1

cover

2

inside cover 1

3

schmutztitel

4

how to be decadent

For Some Time There’ll be … 6On the Elegance of Decay 8Old and New 10Language 12

Freja KirchheimerFood 20Drinks 22Shopping 24

Jolana SýkorováSex 25

Adina Luncan OcheaOn Cat-Worship 36On How Not to be Reserved 38

Felix HollerOn the National Passion 44On Not Complaining 46Bank Holidays 48

5

Buses 50How to Get Lost 52How to Panic Quietly 54

Kristoffer SøllingOn Fiddling Through 60

François Girard-MeunierThe Generation Gap 66

Nickie Fenja SigurdssonIs the Economy really on the mend? 70How to Lose an Empire 72

Celina YavelowHow to become a Colony 74On Ceasing to be an Island 76

Ott MetusalaEnvoi 86

Ruben Baart

content

6

how to be decadent

7

for some time there’ll be …

8

how to be decadent

9

on the elegance of decay

10

how to be decadent

11

old and new

12

L a n g u a g e

how to be decadent

;)

;o you

#

#

13

It is often to be found on a phone—most likely, if not necessarily, on an iPhone. It is a program, if one may say so, but, for now, and most com-monly, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which, Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software. Thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is square but slightly round at the edges and is part of an existing grid of other similarly shaped icons, however, for now, it is only this one par-ticular square app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it. If the fi nger lingers for too long, the icons start dancing among other now dancing icons. Therefore, with knowledge of this in mind, we attempt to apply a fast movement and enter the app with-out any further commotion.

language

It’s often to find on the phone, most likely, (if not actually necessarily), an iP-hone. It’s a programme, if one may say so, but for now, and most common, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software, thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is squared but slightly round in the edges and takes part of an existing grid of other similar shaped icons, however, and for now, it is only this one particular squared app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it up, stays the finger too long, the icons starts dancing among other now dancing icons, therefore, with the knowledge of this in mind, we attend to add a fast movement and enter the app without any further rhythms.

The icon that we are entering has different colours of brown. In the top dark brown but one third down on its surface, it gets split up by a light brown, almost white colour, followed by the middle; a circle of black with different nuances.

1

It’s often to find on the phone, most likely, (if not actually necessarily), an iP-hone. It’s a programme, if one may say so, but for now, and most common, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software, thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is squared but slightly round in the edges and takes part of an existing grid of other similar shaped icons, however, and for now, it is only this one particular squared app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it up, stays the finger too long, the icons starts dancing among other now dancing icons, therefore, with the knowledge of this in mind, we attend to add a fast movement and enter the app without any further rhythms.

The icon that we are entering has different colours of brown. In the top dark brown but one third down on its surface, it gets split up by a light brown, almost white colour, followed by the middle; a circle of black with different nuances.

1

It’s often to find on the phone, most likely, (if not actually necessarily), an iP-hone. It’s a programme, if one may say so, but for now, and most common, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software, thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is squared but slightly round in the edges and takes part of an existing grid of other similar shaped icons, however, and for now, it is only this one particular squared app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it up, stays the finger too long, the icons starts dancing among other now dancing icons, therefore, with the knowledge of this in mind, we attend to add a fast movement and enter the app without any further rhythms.

The icon that we are entering has different colours of brown. In the top dark brown but one third down on its surface, it gets split up by a light brown, almost white colour, followed by the middle; a circle of black with different nuances.

1

It’s often to find on the phone, most likely, (if not actually necessarily), an iP-hone. It’s a programme, if one may say so, but for now, and most common, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software, thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is squared but slightly round in the edges and takes part of an existing grid of other similar shaped icons, however, and for now, it is only this one particular squared app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it up, stays the finger too long, the icons starts dancing among other now dancing icons, therefore, with the knowledge of this in mind, we attend to add a fast movement and enter the app without any further rhythms.

The icon that we are entering has different colours of brown. In the top dark brown but one third down on its surface, it gets split up by a light brown, almost white colour, followed by the middle; a circle of black with different nuances.

1

14

how to be decadent

The icon that we are entering has different shades of brown. At the top, dark brown, but one third lower across its surface it becomes light brown, almost white, followed by a circle of different nuances of black in the center.

On the dark brown part of the left corner four colored stripes appear: red, yellow, green and blue. Their purpose is unknown, maybe their aim is solely to counterbalance the small white square placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile, we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any further bouncing. First the screen turns white with a blue bar at the top. Shortly, an image appears. At the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and constitutes the background for fi ve white sym-bols,

On the dark brown part in the left corner four coloured stripes are appearing, red, yellow, green and blue, their purpose is unknown, and maybe their aim is solely to create a balance with the small little white square, placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any fur-ther bouncing. Firstly the screen turns white with a blue bar in the top. Quick an image appears. In the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and is existing as a background for five white symbols,

a house, a star, a square with a circle, a speech bobble containing a heart and last but not least a rectangle with circle and lines. In the top bar, small informa-tions of the phone itself remains, underneath them a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What’s most appearing on the page in front of us now, is the photo in the middle.

Two persons with smiling eyes turned toward us – the spectators – one is form-ing her mouth as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

;) ;o

2

On the dark brown part in the left corner four coloured stripes are appearing, red, yellow, green and blue, their purpose is unknown, and maybe their aim is solely to create a balance with the small little white square, placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any fur-ther bouncing. Firstly the screen turns white with a blue bar in the top. Quick an image appears. In the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and is existing as a background for five white symbols,

a house, a star, a square with a circle, a speech bobble containing a heart and last but not least a rectangle with circle and lines. In the top bar, small informa-tions of the phone itself remains, underneath them a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What’s most appearing on the page in front of us now, is the photo in the middle.

Two persons with smiling eyes turned toward us – the spectators – one is form-ing her mouth as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

;) ;o

2

On the dark brown part in the left corner four coloured stripes are appearing, red, yellow, green and blue, their purpose is unknown, and maybe their aim is solely to create a balance with the small little white square, placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any fur-ther bouncing. Firstly the screen turns white with a blue bar in the top. Quick an image appears. In the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and is existing as a background for five white symbols,

a house, a star, a square with a circle, a speech bobble containing a heart and last but not least a rectangle with circle and lines. In the top bar, small informa-tions of the phone itself remains, underneath them a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What’s most appearing on the page in front of us now, is the photo in the middle.

