The history of ideas in physics has been evolving or revolving a lot around the wave-particle-duality. Even if the basic debate by now is about a century old, we still need to come to grips with this challenging notion that light is not just a beam and nice colors through a prism yielding a spectrum of frequencies, but it can emit material matter called photons that have a non-zero value(s) of energy.
Max Planck came up with the formula E = h × f, where h is the Planck constant, E the energy and f the frequency of the photon. The synthesis of Einstein’s light quanta and De Broglie’s matter waves became the foundation of quantum mechanics.
The exciting evolution of physical ideas results in the state of the “art” view that, for example, light can take both forms, wave and particle, at the same time. Quantum mechanics has become a thriving field in physics and is currently transforming the world of computing in the 21st century. The amounts of funds invested in the race of applications of quantum computing across the globe are “astronomic” and have become part of dual-use spending of research funding. Encryption of information or access codes are of growing importance for civil (banking, mobility, health info) or military purposes. The speed of quantum processors will allow cracking of codes much faster and therefore new dangers are looming in many fields. It is a rather competitive field, which has evolved a lot from the original wave and/or particle vision of the world (of physics).
For social scientists there are several examples of applications of the concepts of quantum mechanics to social and behavioral sciences (Link 1, Link 2). Hard to predict, whether the wave and/or particle view will dominate the social applications of elements of the history of ideas in physics. New concepts in science challenge our traditional science-based thinking about time, space and space-time with implications even for our understanding of causality and covariance.
(Image of Dice icoshahedron (animated 3D image) from Egypt, dated to 2nd century before our time, BNF, Paris) 
Negative time
In 2025 an experimental setting has come up with a demonstration of negative time. This is a mind-blowing mental exercise to imagine the science fiction like framework to allow time to be negative as well.
This invites several epistemological questions as well. Can we imagine or live with a reversible concept of time? Maybe music has given us clues. In composition of music, we can easily play the notes of a basic theme just in reverse or mirrored order. Modern rhythms like in beat music as accompaniment by a drum use for example a rhythm like (use your hands or drum sticks!)
“left left right left /
right right left right”, (redo faster if you internalized the rhythm).
A reversal of the beat (its inversion) like replays of rhythms in reverse order seem to return the energy. This beat pattern is perceived as forward moving and is advancing in chronological time. It has fascinated a whole generation and spurred crazy movements to accompany the rhythm.
A simple tune might be played in reverse order as well. Just take a piano scale and play 1 2 3 1 fingers, and then 1 3 2 1 in a mirrored fashion (1231 1321). Even 1 2 3 1 as 3 2 1 3 gives an impression of inversion. Through this composition technique you get a bit of a feeling for the potential of a reversal of time or what negative time might feel like.
The innovation through quantification challenges our concepts of time more and more. The direction of time is subject of a fundamental revision. Theoretical concepts have predicted this for a long time.
(Image: Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris)
Quantification
The most obvious association with quantification is the attempt to quantify in the sense of measurement of situations, locations or social phenomena. This has taken considerable steps with the availability of smartphones that measure and thereby quantify all sorts of wanted and unwanted information about us. The distances walked are among the easiest to quantify. There have been many accounts and discussions about this kind of quantification. The results have been a further push towards self-optimization assisted by a quantification of almost all aspects of life. That is daily business of social sciences.
Quantification has another well-defined meaning to it, which is in physics. The revolution of the early 20th century has been to deviate from classical physics which assumed continuous processes in time and continuous measurements to the new world of quantum physics, another kind of quantification. This allusion is due to the Alain Aspect’s inspiring book “Si Einstein avait su” (2025) and his efforts to make quantum physics understood to a broader public. For me one of the merits of the book is the reminder that experimental physics can contribute and resolve many epistemological questions.
(Image: my popularized approximation of Schrödinger’s cat in Berlin Zoo)
Time Concepts
Tell me about your concept of time. How do you define time? Answers to this question are likely to depend on your upbringing, affinity to a specific scientific discipline or epistemological belief(s). Aristotle defines time to be subordinate to the more basic principle of change. To understand change we need the concept of time. Two points in time define time, intermediate points are possible, which might be interpreted as a precursor of infinitesimally short spells of time. To explain change, Aristotle refers to his concept of time. Other concepts of time build on the notion of succession of events or sequences of events.
