Dutch light revisited

In 2015 I wrote a blog entry on the Dutch Light and the claim by the artist Josef Beuys that the land reclamation at  Zuyderzee may be responsible for the vanishing of this phenomenon, which was a source of inspiration for great Dutch painters. I was already two years ago sceptical about this claim's relevance. And this year, upon arrival in the Netherlands, I recalled this discussion. A few months ago, following the recommendation of a Maltese colleague, I read with great interest 陰翳礼讃 (In Praise of Shadows) by the Japanese architect and novelist 谷崎 潤一郎  (Jun'ichirō Tanizaki), in the English translation by Thomas Harper and Edward Seidensticker. One of the aspects Tanizaki discusses in his text, is that the change of available materials has a narrowing impact on haptic experience and perception of colours. Could it be, that nothing changed with the Dutch light, but just our perception followed a narrowing path by a reduced spectrum of light sources and materials to display nuances? 

The last three Septembers I have been spending in the Netherlands as a guest lecturer at the University of Tilburg. Last year my start was delayed by a severe Malaria, which I recovered well from, even up to today I am not back to the old level of fitness. This year, I am having a very pleasant start in Tilburg, mainly because the students are smart and engaged. I can see sparkles in their eyes. I also restructured and updated my course completely and I am extremely happy that this seems to fall on fertile ground. 

Janthinobacterium lividum

In the Earth Matters exhibition of the Tilburg Textile Museum, I came across an interesting application of Janthinobacter Lividum, and aerobe bacteria, which dark purple colour can be used to dye textiles. Laura Luchtmann and Ilfa Siebenhaar additionally applied sounds at different frequencies to achieve different and very fine patterns. Unfortunately, the photo I took is not clear to show the real colour and its structure. But it's really interesting and very pretty. 

One of the exhibits by Laura Luchtmann and Ilfa Siebenhaar showing the color patterns achieves by the application of different sound frequencies on Janthinobacter lividum dying silk (Tilburg Textile Museum, 27.08.2017)

I liked all the museum. It is a mix of historical introduction into the textile industry, which was a commercial pillar of Tilburg. But beyond old machinery, it contains a lab with modern looms and brings the visitor to the innovative side of fabrics. 

View into the lab area of the Tilburg Textile Museum.

"The arrival city is a city in the city"

It's Frankfurt am Main. Main is a river, and not a qualifier. It does not mean that this is the "Main Frankfurt" while the other Frankfurt, at the river Oder, is inferior. Sometimes English speakers get confused with that. And then there are many Frankfurts, for example in the United States. But these are not the Frankfurts we talk about, and I don't know anything about them.

But I know Frankfurt am Main, from my time working at Bosch Telecom in Kleyerstrasse. It was the attempt of the Bosch Group to get a foothold in the Telecom Equipment market, at the time telecom services were liberalized in Germany and other European countries. Via various steps, the "TELENORMA - Telephonbau und Normalzeit GmbH" was integrated into the Robert Bosch Group in 1989. It was said to be one of the world's best telecom engineering companies and went back to its foundation as a telegraph manufacturer in 1901. I was working as a management trainee in the early 90s, started in the Security Technology Division and was posted to Paris, where we bought JS Telecom and started a Post-Merger Integration. I personally learned a lot, even though the venture was not very successful. 1999 the public network division was sold to Marcony Company and private networks and devices went to the Private Equity company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) for 400 Mio USD, and rebranded TENOVIS. I was already at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) at that time. But I heard that a headcount cut of globally 40 % and having PE managers bragging that they were just released from jail for insider trading charges, did not go down too well. In 2006 the company was sold to AVAYA, and still, on Kleyer Strasse the office buildings are occupied, while the production facilities have, across the road have been converted. The more famous stories of " Fallen Angels" are companies like Kodak, Nokia, Erickson, Voigtländer, Borgward. But Telephonbau and Normalzeit, might also qualify for that category. Or perhaps it is more the Olivetti of telecommunication. This is how I came to Frankfurt am Main the first time. Now I am back. Times have changed, and I am re-entering the city from a different angle. 

The building of the European Central Bank seen from the Main river side.

