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Art Station

Mobility takes time. All people who travel frequently know the long waiting times at train stations. Be for commuting between places or long distance travel, we can hardly escape from the moments when time gets long and longer. The Paris train station Gare de l’Est has brought art in form of posters to the station as a kind of accessible micro-exhibition. The cooperation with the Petit Palais in Paris allows to give more people a taste or at least an appetizer to art work. Most people rush by, but some spend some minutes reading, inhaling exhaling, and continue to their destination or next date. In the battle for attention such initiatives like art in the station hold societies together. People with very different horizons cross each other for short moments in time.

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Words versus Balls

At the occasion of a visit to the “Deutsche Dom” in Berlin, which hosts the historical exhibition of the “Deutsche Bundestag”, I came across the memorable transcript of the speech by Bundespräsident Steinmeier (Image below), which he gave on 2022-2-13. The German President’s words come across as a forceful defense of freedom and democracy as a matter of mind and heart, and against the authoritarian leaders who keep constructing palaces of ice and golf resorts. (“Mögen die Autoritären doch ihre Eispaläste und Golfressorts bauen. Nichts davon ist stärker, nichts leuchtet heller als die Idee der Freiheit und Demokratie in den Köpfen und Herzen der Menschen!”, p.18). There is indeed an ongoing battle on which kind of diplomacy is more effective, words or playing golf together. Apparently the Finnish prime minister seems to be quite keen to play balls with President Trump on the golf course to ensure continued support of the 1000 km Russian Finnish border. Maybe, playing Ping Pong with the Chinese leadership might be more effective in balancing the trade books between Europe and China, just as much as golfing might do the trick with the current Trump administration. What’s your handicap in the golf and ping pong tournament of  international politics.

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Futures for Amazonia

Diversity is the treasure of humanity. This was and remains a permanent challenge as thinking in multiple perspectives is taxing our minds. Simplicity can be a value in science or mathematical proofs, but cybernetics teach is also about the usefulness of a “requisite variety”. The exhibition Amazonia at the Quai Branly in Paris takes us on a journey through richness of the Amazonas, its people, biodiversity and landscapes. First of all the curators Varison and Baniwa manage to accompany us in opening up our minds to non-western concepts, which have for centuries been considered as less developed, but only from a western point of view or imagined sort of cultural superiority. Even nowadays the West seems to be convinced that for the liberation of, for example Venezuela, only a western power can achieve this. The 300 different indigenous peoples of Amazonia have lived through hundreds of years of threats to preserve their cultures. They have managed and they have inherited and still develop multiple ideas about “futures” of the Amazonas region. In just 100 days this exhibition has reached more than 100.000 visitors. Most of them will be convinced of a future and, yes, futures for Amazonia. 

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Time – The Clock

Time keeps puzzling us. The 24 hours of concatenated clips from well-known cinema films are a bit overwhelming or even lengthy. However, this spurs lots of time to reflect on time, on a kind of meta level. We see the clock or clocks ticking in all sorts of situations and environments. Nearly all emotional states can be interpreted relative to a time stamp provided by a clock. Christian Marclay’s oeuvre is screened at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin at a time when we feel multiple clocks ticking at the same time. For the sociologist, there is time on the macro-societal level, like overall socioeconomic development, but also individual time. A single person or a single moment in time may have very different macro-social implications. The possibility to live through the cineastic interpretations of ten to, as opposed to, ten past the hour, are interpreted by us with very different meanings. In a longer or historical sense, the timing of time does not matter that much. Point in time or time as duration, that is the question. Art in cinema can play with this like rock around The Clock. Don’t ask me how much time I spent watching, thinking and feeling through time in this movie exhibition, Should we always measure time with a clock.  Want it or not, we measured by our smartphones all the time and on multiple timelines.

