Category Archives: Eyes

Aesthetics, movies, sunsets, … all things photonic!

Dahlien

Look at the flowers … and smile:

Dahlias: Teesbrook Audrey, Mary Evelyn, Sunshine, Star Wars and Pulp Fiction.

Mein erster Versuch mit (leider nicht winterharten) Dahlien führte erst zu blühenden Erfolgen nachdem die Töpfe erst von der Wiese auf die Terrasse flüchteten, dann von der Terrasse auf einen Holztisch und schließlich und endlich mit einem “ring of slugs-death”, vulgo Schneckenkorn, vor den ständigen Fraßattacken der 2020er-Nacktschneckenplage geschützt wurden. Die Blüten kamen daher spät und zaghaft, eine von fünf Pflanzen müht sich noch in der Oktoberkälte ihre erste Blüte zu öffnen, aber die Hummeln waren trotzdem sehr zufrieden und erkoren die Blüten mitunter auch als Schlafplatz im Sommer, um beim Frühstück die ersten am Nektar zu sein, der offensichtlich mundete!


Good morning, my little bumbles! Breakfast is ready! In fact you’re sitting on it … 🙂

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Eyes, Life, the universe & everything

Ruby Slippers everywhere

We all known the magic Ruby Slippers which transport Dorothy – who’s been ignorant of their magic powers while wearing them for the better part of her journey – back home at the end of “Wizard of Oz”:

The iconic magic Ruby Slippers.

A bit less known might be “The Red Shoes” of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fable of that title, who bear their wearer – not home, but to their doom – ingeniously amalgamed into a ballet-themed movie by Powell & Pressburger in 1948:

The Red Shoes (1948). Magic, surreal, lethal!

Movie-makers of today: watch and learn, is all I can say.

The pope on the other hand (foot!) does not wear Prada, the pope wears Christ:

Papal fashion.

In yet another inspiring analysis on aeon.co, the question of how one of the oldest technologies of humankind acts as a symbolic foundation for human identity and has both enabled us to explore otherwise unattainable terrain as well as distanced and estranged us from earthly contact (“down to Earth”?) is discussed.

Personally, I prefer a fluffy approach to the ruby slippers. The home office movement has opened the possibility to a “fuck it” attitude towards work day fashion, for example like so:

Home office fashion (hot shit of Neukölln).

“Ruby” felt slippers by Lieberfilz, Berlin, socks by Red Wing Shoes, lounge pants by unknown korean designer, sweater by Kapital, Japan.

Put on those red fluffy slippers and dance the blues! (long time no see)

Category “hands” has to be read “feet/legs” this time!

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Eyes, Hands

Eternally Unfinished

“Men speaks many different languages, the king said
Children speak only one: the mother language
Mothers don’t speak; they hear
For men don’t know what to say, but this is okay
For older people don’t hear nor do they speak
For having come before, they learned how to see
How to decay, while they observe” [1]

Sometimes we are above, sometimes below, but we are Eternally Unfinished, even if we knew ALL the languages, as I sometimes wish.
The second guided tour I had the pleasure to experience with Juan wasn’t any bit less intriguing than the first, which was this one:


I am therefor very happy that a centrepiece of that exhibit has found its way into my realm, where it can remind us of the most universal und powerful language of all: silence.
As Juan emphasized back then, the skull is a symbol of life, not of death. As we unearth it, layer by layer, we uncover and discover his-story, auf Deutsch: die Ge-schichte(n). Just as we ourselves are many-layered stacks of stories, some of them lost, some hidden, some fragile and fading, but some strong enough to provide us with a skeleton that supports us for some time.
Which stories will remain?


The skull (category: Brains) is a multi-layered symbol of life.

And those you fear neither Death nor Hell nor the Florence Foster Jenkins of Finnish Tango go back to www.petersch.at and make sure their browser doesn’t block audio autoplay. Qui vit sans folie … (category: Ears) 🙂

[1] from Juan Arata: “What makes us human? – A model of Migra Tion”, Booklet for Ruberoid Festival 25-26 Sep 2015, ACUD Kunsthaus, Berlin
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Brains, Ears, Eyes, Hands, Life, the universe & everything

Nothing doesn’t mean nothing at all

I recently came across this fabulous solar powered “do-nothing machine”, designed in 1957 by American design duo Ray and Charles Eames (yet again via aeon.co):

Here you can find a few more photos of this phantastic machine. I very much like the idea that what on first sight appears like a “toy” that “does nothing” represents the very essence of creativity and innovation. In other words, it is ONLY by providing space and time for play or for “nothingness”, that the possibility for SOMEthing new is actually created. Think about it when you come across one of those articles that insist how bad mind-wandering is for children.

Here’s a “Nightcap” from Elmer Bernstein (who might have written the jazzy piece featured in the short movie):

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Brains, Ears, Eyes