Posters in situ at Vinyard

Beck’s wanted to celebrate 20 years of Inspiration since the Fall of the Berlin Wall and put Holler in charge of creating a campaign for it. In addition to the photo exhibition in 4 venues across Australia (see animation in my first post) we juxtaposed images of the past (border guards and Berliners watching the wall being erected) with the joyful, liberal and expressive Berlin of today.

Oppression to Expression

The three headlines show three transitions: “Oppression to Expression”, “Dominated to Liberated” and “Grief to Relief”.

Dominated to Liberated

Grief to Relief

Forgotten Songs

Don’t quite know why we went overboard like this, maybe a desire to catch up with what other cities have done already (did I hear anyone say Melbourne?). Anyway, maybe there are some nuggets of inspiration in it for you – if you can decipher the tiny type.

Seven Metre Bar

I Dwell in the City and the City Dwells in Me

Bridge Lane painted signs

These photos form an exhibition I curated/commissioned for Beck’s. It opens on Nov 1, 2009 in four venues across Australia. Check the Beck’s site for details.For me it is bit of a journey into my own past as well as showing the contemporary Berlin. Most of these places of improvisation, experimentation and creative expression were very much part of my student and early professional years in the always-changing city, Berlin. And since I am German and vividly remember the wall coming down I am celebrating 20 years of reunification, of my people peacefully overcoming such a horrendous monument. Maybe something you start appreciating even more when you move far away.

Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR a.k.a. me in this case meets Casey Spooner (before his gig at the Melbourne Festival) and we talk about FS’s creative process, working in New York and who he rates in Australia’s music scene. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischerspooner)
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Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR a.k.a. me in this case meets Roland Appel at Future CLassic’s office in Redfern. We chatted about musical influences, growing up in Germany in the 80s and what the Australian scene is like. You can follow all of Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR content through facebook.com/uberselektor

I am so late on Slap Chop but this very annoying infomercial got what it deserved, it got slapped and chopped. Even massacred. The Slap Chop wave of remixes, edits and spoofs has amassed millions of combined views and this would definitely be my favourite (please hang in there till about 1:15).

Having just seen ABC’s Laurence Leung meet and greet his teen hero ‘Shabba-Doo‘ from Breakin (and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo) made the Slap Chop Mashup even better. But if you are more the wordy type, don’t miss the dub by Jabo0odyDubs

And if yo gringos want to hear The Vince himself slaughter (or better slap chop) the Spanish language, por favor:

Underworld: Dubnobasswithmyheadman

Originally uploaded by Littlepixel™

Fantastic idea by Little Pixel (found via UBERSELEKTOR) to create fictional book sleeves out of (now classic) electronic music records. Yes, most of them were still coming out as pre-retro-cool vinyl and I remember being transfixed by the eye-popping colorfulness of the Screamadelica album as well as the experimental Tomato-ness of this Underworld gem.

I know, animating album cover art in iTunes offers new opportunities, but holding big chunky sleeves in your hands is still a different beast. Check the more in depth feature on the transformation of cover art here.