Blue Sky

In the period of romanticism the associations with a blue sky were very different from today. Getting out into the sun was a kind of privilege for the “leisure class”, of people who could afford to enjoy time outside for boating, walking or other pleasures. In our technology-driven 21st century the associations with Blue Sky are more like a technically enhanced view through for example “Windows” at the news and opinion platform or “Bluesky”.
Several scientific websites that report data on blue skies and air quality more generally across the world report indicators like ozone values O3, sun intensity, micro particles 2.5µm and 10µm, Nitrogen Dioxid NO2 to name the mostly quoted indicators. Hence, just enjoying the blue sky outside isn’t the same as it was before. People working outside in the sun or at times of a blue sky but with high air pollution levels are incurring severe medium-term health risks. The Ozon layers at very high altitudes protect our skin and eyes against high UV-radiation, but O3 on the ground is tough for eyes and lungs.
Technology has come with many blessings, but the negative effects on a global scale become also more evident. Getting used to a particular lifestyle, which produces lots of emissions of aggressive fine particles will make it more difficult to just simply enjoy a blue sky.
In consideration of all these background data with regional variations, we surely need an AI-system which we can ask for advice, whether we should go outside and enjoy the blue sky with or without respiratory mask.
Romanticism has led us all the way to Californication and dangerous enshittification of the air that surrounds us. Youth and the next generations will have very different associations with Blue Sky than we have the chance to, at least, have had.

Greening Interiors

The greening of facades of houses is an old tradition in many western countries. The outside of a home then changes colors with seasons. The home for insects and birds feeding on them makes a small contribution to biodiversity as well. Greening interiors is a more rare instance. Of course flowers and plants can contribute a lot, but there is yet more scope to green entire walls inside your home or office.
Moss has advantages to add humidity to the air. You might like the acoustic effect as well in busy environments. Taking care of moss is not easy. Professional assistance (Link) or renting options might be a good option for office buildings. The wellness enhancing effects are also interesting for some people who susceptible to the calming effects of a more natural environment. It is a matter of care and respect for air quality that is reflected in the design using green interiors.
Circularity is another advantage of the materials. We can so a lot for biodiversity if we really wanted to even in urban spaces. Global warming will force us to think more and more, and sooner than later to make use of such innovative solutions. For the time being they remain a luxury option. For the wealthy, greening interiors is easy, it much less an option for restricted budgets and people who are obliged to focus on short-term survival. However, we have to get started with the greening of our planet again, any way.

Apocalyptic Collection

As long as humanity exists we had to deal with the experience of apocalyptic horrors. First, mankind could not make sense of natural disasters. Second, after we understood many of the disastrous events on earth and even most cosmological events, we proceeded to create our own apocalyptic disasters. 

One thousand years of unimaginable suffering and destruction are the subject of a unique exhibition at the BNF entitled Apocalypse. The documents start with biblical representations of it and continues throughout the centuries. The artists‘ attempts to depict and characterize the Shoa is part of the exhibition. The atomic bomb is another issue of the 20th century. In the 21st century artists try to move beyond the different forms of the apocalypse. The collection of various kinds of dealing with apocalypses constitutes itself an apocalyptic experience. We still have to go a long way to come close to understanding what drives disasters and what the role of mankind is on this way to seemingly endless destruction. The apocalyptic experiences remind us to keep asking some fundamental questions.  (Image: Exhibition Apocalypse at BNF Paris, Center Piece by Otobong Nkanga, Unearthed)

HTML Mindset

The hypertext markup language (HTML) allows us to navigate on the internet. No matter which Browser you use on your device, it interprets the HTML-text for you in a specific way. This means: HTML defines headings, normal text, placeholders for images, actionable buttons and referrals to more text, images, or videos. A good HTML enabled textbook for pupils, students or any lifelong learner, for example, will embed easily images, sound recordings or video demonstrations in the e-book. This additionally embedded content asks for a different mindset for content creators: the HTML mindset.
Just like in most learning environments, learners proceed with different speed and interests. HTML allows for additional options to dig deeper into a subject, return to a previous stage, lead on from where you left off before, jump to some other content or listen to a translated paragraph.
Due to the bringing together of content from different technical formats, the HTML mindset has an interdisciplinary touch to it. Blending text and image is our usual way to process information at most exhibitions. In Hypertexts we are “walking” along our own chosen track through the knowledge space or content archive. For web creators, therefore, it is common to use so-called “content management systems” to arrange structure and present content.
The learning of HTML is enhanced through many learning tools (w3schools.com). This helps you to get into the HTML mindset of content creation and a better grip on the interlinked world. (Image: extract of HTML code of this blog post on www.schoemann.org).

