Week
24/2025:
METAPHYSICS IS A RED FLAG.
“Meaning is not like the cookie in the box!” declares the highly regarded and widely popular sociologist. “That goes against my religion, my diet and my identity.” URGENCY IS A SCAM. The youngest scion of a long dynasty of swindlers, exploiters and brothel operators. “If the old fascism killed for the sake of a dream of uniting with nature, the new fascism will kill by a politics of catastrophe, a deliberate acceleration of global warming, and its exploitation in the service of the politics of us and them.” (Timothy Snyder, What Does it Mean That Donald Trump is A Fascist, in: The New Yorker, November 8, 2024) Non-linear Force-Stroke Characteristics. “Up to now, no one has ever failed to die.” (Remember: in wartime, public communication is all propaganda, disinformation, and demagoguery. This applies to all parties involved in the conflict, without exception.) “Thank you – and: slay.”
Week
23/2025:
OYSTERS & SANCERRE.
We‘re dealing with someone who is a mystery for us. And they are dealing with someone who is a mystery to them. I DON’T SIGNAL, I JUST GO. “Je ne pardonne pas, je n’oublie pas.” Of all the thoughts, I appreciate the interesting ones the most. FREE ROCK LIBRARY. “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” There is no point in waiting until it gets better: The little bit better wouldn’t be worth the wait. COMPOSITION FOR KARATE & HYPERORGAN. “Come sit still: Let things fall.” Steps to a Geology of Mind. MUSIC FOR CORMORANTS. Pulling in all sorts of directions, truly. “Supervision is a myth.” Moving on very swiftly. ROCKSTARS & PSYCHOPATHS. Profanation as re-appropriation. Silliness as Resilience. “Any plans, wishes, desires, duties?”
Week
22/2025:
TRIP DURATION.
“Who in their bleakest hour has not considered Iowa?” (Caitriona O’Reilly, An Idea of Iowa, in: Geis, 2015) Above a certain level of prosperity, we can safely assume that serious crimes have been committed incessantly for years. “snot, vomit, worms, cockroaches, flatulence, television, hemorrhoids, senility, burns, raise, rockets, space, destruction, microbes, cancer, sand, water, fog, erections, bleeding, stars” (Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, In der Grube, in ders., Erzählungen 1959-1966, 2008, p. 63; transl. by HS) This is of course also interesting when nothing happens. An AI created a podcast of your paper. „Shall we exploit it, torture it or kill it right away?“ The simulation is spitting blood, Alexa speaks in Latin, and trees are growing through data centers „Setting aside the fact that generational concepts are complete and utter nonsense, like astrology, the Myers-Briggs mumbo-jumbo, or university rankings. Or cryptocurrencies, new workout trends, meal prep routines.” Some bored bloke coded this chaosmos on Linux to watch it crash under dopamine addiction and two-day shipping. “Well, it’s all fun and games until it bursts through your chest like in that Alien movie.” Never forget: this is exactly the world that previous generations of brilliant minds and dedicated leaders actually intended to create. “Please appreciate the glorious wonders and the abundance of the current polycrisis!” The world is bullshit and always has been, so why not play with it and have some fun?” May the mold be with you! Celebrities as hand sanitizers. They could describe everything with one single word: It’s a wheel and a fire and the rest is a blur. Os Dominós da Depressão.
Week
21/2025:
MENING OG TRIVSEL.
One day, I work on quality control for the European agri-food chain; the next day, I’m consulted as an expert on 3D models for airplane engine design; and the day after that, I investigate new AI applications for developing cancer treatments. „After trees and bushes have been recorded, they will still move in the wind and after the sound of raindrops falling on leaves has been uploaded to your chosen streaming service, those sounds will still be generated.“ Televoting and a ground offensive. “Are you interested in acrylic furniture?” The motives of the two belligerent parties are perfectly justifiable. However, their respective use of military force is criminal and indefensible. “Consumer-grade phone surveillance operations are known to shut down (or rebrand entirely) following a hack or data breach, typically in an effort to escape legal and reputational fallout.” There are no habitable exoplanets. LA GNOSI DEGLI GNOCCHI. “This occasionally makes me mild and cheerful, at other times completely silly, carefree and disinhibited – but often enough also unforgiving, unmoved and completely disinterested.” JANEIRO JUNTO É BOM! Further research can be based on this article’s comprehensive yet broad coverage. “Det er ikke uspændende.” I have no more hope, I only see destruction: So dance some more, eat your fill: nothing remains of the infatuation.
