Linked List

A little script to manipulate your webcam in real time for video calls. Gives you peace of mind, the ability to sneak away to make coffee, zoom off, or freedom to mind wander without looking absent. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Get it on GitHub

~~It captures an avatar of you in real time and then synthesizes a credible, interactive version of you using state of the art artificial intelligence models.~~ It allows you to freeze or loop yourself. Stutter and artifact utilities help convey that you are having a bad connection and masks the not-really-looping loop you just created.

Also, don't take this too serious and don't forget that there are no technological solutions for social problems.

Screenshot from Twitter

Von einem der auszog eine Wohnung in Berlin zu finden
Ein Automatisierungsdrama in drei Akten
3. Akt: In letzter Konsequenz

2020-06-19 19:00 – 2020-06-21 19:00
every 20 minutes at :00, :20, :40
inside U Karl-Marx-Straße, close to the south-east exit (direction Rudow)

more information in the schedule of 48 Stunden Neukölln

Die Prinzessin erkennt bei einer Ausstellung in Leipzig, dass sie nach Berlin ziehen muss. Zum Glück trifft sie bei der Wohnungssuche das Kasperle, der ihr den Wohnungsbot vorstellt. Doch obwohl der Wohnungsbot schon unzählige Menschen von den Symptomen des Mietenwahnsinns befreit hat, stürzt diese Mission den Wohnungsbot in eine Daseinskrise, die ihn nicht nur an vorherrschenden Narrativen zur Automatisierung zweifeln lässt.

Die Bühnenadaption der Software "Wohnungsbot" (Download unter wohnungsbot.de) verhandelt anhand der Wohnungssuche in Berlin die Möglichkeiten und Konsequenzen des Versuchs soziale Probleme mit technischen Mitteln zu lösen.

Plakat für 48 Stunden Neukölln

View Larger Map

17 minutes, no break —
Fully automated puppet theater, 2020

The Princess realizes that she must move to Berlin when she visits the exhibition "Vulnerable Subjects" in Leipzig. Fortunately, while looking for an apartment, she meets Kasperle, who introduces her to the Wohnungsbot. But even though the Wohnungsbot has already relieved countless people of the symptoms of rent mania, this mission plunges the Wohnungsbot into a crisis of existence, which not only makes him doubt prevailing narratives of automation.

The stage adaptation of the software "Wohnungsbot" negotiates the possibilities and consequences of the attempt to solve social problems with technical means.

Exhibition view at ZAK Spandau

with
Kasperle,
Prinzessin,
Krokodil,
Wohnungsbot

spoken by
Monika Freinberger (Kasperle, Prinzessin, Krokodil)
Marlene [AWS Polly] (Wohnungsbot)

Copy editing
Christopher Heyder

Production
Ortrun Bargholz

"Mietenkrokodil" (rent crocodile) scene

Stage detail: Kasperle and Princess

Stage detail: Princess at HGB Leipzig

Seid ihr auch schon alle da?

Hallo, ich bin das Kasperle.

Ich möchte euch heute eine Geschichte erzählen. Sie wirkt vielleicht ein bisschen wie ein Märchen, denn viele wünschen sich ja, dass die Digitalisierung ein Märchen mit schön eindeutigen Verhältnissen wäre. Aber am Ende seht ihr, dass die Sache nicht so einfach ist.

Exhibition view at U Karl-Marx-Straße

Interior structure

Exhibition view (back) at ZAK Spandau

36C3 logo

Lecture at 36C3
Wohnungsbot: An Automation-Drama in Three Acts — A media-art project which automates the search for flats in Berlin and challenges automation narratives

30+10 minutes, English (German and Russian translations available)

Screenshot of the Wohnungsbot running

Source code available on GitHub

Can you imagine a world, in which your computer finds a flat for you?

Can you imagine a world, in which automation keeps the rent madness away from you?

Can you imagine a world, in which you have a Wohnungsbot?

The Wohnungsbot (appartment-bot) is a fully automated, personalized app to aleviate you from the pain of searching a flat in Berlin.

Download and more information at wohnungsbot.de.

Screenshot of the Wohnungsbot writing an application

Installation view, 48 Stunden Neukölln 2019

Installation detail

Kunststopper (art-catcher) in front of the exhibition

People ask me »Is this a hack?«
No! It's just automation at work for an individual — which seems to be something that we're so unused to that it seems like a hack.

Watch the lecture at 36C3 →

User research at YouTube. It's the best.

Cybernetic installation with banner, 2019

This the first work in the cycle Von einem der auszog eine Wohnung in Berlin zu finden. Ein Automatisierungsdrama in drei Akten (Of someone who went out to find a flat in Berlin. An automation-drama in three acts) was created for the exhibition Verletzbare Subjekte (Vulnerable subjects) at HGB Leipzig.

Installation view at HGB Galerie / Lichthof, Leipzig

Installation view, close-up

The banner heavily draws on Mladen Stilinović's "An artist who cannot speak English is no artist"¹ (1992); translated to the current housing tensionsin Germany, especially Leipzig and Berlin. The slogan on one hand plays the myth on that artists are causing gentrification and are therefore to blame², while using an odd combination of corporate³ and pseudo-subversive (which really is the new corporate) design language to actually reach the people in the art school.

¹ 1992, see it among other works in WORDS-SLOGANS on his website
² For an excellent discussion of this issue (and many other housing/gentrification topics, partially specific to Berlin) listen to Andrej Holm in Alternativlos, Folge 40 [de].
³ be.berlin campaign by dan pearlman Group, implemented following the official guidelines.

The second part — less visible at the first glance — is a box hiding a computer, speaker, and a printer. Visible to the outside is only a small slid in the front from which, at irregular intervals apartment listings printed on postcards appear and glide down into the schools patio.

It is driven by a script scouring "a popular apartment listing website", generating the postcards in realtime within seconds of the listing going online. A sound notification is played, urging you to take action.
Now! Time to become a succesful artist!

A printer in a box printing an apartment listing

Apartment listing postcards on the floor in front of the gallery

Was du willst: Credits

Co-Produktion, Kunstbau

Ortrun Bargholz

Musik

Julius Windisch

Sprecherin (Deutsch)

Vicki (AWS Polly)

Sprecherin (Deutsch)

Kimberly (AWS Polly)

3D Modelle

Fairy Wings by leedongsuk073, Post Apocalypse Girl by maxbugor, Apple iPhone 6 by narkr, Browning HP by game-ready, Snowman LowPoly by CGModelsNet, Stg444 by simon-f, Sword-ARADOR by 1yevgeniy1, Food Set by YurkYurk, Concert Speaker Cab by mihailvasilev-post, Sci fi Crate - Game mesh by mr-b3dgame, Realistic male body by daniel75088, Low Poly Hearts by razrushitel34, Character Forest Guard by maxbugor, Low poly nature collection FREE by adam127, M249 machine gun by egorprotonov, Cannabis Pack Lowpoly by Apocalyptic-Asset-Arsenal, leopard 2a7 by gorillaz, 24 Oriental Chinese Opera Mask Pack Kabuki Collection Theatre by ColeRobertDeVingo, Silo Lowpoly by harlyk, Wolf Rigged Animated and Game Ready by 3DHaupt, Low-poly Head Base Mesh by noisychain, Old Abandoned Cottage by animatedheaven, PBR model of chair by dorindmitrii, Small Stone Lighthouse by belgrade-sim, Game Ready Worn Baseball Ball by alexbes, M249 machine gun Lowpoly by harlyk, Cubicles Office Low Poly by BrutalRender, Plymouth Diplomat Police Low-Poly by arslan-9912, Patio Umbrella by chrisrago300, Bearded Man by daniel75088, Audio Clip by OnkarShevkar, Pizza by maxbugor, Modern residential architecture contemporary minimal house by dcographicstudio, Modern Office 1 Desk plus Computer by VisionGear-Studios, Fantasy Modular Fence by splashkid, Modern Office 1 Computer by VisionGear-Studios, Eye Dropper Lowpoly and Highpoly by crazyyuan, Tractor Tire by emeren, Old Wells - Handpainted by splashkid, Necromancer by polynext, Longsword LowPoly by harlyk, AKS-74u by serious-panda, PBR Runestone by dorindmitrii, datsun pick-up 1993 by IgorMontana, Modern Smart Fridge by creativa-studio, Rusty helicopter by haridon, Aircraft E-45 by 3DHaupt, Microwave rigged and animated by 3DHaupt, old folder by drummandbase, SP5K semi-automatic 9 mm gun by alefrei, Stone wall 001 tiled by Yaroslav, Futuristic Transport Shuttle by 3DHaupt, Office Drink Machines Low Poly by BrutalRender, Palace 3d model by kailashju78, Realistic3DTreePack by fiblack46, Realistic female 01 by daniel75088, Computer Monitor Screen by sukhvinder-singh, sexy women 3d model by XaniX, Wood hut in the winter under the snow lowpoly by kollesds, Apple and Banana by rovers-isak, Christmas tree with decorations and star for holiday season by dcographicstudio, simple low poly stony house by virtue01, Wall hung ornate architectural scene light exterior fixture by dcographicstudio, Rock - Menhir by IndieArt, Old phone by Astronaffft, Arrow Frog rigged VR AR low-poly 3d model by rovers-isak, Magic Idol by maxbugor, Wall hung small light fixture architectural scene light outdoor by dcographicstudio, AB-10 by egorprotonov, Human Male Full Rig and HumanIK by Alza3D, Pillow with yellow spots by tomations, Lowpoly pottery collection by adam127, Brazier Set by pschuster, Low Poly Trees by Addixon, Low Poly Wrecked Car Game Ready by MilosPre, Alien Character by maxbugor, Cartoon Cook Girl 03 by alpenwolf, Concrete dome detail decorative traditional by dcographicstudio, Steampunk Cowboy by K32, Ceiling hung pendant light architectural interior scene lighting by dcographicstudio, Game Ready Rock Formation - Ancient Stone Head by Zenet3D, City building pack lowpoly by adam127, Scifi Space Starterkit Lowpoly by harlyk, FREE RocksHD Sample Model by Pure3D, Soap Dispenser by IgorMontana, medieval house by lukass12, Satellite dishes rigged and low poly by 3DHaupt, Toyota Crown by IgorMontana, Low-poly stylized sword by crazyyuan, Game Ready Pliers by alexbes, Speed bump by simon-f, Aluminum spiral staircases by 3DHaupt, 4 debris piles pack 1 by lukass12, Fire Extinguisher Low poly by BrutalRender, Backgammon by alienworld, Medieval Weapon Rack by johancederhag, Microwaves Low Poly by BrutalRender, Sci-fi Display - Low Poly by groch, Purple eye by Bondiana, Cartoon Low Poly Plane by antonmoek, Brown eye by Bondiana, transmutation snails by RobCg, Realistic Hand Made Rocks and Ores Pack 4k Textures Low Poly by ColeRobertDeVingo, Treasure Chest Hand Painted by animatedheaven, Castle factory by haridon, Atomic Gate by haridon, Defenses pack by adam127, pillars VR AR low-poly 3D model by shanaka, Pharaoh character by marginalstreet, Warrior fantasy by 1yevgeniy1, Tanegashima matchlock by gabrielmartins, Old furniture set by adam127, Angel Wings Type 3 by leedongsuk073, Aircraft low poly - Shelter Hangar FREE by soczek, Trench sendbags by adam127, Lowpoly summer tree pack by adam127, Bonfire by adam127, Western town by adam127

Interactive installation with VR, 2019

Installation view

What you want (Was du willst) shows you what you want! A computer-generated voice speaks to you: "Therefore I would like to invite you to calm down for a moment and ask yourself: What do you really want?"

