Balance zwischen digitaler und realer Welt / Verbindung zu unseren Lieblingsmenschen / virtuelle Räume aufbauen und nicht verbauen / Bedürfnis nach nächster Nähe

Sometimes we forget that there is no Planet B.

How can humankind coexist in a socio-economic system which thrives on the exploitations of others? The notion of coexisting can never be in fruition when there is an exploited working class that works for a lifetime for the benefit of a few. The defining factor of life is money, a capitalist social construct that has poisoned societies with the consistent need to pursue and idolise the commodities, status and power it brings.

Society needs to detach from the selfish neoliberal ideologies that dictate our institutions, technologies and even our personal interactions. A socio-economic system that embodies the concept of coexisting would prioritise the need to put people before profit.

Social Media make us feel closer, especially in times of Corona. This rises hope in many people for positive changes. However, the increasing flow of data also increases energy consumption. Raw materials, which are necessary for infrastructure and equipment, are mined in post-colonial conditions.

when this frail boat sinks, I’ll be your life vest and you’ll be mine.

we humans cannot exist alone on earth. we need the other living beings. our ruthlessness and lack of understanding endanger our future.

Tougher days are coming.
The time, adjourned until revocation
is becoming visible on the horizon.
(Ingeborg Bachmann 1953)

Selected photos from a b/w photo essay done in my home country’s capital Tokyo immediately after returning from my posting in Africa for the agency.

»Difference« wants the viewers to think about double standards concerning the socially judgement of different religions instead of tolerating them to coexist.

Going through some weird times, lately, we, the people have learnt to appreciate living together a little bit more. At least, let’s suppose we tried so.
However, we are used to live in a repetition. Going back and forth, forgetting easy and making a wrong twice knowing is not the right one.
Let’s be positive.
It’s necessary to eliminate the toxicity between us as we need to prevent the pollution of the environment.
Brighter days will come, stay safe, trust actions not just words.

WE LIVE in a natural system composed of different species. WE WANT to create a path of sharing where each of us counts in its own diversity and can contribute and receive in the same way. WE NEED to coexist to improve all together, because we are all in this together.

The Path 1:

Coexisting is not always an easy path. It’s lined with obstacles, either created by humans or by nature. But it’s up to us to learn and always thrive to coexist with whatever is in our way. Like in the minesweeper game we just need to find the way!

The Path 2:

This little poem is a reflection of the past. Will we ever learn from the past and change our ways? I hope so. The space before the end of the sentence is there to make you read it again, turn it around in your head and remind ourselves that it is on us to change history’s course, our course.

coexistence: never the same, a term hard to tame,
all whirling around
in my tiny ass brain.
for me, there’s two parts to it:
firstly, coexistence involving more than one person/thing/letter.
but also: coexistence from within, which i tried to display visually in a very intuitive way.
coexistence does not always work. on the one hand there is the mask we wear, our outer shell; and on the other hand there are the thoughts we carry inside of us (that for me is coexistence as well): trying to find a balance between the two; self doubt and growth.
an E, a face, myself? it’s what we make of it.

This piece of work relates to my interest in advertising and its appropriation of social commentary. Whether it’s the disastrous Kendall Jenner Pepsi advert back in 2017, or the infamous ‘Hilltop’ coke advert that nods to the hippy movement of the late sixties.
This appropriation by brands contains within it a bizarre contradiction, its very existence means that people’s values are such that to be seen promoting them is commercially wise, yet they are weathercocks, shifting in the proverbial wind of public trends.
I wanted to highlight this paradox, by getting my inspiration for coexistence from an old advert, an idea that the advert itself had appropriated to sell cigarettes.

The image is taken from the performance in public space “Disjunkte Mengen” in Vienna on the 29th of May 2019. It deals with the topic of social distance in an interconnected system. The RGB-colour circles form together a unit, but are also single elements in coexistence with each other.
The drop-like shape reminds of the google maps location sign. The performative route could be tracked live via link on google maps. The intervention in public space raises the question of privacy policy during quarantine, in which groups of people were tracked through their mobile phones. The term “disjunkt” is taken from mathematics, describing sets without a common intersection.

The image is taken from the performance in public space “Disjunkte Mengen” in Vienna on the 29th of May 2019. It deals with the topic of social distance in an interconnected system. The RGB-colour circles form together a unit, but are also single elements in coexistence with each other.
The drop-like shape reminds of the google maps location sign. The performative route could be tracked live via link on google maps. The intervention in public space raises the question of privacy policy during quarantine, in which groups of people were tracked through their mobile phones. The term “disjunkt” is taken from mathematics, describing sets without a common intersection.

UK. Boston. 4th March 2016
A mass given in Polish at a Catholic Church in Boston. The town is home to many migrant agricultural workers from Eastern Europe whose lives were thrown into uncertainty by the Brexit vote. In the years since the referendum many have left the area and for the last three years UK fruit harvesters have been unable to attract enough workers, leaving fruit and vegetables rotting in the fields.The town of Boston recorded the highest Brexit vote in Britain with 75.6% voting to leave the European Union.

facts and false reports will always coexist. In a digital world no blind trust helps

In human terms, our aim is to make everyone feel that they are part of a unique group.
One person can do a lot, but people together can devote themselves and make us rise: sharing our knowledge, our skills, our experience, and our emotions with others is fundamental. The synergy and, mainly, the reciprocal respect are important to build cohesion and live together.

So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
The broken hourglass shows that time of abusing natural resources in the name of economical growth has ended. Will it be possible to play the game of conquerring nature again? I doubt it.

So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
The skull, referring to the one held by prince Hamlet, is composed of chimney producing smoke, cut trees and coins. It is also a reminder that humans’ actions of nature abusing lead to the end of our civilisation.

So far people have been acting as if natural resources were infinite. We have been drawing on them selfishly again and again. Now we need to face the fact that some results of expansion of our civilisation are irreversible. Are we going to start to respect other lifes; those of people, animals and plants? Or will we extinct as a result of our greed?
Hand grabs the coin from a tree just as Eve had grabbed an apple from tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden. The reference to this cliché image aims at showing that perhaps we are about to loose the current paradise of life in well-developped countries very soon.