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Between micro and de-facto state

In political science we distinguish between small, micro-states and territories or regions that are defined as de-facto states. Björn Boman (2025) has put the wealthy states of Monaco, Lichtenstein and San Marino into the micro-states category. On the contrary, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Donetsk and Luhansk fall under the label of de-facto states with more controlled access as well as under Russian influence using brutal force to control the zone of Russian influence. Due to its size Ukraine as a whole has been able to resist the Russian forces to be degraded to a de-facto state only. The military and technical ingenuity of a well educated workforce allowed the Ukraine leadership to not only counter the Russian invasion, but also to mobilize enormous support from western democracies in form of weapons, financial and humanitarian assistance including millions of refugees over the last 4 years. Size of territory has entered the equation or balance whether to belong to a the micro- or de-facto state category. In the new multipolar international political arena “the sovereign state” has become a more hybrid concept as well. Micro-states have handled the difference between full internal sovereignty and only partial external sovereignty already for years, the new multipolar international arena is being transformed rapidly in this direction. Choose your camp or align with a sufficient number of countries to form an internal and external sovereign area.

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Konzerthaus Organ

In the Espresso Concert series we have had the chance to listen to young talented musicians. On 2026-1-7 Julian Emanuel Becker charmed the audience with 5+1 pieces in the “Großer Saal“ on the Jehmlich Organ (4 manuals, 74 registers, 5811 pipes). The program ranged from Bruhns, Bach, Mendelssohn Bartholdy to 2 pieces by Jehan Alain, which made for an interesting surprise. Mastering this huge Konzerthaus organ with impressive skills at just 20 years of age caught the attention of the Berlin audience including the tourists on visits. The enthusiasm of Julian Emanuel Becker for his instrument and the brief introductions he gave himself to each piece created a unique learning as well as musical experience for the entire audience irrespective of age and prior expertise. The „Espresso addicts“ of the Konzerthaus even took the chance to chat with the young organist to learn more about the marvelous instrument and the next steps in his promising career. The studies in Paris at the Conservatoire have been important steps in the careers of formidable pianists and composers for more than 200 years. Becker will surely return to Berlin to give concerts again. Try to catch a seat, if you can. (Image: Julian Emanuel Becker 2026-1-7 at the Konzerthaus Jehmlich Organ)

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Premium for silence

People are willing to pay a premium on housing prices for a more silent environment. In the study Enrico Moretti & Harrison Wheeler (2025) estimate that the construction of a silencing wall near a noisy traffic junction or road will increase prices for every decibel of noise reduction by about 3%. Distances closer to the noise shields get higher increases and this mechanism works even up to 400 meters away from the isolation. The investment in decibel noise reductions (not statistical noise) meets a willingness to pay a premium on housing prices. Investment in positive environmental effects (silence) have an obvious marketable premium value. This is most likely just the obverse effect that noise nearby housing is penalized and part of the social mechanism of gentrification. Housing prices and rental costs are known to be powerful drivers of gentrification as well.

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Metabolic harm

At the beginning of the 21st century the lack of physical activity for large parts of society has become a major risk of and cause of metabolic harm. We have become used to a sedentary lifestyle and the digital access to distractions and information have encouraged further immobility. Alex Broom et al. (2025) stress the importance to include social and governmental interventions into the many existing medical, pharmacological and technological interventions. The authors advocate a rather holistic approach to really make a difference. The obesity trends cause metabolic harm of an  unprecedented size. We have to rethink mobility patterns and other behavioral changes into our daily routines to bring back more stimulation to our metabolic system.

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Rotational energy

We all know rotational energy from our bicycles. lighting used to come from a small rotational energy source attached to a wheel (dynamo light) which produced sufficient electricity to lighten a front and back light. The use of rotational energy, however, is much older than the application on the bicycles, which have been largely replaced by batteries and LED-lights. The first so-called Post-mills stem from Normandy as well as the Rhine riversides around 1200. It took about 800 years to make a splendid comeback as energy source in the age of the „All electric society“ of the 21st century in the making. The „Deutsche Museum of Technology“ in Berlin has great examples of such rotational energy sources on display in the museum‘s park. You can walk a path through the past and future of rotational energy sources.

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Utopian Mobility

From time to time we have to reconsider our investments in mobility infrastructure. What seemed to make sense in the 50s,60s or 70s often makes no sense 60 years later. Highways, which separate city districts like walls belong to rather utopian visions about City life and mobility, progress and living conditions. These utopian individualized mobility solutions don’t seem to serve us as well as we believed, or were made to believe, more than half a century ago. Empty highways midday at the turn of 2025/26 tell their own story about liabilities from the past and outdated ideas of technical and social progress. Sharing solutions have become very popular and the younger generations adopt already different mobility patterns than older generations. Each generation adheres to its own more or less utopian mobility model, adjustments are likely to be made accordingly.