Week
20/2025:
GAZEBO PLACEBO.
I had trimmed the ivy on the house wall a little. “Is this your Gazebo Placebo?” A bold example of not knowing exactly what you’re doing. Monday: Plato. “They’ve decided that robots can do it better.” Tuesday: Augustine. “Oh no, not again some randomly blathered Byung-Chul Han-drivel.” Wednesday: Rousseau and Kant. “The universe is decaying much faster than we thought: the last stellar remnants take only about 10 to the power of 78 years to perish.” Thursday: Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. “Imagine you’re an ant. You wake up in a good mood, ready to drive your son to school. But then you realize you forgot to turn off the car’s lights overnight, and now the battery is dead.” Friday: Heidegger and Arendt. „Kanye West’s ‘Heil Hitler’ Song & Controversy Explained.“ Listening to this can make you feel confused. Or like you want to start knitting. “Your Text is Human written.” Initial gesture protraction. “Well, some new A.I. artworks and applications are still low-key interesting, at least for now. However, it’s clear that the hype cycle has run its course, and that A.I. ennui will become a ubiquitous experience and the next widely exploited online trend.” Alles, was entsteht, ist wert, dass es zugrunde geht. A node in a potentially terrifying network.
Week
19/2025:
KONTAMINATIONSÆSTETIK.
As spiritually attuned vibesmith. „Shout out to lense distortion everywhere!“ I reconcile the pleasure. „Laughing about philosophers, theorists or public intellectuals today is similar to laughing about priests in more religious societies.“ Toujours d‘agacement avec des puristes. “Kürbisse der bunten Vernunft” (Oswald Egger, Herde der Rede, 1999, p. 286) Tripping on it. “I like that, I like that, yes, I like that.” (In my more optimistic moments, I tend to think that the current border fanaticism and all the nationalist costume shows of these days are the last gasps of the nation state before it disappears into the dusty cabinet of historical curiosities. At other moments, well, I’m not so sure.) Cooing in unison: “More and more of the world is slipping beyond my comprehension.” Ibuprofen Riots, Skrillex Nostalgia. “A deep need to survive a given situation rather than experiencing it in all its gruelling and traumatizing detail.” KNYTNÆVE ELLER KVADRAT? Drastic or gnostic?
Week
18/2025:
ECOLOGICAL CONSENT.
Skills and production are carnivalized, not caramelized, and we need to laugh. “What do I see now? What is really there? What do I want to have? What can I bear? What do I find beautiful?” (Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, Ein paar Hinweise, in: ders. & Ralf-Rainer Rygulla, Frank Xerox’ wüster Traum, 1970/2025, p. 106; transl. HS) What is actually the best manifesto in the world? Personally, I don’t miss the purportedly political discussions on social media at all, especially not the utterly tedious pseudo-arguments with random strangers who enjoy making themselves look unsympathetic. “This music is joyful and foreboding, cybernetic and deeply human, carrying an implicit note of defiant optimism in their refusal to bow to convention or received wisdom.” (Deerhoof, Noble and Godlike in Ruin, April 2025) When you mix familiarity with the cutting edge. RUPTURE OR RAPTURE? They made a name for themselves by partnering with global luxury brands. Gwyneth Paltrow has started eating carbs and cheese again.
Week
17/2025:
PRAISE BREAK.
“Today, nature can receive royalties like any other music creator.” Infrastructural depth or performing materiality? The answer might surprise you. From a chemical point of view, a human being is a bag of water with a few impurities. NEQUE GRAVITAS NEQUE RIGOR. I very much believe in a society, where this doesn’t exist. “Now, we wake from a dream: Well, baby, what was that?” This planet is not a penal colony.
Week
16/2025:
BASED & UNPHAZED.
“The blimp! The blimp!” I don’t want to hear about this one person ever again who is mentioned these days in almost every single news report as the cause of some current political turmoil. BOVIOUSLY RUMIFICATING. The mere mention of this person immediately dumbs down every single person who hears only about his cretinistic life and opinions and his violent abuse of all other people around him.
Let the photons rain down on me.
Dial up your pleasure. Then dial up your serenity.
This conscious but altered state. We have already had conversations. There’s no future in optimism. Will this drone bring certain death and destruction? La rencontre fortuite d’une machine à coudre et d’un parapluie sur un réseau social!
