatest TED Talk ever sold. [Online] http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html [10/04/2011]

The Otherside [Die Andere Seite 2007]

2011-04-07T18:01:00.034+02:00

"Using first-person testimony from both sides of the divide, this animated documentary explores life with the Berlin Wall. Documenting the ideas, notions and preconceptions of Berliners about life on ‘the other side’, Die Andere Seite is a reflective visual essay on the interplay between myth and reality." (Land, 2007)

Berliners who experienced the divide are interviewed in Die Andere Seite. With segments of private memories, the work forms a broader collective feel/perceptions towards the Wall. With sound that accompany those experiences.

Land, E. (2007) Die Andere Seite 2007. [Online]
http://www.ellieland.com/elliesite/?page_id=18 [07/04/2011]

Web-Elective Critical Evaluation

2011-03-17T13:45:00.000+01:00

Link to Critical Evaluation for Web-Based Publication elective unit

Web-Elective presentation

2011-03-17T13:22:00.001+01:00

Web Elective on Prezi

design paths

2011-03-12T14:06:00.001+01:00

Through consideration, I decide to create a story for the website. It is structured around segments /mages of memories, some distant and vague, some clear and more discriptive. It will not have a clear navigation, as I want to draw the audiences' attention to the fading, subjective and fluid nature of how events are remembered.

Some mysterious and ambiguous elements of James Hart Dyke's work on MI6, and personal and investigative endevour made by Timothy Garton Ash into his own file created by the East German secret police, have influenced my thoughts in composing the ideas and designs of this website.

"How can you ever really know what is fact, what fiction, and what still lies entirely hidden?" (Garton Ash, 1997, p.205)

The hotspots on each pages are not labeled and viewers are required to hover over the images to before they can turn the page of their experience. After travelling through the path without a clear signposts, they will reach a page (or be transfered to) a page which will have my short clip The New Republic. These uncertain stages are in reference to what people experienced in Germany (especially East Germany) after the Berlin Wall was breached and two Germanys unified in 1990.

"Yesterday your secret was hidden in a single dusty cardboard file. Today it lies open on a million breakfast-tables." (Garton Ash, 1997, p.194)

The project also follows a process of recording/observing Berlin, and making public the work I've produced - even though it does not have clear indications often seen in artists' portfolio sites. One idea is to lead visitors eventually to my vimio page.

Garton Ash, T. (1997) The File: A Personal History. London: Flamingo.

Mount Street Gallery [2011] A Year with MI6: James Hart Dyke. [Online]
http://www.mountstreetgalleries.com/prints/?page_id=6&shopp_category=2 [12/03/2011]

Clips from Berlin

2011-03-03T20:59:00.004+01:00

I have not met a Berliner who speak positively of the current Checkpoint Charlie. The location is filled with tourists photographing guys posing as U.S. soldiers for 2€, with herds of coaches driving by the Checkpoint museum. I know there are things running deeper - the lives lost seeking freedom, or devastated by the Cold War policies - that are not glossy enough for the coaches to stop.

I'm first surprised with a McDonald's in front of the museum which was't there when I last visited, and I think to myself, it might as well.

This clip was made from shots at Griebnitzsee, on the border of Berlin and Brandenburg. The wall is on the former East German side, with West Berlin in the background. The wall used to have graffiti that changed every time I went, and it's now painted white. The riverside path that ran along the former border has since been cut up by houses built on the riverbank.

...and outside the former Permanent Representative [Ständige Vertretung] of West Germany, in former East Berlin. The facility had to be shut down in August 1989 as it couldn't cope with the number of East German citizens seeking visa to exit East Germany.

The first 2 clips are 20 seconds long, and the last 30.

Capital cities

2011-02-20T15:46:00.002+01:00

2 more test clips, of post-elections Berlin. The city has become the capital city of unified Germany, from being divided by the Wall, although various elections/referendum results show Berliners' diverse values.