Karl F. Stewart Berlin Conversations 00:12:06 Single channel video I was invited to the Berlin Directors Lounge in February 2014 where two of my videos were presented. While in Berlin I did a short video. The images are of my journey from the Ostkreuz S-Bahn station to the Zoologischer Garten Banhof. It's rare today to live in society in solitude. We are constantly accompanied by a myriad of images and sounds as we move through life. The video reflects this in the soundtrack as we hear the mix of the hum of the S-Bhan with the music from your favorite MP3 player. Berlin is also historically remembered as the city isolated from the rest of the world by the Wall. John F. Kennedy's ich bin ein Berliner was in 1963 a shout for freedom from the oppression of a city encircled. This slogan is used in the soundtrack and is the title of the conversation - freedom. In an odd way I find it sacrilegious to use Kennedy's words the way I have. But in today's world of political rap where we are the world ... we are the monoculture ... we rock ... it seems most appropriate. In a world where we once thought freedom was a dream, we now live in the Orwellian world of NSA-style social networks gleaming our every word as we are categorized and labelled on distant computer memory disks. Kennedy's words today could easily be repeated as a universal proclamation for an encircled humanity. In February, on my way from what was once East Berlin to West Berlin as I was leaving for the airport, I thought I heard the distant echo of ich bin ein Berliner!
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soundtrack featuring . Radio Free Clear Light . Green Lights & Red Light . |