There are more smartphones than humans on this planet. We’ll let that sink in for a few seconds… Why is that? Sure, the producing companies are per se interested in keeping product life cycles as short as possible. Which they achieve with two approaches. First, you create a desire through new models, new features, improved performance or modified design. Second, and this one’s really mean, the products are produced in a way that they can’t exceed a certain life-span. There could, there must be a different way, thought a family man from the Netherlands. He developed the most sustainable and fair mobile phone worldwide, in short: Fairphone. The modular smartphone, now available in its second edition with changeable covers, offers its users more personal responsibility and control over their device. It can be easily opened and taken apart. That way, you can change a weak battery or broken screen glass yourself or even just build in the newest camera yourself very soon. Without techie-fancy-schmancy-skills. Longevity is key! But the company from Amsterdam also has its eye on the entire value chain: from mining the needed materials (there are over 40 in every smartphone), design and production to the life cycle. Fairphone advocates safe working conditions in suppliers’ plants and fair salaries, uses conflict-free materials such as tin, tantalum, wolfram and fair trade gold and fights for transparency within the supply chains of the electronics industry. That’s how we like our Smartphones these days. Of course, Fairphone hasn’t reached all of its goals in terms of fairness yet. But it is a best practise, a broader than broad hint for the entire electronic industry. Last Sunday, Fairphone founder Bas van Abel was awarded with the Deutsche Umweltpreis – the largest environmental award in the whole of Europe. The Fairphone 2 can be ordered here as of now and will be delivered on December 16th, in time for Christmas. This is the revolution we’ve been waiting for.
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FAIRPHONE | from 523 Euro | fairphone.com
One more thing
Where The Hell…
…is the car again? And where are the house keys hiding this time? Has my phone really been stolen now? We suppose there are significant statistics about how much valuable time of our lives is eaten up by looking for things we have misplaced, lost, given away or let someone steal. When we could be doing so much nicer things… Driving the car, for example, or locking the front door while chatting with friends on the phone. The smart-location company Tile has developed a petite and pretty Bluetooth-tracker that makes sure the supposedly lost things get in touch with us when they can’t be found. The »Tile Mate« is a flat chip with an eyelet that you can hang on your key chain, stick to your bike or strap on to your handbag. Using the Tile app on your phone, you can reach out to the tile which then answers with a selected ringtone to catch your attention. Or – as in the case of the whereverthehellparked car – shows you where it is on a map. It works vice versa, too, when it’s the phone you’re looking for. Click the Tile and your phone answers. Even in silent mode. That works half a million times per day, in 200 countries worldwide. Because losing things isn’t a phenomenon that only happens within your own four walls. In that case, the global tile community can help. And give a shout out when the object has been found. Like with Ryan’s photo equipment. When the American photographer returned from a conference in Dubai and his camera didn’t, he was informed by the community just a short while later where the apple of his eye was: In Zurich. Well, whaddayaknow…
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Tile App | 27 Euro | Webseite
Old Threads
The greyer, the more colourful. When the mean, hazy fog of autumn slowly swallows the sunlight, the days get shorter and the rain showers get longer, we get blissfully comfortable in our homes. Our bodies warmed by a cup of tee, the feet and soul warmed by the new, radiantly coloured favourite carpets by Richard Kim and Philippe Layani, in short: Kim Layani. The two men from Freiburg are fascinated by the Berber’s rich tradition of carpet weaving, who not only use their carpets with the patterns full of symbolism as floor covering, but also as clothing or bedding. Thank God, you want to cry out and gently stroke the purple thread with the soles of your feet. And Kim Layani prefer that thread to be 40 to 60 years old. Not only for reasons of sustainable recycling, but also because of the quality. Back then, the sheep who gave their wool for the carpets still grazed on the high plains. That made their coat durable and shiny. And this effect radiates from the carpets. The guys have various collections on offer, with no kilim looking the same as the next one. Truly handmade, woven right there in Morocco. The name stands for old, repeatedly cleaned carpets that have been dyed in bright colours in oversized wooden tubs. And for the series Nouvelle Vague, various materials such as silk, linen or cotton are spun together to create new patterns. It’s the antithesis to the dusty image of old carpets: old art brought into new form. Timelessly modern and pretty damn colourful.
