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artg476-sierraraj-year4 · 2 years ago

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Blog #5 Ideal Workplace

Name: Pentagram

Pentagram is a multidisciplinary, independently owned design studio. Their work includes many disciplines of the graphic design industry. They have done work encompassing brand identity, book design, editorial design, film and motion, product/industrial design, website and digital experiences, packaging and much more.

Their types of client would include Tiffany & Co, Vanity Fair, The Daily Show, The National, Cosmopolitan, Harley-Davidson etc

At the moment of writing this blog, honestly I was all over the place. To be honest, what interests me in the Graphic Design field is a whole lot and not one or 2 specific things. I am drawn to work such as brand identity, UI design, book design, editorial design, film and motion graphics, product and packaging design and (recently started to get into typography

Pentagram shows me that they are a good fit for me as they are specialized in all these different disciplines of graphic design (that I am interested in) and those that I am yet to discover and do work in. From the information I had gathered I think their main office is in New York and other branches are in London, Austin and Berlin. My goal, at the moment, is to land a great job, that I love, in New York and they seem to fit the bill.

The partner at Pentagram, New York, Mr. Micheal Beirut is someone whom I would get along with and love to work for. He’s someone who is precise, particular, intelligent and holds a lot of value for those who are willing to do good work and learn along the way, over those with, only, a lot of experience. I love working with people who share the same mindset as me and that’s why when I had researched companies who have a big reputation in this industry and Pentagram came up I became and still am obsessed. I am however open to finding more design studios that may also be more prestigious than theirs.

Create a profile of your ideal workplace (or client*).

Refer to all of the work you've done in your StandOut Worksheets to help you determine what your ideal workplace might look like.

That is, how does your choice align with who YOU are as a designer?

I imagine my ideal workplace in a nutshell to be a huge studio or office that’s creatively and aesthetically designed for graphic designers to come together and work as a team to produce mind blowing masterpieces. To be honest I haven’t thought much about my “dream” place to work; rather I imagined myself working at a high end job on a design team either in Vancouver, Toronto, New York or maybe even in Paris ,France God willing.

I went on the hunt for a company that I can see myself working at and enjoying my time at their firm while creating posh and pristine design work for amazing and highly reputed clients. I started by looking for design companies and found a world renowned one called Pentagram. Pentagram is a multidisciplinary, independently owned design studio whose work includes many disciplines of the graphic design industry such as brand identity, book design, editorial design, film and motion, product/industrial design, website and digital experiences, packaging and much more. Their types of clients would include Tiffany & Co, Vanity Fair, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live, The National, Cosmopolitan, Harley-Davidson etc. I was convinced, so to say. I browsed through their work and I was not surprised that their work and clients that they had done projects for, were phenomenal and something I see myself becoming successful at. In addition I learnt that all full time employees started off as interns who made their way up within the company. That definitely gave me hope and a vision that I believe is possible for me to maybe one day get a full time job there.

So here’s where I changed lanes. I started writing this blog about Pentagram but then I thought to myself what am I actually interested in? What am I passionate about? What does my work say about me? What am I truthfully successful at and enjoy? And lastly is there something that I would love to be successful at but either haven’t tried it or failed at? That’s when I made a list of what graphic design mediums I’m interested in/passionate about, which part of the world I dream of working in and what world renowned companies align with my professional and personal goals.

Hence I researched again and again and again until finally, I realized beauty, entertainment and branding are what I am interested in and can see myself being successful at. I selected a few companies and walked through their goals, impacts, objectives, beliefs etc and came to the conclusion that I see myself, absolutely, working at Lush.

LUSH

Lush is devoted to creating fresh, effective, ethically-sourced, cruelty-free, handmade, and low-waste products for bath, body, skin and hair care.

https://www.lush.ca/en/home

So, how are they a good fit for me? Do they align with my personal and professional goals? What might I learn from them and how would I develop my skills as a designer?

From all the information I gathered on Lush I can agree that they are an excellent fit for me. This is because for the past 4 years of developing my skills as a graduating graphic design student I learnt that the main issue that not many address is the amount of waste accumulated from design work. Like all the packaging waste for example. Along with many other good things about working in Lush as part of their design team is that, like myself, they believe that “when it comes to packaging less is more.” I love that as when I do get an opportunity to be a part of their team I won’t need to feel guilty or get lost in thought as to how much damage will this do to mother nature.

I love LUSH and I always have; from their products to their customer service and not their seamless design talent showcased on their interiors, website, packaging and posters I am obsessed.

Now, why am I a good fit for them? What skills and qualities do I bring to the table?

The qualities I possess that make me an excellent candidate as a designer at LUSH are being optimistic, resilient, observant, considerate and someone who's easy to talk to. Having the skill of being easy to talk to allows me to make and maintain relationships and connections with everyone at work or with friends and family.

Profession-wise, what I bring to the table in terms of skills and qualities are the ability to pay attention & have an eye for detail, eloquently and effectively communicate with colleagues/peers, create designs that appear efficient yet effortless (a simple design that seamlessly reaches its goal and target audience), and most of have patience. It takes patience to let an idea develop, so it's advisable to work on communication and try out other creative alternatives before getting the result you want.

What am I offering them? (keeping in mind my brand statement, skills, characteristics, and strengths).

After getting through 4 years of being in the Bachelor of Arts program I learnt about a specific superpower of mine. I am a very observant individual, as I am quite introverted. This led me on the path to practicing good habits like patience and learning how to practice the willpower to keep consistently improving my knowledge and skills in any and every passion of mine. When you are patient, humble, and observant, you always find the solution to your problem, whatever the situation or circumstance. My strengths as a designer are my love for illustrating, video editing, photography (even though it is challenging for me at the moment), branding and any kind of advertisement design work in the beauty and skincare industry. I believe I am an excellent candidate to be considered for a job at LUSH in their creative/design team because whether I am at work or at home I am an individual who listens and then acts. This is important in the graphic design industry as your job requires you to listen to clients, and find what it is they’re struggling with or find challenging. Then find a way to help them find a creative solution that's effective and proves successful in the long run.

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architectuul · 2 years ago

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LINA’s Digital Research Fellows 2023

Under the umbrella of LINA the Architectuul Digital Research Fellowship will give the opportunity to several fellows to join the collaborative online architecture publication and work with Architectuul’s editorial team on a research topic in architecture or urbanism chosen by the creative.

We're delighted to announce Tevi Allan Mensah, Laura Solsona and Eduard Fernandez (self-office) and Meriem Chabani as four Digital Research Fellowship for 2023.

Tevi Allan Mensah is an architect and a visual artist graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture (Ensa) of Lyon. After completing two semester in Madrid at the I. Politecnico of the Francisco Vitoria University, in 2020, he came back to France where he worked for the architecture and design workshop Ciguë during one year. He carries out a personal practice shared between the architectural project and artistic creation, where eclectic mediums cohabit : from furniture to the scale of the territory, between built projects and research projects. He is interested in the imaginaries of displaced and borderlands territories, as well as the possibility of architecture as a collective mean of communication. He is currently teaching at the Ensa Lyon in the framework of the master studio ‘’Utopie/ Dystopie’’.

Laura Solsona is an architect and urban designer. She studied at Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona (UPC-ETSAB) and Technische Universität of Berlin (TUBerlin), where she graduated with a MSc in Architecture. From 2015 to 2018, she collaborated with the catalan studio Jornet Llop Pastor arquitectes, where she was involved in urban planning and landscape design projects in different cities in Spain and France. After that, she moved to Australia and worked at Aspect Studios, leading projects in landscape and urban design in Sydney, from 2018 to 2021. She taught at the University of Technology Sydney in 2019 and participated in several design reviews.

Eduard Fernàndez is an architect and educator. He studied at Escola Tècnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona (UPC-ETSAB) and Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (FAUP), where he graduated with an MSc in Architecture. From 2014 to 2021, he worked in different architecture practices in Barcelona and Sydney, and collaborated with cultural institutions such as Fostering Arts and Design (FAD), Arquitectes per l’Arquitectura (AxA), Catalan Board of Architects (COAC), Barcelona City Council, and Casa da Arquitectura. In academia, he was a Research Assistant at the UPC Department of Urbanism and Regional Planning, and more recently a Teaching Associate at Monash University in Melbourne and the University of Technology Sydney, leading several design studios from 2018 to 2021.

Meriem Chabani is an architect and urban planner and a partner at New South. Through an international practice, she engages with territories in tension: designing, building, negotiating and representing post- and neo-colonial contexts. By questioning power dynamics and stakeholder relations, her projects offer evolutive intersections between the global North and global South.She currently teaches at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture Paris-Malaquais, after teaching urban planning at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. She regularly takes part in international design events, including at IKA Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna, Akademie der Künste Berlin, the Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine in Paris, the Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development, the Department of Architecture at the University of Algiers, and the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi.Her work, If Algae Mattered, a theoretical reworking of Mediterranean borders, was exhibited at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial in 2018.In 2020 Meriem won a Europe 40under40 award from The European Centre for Architecture and The Chicago Athenaeum.

