Well, at least I can read or consume (I'm going to try a lifeClipper trip on Saturday), but I feel like just not being in the "stream" of things happening, and unable to perform great moves myself. I can see lots of things going on, but can not do a thing, I'm struggling with writing a proposal for my master thesis (somewhere in that area of the semantic web and trust, I hope and try), but I'm far from where I want to be, at least very far from being ready.
And to make things worse, it's been raining for days.
Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit
Für das deutsche Vaterland!
Danach laßt uns alle streben
Brüderlich mit Herz und Hand!
Today I received my German passport (Swiss mother, German father => double citizenship). On one hand that's pretty cool (e.g for studying abroad..), on the other hand.. hell I'm GERMAN now. Does this make me instantly (more) responsible for the Holocaust?
Today I visited "ArchiSkulptur" at Fondation Beyeler. You have to buy the catalogue in order to fully enjoy the show, but it's pretty well done, as usual. It's a really good overview of the changing relation between art and architecture and the influences between them, but I would have liked to see more of the differences and conflicts instead of the commonalities only.
(Posting from linuxcafe, which is a bit too geeky for my taste (pc components on the wall etc.). Not only for me probably, since there's exactly 1 customer only :))
Strange, their projects are pretty similar to some of our own, they use the same tools and they're located just 3 minutes from our office.. but still I don't know any of the folks over there. Alright, but then they're state-run 'rivals' :)
Well, at least we invented them to the open house event in order to change that :)
I passed my exams. Amazing when considering the near-zero amount of time I spent preparing them. :)
My complete Bach edition (171 CDs for € 148 instead of € 1349) arrived today, the "hänssler edition bachakademie" that had been on my whishlist for quite some time now.
Playing with BXB is fun indeed, the built-in importer easily imported my entire blog, worked like a charm. You can have a look at the result, but the tool no doubt is not quite ready yet for me to switch: moblogging doesn't work yet (ok, doesn't work any more here..), and the admin interface is in the 'shoulb fixed soon' state. But it's free software, it's based on the magnificent popoon/bxcms combo and, last but not least, an installation would be under my control, something I appreciate more and more.
Not meant to add oil to that fire, btw.
Yesterday I profited from the rich(er) cultural agenda of Berne and attended Geschichte der Netzkunst aus der Sicht eines Schweizer Pioniers at the Kornhausforum.
In the audience you found the usual suspects, folks from plugin Basel and similar especially creative-looking wannabe artists and intellectuals. I might sound a bit harsh, but the event was, in a word, l a m e. Certainly acceptable as a low-level introduction to net art (see subjects treated), but the announced 'pioneer' did just not feel like one. He very obviously liked that label and proudly told his audience about the good reputation of his platform and the federal funding (pro helvetia..) this allows him to acquire.
Then he presented pieces of his new project, 56kTV - bastard channel, which did not look ready neither technically nor visually nor conceptually :(
I probably should have stayed to ask some questions (probably I'm just too ignorant?), but my girlfriend was so bored we
rather preferred having a dinner at a nearby vegetarian restaurant. :)
Well, the Kornhausforum nevertheless has a really interesting program this fall, probably crowned by the appearance of the legendary Woody Vasulka (whom I shortly met at ZKM last year, I remember him being amazing indeed), he'll be telling us about 4 decades of video art. A must-go, I guess.
Nice URL, and a beautiful, calm place indeed, finally I am in a city with a decent cultural live again :-).
Next event I don't want to miss is about56kTV - bastard channel.
Zak Greant, the well-known MySQL advocate and co-founder of the PHP QA team has joined the Sxipteam in the role of an "evangelist", pretty similar to his prior job as MySQL's "Community Advocate".
Very probably another clever step by Dick Hardt (whom I met at the FOAF workshop in Galway) and his team - and the really promising idea of sxip.
