Essays & Art
When volunteering at an Octavia foundation charity shop in London’s Kentish Town, I stumbled across the name giver of this organisation: Octavia Hill.
Octavia was living in 19th century London. She was a prominent figure in the fight against land developers who were as early as the 1830s planning to build townhouses and villas on London’s famous green lung “Hampstead Heath”. Yes, the Hampstead Heath. This amazingly vast forest so close to the city.
Continue reading “Who is Octavia Hill?”Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt.
Happiness is never grand.
– Mustapha Mond, World Controller, in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley –
Welcome to my abundant wellspring of emotional wisdom snacks navigating our complex relationship world with strangers, friends, family, lovers, partners. I’ll be starting with a light approach introducing or (for the savvier ones of you) recapping often used expressions coined in soul-stirring digital research labs: Online Dating.
Continue reading “How To Become An Efficient Sociopath”
What a strange question to begin with: Is my home performing?
I think a serious question everyone needs to ask themselves, underpinned by Covid-19. Over half of the world’s population are living in urban settings and we have learnt by now how to spend most of our time at home. To not only live at home. To work from home. To pursue our interests at home. To arrange our social life from or in our home.
So the ultimate question in our high-performance-measurement-world is: How’s your home doing on a scale from 1-10?
Continue reading “Modern Living or How is my home performing?”Exercise, alcohol and friends. Three great ways to trigger endorphins.
– Robin Dunbar –
A sharp pencil and an even sharper tongue when observing other human beings were Wilhelm Busch’s toolkit. The German comic strip poet, illustrator and painter lived a self-styled withdrawn existence in a small village in the North Western part of 19th century Germany.
Wilhelm brought his social studies to life through witty caricatures. Sketching and commenting human failures and people’s darker traits in quirky verses of creative silliness were his trademarks.
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Whilst staying in Venice, I paid a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. A big exhibition was devoted to Hans Arp, better known as Jean Arp, the dada artist and sculptor. You will have seen his distinct organically flowing sculptures. It was only in the very last section of the exhibition that an important factor of Jean Arp’s being, creativity and success emerged: His wife Sophie Taeuber.
I bet you have never heard of her. This is her story.
Continue reading “Who is Sophie Taeuber-Arp?”
During a heart-to-heart talk with a co-worker, she said: “You are passive-aggressive.” Source of the heated truth-telling dialogue was an e-mail answer I had sent.
Continue reading “What you permit is what you promote.”After being away for three months, I have returned to my flat in central London. I had expected things to be a bit more dramatic, one of a kind to experience how it would feel to come back after such an extraordinary life-and-society-interrupting event as Covid-19. We are trained through media exposure, aren’t we?
Yet, all seems rather ordinary here in Kentish Town. This impression is only true when first arriving.
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I have left Berlin. It wasn’t an easy decision. But it was the right thing to do considering the dire circumstances. I had envisaged my stay in Berlin so very differently and it started all so well.
Continue reading “A Strange Journey back to London”