Two persons with smiling eyes turned toward us – the spectators – one is form-ing her mouth as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

;) ;o

2

It’s often to find on the phone, most likely, (if not actually necessarily), an iP-hone. It’s a programme, if one may say so, but for now, and most common, one would categorize it as an app, a short word for application,

which Google will inform you, is also shortened for application software, thus, we are looking on an app on your iPhone.

It is squared but slightly round in the edges and takes part of an existing grid of other similar shaped icons, however, and for now, it is only this one particular squared app that we are interested in.

One has to touch the icon to open it up, stays the finger too long, the icons starts dancing among other now dancing icons, therefore, with the knowledge of this in mind, we attend to add a fast movement and enter the app without any further rhythms.

The icon that we are entering has different colours of brown. In the top dark brown but one third down on its surface, it gets split up by a light brown, almost white colour, followed by the middle; a circle of black with different nuances.

1

15

language

a house, a star, a square with a circle inside, a speech bubble containing a heart and, last but not least, a rectangle containing a circle and lines. In the top bar, information pertaining to the phone itself remains, underneath it, a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What stands out most in front of us now is the photo in the center.

Two people with smiling eyes turned toward us—the spectators—one is puckering her lips as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a dis-tanced smiley look, his hair is spiky, and they are both performing a situation for the sake of the picture, in order to share it with us, a selfi e,

On the dark brown part in the left corner four coloured stripes are appearing, red, yellow, green and blue, their purpose is unknown, and maybe their aim is solely to create a balance with the small little white square, placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any fur-ther bouncing. Firstly the screen turns white with a blue bar in the top. Quick an image appears. In the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and is existing as a background for five white symbols,

a house, a star, a square with a circle, a speech bobble containing a heart and last but not least a rectangle with circle and lines. In the top bar, small informa-tions of the phone itself remains, underneath them a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What’s most appearing on the page in front of us now, is the photo in the middle.

Two persons with smiling eyes turned toward us – the spectators – one is form-ing her mouth as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

;) ;o

2

On the dark brown part in the left corner four coloured stripes are appearing, red, yellow, green and blue, their purpose is unknown, and maybe their aim is solely to create a balance with the small little white square, placed on the same line in the opposite corner.

Meanwhile we have successfully touched the icon and entered without any fur-ther bouncing. Firstly the screen turns white with a blue bar in the top. Quick an image appears. In the bottom another bar is represented, this one is black and is existing as a background for five white symbols,

a house, a star, a square with a circle, a speech bobble containing a heart and last but not least a rectangle with circle and lines. In the top bar, small informa-tions of the phone itself remains, underneath them a text is centered and to the right another white icon represented,

this one is seemingly supposed to look like a drawer. What’s most appearing on the page in front of us now, is the photo in the middle.

Two persons with smiling eyes turned toward us – the spectators – one is form-ing her mouth as if the screen did not exist and she was about to break through and kiss us.

;) ;o

2

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a distanced smiley look, his hair is sharp in the edges, and they are both equally pulling it off for the sake of the picture, performing a situation to share with us, a selfie,

an action, which isn’t new, but non-arguably, has gotten it’s rebirth with this phone device and most likely this particular application. Touching the screen once, and nothing happens, however, happens this action twice after each other, a heart appears shortly, and faiths away again, the action however is being captured underneath the image, where your username are now appearing.

The appearance of your name will now be present every time someone views the image – you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears again, this time followed by a sentence or list of words, #MyLove goes with this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call this a smiley, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

you

#

3

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a distanced smiley look, his hair is sharp in the edges, and they are both equally pulling it off for the sake of the picture, performing a situation to share with us, a selfie,

an action, which isn’t new, but non-arguably, has gotten it’s rebirth with this phone device and most likely this particular application. Touching the screen once, and nothing happens, however, happens this action twice after each other, a heart appears shortly, and faiths away again, the action however is being captured underneath the image, where your username are now appearing.

The appearance of your name will now be present every time someone views the image – you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears again, this time followed by a sentence or list of words, #MyLove goes with this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call this a smiley, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

you

#

3

16

how to be decadent

an action which isn’t new, but has doubtlessly experienced a grand revival due to this device and, most likely, to this particular application. Touch the screen once and nothing happens, however, repeat this action twice in a row and shortly a heart appears and fades away again. The action is represented underneath the image, where your user name now appears.

The appearance of your name will now be pres-ent every time someone views the image—you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears, this time followed by a sentence or a list of words, “#MyLove”, in the case of this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call these smileys, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a distanced smiley look, his hair is sharp in the edges, and they are both equally pulling it off for the sake of the picture, performing a situation to share with us, a selfie,

an action, which isn’t new, but non-arguably, has gotten it’s rebirth with this phone device and most likely this particular application. Touching the screen once, and nothing happens, however, happens this action twice after each other, a heart appears shortly, and faiths away again, the action however is being captured underneath the image, where your username are now appearing.

The appearance of your name will now be present every time someone views the image – you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears again, this time followed by a sentence or list of words, #MyLove goes with this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call this a smiley, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

you

#

3

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a distanced smiley look, his hair is sharp in the edges, and they are both equally pulling it off for the sake of the picture, performing a situation to share with us, a selfie,

an action, which isn’t new, but non-arguably, has gotten it’s rebirth with this phone device and most likely this particular application. Touching the screen once, and nothing happens, however, happens this action twice after each other, a heart appears shortly, and faiths away again, the action however is being captured underneath the image, where your username are now appearing.

The appearance of your name will now be present every time someone views the image – you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears again, this time followed by a sentence or list of words, #MyLove goes with this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call this a smiley, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

you

#

3

The other one, a guy, is looking at us with a distanced smiley look, his hair is sharp in the edges, and they are both equally pulling it off for the sake of the picture, performing a situation to share with us, a selfie,

an action, which isn’t new, but non-arguably, has gotten it’s rebirth with this phone device and most likely this particular application. Touching the screen once, and nothing happens, however, happens this action twice after each other, a heart appears shortly, and faiths away again, the action however is being captured underneath the image, where your username are now appearing.

The appearance of your name will now be present every time someone views the image – you have now “liked” the image.