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Kim Layani | Showroom Berlin: Mariannenplatz 21, 10997 Berlin | kimlayani.com | Facebook
Green on green
We love plants. Period. Small, large, fat, thin, demanding, low-maintenance, in pots, beds or picture frames on the wall. Hang on, picture frames? We’ve made a discovery and it’s green, styleGREEN to be precise. That’s the name of the brand that conjures a piece of nature into our homes or offices. styleGREEN makes pictures from real plants. Natural Iceland moss, leather-leaf, ivy, tree fern, papyrus and many more greens are artfully arranged into white frames, room dividers or special decorations in the workshop in Munich. But also entire walls and individual designs for offices, lofts or exhibitions are easily created. The best part: a natural and 100% ecological conservation makes the plants lastingly durable. So not only do the green works of art stay beautiful for years and years, they also need neither water nor light. We’ve already brought a piece of nature inside and strongly recommend you do the same. Small moss or plant pictures can be ordered from stylegreen.destarting at a price of 59 Euro. Do you have a little more wall space? We’re giving away a Jungle Wall in 100 x 60 cm to the most enthusiastic nature enthusiast amongst you. Send us an Email headlining ‚GREEN PLANT ON GREEN BACKGROUND ‘ to hurra@muxmaeuschenwild.de.
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styleGREEN | Plant art from 59 € | stylegreen.de | Photo: Peter Langenhahn
Do It Yourself, Ey?
DIY is one of those things. Nothing comes close to creating something with your own hands and from then on finding pleasure and pride in this useful and beautiful object. The problem is that not all of us are blessed with skills to take the tinkering, crafting and building beyond its, let’s say, meditative advantages and actually make it satisfying because constructive activity. All too often, the crooked, lopsided or barely upright results are closer to modern art than actual furniture, shelves or whatever other intended object. Thank God for wefactory! wefactory is a DIY furniture platform on which designers offer their furniture designs including a step-by-step video tutorial. Which means customers like us can buy complete kits including material, tools and totally fool-proof tutorials and have it sent to them as their next project. Genius! The best part is that you not only build your new favourite piece of furniture yourself, you also gain new skills that may just one day enable you to develop your own designs and offer them for sale on the platform. Why not? If it’s a sound design, wefactory will produce a tutorial together with you and put together a complete construction kit. Sharing joy is fun! That’s why it’s our pleasure and joy to give away the shelf „Kotti“, complete with tutorial, to the particularly crafty amongst you. Send us an email with the subject ‚PRESTO!‘ to hurra@muxmaeuschenwild.de
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wefactory | Prices from 39 Euro | Shop
24 Weeks
Get up now or snooze for another five minutes? Coffee with or without sugar? Hop on the bike or into the tube? We make a lot of decisions each day. Small moments of yes or no, considered and decided within seconds. And then there are moments when we face unsolvable questions. That threaten to put us completely off balance and our life to spin out of control. An abyss opens. And no one knows what to do. In her second feature film »24 Wochen«, film-maker Anne Zohra Berrached takes a closer look at one of those chasms. Julia Jentsch plays Astrid, a devoted cabaret artist, mother of a child, wife of Markus (played by Bjarne Mädel). When she is pregnant with her second child, she finds out it will be born disabled. Astrid and Markus face a life-altering decision. Oppressive and heart-breaking, soul-touching and abysmal feelings form the visual language. This film brings us very close to the people and their emotions, their despair and their inability. Director Berrached intensified her demand for authenticity by letting real doctors and not actors play the medics in the film. The language is real. So is the confrontation. »24 Wochen« was the only German entry in the competition of the 66th Biennale. And convinces with its merciless approach of a topic that is a taboo to this day: Who decides over life and death? How far does selfishness go? How much can a person bear? How much strain can a relationship endure? How much stress can you put on a family? We want to know everything. But what do we do with this knowledge?
