The Big Black

In January 2010, writer and director Oliver Kyr and producer Joachim Maurer arrived in Berlin with a screenplay, and a vision: shoot an entire movie in just a month, and finish editing by the end of the year.

Declined financial backing by both the funding institutions and the broadcasters, they did what everyone in their situation would do: shoot the movie anyway.

The result is "The Big Black", a dark love story - in many respects. A journey through doubt and failure, for both the fictional characters as well as the production team, and a truly independent production.

"The Big Black" will be released in cinemas and on DVD in 2011. An exclusive preview of the film's first five minutes is promised for the talk.

The Awesome Foundation

Michelle Thome and Henrik Molte will present the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, an ever-growing, worldwide network of people devoted to forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.

Every month, the foundation awards $1,000,- grants to projects and their creators - cash, upfront, with no strings attached, and no claims of ownership over the projects it supports. It is, in the words of one of the trustees, "a micro-genius grant for flashes of micro-brilliance".

Michelle Thorne works for Creative Commons as International Project Manager. She organized the Free Culture Research Conference, and helped “chaordinate” the DMY Maker Lab and other DIY projects in Berlin and around the world.

Henrik Moltke is a digital activist, media professional and advisor. He has been working on various access to knowledge and copyright-reform project, such as FREE BEER, Good Copy Bad Copy and Creative Commons. He works for Mozilla as the European Drumbeat project producer.

Also awesome: Tomoko will be serving tasty Japanese food, so please skip dinner and come hungry! New: you can now follow Tomoko on Facebook, here.

Bestiarium - Fantastic exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, until 24th of May. It seems that because "it's with animals" a lot of people bring their kids along. And then face difficult questions when standing in front of images like the above one.

Hamburger Bahnhof Site

Walton Ford Special Site

The Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin shows 100 examples of contemporary Japanese product design - modern interpretations of traditional items. Many are crafted from equally traditional materials, using techniques perfected over centuries, like these lacquer ware bowls.

Urushi bowls

Katachi
Die leise Form aus Japan
03.03.2010 – 02.05.2010
Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin

You will find Fabio Viale's work all the more impressive when you realize he doesn't use Styrofoam at all, but marble. Found at Today & Tomorrow.

Lately it came to my mind that the wood craft from German Erzgebirge could serve as a source of inspiration for modern character design.

Those Ergebirge miners from about 150 years and even earlier ago developed quite a mania choosing simple forms and shapes, long before Oskar Schlemmer created his Triardisches Ballett.

Having that in mind I stumbled across this exhibition in Berlin Torstrasse presenting these plain big guys:

Nussknacker
by David Mallon

Maison Mallon
Torstrasse 76