#LINA #digitalpublishing #LINAcommunity #DRF #LINADigitalresearchfellowsihp

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evoldir · 2 years ago

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Fwd: Job: Editor.NatureEcologyEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: [email protected] > Subject: Job: Editor.NatureEcologyEvolution > Date: 11 November 2022 at 06:33:17 GMT > To: [email protected] > > > > Job Title:Associate or Senior Editor,Nature > Ecology & Evolution > > Location:London, Berlin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Tokyo or New York > > Full Time, Permanent, hybrid role > > Closing date: December 12th 2022 > > Do you have a background in ecology or evolution research, but are looking > for involvement in a broader range of topics than your own specific > research area? We are looking for an Associate or Senior Editor to join > the team the offices Ecology & Evolution, and help shape the journal’s > mission the offices original research and commentary in all areas related > to ecology and evolution, and develop the highest standards in editorial > practice. > > The successful candidate will handle manuscripts across the journal's > scope,developing a special focus relevant to their own area of > expertise. The role involves the editorial assessment of manuscripts > for publication, management of peer review, commissioning and writing > of content and acting the offices Ecology & Evolution's interface with the > global research and policy community. > > This is a demanding and intellectually stimulating position, and calls > for a keen interest in the practice and communication of science. A > key aspect of the job is interaction with the scientific community, > including attending international conferences. The successful candidate > must, therefore, be a great communicator, have excellent interpersonal > skills and be prepared to travel as may be required. > > Applicants should hold a PhD or equivalent degree, with postdoctoral > experience preferable. > > Previous editorial experience is beneficial but not essential. > > The position will be based in the offices of Springer Nature, and the > terms and conditions are competitive, reflecting the importance and > responsibilities of the role. > > Applications should include all of the following: > > 1. A cover letter explaining your interest in the position, and > indicating salary expectations. > > 2. A CV / resume detailing your education, relevant employment history, > list of published scientific papers, and any other achievements that > demonstrate your suitability for the position. > 3. A concise discussion (no more than 800 words) of recent scientific > developments that you have found particularly exciting (stating why). > > Please note the closing date, December 12th 2022 > > At Springer Nature we value the diversity of our teams. We > recognize the many benefits of a diverse workforce with equitable > opportunities for everyone. We strive for an inclusive workplace > that empowers all our colleagues to thrive. Our search for > the best talent fully encompasses and embraces these values and > principles. Visit the Springer Nature Editorial and Publishing website > at https://ift.tt/T9ycOon for more information > about our Research E&P career opportunities. > > US employees are eligible for benefits including, but not limited > to,medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, life and > AD&D insurance, tuition assistance, employee assistance program, paid > vacation and sick time, flexible spending accounts, and a 401k retirement > savings plan. > > In order to comply with various pay transparency laws and legislations > in the United States, the salary range and benefits for this position are > listed below. This information is only applicable to US-based candidates > and the actual salary offer may vary based on work experience, education > and skill level. Annualized Base Salary Range for Associate Editor: > $74,000 and Senior Editor: $91,000. > > https://ift.tt/BrWLYfN > > > Vera Dos Santos Domingues

#IFTTT #Email

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bauwelt · 7 years ago

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Bauwelt issue 14.2017 “Shelters” published on July 14th, 2017

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justforbooks · 3 years ago

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The End of Communism in Russia Meant the End of Democracy in the West

Alexander Zinoviev, along with Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, was one of the three great intellectual giants who became dissidents during the late Soviet period.

This remarkable and prophetic interview was originally published in 1999 in the French Figaro Magazine. Its original title was: ”The West and Russia – A Controlled Catastrophe”

Alexander Zinoviev, a philosopher, sociologist and logician, was expelled from the USSR in 1978 after his brilliant satire on the Soviet system "Yawning Heights" was published in the West. In 1999, he returned to his homeland from Germany in protest against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. His harsh public criticism of Western aggression practically cost him the Nobel Prize in Literature.

“Just for Books” is pleased to reprint his last interview in the West before returning home. Pay attention - the forecasts given in 1999 came true almost to the details.

In 1999, Zinoviev gave an interview - it turned out to be prophetic not because of the mystical features of the philosopher, but because he knew the real state of affairs in programming technologies and how the transfer of revolutions works. “Social systems do not destroy themselves. Only an outside force can destroy them. It is like a ball rolling on the surface: only the presence of an external obstacle can stop it.”

West-Russia: a controlled disaster (Berlin interview with A. Zinoviev)

Our reader from Moscow, Viktor Innokentyevich Zakharov, sent to the editorial office the text of an interview with the outstanding philosopher Alexander Zinoviev, which he gave before his return from Germany to Russia. His conversation with journalist Victor Lupan took place in Berlin and was published by the French newspaper Le Figaro on July 24, 1999. However, little is known to the Russian reader about this interview. Meanwhile, more than a decade after its publication, both the accuracy of Zinoviev's assessments and their prophetic nature became especially evident.

The interview was translated into Russian by Chingiz Shamshiev, Doctor of Economics of the French Republic. Now he lives in his homeland, in Bishkek, is the director of the Center for Advanced Development of Kyrgyzstan, he is 32 years old. We contacted Shamshiev. In his opinion, many of the thoughts expressed by Alexander Zinoviev, with whom he had the opportunity to meet and talk personally, are of great interest to Russian-speaking readers throughout the post-Soviet space.

QUESTION. With what feelings do you return to your homeland after such a long exile?

ANSWER. With the feeling that he once left a strong, respected, even feared power, and when he returned, he found a defeated country, all in ruins. Unlike others, I would never have left the USSR if I had any choice. Emigration was a real punishment for me.

QUESTION. Nevertheless, you were received here (in Germany. - Approx. per.) With open arms!

ANSWER. It's true... But despite the triumphant reception and worldwide success of my books, I always felt like a stranger here.

QUESTION. After the collapse of communism, the main subject of your research became the Western system. Why?

ANSWER. Because what I predicted happened: the fall of communism turned into the collapse of Russia.

QUESTION. It turns out that the fight against communism covered the desire to destroy Russia?

ANSWER. Quite right. I say this because at one time I was an unwitting accomplice to this shameful action for me. The Russian catastrophe was wanted and programmed here, in the West. I read documents, participated in studies that, under the guise of an ideological struggle, actually prepared the death of Russia. And it became so unbearable for me that I could no longer be in the camp of those who destroy my people and my country. The West is not a stranger to me, but I view it as an enemy power.

QUESTION. Have you become a patriot?

ANSWER. Patriotism does not concern me. I received an international upbringing and remain faithful to it. I can't even say whether I like Russians and Russia or not. However, I belong to this people and this country. I am part of them. The current suffering of my people is so terrible that I cannot calmly watch them from afar. The brutality of globalization reveals unacceptable things.

QUESTION. Nevertheless, today many former Soviet dissidents speak of their former homeland as a country of human rights and democracy. And now that this point of view has become generally accepted in the West, you are trying to refute it. Is there a contradiction here?

ANSWER. During the Cold War, democracy was a weapon in the fight against communist totalitarianism. Today we understand that the era of the Cold War was the culminating moment in the history of the West. At that time, everything was in the West: an unprecedented increase in prosperity, genuine freedom, incredible social progress, colossal scientific and technical discoveries! But at the same time, the West was imperceptibly changing. The timid integration of developed countries that began at that time was, in fact, the forerunner of the internationalization of the economy and the globalization of power, which we are witnessing today. Integration can serve the growth of common well-being and have positive consequences if, for example, it satisfies the legitimate desire of fraternal peoples to unite. However, the integration in question was conceived from the outset as a vertical structure, tightly controlled by supranational authorities. And without the successful implementation of the Russian counter-revolution against the Soviets, the West would not have been able to embark on globalization.

QUESTION. So, Gorbachev's role was not positive?

ANSWER. I look at things from a slightly different angle. Contrary to popular belief, Soviet communism did not collapse due to internal reasons. Its collapse is certainly the greatest victory in the history of the West. An unheard-of victory which, I repeat, makes possible the establishment of planetary power. The end of communism also marked the end of democracy. Today's era is not just post-communist, it is also post-democratic! Today we are witnessing the establishment of democratic totalitarianism, or, if you like, totalitarian democracy.

QUESTION. Doesn't this all sound a bit absurd?

ANSWER. Not at all. Democracy requires pluralism, and pluralism presupposes the presence of at least two more or less equal forces that fight and at the same time influence each other. During the Cold War, there was world democracy, global pluralism, within which two opposing systems coexisted: capitalist and communist. And also unclear, but still the structure of those countries that could not be attributed to the first two groups. Soviet totalitarianism was susceptible to criticism coming from the West. In turn, the West was under the influence of the USSR, especially through its own communist parties. Today we live in a world dominated by one single force, one ideology and one pro-globalization party. All this taken together began to take shape during the Cold War, when gradually, superstructures appeared in various forms: commercial, banking, political and information organizations. Despite different spheres of activity, these forces were united by their transnational essence. With the collapse of communism, they began to rule the world. Thus, the Western countries found themselves in a dominant position, but at the same time they are in a subordinate position, as they gradually lose their sovereignty in favor of what I call a super-society. The planetary super-society consists of commercial and non-commercial organizations whose influence goes far beyond the boundaries of individual states. Like other countries, Western countries are subject to the control of these supranational structures. And this despite the fact that the sovereignty of states was also an integral part of pluralism, and hence democracy on a planetary scale. The current ruling superpower is suppressing sovereign states. European integration, which is unfolding before our eyes, is also leading to the disappearance of pluralism within this new conglomerate in favor of a supranational power.