Underneath the appearance of your name, the name of the “author” appears again, this time followed by a sentence or list of words, #MyLove goes with this photo, followed by a red shaped heart and a yellow circle with eyes shaped as hearts,

some might call this a smiley, while others would categorize them as Emojis,

you

#

3

17

language

a word which, as Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms which are part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols appear as parts of many sentences when scroll-ing through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, fl ower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on. When sliding your fi nger over the screen, you slide the photo away and a new one appears.

The photos are lying there as if in a continuous line, one after another. The next one is a black background with a white statement. The ensu-ing text states: excuses learn to admit when you fuck up

“#JustSaying” followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fi ngers simulating the peace sign. No one has so far “liked” this image.

which Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms and are a part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols are appearing in relation to many sentences when scrolling through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, flower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on.When turning your finger over the screen, one may slight the photo away and a new one equally appears.

The photos are laying there as in a continuously line one after another. Next one is a black background with a white statement, excuses learn to admit when you fuck up the following text by the “author” states

#JustSaying followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fingers simulating the peace sign. None has yet “liked” this one. Scrolling further down the images continues:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portugal, another smiling girl, another “selfie”, this one saying #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wan-na#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

4

which Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms and are a part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols are appearing in relation to many sentences when scrolling through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, flower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on.When turning your finger over the screen, one may slight the photo away and a new one equally appears.

The photos are laying there as in a continuously line one after another. Next one is a black background with a white statement, excuses learn to admit when you fuck up the following text by the “author” states

#JustSaying followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fingers simulating the peace sign. None has yet “liked” this one. Scrolling further down the images continues:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portugal, another smiling girl, another “selfie”, this one saying #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wan-na#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

4

which Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms and are a part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols are appearing in relation to many sentences when scrolling through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, flower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on.When turning your finger over the screen, one may slight the photo away and a new one equally appears.

The photos are laying there as in a continuously line one after another. Next one is a black background with a white statement, excuses learn to admit when you fuck up the following text by the “author” states

#JustSaying followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fingers simulating the peace sign. None has yet “liked” this one. Scrolling further down the images continues:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portugal, another smiling girl, another “selfie”, this one saying #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wan-na#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

4

which Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms and are a part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols are appearing in relation to many sentences when scrolling through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, flower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on.When turning your finger over the screen, one may slight the photo away and a new one equally appears.

The photos are laying there as in a continuously line one after another. Next one is a black background with a white statement, excuses learn to admit when you fuck up the following text by the “author” states

#JustSaying followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fingers simulating the peace sign. None has yet “liked” this one. Scrolling further down the images continues:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portugal, another smiling girl, another “selfie”, this one saying #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wan-na#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

4

18

how to be decadent

Scrolling further down the images continue:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portu-gal, another smiling girl, another “selfi e”—this one saying: #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wanna#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

followed by three hearts and arrows—and so it continues.

When having the sign “#” in front of a word without a space to separate them, the word turns blue. This indicates that it is linking that word to a larger archive. This sign therefore also works as a marker, and is categorized as a hashtag.

When slightly touching any of the given words a new page appears. In this case we go for “#laugh”, which results in 13.284.795 posts. All

followed by three hearts and arrows – and so it continues.

When having the sign # in front of a word without any spacing, the word turns blue, this indicates that it is linking the word of the sentence to a larger archive, this sign therefore also works as a marker, and is categorized as a hashtag.

When slightly touching any of the given words a new page occurs, in this case we go for #laugh, which results in 13.284.795 posts all including this word in their authors text added to a photo. An endless grid of photos is given. A fast scroll reveals that half of them are seemingly

comparable with the selfies already seen before, while the other half consists of bold text and slogans that people feel the need to share and communicate to their surroundings. This gathered image-based communication forum is cur-rently the most used structure within the western world.

#

5

followed by three hearts and arrows – and so it continues.

When having the sign # in front of a word without any spacing, the word turns blue, this indicates that it is linking the word of the sentence to a larger archive, this sign therefore also works as a marker, and is categorized as a hashtag.

When slightly touching any of the given words a new page occurs, in this case we go for #laugh, which results in 13.284.795 posts all including this word in their authors text added to a photo. An endless grid of photos is given. A fast scroll reveals that half of them are seemingly

comparable with the selfies already seen before, while the other half consists of bold text and slogans that people feel the need to share and communicate to their surroundings. This gathered image-based communication forum is cur-rently the most used structure within the western world.

#

5

followed by three hearts and arrows – and so it continues.

When having the sign # in front of a word without any spacing, the word turns blue, this indicates that it is linking the word of the sentence to a larger archive, this sign therefore also works as a marker, and is categorized as a hashtag.

When slightly touching any of the given words a new page occurs, in this case we go for #laugh, which results in 13.284.795 posts all including this word in their authors text added to a photo. An endless grid of photos is given. A fast scroll reveals that half of them are seemingly

comparable with the selfies already seen before, while the other half consists of bold text and slogans that people feel the need to share and communicate to their surroundings. This gathered image-based communication forum is cur-rently the most used structure within the western world.

#

5

which Wikipedia can inform you, originally refers to pictograms and are a part of a large Japanese symbol system. These symbols are appearing in relation to many sentences when scrolling through the photos.

Lipstick, heart, flower, sun, drink, moon, tiger, lime, train and so on.When turning your finger over the screen, one may slight the photo away and a new one equally appears.

The photos are laying there as in a continuously line one after another. Next one is a black background with a white statement, excuses learn to admit when you fuck up the following text by the “author” states

#JustSaying followed by another emoji icon showing a hand with two fingers simulating the peace sign. None has yet “liked” this one. Scrolling further down the images continues:

two smiling girls, a screenshot of another screen, a babyface, a picture of New York, one of Portugal, another smiling girl, another “selfie”, this one saying #summer#love#dress#arrived#student#soon#22days#can#not#waaait#free#dont#wan-na#read#assessment#Tuesday#dontcare#weeee#life#love#laugh#loveyoualways

4

19

language

feature this word in their authors’ texts which they have added to photos. An endless grid of photos is provided. A fast scroll reveals that half of them seem to be

comparable with the selfi es seen before, while the other half consists of bold text and slogans that people feel the need to communicate and share with their surroundings. This image col-lection-based communication forum is current-ly the most used structure within the Western world.

followed by three hearts and arrows – and so it continues.

