Posted in Brainwave!, Inspiration, Kreuzberg, News, Opinion, Photo, tagmag, Text
The Defect of Virtual Networks
I dare any of you to come up with a better network application than a table.
We eat at it, we work at it, have meetings at it; sometimes we even have sex on it! It’s proven quality as a catalyst for social interaction stands as a beacon for any virtual network.
Perhaps this is because we humans are flock creatures. And even though in recent times our societies have become more individualistic and impersonal, we are still seeking that interaction as people, groups, networks etc etc.
But these virtual structures have a defect. And that’s the simple fact that this virtual interaction is consumed physically alone.
For instance, I am speaking to my collegue on the phone, but physically i’m walking alone through some Berlin street. Or I might be having a virtual conversation with friends in Japan and Brasil, but in reality I’m sitting alone in some Berlin cafe that has free WiFi..
Of course it’s great to be able to communicate with these people in all these places, yet I’m still missing their warmth and I can’t help wishing that they could be there with me and share a drink together like the good friends we are.
So by all means, keep setting up your virtual networks and structures and looking for new ways to communicate and interact.
But until you can come up with something as effective as the good old table, it will always be second best.
Driving on the Karl-Marx-Allee, I was overtaken by an umheimlich feeling because I found myself completely out of scale. The large open spaces felt unhuman. The whole street seemed to be designed for the buildings itself, as a cityscape, but not for the masses of people that lived and worked in this area. Who would do that, why would they design it like that? Was it to serve as an ego boost for the architects and apparatchiks? Or was there an alteriour motive?
I couldn’t help getting the feeling that it was the architectural expression of some socialist ideal to make the people numbers as opposed to individuals. These building were supposed to give its inhabitants the feeling that they didn’t matter, that they were desposable.
An architectural oppression preventing any thought of rebellion. In a way these buildings were the first line of defence of the Party’s ideals. Or so I thought.
Because when I walked around the area, taking my time to study and trying to photograph, I realised that I was wrong. I was trying to capture people as lost in these surroundings as I felt when I first drove through it. But I couldn’t. Walking there it all made sense.
This isn’t oppression, it is naive. This might have been self-gratification by the people ordering its built, but the architects and designers were trying to capture something new here. Not a carbon copy of Mother Russia’s housing projects, but as German as it could be.
The ceramic tiling, the ornamentation, its architraves and galleries are directly linked to the city in which it is based and on the works of the architects that sculpted this city before them.
It was nice to be proven wrong by the architecture itself and not through a person defending an ideal.
However, as with everything in life, context is important. I am walking through these streets a free man in a free land. But these buildings were built in another time. These streets weren’t free and nor were these buildings, which fundamentally changes the way one sees them.
A stick in one hand is a weapon, in the other it’s a defense. But I have never been here in those times, so it’s hard for me to see them like that.
Perhaps buildings are like the people that build them, and they can change as well…
Posted in Brainwave!, Extra, Opinion, Text
To Tweet.
Twitter is a social networking service for friends, family etc, to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?
It’s results; quick short bursts of updates are fascinating. Not so much because it makes me feel me more connected to the people in my circle that are so-called ‘Twitterers’, but because something so new is in fact taking the role of something so established: the Village Idiot.
Can you imagine doing in the real world what Twitterers are doing online? For instance, walking into a café in Berlin and shouting out loud: “JUST GOT TO BERLIN AND HAVING FIRST COFFEE, BRILLIANT!” to no one in particular.
My guess is, that most folk will give you an awkward look before getting on with whatever it was that they were doing. A look that was once reserved for those lovable loonies that every community has, the religious freak belting out bible texts, the old schizoid just shouting out obscenities or that little old lady muttering whatever comes to her mind while she shuffles around town…
Those who embrace the new and the hip champion twitter, but the real visionaries were of course those who used to Twitter analog: the Village Idiots.
Constructing our entry for <>TAGMAG 2nd issue at Kunstraum Bethanien, the room where Feedback Sociëty has their installation set up.
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Where does private territory begin and
Where does it change into the public realm?
First interview
What do you want to share with me?
I want to share with you my experience that I had in Detroit.I just came back from Detroit.I’ve been there for 3 months, from Ocober till the middle of January. Then I came back to The Hague for a week and now I’m in Berlin, so I travelled a lot last few months. I came up with great life experiences so.
