gender@toilet
Posted: 24/05/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: University of Vienna, gender identity, toilet politics, third sex Leave a comment »
Since the German National Ethics Council recommended there should be a third sex category the discussion about gender, identity and society finally left the classrooms of the very liberal and leftist University of Vienna (of course not the only place it has been fostered, but that’s my personal experience) and became an issue in the larger German speaking world. Of course it is nothing to shout “Stop presses!” for and won’t be making the front page any time soon, but at least it’s out there.
It is however sometimes even more interesting to observe the effect of such mainstream prominence. The successful breakthrough has given gender identity issues a new boost within students organisations and student groups, where they have been chewed through year in and year out. So much that if the university toilets are a sample of current topicality (a hypothesis I am prepared to defend) it has in fact become the dominant subject of the season.
Rainbow trams
Posted: 15/05/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: Life Ball, Pride Parade, rainbow flag, tram, Vienna Leave a comment »
I love that it has become a tradition to decorate all Viennese trams with rainbow flags the four weeks before the local pride parade. Except for the LGBT rights parade the municipality is also actively supporting and coorganising the Life Ball, a charity-carnival-ball to raise HIV/AIDS awareness as well as money for relief and research. The entire city in recent years is switching into something I’d call tolerance-mode for a month. This year even a number of large companies and hotels have prepared extra marketing campaigns playing on catchphrases like solidarity, connectedness, openness and equality.
Back to my original notion, I really enjoy calling a city my (even if temporary) home that is not afraid to fly the colours of acceptance and equality on a large scale. Since 2005.
“Pregnant?” or “Unwantedly pregnant?”
Posted: 08/05/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: abortion, Austria, pregnancy, pro-choice, pro-life 2 Comments »
There is no real pro-life vs. pro-choice debate going on in Austria as for instance in the United States. Still this is a predominantly catholic and simultaneously very social(ist) country and one could image that at some point during the past 50 or so years it has been a controversial topic.
At present the only place where the public discourse continues are the commercial billboards in the Vienna metro system. Usually one can find in close proximity a board advocating the right to and offering abortion and one by some catholic organisation offering help to (pregnant) women. The catchphrase questions are „Pregnant?“ and „Unwanted pregnancy?“. These two terms probably much better describe the topic in Austrian society. They are an attempt to take sides in the abortion debate without demonising the respective oponent. Much less attacking than the „pro-life“ and „pro-choice“ terms which imply that you are either against life or against choice.
AAA rating cake
Posted: 28/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: Austria, cake, financial rating, triple A Leave a comment »
Apparently I am making this cake week on my blog. After the hipster cake I present to you a Viennese bakery’s design for a cake to the financial minister on the occasion of losing the triple A financial rating. Fun product but bad placement, I reckon Greece and Spain are much better markets for such items.
hipster b-day cake
Posted: 24/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: birthday cake, deconstruct, hipster mode on, last minute Leave a comment »
I present to you mine and yeahman’s very own concept hipster birthday cake. The basic idea is to deconstruct the culinary and social stereotypes that go with such pastry and assemble a new, fresh look using readily available household products.
preparation time: ca. 5-10 mins.
necessary ingredients: mix&match
possible varieties: endless
…in the traffic gods we trust…
Posted: 22/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: dashboard, driving, icon, religion Leave a comment »
Seeing religious artefacts on the dashboard of a BMW in Vienna seems in my eyes very stereotypically balcanic (i.e. from the Balkan Peninsula). It also reminds me of how a professor of mine told me once that in China he had a taxi driver who had put pictures of Jesus and Mao in his cab. I also wonder weather one could tell the kind of driver by the things hanging in or on their car. Probably not or at least not without exploiting stereotypes.
21st century labels
Posted: 17/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: clothes, label, PUMA Leave a comment »
Now that’s some weirdly particular instruction. I wonder what PPR are thinking of their Puma customers. Next time once could expect: “Put in one leg at a time!”.
Today’s mass is brought to you by…
Posted: 10/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: ads, billboards, commercialisation, places of worship, public space, Sofia, Vienna Leave a comment »
In Vienna renting out advertising space on historical buildings including churches isn’t really an issue. In my other home base – Sofia, Bulgaria – last Christmas a supermarket chain put un its ad on a monumental bridge which was going to be renovated which led to large public discontent causing media reports and eventually the de-commercialisation of the renovating site.
The odd thing is that in general Sofia is way more over-commercialised when it comes to ads and billboards compared to Vienna, where there a certain restrictions. Yet Viennese don’t seem to find it appalling to see a top model endorsing stilettos on the façade on one of their landmark cathedrals while in Sofia this would surely lead to massive public annoyance. Are Bulgarians more religious? I wouldn’t claim that.
Maybe the reason is that billboards and commercial space are more tightly regulated in Vienna, which gives people the security and peace of mind to not worry about a temporary commercial message on a church. Meanwhile in Sofia cityscape rules seem to be considered advisable but in no way binding, which probably leads people to regard religious and historical sites as somewhat of a last ad-free resort. Also society seems to be afraid that once there they might become the norm like so many things in past two decades.
The funny thing is that public space in the sense of parks and squares is more often commercially used in Vienna than in Sofia.
Anyway the question of billboards (albeit temporary ones) on historical monuments and places of worship should be integrated into the more general discussion of commercialisation of public space.
Posted: 04/04/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: coffee grinder, Mariahilferstrasse Leave a comment »
There aren’t too many places in the world where you can find public, free to use coffee grinders chained up next to ATMs. The exit/entrance of Merkur on Mariahilferstrasse is one of the few.
spring and the street
Posted: 29/03/2012 Filed under: dimi | Tags: love, spring, street art, Vienna Leave a comment »Spring came and along with it people tend to smile more and fall in love. This was reflected in this year’s viennese street art.
All right, it ain’t Banksy but it still is a token of positive feelings and can make your day.