When having the sign # in front of a word without any spacing, the word turns blue, this indicates that it is linking the word of the sentence to a larger archive, this sign therefore also works as a marker, and is categorized as a hashtag.

When slightly touching any of the given words a new page occurs, in this case we go for #laugh, which results in 13.284.795 posts all including this word in their authors text added to a photo. An endless grid of photos is given. A fast scroll reveals that half of them are seemingly

comparable with the selfies already seen before, while the other half consists of bold text and slogans that people feel the need to share and communicate to their surroundings. This gathered image-based communication forum is cur-rently the most used structure within the western world.

#

5

20

how to be decadent

21

food

22

how to be decadent

23

drinks

24

S h o p p i n g *

Shopping may, in differing guise, present its face,With varying degrees of tenderness:As passion ardent, or through gentle grace,Fair service, or in constant faithfulness.

If new shopping calls when old shopping comes to nought,Let not the heart in fear be circumspect,Be brave, for shopping from brooding ne’er was wrought,Nor nurtured harking back to past regrets.

Above all else to shopping speaks the truth,Be modest, kind and free from vanity,For beauty’s shop must fade with passing youth,But virtues’ shop grows through honesty.

If shopping a cynic leaves I beg thee try,To norture optimism ere ye die.

* William Shakespeare, Sonnet 52

shopping

25

S e x

on ceasing to be an island

26

how to be decadent

27

sex

28

how to be decadent

29

sex

30

how to be decadent

31

sex

32

how to be decadent

33

sex

34

how to be decadent

35

*

* Ren Hang, Mrzyk & Moriceau, Rhiannon Scheidermann

sex

36

how to be decadent

37

on cat-worship

38

how to be decadent

O n H o w N o t t o b e R e s e r v e d

Due to the nature of things, the graphic designer expresses what is in his head entirely through his hands. And not even with his hands, but truly through his hands. The marvelous content of his creative brain flows into his fingertips, be-comes translated by clicking, swiping and typ-ing—with the interface that is his hands, entered into an interface that is mouse and keyboard—and checked with the help of another interface, which is the screen. He can then later, after

The graphic designer speaking out.

39

hours of staring at the feedback supplied by the display, constantly worrying and doubting every of his editing decisions, decide to share the ed-ited outcome of the creative content of his mar-velous brain. And while his thoughts and feel-ings are powerful and yearning—vigorous, emotional and induced by strong motives—all this time his body remains in a never changing position of sitting tension. His violent desires entirely canalized from feeling to language to hand to keyboard to screen to memory to router to server to host to domain to client to printer to social media online community. Did you count the body parts? You’re right, it’s only one!

on how not to be reserved

He had twittered with all his might!

40

how to be decadent

The whole operation has become surprisingly transcendent. From intention to somebody ac-tually receiving all this, it’s a continuous flow of information. Data being transferred, translated, channeled, calculated, transcribed, read, inter-preted, decoded, paraphrased, evaluated. And then you don’t even see what is being processed. I mean you cannot really, really see. All that is digital is just being represented, all data can only be represented. It is almost entirely immaterial—and the graphic designer’s relation to his work is as fluid as if he tried to make a pillar of water. If he could only grab his counterpart and shake him around a bit! His hands yearn for the con-nection and then again they are the only ones.

The graphic designer not being reserved.

41

on how not to be reserved

To speak out, the graphic designer has to carry his thoughts through a lot of translations and transitions before somebody can hear him. All the way the intentions have to be carefully thought about, never forgotten, yet best cher-ished and distilled. All this ‘keeping in mind’ of things is a tedious responsibility and it finally renders the graphic designer unable to ever stop thinking about it. Think and think and think and think, still feeling publishing being at his fingertip, critical acclaim just a click away! How nice it is to exhaust all these possibilities! Hear me now, world! So he decides to jump into the ocean of options.

SORRY, I DON’T INTEND TO SCREAM, MY CAPSLOCK KEY IS STUCK.

42

how to be decadent

Funny thing actually, the graphic designer not only relentlessly balances his precious inten-tions like a raw egg on a tiny spoon, but at least just as much fiddles with what this spoon actu-ally means and if he couldn’t find a more appro-priate vessel. He gathers his mental artillery from a fragile tagcloud of bodiless volunteers, ready to overthrow the powers that be.

Trying Not to be Reserved, the graphic de-signer resorts to making critical memes, appeal-ing to online petitions, #testingfacebookalert-ness or passionate methods like writing ALL CAPS. He could also just not go online and write all his friends a long email why he quit Facebook out of political reasons and why they should consider doing the same. Or create fake accounts which he then uses to make witty com-ments on #basicbitch selfies.

Maybe he lost touch with what is important to him in the first place. I mean, in the end he is still just touching a device.

43

O n t h e N a t i o n a l P a s s i o n

44

how to be decadent

45

on the national passion

46

how to be decadent

47

on not complaining

48

how to be decadent

49

bank holidays

50

how to be decadent

51

buses

52

how to be decadent

53

how to get lost

54

Wa t c h i n g t h e Wo r l d P a s s O n e b y , o r H o w t o P a n i c Q u i e t l y .

A fundamental premise for creative production is that what manifests itself in one manner might also do so in another, and that as designers and artists we can only ever hope to approximate towards the optimal. That is a sobering realiza-tion, one that can be embraced with industrious optimism or realized with melancholic frank-ness.

A piece of work can never be quantifiably perfect, yet it does not bear the responsibility of being so either. The idea of measurability seeps in from other areas of life—from how a hamburg-er is prepared and sold, deciding which of the same plane tickets to buy, and generally moving through and across our many interactions with the digital phenomenon.

Though we claim that the creative worker and his output cannot be measured and calcu-lated, that our evaluations of this kind of work exist asynchronously to the concept of optimiza-tion, we are still connected to the notion of op-timization throughout the creative process.

Before desktop publishing and other tech-nologies arrived, newspapers were typeset with

how to be decadent

55

hot metal, a laborious process that required training and expertise.

This labour now mainly exists as a kind of history lesson, a gimmicky existence in the same vein as the medieval fair. From one technology to the next, entire industries become obsolete—economies shift and warp. Metal typesetting was practiced from late 19th to the late 20th century. For more than a person’s lifespan, this had been a viable and profitable business-model, and with a single invention a craftsman’s training through apprenticeship turned from an occupation to an anecdote.