The multi-part installation guides the visitors through a highly orchestrated system of experiences. The system embraces the entire exhibition space: after registering, the 'user' is always in some relation and under control of the system. You wait, you are called, you lie down, you get up, you move on, you take your receipt. Everything is tracked, every step is based on the identification of the barcode obtained when registering. How long do you wait after registration until being called, until checking in for the first time? How long do you lie on the bean bag, your eyes covered with what looks like a VR-headset but is just darkness, your ears covered with an infinite low-intensity sound scape generator? How long do you stand in the generated virtual environment, what do you look at, for how long and what categories of items are being shown to you in response? How do you react to a statistical evaluation of your experiences, but also of your personality?

Languages (audio): English, German (individual choice)
Credits →

Installation view

<emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis> asks the number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> to approach part 1, station <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break /> 
Number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> please.

This is the last call by <emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis> for number <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis> <break />
Please immediately proceed to part 1, station <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break />
Last call for <emphasis><say-as interpret-as="digits">%s</say-as></emphasis>

Registration

Waiting and routing screen

Please take the virtual reality headset and the headphones from the position marked with the letter <break time="0.1s" /> <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break/>
It's easier if you put on the headset first and then the headphones. Please make yourself comfortable on one of the bean-bags.

Welcome to part 1 of <emphasis><lang xml:lang="de-DE">Was du willst</lang></emphasis><break time="1s" />
I am happy to have you here.<break />
Please lay down on one of the bean-bags and make yourself comfortable. In the next 5 to 10 minutes I want to expose you to a stimuli reduction.
I would kindly ask you not to take off the headset or the headphones until I ask you to do so.<break time="2s" />
I am sure many things have already happened to you on this day. Therefore I would like to invite you to calm down for a moment and ask yourself:
<emphasis>What do you really want?</emphasis>

Check in for Part 1

Visitor in Part 1

Hello %s,<break />
Part 2 is waiting for you. There will be everything you want.<break />
Please take off the headphones and the headset now and put them back to the position marked with the letter <break time="0.1s" /> <say-as interpret-as="character">%s</say-as>.<break/>
Don't forget to scan your barcode at the next computer before putting on the other headset.


We're about to start. Take your time to adjust the headset so that it sits comfortably and make sure the earpieces sit tight.

Hello {username}

Welcome to your 3 <phoneme alphabet="ipa" ph="diːː">D</phoneme> world.

Here everything just evolves around you, {username}.

Part 2 (in the back)

Part 2

I see you like {0}? No problem. I'm glad actually. I have a lot of that for you.

Glad you like it here. You can stay as long as you wish.

I'm also a big fan of {0}. We're a good match, {username}!

You don't like {0}? I'm sorry for that. But I'll find something else for you, don't worry. Out there I have hundreds of objects just waiting to amaze you.

Look, here comes {0}. It's also {1} - you do like that {username}, don't you?

This is something that would suit you: {0}

You can't get enough {username}. But don't worry, it will go on forever.

A world full of {0} just for {username}. That would be quite something, no?

Do you also ask yourself, why there are so many weapons here? Weird, isn't it? Somehow humans seem to like that.

{username}!<amazon:breath duration="long" volume="x-loud"/>Please return to the center!

You don't need to move, everything you want will come to you.

Part 3

The central question of "What do you really want?", as posed by the system itself, is examined at three levels:
First, if immersion is a desirable state, is it to be achieved by overwhelming every sense? VR supposedly does so and tries to leave no room for distraction. Or should one pursue immersion through the mental capacity of entering a 'flow' state or even meditation, thus reducing external stimuli?
Second, adaptive digital environments cater our psychological structures and needs ever better. These systems have reached a point - such as a game automatically adjusting its difficulty to the player - where they represent a more wantable life than our society can offer for many.
Third, digital recommendation systems claim to 'know' what you want through technological means of data-observation. VR is inherently based on tracking. This data in combination with statistical tools is used to create a questionable 'understanding' of us.
These approaches are contrasted in the three parts of the experience. In the end the question maybe isn’t what you want, but what 'wanting' means in the age of surveillance capitalism and adaptive virtual environments.

Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court later today (Thursday, 11 April).
[news.met.police.uk, emphasis added]

In completely unrelated news: IMF Executive Board Approves US$4.2 Billion Extended Fund Facility for Ecuador (Press Release No. 19/72 - March 11, 2019)

A picture of the internet

via @HumansOfLate Capitalism

Memo to self: LUKS + LVM + chroot + update-initramfs

As I will for sure skrew up things on my machine again sooner or later, here is a slightly nerdy memo to my future self.

It assumes an LUKS-encrypted NVMe with LVM where the first partition is efi, then boot, then root.
As my two NVMe drives enjoy swapping their /dev/nvmeX identifiers the first line checks for the identifier based on the drive's UUID (which you could get from blkid).
The identifier chosen for cryptsetup has to match the /etc/crypttab of the machine your chroot-ing into.
update-initramfs -u is not enough.

# get right NVMe decive
IFS=':'; DEV=(`sudo blkid | grep "UUIDv4"`); unset IFS;
echo "Detected NVMe ${DEV}"

# decrypt drive -- last identifier has to match the target's /etc/crypttab!
sudo cryptsetup luksOpen "${DEV}p3" root_crypt

# mount from mapper (not the identifier above!)
sudo mount /dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root /mnt

# mount all the things
sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /run /mnt/run

# or shorter:
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done

# set up DNS
sudo mount -o bind /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc/resolv.conf

# mount /boot
sudo mount "${DEV}p2" /mnt/boot

# mount EFI (wasn't necessary so far)
# sudo mount "${DEV}p1" /mnt/boot/efi

echo "Device mounted and ready to chroot. Run:"
echo "sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash"

Now inside the machine it should be possible to update-initramfs -c -k all.

35C3 - Day 4 - 14:00 - Room 11 (CCL, floor 2)

A self-organized session to present and discuss People who write code at 35C3!
More information at code.neopostmodern.com

»Alles spricht dafür, dass Begriffe wie ‚Künstliche Intelligenz‘ bis zum Jahre 2010 stark relativiert und auf ihren rein technischen, werkzeughaften Sinn reduziert sind.«

- Theo Lutz, 1987 [Quelle]

(Lutz also did computer poetry. Back in 1959. On a Z22. With 3kHz and 38kB drum memory. Read it here.)

Inside the studio for Kubshow

Kubshow #40

In November 2018 Jakob Wierzba invited me to the 40th episode of his radio show "Kubshow" to talk about Menschen die Code schreiben. We were joined by Tristan Schulze.

Listen now: Kubshow #40 on Mixcloud [2 hours, 4 minutes and 46 seconds; German]

Mehr CSU-Wähler sind verstorben als zu irgend einer anderen Partei gewechselt.

Quelle: tagesschau.de - und keine Ahnung wo *die* ihre Daten haben

Ableton Live Set Real Export

Assume you want to be able to export your Ableton project's arrangement into a machine readable format to... do some things that machines are good at.
You start by opening a .als file in a text editor and - if your computer doesn't crash - get to see a lot of random characters.

Luckily, Ableton recently released a tool called Ableton Live Set Export.
It does exactly not what the name says:

The library only contains functionality for generating Ableton Live projects. It does not support reading or parsing Live Sets or other Ableton-generated files.

Sounds like Alice, doesn't it?

But the internet always has answers.
It turns out that .als is just a gz-compressed proprietary XML format - and that is pretty easy to use. So, step one, rename your .als to .als.gz, decompress it and save the file as .xml.

Step two, build a little Python (3.6) script - using the help of lxml - and get the data you want!

Caveats (as found so far)

Some weird things when working with Ableton live set files:

Time is measured in beats. This kind of makes sense, but is also really annoying if you want to interact with other software.

The code

from lxml import etree
import math

tree = etree.parse('ableton.xml')
root = tree.getroot()

project_bpm = float(root.find('.//Tempo/Manual').get('Value'))


def beats_to_seconds(beats, bpm):
    return beats * 60 / bpm


def seconds_to_time_string(seconds):
    milliseconds = round((seconds % 1) * 1000)
    seconds = round(seconds)
    minutes = math.floor(seconds / 60)
    hours = math.floor(minutes / 60)
    minutes = minutes % 60
    seconds = seconds % 60

    return f'{hours:02d}:{minutes:02d}:{seconds:02d}.{milliseconds:03d}'


def beats_to_time_string(beats, bpm):
    return seconds_to_time_string(beats_to_seconds(beats, bpm))


tracks_xml = root.findall(".//AudioTrack")
tracks = {}
for track_xml in tracks_xml:
    track_id = track_xml.get('Id')
    track = {
        'id': track_id,
        'name': track_xml.find('Name/UserName').get('Value'),
        # it's handy to keep an XML element reference while debugging, but not necessary for 'production'
        '_xml': track_xml
    }

    clips_xml = track_xml.findall('.//AudioClip')
    clips = []
    for clip_xml in clips_xml:
        clip_path = '/' + '/'.join([path_xml.get('Dir') for path_xml in clip_xml.findall('.//SearchHint/PathHint/RelativePathElement')]) + '/'
        clip = {
            'name': clip_xml.find('Name').get('Value'),
            'file': clip_xml.find('SampleRef/FileRef/Name').get('Value'),
            'path': clip_path,
            'start_on_track': beats_to_seconds(float(clip_xml.find('CurrentStart').get('Value')), project_bpm),
            'end_on_track': beats_to_seconds(float(clip_xml.find('CurrentEnd').get('Value')), project_bpm),
            'start_in_file': beats_to_seconds(float(clip_xml.find('Loop/LoopStart').get('Value')), project_bpm),
            'end_in_file': beats_to_seconds(float(clip_xml.find('Loop/LoopEnd').get('Value')), project_bpm),
            # it's handy to keep an XML element reference while debugging, but not necessary for 'production'
            '_xml': clip_xml
        }
        clips.append(clip)

    track['clips'] = clips
    tracks[track_id] = track


# use this to find the IDs of the tracks you're interested in
# I don't think you can guess these from inside Ableton
# for track_id, track in tracks.items():
#     print(track_id, track['name'])

track_id_filter = ['144']
for track_id in track_id_filter:
    track = tracks[track_id]

    print("\n" + track['name'])

    for clip in track['clips']:
        print(f"{seconds_to_time_string(clip['start_on_track'])} - {seconds_to_time_string(clip['end_on_track'])} "
              f"| {clip['name']:20} | {clip['file']} ("
              f"{seconds_to_time_string(clip['start_in_file'])} - {seconds_to_time_string(clip['end_in_file'])})")

Sample output

I've redacted the actual values, but you get the idea:

TRACK NAME
00:00:00.000 - 00:00:02.500 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:00:10.500 - 00:00:13.1000)
00:00:03.508 - 00:00:04.027 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:02:59.625 - 00:03:00.144)
00:00:04.050 - 00:00:06.131 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:00:21.479 - 00:00:24.560)
00:00:06.131 - 00:00:07.335 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:00:09.459 - 00:00:11.663)
00:00:07.335 - 00:00:10.595 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:00:28.572 - 00:00:30.831)
00:00:10.595 - 00:00:12.998 | CLIP NAME          | FILE NAME (00:00:15.439 - 00:00:18.842)

The first time range indicates the place within your arrangement, whereas the latter one (in brackets) refers to the portion of the source file being used.