Clocks going round in circles have been used to show the progression of time independent of events. Beams of atoms later allowed for more precision of time keeping. The prevalent concept of time still is dominated by the idea of time as an arrow, usually depicted in some diagram resemblance based on the Cartesian coordinate system, but usually starting at 0 or a particular point in time as diagrams in economics.
Following on from the old concept of change and time, we still claim for causality in most day-to-day experiences or for social processes the link to a chronological progression of time. In statistical analyses building on time-stamped occurrences we may use event history analyses or stochastic differential equations to analyze (social) change depending on one or several (earlier) factors. Even the theory of deterministic chaos, which is applied in weather forecasts for example, arises from the sequence of point of measurements.
Mainly since Isaac Newton we cherish the notion of a universal time, which helps us to coordinate different locations on our planet with reference to the Greenwich mean time. Other concepts of time make use of infinity of time and how to deal with this. Life before, or life after death, are human constructs trying to make time understandable or at least manageable for us beyond our own living time. Depictions of time in the arts, paintings or music opens up yet another vast space of thinking about, as well as, experiencing time. We did have and still do have a great time thinking about time. 
Antique Drama
Modern drama and performances have their roots in antique drama. This is evident in literature from the time and some rare artefacts that have survived until today. Masks and statues give an amazing impression of the high standards already attained more than 2.000 years ago.
Many performances have been linked to mystical rituals and religious ceremonies, but beyond those instances there has also been a depiction and interpretation of for example the Greek mythology. Dionysos inspired many artists and people of that time and philosophers equally found inspiration in performances and the representations in temples, arenas and market places. The treasures of the BNF in Paris, galerie Mazarin and rooms next to it like “la salle des colonnes” (Image below), allow to travel back in time into an antique setting in the room of columns.
Taking the world as horizon is the title of the rotating exhibition from the treasures of the BNF. The beginnings of philosophy and major milestones in arts and mysticism across the world figure in this exhibition. In the spacious setting it feels like travelling back in time for a while, just to build on these foundations.
Mindmap Me
Tools like artificial intelligence allow all sorts of transformations and depictions. The photo editing tools are widespread and particularly popular among the young users. My own transformative exercises, latest with www.bairbe.me, have yielded interesting insights, well worth an intergenerational playmate. For the guys there is the www.yobrick.com version for brick gamers. 
The App “Canvas” allowed me to delve deeper into my own mind by giving instructions of how to create an image of the structure of the blog entries on this webpage. Of course, it is not (yet) a real AI-generated content map, but it is only a matter of time until such tools will exist. After all, this would be just an arranged and rearranged list of contents using the hyperlink structure of the texts as well.
For the time being, I derive my own structure of the blog entries by topics, categories and tags including the hyperlinks or internal referrals. Interlinkages are mostly stated explicitly. However, there are many implicit links, which are obvious to some, but not others. AI-systems could use occurrences of words, synonyms and antonyms . Colors in addition to bubble sizes and (in)direct lines may complement such mindmaps. This can help to reveal another, additional layer to connections between categories or tags. The Ai-generated image shown below was created with the APP Canvas as a first approximation and AI-augmented test version in form of abstract images).
Next steps on the way to understand human intelligence and, maybe, augment it with a next generation AI-system would use a colored-3D version of such a mindmap and use the chronological evolution of the blog posts in a kind of evolutionary animation. This should allow us to go beyond the usual psychological classification of fluid and crystallized intelligence. We might come to grips what it means to be “in a Paris state of mind” or when hallucinations become overwhelming.
January Spring
The early signs of spring in Europe usually show up in March. The monthly data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) show that „average temperature over European land for January 2025 was 1.80°C, 2.51°C above the 1991-2020 average for January,“ (Link). The warming throughout January has several consequences. Vegetation starts into spring earlier. This means that people with allergies of early flowering suffer earlier during a year. Winter rest in animal lives will be shorter. The risks of droughts in some regions combined with floods in other regions is increased as well. Rockslides in the Alps and flooding in Italy and the Baltic states add to the costs of climate change.
Western Europe, witnessed a relatively „dry January“, even for those who kept drinking alcohol throughout the month. Heating and heating costs came down a bit and friends of gardening were surprised by some early showings of flowers of spring even in Paris neighborhoods (image below) as early as the first few days in February 2025! Strange new world. It all seems to happen a bit faster than most scientists expected. Time for adaptive behavior is shortened as well. 
