a homage to ID&A

there was a billboard frame standing empty for a long time outside our PLATOON headquarters. so we thought to fill it with some of christian von steffelin´s recent great pictures and one of ID&A, so to pay an homage to the real estate company sponsoring us with the actual property on which our containers are standing on.






a big thank you to everyone at ID&A, we really appreciate your contribution.

christian von steffelin: views from above

before the end of last year we wanted to have some nice large format pictures of PLATOON, especially some from above.

so we invited our good friend Christian von Steffelin to create some of his breathtaking artworks on our site… as he already did some years ago
on our old PLATOON area.







me and Christian met on a very gray and gloomy day, which by the way is one of his favourite weather condition for creating his very expressive style of photography,















it took us a while to figure out how to get on the roof in front of our headquarters… but thanks to Doreen, one of our neighbours, who kindly allowed us to climb from her balcony, we finally managed to get there.














after setting up the tripod and the camera Christian stayed observing and pondering for a while, trying to find the best perspective from which to shoot....it felt like being a sniper looking after his target...














then suddenly, as if we were in the late nineteenth century, he sneaked under a dark cloth and CLICK...the first image was forever impressed on film...and it was the only one he did. in fact he really doesn’t repeat himself. one shot is enough...he is not like some digital snapshot accumulators...what he does, is a work of art.












the view from above was terrific…in the real sense of the word. definitely not something for the fainthearted. and for Christian, who actually does suffer a bit of vertigo, it wasn´t as easy as you might think.















Christian shoots with his large format wista rf 45 baseboard camera, which is originally used for mobile architecture, very similar to the horseman 45 model. also referred to as view camera following the early photograph type developed by louis Daguerre in 1839. it´s a very fascinating device.











thank you Christian for the fantastic experience, i really enjoyed it...and thanks again for the pictures, we appreciate them very much!















*Christian von Steffelin´s website is under construction, but we will post the link as soon as it is ready!
in the meantime check out the pictures he did for the now vanished palast der republik (palace of the repupbic)...and at the same time you can also read about this historical building, which for many years was a vibrant centre for the arts here in berlin.

exhibition container is back on tour!

the minimum wage tour is back on the road again!













last year has been very successful; we toured the exhibition container through over 70 cities around germany and the feedback has always been incredible....which in this case might not be something to be too happy about...it is in fact a sign of great dissatisfaction affecting the whole of germany, due to the meagre wages people need to cope with... despite the so called "booming economy".










nevertheless it has something rewarding to know that we contributed to bring this issue into the agenda for the next political elections, which makes the minimum wage a decisive topic for whom aspires to become the next german chancellor.

but we are all very optimistic and pretty confident we will achieve a statutory minimum wage in germany before 2009.









here a snapshot of our MiLo crew....what would we do without them? they all are very skilled and committed to the cause, always ready for deployment; not to mention Aleks, (2nd from the left) our PLATOON agent responsible for the coordination of the whole minimum wage tour. he´s really doing a great job!

















so, for those of you who didnt have the chance to see the movie about the minimum-wage tour 2007 yet... sit back and enjoy...











for past blog posts about this topic check:

1 2 3 4

soni-riot at hobnox evolution contest

the hobnox contest 2008 is on!

hobnox is a cutting edge platform for independent creative culture... which really is the kind of area we love to be involved!



for this reason Anna, our resident video artist, decided to take part in it with her creation soni-riot, (im sure that most of you heard about it already, maybe from a past entry on our blog ). So, we would really appreciate if all of you could take part in the voting process...of course take your time to watch all the videos, we don´t want to influence your choice, although it would be great if you could particularly pay attention to her breathtaking work. you will have to register to the site though...it only takes few minutes and it really is worth doing it. you will find soni-riot under the category: urban culture.

the first three winners for each category will be invited to the hobnox evolution festival which will take place here in berlin on the 28th of february.