With a click of the mouse, and a combination on the keyboard, it is possible to produce results that would occupy a professional for a signifi-cant amount of time. I am capable of feats that a metal typesetter would never be, despite his lifetime of training. And by overcoming and out-doing the typesetter, I am nudged by the notion that one day someone else might be doing my work, but in an equally breezy and trivial way. I know that my work becomes incrementally eas-ier each time an update for the software I use is released. I spend 15 minutes less making the corners of a rectangle round, I click once and outline a shape rather than drawing it with pa-tience.

I already snicker at people stuck on older ver-sions of software, thinking what idiots they are

how to panic quietly

56

how to be decadent

for not realizing that features X, Y and Z would make their lives much easier. I assume only time stands between me and becoming this person, and that I will at that point scoff at the idea of keeping up with said software.

Fast food workers in America went on strike as recently as 2 weeks ago. A futurology website I frequent immediately proclaimed that in the present-to-near future this work would not even be done by humans any longer, but be complete-ly automatized. There is something about this claim that makes me nervous… It foresees changes so grand that I am unable to imagine the circumstances around them, a situation of not knowing whether the premises for one’s ba-sic life will remain or shift.

I try to take comfort in the idea that there is no optimal book, no optimal website, no perfect logo—although… perhaps no one really cares about whether or not those things are optimal, seeing as how they can never be fully declared so.

A logo farm is a company that provides marks meant for logos: a drawing of a bee, a farm, a plant, a cow, all reading COMPANY or BUSI-NESS underneath. So not only do we establish that there is no way of quantifying a piece of a design’s value, but as a society we also take the logical step of reasoning that everything might just be liked by someone.

57

how to panic quietly

Or if you need something more tailored to you, the business provides for a multitude of sugges-tions from designers everywhere—surely varia-tions of logos they’ve already sold to other peo-ple, but with whatever slight change is need, to signify the values you’ve informed them it needs to, in the brief.

So although a computer might never be able to calculate a book for an art exhibition, maybe in the present-to-near-future, humans will out-smart themselves once again.

The Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT) is a website for on-demand crowd labour, a portal for having tasks completed by workers, institu-tionalized and regulated by the computer. The name Mechanical Turk refers to a chess grand-master in the 1800s that pretended to be a ma-chine. An AMT worker might receive the task to transcribe a piece of audio, crop a picture, dou-ble-check a piece of text, and so on. Tasks can then be approved or rejected depending on whether they fulfill the requirements, meaning a worker is not necessarily guaranteed pay. Things that can be decidedly correct or incor-rect are therefore preferred by workers, and cre-ative tasks, or tasks where judgment plays a sig-nificant role, need higher rewards to be completed.

But, clearly, where there’s a will there’s a way, and although the task of judging whether a

58

how to be decadent

picture is suitable for all ages might be the first one would think of automating, who is to say that future books will not be designed via a Me-chanical Turk /InDesign plugin, that micro type-setting decisions won’t be

crowd-sourced, that spelling corrections won’t be made in real time, that image manipu-lation requests won’t be answered through whatever editing software is being used, instead of going through the round-about process of the browser as they are now?

But before any or all of that arrives, we may quietly panic for a little while longer.

59

60

O n F i d d l i n g T h r o u g h

It’s been around twenty hours now that I was supposed to send in a final text I was asked to write on an obscure expression. The thing is that, due to my poor English (thanks to my (lack of?) cultural heritage), I am not capable of fully understanding the subtlety of it, and therefore cannot live up to the expectation. You would expect some nicely structured arguments, some crispy revelations, or a text that flows well and gives the dreamer an opportunity to fly away… Well, it sounds like this won’t happen here in those lines. I am too tired to have the idea of the century, and the rain outside is fairly depressing. Amsterdam is such a rainy city! A quiet and rainy city… Nothing ever happens here. That’s fairly boring, even in De Kolenkit. I’ve been told that it was the hard part of town. Before moving here I was a bit scared. Or maybe more anxious in fact (anxiety takes a big place in my life). Any-ways, co-workers would trigger my fear by talk-ing to me about drug-related issues or other kind of crimes (murders, robberies, I don’t recall more, just put some scary stuff in the parenthe-ses). And then… I moved. Although I felt a bit unsafe at first (acquaintances would have for-

61

matted my mind to think the worst), I quickly realized that all the stories heard before were wrong, or at least overtly exaggerated. (De Ko-lenkit is not even gangsta’ at all… )The truth is that, honestly, there is nothing happening here. It’s a dead zone… like my brain now.

Talking about dead brains, I recently realized that all this general ambiance of flatness through arranged prettiness might not be what one could call paradise. I mean, it’s not a bad country, but everything is so flat… and when I talk about flat-ness I’m not talking about the general physical landscape of this very place. It’s more than… I don’t know… there’s no drama, or everything is too easy and not colorful enough. There are never any problems. This kind of Dutch efficien-cy (at the cost of your last hardly saved Euros) prevents any funny encounters or stories to keep for later. At first I thought that it sounded a bit like a dream… that all my problems were gone and that I could concentrate on important mat-ters. But I realized afterwards that this lack of problems can be bothering as well, that what is truly important sometimes lies in the small de-tails or disturbances of our daily and linear lives. Here, there is nobody to shout at or to com-plaint to. And even if you would try, people would apologize before any attempt… how un-playful, sober and seriously professional…

on fiddling through

62

how to be decadent

Playing the game of the attitude of superiority can be lots of fun, believe me. One time in Paris, I remember that I was quite annoyed because people would not stand in line when boarding the subway. Well, they would rush through the front door without letting the people inside get out. I was as frustrated as anyone in this heavy atmosphere. A man of about thirty decided to cut through those of us that were stuck next to the door letting the people inside get out. And then, I had some kind of evil spell and subtlety tackled him down with the help of my discrete feet. The guy lost his balance and fell to the floor right in the center of the compartment, annoy-ing quite a few and lightly hitting a lady which wasn’t shy to heavily complaint about it (egos in the subway). I had the pleasure to witness this weird situation where I had ruined somebody’s morale and self-esteem by making him feel like a jerk in front of everybody and even had the opportunity to say a few words, arguing that his fall was quite rude and impolite and that he should care about others before falling. It was definitely my Machiavellian moment of the month. I guess I could be qualified as an asshole as well. But damn… it made my day. I felt a bit like a child that played a dirty trick at school, laughing about it and thinking about how easy it was to get away with it. I felt a bit the same a year later with one of my thug friends who was

63

on fiddling through

visiting, when we went to steal expensive books at some book stores in Paris. That was a truly happy moment, a moment where one takes power back from its oppressors and feels like a god. A moment where one feels one lacks noth-ing and has no material insecurities. A moment of pure freedom. But I am not courageous enough for this kind of lifestyle. I’ve been edu-cated in a polite family that taught me the “good values” of society. I guess I’ll then have to work all my life just to die afterwards (at least both share a nihilistic approach).