United by travel
The economic rationale of profit maximization privileges the construction and management of profitable connections. For train transportation this has spurred over decades the construction of new train lines between metropolitan cities or regions. Whereas connections between Paris and Brussels are abundant and expensive from central stations those living somewhere in between the 2 cities, for example in Mons, have had little chance of access to reasonably priced and fast train connections. This neglect of the in between cities is slowly changing. Sufficiently fast and reasonably priced connections allow Europe to grow together also at the margins. Public transport as alternative to car traffic across borders for „in-between cities“ will bridge the gap between the ease of travel between metropolitan an more remote areas. There is economic growth to be reaped as connected infrastructures allow for economic as well as social mobility and joint development. This is the real European challenge ahead of us and not the numerous summits without tangible results for rural and urban populations beyond metropolitan regions. For regions spanning countries, some will be finally reunited by better public transport a kind of ecological unification. 
Artists Intergenerational
Generations influence each other. That’s a very simple general statement. Biographies, auto-biographies and life course research have all established sometimes more, sometimes less direct influences between the generations. The exhibition “A partir d’elle. Artists and their Mother“, curated by Julie Héraut, combines literature, photo and video that speak to the rather complex psychological or sociological issue. Visits in 2025 available at Stichting A, Brussels.
The starting point of the inquiry into the nature of photography by Roland Barth is chosen like an investigation into a crime. Sophie Létourneau had written an essay which proposes to read the original text by Barthes from this perspective. The artists in the exhibition seem to follow this process of asking themselves what their relationship to their mother is like and how to represent this in an artistic form.
A life course perspective, which takes images or videos with 10 or about 20 years difference, offers a kind of analytical as well as artificialized vision of the evolution of the artists’ relationships with their mother. Realistic images with a morphing backwards from old to young is presented next to images confronting young and old next to each other. “Words don’t come easy to me” could be the title of one of the videos where a young artist has a particularly hard time to talk to his/her mother.
Just after the celebrating Franz Kafka last year and his famous “Letter to my father”, the inquiry into artists and their mothers complements the analytical and artistic vision and interpretations of the child and parent intergenerational relationship. 
Victims and Perpetrators
In addition to the annually proclaimed “We shall never forget the concentration camps and the murder of 6.000.000 Jews”, we should add: “We shall not be silent”. Silence about a crime can be interpreted as the “latent” continuation of hatred. Silence might just be a pretended ignorance of the genocide and the holocaust. We have to keep very alert amidst the spreading falsification and numerous falsification attempts of historical facts surrounding the ideation about the Nazi-time and Nazi-terror from the 1930s onwards culminating in the Shoa and systematic mass killings of civilians and any actual and deemed opposition.
Particularly in Germany there is a renewed need to go beyond the “Stolperstein-Initiative” and continue also sometimes own personal research of family histories in order to understand the logic and power of perpetrators. Some spectacular legal cases like “Klaus Barbie” or “Rudolf Eichmann” or the Nuremberg trials became historic events, but the crimes of many Nazis during these times remained below the radar of wider public attention.
In view of many disrespectful utterances of some politicians and even some business men the old and new perpetrators of antisemitic propaganda and acts should have to face more fierce opposition. This needs the commitment of the silent and sometimes shamefully indifferent people across the world. (Image: list of concentration camps, sign in Berlin Schöneberg, Richard von Weizäcker Platz).
Holocaust Remembrance
The 80th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau marks a very special kind of remembrance. As the number of survivors of Nazi-terror and genocide is shrinking the testimony of survivors is becoming more rare and more precious. According to the “Jerusalem Post” on 2025-1-28 (p. 9) the number of survivors that came back to the site of horrific crime has shrunk from 300 ten years ago to 50 in 2025. The strength and courage to continue to testify amidst having reached 90+ or even 100+ years of age is a “living memorial” of its own kind.
Many television stations across Europe have followed the example set by this special Holocaust remembrance day and focused equally on recorded testimonies or additional live interviews of survivors. Please keep repeating these testimonies to confront people with the outcome of Nazi-terror in Europe. The choice this year was a courageous one. Instead of speeches of sorrow and lip service to fight antisemitism by acting politicians, the focus on the testimony of survivors in public, on TV and to large audiences will encourage others to continue to give testimonial of these horrors.