Frankfurt Bockenheim is a nice and lively place to live. It was Feibai's love for Leipziger Strasse, which made us abandon the further search, and made us convert the short term rental into a longer commitment. It is the University quarter and has a good library, and nice cafés and restaurants. Even though my favorite café is Laumer in Westend. All easy to reach in Frankfurt. First of all the city is flat and the bicycle takes you everywhere conveniently. And secondly, Frankfurt has an excellent and reliable subway. This is another change to 25 years ago: the subway is actually clean and safe. Even the Frankfurt Main train station, is not a drug den anymore, but a well-organized facility, from which you can reach the surrounding countryside easily for a hike in the Taunus or Rheingau, and go further for example along the Middle Rhine Valley, which became UNESCO Cultural World Heritage. The airport, which's expansions have been debated and even the source of violent protests some years ago, is also convenient when it comes to being connected. But of course, in the South of the city and in the major operational landing and take off corridors this causes quite some noise. Not so, in Bockenheim.

Exhibition in the Frankfurt Architecture Museum.

German style organised at the Main river promenade, to support a classical concert.

For example, the Rheingau wine area, but also many other countryside beauty-spots, are easy to reach from Frankfurt by local train. Grapes as seen on August 20th. It seems to me that the potential harvest has recovered from early blossum and late frost we had earlier this year.

Leaving a mark in the sand

There are many ways the wind leaves marks on plants and landscapes. For example, trees bent with the wind, and so do bushes. The more constant and severe the wind is, the more you see it in the floral shape. When the wind comes with rain, you will also notice the pattern of those needing the water growing on the exposed side. And then there are the forms of erosion, deflation, sedimentation, and ripples which let us determine wind directions and speeds. This photo shows a different mark, by a grass scratching in the volcanic sand in Southern Iceland. I also wrote a small travel entry, you may read by clicking here. By this, I resumed the travel section of this website, after a long break. This is where the trips will be found, which fall outside the normal annual migration pattern. It will be less than in the past. But there will be some to follow.

Iceland

I saw it, seen from Europe, as a short distance alternative to Patagonia or New Zealand. Iceland has vast volcanic landscapes, glaciers, and icebergs. But it does not have the grandness of the other landscapes. Nice, but not Wow.

Iceberg Lagoon, Southern Iceland

Goðafoss 

Gullfoss

THE Geyser in Southern Iceland

Geothermal power plant

Being Safe is Scary - Documenta 14

In 1955 the Documenta was launched by Arnold Bode, to show mainly art which was banned during the Nazi regime. Since then, every 5 years, the Documenta is held in Kassel, exhibiting works in multiple venues across the city for 100 days. This time, part of it was held in Athens earlier, and excerpts integrated to enrich the German event. Even this triggered a bit of discussion among the citizens of Kassel, I liked the concept. We unfortunately only had the chance to gain a one-day impression this year (and we did not go to Greece). The overarching themes are fear, violence, refugees, deterioration of civil rights, environmental degradation, and coping with the world's changes and their impact on human lives. I liked quite a few individual works, more for their innovation than for their beauty though. I don't need to be convinced further, that there is far too much tragedy in the world and that we are not doing enough to resolve it. But as so many things appear to go in the wrong these days, this art is much needed, and should be shown and seen more. In terms of curation, I would have needed a bit more guidance. At least labeling all the art works would have been helpful. But never mind. Perhaps I did not prepare myself well enough, or ISO 9000 left a life long mental disability with me, spotting these things even. The Documenta 14  is very worth seeing. It is still on until September 17th. The website is a nice teaser. 

The Kassel Fridericianum crowned by the letters BEINGSAFEISSCARY

Pipe habitats by Hiwa K, Friedrichsplatz opposite the Dokumentahalle.

Living room in a pipe (Hiwa K)

Reading room in a pipe (Hiwa K

Neue Neue Gallerie, behind the new Postal Office. 

Alvin Lucier (1985): Sound on Paper. A loudspeaker animating paper in a frame.

Detail of Historja (2003-2007) by Britta Marakatt-Labber. People with pitchforks.

A curtain of reindeer skulls by Máret Ánne Sara. I could not help feeling like standing in front of a class of Bachelor in Commerce students at the University of Malta. But of course, this was not the artist's intention. Just happens to me, when I stand in front of a geometrical assembly of empty skulls. 

We also took a walk up to the Herkules, on the western part of town. 

