Phoenix Report, Day One: Styrofoam

Because it wasn't such a nice place to live in?

I don't know what was most disconcerting about yesterday's remembrance of the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years ago. It might have been the fact that everyone appeared to have made the same documentary, which gave the televised evening a very repetitive feel. Or it might have been the way in which Angela Merkel managed to convey absolutely nothing of the joy of twenty years ago. But most likely it was the almost reverent way in which the ARD played host to former SED Politburo member Siegfried Lorenz.

That was just plain weird.

For some reason, the GDR has gained the image of a fluffy bunny among dictatorships, more of a forty-year variety act than something to be really afraid of. The people living in it might have disagreed, mind you. If you were permanently watched, had hardly any freedom of movement, were forced to sing those godawful songs every now and then and hadn't eaten a banana since the beginning of time, you might just have been slightly scoffed at the way in which the former suppressors were treated by the media. There was a reason why everyone wanted to get out. Imagine Hitler reminiscing about those good old Holocaust days on Israeli television. A different scale of crime, I know, but the image did cross my mind.

And if we're not going to remember the crime, why remember its end?

The joy of good design

Or in this case, a five-fold Rozetsku power plug extension produced by Art Lebedev.

Source: Engadget

Motivating the urban cyclist

An interesting post today on the Bicycle Design Blog from Batavus bike designer Eric Kamphof; and while I don't go along entirely with some of his analysis, it is good to have an extended exposé about the choices facing modern bicycle designers, and the increasing differentiation of their market.

Customer feedback

To:
Staatliche Museen in Berlin
Visitor Service

Dear Sir, Madam,

I write this in celebration of an entirely new museological concept we had the joy of experiencing today. Of course, I speak of our first confrontation with the central ticketing office for the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, where we had the privilege of acquiring tickets for the newly-opened Neues Museum.

We had arrived quite unprepared for the fact that you had chosen to implement a radically novel museological concept at the museum’s box office. However, to be part of such vibrant example of re-enactment was a rich privilege which left us utterly speechless. Stalinist ruthlessness was brilliantly combined with Honeckerian bureaucracy, and the general customer approach could subtly but clearly be traced back to the happier days of the German Democratic Republic. A long spell of queueing evidently points to the era whose conclusion we celebrate so effluently this year. And to have the ticketing office remain inexplicably inactive while the queue is withering away in the October rain is a piquant yet theatrically brilliant emphasis of this particular point. But having the ticketing personnel confront the potential visitors in the exact same fashion with which a Mitropa waiter would have addressed his customers twenty-five years ago was a true stroke of genius, and one that propelled a potentially mundane thursday afternoon into one that will be remembered for some time to come.

We initially felt ourselves unable to adequately appreciate the intricate fashion in which you succeeded to forge this visitor experience, reverberating David Chipperfield’s combination of the the museum’s classical contours with present-day insights. After some thought we have decided to applaud this insightful application of superbly performed living history.

In summary, we feel ourselves honoured to have enjoyed this experience; however, we would also be grateful to receive information as to the whereabouts of the regular ticketing office that, for reasons of efficiency, we may need to consult at a later stage.

With sympathy,

Ilja Nieuwland

Working on it...

From the web site of the new Neues Museum in Berlin. Really proud of their new building, they are. But getting an architect to stop building is not always easy, it seems...

Edit: but then, maybe it's an installation ...?...

Given up on the iPhone (and myself)

As my former forays into the worlds of Twitter and Facebook might have told you, I'm not afraid of the odd experiment, sometimes to the despair of my (very tolerant) partner. But I didn't think of my iPhone purchase fourteen months ago as an experiment. It seemed like a damned useful thing to have, and I quickly fell in love with it.

Very soon, however, it will be gone.

You see, after purchasing it, some things struck me that weren't quite so useful. First was the build quality of the device. I don't want to suggest that it is flimsy, but it's not sturdy either. And with my motor skills a phone needs to be able to take a few punches. Which meant I quickly realised that I needed to get it a rubber cover of some sort. Oh, and some ®iPhone ©Apps™, of course. And to be fair, there were some great little applications among them: to calculate our Dalvo's fuel consumption, to see which trains are going where, a GPS thing, etcetera. All at a small price, of course. The iPhone really is a great way of spending even more money on a phone without making any calls.

The camera is also near to useless, of course. I don't use it for snapshots, but mainly to take visual notes: to photograph a book I see in a bookstore and might wish to remember for purchase later, for instance. Coupled with Evernote that might make for a powerful tool. But the slightest movement in other-than-ideal circumstances results in a picture filled with very artistic but useless blurs. Not that I have much faith in camera phones in general, but if I DO use them I'd really like for the pictures to be in focus and in colours somewhat similar to those in real life (and don't quote Derrida to me, please).

Apple knows best

Then there is Apple's lock-in. When you have an iPhone, the only way you can legally add stuff to it is via Apple's iTunes Store. This might not even be such a problem if Apple wasn't so anal about what it allowed in (and didn't). As a consequence, you're faced with a bunch of people half a globe away deciding for you what you're supposed to use on your machine. And that is something I find fair neither to myself nor to others. The alternative is to 'jailbreak' the thing and carry Apple's eternal curse into the afterlife (and I suppose Steve Jobs really thinks he has that power). But apart from losing warranty and all that the added functionality comes at a price: reduced boot-up speed and hours of tinkering after each and every software update. And there are quite a few of those.

But to be honest, none of those aren't problems you wouldn't face with other devices. My main reason for dumping the iPhone lies in the effect it has on me. I don't have a very relaxing life, between the home, the office, doing some things on the side, etcetera. And I'm trying to save some time to read, enjoy music, and being with my partner. For me, the iPhone made all those things more difficult. Remember the 'for me' part in that sentence, please - but I guess I'm not the only one to suffer from that problem. There's always news to be watched, e-mail to be collected, something to be looked up on Wikipedia, and a game to be played.

You can quickly identify a group containing iPhone owners through the members that are continually checking their device. And to be honest, it's just not nice to other people. There might be persons who are unsusceptible to such tendencies (I actually know one) but regrettably I have to admit I'm not one of them. The iPhone makes me a far less pleasant person to be around, and I dislike it for that.

Rat race

Let there be no doubt: the iPhone can function to extend your life in a meaningful way, and it really takes internet on mobile devices to a more advanced level. But it also signifies a new stage in conforming to the 'rat race', the pressure not only of always being reachable, but also the obligation of always being informed. I have noticed that I'm quite happy with the former, but unable to live up to the latter. I treasure those moments when I'm able to just stare out of the window and not be worried about what goes on around me. There's still enough of that, but I decided I don't need a device in my life that constantly reminds me of it.

So this is my iPhone saying goodbye with its last picture taken whilst staring out of the window - and of course it needed quite a bit of totting up in Photoshop to make it presentable.

I'll be back with something altogether more simple - and you might even be able to call me on it!

Divine intervention?

Competition

Dangerous currents