Sustainable Food

Climate change has a severe impact on sustainable food production. The OECD reports annually on the evolution of volumes of production and monitors the resources and subsidies allocated to the agricultural sector of the economy. The sector and the whole nutrition chain are frequently perceived as a major driver of shrinkflation, greedflation and cheatflation.
Changes need to be introduced with a medium and long-term perspective in order to allow for smooth adaptations of the sectors involved and to avoid so-called hog cycles.
Most economic debate is focused on the quantity of production. The loss of production due to climate change and Russia’s war in Ukraine has been and continues to be substantial causing starvation and premature deaths. Another issue is the lower quality of food due to droughts. Repeated events call for adaptations. Certainly the adaptation of more resistant crops is part of the answer. However, the other side of the same coin consists in the consumer’s readiness to buy products that suffered during a drought. Just as the reduction of fertilizers and less water in the production of droughts reduces the size of fruit, for example, we, the consumers will be systematically challenged in our purchasing habits of fresh food.
Price-sensitive consumers will have to choose the products that have reduced prices due to drought quality loss. Other consumers may choose the drought affected product if a “resilience message” is attached to such products. Solidarity with climate affected farmers, just like bio-farmers’ products in ecological production, opens up another perspective to more sustainable consumption and farming.

AI Images

The creation of images using any AI system is fast and easy. Many people have tested the systems and experimented with the more or less explicit prompting needed for LLMs to come up with several suggestions. Through the use of AI in the creation of images you are indirectly become your own curator of these creations as you choose among many suggestions of AI for the same prompt. The next step in the process of these artifacts it to assemble several ones and submit your selection of images to a gallery for an exhibition. If you have a coherent approach or a specifically interesting creative idea you might get selected in a competition to show your AI assisted images in a gallery with a reputation to  exhibit photography.  The Brussels Photo Festival (2025) presented the submissions to a call for AI images with a broad range of AI assisted imagery. The focus of this project was on „historical events and figures“. In situations where images are absent such a newly created imagery might be helpful in re-creating narratives about undocumented wars or conflicts. Speculative fiction about other historical options or „roads not taken “ have found their way into museums of history even. Decolonizing imagery is an interesting aspect to get a grip on another way to view historical evolutions. Projecting biological growth processes into the future with pervasive bio-engineering allows is to imagine potential future scenarios. As AI in biology, pharmacy and nutrition is only about to rake off, the AI artists play an interesting role of new avantgarde in the 21st century before we shall be submerged by AI images on all social media platforms. (Image taken at Hangar.art 2025)

Korean Uprisings

With the recent Korean uprising against the imposition of martial law the world has witnessed a successful defense of democratic rule in South Korea. International politics has quickly moved on to other areas of the world where people’s struggle to obtain or sustain the freedom to vote and the freedom of expression.
However, the Korean history of uprisings goes back a least as far as the beginning of the Cold War period with the separation in 2 Koreas. The 1980 uprising of student protests in South Korea was extinguished with brutal force and mass killings. Can literature heal the wounds of uprisings? Only the best of literature can. The Korean female author and poet Han Kang (Nobel laureate 2024) has accomplished this. In the novel 소년이 온다 “Human acts” (English title), “Celui qui revient” (French), ”Menschenwerk” (German) the Gwangju Uprising 1980 is the historic backdrop against which the loss of human dignity during dictatorships is narrated. Han Kang manages to depict the empathy of family members who are confronted with the brutality of the military forces. It is tough on readers as they become the witnesses of the violence described as such and the sorrow of the whole social environment of the victims.
The Nobel Prize for literature 2024 honors the “world literature” aspect of Han Kang’s writings over many years. Many prizes have been allocated for representative writers (80+ % were men) of a country. The different titles of professional translators chosen for this novel reveal the potential to link to very different national narratives and connections to national memory of uprisings. Translating literature from different cultures can be challenging as readers frequently want the narratives somehow to relate to their own “endured” experiences. World literature, just like world history, goes beyond this and takes the reader by the hand and broadens emotional and human horizons.
(Image: Gallery Lee Bouwens, Brussels, exposed Jungjin Lee Voice #02, Voice #26 in 2025, inkjet pigment prints, Jungjin Lee)

Existence as Eggsistence

Artists have their own ways of hallucinating. They don’t need an AI to generate ideas beyond the normal, even allowing for 2 standard deviations off the usual. As a result of the thorny question about your existence, Ram Katzir came up with the impressive statement about his „eggsistence“ being subjected to a squeezed experience. Ever increasing shares of the labor force would subscribe to this statement about the modern workplace. Each turn of the screw risks to crack up the egg‘s shell. Rather focus on the egg, try to get a grip on the screw. There are thousands if not millions who crack up under the excessive pressure of economic and political circumstances. The new platforms of food, grocery and parcel delivery at home have become the latest example of AI-assisted and algorithmicly managed screws. What is driving your eggsistence. It is about time to  ask fundamental questions again. (Image: Eggsistence, by Ram Katzir 2021 in Brussels, Galilas Collection Belgium)