The yellow submarine and why we have legs and not wheels

I never had a "dream car". Perhaps that's because, I think wheels are very unimpressive. People say, we should not re-invent the wheel. I fully agree with that. What's so good about wheels? When I was in kindergarten, I often thought: "Why do people have legs and not wheels? And why, if wheels are so great, did they not emerge through the process of evolution, as the standard propulsion solution for mammals?" Well, I concluded this thought at the age of 10 by believing that evolution is about survival of the most adaptable and not of the most efficient way. Obviously legs are more versatile than wheels (and if needed you can make use of the efficiency of wheels by using a bicycle). Many years later, when I was working on ways to control air pressure in tires from a central compressor in a car, and concluded as of the complications I had keeping these systems tight around a rotating axis: it would be very hard to get blood into the toes and keep the nerves connected, if we did not have legs, but wheels. I noted this down somewhere in my diary, and turned my attention from cars to rockets and submarines. I even had a poster of the Trieste in my room, hanging over my bed.

This is why it came as no surprise that I was happy like a child today, when on the way back home, I saw the Russian U-Boat Navigator back in the bay of Cospicua. It carries a small yellow submarine, and this is a fascinating machine. I found the specs online, and it goes down to 1000 meters. Imagine, what that means against a NITROX dive, not even reaching 100 meters.

I heard that dream cars, are those where you stand in front and say, "One day, I want one of these", knowing that you will never have one. Well then, one day I want such a yellow submarine.

The heat is on

Kalkara is having a feast. It is the kind of annual celebration most towns and villages in Malta have in turns. It is a joyful one, with music, fireworks, food, wine and laughter. Communities here are local, but welcome all to join in. With the view on the neighboring towns or villages, all feasts tend to be more grand each year. And with respect to increasing altitude fireworks reach, the airport adjusts along the year its operational mode to stay out of the way. These days Malta is struck by some heat waves, pushing the mercury up to 44 degree Celsius. After noon until four all outdoor life gets quiet. Only the ones preparing the fireworks, are working under the boiling sun. The construction sites become very quiet during this season. I tried myself and it is impossible to move more that a few bricks, before longing for some shade. People in Malta are hard working. The reputation of Mediterranean lax does not apply here. Actually, I think it applies really nowhere in the Mediterranean. Not even in Libya. This myth must have been invented by people just coming and watch without feeling the heat themselves. For those who think austerity and discipline are the path to prosperity, yes (!), but just come and try to make a move outdoors when the sun stands high. Sure, there are a lot of things which can improve, no doubt. But working harder, is not one of them.

At the Kalkara waterfront. The village feast is on, but all is quiet during the day.

The construction site of Cospicua's Dock number one, which will become one of the campuses of the American University of Malta.

Fire works, after the show.

Village entrance to Kalkara.

Hans Op De Beek - Out of the Ordinary

The Wolfsburg Art Museum exhibits multiple installations by Hans Op De Beek, still on until September 3rd, and very worth visiting (even for me, who is not very much following such art installations normally). I liked the multiple levels of space and time, wondering through while walking along. You may enter through an installation called "The Collector's House" and then continue into the main exhibition hall, descending a staircase. It is rather monochrome and dark down there, and time stands still in a way. I really had no sense, of how long I was walking through the alleys, and there is also no obvious way out. You have to find the hole in the fence.

"The Collector's House" by Hans Op De Beek

Long view on "The Collector's House" by Hans Op De Beek

Pieter Hugo - Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

The Arts Museum in Wolfsburg, has been always reaching far beyond town. I visited the photo exhibition of Pieter Hugo today, titled "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea". Pieter was born in South Africa in 1976 and I found his portraits, family photos and documentary style photography extremely fascinating. I am not sure, whether I am supposed to capture parts of the exhibition with my point and shoot camera from my pocket. But I think, this photographer should receive more attention, so forgive me for the hip shots.

Dieselgate - Heavy Fumes Exhausting the Volkswagen Group

I am staying a few days in Wolfsburg, where there is the headquarter of the Volkswagen Group. And I arrived by train to the car city - fast, comfortable and carbon neutral (which is an option for the ticket). Shaken by the Diesel Emission Scandal, Volkswagen Group and its brands are going through change. But you don't feel much of that in town. Yes, there are "reskilling" and "upskilling" programs for the staff and management. But it will take a while to distil the fuel out of people' blood and make it electrons. But still, given the resources put into making this change and the recent advances made, I am sure Volkswagen will live up to its commitments. Still, as the local newspaper "Wolfsburger Rundschau" reports today, the Diesel Emission Scandal is the largest in post-war German industrial history. At the early stage of it, I published a Business Case at ACRC (Asian Case Research Centre) on it, which is also distributed through Harvard Business School (click here, to download).

