Germans are famous for their grumpiness – and sometimes it feels like the new expats are adapting it quicker than they would admit themselves. While gentrification is a real issue, we cannot stay entirely focused on that, because that leaves us with no time to support new initiatives with the potential to have a really positive impact on our city. Today, we are presenting 5 such ideas from the minds of our local visionaries – the future may not be as dim as you’ve thought!
Imagine yourself in a mystical place, a playground of beauty and immersion of senses. Picture it in your mind and you might get a glimpse of the Lunapark that took place at the Spreepark last weekend. Unfortunately, masses of amateur photographers where walking up and down the abandoned amusement park in search for the best shot. Several times I was in situation like that. Visiting Venice, the pyramids or even Japan. And so I knew that the best way to enjoy the experience was to simply let the others disappear around you and use your imagination to create your own world. Helping the immersion from reality to fantady was the Alternative Reality Game called Spreezone that started at Lunapark. The goal is to create a giant amusement park in the whole city! More paparazzi shots of my own after the jump.
The city as a giant playground? I think that’s more than just a fantasy in times of alternative reality games and the street running movement. This morning I was introduced to a less live threatening and perhaps nicer approach to urban fun I by a charming philosophy professor on the subway. He is part of a movement called invisible playground. They are designing urban games especially for Berlin. You want to play? Then you should check out the 100grad festival at Hau this weekend. You can read more on when and where the games start here. A nice video of one of their games after the jump.
Last week I reported on a strange delivery we received at our home. Since then it has become more than just a scary video. The video led us to a website called push11.com that showed an elevator that went down a level each day. Last monday it arrived at level -11 and stopped. This day was a very exciting day. While Barbara from berlinkriminell.de, another receipient of the video, followed the number 11 and made an unexpected discovery at the Leipziger Platz 11 in the bar Eleven, the elevator on push11.com opened its doors, led us through the gloomy corridors of an old hospital and finally showed us the locked up door of room 217. This room number seems quite familiar, especially if you’ve read Steven Kings novel The Shining. But the reality is far less scary. On a later visit to the Charité hospital the room from the video was discovered, but it’s nothing more than a broom closet. But now let’s get back to the bar Eleven, where Barbara discovered a table with 11 candles and 11 chocolate lady bugs, along with a lighter and an invitation to the birthday party of a kid named Horatio. And the party takes place in no other than the mysterious room 217.
Yesterday we got a strange delivery to our home: A pizza we haven’t ordered along with a 1GB USB stick that read 03/11 in black marker. On the stick there was a scary little video called “Pass auf mich auf” (Keep me save). See the video after the jump. The words “Don’t push the button” as well as the url push11.com briefly appear in the video. On the website push11.com you can see an elevator that counts down the levels from 0 to -11. It will reach subfloor eleven on monday the 19th. Who knows what will happen then? Prior to receiving this video we had already heard about it from other bloggers who received the same. Everyone has their own idea of what this could be. Viral Marketing, an alternative reality game, a trailer for a film or book. My guess would be it’s a teaser trailer for an art event with video installations. Or maybe this is part of a dissertation about the meaning of blogs for alternative advertising campaigns. Everything is possible these days… A list of all other blogs who received this after the jump.
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These ten women and men aren’t afraid to expose their naked bodies to fight against stigmas around sex, gender, and sexual orientation.
It’s a struggle for freedom of expression on a slippery slope. With their work these brave ten blur the lines of art, pornography, sex work, political activism, or what’s considered “professional” work. They face the dangers that come with the openly sexual nature of their work or digital persona. Their explicit representation on and offline is not a green card to sexual consent, what sounds like a no-brainer is something many people do not understand. “I’ve found myself in some very dangerous, and uncomfortable situations,” our cover model Sam Morris told Gay Times, “I have been sexually blackmailed, assaulted, verbally harassed, and raped. These situations have involved photographers, prolific magazine editors, and other gay men I’ve met along the way.” Physical harassment, slut-shaming, and tensions in personal relationships are something all of them have encountered but they found ways to deal with these situations. For erotic filmmaker and performer Anarella Martínez-Madrid, it’s as simple as this: “If being a slut means being able to enjoy your sexual life, and get to know yourself better, then I am a slut”.
Nicolas Defawe
After our interviews with Berlin city shapers PANSY from Yo! Sissy Festival and Yasha Young from Urban Nation we are coming to the third and final part of our interview series that is inspired by Heineken’s Shape Your City campaign. While the winners of The Cities Project are already working to make their bar concept a reality in the beautiful city of Cologne, we had a chat here in Berlin with our latest interview partner Nicolas Defawe. If his name doesn’t ring a bell for you, you might know some of the amazing spaces that he was and is involved in such as the awesome, but sadly closed HBC, the short-lived +-0 in the old Postbahnhof building, and the Urban Spree gallery at the RAW area.
Nico is one of the people in the alternative cultural scene of Berlin that we have collaborated with a lot over the years with many of the events we did with iHeartBerlin and its sister project Designer Scouts. It was always such a pleasure to work with him because he has such a positive and supportive spirit and he is the type of guy that you can easily go and steal horses with (this is a funny expression we like to use in German that means that someone is game with just about anything). In our interview with him and his Urban Spree partner Pascal Feucher we revisited some of the old places and looked into the future for the current one…
BCALLA
Winter is cumming! No, that is not a porn-spoof of Games of Thrones. It’s actually the hardcore reality we poor tortured souls living in Berlin are facing right now. But there is comfort waiting for us. Every Autumn we are blessed with the so-called “Sex Week” its main event being the biggest sex fair in Germany called Venus which happened over the past weekend. This is not really something that we would seriously send you guys to. There is another alternative highlight you should check out if you are interested in sexuality as a form of creative expression. The Pornfilmfestival Berlin is happing every your in the end of October with a program more diverse and colorful than ever. From intellectual documentary about historical porn makers, intense feature films and a fun collection of short films there is quite a lot of stuff to discover and to get inspired/aroused by. What I really like about this festival is that it presents a good mix of international filmmakers and also local Berlin talents. A few trailers to give you an impression right after the jump.