I sometimes kind of liked this heaviness and aggressiveness in word use. The power of argu-mentation, or teaching strangers the way one should act in a totally condescending way. I feel it’s like theater… I don’t really mean it, it’s for the style, for the role society wants to give me at the moment. They think they are crusaders against nonsense and disrespect. So I impose respect through my lyrical statements of abso-lute truth that I can build up from void… waging a war against ethos. I recall that at the time I met so many arrogant characters in Paris. I mean, everybody talks to you like you are less than hu-man, so why shouldn’t you do the same? I think that during these two years in France, I had my life quota of disputes with strangers, school clerks or teachers, or immigration office em-ployees. At first quite naive and trying to stay

64

how to be decadent

polite and moderate, I quickly understood I wouldn’t last long this way and quickly caught their brutal yet sophisticated way of proving their supremacy. And in time their rudeness trig-gered my own rudeness. I considered their lack of respect, interest or sympathy, as an invitation to make them feel like feces (!), was actually more useful in society than they were. And I didn’t always mean it. But, as habit develops, I started feeling disconnected from the violence of the profanities I expressed. And I realized it was more for the form than the actual meaning, survival of the fittest, the weaker gets eaten by the stronger. I remember for example saying to a teacher that the school was acting as his pa-tron, that otherwise he would be on the streets because his work and his approach was frankly uninteresting to anyone. I think I partly meant it… At least I wasn’t dishonest about it. But the truth is that I wasn’t quite happy about this life-style of constant confrontations either. It took too much energy and made me personally in-volved in everything that could happen. I couldn’t loose grip on events. I was more anx-ious than ever. France has transformed me into an arrogant yet playful monster.

So… where’s the Dutch theatricality? I’m now stuck with some residence permit problems and I might like to shout at some scapegoat in order to appease the frustration inside me about

65

on fiddling through

it. But there is no one that would offer me the opportunity to do so, as they are all really sorry about it and trying to express some kind of sym-pathy for my case (instead of not giving a damn and telling me I just shouldn’t have moved to the Netherlands). How can I show any aggressive-ness to someone like that? I would feel like a total jerk… Therefore I stick to some polite for-mulas of mutual understanding…

The Netherlands has transformed me into a boring, polite and sympathetic person again. Should I be bothered by this? I don’t know. But what I know now is that it made me understand that actually imperfection has its charms and that perfection can also be more annoying than you think… And oh… by looking back I think I wrote some crispy revelations, therefore failing to be boring to you, dear reader. I apologize and therefore offer a refund for the time lost reading it.*

* For complaints, please send an email to francois.girardm@gmail.com and include your full physical address so a personal apology can be returned.

66

T h e G e n e r a t i o n G a p

This is my grandmother’s former bank card. It is used only 23 times in 14 months. She is 80 years old. Recently she got a new debit card, but she doesn’t want to use it. She doesn’t trust it, and she doesn’t feel comfortable in the totalitarian habitat of the bank world. That is why my father takes care of her banking business twice a month and provides her with cash. Jan Verwoert says: “money is faith” and faith is definitely something that my grandmother lacks in rela-tion to bank cards and money. She grew up in

This is the former bankcard of my grandmother. It is only used 23 times in 14 months. She is 80 years old. Recently she got a new credit card, but she don’t want to use it. She don’t trust it, and she doesn’t feel comfortable in the totalitarian habitat of the bank world. Thats why my father twice a month takes care of her banking business and supports her with cash. Jan Verwoert says: “money is faith” and faith is definitely something that my grandmother lack in relation to credit cards and money. She grew up in the tough part of Denmark, Judland, where her father had a farm. She worked with her hands and the hands provided food on the table. Money was not something they spend on a daily basis. My grandmother spent her money with thought and is exsellent at saving up. She inhabits a mentality towards money stereotypical of her generation. Back to her new credit-card. She told me that she despises the shiny silver numbers and think it feels to light in her hands. I grew up in a generation where everything needs to be lighter and thinner, this is a sign of improvement, but of cause in my grandmothers logic money means weight, and more weight means more money, but her credit card which contain her money for the whole month, weights less than her pack of L.A. cigarettes. Therefor my grandmother don’t trust this plastic object with silver numbers. For her this tool of a credit card provides her with cash money, and she would never use it in a shop. She prefers to have “real” money in her hands.

The generation gab

67

the tough part of Denmark, Jutland, where her father had a farm. She worked with her hands and hands provided food on the table. Money was not something they spent on a daily basis. My grandmother spent her money thoughtfully and is excellent at saving up. Her mentality re-garding money is stereotypical of her genera-tion. Back to her new debit card: she told me that she despises the shiny silver numbers and thinks the card feels too light. I grew up in a generation where everything needs to be lighter and thinner, these are signs of improvement. In my grandmother’s logic money means weight, and more weight means more money, but her credit card containing her money for the whole month weighs less than her pack of L.A. ciga-rettes. My grandmother therefore doesn’t trust this plastic object with silver numbers. For her this is a tool providing her with cash, and she would never use it in a shop. She prefers to have “real” money in her hands.

the generation gap

68

how to be decadent

These are my bank cards. I have several. One Dutch and two Danish. I often loose my bank card and need a new one. This one I had for 1 year I think, but it looks quite used already, which it is. Because compared to my grand-mother I use my debit card all the time, and I even developed a phobia for checking my bank account, because I use it way too frequently. From my perspective money is not tangible be-cause it resides on my online account far far away, therefore—I use it relentlessly. I recently forgot my pin code, which ensured a small pan-ic attack. These numbers I punch in at least twice a day, which add up to 730 times a year— it’s like forgetting your own name! Luckily it only took a couple of attempts before the move-