Ableton, Ableton Live and some other words in this text are probably protected by copyright and therefore (somehow) belong to someone or something. Also, Ableton hasn't publicly encouraged people to hack there file format so I assume this isn't endorsed by them.

Art school

as it happened.

2016-01-04 19:12 - 20:23

A salmon catching a bear

Update (2019): Assuming the bear is society, I'd now opt for being the salmon.

How do you?

(or: What the internet really wants to know is slime)

English

German

French I

French II

Spanish I

Spanish II

Portuguese I

Portuguese II

...and the essential analysis

	Slime	Babies	Food
English	3rd	(none)	0%
German	1st - 4th	(none)	40%
French I	1st, 4th, 10th	(none)	40%
French II	1st, 4th, 5th	2nd, 3rd	20%
Spanish I	2nd	(none)	80%
Spanish II	2nd	8th	50%
Portuguese I	1st	(none)	70%
Portuguese II	1st	(none)	80%

Webcam-Installation, 2018

Installation view

In Sarnen (CH) at Galerie Hofmatt I got the possibility to exhibit alongside my uncle Rüdiger Schöll. In response to his infinitely layered paintings - but also the very special historic vaulted cellar of the gallery - I adapted the previous work http://your.neopostmodern.com/moment into a spacial setting.

Two projectors fill the room with real-time and continuously updating images, taken from webcams all over the world. In the center there are two fragmented screens, taking on the stripes employed by Rüdiger Schöll, compositing uncanny scenes which at the same time create a strong sense of meaning as well as being pure technical artifacts without intention.
Pixels bend on the curved shapes of the vault, blending technical infrastructure with a historic monument.

Blender cheat sheet

A very personal collection of shortcuts and utilities I keep forgetting. No intent of completeness.

3D View

Selection

`A`	All/none (2.7) selection
2.8 `A` `A`	None selection
`B`	Box select
`Ctrl`+`I`	Invert selection
`Shift`+`RMB`	Set active object
`Shift`+`S`	Cursor to selected (and others)

Viewing/Modes

`/`	Toggle "local" view (isolated)
2.7 `Z`	Wireframe ↔ Rendered
2.8 `Z`	Select render-style (wireframe, rendered, solid, ...)
`Tab`	Object ↔ Edit
2.7 `Ctrl`+`Tab` 2.8 `1` `2` `3`	Select Vertex/Edge/Face mode
`Shift`+`Tab`	Toggle snapping
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Tab`	Select snapping mode

Organizing

`Ctrl`+`P`	Set Parent
`Alt`+`P`	Clear Parent
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`G`	Remove from group

Editing

`S` `X` `X`	Scale local X
`P`	Selection to separate
2.7 `W`	⇒ Subdivide
`Ctrl`+`A`	Apply transformation
`Ctrl`+`Shift`+ `Alt`+`C`	Origin to center of mass/surface/volume

Hierarchy View

Selection

`Ctrl`+`LMB`	Perform action with all children (select, toggle visibility, ...)
`.` (NumPad)	Reveal selection

This will be a new series highlighting the absurd diversity of "things" one can stumble upon within a short time-frame when leasurely floating through the web.

Freizeit & Internet 1

Who said unicorns are horse-based?

popsci.com

Things that happen in Silicon Valley and also the Soviet Union:
- waiting years to receive a car you ordered, to find that it's of poor workmanship and quality
- promises of colonizing the solar system while you toil in drudgery day in, day out
- living five adults to a two room apartment
- being told you are constructing utopia while the system crumbles around you
- 'totally not illegal taxi' taxis by private citizens moonlighting to make ends meet
- everything slaved to the needs of the military-industrial complex
- mandatory workplace political education
- productivity largely falsified to satisfy appearance of sponsoring elites
- deviation from mainstream narrative carries heavy social and political consequences
- networked computers exist but they're really bad
- Henry Kissinger visits sometimes for some reason
- elite power struggles result in massive collateral damage, sometimes purges
- failures are bizarrely upheld as triumphs
- otherwise extremely intelligent people just turning the crank because it's the only way to get ahead
- the plight of the working class is discussed mainly by people who do no work
- the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default
- the currency most people are talking about is fake and worthless
twitter.com (Thread)

»Very few people have the opportunity to have a real, oil painting portrait of Ronald Regan before The Ronald Reagan Collection.«

»A photo is a point time but a painting is history. Each painting we make is an individual piece of art that memorializes President Reagan.«
reagan-paintings.com

Wahlvorurteile, Teil I

CDU	AfD	Linke	SPD	FDP	Grüne	(+)	(++)
0.00%	0.00%	35.71%	10.71%	7.14%	39.29%	0.00%	7.14%
0.00%	0.00%	31.25%	0.00%	6.25%	15.63%	31.25%	15.63%
0.95%	2.86%	28.57%	9.52%	0.00%	47.62%	9.52%	0.95%
5.26%	0.00%	26.32%	21.05%	0.00%	26.32%	21.05%	0.00%
0.00%	0.00%	35.00%	0.00%	5.00%	10.00%	40.00%	10.00%
5.00%	0.00%	40.00%	15.00%	5.00%	35.00%	0.00%	0.00%
5.26%	5.26%	26.32%	10.53%	10.53%	26.32%	15.79%	0.00%
1.00%	0.00%	32.00%	12.00%	5.00%	15.00%	30.00%	5.00%
0.00%	16.67%	50.00%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%	33.33%	0.00%
22.22%	11.11%	33.33%	22.22%	5.56%	5.56%	0.00%	0.00%
4.00%	0.00%	40.00%	16.00%	0.00%	30.00%	10.00%	0.00%
0.00%	6.67%	26.67%	13.33%	20.00%	33.33%	0.00%	0.00%
0.00%	0.00%	52.63%	7.89%	2.63%	26.32%	5.26%	5.26%
5.00%	0.00%	27.50%	17.50%	5.00%	22.50%	20.00%	2.50%
0.00%	0.00%	82.00%	8.00%	0.00%	5.00%	5.00%	0.00%
5.00%	0.00%	60.00%	5.00%	0.00%	30.00%	0.00%	0.00%
0.00%	0.00%	60.00%	20.00%	2.00%	10.00%	3.00%	5.00%
0.00%	0.00%	35.29%	26.47%	2.94%	11.76%	8.82%	14.71%
0.00%	0.00%	50.00%	10.00%	5.00%	30.00%	5.00%	0.00%
0.00%	0.00%	30.77%	10.26%	2.56%	25.64%	30.77%	0.00%
20.00%	0.00%	30.00%	30.00%	0.00%	20.00%	0.00%	0.00%

(+) Didn't vote (++) Not entitled to vote

I am still following up on the work Gera (politisch). At the HGB Leipzig there is a seminar called Person of no consquences, concerned with origin, gender, whiteness, shame, social injustice/precarity and the (de)construction of all the above.

Thus, I repeated the poll: I asked 38 of the seminar's students which party they had voted in Germany's 2017 election (Zweitstimme).
A month later, framed as a prize draw, I asked them to guess what their peers had declared to have voted in the poll (because who knows if they lied?).

Here are the unfiltered results.

"Zebras camouflage as Putin in order to avoid Tsetse flies." — Wikipedia

github, paper

Performance, 2018

Performer: Isa Weigand

Tablet-based response entry, with privacy-enhancing blinds

»Welcher Partei haben Sie bei der Bundestagswahl 2017 Ihre Zweitstimme gegeben?«

A visitor responding to the performer

Looking for a flat in Berlin... here are the numbers.

Criteria
≥ 2.0 rooms
≤ 900€ rent (+ additional costs / heating)
≥ 45m²
Not parterre
12043, 12047, 12049, 12051, 12053, 10967, 10961, 10997, 10999, 10119

Time of day

Flats found, by time of day

Day of the week

Flats found, by day of the week

Size

Flats found, by size (in m²)

Data skewed because the size filter (≥ 45m²) was added after data collection had started

Floor

Flats found, by floor

Data skewed because the parterre filter (floor > 0) was added after data collection had started

Title

Occurrence of selected words in titles of flats found

Raum 2.41

Donnerstag 18:00 Uhr - 24:00 Uhr
Freitag 11:00 Uhr - 22:00 Uhr
Samstag 11:00 Uhr - 22:00 Uhr
Sonntag 11:00 Uhr - 20:00 Uhr

Filmprogramm HGB Rundgang 2018, Teil 1

Filmprogramm HGB Rundgang 2018, Teil 2

Structure Android Screenshot

Mom, look, I'm a real developer now! I've built my first Android app...

How to Structure

This is a rough user manual for Structure. Read the announcement for v0.15.2 (Abstractionism) here. The most recent version of Structure is — get it here!

Setup

Download the latest version appropriate for your plattform. (Installing it on macOS is weird, because Apple doesn't like ~~independent~~ non-macOS developer's software).
If you don't have one, create a GitHub account. For now this is unfortunately the only available log-in mechanism for Structure.
Start Structure, log in and bookmark things.

Keyboard shortcuts

Key combinations are not customizable, yet (#7)

Key combination	Action
`[CTRL/CMD] + [n]`	Create new entry
`[CTRL/CMD] + [t]`	Add tag (only available when viewing a single entry)
`[CTRL/CMD] + [.]` or `[Esc]`	Back to default view (list of links/notes)
`[CTRL/CMD] + [f]`	Search links/notes

How do I...

