Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
Die Musik von Casper begleitet mich bereits seit über einer Dekade und entweder ‘XOXO’ oder ‘Hinterland’ stände sicherlich auf der Liste meiner Alben für die einsame Insel. Auch, weil sich auf beiden Platten Titel finden, die ich extrem stark mit prägenden Phasen oder einschneidenden Situationen meines Lebens verbinde.
Die letzten beiden Alben ‘Lang Lebe der Tod’ und ‘1982’ (zusammen mit Marteria) haben mich dann emotional irgendwie nicht mehr ganz so ‘erwischt’, obwohl beide durchaus Lieder enthalten, die ich ebenfalls sehr gerne mag.
Fünf Jahre nach seinem letzten Soloalbum hat der Bielefelder vergangene Woche endlich sein neues Werk mit einem toll inszenierten Livestream veröffentlicht und mit jeder Rotation gefällt mir ‘Alles war schön und nichts tat weh‘ ein bisschen besser. Melancholie. Adrenalin. Euphorie. Gänsehaut. Schade lediglich, dass das insgesamt eher düstere Album für mich gedanklich zukünftig unweigerlich mit dem aktuellen Wahnsinn in der Ukraine verknüpft sein wird —nicht zuletzt auch Dank des dramatischen Song ‘Billie Jo‘, der von einem heimgekehrten Soldaten mit PTSD erzählt oder der fatalistisch anmutenden Hook von ‘Zwiebel & Mett (Die Vergessenen PT 3)’.
Andererseits liefert mir Casper –wie schon seinerzeit mit XOXO– nicht einfach nur den Soundtrack für meinen Alltag, sondern auch ein Refugium, eine kleine Rettungskapsel in die ich mich zurückziehen kann, wenn das Gewicht der Nachrichten und Bilder zu groß wird.
© Casper (via YouTube)
Ich hab’ heute wieder dran gedacht /
Dass ich mir zu viel Gedanken mach’ /
Dunkle Nächte, lange wach /
Wann hört es auf, wo fang’ ich an? /
Ging so schnell, da fühlt sich letztes Jahr wie gestern an /
So viel Schlechtes, dass ich ‘s Beste fast vergessen hab’ /
Hoff‘, mein letzter Satz, wenn ‘s Ende naht und ich dann geh /
Alles war schön und nichts tat weh
© Krista Kim / Times Square (via YouTube)
Synchronized across 90 electronic billboards, a slowly shifting gradient of color washes over Times Square, creating a moment of calm amidst one of the most visually kinetic places in the world.
Kim’s peaceful digital reflection takes over Times Square as the world persists through a pandemic that has disrupted and transformed our everyday lives, mental health, and collective well-being for almost two full years. Using the technology of our times, she creates a communal space that allows viewers to decompress.
In February ‘Continuum‘ by artist Krista Kim turns the billboards throughout Times Square into a huge vibrant colorscape at midnight for an art series called ‘Midnight Moment’. What an absolutely magnificent way to use all of this screen estate.
timessquarenyc.org/whats-happening/midnight-moment-continuum
My wife’s the reason anything gets done. She nudges me towards promise by degrees. She is a perfect symphony of one, our son is her most beautiful reprise. We chase the melodies that seem to find us until they’re finished songs and start to play. When senseless acts of tragedy remind us that nothing here is promised, not one day. This show is proof that history remembers. We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger. We rise and fall and light from dying embers. Remembrances that hope and love live longer. And love is love is love is love is love is love is love and cannot be killed or swept aside.
© Patagonia Films / Jordan Manley (via Vimeo)
Follow a group of skiers, snowboarders, scientists and healers to the birch forests of Japan, the red cedars of British Columbia and the bristlecones of Nevada, as they explore an ancient story written in rings.
I’m in love with the magnificent short documentary Treeline by Patagonia Films. Strongly recommend you to check out the other “films with Impact” the collective has produced “on behalf of our home planet” so far.
© Yuki Kawae (via Vimeo)
In traditional Chinese culture, the moon is a carrier of human emotions. The full moon symbolizes family reunion. Due to the Covid restrictions between China and the United States, my trip to see my family in Beijing, which was scheduled in early 2020, is on an indefinite hold. While waiting to go back for the past two years, I decided to create a video series with the general intention of bringing the moon down to me on the earth, inspired by a Chinese legend of the Han dynasty entitled, “The lake reflecting the divine moon.”