Electronics repaired

The all electric society will have a number of consequences. We need to think about durable electronics. Many electronic appliances get broken rather quickly even by normal usage. The task to repair the beloved electronic gadgets of your children or simple electronic household devices reveals the fallacy of the consumerist societies. “Use it and throw it away, if it is not working any more”. This is the standard mantra of our societies. In order to save resources, we have to reuse, repair and re-engineer a lot of electronic devices. So far, the engineering process consisted largely in finding ways to assemble fast and with inputs as cheap as possible. The task of designing products that are repair-friendly, circular and allow to disassemble the product easily is a bit counter-intuitive to the consumerist society. If your juicer lasts for years, you will be unlikely to buy another more fancy one or even a connected one very soon.
Repair-friendly design and assembling will be the next generation products of the all electric society. Plugs, interrupters, relays and electric engines of older devices will be valuable after the original use in a household product, which has seized to function. Many parts can be put to other use. Re-engineering with sustainability in mind has an important function also in the move towards gaining autonomy again. For the repair of electronic devices we shall focus more on fine motor skills of our hands again. The shortages of electronic components to build cars after the Covid-19 crises and the disruption of supply chains for other reasons provide a good lesson to advance faster in the direction of electronics repaired.

Corridorisation Connectivity

In some cities, “I love Paris” (Jazz Song), we admire the “breath-taking” large corridors, right in the centre of the city. This has been the outcome of the urban planning in the 18th century. Haussmann designed large parts of Paris with huge corridors despite the medieval narrow streets in some of the arrondisements”. Ease of traffic, fewer riots and representative housing became the new mantra of urban planning and superb boulevards.
In the 21st century it is about time to question the notion and social process of corridorisation. This has been accomplished in a paper by Fatima Tassadq et al. (2025). Modern infrastructure like fibre-optic cables, energy or water networks are easiest to deploy in urban spaces with large corridors than the complex narrow inner cities with supposition of different kinds of network layers. The grand ideas of the 18th century should be questioned from time to time and some districts that have escaped the corridorisation might well have a particular charm about them, maybe just because they seem to escape the rational approach of making and structuring space by means of large corridors. Large corridors separate city districts and they are a major driving force of gentrification.
The rationality of corridors has some roots in maths or physics of complexity. A recent paper by Shanshan Wang et al. (2024) reports the surprising finding that the transport corridors in several cities across the globe allow for a 1.3 times the distance of transport networks compared to the so-called direct linear “bird’s flight line”. Hence, corridorisation is (has been) a rather pervasively applied model of urban planning.
Alternative approaches advocate in favor of the 15-minutes walking distance city. All amenities like shops, schools, maybe work and services should be reachable within a 15 minutes walk. This does include “walking corridors” that facilitate (social) connectivity in inner cities. Cyclists also claim their corridors or fast lanes across cities, which underlines the pertinence to take corridorisation seriously and apply the concept with care.
In any case, social connectivity is key. The big social media platforms operate similar to the traffic infrastructure in the 21st century and provide huge corridors to knowledge and people. We only realize this once a service (for example tiktok) or the internet altogether gets disconnected. We have moved from (social) categorisation to (social) corridorisation as technology and rationalisation have taken the upper hand to structure our (social) lives.

Cheatflation

There are many ways to study inflation. You may start by looking through your collection of bills. Economists like to swear by the consumer price index or indices, if you are even more into inflation. In textbooks like “economics for dummies” we learn about rational behavior and price adjustment mechanisms through the “invisible hand” to find some sort of equilibrium.
Advanced economics courses will teach you about strategic behavior inspired by game theory and the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of cheating. For advanced economists it is, therefore, inevitable that “cheatflation” should be part of the economists’ vocabulary. Of course, a profit maximizing entrepreneur is likely to way the risk of being found out contributing to cheatflation against the potential gains.
How to cheatflate? Too easy. Any producer of a product can cheat by using, for example, other ingredients than those printed on the product label, usually cheaper ones. Instead of fruit juice (wine) you may just sell colored water with lots of sugar (ethanol) in it, but still label it fruit juice (wine) and get away with this, until a consumer protection group makes a fuzz about it. A more sophisticated way is to sell investments in ESG-rated funds, but then include dirty stocks without proper notification in the fund, which probably increases profits based on wrong labels.
There is a specific quality to cheatflation, which makes it different from shrinkflation or enshittification. The drive to “obtain unfair advantages” through cheating across a whole country or region makes cheatflation an economy-wide process and subverts general fairness rules as well as trust in a society.
(Image Saccharometer, DTM Berlin 2024)

