Scrap is no Art

geschrieben am 2008/6/17 von joaoflux

A couple of days ago I had lunch across the street from good old Tachels, the former squat that became famous in the 90s. After a rather traumatic experience I had organizing an exhibition there back in 2001, I did not follow the development of the situation there during the last couple of years.

Waiting for my food and a not having anything to read with me a picked up one of the Tacheles Programs (I never see them anywhere else. Is it possible that they only manage to distribute it in their direct neighborhood?). The first sentence that caught my attention translates “scrap and bankruptcy aren’t art”. In a short text on the front page Tacheles e.V. distances itself from the scrap in their backyard. They claim that Fundus, the investor who bought the building a long time ago, tries to damage the reputation of Tacheles and teams up with small-time criminals to do so. According to Tacheles e.V. “Drug dealers and worse” use the territory for “deployment”.

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Pecha Kucha Berlin Vol. 8.1 at DMY

geschrieben am 2008/5/15 von joaoflux

On May 22 we will organize a Pecha Kucha Night at the DMY Festival in Berlin. The weird edition number (Vol. 8.1) is because we don’t want to count the Pecha Kucha Night we organize with or for partners in one line with the ones we do on our own. I actually don’t remember ever discussing the numbering convention with the team. Anyway, someone came up with it and it sure looks hip.

I am pretty certain that we wont need a bug fix release 8.1.1 and I can guarantee that, no matter what the numbering convention is, we made no compromises about the speakers. What is labeled Pecha Kucha Berlin contains 100% Pecha Kucha Berlin, featuring the most exciting people that applied and the best people we could think of ourselves plus some speakers that our partners suggested. Don’t expect that there will only be Designers, just because it’s DMY. The general idea might be called “l’extension du domaine du design”.

Soundcloud Release Party

geschrieben am 2008/5/12 von joaoflux

The Soundcloud release party (May 11, 2pm – late) was the kind of very Berlin party that is quite rare in Berlin these days. Their office in the attic of Postfuhramt has a terrace from which it is possible to climb on the roof.
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Getting A ticket For Transmediale Takes Longer Than Opening A Bank Account

geschrieben am 2008/1/30 von joaoflux

Being the tech junkie I am, I spent much more time then I had to at the three Apple Stores in Manhattan, when I was there in December. Besides my lust for toys, I got fascinated with the way Apple managed to create a store which offers a usability that is as superior as the the usability of their software. Of course they use quite a bit of tailored hard- and software to achieve that. Their portable counters speed up things as do receipts via email. Extra features like the genius bar and regular workshops add to the experience as much as the firewall guys who approach clients instantly when they come in and redirect them. Color coded staff is also a very smart idea, that I had not really seen in a store before.
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Re-Educated Highlights

geschrieben am 2008/1/26 von joaoflux

[display_podcast] Re-education, a small art festival at Hebbel am Ufer on January 19, dealt with the large scale re-education project that the United States imposed quite successfully on post war Germany (more successfully anyway than recent attempts in Irak. Unfortunately I missed much of the program, but I saw two things I liked quite a bit.

One was the lecture/performance “Manifest Destiny” by Pablo Helguera, which consisted of a power point presentation mixing four stories around the idea that the US should expand their territory, which was popular in 19th century. The presentation was half caricature half serious and it worked quite well. I only found out later, when I googled Pablo Helguera, that he was also the author of a book I recently had a look at when I was standing around, waiting for a film screening to start at new gallery show about the art world. The book is called “Manual of Contemporary Art Style” and is a very helpful beginners guide to the art world not only for practitioners. It’s of course a bit childish, but nevertheless very entertaining and mostly quite well observed.

The other was a concert hardly dressed cross dressers punk combo. I could not even find the name of the band anywhere, because as it turned out it was only the starting act. The main act sucked. If anybody knows the name of the band, please leave a comment.