…that’s where I put them:

 

So London had finally some snow last night. Unfortunately this is pretty much all that remained of it. 😦

If a tree would make music what would it sound like? A bizarre question you would think. But the artist Bartholomaeus Traubeck seems to have found an answer. And it is a truly mesmerising one. He slized up a tree and put it on a vinyl player just like a vinyl.

Listen to this, it gave me goosebumps:

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

 

But the process is a little more complex than that as it is stated on his website:

“A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture). The foundation for the music is certainly found in the defined ruleset of programming and hardware setup, but the data acquired from every tree interprets this ruleset very differently.“

The concept is one of the most striking I have seen and heard in a long time. When you think about it – the “melody” of each ring is totally different from tree to tree – like a finger print is different from human to human. The size and shape of the rings depend on the nutriants in the soil, the purity of the air, the ammount of rain, heat and frost, parasites or fire. Some years a tree grows faster and gets thicker rings – sometimes he nearly starves or dehydrates and the results are finner lines. All of these factors destine the melody we hear.

Music made by a tree – music made my nature. Magic.

Here is the website of the artist: http://traubeck.com/years/

I left Berlin about 10 years ago and since then the city has changed A LOT. Unfortunately not always to the better. My beloved hometown has undergone a massive clean up and upmarket-conversion. Hence many old and interesting buildings then often still showing the scars and bullet holes from the second world war have now been sanitised or knocked down.

For me that is in many cases a big loss – as those imperfections made it so different from all those polished cities in the rest of Germany and so inspiring for artists and art lovers from around the world.

But not all is lost and of course there are still many fascinating things to discover. Although I am a bit scared that in another 10 years time this will be much, much harder to do.

The fog here is actually not fog, it is the smoke from the fireworks this group of celebrators created.

These photos were taken at the Modersohn Bridge in Berlin Friedrichshain. Every New Years Eve or Silvester as we Germans call it hundreds of people meet up there to celebrate. Traditionally the Germans go quite mad with their tons of fireworks – especially around midnight.

There were moments when I felt a bit like a war photographer – trying to constantly dodge and escape rockets and firecrackers while trying to catch these moments. Many people seem to blast their savings into the air while others rather just watched the spectacle which quite literally will be burned into your memory for ever.

Another surprise take-over by Occupy London happend early this morning. This time the group of activists  took over the former Old Street Magistrates Court. They were supported by an armoured vehicle – the Occupy Think Tank from the Veterans for Peace.

Despite being a stunning a Grade 2 listed building in a prime location in London’s East End it is standing empty since 1996.

On their website Occupy London claims that the “new residents, who include members of Occupy Veterans – a group of former and active-duty servicemen and women drawn from the 99 per cent – have pledged to maintain a residence at the courthouse, to take good care of the building and to provide daytime use of the facilities for Occupy London to put the one per cent on trial. The residents have already spoken with the various stakeholders of the building and are looking to develop an open dialogue.”

Occupy activist Mike Kidane.

I arrived there this afternoon only hours after the building was “liberated”.

Living 6 years in East London I had passed the beautiful Old Magistrates Court many times and always wondered what it looked like on the inside. Until today I didn’t even know what it was used for. I have to say I love old abandoned buildings so I was like a child in a candy store when I entered and explored it.

 

At the same time I was buzzing because I was happy about the brilliant stunt that Occupy had made today. Another interesting chapter in the story of the global movement.

Please read for more updates on the Occupy blog.

And here more of my impressions from this afternoon.

The building is right in the heart of Shoreditch – one of London’s most fashionable culture, bar and club districts and only a stonethrow away from the financial quarter.

The former court building is now privately owned and was apparently supposed to be destroyed to make space for a hotel.

A member of the Veterans for Peace next to the Occupy Think Tank.

Inside one of the detention cells…

…which was already reserved for one of the biggest supporters of the banks – mainly responsible for the financial crisis we are all in now.

Activist Kai Wargalla took part in the so called liberation which started around 5.30 this Tuesday morning. She was excited about the forthcoming court proceedings in this building. Kai who is originally from Germany currently lives in one of the tents at St. Paul’s. She had weeks ago given up her normal student and working life to become involved with Occupy. She won’t go home for Christmas to her family in Bremen this year because she wants to stay with her new friends from Occupy. That’s what I call dedication! 

I learned that the court rooms sometimes are used as film locations.

While the court rooms are still in a fairly good condition other parts of the building were already in a quite desolate state…

I have to admit, that’s exactly why I love old buildings.

I loved the fact that the plant still had leaves on it despite probably not having been watered since 1996.

This door leads to the grand balcony on which you have this view over Old Street…

On the weekend these streets are packed with thousands of party folks.

I worked my way up to the roof top passing by these rooms:

It seems like people used to live there too.

This staircase leads directly onto the top of the building on which you can have…

…these stunning views.

No CCTV could prevent the whole building beeing taken over. Victory! 🙂

 

On my way up to the roof I met David Baker who is a journalist for blottr.com – the people powered news service. He published some of the photos I took for an article about the event here>> 

 

On my way out I took this photo of activist Leon Pike who I have seen many times at the various Occupy sites, events and protest marches. He said he will be staying in the building over night, but not permanent as they will take it in turns. He already knew that the view from the roof at sunrise is spectacular and that I should come back to experience it.

And here is another “thing” that I designed. My new Take-A-Second-And-Smile idea.

Inspired by this incredible year and by my own life experience (only 33 years though)  I just made this here. If you like it – feel free to share it with the world.