Every winter since 2020, I’ve filmed myself alone tracing moon patterns by dragging a suitcase on the snow-covered ground in the parking lot adjacent to my apartment building in Chicago, as if to create circular mantras suspended in a time of waiting. I also made two summer counterparts of the same ritual on a sandy beach by Lake Michigan. As long as I’m unable to go back to China, I will continue to film this same ritual in the summer and winter.
This installation by Yuge Zhou called Moon drawings reminds me a lot of the beautiful patterns Yuki Kawae draws in his zen garden —but in an entirely different dimension. Gorgeous, even more so when you know the background behind the piece.
Made to Measure is an experiment that asks if you can reconstruct a person based solely on their digital data trail. Can you build a doppelganger of a person you don’t even know? Record, recreate, and replay the life of someone and their personality in detail?
[…]
Take an hour of your time and join us in the world of digital trails. How close will we get to the person behind the data?
How much does five years’ worth of personal Google data consisting of more than 100 000 data points reveal about the life of a person?
Using the online data¹ from an anonymous volunteer, the Laokoon group worked together with data analysts to reconstruct this person based solely on their digital trail. The result of the experiment is shown in an intriguing documentary called Made to Measure which is available through the dedicated project website —alongside different media libraries.
¹ the data Google is legally required to release according to EU laws
For decades now, designers have been taught to consider human needs in their work — only human needs. But design that is good only for people, without looking at the well-being of our planet as a whole, has gotten us into trouble.
As mentioned casually in another context before, I admire the work of Space10 a lot. The Swedish research and design lab is funded by IKEA on its mission to “create a better everyday life for people and the planet”.
There are a bunch of great projects –including two wonderful books about ‘Future Food‘ and ‘Urban Futures‘– and an online journal full of interesting essays to discover, but for any creative, I recommend starting with this plea to move beyond human-centered design towards a “people-planet approach” published last year.
Der Himmel leuchtet in Schwarz und in Blau / Er schmückt sich mit Sternen / So als wolle er niemals wieder Grau / Und hässlich werden / Schrei mich an, wenn du magst / Lach mich aus, wenn du willst
Aber ich liebe es / Wie die Erde sich dreht / Und der Mond dann auf einmal / Hell und einsam über uns steht / Ich bin Freund von Klischees / Und von funkelnden Sternen / Und ich mag dich sehr, sehr gern
It’s curious that change is so fast technologically and so slow socially.
nocturnal sessions
A well balanced mixtape duo with moody music ideal for late night design sessions
Since back in the days as a young design student, I’ve enjoyed working during the quiet of the nighttime and I believe that’s something a lot of artists, programmers, writers, and designers share; We are children of the night. When it gets dark outside the demanding noise of everyday life with all its clutter steps aside to deep, overarching silence and the mind of many of us tends to be wide open and particularly creative.
At least for me, a proper soundtrack enhances those nocturnal sessions a lot —both in pleasure and outcome. Even though there are a lot of amazing LPs¹ to listen to, I’ve spent quite some time in 2020 putting together two long mixtapes made primarily for such occasions.
In total, these two Spotify playlists pack more than five hours of carefully selected and arranged tracks –90, including some Interludes and skits, perfect to get you into the tunnel and find inspiration during your extended late-night working sessions.
Apart from that, I draw on these mixtapes to find catharsis and come to rest during cold and dark winter hours and grey days in general, as well.
I often think that the night is more alive and richly coloured than the day.
— Vincent Van Gogh
Since there’s a lot of –to some extent heavy– bass and some rather high-pitched sounds, I strongly recommend a decent audio output device that can handle a broad spectrum of frequencies well in order to get the most out of this music.
part I: MANIAC
— 42 Tracks / 2hours 23minutes
part II: Wolves
— 48 Tracks / 2hours 59minutes
¹ thinking of M83, The XX, Her, Tycho, The Howl & The Hum, Howling, Son Lux, Darkside, and Portico for example
The idea is to find yourself a posse of misfits who have the courage to not only question authority but the whole dominant reality, and create magic together.