Obesity Revised

The scientific paper on a revised definition of obesity was produced by the special Commission on Obesity. It appeared in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology in 2025-1. The previously common practice by medical doctors was to classify person in the obesity category based mainly on the simple calculation of the body mass index (BMI = weight/height²). A BMI  > 30 put persons into the obese category and stigma.
Since the Covid-19 society-wide testing experience, we are all familiar what it means if you get misclassified and have to live with the consequences (exclusion from work or events etc.). The simplifying and summarizing BMI calculation and classification has also produced many wrong classifications. For example, persons with a lot of muscles (just watch this at any fitness studio) will have a high weight relative to their body height², but they are likely to be more healthy than many other light weight, but seriously stressed persons.
In empirical test theory such cases are the so-called false positive cases, i.e. classified as obese, but not a medical problem at all. Medical doctors and health insurances should not finance special treatments for these persons, which foregoes treatment of other more needy persons.
With new expensive drugs on the market to treat obesity it is even more important to test with more precision the normal, pre-clinical and clinical status of obesity. Fatty tissue or muscles, that is the relevant question. Fatty tissue in muscles is the next level testing issue.

Politician Cycles

In a bookstore which sells books in English or American language we find lots of biographies or autobiographies of politicians. As a politician you don’t even have to be out of politics when your biographical account or your own view is published, let alone be written. Publishers seem to hunt politicians who made headlines, no matter good or bad. Outside the EU you can always sell biographies at half price, if the volumes sit for too long on the precious shelves of bookstores. Most of the biographies are found in the history section of shops or libraries, however some show off in sections like politics (if not dead for too long) or in the business and management sections. Leadership is a big issue in the latter disciplines, but the psychological or sociological literature starts to meddle with the received wisdom of how single person leadership is in fact facilitated with the many great people around the sometimes outstanding single person. Maybe the focus on a single person is an easily understood and simplifying concept of leadership. In the case of Obama (2x) two single historical accounts complement the one person focus. In 2025 Michelle Obama skipped the funeral of Jimmy Carter where she would have had to sit next to Donald Trump (according to the Daily Telegraph and probably endure small talk). Politics appears to move in circles and politicians might find themselves encircled.

Space Missions

As we realize that critical infrastructure on earth is not safe in times of military conflict, space missions have become an additional form of competition between countries, continents and alliances. India has accomplished in January 2025 the coupling of 2 space satellites. The level of technological knowledge to achieve the coupling and decoupling of satellites included among other competences the mastering of algorithms that control sensors and propulsion. Beyond the communication cables on earth, satellites can assure telecommunication services, if other networks are interrupted.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISPO) has announced the successful “space docking experiment” (SpaDeX) and joins the other 3 countries US., Russia and China as the 4th country to achieve this. The race in space and to space beyond earthly competition shifts attention also to the additional category of a race to technological innovation and applications of those. Since the war of Russia in Ukraine we know about the “dual use” factor (civil and military) of satellite technology. Satellite images of your own country are helpful in many respects ranging from weather forecasts, rain, draughts and habitat changes or population movements. Early warnings of flooding are surely important civil applications. Movements of military equipment by potential enemies are much needed early information, which increases warning time spans. With more satellites in space the good as well as the dangerous potential is expanding. Sovereignty in the 21st century certainly has a technological dimension. Therefore, the demonstration of satellite coupling in space accomplishes not only a dual use achievement, but also fulfils a triple use or ambition. The 3rd one is political. Hey, look we are also watching you, or might do so.
(Image: Robert Indiana “Imperial Love” 1966/2006 in Berlin Neue Nationalgalerie)

Indigenisation

In reading up on the « all electric society » it is useful to see what the international market has to offer in innovation of electronics, but also to understand the potential of mass production. In this little research the came across the „Electronics for you magazine“ (LINK) from India is a great source. Trends of miniaturization of electronics and power savings for consumer products as well as some high tech space and wave technologies receive systematic coverage. 

The November issue 2024 (p. 63) used the term „ Indigenisation“ to refer to the process of a country’s own technological development to ensure independence from being cut off from advanced technologies. Producing in India for Indian use seems to be an answer to economic and technological risks. India‘s space exploration program builds on own supply for civil and probably military purposes as well. Indigenisation of production, therefore, is an adequate term for own indigenous production of specific advanced components. 

Contrary to the trend of globalization, which dominated the 2nd half of the last century, „Indigenisation“ is likely to dominate numerous sectors of the economy in the coming years. Made in India is, of course, a brand. Small countries might find indigenisation more difficult to achieve. It needs to be checked, whether indigenisation or „self-reliance“ (Atmanirhbar Bharat) implies plural societies and identities to the same extent.