...create a text note? - go to Add new (or [CTRL/CMD] + [n]) and click on the Need just text? below the URL field
...untag? - right click on the tag
...see all links/notes with a tag? - simply (left) click on the tag
...change the color of a tag? - as above (left) click on the tag, then click inside the big color square and change the value (either a hex-code like #00FF00 or a CSS color name like red or navy)
...see all my tags? - o to your user-page (click your username in the top right corner) and then My tags
...navigate the tag-autocomplete with the keyboard? - down/right for the next tag, up/right for the previous
...use the bookmarklet? - go to your user-page (click your username in the top right corner), generate a bookmarklet token, and copy the bookmarklet-code into a browser bookmark (make sure the javascript: bit gets pasted)
...create an RSS-feed? - just like the bookmarklet, generate a token on your user-page. Caution: someone with access to your RSS-feed can see all your saved links (but currently not text-notes) and comments!

Announcing

Structure v0.15.2 (Abstractionism)

The most recent version of Structure is — get it here!
I describe Structure as "A performance-at-interaction oriented and reasonably stylish bookmarking tool for (eventually) everything."

It does a few of the things I was lacking in other bookmarking tools:
- fuzzy organization (multi-tagging instead of hierarchy, title and comment field, everything fully searchable)
- scalable (it should handle 5+ years of bookmarks... so 10k+)
- keyboard-interaction focused (although some details are currently not keyboard-accessible)
- not ugly
- targets everything (URLs/websites, text notes, local files¹)
- privacy
- self-determination (export¹ your data and leave)

What it doesn't do:
- perfect privacy (it does HTTPS but no client-side encryption - either you trust me or you run your own instance. also it relies on GitHub OAuth2 for authentication due to laziness about rolling an own authentication system)
- tons of apps and integrations (there is a proof-of-concept Android app though)

And it will do a few things I was asked for:
- screenshots¹ (for the visual among us)
- snapshots¹ (of source code - disappearing and changing websites anybody?)

¹ Coming soon, as of Jan 2018. Have a look at the issues on GitHub.

Structure screenshot

Get Structure!
You will need a GitHub account for authentication.
You're data will be stored on neopostmodern servers.

Leave feedback!

Jahresbericht 2017

This is my attempt to answer some of the nice messages I got in the last weeks. Although, using my camera very little makes recalling the events of this year a little harder. Notice: I'm using xkcd-style comments-in-alt-text here. Which means: Hover your mouse over the picture to read the comment.

January

Not too much happened in January, there's nothing relevant on the reel, except for this blurry footage of a mysterious bird that appeared repeatedly on a far roof.

A blurry picture of a bird

I haven't seen him since. Oh. There's a short film I finished with M. F. — that was January, too.

I've sent it to a bunch of festivals since but it hasn't attracted any love. Still it was an interesting experience to go through all the stages of producing a short film and actually finish something (which I haven't always been expert at in the past).

February

My Birthday, handing in my thesis (computer science!) and "Rundgang" with raum234.bsp — all in one day.

March

A little trip around Europe where I met and couch-surfed some of you.
That's a dead link right now, but I'll upload some pictures soon.

May

Presented my thesis as a poster at QoMEX 2017 and am now appearing on Google Scholar. ✓ (Unicode Character 'CHECK MARK' U+2713)

July

A family vacation. Sailing around Mallorca. The two essential pictures:

Me, on a self-built swing attached to the mast of the yacht. Yes, I did break my rib afterwards.

Me, experimenting with "being German" at Ballermann.

August/September

Preparing and running a group show, all in VR, in a now-defunct lignite mine site: THIS IS FAKE (Website in reconstruction, but there are videos here and here)

A 3D-scan of me, talking a lot.

That was a bit exhausting. After a North Sea cool-down (no pun intended) phase, renovation work at R.'s house in Selchow (Storkow) in Brandeburg called, as a balance to all the art.

Really, how much more impressive is a brick and mortar wall (no pun intended) as opposed to a VR world.

Also, this is O. who takes up significant amounts of time in my life now.

November

Tiny solo-show in Berlin with one of the THIS IS FAKE projects and another VR-participation in a group show. To much of my own surprise I got positive responses from two competitions where I had sent in works I had mostly finished in Lisbon: The HGB Study Award exhibition in Leipzig,

Many people thought this was just art, BUT IT'S A REAL HYPERLINK THAT WORKS ON THE REAL INTERNET!!1!!1!

As y'all are lazy, this is the link in the picture. It was a bit disappointing to realize that less than 30 people visited the website throughout the exhibition duration. Apparently web-based art still has a long way to go in public reception. and the German [Youth] Multimedia Award in Dresden (where the setup was done so brutally that I won't dare to upload a picture here).

December

The Dresden exhibition sent me to Budapest for a partner-show.

Boy with a maybe-not-all-hope-in-art-is-lost face.

And finally an experimental performance at a school project group-show in Leipzig.

I don't have any documentation for this project yet, so everybody just be creeped out by my massive eye.

2017 closed as fast and packed as it was. The 27th already I left the cosy and calm christmas home and attended the 34C3 conference (some of the talks I recommend are listed here). I've been thinking a lot about just how packed, just how many exhibitions, just how much in general (and what of course) I want to do in the upcoming year. Maybe it's been a little too much. For now it looks like I'll take some sort of a break from the media art studies after doing my pre-diploma in summer and re-connect with the real world a bit. Maybe finally pick up on the electronic medical record system work again. Or at least attend a different art school. At least I hope to get to see and spent time with many of you.

Happy 2018!

34C3

Recommended

- QualityLand Marc-Uwe Kling
- Humans as software extensions (Will you be my plugin?)

Kind of recommended

- Ecstasy 10x yellow Twitter 120mg Mdma (Shipped from Germany for 0.1412554 Bitcoins)
  !Mediengruppe Bitnik   Highly recommended if you don't know their work yet, otherwise just what you expected
- Die göttliche Informatik Rainer Rehak
- Pointing Fingers at 'The Media' (The Bundestagswahl 2017 and Rise of the AfD)
- Social Cooling - big data’s unintended side effect
  Tijmen Schep
- Robot Music (The Robots Play Our Music and What Do We Do?)
  Jacob Remin & goto80 Don't expect any art-conceptual insights though

Didn't attend, will still watch

- Social Bots, Fake News und Filterblasen
- Internet of fails
- Beeinflussung durch künstliche Intelligenz
- Deep Learning Blindspots
- Science is broken
- Growing Up Software Development
- Treibhausgasemissionen einschätzen
- Deconstructing a Socialst Lawnmower

Performance, 2017

In this perfomance I put myself in the exhibition space for the opening wearing a custom-built eye tracker which showed in real-time where my gaze was directed, observable on screens attached to my augmented body.

During the opening speech by the president Thomas Locher, view from behind [credit: Micha Dykta]

»Wichtig ist auch, daß die Mimikry nicht unbedingt eine aufbegehrende oder auch nur bewußte Intentionalität voraussetzt. Im Gegenteil, sie kann Zeichen für eine völlig unbewußte Anpassung an die Bilder sein, über die das Subjekt üblicherweise von der Kamera bzw. dem Blickregime wahrgenommen wird.
Die Pose muß viel allgemeiner als fotografische Prägung des Körpers verstanden werden, derer sich das Subjekt nicht unbedingt bewußt ist: Sie kann das Resultat eines Bildes sein, das so oft auf den Körper projiziert worden ist, daß das Subjekt beginnt, sich sowohl psychisch wie auch körperlich mit ihm zu identifizieren. Dieses Bild ist im übrigen durchaus nicht immer schmeichelhaft oder lustvoll besetzt.«

— Silverman, Kaja, Dem Blickregime begegnen, in: Kravagna (Hg.), Privileg Blick. Kritik der visuellen Kultur, Berlin 1997, p. 50

Front view during the performance, showing the eye tracker and the laptop screen attached to the body [credit: Julie Hart]

2 HD screens and laptop (worn with a custom-built harness)
2 modified webcams and IR light source (attached to a custom-built head mount)
power outlet from wall attached to body (25 meter cord)
runs a modified version of Pupil

Throughout the twentieth century there was a growing debate about the gaze and it's implication on society and individuals within it.
The technological developments of the early twenty-first century added a new immediacy and impact to this. The gaze itself of course always had been immediate, observable by the parties involved. But it was limited to its physical environment. Audience measurement was rudimentary. Not so in the present day and especially the internet: Knowing who sees what when had grown beyond mass surveillance. Every user of social media gets near to real-time feedback on their performance.

Results vary, but the influence of the public telegaze has been strong enough for large shares of social media users turn to (supposedly) more oblivious and private ways of exposing themselves, such as Snapchat (and the inclusion of their features into other mainstream products). Silverman's words on unconsciously posing for the camera seem to fulfill even more today, taking into account just how often each individual is photographed (or photographing themselves). And on the other side the emergence of terms such as social cooling proves that users now feel, acknowledge and fear that even looking at something is an act with strings attached.

The performance Blickregime (sehen und gesehen werden) bridges the technological and social/physical space into a performance. This format creates an actual experience of gazing and being gazed upon, a fundamental advantage. Only in involuntarily forcing bystanders to take both sides it can be achieved to gain an understanding (and hence empathy) of the ubiquitous process, the social dynamic of the regime of the gaze. The performance initially has no claim to action: merely by existing it attempts to expose the existence of the regime. In echo to Minujín's work the opening was chosen as the ideal moment of observation. The multiple layers of sehen und gesehen werden (see and be seen) unfold: gallery visitors see artworks, gallery visitors see gallery visitors, gallery visitors see the performance, the performer sees gallery visitors and artworks and everybody can see exactly how the performance sees all this, inviting the visitors to extrapolate this visibility to their own gaze and that of their surrounding. A feedback system establishes itself. The gaze is felt, spatially, physically. And as a performer I am the first to notice the arising self-censorship. Moving your eyes loses it's unconscious innocence. The sensation stays, even after leaving the apparatus. You'll never look at anything the same way anymore.

Minujín's "MINUCODEs" (1968)

Installation view with VR laboratory c/o KUNSTPUNKT BERLIN

credit: institut für alles mögliche

Installation view at HGB Galerie

Generative Online Photography, 2017
Nominated for HGB Studienpreis 2017

When viewing the website, the viewer is prompted to choose a moment. It is stored on the device and is retained indefinitely. All future actions start from this moment, it "belongs" to the viewer.

At this very moment, one of the servers performing this work retrieves images from 24 randomly selected webcams. The webcams are located in the 24 time zones of the earth, one per time zone. The database contains between 60 and 100 active webcams.

