a visit at studio hhjjj

some people say engineering is boring. not creative at all and super dry stuff. and to be honest: if somebody told me at a party that s/he is an engineer... well there was not much i could add to the conversation. maybe another gin tonic? but often the retreat to the bar is not the appropriate thing to do. you could easily miss out on something inspiring without even noticing it. like for example...

... song baksa~






well, ho-jun song used to be an engineer, working on circuit design for satellites, testing them etc. "satellites", he explains, "have to resist extreme conditions so the materials used are extraordinarily durable." while working with these materials he got the idea for an installation called...

... weapons of mass happiness ("the most powerful weapon in the world is one that is indestructable and spurts out beautiful messages.")




but circuits are also used in machines that deliver most of the soundtracks to which i prefer to have my gin tonics to: synthies! being a fan of vintage synthesizers, song baksa got himself a moog prodigy and has all the parts together for building his own synth. ^^ not to speak of the wireless midi controller he put together himself (see pic above)... except from playing around with all this music gadgetry at studio hhjjj i was extremely happy to see that it is also an open meeting spot for like-minded people like the incredible dub infected tape-scratch-beat juggler magazine king or korea's most irie reggae band windy city... so who says that engineering is not creative at all and super dry stuff?

mega-posters

the DBB in berlin friedrichstrasse hung this huge billboard over the frontside of their main building. we are very pleased, that our campaign, indeed, is having such a great success and resonance.

Robots!

About two weeks ago, a video popped up throughout the world wide web, which really frightened me at first. As a kid of the late 70s and 80s, I grew up with dark visions of all kinds of machines enslaving and waging war against mankind. Besides RoboCop, who was one hell of a nice guy, I got to know all the AT-AT walkers, cylons, replicants, terminators, the Borg, and many others – culminating in the sci-fi epos “The Matrix”. Humanity’s fascination and ever returning occupation with this topic got me diving deep into the frightening visions from the beginning.

Nevertheless, the visions are fading, because we are just moving exactly in this direction in reality - robotics used for military purposes get stunningly “functional” nowadays. As seen in the following video, we are already capable of building small AT-ATs, called BigDog, “the most advanced quadruped robot on earth“ (quoting Boston Dynamics) - a machine, which impressively masters difficult ground, like rubble, snow and ice, jumps over obstacles and carries heavy loads. The fact, that the project is sponsored by the DARPA, the „defense advanced research projects agency” of the US department of defense, didn’t really ease my mind.

But have a look at it by yourselves – I think it’s quite impressive what this little companion, made of hard metal and sensible electronic circuits is capable of…



Today, as a grown-up, I live in a world, where viral marketing” exists and one week after the discovery of this clip, I stumbled over another video, which really gave me a refreshing laugh. Some creatives used the growing popularity of this video to promote their own company with the fitting slogan “Let’s plant a video”. So, get ready for the truth about BigDog, or some impressions of the beta-testing by Seedwell. Now I’m reassured – humanity won’t be defeated by machines, as long as we keep our humour...



Besides, if you wonder who the guy is, that’s into stuff like this: I’m Philipp, the actual intern of PLATOON. And if you want to build your personal army of machines to take over the world – here’s one more link by the Wired Magazine to check out - but be prepared - you’re not the only one...

LIFE project / takahiro suzuki & hironari kubota

IKIRO is back! we had already posted a blog article about this project last year and now Takahiro, the artist, came personally to invite us to his next exhibition.


Japanese artist Takahiro Suzuki has been travelling the globe since 1997 with his life project „IKIRO“, which in english means „be alive“.
his project consists in writing „IKIRO“ everyday and everywhere he goes, if alone in front of a mountain surrounded by nature or during rush hour in a big city. he writes it as a gesture of creation as if to remind himself and others that above anything we are ALIVE here and now. a daily routine, which somehow became for him some sort of meditation.










Takahiro will be performing together with artist Hironari Kubota, who will be presenting his turning car sculpture, which this time will be a DDR times „trabbi“ turning at the sound of japanese music.


the opening party will be on the 10th of april - 18:00
at Theaterhaus Mitte here in berlin .


LIFE Project / Takahiro Suzuki&Hironai Kubota
will be running from the 10th of april till 28th of june
12:00 – 18:00 tue - sat.
although Hironai Kubota will only perform on April 10/11/12 and 26/27/28 June 2008 18:00-18:30.

an art-architecture-excursion

the first I visit, was cologne/köln. the window in the cathedral by gerhard richter can´t announce me, why the cardinal have had problems with it. perhaps it was abstract. for myself it is uninspiring. my expectation was to great....

























but also in cologne is kolumba. a museum who was designed and builded according architect´s plan to peter zumthor. he is an artist, a really great artist. you can undestand it, when you stay in the rooms, why he need always a long time -here 10 years- for planing and building. it´s so sensitive, so near to humans and respectfully of the building-subject, so good in details, that you in all his constructions feel: here is a good place.
but this patience of long time have not all clients. so resigned berlin to have a great information-center for remembering to the terror of germans past. its unexcusable.














also from this man of genius was the chapel of brother klaus birth name nicholas of flüe.
the region eifel is one hour far from cologne. it´s a good story, how employer and architect comes together. a farmer want to build a chapel to honor brother klaus, because he (the farmer) has haved a fulfill life. in this time he heared from peter zumthor´s building of kolumba. he wrote a letter to him and asked him if he want conceptualize the chapel. zumthor´s mother idolize also brother klaus, so he knows who he was. also he thought: o.k. it´s near cologne, so I didn´t need so much time..... it was a mistake. he should known himself better. the time of completion needs 8 years. it is a treasure.























another place was museumisle hombroich. designed of the sculptor erwin heerich. he build there architecture-art in a landscape. some buildings stay alone for themself and others shelter works of art.














nearby develope, on a shut down missile area, a new district with famous architects and artists.



























gottfried boehm make this expressionistic cathedral. inside is darkness with few daylight and the enormous height of the nave, in folded concret, is unusally and needs getting use to. it likes very strong.

the cathedral stay in velbert-neviges, near duesseldorf.
















the last of my trip applied the lehmbruck-museum in duisburg. wilhelm lehmbruck had made wonderful sculptures and his son, manfred lehmbruck, create for his father`s art a specific part of the museum.




excuse my incorrect english

village underground

lately many people come and knock on our containers...most of them are just curious, others are planning to do some container related project and come looking for a good tip... sometimes though, we also get some very interesting people coming just to introduce themselves, like Patrick the other day.





Patrick is a very nice guy working for villageunderground, an incredible cultural project in east london. they basically provide affordable working spaces in converted london-underground carriages to freelancers working within the creative industries. very clever idea. we love it.










they also have a huge art gallery in a victorian warehouse where they expose the work of several urban artists, organise wicked events and i guess they also do a lot more.













Village Underground´s project director Auro Foxcroft, has put a lot of work into his vision, and managed to create an amazing platform for cultural development.







now Patrick has come to berlin to set up another village over here.

we wish them all the best and look forward to see what happens next.

CAN YOU READ THIS?

this is not korean:

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.


i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset ca n be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh! and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Mindestlohn tour 2008

after a week of hard work the minimumwage exhibition container is finally ready for departure. the mindestlohn tour 2008 will be led by DGB this time....and is going to be much more intensive in terms of cities that will be covered.









soon we´re also going to change some professions represented in the exhibition. meanwhile we gave a more fruity color to the outside and upgraded some of its features.













for more info about this topic check out our previous
posts or the official minimumwage blog.