“The event horizon branches off far from where I am standing” (Egger, Herde der Rede, p. 223; transl. HS) This was once revealed to me in a dream. COWS OF A.I. Stones with decomposing corpses underneath.
Touch the screen. Peak melody. Techfascism building the neoreactionary ethnostate. STUB IT OUT. Priority Miso.
“That’s not so deep, sweetie.” CCTV OPERATOR OF THE YEAR. Life on planets far away? Well. If humans will ever be able to send some machines or bodies there, they will only bring death, destruction, and, at best, some exploitation motivated by greed and cruelty. This is what we’re all about. GOLDEN CLUSTERS (idealistic moralists and self-aggrandizers don’t like it when barbaric materialists address their carefully camouflaged taboo).
If it’s out of the bag, then it’s out of the bag. CYBERDOG (“Now, that’s a powerful cat!”)
General Wastel, General Popo. Open displays of power and wealth are forever ridiculous and disgusting – even more so when their pillagers and oligarchs started to fill their vault and build their empire several centuries ago. THE ARCHBISHOP OF ARMITAGE SHANKS. Seagulls of Camden.
REDEMPTION MACHINES. Seagulls of Brighton stole her ice cream cone.
BASED & UNPHAZED. “Local time of any member of channel is irrelevant.” 18,864 steps or 36,246 steps in one day? Philosophical problems stem from linguistic confusion (in the coming weeks and months we will not only be bombarded with the incessant Trump drivel – we will also have to endure the thoroughly vacuous papal election drivel from morning to night). Some US citizens noticed already in the 1980s its inherent tendency to transform into some fascist theocracy. “I’m sucked into the pitch.”
Week
15/2025:
UNDECIDABILITY.
A superior mind and comprehensive expertise led to this triumph (or pure combinatorics). “die Stanzen und Substanzen” (Oswald Egger, Herde der Rede, 1999, p. 188) There’s sonic serendipity in every single listening situation. “Fagiani eccellenti a un prezzo molto vantaggioso.” I’m sorry to tell you this. But I think it’s actually an illusion. “Time and again, the present, research and art are confronted with the fact that the narrative of progress is outdated; yet time and again it is rekindled. Like an addict who can’t get off the dope?” The global risk environment has deteriorated end uncertainty has intensified “In a moment of tenderness, the future seems possible.” (Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, 2019, p. 155) SHADOW TICKET.
Week
14/2025:
SHABBY HERD FUSS.
Special edition, and your AI couldn’t copy. “Nach einem längeren Gehen, in der Stille, wird der Körper ein grosser Raum” (Brinkmann, Westwärts 1&2, 1974, S. 94) Kinetic art and business. “Death threats from your own body can strike at any moment.” Around 500 voluntary butterfly counters. “Spare me your hero stories, your murder stories, your love stories. To be honest, I don’t have the slightest use for them. They don’t tell me anything that I really care about.” The mindfulness courses that META is offering to its employees (don’t bore us, take it to the chorus) “höre ich sowas, achte ich überhaupt nicht mehr auf den Zusammenhang, der gemeint sein könnte” (Brinkmann, Westwärts 1&2, 1974, S. 164) It is a noble and challenging demand to remain intellectually consistent in one’s existence. I am not sure that any creature on this planet has ever lived up to it.
Week
13/2025:
PITCH INFLATION.
“Gut tat, immer von neuem die eigene Herkunft zu vergessen.” (Brinkmann, Westwärts 1&2, 1974, S. 52) Through these halls the fading sounds of Mallsoft linger, ambiguous in terms of tonal centricity. “Versuche vor dem Schlafengehen, den Tag mit einer Achtsamkeitsaktivität abzuschließen.” No activity of value is transactional. Sådan beskytter vi persondata (most, if not all, people do not articulate sequences of well-formed propositional sentences most of the time. This is perhaps the only axiom). “Det tror jeg godt, vi kan arbejde med!” I leave you now with your own reflections and reactions (wanting to be right at all costs is not a meaningful research goal). Radically open-ended understandings. “Edition spéciale et votre IA ne pourrait pas copier.” Your trip to takes place in just days. Hold on to that discomfort.
Week
12/2025:
PLOT POINT ENNUI.