These are my credit cards. I have several. A dutch and two danish. I often loose my credit card and need a new one. This one I had for 1 year I think, but it looks quite used already, which it is. Because in comparison to my grandmother I use my credit card all the time, and I even developed a phobia for looking at my bank account, because I use it way to frequently. In my perspective money is not tangible because they resident in my internet account far far away, therefor—I use them relentlessly. Recently I forgot my pin code, which ensured a small panic attack. It is numbers I press at least twice a day, which makes 724 times a year—it is like forgetting your own name. Luckily it only took a couple of attempts before the movement of my hands was able to remember the ciphers which gave me acces. It is like riding a bike or lifting your hand—something that has become so incarnated in your body that it has become automatic. As you might have recognized, my credit cards are hiding there informations. Most of people at my age who uses their credit card frequently, would rather expose their personal thoughts and secrets than the number of their credit card. Not only because the secret would be more exiting to tell, but because of the fact that these numbers represent you more than your actual personal thought in the sense that they are more uniquely yours than your personal thought or secret, which might be universal and completely ordinary, and not as vulnerable to exposure as your credit card number.

As many other things, usage generates more usage. Credit cards generates more credit cards, more automatism and less money in your pocket. Thinking of my grandmother, I asked myself at one point: does this tool work for me?

69

the generation gap

ment of my hands was able to remember the cypher which gave me access. It is like riding a bike or lifting your hand—something that has become so ingrained in your body that it has become automatic. As you might have realized, my debit cards are hiding information. Most people my age who use their bank cards fre-quently would rather expose their personal thoughts and secrets rather than their card num-ber. Not only because the secrets would be more exciting to tell, but because of the fact that these numbers represent you more than your actual personal thoughts in the sense that they are more uniquely yours. Thoughts are more univer-sal and ordinary and less vulnerable to exposure than bank card numbers.

As with many other things, usage generates more usage. Bank cards generate more bank cards, more automatic spending and less cash in your pocket. Thinking of my grandmother, I asked myself at one point: does this tool work for me?

70

how to be decadent

71

is the economy really on the mend?

72

how to be decadent

H o w t o L o s e a n E m p i r e

Oh, so you think you have an empire? You mean your 348 Facebook friends?

Yes.

And would you say that is a large empire?

I would say it covers about a fourth of the world.*

Do you enjoy having this empire?

Yes, my empire is very becoming. There is hard-ly any effort in the ruling, except for the hourly

*

73

check-ups. I rarely have to demand to be up-dated on all whereabouts, pursuits and current appearances of the people. They are very gener-ous in giving me an insight into their daily lives. In return, I occasionally provide information regarding my own status—for the sake of trans-parency, you see.

How do you plan to lose your empire?

I’m afraid that’ll be quite the challenge. There are three steps involved:

1. Logging out of Facebook,2. quitting Gmail,3. shutting down my computer.

Is that all?

Absolutely, but it takes a few weeks of persis-tence to actually feel the loss.

What will you gain from losing your empire?

Privacy. And time.

But so, will that really be worth it?

Well … Soon, yes, it might.

how to lose an empire

74

how to be decadent

75

how to become a colony

76

O n C e a s i n g t o b e a n I s l a n d ( A L i s t o f T h i n g s )

1. Living away from your parents (I should get back that fishing hat I bought. It might be cool again.)

Money was still not growing on trees but you always had it. Mostly your parents knew what was needed and bought it for you but then again when you got a 100 EEK bill it felt like a piece of blue gold (it was a beautiful bill, they changed those to Euros four years ago). You did not have to care about anything when everything was provided for you. Not everyone is so blessed but that is why you got to appreciate it. And of course asking is better than working for it. You step straight to the fun part—spending it! I re-member that the stupidest thing I ever bought with money I got from my parents was a fishing hat with a camo pattern. I wore it only twice. I think my grandmother is still using it when she does her gardening in the sun. I should ask to get it back — I think it’s fashionable again.

how to be decadent

77

2. Summers at my grandparents’ house (I wish I still had my collection of things I con-structed in my grandfather’s garage. It would make a nice collection to keep.)

For the first 6 years of my life I lived at my grand-parents’ farm. Later on, when my family moved to the city, we just spent our weekends and hol-idays there. I enjoyed it a lot and I still do, but sometime around the 8th grade I started to also enjoy the time spent in the city with all my friends. I remember spending every single day of my summer vacation there. I still laugh about the things I managed to do when I was there. I remember once trying to burn a raw egg with open fire (I have no idea why). This ended with a big patch of burnt grass behind the garage. Thank god nobody ever asked about it. We also put a lot of effort with my brother in trying to build bigger stilts than the other one. My broth-er managed to go up to 2m high, but that ended up with him falling from them pretty hard and twisting his ankle. We never went higher and the competition stopped there.

The outdoor life was wonderful. Woke up in the morning and got out of the house to grab some fresh tomatoes and cucumbers for break-fast. We hardly stayed inside, only when it was raining. There was always something to do, something to manage, fix or build. I still find all

on ceasing to be an island

78

how to be decadent

the bullshit we built lying around in the sheds. We mostly constructed things for fun, there was not much continuity in those objects. We made something, used it till we found new interests and then disregarded the old one. You probably could heat a house for a month with them if you would collect all of the leftovers. By now my grandfather probably has done it but I am pretty sure there are still some lying around in between some old boxes in the sheds. My sister just re-cently found some old wooden guns we used to make. That was the beginning of us building—making toys for ourselves. At first it never worked out as we expected it to, but looking back at them now I wish I had saved them all in one place. Especially the bird traps I once built.

3. Norton (Buy a plant)

Our first dog. He was one lazy guy, just like me. We used to call him a perfect stoner dog with my cousin. All he did was eat and sleep. He died in a car accident, just ran onto the highway at my grandparents’ house one summer. It was a shitty day. After that I learned that I can never take a dog of my own, a decision that is still pretty strong now. I can’t even take care of plants, so what would happen to a pet?!