The results are presented as a triptych (responsively, so on small devices they are stacked vertically). For each image, 3 to 7 layers are superimposed. The actual composition changes with every call of the page and can be forced with the "reload" button.

Thus, every moment that is fixed in its temporal dimension encompasses an immeasurably large number of combinations of its visual archiving. Several forms of time are negotiated: local (time zones, refresh and transfer rates), technical (webcam aesthetics) and historical (the moment in general — but especially internet — development, where it is [still] possible to access a large number of single-frame based webcams worldwide).

http://your.neopostmodern.com/moment

The work is presented as a URL plot applied to the wall

View from outside into the exhibition hall

All screenshots taken 2018-01-11

Screenshot

Exhibitions 2017

FEB 9—12

HGB Leipzig (DE)

Rundgang

RAUM234.bsp

group project, media art class of 2016

SEP 9—17

Schacht Dölitz, Leipzig (DE)

THIS IS FAKE

Vom angeblich letzten Stück Kohle
& Fragen zur Selbstwahrnehmung

group show with THIS IS FAKE

NOV 4—5

Abteilung für Alles Andere, Berlin (DE)

Fragen zur Selbstwahrnehmung

solo show as part of THIS IS FAKE

Facebook, ArtRabbit

NOV 9—DEC 2

HGB Galerie, Leipzig (DE)

Studienpreis 2017

http://your.neopostmodern.com/moment

award exhibition

NOV 10—DEC 1

KUNSTPUNKT BERLIN (DE)

GOOD FRIENDS

Fragen zur Selbstwahrnehmung

group show, participating as part of THIS IS FAKE

Facebook

NOV 11—12

Technische Sammlung Dresden (DE)

mb21 Medienfestival 2017

Project David

award exhibition

DEC 2—JAN 21

New Budapest Gallery, Budapest (HU)

The Formula of the Present

Project David

<19 Freestyle Computing Competition award exhibition, as a non-competing guest

DEC 13—JAN 20

HGB Galerie, Leipzig (DE)

ID — Cultural Memory in the Present

Blickregime (sehen und gesehen werden)

group show curated by Clemens von Wedemeyer / Alba d'Urbano / Peggy Buth

Facebook

Site-specific VR-lecture, 2017

Framed as an on-site VR-lecture reflecting its own technology, this work was specific to the "Bautechnisches Denkmal Schacht Dölitz", a now defunct lignite mine shaft in southern Leipzig. The site was 3D-scanned and 3D-modelled. In VR we see a reproduction of what immediately surrounds us: the old installations, initially constructed in the 1890s, the modifications done in the 1920s, 1960s, the demolitions of the 1970s.

First lignite mine shaft, then conversion in the GDR, then dilapidation. What historical authenticity can such virtual experiences develop in the auratic context of a real system? Is the logic of representation limited by the medium? How do different representations — rough 3D scans, clean 3D models, a talk, poetry — as different kinds of prosthetic knowledge alter our acceptance of its history, as a heritage, and its existence as a "memory"? A polemic, drawing on Jorge Luis Borges' 1947 short story El Inmortal (The Immortal).

2D documentary video (10:18, German audio - Spanish subtitles available)

Credits
Camera and 3D scan boom: Julie Hart
Sound: Leon Naffin
3D model template: Bernd Mörsberger
3D scan software: BundleFusion
Thanks to: Leon Naffin, Ortrun Bargholz

Interactive installation with VR, 2017

We have mirrors and photographs, but our self-perception is trapped within the mediality of the 'Abbildung' (image/reproduction).
With Virtual Reality this can be overcome, since vision is detached from the own body. Does this also detach and dissolve self-perception as known until today? Is this a first step towards trans-humanism?

It isn't. We recognize ourselves with even low-resolution, square-y, hollow representations of ourselves. But we don't associate with the body, can't move naturally, are awkwardly lost in overlapping physical and virtual spaces. The movement of the own body, the movement of others entering the light cube (a physical take on the chaperone usually used in VR to remind users of the physical limits) and the movement of the virtual camera are quite overwhelming.

Participants experiment games within the installation

Same view, but as seen in VR

Installation view at Neue Sortierung (Schacht Dölitz), Leipzig [credit: ? / THIS IS FAKE]

Short documentary video (1:37, no audio)

Participants experiment games within the installation

Same view, but as seen in VR

Real-time 3D data is acquired through Kinect RGBD-cameras

Multi-camera aggregation and networking is facilitated by:
Kowalski, M.; Naruniec, J.; Daniluk, M.: "LiveScan3D: A Fast and Inexpensive 3D Data Acquisition System for Multiple Kinect v2 Sensors". in 3D Vision (3DV), 2015 International Conference on, Lyon, France, 2015

One key aspect missing in this documentation — so far — is the role of the person in virtual reality as a performer. On the other hand, the one-regarding-themself is in the attention of everybody not in VR. He is looked at without being able to look back. The light cube creates a physical sub-space in the surrounding (physical) exhibition space. This sub-space is usually accepted as a stage, the invisible boundaries aren't trespassed by viewers. The privacy of the own body experience, of losing oneself in immersion, of moving in a virtual environment - it is involuntarily presented as a performance.

The light cube was fitted into the industrial exhibition room to create a sub-space and stage, inspired by the in-VR chaperone

Exhibition flyer

The Artist's Guide to BundleFusion with a Kinect

Let's assume happen to have the right hardware (see below) and you'd like to work with BundleFusion. It sure looks cool.
Except, it's not so easy to get to work as it maybe promised. Here is my somewhat-more-in-depth (as compared to the README) setup process:

Pre-requisites

Hardware

Kinect360 with the slightly overpriced USB 2.0 adapter or ~~KinectOne (aka. v2) with the overpriced USB 3.0 adapter~~ (not)
Reasonable PC with a reasonable Nvidia GPU (don't ask me what that means)
MSFT Windows 10 :(

Drivers

Nvidia drivers (figure this out yourself, for my VR things I needed the most up-to-date available)
CUDA 7.0 (do a custom install to preserve your shiny new drivers)
MSFT Visual Studio 2013 (you can get that at their website after registration for free)
for Kinect360
- Kinect SDK 1.8
for KinectOne
- Kinect SDK 2.0
- the most recent drivers (which you get by doing this one weird trick -- no pun intended)

Don't bother thinking about using a recent CUDA or Visual Studio version. Just don't.

Downloading and setting up the code

If you use git it might be more straight-forward, but since I never properly set up my MSFT Windows install, I downloaded the ZIPs directly from GitHub.

Grab a ZIP of the master of the repo. Unpack it to BundleFusion-master.
Grab a ZIP of the mLib submodule at the correct revision. Confirm this by navigating to /external/. Unpack this and replace BundleFusion-master/external/mLib.
Grab the mLib external libraries from this Dropbox link they provide. This seems to be a bunch of dependencies or builds -- but no idea, really. Unpack and place next to BundleFusion-master.

This should leave you with the following folder structure. Double check this, it'll screw you up.

BundleFusion-master/
  external/
    mLib/ # this is the submodule you replaced
      data/
      src/
      [...]
  FriedLiver/
    [...]
    FriedLiver.sln
    [...]
mLibExternal/ # you downloaded this from Dropbox
  include
  libsWindows
  [...]

Adjusting the code for your needs

Open BundleFusion-master/FriedLiver/FriedLiver.sln with Visual Studio 2013 (make sure it's really the 2013 version, Help > About Microsoft Visual Studio). Open the file GlobalAppState.h and change line 3 to 10 to the following to enable your Kinect(s):

#define KINECT
#define KINECT_ONE
//#define OPEN_NI
#define BINARY_DUMP_READER
//#define INTEL_SENSOR
//#define REAL_SENSE
//#define STRUCTURE_SENSOR
#define SENSOR_DATA_READER

Now switch to a production (Release) build. The Debug builds don't work for me, missing FreeImage.dll. Check that your code and build config look somewhat like this:

VS screenshot

Build

Go to Build > Build Solution of CTRL + SHIFT + B and hope for the best. If you get any errors, you're on your own now. Otherwise: Congratulations! You have now compiled BundleFusion, which is about 80% of the hastle to get to an actual 3D scan.

Configure

Copy the two files zParametersBundlingDefault.txt and zParametersDefault.txt from to BundleFusion-master/FriedLiver to BundleFusion-master/FriedLiver/x64/Release. Open them with a reasonable editor (e.g. Notepad++, not the regular Notepad, it doesn't understand line-endings).

As you can see, there is a lot of things to configure. Trial and error FTW. Run it after every change to see if it helped. First of all, in zParametersDefault.txt in line 2 specify the sensor you're going to use. I only got the Kinect360 to work, so that means

s_sensorIdx = 0;

Another thing that was crucial for getting it to work for me was changing line 49 in zParametersDefault.txt to

s_hashNumSDFBlocks = 100000;    //smaller voxels require more space

because 100000 is suggested in a comment in the original file.

Try to run it

Start BundleFusion-master/FriedLiver/x64/Release/FriedLiver.exe. If that crashes with

bundlefusion-master\friedliver\source\depthsensing\VoxelUtilHashSDF.h(135) : cudaSafeCall() Runtime API error 2: out of memory.

You'll want to go back to configuration and randomly change some numbers.

Shortcuts for interaction

Once you got the little preview window up and running, you'll quickly wonder how the hell you're supposed to interact with this software: Where's the colored view? And how do you export anything at all?

This bug hints at reading the source code (obvious place to look for shortcuts), specifically Source/DepthSensing/DepthSensing.cpp, where starting at line 205 we find this:

    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"Controls ");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \tF1:\t Hide help");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \tF2:\t Screenshot");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'R':\t Reset scan");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'9':\t Extract geometry (Marching Cubes)");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'8':\t Save recorded input data to sensor file (if enabled)");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'7':\t Stop scanning");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'6':\t Print Timings");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'<tab>':\t Switch to free-view mode");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'1':\t Visualize reconstruction (default)");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'2':\t Visualize input depth");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'3':\t Visualize input color");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'4':\t Visualize input normals");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'5':\t Visualize phong shaded");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'H':\t GPU hash statistics");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'T':\t Print detailed timings");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'M':\t Debug hash");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'N':\t Save hash to file");
    g_pTxtHelper->DrawTextLine(L"  \t'N':\t Load hash from file");

The most important keys are 9 (export) and 2 (color).

Look at the results

The exported .ply files are stored in BundleFusion-master\FriedLiver\x64\Release\scans and named scan.ply, scan1.ply et cetera. Work out a system for yourself.

Post-process

Have a look at this two part tutorial by Intel to get your model simplified, textured and (optionally) into Unity.