QUESTION. But don't you think that France or Germany continue to be democratic states?

ANSWER. Western countries experienced true democracy during the Cold War. The political parties had genuine ideological differences and different political agendas. The press organs were also very different from each other. All this had an impact on the lives of ordinary people, contributed to the growth of their well-being. Now this has come to an end. Democratic and prosperous capitalism, with socially oriented legislation and job security, owed much to the existence of fear of communism. After the fall of communism in the countries of Eastern Europe, a massive attack on the social rights of citizens began in the West. Today, the socialists who are in power in most European countries are pursuing a policy of dismantling the social security system, a policy that destroys everything socialist that existed in the capitalist countries. There is no longer a political force in the West capable of protecting ordinary citizens. The existence of political parties is a pure formality. Every day there will be less and less difference between them. The war in the Balkans was anything but democratic. Nevertheless, it was led by the socialists, who historically were against such adventures. Ecologists, also in power in some countries, hailed the environmental catastrophe caused by the NATO bombing. They even dared to claim that depleted uranium bombs do not pose a danger to the environment, although soldiers wear special protective overalls when they are loaded. So democracy is gradually disappearing from the social organization of Western countries. Totalitarianism is spreading everywhere because the supranational structure imposes its own laws on states. This undemocratic superstructure is issuing orders, imposing sanctions, organizing embargoes, dropping bombs, starving. Even Clinton obeys her. Financial totalitarianism subjugated political power. Cold financial totalitarianism is alien to emotions and a sense of pity. Compared to the financial dictatorship, the political dictatorship can be considered quite humane. Within the most brutal dictatorships, there was at least some resistance. It is impossible to rebel against banks. Compared to the financial dictatorship, the political dictatorship can be considered quite humane. Within the most brutal dictatorships, there was at least some resistance. It is impossible to rebel against banks. Compared to the financial dictatorship, the political dictatorship can be considered quite humane. Within the most brutal dictatorships, there was at least some resistance. It is impossible to rebel against banks.

QUESTION. What about revolution?

ANSWER. Democratic totalitarianism and financial dictatorship rule out the possibility of a social revolution.

QUESTION. Why?

ANSWER. Because they combine raw, all-powerful military power with global financial strangulation. All revolutionary upheavals once received support from outside. From now on, this is impossible, since there are no more sovereign states and there will be no more. Moreover, at the lowest social level, the class of workers is replaced by the class of the unemployed. What do the unemployed want? work. They are therefore in a less advantageous position than the working class in the past.

QUESTION. All totalitarian systems had their own ideology. What is the ideology of this new society, which you call post-democratic?

ANSWER. The most influential Western theorists and politicians believe that we have entered a post-ideological era. This is because by the word "ideology" they mean communism, fascism, Nazism, and so on. In fact, the ideology, the super-ideology of the Western world, which has developed over the past fifty years, is much stronger than communism or National Socialism. A Western citizen is much more duped than an ordinary Soviet person was once through communist propaganda. In the field of ideology, the main thing is not ideas, but the mechanisms for their dissemination. The power of the Western media, for example, is incomparably greater than the Vatican's most powerful propaganda tools at its height. And this is not all cinema, literature, philosophy - all levers of influence and means of spreading culture in the broadest sense of the word work in this direction. At the slightest impulse, all those working in this field react with such coherence that thoughts of orders coming from a single source of authority involuntarily arise. It was enough to make a decision to stigmatize General Karadzic, or President Milosevic, or someone else, for the entire planetary propaganda machine to work against them. As a result, instead of condemning NATO politicians and generals for violating all existing laws, the vast majority of Western citizens are convinced that the war against Serbia was necessary and just. Western ideology combines and mixes ideas according to its needs. One such idea is that Western values and lifestyle are the best in the world! Although for most people on the planet these values have disastrous consequences. Try to convince the Americans that that these values will destroy Russia. You won't get anything. They will continue to assert the thesis of the universality of Western values, thus following one of the fundamental principles of ideological dogmatism. Western theorists, politicians and media are absolutely sure that their system is the best. That is why they, without any doubt and with a clear conscience, impose it on the whole world. Western man, the bearer of these highest values, is thus the new superman. The term is taboo, but it all boils down to that. Of course, this phenomenon must be studied scientifically. However, I dare say, in some areas of sociology and history it has become extremely difficult to conduct scientific research. A scientist who suddenly becomes inflamed with a desire to study the mechanisms of democratic totalitarianism will face incredible difficulties. They will make him an outcast. On the other hand, those whose research serves the dominant ideology are drowning in grants, and publishing houses and the media are fighting for the right to collaborate with these authors. I experienced this firsthand when I taught and worked as a researcher at foreign universities.

QUESTION. Isn't there in this super-ideology that you don't like the ideas of tolerance and respect for one's neighbor?

ANSWER. When you listen to the representatives of the Western elite, everything seems so pure, generous, respectful towards people. In doing so, they apply the classic rule of propaganda: cover up reality with sweet talk. However, it is enough to turn on the TV, go to the movies, open a bestseller or listen to popular music to see the opposite: an unprecedented spread of the cult of cruelty, sex and money. Noble speeches are meant to hide these three pillars (there are others) of totalitarian democracy.

QUESTION. And what about human rights? Aren't they the most respected in the West?

ANSWER. From now on, the idea of human rights is also under more and more pressure. Even a purely ideological thesis, according to which these rights are innate, not alienable, today will not stand even the first rigorous analysis. I am ready to subject Western ideology to the same scientific analysis that I did with communism. But this is a long conversation, not for today's interview...

QUESTION. Does Western ideology have a key idea?

ANSWER. The idea of globalization! In other words, world domination! And since this idea is rather unpleasant, it is covered up with lengthy phrases about planetary unity, about the transformation of the world into one integrated whole... In fact, the West has now begun structural changes on the scale of the entire planet. On the one hand, Western society dominates the entire world, on the other hand, it itself is being rebuilt vertically with supranational power at the very top of the pyramid.

QUESTION. World government?

ANSWER. Yes, if you like.

QUESTION. To believe in this - does not it mean to be a victim of delusional fantasies about a world conspiracy?

ANSWER. What conspiracy? There is no conspiracy. The world government is controlled by the leaders of well-known supranational commercial, financial and political structures. According to my calculations, this super-society that rules the world today already has about fifty million people. Its center is the USA. The countries of Western Europe and some former Asian "dragons" form its basis. Other countries are dominated by a rigid financial and economic gradation. Here is the reality. With regard to propaganda, she believes that the creation of a world government, controlled by a world parliament, is desirable, since the world is a big brotherhood. These are all tales meant for the crowd.

QUESTION. European Parliament too?

ANSWER. No, because the European Parliament exists. But it would be naïve to believe that the European Union was the result of the goodwill of the governments of its member countries. The European Union is a weapon for the destruction of national sovereignties. It is part of projects developed by supranational organisms.

QUESTION. The European Commonwealth changed its name after the collapse of the Soviet Union. As if to replace it, it became known as the European Union. After all, it could have been called something else. Like the Bolsheviks, EU leaders call themselves commissars. Like the Bolsheviks, they head commissions. The last president was "elected", being the only candidate...

ANSWER. We must not forget that the process of social organization is subject to certain laws. To organize a million people is one thing, to organize ten million is another thing, to organize a hundred million is a very difficult task. Organizing five hundred million people is a task of colossal proportions. It is necessary to create new administrative bodies, train the people who will manage them and ensure their smooth functioning. This is a top priority. In fact, the Soviet Union is a classic example of a multinational conglomerate led by a supranational management structure. The European Union wants to achieve better results than the Soviet Union! This is quite justified. Already twenty years ago I was amazed that the so-called defects of the Soviet system were even more developed in the West.

QUESTION. For example, what?

ANSWER. Planning! The Western economy is infinitely more planned than the economy of the USSR was once planned. Bureaucracy! In the Soviet Union, from 10 to 12% of the active population worked in the sphere of government and administration of the country. In the United States, there are about 16-20% of such workers. However, the USSR was criticized precisely for its planned economy and the severity of the bureaucracy. The Central Committee of the CPSU employed 2,000 people. The number of the apparatus of the Communist Party reached 150 thousand workers. Today in the West you will find dozens, even hundreds of industrial and banking companies that employ many more people. The bureaucracy of the Soviet Communist Party was negligible compared to the staff of the large multinational corporations in the West. In fact, we must admit: The USSR was poorly governed precisely because of the lack of administrative staff. It was necessary to have two or three times more administrative workers! The European Union is well aware of these problems and therefore takes them into account. Integration is impossible without an impressive administrative apparatus.