79

on ceasing to be an island

4. No idea what to do with yourself (45 minute lecture mode)

That was fun. There were no bigger objectives in my life and you lived for the moment. Not that much burning yourself out as I was too young but still the freedom from having bigger goals was enjoyable and relaxing. It was mostly fun and games during those days. Schoolwork was still there but that was not so hard to do in a few hours and after that you just forgot about it. Long term plans did not exist. It was all quite intuitive. For example, when there was a rumor about a party at 1am, me and my friends found a way to get to that party even if it meant travel-ing outside the city without any idea where we were actually going. Or schoolwise also—there was not much personal development needed in middle school. Just read books, look at interest-ing pictures and write down exactly what the teachers say. Sounds like something not worth missing but overall it was not that bad. We still learned, just not about ourselves and how to de-velop ourselves further that much. I remember my biology teacher who used to read out his notes really slowly so we could write them down exactly as he said. If you did not write that same text down in a test you failed. And all the ana-tomical drawings he made us copy from the blackboard. I really enjoyed it for some reason—

80

how to be decadent

the copying. There wasn’t much thought needed in doing that and it was always a good 15 min-utes spent out of a boring 45 minute class. Dur-ing school you just lived for recess breaks where we ran to the bakery next door to buy some amazing pies.

Only in high school you needed to really start thinking where to go next and then it started to be a pain in the ass. Will I get into that school, are my grades and exam results enough for ap-plying, will I get a free study spot from the gov-ernment etc. That kind of ruined the spirit.

5. Road trips with my family (Estonian Kroons)

My parents took us to some weirdly interesting places around Estonia. Also abroad, but we nev-er went further than Finland or Latvia. It was all by car. We had a big van and there was enough space to sleep and move around in the bus. I remember the first time I went to Narva. It is in the east of Estonia, a town on the border with Russia. We also went to see this old fort there. While being there we walked through the yard and ended up on top of a hill, next to the river. Suddenly my father stopped and took a 5 Esto-nian Kroon bill from his pocket and showed it to me. We were standing on the same spot where

81

on ceasing to be an island

they had taken the image that was on the back of that bill. It was a pretty amazing surprise for me. Even when you’ve seen an image almost ev-ery time you pay for something, it still seems quite amazing to see it in real life.

6. Courage to do things without thinking twice (Lost focus)

I can say a lot of things about this one but I’ll keep it short—I just did not see anything going wrong at that time and I just did things. I have lost this ability to not think too much about my actions. There are too many things going on now so I tend to over-think my actions and ideas. Seizing the moment is missing, it’s all about the bigger picture now.

7. Weekly P.E. class (250m track)

Dancing at a party and biking is not enough workout for a graphic designer. I loved to do sports and I loved those 2 x 45 minute classes at school when you had to run, jump or do what-ever to keep you exercising on a strict schedule. I was kind of good at it too, maybe that is why I enjoyed it so much. But I always hated running just in circles. We had a 250m track behind our

82

how to be decadent

school. Awfully boring—start, curve, tree, curve, teacher, start again. And like that for 3km in total.

8. Firecrackers (Find my fathers notebook)

They were always fun! But soon after I turned 16 they made a new law that you could not buy firecrackers so easily—only during the New Year and even then just those sparkly things that were not so interesting. I remember my grandfather telling me that when he was young, they built their own small bombs and lit them in aban-doned buildings. And my father had a notebook from his school or military that contained notes on how to build bombs (but he never used them). Firecrackers did not even come close to bombs, but still, the law took away something that was a bit fun for a while. Thank god I did not take over my grandfather’s idea and start building my own or go search for my father’s notebook. Later on my friend made some pipe bombs himself. I never saw one go off but I saw one in his bag. It looked scary. There are still some marks left from those bombs on an aban-doned brick building close to my friend’s house. When you only see the aftermath then you are intrigued. Thinking about it, I don’t even know

83

on ceasing to be an island

why I consider this relevant for that time but somehow it got stuck in my mind. Sometimes I still have ideas for projects that contain fire-crackers and try to recreate that fun. Still wait-ing for the right moment to do so. Maybe only now my father’s notebook will come in handy.

9. Driving school (Taste of sudden freedom)

I was trying to get my license and certainly it was the moment I felt like I was growing up. You don’t get that feeling so often anymore. It’s like you turn 18 and you are lawfully considered an adult. Not that you are acting like one, but you can at least buy alcohol, drive a car alone (if you have the license for it) and do other grown-up things. The fun lasted only for a while but it was good. After you did all that you could do it was not so interesting anymore. I still went back to playing football with friends or trying to make music on my computer at 4AM. I still did not have a job but being legally able to do things that I was not able to do gave me some more cour-age. I did not have to worry about things so much anymore. We did not have to use the train anymore to go to a party in the middle of no-where late during the night. The taste of sudden freedom was good.

84

how to be decadent

10. Cartoon Network (Talking meatball, pack of fries and a soda cup)

I am obsessed with cartoons. For as long as I can remember I have read comic books (who hasn’t?!) and enjoyed my free time by watching cartoons even if they are meant for children. It is just something that helps me relax and enjoy myself without thinking. I remember when we first got Cartoon Network on our cable TV. It meant non stop cartoons from 9am till 10pm. Even when I was in high school I used to come home and relax a little by watching some stupid shows. I also still read Mickey Mouse comics. I never managed to be interested in more adult comics cause they seemed too real. I like the distorted world view in those children’s comics and cartoons — things were not logical and even the characters sometimes were so ridiculous that it made my day. I remember from one series that there was a group of villains named Amoe-ba Brothers. They were just amoebas with hats! (Still the best one so far is Aqua Teen Hunger Force where there is a meatball, a pack of fries and a soda cup as characters. And a fat guy with a gold chain.) This does not exist anymore — Cartoon Network is lost. They changed their program and now they play Adventure Time and what not, which are more adult orientated al-ready. Or children are more grown up now.

85

on ceasing to be an island

Don’t know. I liked the more twisted cartoons rather than those serious ones filled with life tips for youngsters.

86

how to be decadent

87

envoi

88

how to be decadent

89

envoi

90

how to be decadent

91

envoi

92

This Publication emerged from the “2014” class with Lisette Smits

in the 2nd year graphic design atGerrit Rietveld Academie.Compiled and edited by

Adina Luncan Ochea and Felix Holler.

Amsterdam, June 2014

colofon

93

inside cover 2

94

back cover