To be continued

Okay, I lied. Things aren't working super well and most likely you couldn't follow the instructions. But I hope you're a little further now.

meta-cat 1, screenshot

meta-cat 2, screenshot

meta-cat 3, screenshot

meta-cat 4, screenshot

User-generated crypto performance, 2014, 2016, 2017
Awarded with the Deutscher Multimediapreis mb21 for the 2017 annual theme Big Dada

A fascinated participant of Project David

Who has ever used PGP to encrypt an e-mail? PGP was the only real end-to-end encryption mechanism available (untilt the emergence of the Signal protocol, such as also used by WhatsApp) in 2013 when Snowden made his revelations. And since PGP was and is so rarely used: isn't it more dangerous to use it, since it raises the surveillors’ attention? Project David fills this gap by engaging viewers in a playful, dadaist, yet superficial manner to generate more encrypted communication. In a fake terminal an excerpt of the Snowden leaks is presented, which no one ever really read either. The participant is reduced to play with speed and color of the predetermined output. The text is then encrypted and sent to one's personal e-mail address over the Tor network, another privacy tool. This generates encrypted traffic and spreads the colorful artwork, an undecipherable block of numbers and letters. Still this is Big Dada: no art installation will ever build a cover for vulnerable real-world users. It's a mere symbolic act against the seemingly overpowering Goliath of surveillance agencies.

Installation view at New Budapest Gallery (HU)

2016 demo video (2:37, no audio)

Exhibition view at New Budapest Gallery (HU)

The colored MIDI-controller in front of the screen

128.9 MB Sunrise
(work in progress)

Quora questions

It's not always about answers. Art is all about questions.

What do machine learning experts do? Don't they just train the neural network and leave it till it 'mature'?

What are some industries where Machine Learning could be implemented but hasn't been yet?

Is it possible to get involved in machine learning and neural networks without a background in neuroscience?

What do we know about real neural networks that hasn't yet been applied in Machine Learning?

How "neural" are neural networks?

How can a neural network learn itself?

How do I learn neural networks?

Page 1

Page 2

SCREENTEST #8 - Speed Exhibitions
Ich dachte es muss "Krieg oder Frieden" heißen
Max Ratay, Fabian Lehmann, Clemens Schöll

Installation view

      ______ __  __ ______   ____   ____   ____   __  __ __     ____ _____ ______   ______ __    ____   __  __ ____ 
     /_  __// / / // ____/  / __ \ / __ \ / __ \ / / / // /    /  _// ___//_  __/  / ____// /   / __ \ / / / // __ \
      / /  / /_/ // __/    / /_/ // / / // /_/ // / / // /     / /  \__ \  / /    / /    / /   / / / // / / // / / /
     / /  / __  // /___   / ____// /_/ // ____// /_/ // /___ _/ /  ___/ / / /    / /___ / /___/ /_/ // /_/ // /_/ / 
    /_/  /_/ /_//_____/  /_/     \____//_/     \____//_____//___/ /____/ /_/     \____//_____/\____/ \____//_____/

There won't be a revolution through technology – but there won't be a revolution without technology either.
The revolution's technology needs infrastructure. But all current infrastructure represents powerstructures opposite to our goals.

What is more, all previous attempts to reappropriate this infrastructure – and it has to be stressed that it is crucial infrastructure – have failed. A proposal targeted at the code-literate, tech-savvy, ideology-driven leftist user can't possibly replace an all-encompassing structure; it will remain a utopia drifting ever further from the mainstream capitalist reality in terms of performance. We can't run the revolution on imperformant infrastructure.

A powerfull, people-owned, distributed infrastructure is needed. An infrastructure based on consensus, transparency, open source and open governance, that is: anarchist planning theory. And when governance is taken from us in open source areas we have to for and starve the tyranns of our ideas.
We need an inclusive, open to the public, to the not technically savvy – we need A POPULIST CLOUD.

As stated at Telekommunist International.

with Maria Francisca de Abreu-Afonso
Near-Fi short film, 2017
13:06, color (HD), stereo sound (PT/DE)
Written and shot in Portugal and Germany in 2015 / 2016 with a broken Nikon P5100 and a regular D7100

A young German's video camera breaks. He sees it as a sign of the disintegrating media scene and lost of trust in the news. After the right wing gains power in the 2017 elections, he flees to Portugal but remains unsure whether this was an adequate reaction. As he looks back, he asks himself if anything happened at all.

Film still

Three film stills of Ponte 25 de Abril
Shot winter 2015/2016. Curated winter 2016/2017.

Film still of Ponte 25 de Abril

001-HEGEL.wav
002-KAMERA.wav
003-ORAKEL.wav
004-LÜGENPRESSE.wav
005-MEDIENREALITÄT.wav
006-DESCARTES.wav
007-UNVERÄNDERT.wav
008-WAHLEN.wav
009-RECHTE.wav
010-HASSREDEN.wav
011-WEGSCHAUEN.wav
012-FLUCHT.wav
101-SAUDADE.wav
101-SAUDADE-2.wav
102-GERAÇÃO.wav
102-GERAÇÃO-2.wav
102-103-GERAÇÃO-LUTAS-POLITICAS.wav
103-LUTAS-POLITICAS.wav
103-LUTAS-POLITICAS-2.wav
103-LUTAS-POLITICAS-3.wav
103-LUTAS-POLITICAS-4.wav
104-ISOLAÇÃO.wav
104-ISOLAÇÃO-2.wav
105-DEMOCRATICAMENTE.wav
105-DEMOCRATICAMENTE-A.wav
105-DEMOCRATICAMENTE-B.wav
106-DESPREZADO.wav
106-DESPREZADO-A.wav
106-DESPREZADO-B.wav
107-CULPADO.wav
107-CULPADO-2.wav
108-ELA.wav
108-ELA-2.wav
109-PERIGO.wav
109-PERIGO-A.wav
109-PERIGO-B.wav
109-PERIGO-C.wav
110-OHNMÄCHTIG.wav
110-OHNMÄCHTIG-2.wav
111-INACÇÃO.wav
111-112-INACÇÃO-PARALISADO.wav
112-PARALISADO.wav
112-PARALISADO-2.wav
113-ACUSAÇÕES.wav
113-ACUSAÇÕES-2.wav
200-MAR.wav 200-MAR-A.wav
200-MAR-B.wav
200-MAR-2.wav
200-MAR-3.wav
200-MAR-4.wav

PureData (pd-l2ork) and two small MIDI controllers

GUI froze about 15 minutes in, audio analysis crashed another 15 minutes later.

HGB Party: Hybris
Visuals for Hugo Capablanca

Jahnallee 65
04177 Leipzig

99 bottles on the table

Auf Wiedersehen, Berlin.

Untitled (Holzfahrrad)
Bike frame, wood, leather
Created circa 2011, destroyed circa 2016

Photographed 2016-08-31 prior to destruction

10 Signs You're Overwhelmed by the Twenty-first Century
(2016)

A SUDDEN GAIN OF PERSPECTIVE
A sudden gain of perspective.
Issued by: sitting on the side walk, starring into the wet streets, the yellow light reflected on the darkness of the night, on your birthday. 00:49AM all alone, between one group of friends and the other, ultimately alone, as always.

IMMUNE SYSTEM
As a kid, I used to lick the handrails leaving the subway stations because I assumed it strengthened my immune system.
As a teenager, I had only shitty boyfriends, because I heard I'd eventually build up character.
As an adult – so far – I've been living in awful places, pursuing degrading jobs, because I hoped it would train my aesthetic and prepare me for pleasure, even happiness maybe.

At least, I tell you so now, to excuse the lousy choices I've made all my life; including you. And to explain why I am such an asshole now,
I guess I just over-adapted to this world.

AND ADMIRE HER
There is a groundbreaking sadness in you.
It slowly walks out of the back door of your thoughts and assaults your projections of happiness, that threatens me every day we wake up. I just can’t look into the assumed perfectness of your life without crying, I am attracted to you because I admire it - but I can’t actually deal with it, or with you.
But when you saw him die and the sadness broke out of you, I finally became a person in our relationship. No, actually, that was the relationship’s beginning. Everything before that was me drooling over what you tossed at me, because it was your left overs.
Your emotional leftovers mainly.

I can’t deal with your sadness. It breaks me.
I wonder through the yellow-lit, black-shadow, gray-water streets to the place I used to live. I still pay rent for it, but I never make it there, everyday I want to wake up there, but in the evenings my miserableness pushes me towards you, trying to feel something in the fire I make of your emotional leftovers.

Now that you are depressed, I can’t burn anything. I step into a pond, a mixture of piss, rain and drugs, right in front of my door. I’d been gone for so long, I had forgotten about how terrible the area was, the house, the people in there, my minimalist room, that was supposed to air confidence and conscious living, but the mattress on the broken tiles in front of the dirty wall with nothing on it but dirt and dead spiders just emphasized my mediocre self-pity. There wasn’t anything heroic about being unable to fashion a room.
I turn the key, which to my surprise I found in my pocket and happens to still work and stand in the hallway, a guy I’d been living with for 8 months comes out of the shower and talks to me for the first time: “Man, could you move out, like no bad vibes, but some friends are coming into town and the don’t have a place and we want to record together, so you know.” “Yeah, I’m not much of a musician.” I reply and walk by him. He probably starred after me, but I manage to reach my room without talking to anybody else.

Light floods in through the door. I hadn’t noticed the sun rise. When had it come back to life?
I hadn’t noticed, that the sun ever shines into my window, apparently I had never been at home, awake and conscious just after sunrise. Six years of lamenting about living in a dark alley and the sun just pours into my room on a January morning.

A strong urge to call her passes me. “I just wanted to let you know that we won’t see again. I found my old life and it’s okay. It’s actually shit but still better than with you. I hope we can stay friends.”
I put my 3 shirts, the spare trouser and the little underwear into the half-molded suitcase which I brought with me when first entering the city; put the mattress over my head and walked out.
The guy was still standing in the same spot with the towel around his waist. “Can you fake my signatures for moving out? There’s half a tomato left in the fridge, you can eat that.” And I walked past him. “Is she beautiful?” he asks, how the hell did he know what I was doing? “No, but the world is ugly” “Thanks” he said and I left.

Back on the streets crowds poured in and out of metro-stations, I walked the known path back to her apartment. She stood in the kitchen, making coffee, wearing nothing but a veil.
“I was sad and I have learned enough from it. The book I started writing after you left will be published in June.” I put the mattress in the middle of the kitchen, sat cross-legged and admired her.

NATURE / EPIPHANIES
Literally every time I spent a couple of days in nature I have an epiphany about how happy I could be living in the country side. Usually I get back to the city and its speed before my insane fantasies of idyll could trick me into trying and seeing how horrible it would be in reality.

THE PROMISE OF THE FUTURE
I just found myself looking forward to the day when I take a tour through the NSA facilities, guided by a survivor witness.

