Arts | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘Arts’ category

My Prague: David Černý, skillful s**t disturber

Considered “enfant terrible” in the European and Czech art scene, David Černý frequently has courted both controversy and amusement from the beginning in 1991 with the Pink (Soviet) Tank. Is he infuriating and crude or enlightened and hilarious? Is he misunderstood social commentator or attention-seeking hooligan? He continues to make art at home in Prague, and provoke strong reactions.

Černý’s creations can be found throughout the Czech capital city. You can decide for yourself if his artwork is inspiring or dull.

( Click here for images and more )

Fasching, Maschkera, Oimrausch: pre-Lent shenanigans in Mittenwald

This ain’t no Hallowe’en¹.

In southern Germany, this is Fasching, known also as Werdenfelser Fosanacht, to go along with the masks for Maschkera. It’s also about about distinctions and differences by comparison with Karneval on the Rhein.

Festivities take place before Catholic Lent, and the key idea behind the wild colourful costumes and wooden masks is the very pagan origin and ritual of driving out or driving away evil spirits of winter lurking inside people and their homes and welcoming the friendly spirits of spring for a productive growing season.

( Click here for images and more )

Freistaat Bayern, The Free State of Bavaria

Bavaria: 100 years of statehood (2018)

Featured image: The blue and white diamonds (fusils) are a familiar Bavarian symbol, adopted in the late 13th-century by the Wittelsbach family who ruled Bavaria from 1180 to 1918.

As a product of the coastal and mountainous Canadian Southwest, I always feel the pull exerted by the Bavarian Alps regardless of where I am in Germany; it’s been this way over the past 18 years. But there’s more to Bavaria than fairytale castles, Oktoberfest, and BMW, although they’re spot on for the Wurst (sausage). And frankly, there’s a ton more to Germany than Bavaria, but that’s one of many reasons for this entire blogsite after all.

Located in southeast Germany, Bavaria includes more than a half-dozen World Heritage Sites, the pre-Easter Fasching/Fastnacht festival, the sight of Audis on the Autobahn, over one thousand years of wine-making in Franconia, and violin-making since the late 17th-century, among many things to explore, eat, and experience.

( Click here for more )

The Spheres, Amazon Spheres, 6th and Lenora, Amazon, Denny Regrade, Denny Triangle, Seattle, Washington, fotoeins.com

Seattle: curious glowing Amazon Spheres

Above: (A) The Spheres, northeast from 6th Avenue and Lenora Street (HL).

Glowing glass forms appear around the corner as if they’ve risen suddenly from the ground, eliciting odd looks and interested inquiries from passersby.

On Amazon’s urban campus at the feet of towers Day One and Doppler, The Spheres are located in downtown Seattle on Lenora Street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue. The futuristic structures provide a highly visible centre of attention for the electronic-commerce and -computing company. Three intersecting glass and steel half-spheres will contain a botanic garden to include exotic plants, waterfalls, and treehouses, and workspaces to further cultivate creativity by and collaboration among Amazon employees. The grand opening is scheduled for 18 January 2018.

The construction development projects are part of the joint efforts by NBBJ and Amazon to regenerate the Denny Regrade area with ample office space for the world headquarters of Amazon, and additional space for retail and public facilities.

The Spheres, Amazon Spheres, 7th and Lenora, Amazon, Denny Regrade, Denny Triangle, Seattle, Washington, fotoeins.com

(B) The Spheres, northwest from 7th and Lenora (HL).

Seattle Municipal Archives, item no. 4011

Denny Hill was regraded and removed in multiple phases between 1898 and 1931. In the 1930 picture above (C), the 2017 Spheres in image (B) would be located to the right of the utility pole between the two cars in the foreground and the digging excavator in the background.

I made photos (A) and (B) above on 10 December 2017. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins.com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-aVe.

Mengenlehreuhr, set theory clock, Berliner Uhr, Berlin Clock, Sixt, Europa-Center, Budapester Strasse, Charlottenburg, Berlin, Hauptstadt, Germany, fotoeins.com

My Berlin: An Unusual (Set Theory) Clock

I had read about this unusual clock years ago; the unusual mathematics connection was an additional “plus”.

I leave the crowds at Gedächtniskirche and Breitscheidplatz and head on over to the SixT car rental outlet on Budapester Strasse. What’s standing in front is most certainly a curiosity, even as passers-by look at me curiously.

The Berlin Clock is known in German as “Berliner Uhr”. The alternate name is “set theory clock” or “Mengenlehreuhr”, a German compound word consisting of “Menge” for quantities (sets), “Lehre” for theory, and “Uhr” for clock. The Guinness Book of Records claimed “the Berlin Clock was the first clock in the world operating according to the principles of set theory¹“.

Created by inventor Dieter Binninger, the clock first stood at the corner of Kurfürstendamm and Uhlandstrasse in West Berlin from 1975 to 1995. Local business arrangements were made with Binninger’s widow for a long-term loan including maintenance costs, and the clock was moved in 1996 to its present location at the Europa-Center.

Here is how one reads the Berlin Clock:

Top circle: light flashes every 2 seconds; ‘on’ 1-second, ‘off’ 1-second
1st row: hour of day in 5-hour increments, up to 20
2nd row: hour of day in 1-hour increments, up to 4
3rd row: minutes in 5-minute increments, up to 55
4th row: minutes in 1-minute increments, up to 4

Time shown in the above featured image is 1310 hours or 110pm, which breaks down as (2 x 5) + (3 x 1) hours and (2 x 5) + (0 x 1) minutes.

( Click here for more )