11.26.2011 Museum Fur Kommunikation Berlin: Fashion Food, Fashion Talks, KaDeWe, PotsdamerPlatz and Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Chistmas Market

Today I went to the Museum Fur Kommunikation (Berlin Museum of Communication). The building is giant, and the doors are made for them too (Hello Hagrid!). The big heavy green doors at the entrance had door handles located where my nose was. When you pull the door towards you, the museum opens up to a grand atrium that fills with natural light. This building used to be a post office, I think, or a postal museum, repaired after surviving both world wars.

Oh, and let me warn you, as the title of this entry is quite lengthy, so is this post!

In the lobby, there are three robots. One is sick so it faces the corner, the other only knows how to chase a ball (I wonder what happens when you try to hide it from him..!) and the last one just zooms around like mini zamboni with a TV behind his head. You can walk by them and they sort of ignore you.

1. play ball, 2. this man, and his wife matched both robots. she was wearing that exact same yellow as a sweater. I wished they could stand together and take a family picture with the robots. It would have been perfect. 

The fatty end of your meat?

I went to this museum for an exhibit titled: Fashion Food which was basically about food as fashion (think Lady Gaga and her meat dress), and consumerism, and well, boundaries I guess. Turing your clothes into food didn't turn out to be as interesting as I thought it would be. It wasn't tackling issues or making a statement, or even presenting a question, maybe an idea, but it seemed like the artist was just playing with his food. There were models wrapped in calf stomach, suits made out of bacon, octopus, quail eggs, chocolate..  There is a book that goes with the exhibition that the  crazy eccentric Vivienne Westwood gives a nod to, and it's unfortunate that no excerpts are taken from there to help explain to the audience why they are doing this, and where they are coming from. (maybe because it has no explanation except, "This is fashion m'dear! It's about materials, and forms, [and now, food]") I believe the team had a giant meal and ate the "clothes" afterwards but, would you?
Well anyway, I found a related link for more pictures on its exhibition page.

There was a second exhibition held upstairs titled: Fashion Talks, and this was about the different levels of communication through clothing and style as well as "exploring the phenomenon of fashion in the creative tension between industry and society." The space was divided into sections about uniforms, youth culture, strategies in the fashion industry, and fashion now with three patterns: denim, camouflage, and tartan. This was a fun exhibit (so I took lots of pictures). There was plenty to see and touch! This is what I love about interactive exhibits, you don't really have to read, you can just play haha.

                                               1.  Look! It's Anna Wintour!                                                              2. uniforms x youth culture?

"Where does your denim come from?" This was a labour production diagram for denim. A pair of jeans travel a whole bunch of miles before getting to the shelves, and this map showed where the jeans are produced vis a vis growing cotton and pesticides to dying and sewing labels for a pair of organic jeans (green thread, meaning sustainable production processes are used)  and a pair of non-organic jeans (black thread, standard methods)

Different pairs of jeans were on display (it was like shopping for denim!) and they were all labelled with information about the style, and history/influence. I don't know what is the "itchy ass effect"

Rough up your denim! Ways to home remedy a pair of jeans to make them look cooler, try an acid wash, or maybe just some 200grit sandpaper

Welcome to the 'Office for Youth Cultures'! here, you can submit a suggestion for a new youth subculture that hasn't yet been acknowledged. And the typewriter works! And it goes "Ding!" at the end of the line.

1. Inside each of these labelled drawers is a youth subculture like, goth, punk, emo, hipsterr. 2. I thought this was cool, they were maps that you could pull out like shades

Ghillie suit!! (I have yet to see my friend's son in this thing) VS  DKNY

Traditional camouflage (Can you spot the men in camouflage? If you were colourblind, would you be worse at this?) VS urban camouflage (Tim Newark)

Hey! Do you like stripes? I do. Did you know they were inspired by a ship with a pattern called "Razzle-Dazzle"? Algebraic!

Create your own tartan and print out a tie! It even prints out on pre cut paper so you just need to pop the thing out of the paper and wrap it around a really thin collar.

The rest of the museum was just a collection of items that related to communication such as telephones and the post. Plus, only the temporary exhibits came in English and German, everything else was in German.

1. light bulbs,                                                                 2. telephones

See this happy astronaut? He received a DHL package in space! Inside was this experiment where he was to test parcels of different weights to see in what order they reached their destination under zero gravity conditions. (see the loop-de-loop) Anyway, the heaviest parcel won.

cool stamps bro.

A witty reminder for me to send you your postcard and Christmas mail soon..

 

                   1. You can sit here and check out four pull out panels worth of stamps all day, everyday.                2. This made me laugh!

I have a friend who had a dream about the final model for his project, and he described it to me like this. So, do you see? IT'S A HOVERING EXPLODED VIEW! I'm going to take you here. It'll be like re-living your dream. 

The boy in the front watches the screen and tells the kid in the car how to move the boxes

                    1. A legit tin-can phone!                                                                             2. Another witty reminder for me to make some friends already

And what is an interactive museum without a stamping machine.