WHAT I ACTUALLY WANTED
“And then, when I get home and can just undress and lay on my bed, still completely high, and maybe masturbate – you know, that's like actually the best part of the party. Like, not always, but quite often I find myself lying there saying to myself “Yeah, this is what I actually wanted”, you know?” “So yeah, great, you have found a way to present solitariness as a pleasure, that's quite advanced when everybody is optimizing themselves in fearing to miss out. But then, why did you even come here?”
Why was I talking to this guy again? He seemed to also have forgotten his reasons to talk to me, so he just bend over and snorted whatever he had been arranging during our four-hour long conversation while I took my coat to leave. I wanted to say something like “Because I need to feel shitty at the party. Because I have talked to people like you.” but even he would figure that it was a lie. After all, yes, I felt great at home because I had felt like shit at the party before. But not because it was a bad party – my carefully created artistic network of friends wouldn't –; but I never managed to cover the bitterness of my social anxiety, the over-thought conversations with unconscious guys I kept crushing on and general disappointment of never getting “the feeling” at its maximum. To cover the bitterness of that cocktail with drugs.
It was raining outside as I walked home. My shoes soaked through. I was slowly calming down. What a nice night.

DRUGS
All the people I admire do more drugs than me. I sometimes feel ashamed for consuming less elicit substances than socially acceptable, like, how am I ever supposed to make a career with these habits?

LOOKING ABSENT / HAPPY SMILEY
A girl looking absent within a group of friends in a club. I'd like to hit on her, but she gets out her phone and sends someone a happy smiley.

EGOCENTRICITY
This article is called “10 signs you ...” but I only talk about myself.

HOPE
I know I should be optimistic about the future, as my ancestors and maybe my parents were. When I walk out of the door, I should be amazed by the technology, astonished by the wealth, breath taken of the beauty of everything.
But I always end up reading about illegal mines and child labor on my phone, sometimes I check it for blood stains.
Maybe the world will be a better place once all crime is organized by robots, committed against robots, enslaved by robots; and we remain as the phony country that doesn't speak up in foreign politics because of economical interest.

Three impressions of Ponte 25 de Abril
2015

Digital photography (no post-production)

Ponte 25 de Abril

Reflektion / Reflexion: Iteration 1 [Northern Quito / West Berlin]
2015

Audio: Julius Windisch

Original description (German):

Reflektion / Reflexion ist ein mehrteiliger, audio-visueller Dialog zwischen Julius Windisch und Clemens Schöll. Hierbei wird abwechselnd Ton und Bild beibehalten, während das Gegenstück passend aber sich entwickelnd ersetzt wird.
Dies ist die erste Iteration, der Ton wird also in der zweiten derselbe sein mit anderem Bild.

Skizzen ohne Hand

Landespreis für Literatur und Sprache Baden-Württemberg 2012

Der Text spielt in einer fiktionalen Welt in der es keine Behinderungen, insbesondere im Bezug auf nicht- oder andersartig-ausgebildete Extermitäten gibt.
Er nimmt in keiner Weise Bezug auf Behinderungen in unserer Welt.

S k i z z e n o h n e H a n d

=================================

–- Alle Philosophie ist Sprachkritik¹

¹ Ludwig Wittgenstein: Tractatus logico-philosophicus, 1918 [4.0031]

Am Nachmittag ging ich in das Café, Tee zu trinken. Ich betrachtete die Anderen, die ihre Hände an den Tassen wärmten, alle in gefrorenen Mänteln, solange, bis ihre Hände wieder warm, der Kaffee aber kalt war. Ihre Hände waren blau, weiß, manche auch rot; zusammen hätten sie Franzosen sein können. Ich war froh keine Hände zu haben, solange bis der Tee kam. Man weigerte sich mir einen Strohhalm für den Tee zu geben, vollkommen zu Recht, ein angesehenes, traditionelles Café darf mir nicht den Tee mit Strohhalm (jedoch mit Stroh Rum²

² Stroh Rum – Eigenmarke der gleichnahmigen Firma aus Klagenfurt, Österreich. Wird synonym zur allgemeinen Bezeichnung "Inländer-Rum" verwendet.

) servieren; doch ihn mir zu verweigern rief einen alten Bürgerrechtler auf den Plan, der seinen Status als Wut- und Mutbürger nun in sozialen Situationen einsetzen muss, enttäuscht von der Politik.

- - -

Und nun, wie ich das Café verlasse, sehe ich zwei ergreifende, die Tasse umgreifende, zarte Hände, samtweich aus Elfenbein, ich bin ergriffen, möchte sie ergreifen und sie gleich dazu. Etwas verloren stehe ich im Eingang und starre auf ihre Hände. Unvermittelt lassen die Hände von der Tasse ab, streichen durch ihr Haar und erheben sie vom Tisch, ziehen mich zu ihr und eine von ihnen legt sich gar auf meine Wange! Doch – Nein, nicht dieses Mal; nur einmal verschone mich, Erbarmen! – greift die zweite Hand nach der meinen, greift ins Nichts und ist verloren, wie ich, der nicht den Blick von den Händen lassen kann, bin hoffnungslos verloren und hoffnungslos natürlich auch.

- - -

Der Höfliche sieht mich. Wie misslich, gerade der Höfliche, dem ich stets die Höflichkeit erwidern wollte, da er eben höflich war(ist); sonst wäre es ja nicht so. Nun, der Höfliche erblickt mich und natürlich ist er erfreut, schwenkt in Eleganz zu mir - Was tun? Hände hoch, ergeben. Ergebnislos, Hände nicht oben, nicht unten. Soll ich ihm nun keine Hand geben, ihm keine Hand schütteln? Soll ich ihm mit dem Ärmel winken, meine Hand nicht in die Kälte zu wagen ist wohl unhöflich. Ich glaube, sie würde nicht frieren trotz des Windes.

Ich gebe mich frierend, entschuldige meine Hände in der Tasche, die sie früher kratzte und erkläre ihm nichts Sinnvolles. Aber der Höfliche erübrigt das in Höflichkeit, wie höflich von ihm. Er hat elegante Hände, wie es die Höflichen pflegen sie zu pflegen. Ein Ring, keine Ehe³

³ Friedrich Schiller: "Der Ring macht Ehen - und Ringe sind's die eine Kette machen." - in Maria Stuart, II,2 / Elisabeth

, aber edel. Ich frage mich, ob mein Ring noch an der Hand wäre.

Denn auch ich trug einst einen Ring, am Ringfinger meiner Hand. Denn auch ich trug einst eine Hand, die mich unerwartet und unerklärlich verließ – noch heute schmerzt es in mir, und in meinen abhanden gekommenen Händen, wenn ich sie auf einem Photo an meinen Armen sehe.

- - -

Im Plattenladen, dessen Platten ich stets mit eleganten Fingern durchforstete, gleich all jenen, die neben mir standen, schweigend, andächtig den Klängen lauschend, die uns nicht gefielen, aber die wir lieben mussten, da der Inhaber sie liebte. Die Finger der anderen laufen auch jetzt leicht auf den Kanten der LP-Hüllen entlang, wie Katzenpfoten auf Mauern, verwerfen leicht alles, was nicht gefällt und das ist eigentlich Alles; nur, selten, lachen die Hände, erheben die gefundene Trophäe, ein scheinbar vergriffenes Exemplar, streicheln liebevoll die Hülle.

- - -

Am Brunnen vor dem Tore,
Da steht ein Lindenbaum: ⁴

⁴ Der Text war abgeschlossen bevor die Gedichtauszüge eingefügt wurden.
Wilhelm Müller: Am Brunnen vor dem Tore, 1822
[Zeilen 1 – 2, 3 – 4, 7 – 8, 9 – 10] (Im Folgenden nicht einzeln gekennzeichnet)

Ich winkte – fingiertes Winken – Ihnen⁵

⁵ "ihnen" - Persönliches Fürwort, Dativ, 3. Person Plural
"Ihnen" - Persönliches Fürwort, Dativ, 2. Person in Höflichkeitsform

Lebewohl zu. Schloss die Tür - oder der Wind des undichten Hauses schloss sie - und das Portal ins Heim fällt zu; eine Bruchbude aus verkohltem Holz, doch in meiner Erinnerung noch der Palast, den es mir als Kind darstellte. Es stand schwarz gegen den Nebel, unbeirrt vom Schneetreiben, stand es schwarz. Das kaum vernehmbare Klicken eines modernen⁶

⁶ Widerspruch zu "eine Bruchbude aus verkohltem Holz"

Schlosses, sicher und gut geölt. Ich bin draußen, bin frei; mit den Füßen im Dreck und dem Kopf im eisigen Wind, die Augen gequält von den schemenhaften Bäumen, wie die Hände Satans aus dem Boden, mich verlangend; die Letzten die der Nebel noch nicht fraß und die Letzten die er vor mir fressen wird. „Wie die Hände des Todes..." denke ich und frage mich zugleich, warum immer nur von seinen knochigen Händen die Rede ist.

Ich träumt’ in seinem Schatten
So manchen süßen Traum.

Es sind viele Winter vergangen, seit ich hier träumen konnte. Seit ich im Schatten des linden Sommers von der Zukunft träumte, von der Freiheit der Vögel. Ich strich über die Rinde und fühlte die Zeit. Ich hob meine Hand in den Wind und spürte die Geschwindigkeit der Welt. Ich legte meine Hand auf ihre Haut und spürte das Gute im Menschen. Winter sind vergangen, die Bäume kahlten, die meine Träume kahlten. Längst vergangen, schon vergessen, sind die Tage des Traumes von Freiheit in einem - und vom - elterlichen Palast; längst erfroren sind die Pflanzen die meiner Zeuge wurden, die Eltern die mich zeugten und Alles, was einst eine glorreiche Heimatstätte war.

Es schwand nicht nur die Welt an sich, sondern auch mein Bezug zu ihr: Ich konnte sie nicht mehr begreifen; fühlte sie nicht mehr und wurde objektiv. Langsam wurde alles zu einer Erinnerung.

Ich mußt’ auch heute wandern
Vorbei in tiefer Nacht,

Ich bin frei, doch nur in den Nebel hinein, ich bin unfrei zurückzukehren, das Schloss ist zu; ich bin unfrei, ich kann den Weg im Nebel nicht wählen; ich bin unfrei, der Wind sperrte mich aus, obwohl ich es wollte, doch ich kehre nie mehr zurück. Geschlossen ist die Türe nicht, nur eingeschnappt, verärgert wird sie mich nie wieder einlassen sondern jedes Gesindel - ich vermag sie nicht mehr zu öffnen, ich bin unfrei.

