The International Design Center Berlin (IDZ) shows objects of the Belgian designer Charles Kaisin. Subject is “the usage of recycled materials in modern design objects.”

Since 40 years the IDC offers a platform, where design experts, companies and an interested audience can communicate. More than 500 exhibitions, conferences, seminares and workshops have so far been shown. In connection to the creative cities exchange “BRU VIA BERLIN” between the two cultural metropolises Berlin and Brussels, IDZ Berlin shows design from the Belgian capital region, or more precisely, of designer Charles Kaisin.

Themed “Bewegung and Recycling” (Movement and Recycling) 30 works of Kaisin are presented on rotating sockets – supplemented by the 90 metres long bench “K-Bench”, that was primarily planned for the Museum of Modern Art in Luxemburg (MUDAM).

Door windows to bowls

Central topic are objects made of recycling stuff: a door window of a washing machine is transformed into a salad bowl, old bottles get a second chance as drinking cups and old plastic bags utterly become fashion. With his recycling objects, Kaisin wants to show “a new perspective for the becoming and decay of products.”

To which extent bags, sticked newspapers and dismounted washing machines can lead to serious solutions for sustainability is quite clear: to none. The idea of putting trash to fashy stuff like Freitag bags or else is not so new and more a romantic idea of “trash transformation”. Also the word “movement” in the exhibiton title sounds a bit vague in my ears. Anyhow it could be a nice entertainment for the general public and a place to meet for a small design talk.

The exhibition is open till November 7th. More information on the website of the IDZ.

The new X-ray scanners make anything visible that is under your clothes (photo via BBC).

“Europe delays airport X-ray eye” was what I read on BBC News today. Subject was the plan of the E.U. to introduce full body scanners that scan the whole body of passengers at security checks on European airports. The plan is now delayed as the members of the European Parliament (MEP) voted for a further study on the implications for privacy and health.

Scanners that make the whole naked body of a passenger visible to the security staff – a sick surveillance idea that cannot be found even in the repertoire of George Orwell’s “1984″. Unbelievable in first hand is the fact, that passengers (=human beings with their own privacy) are confronted with machines that have such a deep impact on their privacy without being warned – if not by coincident the topic stumbles onto the front pages of newspapers, tv’s and websites.

Well, so our MEPs decided that the “implications for privacy and health” should be further examined. So what was the primary object of study? Which amount of electromagnetic or X-ray radiation is necessary for operating the full body scan? Or how easily the scanner is in handling? How much time it consumes to expose the passenger?

There is a huge problem with new technologies: machines are primarily or even only tested on their physical effects, but not on their implications for society and humanity. How does the new full body scanners effect people whose small breasts and penises, love handles or artificial anuses become visible? What happens if pictues from the scanners find their way into the internet (as we know it is a common thing that especially in the U.K. data get lost now and then)? How is human dignity affected by such measures?

When it comes to new technologies, the societal and human implications definetely have to be the first that need to be regarded. As an act of humaneness, there is no other possibility. In this case, however, it is not even a matter of social research, but a matter of justice: Full body scanners simply offend our basic rights.

“Staying Alive” is the name of a calender project that was set up by 13 German illustrators. Each month the calender shows an illustration of an endangered species that is backed up by further information in the annex of the publication. Staying Alive’s intention is to set a sign against the extinction of species – part of the revenues are donated to NABU, a German nature protection NGO.

This limited edition calender can be purchased on the project’s website or for Berlin visitors at the SupaLife Kiosk in Raumerstraße 40.