Three radio and tv stations had interviewed me about LRAD. “Existen solo dos géneros: fascistas y antifascistas.” I did not expect the most meaningful political advice for U.S. citizens of the 2020s to come from people who have seen how quickly full patriarchal theocracy has been installed in Iran after 1979. “Common tones in simple time.” I am not so sure how I will be able to keep up during the next decade of fascism’s planetary expansion. “Fancy a bit of percussion, my little fuzzy?” One-legged robot hops from branch to branch like a squirrel. UNDERWORLD & VALÉRY. “Both theology and AI research are driven by an obsessive desire for self-obliteration and the transfer of all responsibility to a supposedly higher, imaginary authority.” Honestly, you are nothing more than a random, boring idiot like the rest of us. Don’t think too much of yourself, mate. “I could just sleep all day.” SELF-POSITIONING FATIGUE. On any given day I have dozens of bodies. “Seeing through the bullshit of institutions and disciplines, the empty rituals and academic clichés – with as much empathy, joy, playfulness and generative critical energy as possible.” Dark, futuristic, and somber. With polyrhythms, polymeters and nested triplets.
An jedem Tag habe ich viele Dutzend Körper
March 20, 2025
Schlafkörper, Aufwachkörper, Zahnputzkörper, Defäkationskörper, Frühstückskörper, Espressokörper, Müeslikörper, Duschkörper, Morgenlesekörper, Morgenmusikhörkörper, Morgenschreibkörper, Telefonierkörper, Videocallkörper, Morgenteekörper, Mitkollegenplauderkörper, Zugreisekörper, Flugreisekörper, Autofahrkörper, Öffentlichernahverkehrskörper, Schuhkaufkörper, Möbelkaufkörper, Geschenkaussuchskörper, Blumenkaufkörper, Essenbestellkörper, Arztbesuchskörper, Wartezimmerkörper, CT-Körper, Blutabnahmekörper, Lebensmitteleinkaufskörper, Kochkörper, Espressonachdemmittagessenkörper, Berührungskörper, Gerichskörper, Hitzekörper, Speichelkörper, Erregungskörper, Intensitätskörper, Anschaukörper, Umarmkörper, Atemkörper, Lachkörper, Stöhnkörper, Erspürkörper, Ejakulationskörper, Nachmittagsschreibkörper, Mailbeantwortungskörper, Kaffeehauskörper, Vortragskörper, Beratungsgesprächskörper, Konferenzkörper, Bekleidungskaufkörper, Onlineshoppingkörper, Textnachrichtskörper, Saunakörper, Spaziergangsgesprächskörper, Museumskörper, Abendessenmitkindernkörper, Konzertkörper, Kinokörper, Dinnerkörper, Barkörper, Tanzkörper, Knutschkörper, Volltrunkenerkörper, Radfahrkörper, Nachtsmusikhörkörper, Nachtsvideokuckkörper, Nachtsurinierkörper, Nachtsdurchdiestadtwanderkörper, Nachtsübersfeldwanderkörper, Träumkörper.
Week
11/2025:
YOU ARE HERE.
I enjoy figure skating as well as peinture en plein air. They had nailed 36 Harz cheeses to a wall in Cologne and electrified them all. “Barbaric and condescendingly ignorant of any spiritualized or somewhat religiously preachy bullshit.” Last week in class we discussed the future of music. „Romanticism after Auschwitz“ Heard Herds during the safety instructions. “Every single nation is an industry plant.” There are more possible futures than we could ever imagine (and not all of them are terrible). “We’re living in that chemical soup.” Early in the morning, as I resumed my work on the handbook chapter here in the department, I listened again to some of the music that I had listened to almost every morning of writing here at my desk some eight years earlier. “Well, that’s where your arguments end.”
Week
10/2025:
LEVITATE LEVITATE LEVITATE LEVITATE.
Week
9/2025:
SHOEGAZEY.
Apparently, you have to superficially flatter the ridiculously vain toddler king with grand gestures of male cameraderie and complicity to hide the fact that you actually benefit the most from the material details of any deal you make with him. “And the opium farmers sell dreams to obscure fraternities” Where are you on the Uncertainty Index?
Week
8/2025:
DISPENSATIONSRUM.
It is getting harder. A hell of a lot harder. And that’s all I have to say about that. Appeasement is collaboration.
Week
7/2025:
ET ÅBENT ØJEBLIK.
