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Representations of German Identity
The Break with the Past, 2017
German artist Oskar Schlemmer had a lifelong obsession with the intersection between the human bo... more German artist Oskar Schlemmer had a lifelong obsession with the intersection between the human body, space, and the image. Best known for his explorations of the altered body in space in the Triadic Ballets, Schlemmer inverted the space/body/image relationship in his less known metal installation at Adolf Rading’s Haus Rabe (1930) in Zwenkau, Germany. The Triadic Ballets probe the dimensions and limitations of the human physical body by encasing it in oddly inhibiting costumes that simultaneously exaggerate features of body parts while constricting movement. At the same time, the ballets test the costumed body’s relationship to, and its ability to occupy and move through space. As Schlemmer said, the ballet tests “both the laws of the body and the laws of space.” The images presented to the audience are frontal theatrical views framed by the stage’s proscenium. In contrast, Schlemmer’s installation for Haus Rabe consists of figurative wall installations and abstract geometric paintings on all six surfaces of the room. He made several metal pieces - an enormous copper profile looking towards a diagonally arranged, doll-like wire figure holding an even smaller plate metal figure in its left hand, that are hung on the walls of the main living space. Schlemmer was fascinated by the doll, which he saw as an abstraction of the human figure and he was experimenting with ways to use the image of the body to animate space. Parts of the floor are bright red, cobalt blue, and black rectangles; the ceiling is beige bisected by two white lines of differing widths; a section of the wall over the alcove features a semicircle that is part white stripes and part black situated off centre between two black rectangles suspended just above; inside the most private part of the room one wall is bright red while a rounded red form oozes across the ceiling. It is as if Schlemmer had folded pieces of an abstract painting inward in order to contain space. Schlemmer aimed to “reach a new form of abstraction via the specification of architects, which involve not painting as such but compositions in material adapted to the given situation.” The painted surfaces transform the room into a performance space. Unlike the formal stage on which the Triadic Ballets were performed, this is an informal setting for domestic dramas, what Marcia Feuerstein calls, “Architecture as performing art.” Schlemmer’s metallic pieces are witnesses to the action, images of the idealized and mechanized body as well as reminders that the house is the realm and sanctuary of the body
Bruno Taut's work The Dissolution of the Cities is usually held up as a paragon of utopian fa... more Bruno Taut's work The Dissolution of the Cities is usually held up as a paragon of utopian fantasy but is never examined for its deep connections to the German Reform Movements of the last 19th and early 20th centuries
The architecture of the 1929 Breslau Werkbund's Wohnung und Werkraum Ausstellung ["Live ... more The architecture of the 1929 Breslau Werkbund's Wohnung und Werkraum Ausstellung ["Live and Work Space exhibition"] (WuWA) offers a picture of 1920s Silesian German cultural identity, and by extension German national identity, as a complex and nuanced interplay between cultural traditionalism and modernism
this article aims at theorizing about a business of international enterprise. With the vanishing ... more this article aims at theorizing about a business of international enterprise. With the vanishing frontiers of entities like enterprises, each and every enterprise is international by default. With the use of intellectual modelling (reflexivity), the article develops propositions and conclusions. It is claimed that enterprise is nudged to concentrate its activities on administrative issues and that successful enterprises focus on core activities refusing administrative ones. There further comes the idea of the spaces of core activities (business, money, competencies, markets and future), followed by the issue of three simple questions (what, why and how) used for each of the spaces. It is concluded that if the business of an international enterprise is nothing but business, its strategy can be built with 75 answers to simple questions.
Representations of German Identity
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2013
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2011
Passagen des Exils / Passages of Exile
Art and Resistance in Germany, 2019
Representations of German Identity
The Break with the Past, 2017
German artist Oskar Schlemmer had a lifelong obsession with the intersection between the human bo... more German artist Oskar Schlemmer had a lifelong obsession with the intersection between the human body, space, and the image. Best known for his explorations of the altered body in space in the Triadic Ballets, Schlemmer inverted the space/body/image relationship in his less known metal installation at Adolf Rading’s Haus Rabe (1930) in Zwenkau, Germany. The Triadic Ballets probe the dimensions and limitations of the human physical body by encasing it in oddly inhibiting costumes that simultaneously exaggerate features of body parts while constricting movement. At the same time, the ballets test the costumed body’s relationship to, and its ability to occupy and move through space. As Schlemmer said, the ballet tests “both the laws of the body and the laws of space.” The images presented to the audience are frontal theatrical views framed by the stage’s proscenium. In contrast, Schlemmer’s installation for Haus Rabe consists of figurative wall installations and abstract geometric paintings on all six surfaces of the room. He made several metal pieces - an enormous copper profile looking towards a diagonally arranged, doll-like wire figure holding an even smaller plate metal figure in its left hand, that are hung on the walls of the main living space. Schlemmer was fascinated by the doll, which he saw as an abstraction of the human figure and he was experimenting with ways to use the image of the body to animate space. Parts of the floor are bright red, cobalt blue, and black rectangles; the ceiling is beige bisected by two white lines of differing widths; a section of the wall over the alcove features a semicircle that is part white stripes and part black situated off centre between two black rectangles suspended just above; inside the most private part of the room one wall is bright red while a rounded red form oozes across the ceiling. It is as if Schlemmer had folded pieces of an abstract painting inward in order to contain space. Schlemmer aimed to “reach a new form of abstraction via the specification of architects, which involve not painting as such but compositions in material adapted to the given situation.” The painted surfaces transform the room into a performance space. Unlike the formal stage on which the Triadic Ballets were performed, this is an informal setting for domestic dramas, what Marcia Feuerstein calls, “Architecture as performing art.” Schlemmer’s metallic pieces are witnesses to the action, images of the idealized and mechanized body as well as reminders that the house is the realm and sanctuary of the body
Bruno Taut's work The Dissolution of the Cities is usually held up as a paragon of utopian fa... more Bruno Taut's work The Dissolution of the Cities is usually held up as a paragon of utopian fantasy but is never examined for its deep connections to the German Reform Movements of the last 19th and early 20th centuries
The architecture of the 1929 Breslau Werkbund's Wohnung und Werkraum Ausstellung ["Live ... more The architecture of the 1929 Breslau Werkbund's Wohnung und Werkraum Ausstellung ["Live and Work Space exhibition"] (WuWA) offers a picture of 1920s Silesian German cultural identity, and by extension German national identity, as a complex and nuanced interplay between cultural traditionalism and modernism
this article aims at theorizing about a business of international enterprise. With the vanishing ... more this article aims at theorizing about a business of international enterprise. With the vanishing frontiers of entities like enterprises, each and every enterprise is international by default. With the use of intellectual modelling (reflexivity), the article develops propositions and conclusions. It is claimed that enterprise is nudged to concentrate its activities on administrative issues and that successful enterprises focus on core activities refusing administrative ones. There further comes the idea of the spaces of core activities (business, money, competencies, markets and future), followed by the issue of three simple questions (what, why and how) used for each of the spaces. It is concluded that if the business of an international enterprise is nothing but business, its strategy can be built with 75 answers to simple questions.
Representations of German Identity
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2013
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 2011
Passagen des Exils / Passages of Exile
Art and Resistance in Germany, 2019