(Image: extract of Pressreader newspaper titles 2025-1-27)
Ukraine Chanson
The Russian war in Ukraine is not limited to the military killings. From the earliest period in 2014 already Russia initiated a war on Ukraine culture and Ukrainian cultural heritage. Therefore, it is great to witness the efforts by Ukrainian musicians not only to retrieve their rich heritage for example in the field of chansons, but to develop traditional songs with new formats. Jazzy versions of children’s songs have been sung with an admirable soft voice by singer and composer Viktoria Leléka and her band.
Most people might think of children’s songs as an insignificant niche of music. The importance of singing songs for children and babies is a scientifically well documented finding. Early bonds are created and a sense of belonging and comfort, particularly during difficult times of life. Comforting music is also an intergenerational issue. Transmission of emotions and values across generations is the very fabric of societies. The recent album “Kolysanky” and the song “Ne Zhal” is a great reminder that it is the children that count not the, maybe, broken cradle.
During the war time with many absent fathers, chansons can bridge the emotional hardships. The movie “The Chorist” had demonstrated the power of children songs for children, their parents and all generations involved. Chansons have a much longer “half-time of life” than war.
From an unknown French composer the cradle song “Fais dodo Colin …” and Brahm’s Wiegenlied are classics many people in Europe will remember from their childhood and still transmit them today. Great news that Ukraine continues this tradition with new, innovative adaptations of their own lively cultural heritage.
(Image: extract of lyrics Ne Zhal’, from webpage) 
Review Year
It is a nice common practice to wish „A happy New Year“ to people at the beginning of another calendar year. It is also a good practice to review the last twelve months yourself or with friends. We spend,however, much less time to listen to friendly or enemy fire as a kind of evaluation of what were the successes and failures of last year. In monarchies in the middle ages a clown or a fool was allowed to present criticisms with funny packaging. Nowadays, comedians have taken over this important role to review experiences and policies that worked or went awfully wrong. All media join in in this tradition and summarize what happened before the next busy months take over. Yes, it is important to devote time to this procedure. There is a risk that it becomes „the same procedure as every year“, but it is never to late to learn from failures or simple mistakes. Failed last year, fail better next year. 
Zerreissprobe
The term „Zerreissprobe“ has been chosen by the curator team of the Neue Nationalgalerie In Berlin for the Retrospective of „Art between politics and society“ in the years 1945-2000. In this time period after the 2nd World War until the other „fin du siècle“ the politics of creating a new world order, the cold war and the liberalization of societies had profound impacts on art as well. The positioning of art in the dynamic context and conflicts of these decades is quite well reflected in the title of the exhibition. The English title „extreme tension“ suggests somehow that these years were rather extreme compared to ?, probably today? Although on the territory of Ukraine we witness a hot war rather than a cold war initiated by Putin‘s Russian imperial illusions. The cited work of Günter Brus „Zerreissprobe“ is translated as „stress test“. And maybe, this translation characterizes the post war period even better as these years are a forerunner of what happened after 2000. We continue to be put to tests in politics and societal developments. Accomplishments from the last century are put to crude tests again. Solidarity of people and nations are under pressure to demonstrate their reliability under extreme tension or stress. Art throughout the 5 decades of the last century was a precursor of stress tests for politicians and challenged society in its basic understandings. The comments on the notice board next to the exhibition show the themes of tension in the 2020s. Tensions in families and partnerships, often more extreme around christmas trees, have taken center stage for younger visitors of the exhibition. Sociological research has observed such trends and coined this societal phenomenon „individualization“. Art embedded in society seems to be part of that evolution as well. Art movements are less visible as collective movements. Artists appear more individualistic or ideosyncratic nowadays, just less inclined to be part of a defining larger group. If artists are no longer avantgarde but rather followers of societal trends, the whole „raison d‘être“ of art changes as well. We are likely to witness yet another „ Zerreissprobe“. Cuts to art and culture budgets constitute an additional „ Zerreissprobe“ in the original sense of the word and of art between politics and society in 2024/2025. 
Films of Stills
The exhibition of multimedia artist Nan Goldin at the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) in Berlin presents a retrospective of her work using slideshows of stills including soundtracks (Image below). The topics and narratives range from autobiographical work on own traumatic experiences to works entitled „memory lost“. The sequences of stills are a form to deal with trauma through art like overcoming the suicide of a family member. Drug or sexual dependency enter the stills and it becomes clear that stillness is part of the coping mechanism she employs. It is hard to watch, sit still and endure the films of stills. However, there is a kind of therapeutic experience to be gained in coping with trauma through art. The installation in several tents increases the reclusive atmosphere and entering the still rooms invites is, somehow including a warning of what kind of chilling experience we are up to throughout the exhibition. The almost therapeutic experience needs to be handled with care and a visit with friends or family is highly recommended in my view. Community and communication are key to coping with these experiences and even still images contribute to building resilience. 