Aridification

Man made climate change and local policies increase speed of aridification (Link). It is not only the Sahara desert that is spreading out, but the lake Aral is another horrible example of the disrespect mankind attributes to its own resources of living. As more regions become arid due to our faults and long term consequences of industrialization we provoke human resettlement of an increasing scale. Water resources are and have been for centuries the major reason for people to settle nearby. Aridification of the soil like in California increases the risks of wild fires. The costs associated with aridification are very high and such areas can no longer be insured through normal private insurers. In most cases poor people or countries are affected the most, but we are all likely to bear the consequences in one way or another. We will have to accept that the size of habitable areas on earth decreases while the peek demography of humans is still at least a decade away from now. Not to tackle aridification is not an option. When shall we ever learn? (Image: sketch for Hagar and Ishmael in the desert, by Navez 1819, MRBAB)

Enshittification

Don’t laugh. This is a very serious scientific term to describe the way social media function in the 21st century. The scientific reference goes back to 2025 and article in “Science” by Kai Kupferschmidt. Twitter, now eXit, like most other social media platforms uses algorithms that select posts for you from the millions of posts that are likely to induce a reaction from you, which prolongs your time on the platform. Additionally, eXit Twitter applies an algorithm that prioritizes accounts with already a huge followership, which makes these accounts even bigger. The result is an increasing inequality in attention to info, facts, fake news, but also revenue for the platform owners through more advertisements. As hate speech and fake news are commonly perceived as shit, many social media are happy to spread more shitty things on their platforms as this generates more money for the platform as well. In short, enshittification happens sooner or later to most platforms and we all suffer from this. As user of these platforms, it is hard to escape from this process, as most platforms tend to “convert” to enshittification at some later point in their life cycle, unlike babies who manage to quit this phase after a few months. A move to Bluesky might be indicated, but there is no guarantee that the same process will just happen again. Mastodon is another small twitter-like platform that like Bluesky offers a more open approach to its governing algorithms and a more controlled access in the registration process.
To avoid enshittification, we have to be ready to move away from one platform to another one, just like changing bank accounts or club memberships. Make sure to take most of your friends with you and there are already tools for this online as well. Enjoy the safe online life again on another platform or consume more of the traditional media like newspapers, radio or tv with proven quality. (Image: extract from Jan Steen, 1625-1679, The Rhetoricians – “In liefde vrij”, MRBAB)

No tobacco Sweden

Sweden is the forerunner as country with the lowest number of smokers across Europe and probably even the world with only 5% of the population 16 years and older. The success of these public health policies is due to banning smoking not only form pubs and restaurants, but also outside in the surroundings of public spaces like schools, playgrounds, train stations and sports facilities. These policies work quite well and the effects of discouraging smoking in public is reduced to a minimum rather than the normal encounter.
Health of the other persons and children passing through these areas is not the only goal. A new estimate of lost days or years due to smoking based on a study from England shows that “each cigarette smoked reduces the smoker’s life by about 20 minutes (17 for men, 22 for women, LINK to study). Of course, there is a huge variance and other work and life conditions that play an important role as well, but the broad average estimate is a nice way of talking about statistics. The basis of the estimate is for those who stop smoking and not those reducing their tobacco intake by some percentage or replacement product.
In the Belgian football stadium (image below 2024) in Brussels the No tobacco sign is well placed to make parents of children and youth understand the challenge ahead. Good resolutions are assisted by gentle regular reminders as well.

More Battles

In 2025 we continue with the same battles as in the previous year. However, the way armies fight military battles has evolved. New types of weapons like drones have entered the stage. These precision weapons (Horowitz, 2024) have the advantage to be not only less costly than other heavy mass and costly artillery, they can also be guided in swarms to their targets. A further advantage is the steering of drones needs differently qualified persons rather than advancing with heavy armored vehicles on battlefields. Upskilling of defense forces is an important side effect. Jamming technology of radio frequencies was applied before, nowadays this has turned into a crucial defense strategy to intercept and derail drones and rockets off their intended targets.
Other than heavy weight arms, even laser beams enter the arsenal of weapons, if targets are sufficiently static in nature. These high-energy beams are still more in the research and testing realm rather than used on the battle field, but it becomes clear that research capacities play and played an important role throughout military history. The next generation of robots, not only in production processes, but more those walking on the battlefields is likely to change wars to less manned interventions. The technological innovations shall further move the spiral of new generations of weapons forward. Fewer soldiers, but more robots in the air, at sea and on the ground might increase the risks of “restrained”, less costly, but longer duration conflicts across the globe.
I always thought of robots as rescue robots to save lives. The flip side of the coin, however, is destruction before rescue as well. Technology can be put to both purposes. It is us who decide, which one takes the upper hand.

Happy Year

  1. Happy Past Year? Happy New Year!  Happiness is the driving force behind most endeavors for all people beyond the needs of subsistence. Even if many believe that money makes the world go round, the thrive for happiness is soon overriding the comparatively simple pleasures money can buy. A Bistro in Berlin in the middle of a park has the entry reception entitled „zum Glück“. An excellent wish for the New Year and a chance to review the „glückliche Momente“, the happy moments of last year.