Score! A treasure chamber!! It is super dark inside, but within each of these poles are the museum's most prized possessions, and as you approach the pole, they light up and tell you a story about the piece. 

This is the museum ticket, a sticker. And this is where everyone sticks it when they leave the museum.

Some more architecture. Like usual, 'straight' as always

When I finally got out of the museum, it was still bright outside. I was hoping that it would be dark so I could raid the Christmas markets with my camera like in the beginning of this week. But I was already at Potsdamer Platz so this is how boring (and crowded!) it was in the daylight.

Cotton Candy! and these chocolate dome things. Will need to try one of those too.

pronouced like: "glue-vine"

1. I didn't buy one this time, so I stood around long enough to take a picture haha.                            2. Snow tubing to eurobeats!

1. Legoland discovery center! costs 16 euros to enter!                                                               2. Chrismas in the mall

Finally went to Ka De We, and didn't find it as exciting as you guys have described it to be. Other than being able to lovingly pet products from Design House Stockholm and Menu

1. Ka De We fancy shop,                                                                                                         2.Lindt teddy bears

         1. so fancy there is a man playing piano in the aisle of the mall,        2. blinged out nespresso machine,                 3. playmobil christmas!

1. Woody at the Lego store,                                            2. Giant weird LEGO, I did not like this type of LEGO as a kid.

Okay, so by the time I finished buying time at the expensive department store, I could finally venture forth into the Christmas night markets. The feeling is just right when all the lights are illuminating the streets. Oh, I also need to make a correction, the previous Christmas markets I posted about were not the same Christmas markets I went to. The Gendarmarkt requires an entrance fee, and Spandau is in another part of the city. So I really don't know where I was, I just know it was a market! 

This is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Chistmas Market. For real. It is apparently also the biggest and the most popular/best Christmas Market in Berlin. This market is so big I got lost within it, and is so spread out that I didn't realize I was in a market until I got to the center. The streets are decked out with lights, Christmas trees, a giant nutcracker, statues and other excessively themed decor. Following up to the 'platz' where the Market is centrally located, stalls are placed alongside regular shopping stores so all you need to do is follow the red and white pin striped tents and Christmas lights until they literally surround you. However, as much as the hubbub of markets make me happy, I was getting quite tired by then, so I think I may go again on a less crowded day.

See all those cups? Boy was I upset when I saw them. All those variations meant that there WASN'T a specific Christmas mug for each market. I'm glad I stopped collecting!

Hellooo Christmas market I've found you.

This tree chases people around the market!! It is funny, but also scary at the same time..

1. She sells muppets,                                                                              2. They sell candy

 

1. unhappy kid fishing for rubber duckies, everybody wins, I secretly love this game...                                       2. Some sort of Christmas tree

Crowds! ahhh!

Pretzels are popular in Germany, but this is the first booth I've seen that sells them.

Imagine I was standing there too. I would on Santa's right, right there. (No one would take a picture for me, I need to make friends!)

There was a crowd around this booth making deep fried potato cakes. I didn't understand what the hype was and walked away, and then changed my mind and walked back and stood in line too. I "read" over the three option menu and practised my order in German in my head until it was my turn in line. I still don't make sense when I say anything in German aloud and my alias totally crumbles when I am asked a question in German. I naturally yet unwillingly give them a two second blank deer-caught-in-the-headlights look in response and resort to charades. So anyway, expecting one fried potato cake, I got three! And it was really cheap and sooooooooo greasy. Like so unbelievably greasy it's gross and will cure anybody with a hangover. It was also the reason I turned away in the beginning. So I knew it was bad news when I received three fried potato cakes dripping with oil in my hands. "Do I eat all of it? Isn't this totally bad for you and super 'hot-air'? Would it be better if I let it cool for a bit, does that make it healthier?" were all the things going on in my head before I stopped thinking and just, "Oh, what the heck," and ate it with my fork. It tasted exactly like what it looked like, grease included lol. I could really only eat one, and then I slowly ate the second one stopping every now and then, and by the time I got to the third one I felt gross about it. But there was one TINY thing I missed. While I was eating my first piece, I noticed the man standing next to me grab the salt shaker and douse his potato cake time and time again. My deep fried potatoes were fine as they were, so I thought he was crazy until I hesitatingly tried it myself. And it wasn't until I was almost done my second piece that I tasted it. Turns out that man wasn't crazy after all, it was sugar! And it tasted good with sugar!! By then I had already left the booth and had a normal greasy potato cake in my hands. Which eventually secretly dripped a giant grease-ellipse onto my jeans and well, you can guess how that story goes... 

Actually, truth be told, I discovered it when I got home and hand cold washed my jeans in the tub with a bar of soap right away, and now the tub is blue..!!

Today was really lengthy and quite tiring. Especially since some things didn't go as planned, and I wandered around and got lost and found new things to see and then didn't go home until I finished seeing. Actually, even writing this post was tiring! Also, work is really picking up, we took our time during the beginning of this week sometimes starting late, sometimes ending early, and then at the end of the week, we were working overtime lol.