Famous Neighbors
Sometimes people believe they can catch a bit of fame, if they live in a prominent neighborhood. Next to a famous person or the glamor surrounding such a place is inspiring. In Berlin the honor or fame is transmitted for example with the street names of composers. Everybody knows Johann Sebastian Bach and around Christmas time many of his compositions will be performed again. Directly next to Bach street we find Flotow street. It needs a bit of info about music and music history to identify the honor for Flotow to appear next to Bach. Well, Berlin you are „wunderbar“. You have made my day just on one of the first few days of the direct train connection between Paris and Berlin started. We grow together in small steps. 
Parallel Universe
Sometimes, it might well be before during or after presidential elections, you feel like living in a parallel universe. Especially after the U.S. presidential election many people beyond the U.S. have the impression that millions of people have rather strange views of how our living on earth could be worthwhile for all, rather than a few. In a crude and rude election campaign many people in the U.S. must have been alienated from what they imagine a peaceful living together in a country or on our planet. Faced with the brutal language it is soothing and comforting to read books again. Already in 2023 adult fiction has outperformed on the book market in the U.S. “Romantasy” and narrative non-fiction (are the new bestsellers beyond travel books, cooking, children books and comics according to circana.com.
Uncertainty, complexity and plurality, apparently, have destabilised many persons to the extent that foundation texts of religions, predominantly the bible, have become bestsellers again with more than 14 million book sales in the U.S. in 2023 and up to November in 2024. Printed copies as well as specialised editions for children go to new first time readers and buyers as well as replacing older copies. The need to find simplifying answers to basic questions of humanity is on the rise again.
Some persons might wish to find the existence of a parallel universe in studying the bible, others just a retreat from the horrors of daily news on TV and social media, we all consume more than ever before. We are no longer surprised to find the first church in Switzerland, which offers an AI in church which listens and answers to your confessions. Bible apps offer detailed search functions and reading aloud in case you prefer listening.
There are even unauthorised historical translations of the bible on the market in antiques book shops, which achieve exceptional prices.
Of universes, there seem to be many, overlapping and in parallel.
(Image: Reading Magritte on surrealism)
On Organics
Organics are the new hype. Organics are everywhere. It is true in organic chemistry, biochemistry or pharmaceutical biochemistry we start from organic compounds as the basis for various forms of classification systems, structures and reaction chains. A search for organics brings you to Organic Farming and to lots of other applications of organic production as well as organic design.
The extended definitions highlight the foundation in biology and chemistry to then include any processes which integrate cyclical reproduction or resources and conservation of biodiversity. Based on the plurality of forms and connectivity of organic compounds this leads to a vast and diversified basis of carbon- and hydrogen-based life on earth. The ensuing complexity (variety of species) has been the basis for mankind to come into being. It is likely to determine also our survival in the long run. Organics is based on open as well as closed forms and therefore has an encompassing nature. Depending on time and space constellations (temporality) evolution has taken one or the other path. We are certainly not at the end of this evolution, although we through the loss of biodiversity we narrow down new potentials in an unprecedented way. Rethinking life on earth from a cell-based perspective of plastics and chloroplasts is a challenge, but it will lead us on towards the “organic turn” in the 21st century. 
On Temporality
Time is passing, or is it? We tend to confound time, with passing of time or an occurrence at a specific point in time. Time has a static use, which refers to a date of birth or date of death. Time refers to durations like the lifetime or time in office of a person or a political leader. In most such cases time is considered as a continuous and linear process. The concept of temporality questions these common perspectives on time to allow additional time perspectives in the description and understanding of time.
Temporality is linked to a more flexible view on the periodization of history. The time before and after the 12 years of Nazi-terror will then be part of the extended periodization of the Nazi-Regime in Germany and Europe. Similarly, temporality widens the perspective on social phenomena by linking historical events to the time before and maybe even to what follows, seen as a consequence of the temporal and spacial co-evolution.
A deviation from the static view of time and a rigid periodization of fascism allows to study the Russian male dominated political authoritarianism as a new wave of fascism in Europe, which negates the right of existence of the state of Ukraine in its neighborhood.