QUESTION. What you are talking about runs counter to the ideas of liberalism advertised by European leaders. Don't you think that their liberalism is just window dressing?

ANSWER. The administration tends to grow very large, which is dangerous for itself. She knows about it. Like any organism, it finds its own antidotes to continue normal functioning. Private initiative is one of them. Another antidote is public and individual morality. By applying them, the authorities, as it were, are struggling with tendencies towards self-destruction. So she invented liberalism to counterbalance her own heaviness. Today, however, being a liberal is absurd. There is no more liberal society. The liberal doctrine does not correspond in any way to the realities of the era of unprecedented concentration of capital in the history of mankind. The movement of colossal financial resources does not take into account the interests of individual states and peoples, consisting of individuals. Liberalism implies personal initiative and taking financial risks. Today, any business needs money provided by banks. These banks, whose number is gradually decreasing, are pursuing a policy that is dictatorial, orchestral in nature. The owners of enterprises are at their mercy, because everything is subject to credit, which means that it is under the control of financial institutions. The importance of the individual - the basis of liberalism - is diminishing day by day. Today it does not matter who manages this or that enterprise, this or that country: Bush or Clinton, Kohl or Schroeder, Chirac or Jospin, what's the difference? The owners of enterprises are at their mercy, because everything is subject to credit, which means that it is under the control of financial institutions. The importance of the individual - the basis of liberalism - is diminishing day by day. Today it does not matter who manages this or that enterprise, this or that country: Bush or Clinton, Kohl or Schroeder, Chirac or Jospin, what's the difference? The owners of enterprises are at their mercy, because everything is subject to credit, which means that it is under the control of financial institutions. The importance of the individual - the basis of liberalism - is diminishing day by day. Today it does not matter who manages this or that enterprise, this or that country: Bush or Clinton, Kohl or Schroeder, Chirac or Jospin, what's the difference?

QUESTION. The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century were extremely cruel, which cannot be said about Western democracy.

ANSWER. The main thing is not the methods, but the results. Give an example? In the fight against Nazi Germany, the USSR lost 20 million people and suffered enormous destruction. During the Cold War, a war without bombs and guns, there were much more losses in all respects! Over the past decade, the life expectancy of Russians has decreased by ten years! The death rate catastrophically exceeds the birth rate. Two million children do not sleep at home. Five million school-age children do not go to school. There are 12 million registered drug addicts. Alcoholism became common. 70% of young people are not fit for military service due to various physical disabilities. Here are the direct consequences of defeat in the Cold War, followed by a transition to a Western way of life. If this continues then the population of the country will first fall rapidly from 150 million to 100 million, and then to 50 million. Democratic totalitarianism will surpass all previous totalitarian regimes.

QUESTION. In violence?

ANSWER. Drugs, malnutrition, AIDS are much more effective than military violence. Although, after the colossal destruction of the Cold War, the West invented "peacekeeping war". The Iraqi and Yugoslav campaigns are two examples of collective punishment and retaliation on an exceptionally large scale, to which the propaganda machine gives the meaning of "good cause" or "humanist war." Directing victims' violence against themselves is another technology. An example of its use is the Russian counter-revolution of 1985. However, by unleashing the war in Yugoslavia, the countries of Western Europe waged war against themselves.

QUESTION. In your opinion, was the war against Serbia also a war against Europe?

ANSWER. Quite right. There are forces within Europe that can force it to act against itself. Serbia was chosen because it resisted the increasingly overwhelming globalization. Russia might be next on the list. Before China...

QUESTION. Despite its nuclear arsenal?

ANSWER. Russia's nuclear arsenal is huge, but it is outdated. In addition, the Russians are morally disarmed and ready to capitulate... It seems to me that the monstrosity of the 21st century will surpass everything that mankind has seen before. Just think of the coming global war against Chinese communism. To defeat such a densely populated country, it will be necessary to destroy not 10-20 million people, but somewhere around 500 million. Today it is quite possible, given the level of development of the achievements of the propaganda machine. Of course, in the name of freedom and human rights. Unless some PR organization comes up with a new, no less noble reason.

QUESTION. Don't you think that people can have their own opinion, that they can vote and thus express themselves?

ANSWER. Firstly, people are already voting a little, and later they will be even less. As for public opinion, in the West it is formed by the mass media. Suffice it to recall the universal approval of the war in Kosovo. Remember the Spanish War! Volunteers came from all over the world to fight on one side or the other. Remember the Vietnam War. From now on, people are so led that they react only in the way that the masters of propaganda want.

QUESTION. The USSR and Yugoslavia were the most multi-ethnic countries in the world, and despite this they were destroyed. Don't you see the connection between the destruction of multi-ethnic countries, on the one hand, and the propaganda of multi-ethnicity, on the other?

ANSWER. Soviet totalitarianism created a genuine multinational and multiethnic society. It was the Western democracies who made superhuman propaganda efforts to incite various types of nationalism, because the split of the USSR was considered by them as the best way to destroy it. The same mechanism worked in Yugoslavia. Germany has always sought to eliminate Yugoslavia. Once united, Yugoslavia could resist. The essence of the Western system is division in order to make it easier for all parties to establish their own laws at once, and to act as the supreme judge themselves. There is no reason to suppose that similar technology will not be applied to the dismemberment of China in the future.

QUESTION. India and China opposed the bombing of Yugoslavia. Can they form a pole of resistance if something happens? Still, 2 billion people is something!

ANSWER. The means of these countries cannot be compared with the military might and technology of the West.

QUESTION. Were you impressed by the effectiveness of the US military arsenal in Yugoslavia?

ANSWER. Not only in this matter. If an appropriate decision had been made, then Serbia would have ceased to exist within a few hours. Apparently, the leaders of the new world order have chosen a strategy of permanent violence. One after another, local conflicts will now flare up so that the “peacekeeping war” machine, which we have already seen in action, extinguishes them. In fact, it can be a technology for controlling the entire planet. The West controls most of the Earth's natural resources. Its intellectual resources are millions of times greater than those of the rest of the world. This overwhelming preponderance leads to Western hegemony in technology, the arts, the media, computer science, science, and from this follows dominance in all other areas. It would be too easy just to conquer the world. They still need to manage! It is this fundamental problem that the Americans are now trying to solve... Understand that at the time of Christ there were about 100 million people on Earth. Today, Nigeria alone has so many inhabitants! One billion Westernoids and the people assimilated by them will rule the whole world. However, this billion, in turn, also needs to be managed. It will probably take two hundred million people to govern the Western world. They need to be selected and trained. That is why China is doomed to lose in the fight against Western hegemony. This country lacks the governance and economic and intellectual resources to put in place an efficient administrative apparatus of some 300 million people. Only the West is able to solve the problems of world governance. He has already begun to do so. Hundreds of thousands of Westerners who are located in former communist countries, for example in Russia, as a rule, occupy leadership positions there. A totalitarian democracy will also be a colonial democracy.

QUESTION. According to Marx, colonization, in addition to violence and cruelty, brought with it the benefits of civilization. Maybe the history of mankind repeats itself on a new round?

ANSWER. Indeed, why not? But, alas, not for everyone. What contribution did the American Indians make to civilization? Practically none, since they were crushed, destroyed, wiped off the face of the Earth. Now look at the contribution of the Russians! And in general, I will make an important remark: the West feared not so much the military power of the USSR as its intellectual, artistic and sports potential. The West saw how full of life the USSR was! And this is the main thing that needs to be destroyed from the enemy. That is exactly what was done. Russian science today depends on American funding. It is in a sorry state, as the US is not interested in financing competitors. The Americans prefer to give Russian scientists a job in the United States. Soviet cinema was also destroyed and replaced by American. The same thing happened with literature. World domination is primarily manifested as an intellectual or, if you like, cultural dictate. That is why, in recent decades, Americans have been so eager to bring the cultural and intellectual level of the world down to their own level, which will allow them to exercise this dictate.

QUESTION. But won't this dominance eventually turn out to be a boon for all mankind?

ANSWER. Those who will live in ten generations will really be able to say that everything happened in the name of humanity, that is, for their good. But what about the Russian or Frenchman who lives today? Can he rejoice that the future of the Indians of America awaits his people? The term "humanity" is an abstraction. In reality, there are Russians, French, Serbs, etc. However, if the current trend continues, then the peoples who founded modern civilization (I mean the Latin peoples) will gradually disappear. Western Europe has already been flooded with foreigners. We have not talked about this yet, but this phenomenon is not an accident and not the consequences of allegedly uncontrolled human flows. The goal is to create a situation in Europe similar to the situation in the United States. It seems to me that the French will not be very happy to learn that humanity will be happy, but without the French. Finally, leaving a limited number of people on Earth who would live like in paradise could be a rational project. The remaining people would certainly believe that their happiness is the result of historical development ... No. What matters is the life that we and our loved ones live today.

QUESTION. The Soviet system was inefficient. Are all totalitarian societies doomed to inefficiency?

ANSWER. What is efficiency? In the United States, the cost of losing weight exceeds the state budget of Russia. And still the number of fat citizens is growing. There are dozens of such examples.