Why do you want to share it?
Because at the moment it’s the thing that has the most influence on me. So for the moment that’s the most important thing going on in my life. Transition in my life or in my being here.
What is it in your life that you never shared and that you want to share right now with me?
I can’t think of anything. I have to think about that one. Well, I told this to a few people. When I was young, I was about 6 or 7 years old and I accidentaly burn down a shed. That was terrible. That made me feel really horrible. And nobody ever knew that I did it. So that’s my sharing informations at the moment.
And why didn’t you share it with others?
I felt I couldn’t trust anyone. Well of course at a later age I did. I only told a few people I trusted at that time. I think it’s a way to make it public this way.
You were afraid that they said it’s your fault?
Maybe. I guess so. Or I could get in trouble with the police of something. When I was young I was like that. That’s not the case anymore.
What was the last secret that someone told you?
Hum…I’m not allowed to tell these things! No I really can’t…No I can’t come up with anything that I can share with you.
What do you definitely not want to share with me?
Private informations of people that I promessed not to keep my month shut. People knows they can trust me when they tell me things like that. I’m not in a position to make that public, whatever it was even if it was something small.
What do you want to tell me as a secret?
I want to tell you as a secret…That’s a good one! Let me think about that…I want to tell you as a secret that I’m going to have a haircut tomorrow. You’re the only one you know it right now.
Where does private territory begin and
Where does it change into the public realm?
Second interview
What do you want to share with me?
With you? Euh…What could I share? I can share my cigarette; I can share a drink; good time. Up to you to tell me what a good time is, for you.
Why do you want to share all these things with me?
Because…it would be fun, I’m sure and…I’m not paranoid so I trust you.
What is in your life that you never shared and that you want to share right now with me?
I have to think…Nothing!
What was the last secret that someone told you and that kept you thinking for a long time?
A secret never to be told!
What do you definitely not want to share with me?
The secret I kept before.
What is sharing for you?
The bases of existence. The meaning of life!
Could you live without sharing?
No, definitely not!
Why?
Because I need from the others and what I expect from the others, what I give I expect from the others and what I expect I give I hope.
What do you want to tell me as a secret?
I didn’t showered today!
Where does private territory begin and
Where does it change into the public realm?
Third interview
What do you want to share with me?
With you? Yes, we can share knowledges, we can share creativity, we can share structures. Yes basically communication as structures in a creative process. I think there’s communication structures and there are some which develop spontaneously which are visible or something and other structures which are not previsible but are in between communication and in the end they make communication fonction and especially when it comes to face to face communication. These invisible structures are very important and if you’re like have no face-to-face communication, that you communicate by internet or by letter then it’s much more visible structures.
Why do you want to share knowledges with me?
Because I think it’s interesting, especially with people from other countries. So every country, culture has different mind set in some way and that’s also what I really like about this festival for example and there’re also many other situations like if you go to a bar, if you go to a club, if you go to a concert, go to some other lectures or just meet people on the street, yes, it’s just very interresting to investigate these different cultures. Therefore it’s like sharing knowledges.
What is in your life that you never shared with anybody and that you want to share with me right now?
Hum…that’s an interresting question. Yeah, what did I never shared? Difficult…I don’t know actually, because I actually share a lot of things, so I’ve nothing to hide, so…There’s nothing which comes in my mind now.
What is sharing for you?
Sharing? Sharing is making your knowledges for example accessible to other persons, some forms of expressions, and sharing is always a process which makes for example society or which makes relationships happen, which makes cultures happen. So it’s always on a base of a kind of sharing process because you have to share.
And why do we have to share?
We have to share because we need structures which give you some kind of stability for example. So every society is based on kind of stable structure which function in a proper way although we have hard process, especially our time today, like we have post modern society for example which many people are talking about. So, people speak about everything is becoming more insecure or incertain. Yes, I’m coming back to sharing, so we always have to share to make so kind of everyday life because you don’t think in all of the situations what to do, like when you go to a supermarket, you have this big choice of products and you never like to think :”Oh shit, what what is this? and you take this and you don’t read like everything. So that’s based on for example structure or sharing you had with friends or your family because you talked about supermarket, the cheaper one or whatever, so that’s also a way of sharing.