Temporality expresses the need to go beyond a simplel periodization to include a spacial dimension in the defintion of time, much like modern physics does in relativity theory. Temporality, therefore, opens up a “thought space” beyond just the timing of events, which may challenge many of our day-to-day experiences. Cultures with a different understanding of time or the pace of time become a “sound board” for our way of considering and being captured in a time space. Probably many artists are forerunners in playing with time and the way time is “treating” them. Most of them face(d) hardship during their lifetime, but have an extended “after life” in terms of reputation. Some contribute to the perodization in the arts and of their time. They all shape(d) temporality.
(Image: extract from Hans Bol, 1593 Ring Jousing in front of a pond inan imaginary city, MRBAB, Brussels)
History’s Weight
The artist Damien Deroubaix is currently exposed at the BNF.fr in its historic site Richelieu. Together with and next to some of the historic treasures of the BNF collections the unique exhibition allows to experience history’s weight on our current existence. The work of Deroubaix is following and pursuing historic art trajectories with a special historical and ethical consciousness. Techniques of art are insensitive to the moral compass of the painter in history. The collections of the BNF like all major European collections have to handle their colonial past and immoral depictions throughout history. Deroubaix accomplished to liberate techniques of art of their colonial linkages and imagination of emperors focusing on humanitarian values. War is horror, in the past and in the present. Genocide in Rwanda is war crime and dealing with the memories of people an honorable way to look forward conscious of the past. Hybrid forms of art allow multiple contextualizations of his work. In the Galerie Mansart and Pigott of the BNF the historical embedding enriches the art and vice versa. Art allows us to rise beyond the ashes mankind has and continues to inflict on us. (Images: extracts of Damien Deroubaix at BNF, Paris 2024)
Masculinity Photos
After the turn of the millennium we keep questioning us about basic principles of humanity, previously called mankind as well. The Zeitenwende has occurred through Putin and other male warriors and warmongers 2 years ago. This is reason enough to keep asking us what is behind the male visions of life and living together. Any hints from social sciences, biology and media studies are helpful to broaden and deepen our understanding of what constitutes masculinity and how it evolves over the life course and within or between societies. The collection of photographs from Jérôme Prochiantz currently exposed at the BNF enlightened the issue. Ever since Max Frisch wrote „Homo faber“ we are aware of the technological transmission process a man might be subjected to. Capturing single moments or arrangements with a lot of care for details shows maybe otherwise hidden male predilections and leaning towards abstraction. An idea or undefined vision, maybe an illusion are depicted in this revelation of masculinity at the turn of the century. Creative and destructive forces are jointly presented in this continuous questioning of masculinity. (Image: BNF, exhibition 2024-11 Jérôme Prochiantz)
Forced Living Space
The „Topography of Terror“ hosted the book launch of the research project on „Zwangsräume“ (forced living space or forced homes). The cooperation of an impressive network of organizations (Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin e.V., Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin, Alfred Landecker Foundation, Metropol Verlag) has achieved to uncover the forced relocations of thousands of German jewish people from rented place to another one, thereby regrouping and cramping Jews into ever smaller living spaces in predetermined houses within Berlin. Through this horrible step by step expropriation and extermination terror was present and visible all over Berlin. The online documentation and data access allowed citizen science projects to accompany the research and actively contribute to enlarge the data investigated, analysis and dissemination of the findings. The continuation and extension of the project is already in preparation and seeks additional funding and volunteers. The traditional book publication helps to provide an insight into the thorough historical research which started with a more adequate definition „Zwangsräume“ than the previously used term of so-called „Judenhäuser“, since the houses had and kept a mixed population sharing the living spaces until deportations of the jewish persons forced into ever smaller living spaces before. The property of the deported persons was recovered by officials from sealed apartments and sold mostly as bargains on auctions or just redistributed among officials in need or with special merit for the Nazi-movement. This adds an intergenerational dimension to the project that is also worth looking into in the next phase of this extremely valuable project based on large online archives from original register information and other documents. (Image: The map shown below in the presentation has blue signs that have already been traced and hundreds of red signs where the histories are not yet retrieved).