My goal as your reader is to support you in preparing your contribution to be as strong, as outstanding and as radically genuine as possible. Anti-Racism, Racism, Allyship, Bias, DEI, Diversity, Diverse. “The sayable, by nature, is an elegy.” (Chang) Kendrick Lamar channels Gil Scott-Heron and Kanye West sells white T-shirts with a giant black swastika printed on the chest. TECHNICOLOR APOCALYPSE. Confirmation Bias, Equity, Equitableness, Feminism, Gender, Gender Identity. “The unsayable, outside of time.” (ibid.) “Some comments directly in your 12,000 character application version.” Inclusion, Inclusive, All-Inclusive, Inclusivity. “What we say, here, now, is only the part of flesh that is known.” (ibid.) The U.S. is turning into censorship prime. Injustice, Intersectionality, Prejudice, Privilege, Racial Identity. “So, which NATO country will Putin soon attack next with the 100,000 soldiers he is currently assembling in Belarus?” ??? “Radical hopelessness […] could open political horizons.” (Kornbluh) Sexuality, Stereotypes, Pronouns, Transgender, Equality. I expect a gigantic deadly pandemic, several imperial land grabs, and a wide range of extremely violent, perhaps nuclear attacks on various continents of this planet (including Europe) by 2029.
Week
6/2025:
SHINY ATROCITIES.
How to dismantle a superpower and sell off its entire state apparatus to the best and most criminal cronies. The long burning microphone. There are paths towards futures we can survive. The short burning microphone. The mushroom at the centre of our campus. The glowing button microphone. We’ve got a great show for you tonight. I am very happy about the form this short text has now taken. Don’t worry, it gets worse.
Week
5/2025:
PULP & BOUDIN NOIR.
AI had its job replaced by AI. “La caille que j’ai mangée hier avec mon bon collègue m’a beaucoup plu.” Jeg kan godt lide den københavnske tåge. It’s refreshing. Katharina Klement & Doechii. Violence against the river. I like when movies don’t have a musical soundtrack. Radiostück für Stereo-Kopfhörer. SOME NEW SHIT.
Week
4/2025:
AFFECT DELIVERY.
The unfamiliar smells and the sounds of birds and rodent I never heard before kept me awake. Pursueing our cravings. Music for Pleasure. We all worship in our very own way. Cultural Histories of Meditation.
Week
3/2025:
SUN/AIR/ASHES.
“How death is simply death” (Chang, Obit, 2020, p. 12) “I say everything out loud to myself that I silvable silently“ (Egger, Farbkompartimente, 2023, p. 70; my translation) “Nowhere, absolutely nowhere was there any escape from totality.” (Deigner & Wey, Der endlos tippende Affe, 2022, 18:59; my translation) „There is not a monoaffective imaginary“ (Helms, Vishmidt & Berlant 2010) „A situation isn‘t like a jacket you can just take off the person.“ (Chang, Obit, 2020, p. 77) “a list-y, circuitous, roving vibeology.” (Kornbluh, Immediacy, 2023, 6) “We can let things live” (Chang, Obit, 2020, p. 55)
Week 2/2025: IT’S ALL BURNING DOWN.
It’s all burning down, and that’s apparently what the people in power and capital had in mind all along. Around 1989/1990, when excessive populism, disinformation and incitement to violence against minority groups in society were used in Germany to enrich the most powerful and exploit their followers even more, I could not avoid a deep depression. These days I try very hard to work against it. At the moment I am not so sure that I will succeed.
In The Year of 2024
(as always: in alphabetical order;
January 4, 2025)
Words Of The Year
Quincy Jones
Autobiography
Israel Martinez
Dead People Whispering to Us
Nile Rodgers
Le Freak
Nikhil Singh
Club Ded
Nikhil Singh
Dakini Atoll
Sounds Of The Year
Alice Coltrane
The Carnegie Hall Concert
Aphex Twin
Music From The Merch Desk (2016-2023)
Charli XCX
brat
Jeff Mills
The Eye Witness
Zeitblom
Bio-Membran
Performances Of The Year
boeseblick ensemble a.k.a. Alessandara Eramo, Korhan Erel, Ariel Orah & Kirsten Reese
Galiläakirche Berlin, September 14, 2024
Miya Masaoka
SAVVY Contemporary Berlin, March 17, 2024
Quartet Vivancos
Museu Pau Casals El Vendrell, August 10, 2024
Sote
WUK / unsafe+sounds Wien, September 11, 2024
ensemble mosaik
Silent Green Berlin, November 24, 2024
Thoughts Of The Year
Jules Gill-Peterson
A Short History of Trans Misogyny
Kathleen Stewart
Ordinary Affects
Kathleen Stewart & Lauren Berlant
The Hundreds
Salomé Voegelin
Unperforming the Dream House
McKenzie Wark
Love and Money, Sex and Death