QUESTION. Can we say that the growing radicalization in the West will lead to its own destruction?

ANSWER. Nazism was destroyed in a total war. The Soviet system was young and strong. She would have continued to live if she had not been destroyed by forces from outside. Social systems do not destroy themselves. Only an outside force can destroy them. It is like a ball rolling on the surface: only the presence of an external obstacle can stop it. I can prove it like a theorem is proved. Today we are dominated by a country with colossal economic and military superiority. The new emerging world order is striving for unipolarity. If, having eliminated all external enemies, the supranational government achieves this, then a unified social system can exist until the end of time. Only a man can die from his own disease. But a group of people, even a small one, will already try to survive through reproduction. Imagine a social system of billions of people! Its ability to anticipate and prevent self-destructive phenomena will be unlimited. In the foreseeable future, the process of erasing differences in the world cannot be stopped, since democratic totalitarianism is the last phase of the development of Western society, which began in the Renaissance.

Biographical information about Alexander Zinoviev

The famous philosopher and writer Alexander Zinoviev was born in 1922 into a peasant family. After school, he entered the Moscow Institute of the History of Philosophy and Literature, from which he was expelled without the right to enter other universities in the country for speaking out against Stalin's personality cult. Soon he was arrested, fled, hiding from the state security agencies. He was saved from further trouble by military service, where he left in 1940 and served until 1946. He began the Great Patriotic War in a tank regiment, and completed it in attack aviation, he was awarded orders and medals for military merits.

After the war, he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, while studying at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics. In the second half of the fifties, for students of the philosophical faculty of Moscow State University named after Lomonosov, the name Zinoviev was a symbol of new ideas, the struggle against dogmatism.

In 1960, Zinoviev defended his doctoral dissertation, shortly after that he received the title of professor and became head of the department of logic at Moscow University. The reason for the expulsion of Alexander Zinoviev from the Soviet Union in 1978 was the sociological novel “Yawning Heights” published in the West, with which literary fame came to him. At home, Zinoviev was assigned the role of an anti-communist with all the ensuing consequences in those years: he was expelled from the party, expelled from work, expelled from the country, deprived of citizenship, all scientific degrees, titles, awards, including military ones. An atmosphere of silence was created around him. Everything was organized as if such a person did not exist at all.

In the West, Alexander Zinoviev published more than 40 novels translated into 20 languages, creating a new genre of sociological novel (sociological story) with his work, in which scientific and sociological results are presented in artistic form. Concepts, statements, and partly even the methods of sociology are used as means of fiction, and the latter, in turn, are used as means of science. Returning to his homeland, Alexander Alexandrovich continued his sociological research and lectured at Moscow State University, published essays on the new Russia.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Alexander Zinoviev #The West and Russia – A Controlled Catastrophe #message from the editor #Portrait

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mcmansionhell · 4 years ago

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Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny.

This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”

This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting.

I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history.

From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture

Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers.

Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.

Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media.

Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious” - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom)

Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks. It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.

Coronagrifting: An Evolution

As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles.

Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid.

But where, you may ask, did it all start?

One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.”

Wearables and Post-ables

The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up.

Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website.

Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field.

By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.”

While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design.

Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.”

Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.”

Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen.

You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.

Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day.

The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here.

However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom:

Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:

We truly, truly live in Hell.

Which brings us, of course, to living.

“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”

As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.)

The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).

There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them.

Enough, already.

Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit.

What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems.

However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home.

Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand.

So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page.

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If you enjoyed this article, please consider subscribing to my Patreon, as I didn’t get paid to write it.

#architecture #design #coronavirus #dezeen #designboom #capitalism

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theevangelion · 2 years ago

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Soulmates: Chapter III

(Previous Chapters: 1, 2)

“Keira,” a certain voice quietly husked behind her shoulder blade. “Come inside my office.”

Kara stopped and sighed; she placed her cardboard box back on the table. A stack of her few possessions, papers, but mainly photographs and knick-knacks clattering together as she did. The dismissal hadn’t been formalised, it didn’t need to be for Kara to start packing up, it was an absolute certainty.

“Keira what are you doing?” Cat perched on the edge of her desk with both hands clasping at the surface either side of her hips. “Should I assume this means you didn’t meet deadline for editorial?”

“Miss Luthor hasn’t called you?” Kara’s eyes went wide with a certain amount of surprise.

She had imagined there were strong words exchanged, to say the least.

“Should she have?” Cat’s eyes went bright with pre-anger and accusation. “Kara let me be perfectly clear that Lena Luthor happens to be one of the few people in this God forsaken city that I consider a friend, and so if you have done anything to undermine the sincere respect I hold for that woman—”

“The sincere respect you hold?” Kara burst with disbelief. “Please, say that again, slowly this time, just so we’re clear those words indeed came out of your mouth.” Kara lifted her hands up, then cupped her cheeks as though her jaw might fall slack off its hinge.

“We’ll circle back to the part where you never speak to me like that again if you enjoy existing. That’s the first thing.” Cat was surprisingly the picture of calm given the reception. “The second thing is that I do not understand whatever...this is right now.” She pointed up and down with a flick of her finger. “But I don’t like it. So, I need you to explain—quickly—whatever it is that you failed to update me on via email while I was interfacing with limited-access on the return flight from Berlin.”

“Did you not read the pre-written questions?”

“Do I seem as though I have the time or desire to babysit fifty-year old men who have been doing this longer than you have been alive?” Cat’s brow went severe. “Should I have read the questions? I was clear with John—this was an optimistic, portrait piece.”

“You should have read the questions.” Kara left it at that and turned on her feet.

“Where are you going, Keira?”

“Trust me I’m saving your breath, Miss Grant, because when you find out…” Kara halted and inhaled the deepest breath, grateful that she was skipping the furious telling-off and jumping straight to the dismissal. “I’m fired. I would fire me—in fact I am firing me. That poor woman. She was so…” Kara still felt horrified. “Nice. Human, polite and kind. She did not deserve that.”

#soulmates #soulmates au #soulmate marks #supercorp fic #supercorp #supercorp story #supercorp soulmates #supercorp soulmate au #supercorp fanfic #supercorp love #supercorp endgame

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woman-loving · 3 years ago

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The “Homosexual Traitor” and US Anti-Gay Purges

Selection from The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America, by Eric Cervini, 2020.

According to the Russians, Colonel Alfred Redl of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had slightly graying blond hair and a “greasy” outward appearance. He spoke “sugar-sweetly, softly.”

Beginning in 1901, Redl worked as a high official in Austria’s Evidenzbureau, where he single-handedly built its counterespionage program. He had more access to classified information than perhaps anyone else in the empire.

In Vienna, Redl’s homosexuality was an open secret. He often appeared at society events with his longtime “nephew,” and he maintained several other affairs. He had no reason to be fearful of exposure, since even the emperor’s brother enjoyed cross-dressing and the occasional army officer.

Redl closely guarded his work as a double agent, however. During his service in the Evidenzbureau, he offered Austrian war plans to the Italian military attaché in exchange for cash. An Italian intelligence officer later recalled it “required no effort” to recruit him. Redl simply mailed envelopes full of Austrian secrets and received thousands of krone in return.

He then began sending military plans to the Russians, too. Redl became fabulously wealthy, lavishing gifts on his lovers and driving two of the empire’s most expensive automobiles. For years, no one seemed to question how he afforded such extravagances on his government salary.

In May 1913, after Austrian counterintelligence officials intercepted a Russian letter containing six thousand krone, they staked out the Vienna post office to identify its recipient. They were appalled to discover Redl.

The army wanted to keep the matter quiet, since public knowledge of treachery at such a high level would have been a profound humiliation. After following him to his hotel, Redl’s own protégé handed him a pistol. Army officials always maintained that Redl voluntarily took his life.

News of the colonel leaked, fact became intertwined with fiction, and the myth of the homosexual traitor came into being. A Berlin newspaper described Redl’s “homosexual pleasure palace, filled with perversities.” The Austrian Army needed a scapegoat for the 1.3 million casualties in that first year of World War I, so it blamed Redl and the larger, more insidious “homosexual organization” that protected him within the military.

Three years later, when a young Allen Dulles, the future CIA director, arrived in Vienna to work at the U.S. embassy, he found everyone still whispering about the homosexual spy who had lost the First World War for the empire.

By the end of World War II, America had become a more open place for homosexuals, but they also confronted novel threats conjured by a political coalition that exploited the uncertainty of the new world order. In 1945, only months before President Roosevelt died, Republicans and Southern Democrats formed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In the 1946 midterm election, after Republicans pledged to “ferret out” threats to the “American way of life,” they won the first congressional majority in sixteen years.

In March 1947, President Truman established the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, and the government began investigating its employees to determine their loyalty. Three months later, the Democrat-controlled Senate Committee on Appropriations warned about “the extensive employment in highly classified positions of admitted homosexuals, who are historically known to be security risks.” The committee empowered the secretary of state with “absolute discretion” to purge employees, including homosexuals, who threatened national security.

In September 1949, America learned that the Soviet Union had detonated its first nuclear weapon. In October, eleven Communist leaders were convicted for advocating a violent revolution in America, and in December, China fell to the Communists.