Nazi Reinterpretations
Even almost 80 years after the end of Nazi terror and the 2nd World War started by Germany, we witness attempts to reinterpret the lives and careers of many Nazi officials. In the same realm, the crimes committed to pull out „Stolpersteine“ try to negate the horrible crimes committed by the Nazi leadership and their followers. The special exhibition at „Topography of Terror“ on „Reinhard Heydrich. Career and Violence” allows to study the biography of this high ranking and convinced Nazi official. After the usual career trajectory of a marine soldier he entered the Nazi secret police and made his career moving up the ranks showing readiness to use above average violence. This seems to have been a precondition to qualify for fast career trajectories. These personality traits have been demonstrated for thousands of Nazi officials in their professional life. This exhibition has additional merits to provide shocking evidence that the wife of Heydrich even many years after the end of the Nazi terror and 2nd WW does not show any signs of regret for what were her husband’s crimes against humanity. They had a splendid life and lived in a palace near Prag before her husband died after an attack by partisans. This is a great lesson to sharpen our awareness of those trying to reinterpret the lives of Nazi leaders and many of their followers. It is a timely reminder to not focus on rosy pictures of the Nazi time without the acknowledgment of the responsibility for millions of people who died. (Image: Extract of exhibition on Heydrich, Topography of Terror, Berlin 2024, book publication).
Happy Time
“The times are a changing”, so is happiness. This is the spice of life we might add as well. Trajectories of happy life run not as flat lines simply on different, but largely parallel levels. Curves of different persons intersect. Even the focus of what determines personal happiness is different from one person to other. A job-focused person deviates substantially from a person deriving happiness mainly from her/his private life. The time dimension of happiness is yet another puzzle. Some persons have a focus on now and today, others consider a future time perspective for a happy life as less, equally or more important. Even the retrospective experience of happiness or unhappy childhood experiecences can override current emotions and oveall satisfaction with life. Economists apply a so-called discount rate to benfits or costs that accrue in future, which means that 1000 € in future, usually are estimated to have a lower value than 1000 € now. Happiness at some point in time in the future is likely to “suffer” from the same rationale. Satisfaction now is valued higher than even the same satisfaction at a later point in time. This probably explains a large deal why fewer people are concerned with their retirement benefits early on in their professional career and their job satisfaction trajectory. Many artists, apparently have a deviating time horizon. They endure economic hardship now for some recognition in future, but still have a happy time now.
(Image: Jorge Carrasco, Church Painting, France) 
Happy Employee
The research on happiness, subjective well-being or overall satisfaction with your life is also an empirical question. Analyses of being happy donot only focus of overall happiness, but look much more into the details of happiness. Beyond the tricky longitudinal observations of happiness it is common scientific practice to deal with subdomains of happiness like satisfaction of employees with their job, satisfaction with one’s job beyond the honeymoon and hangover effect, best known from family studies.
Each of those subdomains has a significant effect on overall happiness. The novel “Happy Life” by David Foenkinos is an interesting example which focuses mainly on the subdomains of job satisfaction, satisfaction with private and romantic partners as the major domains of a happy life. As developed in the novel, people make job changes to re-orientate professional careers or reset their private life. A low point on the happiness scale in one domain might be compensated by higher levels in another domain. These impact from one domaine to another might have substantial time lags involved as well. More drastic resets (à la Foenkinos) can be avoided through focus on other subdomains of overall happiness as well.
How happy are you with your housing situation, neighborhood, your pet, your physical health? There a multiple +/-spill-over effects to overall happiness. Reading a novel might be one as well, just take time reserved to yourself.(Image BnF expo “women in sport”, 20024)
Happy Life
There are countries in this world that want to prescribe to their citizens what constitutes a happy life. Religious beliefs are another powerful instigation of what may be called a happy life now or in the future. Most people on earth, however, have their very own idea about happiness and how to get closer to this moment, phases or destiny of their lives.
Happy life is also the title of the novel or „une fable optimiste“ by David Foenkinos with the almost programmatic title „La vie heureuse“. It has been qualified as a bit absurd, but at the time of celebrating 100 years of surrealism, this fits into the surreal world episodes and narratives that surround us. The novel is full of ups and downs for the major characters, which reflects the inevitable links of happy relative to unhappy moments in life. The pseudo experience of death allows to press a kind of reset button in life after which love and life can start afresh. This might not work for all us as Foenkinos seems to tell us with the choice of the dedication and citation of Charlotte Salomon „On devait même, pour aimer plus encore la vie, être mort une fois“. Charlotte Salomon, however, lives on through her formidable artistic work accomplished in her short life.