Arriving in the car city at the Wolfsburg train station

My journey is mainly one of joy and meeting friends. Sorry for those, which I did not see this time. It still is always quite busy for me in Wolfsburg. We will have more chances. But I did make a stroll through the Autostadt. Back when I worked in Wolfsburg, I witnessed this theme park and delivery center for cars coming into existence and did myself quite a few projects related to that. The changes I saw though, is that the brand pavilions are much more product oriented than before, and less communicating the brands. I personally regard this as a step back. It might be the result of a rather uninspired CEO, Martin Winterkorn, who ruled the club, while I was stationed in China from 2003 to 2014. I have not visited the Autostadt since then.

View on the old power plant of the Volkswagen Wolfsburg site, at the Mittellandkanal.

I always enjoy strolling through the "Zeithaus", which is a historical car museum, not just dedicated tho Volkswagen, but to the whole history of cars. It has a marvelous collection of iconic cars, and I photographed a lot of the exhibits.  If you like you can download all these photography from my fileserver by clicking here. If you are interested in the typology of cars, these photos will be a good reference, and if you like to repost them, please feel free to to so (of course I am happy if you give me credit by linking to this blog post for example).

Inside the Autostadt, with view on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the Skoda Brand Pavilion (on the right)

This is an interesting novelty in the Autostadt. It is a rotating tunnel of flowers and called "Dufttunnel" (Tunnel of smell). 

Walking through the rotating "Dufttunnel". It is really a very nice experience of flower smells around you. Be careful some drops of irrigation water might fall on you. But this is a nice "tunnel view", isn't it? If you are interested in watching how the mechanics of this tunnel works on a video, you can download the video file here.

A daytime view on Sarah Hadid's building in Wolfsburg, hosting the Phaeno science museum.

No brain to drain in Malta

Human Resources is not my field of expertise. But I thought somebody who is researching in this area might be able to make good use of some data collected in February 2017. We conducted a discussion on the undersupplied talent situation in Malta among and with industry representatives of the island state. This was in the context of a Business Forum hosted by the Faculty of Economics, Business, and Accounting of the University of Malta (FEMA). To have a starting point for the conversation, I polled opinions and assessments among 58 forum members. They represent indigenous Maltese commercial activities which are hiring University graduates. Main customers of these companies are Maltese end customer (46 %), foreign end customers (28 %), followed by Maltese B-B (11 %) and international B-B (9 %). 6 % are the supplier of an international mother company. Above 60 % of companies generate more than 50 % of their revenue in Malta. The results were confirming the views that there is a shortage of talent and that graduates are ill-equipped with the skills, capabilities, and characteristics required when they come to the job market. For those who are interested in this field, please feel free to download and use the summary presentation, the original data (sanitized from participant identities) , and the survey. Perhaps it is useful to compliment own research, or as a point of reference. In this context, there is also an interesting paper which shows that the situation is not new in Malta, but becomes more obviously a bottleneck now, during a sustained strong economic growth period. It is by Andrew Triganza Scott and Vincent Cassar (2005): The voyage from M.C.A.S.T. to industry. A perceived gap analysis of the critical competencies' evaluative dimensions in the manufacturing technical sector. Journal of Maltese Education Research. Vol. 3, Nr. 1, 43-60. I opened the comment function to this blog post. If you have any questions, please get in touch. 

Die Becher-Klasse (The Becher Class)

The first class of photography of Bernd and Hilla Becher defined photography as a form of art. Without it, today there would be literally no photography in a fine art museum. It was the foundation of the Düsseldorfer Schule (Duesseldorf School). The class was composed by Volker Döhne, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Struth and Petra Wunderlich. A selection of their work is exhibited in the Städel Museum in Frankfurt Main under the title: Fotografien werden Bilder (Photographies become pictures). The exhibition is on until August 13th. I really liked it and I spent three hours there, taking a lot of ideas with me - some of them related to photography, and others on how such a class brought it into not just mastering, but shaping a new dimension in arts. 

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

Campus Navigator

The University of Dresden would not be a Technical University if the campus navigation did not go beyond a map. And it does. I found my way around very well, with the Android Version of the Campus Navigator (click here to download).  I had the privilege of visiting the School of International Studies (ZIS) at the University for a guest lecture. It was also the first time for me, to get an on site impression of the University itself. It has quite some good vibes, and I really like the spirit. 

