Auf einem Boulevard in Paris, Café und schlechte Musik, Sonne und viele Menschen. So viele Menschen möchten gesehen werden. Sie zeigen sich geschäftig, sexy, cool, wissend, abenteuerlustig, sportlich, gebildet, kultiviert oder gleichgültig. Viele möchten, dass die anderen aufmerken. Sie sehen das als das, was sie sein wollen. Vielleicht leben sie ihr Leben auf eine bestimmte […]
Flusser
Goday, after many years, I finally drove to the center of Roubion. Vilém Flusser lived here for many years. I quoted his books a lot in my seminars and used them as a basis for discussion. Especially his philosophy of photography. Flusser is a wild theorist. He has written a lot about images, media, language, technology, signs, history... It seems to me that [...]
Knowledge
Ehere was a time in Europe when it was said that there were universal scholars. In Germany this would be Alexander von Humboldt or Goethe, in France an Enlightenment philosopher, in Italy the Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci. In antiquity, Aristotle, there are certainly wise people in many cultures and epochs, of whom history tells us that they [...]
Encounter
Seit einiger Zeit warte ich. Eigentlich warte ich gerne. Warten ist ein Raum und eine Zeit, in der es nichts anderes zu tun gibt, als darauf zu warten, dass die Zeit vergeht. In der Regel kann man nicht viel anderes machen außer lesen oder sich unterhalten, oder nachzudenken. Wartezeiten sind für mich daher immer Freiräume. […]
Freeway
Aighways have always been special places for me. Most of the time I wasn't under time pressure, I rarely had to get from A to B in a certain time. Rather, highways are travel routes. I find myself in intermediate states there, a kind of no man's land with an infinite number of possibilities. That opens up thinking spaces. They are often simply empty. The brain is busy [...]
Getting out is a question of perspective
Das Leben ist so komplex und es gibt so viele verschiedene Arten und Weisen zu leben. Es gibt kein richtiges oder falsches Leben. Das Leben ist ein Geschenk. Aber was sagst du über die negativen Energien, die Destruktion und Aggression, die Gier und Missgunst? Das alles gehört dazu. Es gibt nur Akzeptanz. Akzeptanz heißt aber […]
Moist media
Uur brain is not the seat of our mind, but the medium with which we can reach the spiritual. When I heard this for the first time many years ago at a conference on media theory, I was amazed. Were they really serious? Is it crazy or brilliant? There is this wonderful old-fashioned word 'subtle'. [...]
History of ideas
II love complexity, but sometimes also radical simplification - in order to gain some clarity. For example, the history of ideas in the visual arts. In Europe, after the great migration of peoples, the history of art can be sketched as the history of ideas in woodcut form: In medieval art, stories were told visually - mainly the stories of the Bible. Most people [...]
Working on a utopia
Et is definitely time to rethink. What our fathers and grandfathers called progress is destroying our planet. Science is not an end in itself, not everything that is technically feasible is good, not everything that is fun and satisfies our senses is useful. Now we keep hearing from many sides that we should focus on the small steps ahead [...].
Imagination
In der Kena Upanischade wird beschrieben, wie das Selbst als solches nicht existiert. Wer sieht im Sehen, wer hört im Hören? Dies ist nicht beantwortbar. In der christlichen Tradition ist hierzu eine Selbst konstruiert worden. Ich sehe, ich höre, cogito ergo sum, imago ergo sum…. Was soll das sein, dieses cogito (Ich denke), das imago […]
Marx
I have been thinking about Marx for so many years. Who hasn't? The idea of an equal and solidary community, free of ideological superstructures or irrational will-o'-the-wisps. A world that knows only matter and sees in it a scientific, progressive movement. Their goal? A world in which humanity is perfect, i.e. harmonious, [...]
Confession
Ahen the Internet became accessible to the public, i.e. in the mid-1990s, there was a phenomenon of people putting their deepest secrets online. The anonymity, simplicity and speed were seductive. Confessions were quickly made, anonymity was largely preserved and perhaps there was even that little thrill that maybe someone you knew [...]
Dreams
Hoday I dreamed that I was cutting myself off. I changed something in my life because I could no longer go along with it. My dream provided me with an image that I could easily understand. Dreams have always preoccupied me. I dream a lot, colorful dreams, whole stories, I work through situations, dream of things that I would like to [...]
Grow
Vany communities around me are currently experiencing a stress test. The word midlife crisis is often used. I think it's a stupid word, as it suggests that life, individual life, is in crisis. This perspective disturbs me. Why should life have a crisis? It seems to be more a case of life communities being called into question [...]
Metamorphosis
Im currently undergoing a metamorphosis. At a meeting the other day, someone said that this was a wonderful group of caterpillars. I was taken aback. He said, yes ... soon they will be butterflies. A friend once said that metamorphosis is proof of God. How else could it be explained that a caterpillar becomes a butterfly in purely evolutionary steps [...]?
Many me
Hoday I heard a quote from Sri Aurobindo. He said that each of us has several selves. That was clear to me. It has been my experience for decades that the different aspects of a personality are many and that the idea of a subjective identity is a construction. I always saw the principles of construction as ideological, which [...]
Farewell
VSome time ago, I was talking to a friend about the fact that I was saying goodbye to many ideas. I told her that I - quite unscientifically - visit my memories and think about why I no longer find certain ideas interesting, that these are often ideas that I dealt with in my studies. Great ideas! [...]
Representation
Ahen I returned 'home' from India for the first time, I looked at my library and saw that almost nothing in it interested me anymore. What had happened? What is in this library and what is not? My library is that of a philosopher and art historian who has taught in Europe and the USA. It contains many [...]
Technology
II grew up in the country where cars were invented. The roads and cars here seem safe, or at least everything is done to make them safe. The accident is anticipated, the risk is calculated, possible collisions are calculated and the damage is minimized through modular design, so they say. We want to be prepared for everything, here. [...]