Phase Shifting
The Berlin “Hamburger Bahnhof Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart” recently acquired “Phase Shifting Index” by Jeremy Shaw. As part of an exhibition of new acquisitions, Sam Bardaouil, the director of the museum and curator of this exhibition has installed the large-scale video and sound installation at the end of the long corridor of the “Rieckhallen”. The impressive, even overwhelming art work was created in 2020. It was first shown at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 
The piece consists of seven large suspended screensand creates a space like in dance club, discotheque or dance studio. The visual and sound experience is allmost psychedelic. The near obsessional dancing shown on the screens represent different periods of dancing with their particular patterns of movements and choreographies. The phase of the electromagnetic waves is shifting from one screen to the other and towards the end of the performances it becomes clear, that they all follow a similar wave or rave pattern. Sublimation or ecstasy are the underlying index-like common traits. Each period or decade 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, all had their peculiar dance and movement patterns. The video-installation is like a history of art of expression through body movement, amplified and indexed through rhythm and sound.
Electromagnetic waves can be characterized through wave shifting in various forms. This work gives us a feeling for the fascination of movement and phase shifting emotions. Don’t worry, the immersion ends after 10+ minutes and, if you like, you might read up on the physics of electromagnetic waves and phase shifting to calm you down.
Images: “Phase Shifting Index” by Jeremy Shaw, 2020, Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof, 2024-9
Waiting time
A new report by Darzi, a former cancer surgeon and past minister of health in the UK, paints a dismal picture of the British health service (NHS) over the last 15 years under conservative rule. The public service has seen no increase in its budget accounting for population growth and the aging of the population. The service is no longer able “to give patients the timely care they need” (The Guardian 2024-9-12 title page). Increased waiting times lead to an estimated 14.000 premature deaths per year. Darzi presents data that show 300.000 persons had to wait longer than one year for a treatment that should have been performed within 18 weeks.
The staff seems desperate for changes as well as they have to spend more time on management of waiting times, time which is lost for real treatment. The quality of care is another issue which awaits urgent attention. Health cannot wait for most patients, but the neglect of investment in hospitals and people is expensive in the longer run. Even the reform efforts should not wait any longer. Time is a precious good and each life matters. (Image back cover of exhibition catalogue Käthe Kollwitz at MOMA 2024).
Olympic Nature
Nature and its biodiversity can teach us many lessons. This is made very explicit in the small exhibition in the “Jardin des Plantes” in Paris. The treasures of (lost) biodiversity are exposed in the adjacent “Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle”. In a pleasant environment within Paris you can stroll along rare flowers and trees to pass the posters that demonstrate the astonishing achievements of some species (Les champions of nature). For example ants would surpass us in weightlifting in relationship to own weight. A marathon of 42 km is a very short distance for birds flying across continents with rest. High jump or long jump is rather easy for frogs, but we struggle already to jump a little bit higher than our own body length. Lots of other examples are shown the exhibition and should make us a bit more humble concerning the sport accomplishments of humans. Beyond Darwin and Mendel there is a lot to see and experience in the Great Gallery of Evolution. After the question remains whether we are really at the top of the evolutionary ladder. In terms of marketing our successes irrespective of many species disappearing with rapid speed, we still appear rather unique in the evolution. Learning from other species as in bionics is a powerful strategy which is also quite effective to empower humans compared to other species.
Olympics for All
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games have demonstrated the extraordinary competence, professionalism and competitiveness of all athletes. The television spectators and live participants in the events have been involved to a great deal.
After all this hype around sports let us consider the probability of getting involved in physical activities and sports. Additionally, it is of interest, whether people are encouraged to continue sports, maybe at higher ages as well through these sports events like Olympia.
High level athletes are most likely to continue their sports activities. In many countries the extraordinary athletes of the Paralympics faced tough challenges to pursue their sport interests and passion.
However, the public health challenge is the big unresolved issue of how to best raise an awareness for the pleasures and benefits of sport for the masses. (bibliography by BNF “Santé et activité physique). It is not only a matter of suitable infrastructure, but also the question of sports in your neighbourhood. This issue has implications for urban and rural communities and how they organize the practice of sports in an inclusive way. Each step may be a stepping stone into sports for all ages and pathologies.
The pleasure and benefit to walk or something simple as walking to or walking after work, are part of the solution to many public health issues.
The visitors of the Paris Olympics walked a lot.
This fun experience in an enthusiastic city will encourage many to continue the simple exercise without thinking about exercise. This will do the trick. Just do it, without thinking to much about it.