On January 21, 1950, a jury convicted suspected spy Alger Hiss of perjury.

On February 3, authorities arrested physicist Klaus Fuchs for nuclear espionage.

And on February 9, Junior Senator Joe McCarthy stood before a women’s club in Wheeling, West Virginia, and announced, “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

Nobody else had seen the list. When reporters caught him at an airport and demanded to see it, he offered to show them—then realized he had left it in his baggage. His number of alleged Communists soon changed from 205 to 57. “Rarely,” The Washington Post declared, “has a man in public life crawled and squirmed so abjectly.”

On the evening of February 20, McCarthy arrived on the Senate floor with an overstuffed briefcase that purportedly contained his list of Communist-linked security risks in the State Department. For six hours, he provided a warped summary of eighty-one cases, relying on unproven allegations from a three-year-old congressional investigation. “In short, the speech was a lie,” concluded historian Robert Griffith.

Two of the cases involved alleged homosexuals, who were “rather easy blackmail victims,” explained McCarthy. It was a shrewd maneuver: what editorial board or politician would dare argue that sexual deviants belonged in the federal government?

McCarthy would later recuse himself from hearings on the issue of homosexuals in the government. At forty-one, the senator was unmarried, and the issue raised questions about his own sexuality.

Other Republicans took the lead. A week after McCarthy’s Senate speech, his colleagues coerced Deputy Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy, a security official testifying in defense of his department, into making a startling admission. In only three years, he admitted, ninety-one homosexual employees had resigned upon investigations under Truman’s loyalty program.

And with that, as the New York Post referred to it, the “Panic on the Potomac” began. Conservative newspapers leapt upon the admission. Congress scheduled hearings. Homosexuality, observed a columnist on Meet the Press, became “a new type of political weapon” that could “wreck the Administration.” The chief of the Washington Vice Squad testified there were “3,750 perverts employed by government agencies.” Republican senator Kenneth Wherry alleged the Soviets were using a list of American homosexuals—originally compiled by Hitler—to blackmail federal employees for government secrets. Washington, he said, faced an “emergency condition.”

The Senate committee tasked with solving the homosexual problem, led by Democrat Clyde Hoey of North Carolina, began closed hearings in July. Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the director of the government’s new Central Intelligence Agency, testified first. He arrived with a thirty-eight-page statement, and ten of those pages chronicled a “classic” case, one “known all through intelligence circles,” an example that would leave “no doubt as to the fact that perversion presents a very definite security risk.”

Of all the intelligence available to the CIA, its director chose to rest his case against homosexuals on the forty-year-old story of Colonel Redl. In Hillenkoetter’s retelling, Redl had been an “honest” man who found himself in an imperial army with unforgiving policies against homosexuality. The Russians hired a young newsboy, who “became very intimate” with Redl. Next, they broke into the colonel’s room and caught him in an “act of perversion.” After threatening to expose him, the Russians gained copies of the Austrian war plans prior to the outbreak of violence.

And so a single urban legend, the telling of which was almost entirely, verifiably inaccurate (in fact, a 1907 Russian diplomatic cable had falsely labeled Redl “a lover of women”) became the primary piece of evidence that guided federal employment policy toward homosexuals for decades to come.

The CIA director then explained the “general theory as to why we should not employ homosexuals or other moral perverts in positions of trust.” He gave thirteen reasons to the senators.

1. Homosexuals experience emotions “as strong and in fact actually stronger” than heterosexual emotions. 2. Homosexuals are susceptible “to domination by aggressive personalities.” 3. Homosexuals have “psychopathic tendencies which affect the soundness of their judgment, physical cowardice, susceptibility to pressure, and general instability, thus making a pervert vulnerable in many ways.” 4. Homosexuals “invariably express considerable concern” about concealing their condition. 5. Homosexuals are “promiscuous” and often visit “various hangouts of his brethren,” marking “a definite similarity to other illegal groups such as criminals, smugglers, black-marketeers, dope addicts, and so forth.” 6. Homosexuals with “outward characteristics of femininity—or lesbians with male characteristics—are often difficult to employ because of the effect on their co-workers, officials of other agencies, and the public in general.” 7. Homosexuals who think they are discreet are, in reality, “actually quite indiscrete [sic]. They are too stupid to realize it, or else due to inflation of their ego or through not letting themselves realize the truth, they are usually the center of gossip, rumor, derision, and so forth.” 8. Homosexuals who try “to drop the ‘gay’ life and go ‘straight’ … eventually revert to type.” 9. Homosexuals are “extremely vulnerable to seduction by another pervert employed for that purpose by a foreign power.” 10. Homosexuals are “extremely defiant in their attitude toward society,” which could lead to disloyalty. 11. “Homosexuals usually seem to be extremely gullible.” 12. Homosexuals, including “even the most brazen perverts,” are constantly suppressing their instincts, which causes “considerable tension.” 13. Homosexuals employed by the government “lead to the concept of a ‘government within a government.’ That is so noteworthy. One pervert brings other perverts. They belong to the lodge, the fraternity. One pervert brings other perverts into an agency … and advance them usually in the interest of furthering the romance of the moment.”

The testimony of subsequent intelligence officials echoed that of the CIA director, and the Hoey committee’s final report primarily drew from the testimony of its lead witness, sometimes verbatim. As the Hoey report concluded, homosexuals were ipso facto security risks. Colonel Redl remained its only example.

Hillenkoetter’s thirteen principles became official government doctrine. The government incorporated the Hoey report into its security manuals, forwarded it to embassies, and shared it with its foreign allies. “The notion that homosexuals threatened national security,” explains historian David Johnson, “received the imprimatur of the U.S. Congress and became accepted as official fact.” When the federal government needed to justify its homosexual purges, it simply pointed to the Hoey report.

Dwight D. Eisenhower won the presidency in 1952 with the help of the slogan “Let’s Clean House” and whispers that his opponent, Adlai Stevenson, had homosexual tendencies. Three months after his inauguration, Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, which expanded the government’s purging authority—originally given to the State Department—to all federal agencies. Any employee who exhibited “criminal, infamous, dishonest, immoral, or notoriously disgraceful conduct” had no place in the federal bureaucracy. With a Republican in the White House, the purges became less of a spectacle and more of a quiet, well-oiled machine. In Eisenhower’s 1954 State of the Union, he boasted of removing 2,200 security risks in only a year.

McCarthy’s downfall came later that year, but the purges remained alive, as did the rumors that always seemed to saturate America’s capital. After two Republican senators learned that the son of Senator Lester Hunt of Wyoming, a Democrat, had been arrested in Lafayette Park, they gave Hunt a choice. He could withdraw from his 1954 reelection campaign or face the publicity of his son’s homosexual arrest. The Senate was virtually tied. If Hunt resigned, he risked shifting power to the Republicans.

On the morning of June 19, 1954, Senator Hunt, a straight victim of antigay political blackmail, entered his Capitol office and shot himself with a .22-caliber rifle.

#alfred redl #austria hungary #mccarthyism #lgbtq history #united states #suicide cw #homophobia #homosexual traitor #the deviant's war

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notafraidofredyellowandblue · 2 years ago

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Martin Schneider - a life for music 🕯

Martin Schneider, was a Opera director, professor and father of Constanze (costume designer) and Christoph (Rammstein drummer)

Martin passed away in 2021, and Tagesspiegel posted an obituary for him, which i thought you might like to read 🌺

Obituary for Martin Schneider: Felsenstein says yes

He always returned from trips to the west. Not because of the country. Because of the family and the opera.

Sometimes it all begins with an urgent wish, the origin of which remains a mystery, but which sets the course for a whole life: Martin Schneider, whose life has been about classical music, opera and, to a large extent, everything subtle, wanted a violin at the age of seven. His parents, his mother a housewife and his father an accountant, fulfilled his wish in Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt. His cot and his mother's zither were exchanged for it, and with a briquette in one hand and the violin in the other, the boy went to the violin teacher, the piece of coal being part of the fee.

He later became a member of the "Schäfer Choir" and many years later played Bach's Double Concerto in the Cathedral of Merseburg with Gerhard Schäfer, his choirmaster for 13 years. So the direction was set, and the young Schneider continued to follow it consistently: He studied music education, German and musicology at the Martin Luther University in Halle, graduated with a diploma, and when, in the summer of 1961, after all his studying, he went on vacation to the Feldberg Lakes in the Uckermark, he learned about the construction of the Wall in Berlin and also about his first job in the music department of the Berlin Radio. Berlin, the big city that was still unknown to him, in which he had only once seen “The Good Man by Sezuan” with the young Käthe Reichel at the Berliner Ensemble, would from now on be his new home, but would also from now on be divided.

The leaders and steerers get involved

He started the journey with great excitement. And then noticed that he was expected to be an editor on children's radio. He had thought more of editing for serious music, but that didn't help, he accepted the challenge. But he soon looked elsewhere: he was far too annoyed that the socialist leaders and steerers themselves interfered in the selection of children's songs. He had experienced that often; he remembered this time best: he appeared in the editorial office and all his colleagues looked at him in horror. Nobody said "How could you!", but it was clearly evident in their eyes. What happened? He had put the song "Now we're driving across the lake, across the lake" into the program on the very day a republic refugee paddled across the Baltic Sea in the direction of freedom. An unintentional coincidence, but he was accused of bad intention. This is how it could go in the socialist cultural apparatus.