STREET ART IN SEOUL: circular saw bench

i just walked in seoul/korea from one meeting to another and saw this: a circular saw bench made by some construction workers! and it really reminds me on the art of allan wexler.

they did by accident a truly nice piece of street art out of their construction materials. showing how you can make normal things abnormal and slightly irritating. even they use it just for one job and afterwards it will be disassembled again.

allan wexler is doing it for art purpose. i just can recommend everybody who is interested in architecture and design art to see thru the artwork of this crazy american architect!

streik.tv

and now.. it´s showtime!!!

today we launched the first internet-tv broadcast focused on workers in germany.

we are jubilant!

i strongly advice you to check it out even if you don´t speak any german... you´ll have the chance to have at least an impression of what is really going on in germany these days.

STREIK.TV

PLATOON´s 8th anniversary

what a wicked party!!!
the 8th anniversary of PLATOON was a complete success!
we had a blasting party with lots of wonderful guests, incredible tasty food, hilarious perfomances and rivers of booze.








for the occasion we also opened our brand new two containers on the ground floor, which we used as lounge so our guest could have a chance to introduce themselves before stepping into the madness of the „schuppen“ bar.













Daniel, the chef, surpassed any expactations this time around; all of us were delighted to taste his delicious food, a blend between traditional german food and a touch of korean specialities....we had in fact a very special visit from seoul. the whole new PLATOON.seoul crew pleased us with their presence and i have to say that we all loved them very much. they all are totally groovy and we had so much fun together.
























the bar was really cosy and just the right place to enjoy the PLATOON vibe...there were little details around the room reminding to all the succesful missions PLATOON has accomplished during this years. it felt like home to the platoonies.













Anna and Olly, our resident visual-artist and muscian, performed their live act SONI RIOT...and kept everyone shaking their booties all night long.




























we also had a performance by Hela-Helen Plewis who just came from london and really wanted to perform for us here in PLATOON. well i didnt know much about her but her enthusiasm was certainly infectious...so we decided to let her surprise us...and well, she totally did! here a little taste of her anti-burlesque performance....





























im sure our korean friends had hips of fun as well...just look how Eva is gorgeously smiling here.



(a proper introduction of all our korean friends and their visit to berlin will follow very soon in another article)









but before that we want to thank again Soo for traveling all this way to come and meet us here in berlin. she is the cheerful lady you can see standing between Tom and his brother Dirk and thanks to her we will realize an incredible project in Seoul. a kunsthalle made of containers with a highlight on subculture and its impact on the art sphere. it will be very unique, one of its kind. but i dont want to say too much about it now. thanks so much Soo for believing in us and for joining us for this celebrations! we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.






well, and as every party known in PLATOON history, it ended up very very late... lets say in the early hours...

















the rest i leave... to your imagination.

etoy wins VIDA AWARD 2007

president Francisco Serrano, announced on 29.11.07 at Barcelona Contemporary Art Museum (MACBA): etoy wins the first prize of the VIDA AWARDS created by Fundación Telefónica to foster artistic creation based on new technologies and artificial life.
congratulations to our friends and members of etoy. its fantastic.
here you can read the excerpt from the jury statement:
etoy launched the Mission Eternity Project in 2005, foregrounding on the one hand respect for the human longing to survive in some way after death, and on the other a sense of irony about dated sci-fi fantasies we contrive to satisfy that desire. The Sarcophagus is one materialization of this project. It is a mobile sepulcher that holds and displays portraits of those who wish to have their informational remains cross over into a digital afterlife. The size of a standard cargo container that can travel to any location in the world, the Sarcophagus has an immersive LED screen covering its walls, ceiling and floor. There, interactive digital portraits can be summoned via mobile phone or web browser from virtual capsules that are stored in the shared memory of thousands of networked electronic devices of Mission Eternity Angels (people who contribute a small part of their personal storage capacity to the mission, currently 765 of them; to date, 2 volunteers have been accepted for encapsulation). The data spectres that populate this tenuous memorial space are composed of details of lives lived, in visual, audio and text fragments. But when they are summoned in lo-res pixellated form in the Sarcophagus, they resemble one merged personality. The massing of details that we find in archives and records that keep the dead with us has a similar compositing effect, yet the Sarcophagus is also very unlike those. It gives us access to a novel social world generated among networked computer users who have a common goal of keeping something alive, which can invoke intense feelings such as care and wonder.

so PLATOON wish the mission a long life and good luck.