Dresden and "Der schönste Milchladen der Welt"

Some time ago I was at one of these at one of these startup events. It is where they bore the professionals and "business angels" get excited by elevator pitches and some other kind of nonsense. I was bored, of course. Never understood, why somebody with a good business idea would share it in public in this way. But anyway, what do I know? And I supported a friend who is in this "startups talking people dizzy business". I have seen many startups, which mostly were never called startup because the word hadn't been invented. And also then an "entrepreneur" was still somebody who "takes from between", and not somebody founding a decent company.

A nice personal story though was the (re-)start of The World's most Beautiful Dairy Shop in the World. Back then, I was working for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), we had a venture capital conference in the Taschenbergpalais. The dairy founder received no attention at our conference, as he and his idea, was not fitting into what later became the first dot-com bubble. But he took me to his shop and it was really beautiful, and the food was amazing. Now, some decades later, I assumed, he is the only one who's former startup made it into something. I guess most of the others from our conference, did not even survive the following 20 years, if any of them. I arrived in Dresden today. And yes, here it is. A friend and I first had a snack at the restaurant first, as the main shop was very busy. Then we had a closer look. All good, and beautiful as always.

Dresdener Molkerei, Gebrüder Pfund. Der schönste Milchladen der Welt.

Swimmers only

Swimming season has begun. Given the strong wind we had the last few days, when I jump into my pool in Xgħajra, there are just two options: stay away from the rocks or break a few bones. The currents here are really strong here and it is better to have a pair of fins and jump into the deep water as far as possible. The waves can submerse you along the underwater cliff. The waves are a bit like day-trading at the stock market: rather unpredictable, but you get a feeling for the movement. But it can go still terribly wrong. And there is no "loss threshold" at which you can decide to get out. The good thing about this kind of coast is, that there are no beach tourists. They drown somewhere else in a Sangria bucket.

Reincarnation of Sony NEX-7

Zut alors! I wanted to update my Mathematica 10 installation, and realized that I forgot my laptop charger yesterday's meeting room. Never mind, I took the Sony NEX-7 and though: should the Valletta campus be closed, at least I can test the camera. I bought it in 2011 in Osaka to replace my Nikon full frame SLR, which was robbed in Peru, with a lighter alternative. Since then it was among other drowned in a lake in Cambridge, from which it recovered remarkably well. Last week, I cleaned the camera and mounted a 18-200 mm lens. I took two photos on the way, and I am quite happy with it.

View on Fort Saint Angelo, Kalkara and Rinella Bay

Kalkara in the later afternoon sun.

Malta habitat

Last night we had an information session for our EMBA Programme at the old University of Malta Campus in Valletta. Together with the National Library, these are my favorite academic "hang outs" in Malta. After that, a few went to The Bridge Jazz Bar down to the Grand Harbour, and enjoyed, over a drink, the lively atmosphere of an early summer Friday evening in Valletta. My habitat in Malta became the Grand Harbour area, the Three Cities and Valletta. The only transportation needed here is the Ferry from Cospicua to the Valletta Waterside. Of course, beside this, life in Malta is directed to the sea. 

Mendelssohn, Brahms, Edwards (?)

Yesterday night I took the opportunity to go to a small performance by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra in the Robert Sammut Hall in Floriana. Nice programme, well performed, and I enjoyed also the information and guidance by Melanie Waite, who was leading through the evening. I had a little new discovery, which was a composition of the contemporary composer Ross Edwards. It was very Australian, in the sense that I could well imagine the vast space of the country. And also it became a bit repetitive in the end, which reminded me of the long drives through the Australian outback. I have to go back one day.

Southwestern winds and Sahara dust

The winds are blowing Southwesterly towards Malta and are bringing warm and humid aIr, along with dust from the Sahara. Cars are covered under a fine layer of yellow silt. The weather is easy to make me feel a bit dizzy. Some people also report they are getting mild headaches. To clear up my mind, I went out and take some photos in the morning. But they show not much of a sign of the haze. My eyes must have been spoiled by the vibrancy of the Maltese light.

Early view from the base rock of Fort Saint Angelo over to the Valletta Waterfront. Old canons are here often used for the more civil use of fixing ships.

Good restaurants are rare in Malta, but Etienne's is one of them. Even with free parking (for boats). Anyway land based transport is not recommended in on the Maltese Island. All you can do, is travel by water or by air.