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Considering how large the Wall looms over the Berlin of the imagination, especially for visitors, it is surprising to remember that the city has been without it for longer than it had it. The Berlin Wall as it lives in the imagination, with its vast concrete acreage, triple fencing, fakir beds, anti-vehicle trenches, dogs and guard posts was not completed until 1975. East and West are also more... -
We never close
At HKW’s The Principle of the City tonight, Eve Blau was one of the speakers offering a reaction to Richard Sennet’s discussion . Sennett had referred to one of his central ideas, the Open City, and mentioned that he has become interested in open software, specifically Linux. Blau contrasted this form of open-ness with Umberto Eco’s idea of the open work. . Insofar as I’d ever thought about... -
In Dresden, on the Other Hand
Everywhere else, the mark of the houseproud city is its recently renovated façades, its impeccable paving and state-of-the-art grouting. Each polished brick, every chemically treated slab of stone, is a testament to civic pride. In Dresden, on the other hand, courses of polished stone are proudly dotted with stained and soot-covered bricks. These are the bricks salvaged from the city’s original... -
Bikini
An aesthetic circle of one sort or another has been completed with the opening of Bikini Berlin. The exposed metalwork, the pop-up concessions that crowd the central space, the faded Persian carpets and distressed Chesterfields that furnish the cafe—nothing would look out of place in Kreuzberg or Neukölln. Nothing would look out of place in much more corporatised London either, in third-wave... -
The Public Virtue of Spam
It may surprise the casual visitor to the Pantography Twitter feed how many attractive women this combinatorics project attracts. The account page looks like a Formula 1 paddock. Unlike those silent women promoting Hawaiian Tropic, these women have a back-story. One says she’s, “exhilarating and beneficial. Also repulsive, domestic and 428.” Another says her “person is agnostic -
The Public Virtue of Spam
It may surprise the casual visitor to the Pantography Twitter stream how many attractive women this combinatorics project attracts. The account page looks like the paddock at a Formula 1 race. Unlike those silent women promoting Hawaiian Tropic, these women have a back-story. One says she’s, “exhilarating and beneficial. Also repulsive, domestic and 428.” Another says her “person...