I Should Have Blogged About These

Kevin B. Lee

Here are 20 significant items from my first month as a Farocki resident that I wanted to blog about but have not, at least not yet. (Requests are welcome as to what to write about first.)

Released 40 years ago this week. #inspiration

A photo posted by kbl (@alsolikelife) on

  • What it feels like to live a few blocks from where David Bowie lived 40 years ago, and to read about his years of self-reinvention in Berlin.
  • The utterly therapeutic satisfaction of living among the small streets and shops of Schöneberg, in an apartment with less than half the possessions I had back in the States.
  • What Harun Farocki was up to 40 or so years ago, and its relevance to the Harun Farocki Institut and Residency.

Continue reading “I Should Have Blogged About These” →

Blogging. Huh. What Is It Good For?

Kevin B. Lee

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Nearly 30 days have passed in my residency, and yet I’ve only posted three blog posts in that time. This is much less than I expected to post, and to be honest, it’s been a source of persistent vexation in the back of my mind. With each significant experience or development during my stay, the thought flashes through my mind: I should blog about this. Even in my chats with Volker, when I mention something that happened or some item that occupies my thoughts, he offers the reply, “It would be nice to write about this on the Residency blog.” The paradox is this: so much has happened in the past month that is worth blogging about, but the problem is that I’m not left with much time to blog.

Or is that really true? Continue reading “Blogging. Huh. What Is It Good For?” →

A Blog Post About Blog Posts

Kevin B. Lee

from: Kevin B Lee
to: Volker Pantenburg
date: Sun, Jan 8, 2017 at 11:15 AM
subject: Re: blog

Dear Volker,

I want the next entry to speculate on what a blog is good for.

You mentioned around the time of my arrival that you had experienced disillusionment with blogs several years ago. However it seems that in every chat we have you mention that something we discuss would make for a good blog entry. Continue reading “A Blog Post About Blog Posts” →

Adorno: Resurrection

Kevin B. Lee

Chat transcript between Kevin B. Lee and Volker Pantenburg, Friday January 6 2017, 9:32 P.M.

hi kevin, you’re probably out having drinks

probably not

okay, you’re taking a night off.

i’m exhausted.
i had to go from prenzlauer
back to hafi
and then back to prenzlauer this afternoon,
because they don’t take credit cards.
so elsa had to loan me cash

bummer.
it’s just in line with how the week has went
but i got an interesting insight out of it
(other than that german stores
seem to avoid credit cards)

Continue reading “Adorno: Resurrection” →

To begin: arrive alive

Kevin B. Lee

I am glad to arrive in Berlin, especially after what I went through to get here. Sadly, along the way I lost one of my closest companions. My MacBook Pro, nicknamed “Adorno,” suffered a fatal accident due to a water spill on one of my flights en route to from the US. to Germany.

Emotional attachments to technology are dubious to be sure, but this loss hits hard, because in the last three years I’ve produced over a hundred video essays with Adorno’s help, more than any other collaborator I’ve had. And Adorno was the star performer of Transformers: The Premake – we literally see it (or parts of its top half) the whole time.

I’m sad to say farewell to this incredibly industrious and reliable partner. I’m hoping that my first HaFI event at silent green on January 14 can serve partly as a memorial service for Adorno (it would only be fitting, since silent green is the former site of a crematorium).

Continue reading “To begin: arrive alive” →