Question Tomorrow

« Tomorrow is the question ». This is the imprint on the 8 table tennis tables in the Martin Gropius Bau 2024. As part of the Contemporary art exhibition by the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, the tables are very busy throughout the day and invite people to meet, play and greet. If tomorrow is the question, today is the answer. Is it?  Maybe the answer is the day after tomorrow? Time appears to be the answer and the question. Such questions touch on basic philosophical questions about our relationship to and concept of time. Future orientation or even the belief in life after death touch upon basic religious beliefs. Intergenerational transmission is useless if there is no tomorrow or concept of tomorrow. Sustainability is most relevant if we are convinced there will be a tomorrow. Fatalists or warmongers rate today so much more than tomorrow that everything is subordinated to the urgency of now. Not easy to strike the right balance between „for now“ and „for tomorrow“. Simple financial discounting of benefits which accrue only tomorrow do not solve the urgency issue of behavioral concerns. My personal discounted value of ice cream tomorrow might be superior to ice cream now, but it is based on the tacit assumption that the shop still exists tomorrow or any other time in the future. The exhibition invites people not only to play table tennis but also to discuss the question of tomorrow across language barriers and across tables and cultures. 

Sociology in Art

Sociologists study and teach a lot about social capital. James Coleman and Pierre Bourdieu each have coined social capital as a major foundation of societies. Therefore, the exhibition of the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija “happiness is not always fun” in the Martin Gropius Bau (Image below) is interesting beyond a justification art for art’s sake.
What does Tiravanija tell us about happiness and social capital we did not know before?  The artist went to a Chicago based art school, hence, it is likely that he has been confronted with the concept of “social capital” by Chicago sociologist James Coleman. The Berlin exhibition of Tiravanija can be walked along and experienced through the lens of the creation of social capital as a form of art. Art raises awareness to the importance of social capital for the ways we live together and form communities. The Berlin exhibition, meeting place or play ground is worth multiple visits as the participatory experience changes each time.  In each of the rooms we reflect on our cultural practices like sports, music, printing or cooking as forms to create community. Each time we take home a little bit of social capital as well. “Happiness is not always fun”, but for sure You’ll have many happy moments throughout the visit of the exhibition. The guided tour by curator Yasmil Raymond (2024-12-19) added yet another little bit of spice to the exhibits. For a few moments we felt like a strong link between Chicago and Berlin, just like those sociologists in Berlin who studied and continue to study James Colemen’s foundations of social theory.

Reconciliation

European history is a long history of atrocities committed against humanity. The Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin (Image below) captures this history in a comprehensive manner. We are quickly overwhelmed by this weight of history and the implications this has for the understanding of the people on the globe. This relatively new learning centre has, beyond the memorable permanent and temporary exhibitions, a room of silence to recover from the hard work of remembrance, always in view of reconciliation.
The library allows personal search and research of migration documents and biographies. All centuries have their history of displacements, but the Nazi terror surpassed all prior records and forced millions into displacement or death. We are still working on this heritage and the enlightenment of how these atrocities could take place. Full consciousness of the terror and horror of the 30s and 40s is necessary to guard against the many attempts to falsify historical events or discard the sorrow of millions of people and their families.
Reconciliation remains a continuous challenge. A large part of diplomacy has to deal with reconciliation beyond concerns of daily affairs. It is not just a matter for head of states and days-off during a year. Stillness helps to deal with the challenge, especially if it is very difficult to find adequate words.

Air Concept

Well yes, this is the latest fart in design and architecture. The Berlin International University of Applied Sciences composed an exhibition on “Air Architectures” which takes air seriously. The international group of 7th semester students took Air Architecture seriously and developed their ideas in the context of a curated exhibition. Nice semester project.
Air is a fundamental precondition for humans to (co-)exist. The biology of air (breathing) or the chemistry of air (fine particle matter) have been studied extensively. The physics of air flows in cities receive more attention as well in architecture. Interior design has yet a lot to contribute in the age of heat pumps and air conditioning.
Let’s think architecture from the perspective of air and air flow. Depending on our cultural background we might have very different associations with air. Indian or Chinese practices like yoga or Tai Chi teach us to take air more seriously than Western practices. Most architecture in cold countries of the northern hemisphere aim to keep air to the outside of buildings. Yet, the percentage of humidity of air is a serious concern of architecture as well. Air flow and quality then becomes a key issue of construction and architecture, somehow through the back door.
Maybe in approaching architecture we might think first of what is or has been the architect’s concept of air or aerodynamics. 100 years after the death of Gustave Eiffel and the Olympic Games in Paris, we still gain from thinking about air (not only air pollution) and its dynamics. Looking forward to the next generation of air architects.
(Image: Exhibition, Air architectures, at Berlin International, University of Applied Sciences 2024-12)