Such experiences made him keep an eye out, he wanted to work creatively, maybe even use his own voice, but unfortunately it wasn't suitable, as the voice coach at the Komische Oper confirmed. She advised him to apply there as a dramaturge or assistant director, for him, as he will later say, "a sign from heaven". The rest is quickly told. Director Walter Felsenstein says yes, Martin Schneider starts with a trainee salary in September 1962: 450 marks gross. The salary increases in the coming years, as does the reputation of the new employee. He stays with the company for twelve years, succeeds and becomes a producer. Collaborates on Rigoletto, Don Carlos, Eugen Onegin. And Felsenstein makes many things possible, even the young father's move from a backyard dwelling with an outside toilet to a two-room apartment with hot running water. Daughter and son are born, Constanze becomes costume creator and designer, Christoph drummer for the rock band Rammstein. Their music is not really the father's taste, but he is happy that the son decided to go into music.

29 years "Bluebeard"

Martin Schneider always returns to the GDR from guest performances in western countries. Staying away is not an option, the connection to the family and to the opera is too important. In 1974 he moved to the Halle Opera House, became first director and took over the post of director in 1978. Felsenstein persuades him the promise to continue to supervise the "Blaubart" at the Berlin Komische Oper as evening director with a guest contract. He does this until 1992. In 29 years, the play has had 369 performances.

Another departure in 1980: Martin Schneider decides to become a freelancer. He works as a director and university teacher with teaching assignments at the Leipzig Music Academy. He becomes a professor at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin.

A life for music, but also for many other things. For friends, good conversations, the Baltic Sea again and again and also for a new love. His first wife Brigitte does not return from a visit to the West in 1987, the marriage ends. On the beach at Ückeritz he meets Antje, who is eight years younger, comes from Cottbus and was a music dealer there. She now lives in Berlin. Even in Cottbus, friends had raved about him, she absolutely should get to know this Schneider, he was directing at the Cottbus Theater, a great guy. But there is no meeting, only many years later their time on Usedom.

Two aesthetes come together here, enjoying each other's clever minds. They even make a program out of it, with which they will go on a tour through the whole country from 2000, a literary-musical reading tour, 1400 times in 20 years! They absorb literature that was not accessible to them in the GDR and pass it on to a grateful audience.

And they also travel a lot privately, to Rome, to Prague and again and again to the Baltic Sea. At home they invite you to song recitals, Schubert's "Winterreise" is on Martin Schneider's mind until the end. On March 1, 2020 he sings it one last time.

With a good friend, he oracles over a beer as to who will be on cloud seven or eight first. It almost becomes a bet. Martin Schneider would have lost now. He dies on January 22, losing to the cancer that has bothered him for eight years. He wanted his son to play a drum solo for his funeral service. And "The Song of the Moldau" by Brecht and Eisler. He had wanted to record it himself, but he didn't manage anymore.

🌺🕯

#martin schneider RIP #christoph schneider #rammstein friends and family

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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This day in history

On Weds (May 10), I’m in Vancouver for a keynote at the Open Source Summit and a book event for Red Team Blues at Heritage Hall and Thu (May 11), I’m in Calgary for Wordfest.

#15yrsago The lost NY Times steampunk feature https://web.archive.org/web/20080511003859/http://charmandrigor.com/clips/self-steampunk.html

#15yrsago Kids’ game adds 500–1000 words to its forbidden list every day https://www.gamesindustry.biz/mmo-week-industry-has-been-irresponsible-with-kids

#10yrsago NewsCorp shareholders make another bid to democratize the Murdoch family empire https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/may/08/rupert-murdoch-news-corporation

#10yrsago Welcome to the century of the copyright troll: Prenda Law was just the beginning https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/05/prenda-law-tip-iceberg

#5yrsago The most hated company in America is about to get much, much bigger https://www.vice.com/en/article/59qmqb/comcast-is-already-hatedand-its-about-to-become-a-lot-more-powerful

#5yrsago After the Boy Scouts opens up to trans kids, queer kids and girls, the Mormons severed their 105-year relationship to scouting https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/mormon-church-boy-scouts-cut-ties/index.html

#5yrsago Bumblefuck Watch: Rob Ford’s brother hired his own “reporter” to ask him scripted softball questions for literal fake news spots https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/05/06/doug-ford-evades-real-scrutiny-by-hiring-his-own-reporter.html

#5yrsago Colorado cop corrects would-be dog-slaughtering Illinois officer about drug-sniffing after marijuana legalization https://www.420magazine.com/420-news/international-cannabis-news/colorado-cop-debunks-illinois-cops-claim-that-legal-pot-would-lead-to-killing-of-police-dogs/

#5yrsago “Cocky” romance novelist embarks on a second career as a trademark troll: will romance writing fall from grace? https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/08/romantic-novelist-trademarking-of-word-cocky-fameela-hopkins

#5yrsago Nova Scotia premier won’t apologise for libeling teen who discovered massive data breach https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/premier-stephen-mcneil-privacy-breach-freedom-of-information-portal-1.4653474

#5yrsago Nova Scotia abandons its attempt to destroy a teenager who stumbled on a wide-open directory of sensitive information https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/police-drop-charges-in-nova-scotia-government-breach-1.4651543

#5yrsago Revenge of the Laughable Bumblefucks: Rob Ford’s brother admits that actors were hired to pretend to be his supporters at rally https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/08/doug-ford-campaign-confirms-actors-were-hired-to-play-the-part-of-pc-supporters-at-mondays-debate-rally.html

#5yrsago A new strain of IoT malware can survive a reboot https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/hide-and-seek-becomes-first-iot-botnet-capable-of-surviving-device-reboots/

#5yrsago Equifax lets identity thieves raid “frozen” credit reports through its shady, obscure secondary credit bureau https://krebsonsecurity.com/2018/05/another-credit-freeze-target-nctue-com/

#5yrsago Ticketmaster finds a new way to be terrible: facial recognition! https://www.engadget.com/2018-05-06-ticketmaster-hopes-to-speed-up-event-access-by-scanning-your-fac.html

#1yrago At the FTC, a quiet, profound shift on antitrust https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/09/rest-in-piss-robert-bork/#harmful-dominance

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

#pluralistic

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stars-on-a-cloudy-night · 4 years ago

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Classical Rivalries: The War of the Romantics

Just like any field of profession, the world of classical music has seen its fair share of professional rivalries. Here’s a quick look into the complicated relationships, and classical clashes that have gone down in history.

‘The War of the Romantics’ is a term popularly used by many music historians to describe the division among the prominent musicians during the late 19th century; The Conservatives and The Radical Progressives. Members of the Conservatives included Johannes Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Clara Schumann, among others, and the Progressives consisted of composers mainly from Weimar (a city in Germany) such as Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, and other members of the ‘New German School’. This feud had far-reaching effects, being German and Central European in origin, and spreading to countries like France, Italy and even Russia. The ‘war’ was carried out with compositions, words and even concert scenes, making it one of the most artistic and entertaining rivalries western history has seen.

Johannes Brahms (Left), Franz Liszt (Right)

Now, both sides looked at Beethoven as an artistic hero, and had immense admiration for him, though that’s where the similarities end. The Conservatives saw Beethoven as an incomparable peak, while the Progressives saw his work as a new beginning in the realm of classical music. The two groups openly disagreed on topics concerning traditional and new musical forms. This disagreement stemmed from the earlier debate of the use and intentions of symphonies, which were earlier meant for entertainment purposes, but were slowly including more and more social, moral and cultural ideals into the genre. Here, the Progressives believed in the motto ‘New wine requires new bottles’ in that they believed classical music naturally should evolve and blend music with narrative and pictorial ideas. The Conservatives on the other hand were averse to this idea. And that’s where the real ‘war’ began.

One of the major events which took place was the signing of the Conservatives Manifesto against the bias of the Neue Zeitschrift Für Musik (a German music journal). This manifesto was actively canvassed and many signatories where obtained. However, before the last few signatories were able sign the manifesto, it found its way into the editorial offices of the Berliner Musikzeitung Echo (a German Journal), from which it was leaked to the Neue Zeitschrift itself, which parodied it on May 4, 1860. Two days after this humiliation, the manifesto made its first official appearance in the Berliner Musikzeitung Echo, showcasing more than twenty more signatories. The Manifesto read:

The undersigned have long followed with regret the pursuits of a certain party, whose organ is Brendel's "Zeitschrift für Musik" The above journal continually spreads the view that musicians of more serious endeavor are fundamentally in accord with the tendencies it represents, that they recognize in the compositions of the leaders of this group works of artistic value, and that altogether, the contentions for and against the so-called Music of the Future are concluded, and the dispute settled in its favour. To protest against such misinterpretation of facts is regarded as their duty by the undersigned, and they declare that, so far at least as they are concerned, the principles stated by Brendel's journal are not recognized, and that they regard the productions of the leaders and pupils of the so-called New German School, which in part simply reinforce these principles in practice and in part again enforce new and unheard-of theories, as contrary to the innermost spirit of music, strongly to be deplored and condemned.