Denn niemand in der Welt dachte daran, dass es jemanden gibt wie mich. Niemand konnte erahnen, dass es einst jemanden gibt, dessen Bedürfnisse und Fähigkeiten niemand hat. Niemand denkt an Hände, niemand ist wie ich, niemand denkt den ganzen Tag nur an Hände. Und wer würde sich die Mühe machen, ein Fahrrad ohne Lenker zu bauen, dass niemand fahren kann?

Da hab ich noch im Dunkel
Die Augen zugemacht.

Im Dunkeln nehmen wir instinktiv die Hände um zu sehen. Im Nebel nahm ich instinktiv meine Hände um zu sehen, und seht: Ich war blind. In einem Moment hatte ich erkannt, dass ich gefangen war; zwischen Schnappschlössern und der Blindheit vor mir – jetzt renne ich, kopflos und händelos, blind und unkontrolliert, jetzt renne ich. Ich bin vollkommen frei, vollkommen ungebunden – ich bin absolut unfrei denn ich bin der absolute Zufall.⁷

⁷ "Die einzige Möglichkeit, einen wirklich freien Willen zu manifestieren, wäre, etwas zu tun, wozu es keinerlei Veranlassung gibt. Und da dies selbst die Veranlassung wäre, ist dies unmöglich." – Torsten de Winkel, 1999

- - -

Nie war mir aufgefallen was eine Hand war. Ist Ihnen einmal aufgefallen was ein Oberschenkel ist? Eben. Ich neigte im Rotwein zum durschnittsdeutschen tractatus alcoholico-philosophicus dazu, festzustellen, dass meine Hand gleichsam die Gesellschaft darstelle. Ich fand im Daumen die Oberschicht, im Zeigefinger die Intellektuellen, im Mittelfinger das Proletariat und im Ringfinger den unscheinbaren und normalen Rest der Bevölkerung.

Der kleine Finger gefiel mir besonders, er erinnerte mich an den Künstler. Die eigentlich unbedeutende Randgestalt, doch liebenswürdig. Hoffungslos irgendwie, deswegen die Hoffnung an sich.

Später fragte mich der Wirt, um etwas sagen zu müssen⁸

⁸ Quentin Tarantino: "That's when you know you've found somebody special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence."
- Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction

, ob ich lieber einen Daumen oder einen Finger zurück hätte. Nach einem Lachen in der Vorstellung eines überlangen, surrealen Arms, der von einem langen, spinnigen, spindeldürren Zeigefinger⁹

⁹ Salvador Dalí: Elefant (1948)
Salvador Dalí: Traum, verursacht durch den Flug einer Biene um einen Granatapfel, eine Sekunde vor dem Aufwachen (1944)

gekrönt wird, der sich räkelt und durch die Luft stochert; macht Gesten aller Art. Aber als mir einfiel, dass ich nicht einmal einen Finger hatte, dass die groteske Überlegung folglich einen Wunsch innehatte, da fasste ich mir ein Herz, fasste mein Herz und ignorierte es: "Weder noch. Ich bin kein Bettler. Gib mir die Hand oder verstoße mich, aber einen Finger will ich nicht. Lass mich meinen Wohlmittelstand leben, oder stürze mich in eine Hungersnot, doch verschone mich vor dem Wohlfahrtsstaat¹⁰

¹⁰ Guido Westerwelle: "Wer dem Volk anstrengungslosen Wohlstand verspricht, lädt zu spätrömischer Dekadenz ein." - in "An die deutsche Mittelschicht denkt niemand." veröffentlicht in Die Welt am 2010-02-11, http://www.welt.de/debatte/article6347490/An-die-deutsche-Mittelschicht-denkt-niemand.html (Zugriff 2012-01-18)

. Ich sei stolz auf meinen Mangel." Doch der Wirt streckte mir die Hand entgegen die ich nicht schüttelte, er lachte mit verschmutzten Zähnen, die aber sauberer waren als der Ort und ich ging. Stolz hatte ich bewiesen. Aber mit der Geste einer Hand vermag man Weltgeschichte zu schreiben.

An all dies dachte ich, bis ich auf dem Heimweg auf der Brücke über einen stehenden Mühlbach mir bewusst wurde, dass all meine Überlegungen sophistische Spielerein waren. Ich verwarf diese Erkenntnis, verwarf sie, um so zu sein wie die Philosophen, deren Bücher man las. Viele schöne Gedanken, die sich alle ergänzen; Aber irgendwo in ihrer Mitte so viele Löcher haben¹¹

¹¹ Jean-Paul Sartre: An Simone Jolivet (1926), in: Briefe an Simone de Beauvoir (1) - Hrsg.: Simone de Beauvoir - Rowohlt, 1984 [Seite 24, Zeile 8ff.]

, dass sie wie eine Seifenblase schweben. Ich mag Seifenblasen.

- - -

Der Dom war das einzige Gebäude der Stadt, das trotz des eisigen Windes nicht fror und das der Nebel nicht vergrämen konnte; denn er war der eisige Wind und der Gram selbst. Da ich nun meine Situation für auswegslos befand, wandte ich mich zum ersten Mal seit Jahren dem Portal aus schwarzem Holz mit schwarzem Eisen zu, dass mich derart einladend betrachtete, dass ich beschloss lieber den Turm zu besteigen, als mich in das Dunkel der Hölle hineinzuwagen.

Der im Sommer durchaus beliebte Turm war so vereinsamt wie die Industrieschornsteine am Horizont, der Wind brachte ihren weißen Ausstoß zu mir, die produktive Wärme in der Luft verflogen, kam ich in diesem Nebel zu meinesgleichen; Auch ich von der Wärme der Gesellschaft verstoßen¹²

¹² Arthur Schopenhauer: Parerga und Paralipomena, Kleine Philosophische Schriften - Parabel "Die Stachelschweine", 1851

und nun nur ein vereistes, herumtreibendes Abfallprodukt. Wir trafen uns, drei kalte Gestalten, verdreckt und alleine, in der Höhe des Himmels. Doch der schwarze Buntsandstein war dem Menschen wertvoll, die weißen Abgase nützlich; nur ich, der zwischen dem Wertvollen und dem Nützlichen, zwischen dem verschmutzten Reinen und dem reinen Verschmutzten, nicht mehr als warme Dampfwölkchen erarbeitet, und auch dies nur unter Mühen.

Ich war der Gesellschaft wie ein stillstehendes Mühlwerk, am Rotten; manch einer mag es anschauen um sich zu wundern, doch niemand mag es erhalten. „Es ist Kultur!" ruft es von hinten und es abzureißen wäre zu teuer, mich von der Brüstung zu schmeißen zu aufwändig; doch hinabzusteigen und zu leben zu aufwändig, ich stehe nicht zwischen zwei gleichen Heuhaufen sondern Abgründen, beschließe mich auf eben des Messers Schneide niederzusetzen, sitze nun auf dem Geländer des Domturms, im Himmel über dem Leben; es mutet eine verschneite Winterlandschaft an, ein Märchen, wäre der Rauch doch Schnee und der Schornstein ein vereister Baum – doch er ist es nicht; und ich nicht in einem Märchen. Ich lehne den Kopf zurück, an das Mauerwerk, bis ich anfriere; warte, betrachte, tief unten, die laufenden Hände, sehe nur ihre Hände, die Handys, die Handtaschen, die Handschuhe, manche Hände haltend; die Menschen verschwinden, nur noch Hände auf Füßen. Ich erhasche noch die Hände meines Fräuleins, die weißen Hände des Cafés lugen aus einem Pelzmantel. Ich sinke tiefer in mich herein, ziehe mich zusammen, einer Schildkröte gleich, bleibt nur der Rumpf; Füße, Beine, Arme, Kopf alles zum Herz, wo noch ein Funken glüht, eine letzte Erinnerung an die Hände, dann schläft der Funke ein.

Es ist Nacht, der Himmel strahlt wie '86, die orange-warme Leuchtfeuerfarbe der Civilisation, schön wie eine vergammelte Orange in einem Labor.¹³

¹³ Comte de Lautréamont - "schön wie das zufällige Zusammentreffen einer Nähmaschine und eines Regenschirms auf einem Seziertisch" in Die Gesänge des Maldoror (6.Gesang); bekannt durch Man Rays The Enigma of Isidore Ducasse

"Herr, gib mir Hände!" Ich stehe auf dem Geländer, dass sich durchbiegt, ich fühle mich stark – Irrationalität ist die Hoffnung des Versagers. "Nimm deine Mütze ab, wenn du in Gottes Haus kommst" Ich wunderte mich nicht mehr, woher die Stimme kam und mit einer eleganten Geste hätte ich mich fast enthauptet. "Herr, heile meine Hände!" "Knie vor dem Altar, mein Sohn." Ich falle in knackende Knie - Weiß der Herr nicht, dass der Altar unten steht? "Herr, ..." "Falte deine Hände, des Beten Willens." "Ich kann nicht." "So lege deine Hände zusammen." "Ich kann nicht." Und da sagen sie noch, man könne sich in allen Lebenslagen an ihn richten. "So kannst du nicht beten." "Ich bete längst nicht mehr, ich brauche! Verlange! Fordere! Dürste! Ich fordere! Herr!"

Travel Log

#leipzig-hgb-erster-schultag

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Travel Log

#trans-euro-bici-2016

Day -5

Offenburg

Day -4

Offenburg

Day -3

Offenburg — Basel — Lisboa

Day -2

Lisboa

Day -1

Lisboa

Day 0

Lisboa — Montijo — Montemor-o-novo

Day 1

Montemor-o-novo — Portalegre

Day 2

Portalegre — Valencia de Alcántara

Day 3

Valencia de Alcántara — Cáceres

Day 4

Cáceres — A-5 close to Jaraicejo

Day 5

A-5 close to Jaraicejo — Navalmoral de la Mata — Pozuelo de Alarcón

Day 6

Pozuelo de Alarcón — Madrid

Day 7

Madrid

Day 8

Madrid

Day 9

Madrid — Barcelona — ███████

Day 10

███████

Day 11

███████

Day 12

███████ — Barcelona

Day 13

Barcelona

Day 14

Barcelona

Day 15

Barcelona

Day 16

Barcelona — Vic

Day 17

Vic — Fornells de la Selva

Day 18

Fornells de la Selva — Girona — Llançà

Day 19

Llançà — Massis de l'Albera

Day 20

Massis de l'Albera — Port Leucate

Day 21

Port Leucate — Vias

Day 22

Vias — Castries

Day 23

Castries — Uzès

Day 24

Uzès — Donzère — Valence

Day 25

Valence — Lyon — Drumettaz-Clarafond

Day 26

Drummetaz-Clarafond — Chêne-Bourg

Day 27

Chêne-Bourg — Yverdon-les-Bains

Day 28

Yverdon-les-Bains — Bern

Day 29

Bern — Ötlingen

Day 30

Ötlingen — Offenburg

Day 31

Offenburg