Korea relieved

On Saturday 14th of December 2024 the Parliament of Korea voted with 204 out of 300 votes, the required 2/3 majority of the parliament to dismiss the president. The declaration of martial law has been the most serious attack on democracy in Korea since its founding in 1987. It is the 3rd impeachment of a Korean president in this short time of democratic life cycle. After impeachment the constitutional court has to confirm the impeachment also with 6 out of 9 judges in favor of impeachment. In 2017 the judges confirmed the impeachment of a president due to corruption charges, but in 2004 another president was reinstated after illegal campaigning charges were retracted. Democratic procedures hinge on checks and balances in the constitutional set up of a state. Nominations, votes of confirmation of judges are important safeguards against illegal martial laws to restrict or even abandon democracy. Pressure from the street, the people at large, is another safety net of democracy. It should not be the last resort for democracy’s survival as it is likely to come at high costs of human lives.

Sociolegal Circularity

At times legal systems feel like going round in circles. Legal procedures move from one stage to the next and they may get referred back to the previous instance to resolve a particular issue or restart the procedure. This has good reasons with the aim of “doing justice”. Sociolegal circularity, however, begins before the, right at the beginning and negotiation of legislation on which all legal systems are based in democracies, that is. Hence, the legal definition of waste, recycling as part of the circular economy and society is rather crucial.
Circularity is a complex sociolegal issue as the example of PFAS in plastics demonstrate. In economic theory the existence of externalities invites profit seeking of the kind like: “the sea in large part is owned by us all and there is no price attached to the (ab)use of it. Dumb PFAS into the sea, because the costs of cleaning up will be shared by all of us”. In order to limit the extent of this economic logic, we have to rely on sociolegal processes. The precise definition of property rights and liabilities beyond the PFAS issue have to be well-defined. It is an intergenerational topic as well, not only in view of deferred payments.
Parliaments have to be rather competent to look through all the complex issues of producing and recycling of materials to make sound provisions in law including future generations. Going round in circles in parliament is yet another element of necessary condition of circularity in a rather broad sense.
The air we breathe and the water we drink have become part of this “economic externality”, which is a very internal, inside of our body kind of sociolegal affair. Who is responsible for the bad air we breathe and the contaminated water we drink? Air and water have for a long time become marketable products. The more your local water is polluted, the more we are forced to buy water. The more the air in inner cities is filled with fine dust particles, the more medical doctors, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities we need to construct.
For GDP calculations these are win-win-win situations, although they make us all worse off. Society and politics are in charge to define and redefine (yes, circles again) the legal basis with a lot of precision and scientific detail. Sociolegal circularity is key. You just have to turn it in the right direction.
(Image, Palais de Justice, Brussels view from Forest district).

Socioeconomic Circularity

Some sectors of the economy receive a lot of attention, for example sectors selling fancy cars. Other sectors, like the ones regrouped under the name of circular economy, receive much less attention and show up little in headlines. In fact, the circular economy is a great example of this. There are thousands of waste and rubbish collection, sorting and recycling centers, several hundreds of waste-to-energy plants, composting sites across the European Union. Of course, there is also a European Federation of the sector (FEAD). On the last FEAD conference in Brussels 2024 it became clear that Europe is finally waking up to the challenge of recycling costly raw materials.
The narrative concerning the sector needs to change further: what used to be subsumed as costly nuisance is in fact a potential profit center for companies and society at large. We do no longer want to import lots of raw materials from countries with dubious social and environmental records as part of our supply chains for raw materials. Time to act. This, however, is a rather complex socioeconomic challenge of circularity. The price mechanisms are not fully functional in most Member States, let alone across the EU. Additionally, the social practice to recycle varies greatly between countries. Distributional issues matter as well. It is rather obvious that dumping waste from one region/country in another one has huge implications (nuclear waste), but if one country values waste more than another one, due to innovative recycling techniques, the matter takes a marketable turn. Regulation should carefully distinguish categories of materials as we do for hazardous materials in production, consumption and for health and safety purposes of employees.
Metal, battery, cement, plastic and wood recycling pose challenges, but also opportunities to improve the European material import/export balance sheets. However, first in the circle of circularity is the use of materials. There we are clear that “less is better”. Less input of raw materials, most of which we import in the EU, reduces our dependence on other countries. This is the tricky social question of circularity. Mainstreaming of more conscious use and reuse of resources is a huge social issue, which we tend to relegate to a task for the education system. The awareness that supposed waste is also a valuable resource is spreading and the growth of the sector a business and employment opportunity for many. Circularity is the new sexy sector of the 21st century.
What have you recycled today? and myself? Well, scientific online publications. Now think of ChatGPT and the AI gold mines of 2024. There is lots of value in recycling.
(Image FEAD conference Brussels, 2024)