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24 Wochen | Starting at cinemas on September 22nd, 2016 | Trailer | Facebook| Photo: Neue Visionen Filmverleih
Good Coffee
There are things that are simply practical. Elevators, for example. Velcro. The juicer. Or coffee capsules. The problem with the latter: they produce an incredible amount of rubbish and cause a more and more guilty conscience with every cup. Indulgence yes, ecocide no! The start-up Velibre produces sustainable organic fair trade coffee in Nespresso-compatible, bio-degradable coffee capsules from bio plastics. Makes you want to shout FINALLYYYYYY!!! And why on earth did it take so long? We had to wait for small start-up in Bremen to bring the coffee capsule world up to speed with the year 2016. Velibre uses neither genetically modified resources nor ones that rival farming spaces for food. The packaging is bio-degradable from A to Z: the capsules start decomposing in the ground at room temperature and in no way afflict the ecosystem. The velibre assortment has five flavours. Be it pure Arabica variations or melanges of Arabica and Robusta, for lungo or espresso: the high-quality certified organic coffee will satisfy any taste. We tested, sipped and liked. What else?!
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velibre | 0,39€ per capsule | velibre.com | Facebook
Divine Food
Our beloved Gestalten Books have just published ‚Abrahams Küche‘ (the English original is called Divine Food), a cookbook that is so much more than that. It is the manifestation of cultural commonalities in a region that never tires of emphasising the learnt, unsurmountable differences between its inhabitants. It is a journey through the promised land: from local markets and Arabian traditions to the nomadic cuisine of the desert regions and the hip restaurants in Tel Aviv. Because Israelis and Palestinians are united by their outstanding and dynamic culinary culture. Hummus? Everyone loves it be it here or there. The (attention!) Isreali-Palestininan cuisine has a unique abundance of flavours. Where trade routes once crossed, culinary intersections also came into being. Be it Shakshuka, Challa or Baklava – the regional recipes give an insight into the preparation as well as the origin of iconic dishes. The comprehensible and beautifully illustrated recipes and the anecdotes and background stories from applied geography make it easy to let the aromas of the Mediterranean-Oriental cuisine carry you away and introduce you to its traditions. Food? Unites! Families, friends, strangers, cities and yes, cultures. What would Berlin, for example, be without the culinary identity-mix of Döner-Thai-Schnitzel-Pasta-Indian-Currywurst? Right, pretty boring. Berlin cuisine? Here it is! Berlin unity? This is what it tastes like! Culinary culture means identity. Traditional recipes are like little culinary manifestations of a cultural unity. Even, and particularly, if that is officially non-existent although is has been there for millennia. We’re giving away an issue of this new primer for culinary international relations hot off the press. Send us an email headlining ‚BETEAVONSAKHA‘ to hurra@muxmaeuschenwild.de.
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Abrahams Küche | 304 Pages, 35 Euro | Published by Gestalten Books | shop.gestalten.com
Coo
Cherry Picking
First! Incessantly, messages, words, comments vie for our attention and thereby degrade themselves to background noise. Because before content threatens to drown us, we’d rather stay at the surface. Sharing is easier than reading. Is there no time for critical reflection?! One could almost come to the conclusion that all that counts is the fast coverage of something – no matter whether author or medium have a relevant relationship to a topic or actually have something to contribute to it. On Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, we filter friends and subscriptions. But how can we filter which article on a certain topic actually deserves our time? What’s inside – real value or just copy & paste? PIQD from Munich is practically the alternative draft to the range-optimised algorithms of social networks. Curators from journalism, science and politics recommend and comment on the best content in the web and explain what is worth reading and why. On www.piqd.de, you can browse through cannels such as web and politics, Europe, flight and banishment or “Love, Sex and Us” and look into selected and curator-commented articles (Piqs!). Each curator recommends no more than one article per day. Even better: sign up for the free newsletter and configure it to your own needs by selecting topics. By the way, the founder of PIQD is Konrad Schwingenstein, grandson of August Schwingenstein, one of the co-founders of the Süddeutscher Verlag and main investor of the Schwingenstein Stiftung, which advocates further education and services for independent journalists. Somebody is really serious about this. Word!
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PIQD | piqd.de | Sign up