Berlin Mags and Stacks, Cutesified Foxes and Neon Neukölln Photography

A fox on a busy Berlin street at night, running to and fro, staring at a group of people approaching and finally managing to cross the street and hide between bushes, made me muse about urban life and cutesification. I honestly only discovered that word, cutesification, when editing a blog post draft originally dedicated to street photography.

When walking back home, musing about city life and light pollution, a blue-lit gas station reminded me of the cold ray polaroid project of Horst Ademeit, a photographer who documented modern urban life in his critical artwork.

This neon-blue Neukölln gas station could be virtually anywhere, and light pollution is surely not one of the most urgent issues of Sonnenallee these days. Vacant venues, closed shops and illuminated but uninhabited newly built houses may be.

I used to live in Düsseldorf, a smaller “big” city, albeit with a vibrant art scene and a stark contrast between rich and poor, posh and punk, bustling and boredom. Düsseldorf has twice as many inhabitants as Neukölln. Despite including several of Berlin’s most infamous areas, you can still reach places of ungentrified boredom within walking distance in the greater Neukölln municipality.

My Berlin reading recommendations include the Facetten Magazin Neukölln, a classic independent weblog (in German only) regularly updated by hobbyist citizens. Apart from Facetten and similar printed publications, I follow the expat Berliners Igor Ranć and Maurice Frank who both used to publish more than one Substack series each. If you ever get tired following German mainstream media, and you don’t like Meta’s social media, 20 Percent Berlin, Update Germany, and Handpicked Berlin are useful alternatives. Handpicked Berlin used to be a Substack until it recently moved to its own website. A consequential commitment to IndieWeb, Igor!

There’s probably much more related stuff to share. Perfectionism won’t get this post published at any time, so I’d rather keep it short and add more links later. Sorry, but if you’re acutally reading this text as an e-mail newsletter in your inbox, please check the latest online version instead!

Open Mind Culture is still far from becoming recognized as a reputable publication, but at least I have managed to publish something remotely professional regularly for several months now. It's not just a Berlin-based blog either. I have only come to Berlin 4 years ago and I used to scribble notes about diverse topics, including books, travel, and web design, before I started to choose my topics based both on public demand (like one person suggesting a topic) and insights (like four clicks from Google search results).

Back to Berlin, the city is still thriving with cultural and neighborhood initiatives, venues and galleries, despite spectacular closings, rising rents and a partially justified backlash against a popular projection of a city glorified in hindsight. I shouldn’t say that as I haven’t been there. I only know that Berlin is still cheaper and less gentrified than New York or London, and still more inspiring and important than probably any other city in Germany except for … [enter your favourite town here]

Initiatives, accounts and publications worth mentioning include the Spore Initiative at Hermannstraße Neukölln, not far from Tempelhofer Feld, and Publix, a journalist-oriented coworking community right next to it. Both regularly publish newsletters and social media material related to Berlin, German society as well as global and international topics. The coworking scene faces issues similar to the club scene, but Impact Hub, betahaus, Tuesday, bum and workish are places to go, all hosting various events open to the general public, meetup and maker scene too.

I am not affiliated to any of these places in the sense of an influencer getting any money or benefits for my recommendations. But I’m a member of the Impact Hub community and I have attended at least one event at one location of the recommended institutions. Some operate several locations (there’s even an impact hub in New York) and some have moved several times already. So check the news to prevent relying on outdated information!

I digressed from my initial topic, though. What about the fox and its artistic image? Failing to find one of the ubiquitous examples of cutified fox artwork, textiles and decoration (maybe it has gone out of fashion in the hipster scene again already), I went to the local library (Helene Nathan Bibliothek on Karl-Marx-Straße, somewhat hard to find, but worth a visit if you’re in the area) and easily spotted several examples within a few minutes.

Even more interesting are the clichés reproduced and remixed in AI art.

What an eerie blend of vintage computer games, synthwave style and harmlessly spooky Halloween aesthetics. Coincidentally, the colors match the British edition of John Lewis Stempel’s Nightwalking, while the German version features a darker, warmer purple interpretation.

Are you still curious what else I see when walking the streets of Berlin at night, what’s all this got to do with Stempel’s Nightwalking and Horst Ademeit’s cold ray polaroid photography? Then follow me and read my blog post about Light Walking at Night, a Fox in Berlin, and Cold Ray Photography