Book Annotation

For most people book annotations are considered a nuisance. However, most pupils or students mark their so-called textbooks, which contain many images nowadays anyway. A good mindmap, summary of text, highlighting or critical comments may be part of their day-to-day working with a book. Some editors facilitate this using broad margins and more space between lines. Working through a text can take multiple forms and books have allowed over centuries different kinds of their usage.
There is yet another underexplored usage of books. On printed volumes annotations of previous readers may serve as a guide to a script of places, thoughts or material of particular importance. I have always found annotated copies of other readers interesting in their own right. Reading an annotated copy felt like reading another person’s mind, thought or learning process.
A modern view of books as a tool of communication might extend this perspective to study annotations of several readers on the same copy. Just like we comment today in word processing on texts from collaborators or students. Books are a means of communicating with other people or machines (AI) usually with the aim of spreading ideas, content, horror or pleasure.
Therefore, I am always happy to find annotated versions of a book, especially of prominent authors. It sometimes feels like reading a “partition”, a transcript of music which contains the comments or fingering of the reader or the performing musician. The BNF has a lot of such special copies in its archives, usually found in the donations of persons or prominent authors and their families to the archives. This can be put together to make an interesting exhibition of the process of thinking and writing and of special treasures – annotated books.
Image Bibliothèque nationale de France BNF, collection, “Annotations by Jean Racine on Homer “Ilias“.

Democracy in Korea

For all scholars of the theory of democracy the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville (1835) “De la démocratie en Amérique” are a major point of reference. The comparison of the democracy in America with the French king and both constitutions reveals comparative strengths and weaknesses of political systems. Korea after the 4th of December 2024 is yet another warning of what are the dangers to democratic systems. The attempted “coup d’état” by the president of Korea together with a former defense minister and several hundred soldiers has failed due to the speedy reaction of the elected members of parliament and an attentive and reactive public (Korea Times reports).
Tocqueville (p.130-131, French edition online) states, beyond the separation of powers (John Locke), the importance of the right to nominate key positions in a society also public opinion for the survival of democracy. Modern social media have increased the “reaction time” of public opinion and the “time to action” if need be. The combination of both elements of public opinion ensured that parliamentarians in Korea rushed to parliament and used their potentially last chance to vote against the imposed martial law, which started to seal off parliament already.
Several lessons for democratic systems derive from this. Separation of power remains key for democracy. The distribution of state functions on many shoulders under the control of parliament are essential. Legal mechanisms, in case of a spontaneous attack on the system, have to be able to react fast in order to avoid spreading fake news about legality/illegality of interventions. Public opinion, the people at large, should have their opinions distributed rapidly as well. This is necessary even beyond the traditional media of TV, radio and print. In Korea 2024 the attempted “coup d’état” tried also to block traditional media and prominent figures of the opposition with high power of influencing and reach on social media.
Tocqueville stated already that kings are threatened by revolution. Elected presidents have to fear public opinion. A lesson still valid beyond the US., France and Korea in the 21st century.
(Image: joint exhibition at “Traditional Korean Painting”, Korean Cultural Centre Brussels, 2024)

Degré zéro

As all of us use GPS systems to navigate across the world or just in your city, “degré zéro” might nowadays be associated first of all with the prime meridian 0° longitude, which runs through Greenwich near London and around the globe.
In « Le degré zéro de l’écriture », Roland Barthes (1953) challenges the bourgeois kind of writing of literature. He introduced the pertinent distinction of the verticality of writing styles in the sense of social classes as well as the horizontal form of spoken language He further distinguished écriture as a person’s style which is embedded into the historical and social context of her/his time. As a radical change, Barthes proposed to use scriptor instead of writer as the latter expression is too much loaded with the historical package of the person. Barthes inserts the scriptor as écrivain into her/his time and insists on the intellectual and social context of writing or the author.
As the scriptor (p. 26) does not escape to become a writer « écrivain «, the degree zero de l’écriture postulates a homogeneous society, which obviously is an ill-conceived vision of reality. Language and texts, therefore, are not universal in kind, but bound to situations, which are defined in historical time and space (p. 67). Semiotics was a major field of his analyses of literature and language.
Whereas in a talk you might focus on the person you are talking to, in a written text the other person is « the many » readers, wherever they are and maybe at a much later time as well. There is a qualitative difference and yet modern “voice to text” transcription makes all spoken words immediately available as written document or “compte rendu”. (Source: Roland Barthes: De la parole à l’écriture. in Le grain de la voix, Entretien 1962-1980. p. 12).
Let’s watch our language as we follow the longitude or latitude around the globe and even small deviations from degree zero matter a lot.