Do you mean that a person has to share because on his own he does not have enough knowledge to go far?
Yes, I mean it’s a normal process and of course everybody share. I think it’s a natural thing to share knowledge or whatever but you can of course also use sharing for personal purposes or also for community purposes, when you really want to build society or if you really want to develop yourself, which is also an important process.
What was the last secret that someone told you and that you kept thinking for a long time?
Last secret someone told me? Hum…I’m very bad with remembering secret of other people. So there were many people telling me secrets, saying “but don’t tell it to anybody else”. But it’s like, because it’s no very interesting for me. It’s always good when you can tell your secrets to other people, so you have somebody to tell, but I’m really thinking…Yeah! I think the last thing was like somebody told me taking drugs, no I think it’s was just smoking cigarette, but he could never do it in front of his parents.
How old was he?
Very old actually. He’s a friend of mind, he’s like me, 30 or something.
What do you definitely not want to share with me?
My computer! Because I really don’t like other people touching at my computer. That’s like a very personal thing, like if somebody would come to my place. It’s a very private thing for me. I want to be responsible if I’d break it.
What do you want to tell me as a secret?
The question is that do I want to tell you a secret? I don’t know. Yes, that’s a really stupid secret. I actually told it to other people too, but not so many. Usually I smoke ‘Gauloise’ cigarettes and they have this really stupid advertisement on their packages which is a very bad design and I went to a shop and bought these Gauloise and I said : “I don’t want the old design, I want the old one” and the seller said : “Why? That’s the same taste…” and I said : “yes, but with such a bad aesthetic…” and so, everybody was actually laughing at me about that. And I still do that with these cigarettes.
Where does private territory begin and
Where does it change into the public realm?
Fourth interview
What is sharing for you?
What is sharing for me? Enjoyed something together; share as splitting something and sharing it, the word is already said; to experience something together.
What do you want to share with me?
With you? With you personally? Share…share…share…I don’t know what to share. I don’t know. No, there’s no answer, I don’t know what to share with you. I want to share a cigarette with you. I guess I like this : I want to share some more experiences with you.
What is in your life that you never share with anybody and that you want to share with me right now?
Right now?…I don’t like this thing… Oh yes, (the person proposed me a kiss on my cheek)
What do you definitely not want to share with me?
Euh…I don’t want to share with you…Euh….Oh, maybe I know something : my family. It’s always very difficult to introduce people to my family.
Why?
Because I’ve got a very difficult relationship with them and it’s not going very easy and when I meet them it could be a big argument, it could be very embarrassing. I don’t feel very comfortable with that.
What was the last secret that someone told you and that kept you thinking for a long time?
Oh…Euh…I don’t know. I really don’t know. I have to think about this one, maybe I’ll come to it later.
And, what do you want to tell me as a secret?
I don’t have that much secrets. I wasn’t really planning to tell you a secret right now here but if you really want to know a secret…euh…No, I don’t have any secret. Yes, maybe one. No, I don’t really have. Yes, there’s something that friends told me and say : “Don’t tell anybody else”.
Yes, but about your secrets?
About my secrets? I don’t have. (The person really seems to be in between telling something or not)
Yes, you’ve got one, I’m sure! Tell me.
No. No. Euh…No!
And about the secret that someone told you?
Well, the last secret someone told me was by a friend of mine. She met a new boy and she was telling me about that, but I don’t thing that really kept me thinking for a long time.
But why was it a secret?
Because her relationship with her ex-boyfriend was over just one month before. We know each other for a long time and we discussed these kind of private things and she didn’t really even understand what she wanted and she really had to…You know? So she was telling me that and well in a way I was thinking about : “ What do you want?” “And you’re going so fast.” In a way, it kept me thinking about which kind of person she was and what she was looking for in life; what her character was and she was going from this boy to another boy and that’s the fifth on her road already so…She’s not a bad person, she’s really nice but…Well it kept me thinking in a way that she was like “ Oh, things are over now, I want to have new things again”. Well it kept me thinking for a while.
Why people need to share (things, emotions, experiences…)
Well, people are social, human beings. We are social creatures and we’re really made to experience things together and that’s what really creates relationships. Sharing gives us a certain value and gives you a kind of social identity. I think it’s really the bases of human beings that they have to, it’s very important. And if you don’t, it’s not working. You’re alone
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