This Manifesto catalyzed the spreading of the conflict to the German press at large. Liszt did not use words to express his comments on the issue, but simply allowed his music to speak for itself.

At the premiere of Brahms first piano concerto which was taking place in Leipzig, we see that his first orchestral piece to be played publicly was received with hisses. Reputations were at stake, and the tension was high. Musicians actively tried to embarrass their adversaries in public settings. One such example is when the Weimar school held an anniversary celebration of the Neue Zeitschrift in R. Schumann's birthplace, and did not invite members of the Conservative group (including Clara Schumann, German pianist and Robert Schumann's widow).

Even Wagner poked fun at the Conservatives in his essay ‘On Conducting’ when he portrayed the group as a ‘musical temperance society’ who are ‘awaiting a Messiah’.

Despite the attempts to humiliate the Conservative side, the Radical Progressives were often inconsistent in their views. By 1860, Liszt himself was becoming more and more interested in church music and began embracing some conservative music ideals of the Catholic Church. He had fascination for the music of Meyerbeer who was a composer despised by both the New German School and also by Wagner (whose essays were often anti-Meyerbeer).

These are just a few examples of the rift in the world of western classical music, during the late eighteen hundreds, and though the actual hostilities between the two sides eventually died out, the ‘war’ was clear demarcation between what is seen as traditional and modern music. Such categories which still carry on till this day.

-s.a.

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architectuul · 4 years ago

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A False Dilemma

As I write this in early July, the public unveiling of the Bežigrad Sports Park project is ending. The extensive plans for this vast new complex near the centre of the Slovenian capital promises an impressive mix of a sport stadium, gyms, offices and apartments in one of Ljubljana’s best locations.

A consortium of public (the Municipality of Ljubljana and the Olympic Committee of Slovenia) and private partners (the businessman Joc Pečečnik and his company) has been promoting the project for more than a decade against strong and growing resistance from both professionals and the broader public. With 'Plečnik’s Ljubljana' a main tourist attraction and the state supporting its nomination for UNESCO World Heritage status, how could the destruction of one of his major works gain official support and approval? Whatever the final decision is about building or not building the stadium, we can say for certain that the investor has already scored at least one major victory: the stadium consortium’s financial and media muscle means that the destruction of one of the central works of the most famous Slovene architect is a realistic scenario.

Jože Plečnik (1872-1957) was a carpenter’s son, born in Ljubljana. In 1894, Otto Wagner, the most famous Viennese architect of the time, picked him out of a furniture design studio for his imagination and drawing skill. He soon became one of Wagner’s star pupils, and after graduation began to make his mark in the imperial capital with his avant-garde combination of modernism and classicism. A wider success followed soon after the end of the First World War, when Tomáš Masaryk, the president of the newly-created Czechoslovak republic, commissioned him to renovate the ancient Prague castle to become the official residence of the president.

At around the same time, Plečnik accepted the post of professor of architecture at the new University of Ljubljana, and began his gradual transformation of his provincial Austro-Hungarian hometown into the national capital of Slovenia. This was the beginning of Plečnik’s Ljubljana, as his idiosyncratic classicism changed both the physical fabric and the atmosphere of the city into a modern version of ancient Athens. In Plečnik’s scheme, the stadium by the main city avenue played a central role.

Construction of the stadium for the Roman Catholic youth sport association Orel began in 1925, but political and financial difficulties meant that it was not completed until 1935. | Photo via Outsider

The lengthy construction period and limited funds did not deter Plečnik, and one of his great strengths was his ability to improvise both materially and conceptually throughout the project.

The monumental colonnade created a civic stoa or covered walkway that links the stadium enclosure with the city beyond as well as prviding for a covered space for people to queue. | Photo © Peter Krečič

At the other end is the columned ‘Glorietta’, the stadium’s grandstand, which visually dominates the low complex, rising high above the visitors’ seats. | Photo via Failed architecture

For the most part, Plečnik made use of the existing terrain, so that architecture and landscape become an inseparable unity in his vision of the new space. The tree-lined avenues at the edges provide a visual accent of the enclosure, while the ingeniously-designed low brick walls divide the auditorium from the rest of the city, allowing a gradual transition from the wide and busy road on the one side to the low-level single-family houses with gardens on the other.

The communal gardens of the nearby Fond Blocks represent a sustainable and community-driven space at the northern edge of the complex, which has survived since the 1930s. | Photo via Failed architecture

The stadium became one of the central venues for landmark sport, music and political events in the history of the city and of the country. Later, it was converted into a football stadium, but its design and infrastructure were not ideal for this purpose. In 2010, a new football stadium was opened next to the the city motorway ring, and the old Plečnik stadium was closed.

Different events during the history, also the first Eucharistic Congress in 1935 among them. | Photos via Nonument

It was at this point that the campaign for the radical reconstruction of the area began. In 2008 a public-private consortium led by Pečečnik and the Municipality called for an international competition, which was won by the GMP Architectural office from Berlin. The architects proposed extensive new construction to ‘optimise’ the commercial return on the extremely valuable plot. Almost all of the buildings would be torn down, with the site excavated to a depth of 22m and built up with basements of car parks and sport halls on five levels. Above the ground, a new stadium, with covered seating and VIP boxes on three levels, would be built, while around the outer edges of the new stadium, there would be an 18-storey skyscraper and three apartment blocks on the site of the communal gardens. Almost all of the Plečnik Stadium (except for the Glorietta and the colonnade) would have to be demolished.

As a compromise, the investor has promised to rebuild the wall around the perimeter of the plot to the original plans and provide for the visitor stands where the old auditoriums were situated. Despite the almost total destruction of the stadium, the project has consistently been branded as the preservation of Plečnik’s legacy, reinforced by the fact that the stadium – now in the ownership of the stadium consortium – has been decaying ever since its closure. Redevelopment is, the investor claims, the only way to save the stadium, at an estimated cost of 240 million Euros while providing 800 new jobs.

Proposed reconstruction. | Rendering by GMP Architekten

Pressure from political and private interests has led to the project gaining widespread official approval, including that of the Heritage Protection Agency. This raised many eyebrows, as the Plečnik stadium was awarded the highest possible protection status of 'Heritage of National Importance' in 2010 (of course, the stadium is not part of the UNESCO nomination, because of its present status and uncertain future). The independent civic society and professional architectural, heritage and art-historical societies are all united in their opposition to the destructive plans. The international limelight was added to the redevelopment plans by the inclusion of the Stadium on the list of 7 most endangered European cultural heritage sites in 2020 by the NGO Europa Nostra. All of these organizations argue that redevelopment in this case means destruction only, with less than five per cent of the stadium preserved, while building up the whole of the plot would destroy not only the physical substance of Plečnik's masterpiece but also the spatial totality of the public, urban recreational facility the stadium has always been. Ljubljana's many unfinished construction sites raise further concern; economic uncertainty could mean that the consortium would have enough money to destroy a heritage site, but not to bring its plans to fruition. The new facility also seems unnecessarily ambitious, as a new stadium in Stožice meeting international standards is already built and operating well, and Ljubljana, a city of 300,000, has no need for two state-of-the-art football stadiums. The plans for the public part of the complex could be just a way of convincing stakeholders to sanction the destruction of heritage, with the end-product even less public and more commercial.

No one from the Municipality or the state will admit that the choice between the slow decay of the stadium and rapid destructive redevelopment is a false one. According to the esimates by the Ministry of Culture the third option, a faithful renovation of the complex as a civic recreation and sports park, would cost just around 3 million euros (1 per cent of the BSP project estimate). Such a low renovation estimate is possible because of a simple and economic conception of the original stadium, a consistent feature of Plečnik’s architecture in general. Ljubljana, a much richer and better-educated city than it was in 1935, seems to have lost the qualities of the great architect that gave it its shape.

-- Miloš Kosec

This article was first published in C20, the magazine of the C20 Society. See for more information or to join www.c20society.org.uk.

Miloš Kosec is an architect, editor and publicist living and working in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of Ljubljana University with the Master's thesis »Ruin as an Architectural Object«, which was published as a book in 2013. Miloš completed his PhD in 2019 at Birkbeck College, University of London, with a thesis »Passivism: Activism and Passivity in Contemporary Architecture«. He is researching, exhibiting, writing and publishing articles in professional and academic publications, focusing primarily on architecture, architectural history, political and social aspects of architectural design. Together with the Outsider magazine editorial board, he was one of the recipients of Plečnik medal for contributions to architectural culture in 2017. Miloš is also a practicing architect and landscape designer with a number of landscape realizations. In 2018, he was one of the authors of the Slovene pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial. He is a member of the editorial board of Outsider Magazine. He is also a member and a researcher of the international art and research project Nonument and is a frequent participant in international architecture conferences and events.

#ljubljana #plečnik #stadium

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