take only photographs, leave only footprints

A pun on the way English-speakers used to refer to Volkswagen, abbreviatedly, as veedubs, a company in North Yorkshire is championing the electric, green revolution of the recreation vehicle and camping industry with eDub Trips.
To reduce the impact of the camping trip—ahead of the automotive manufacturer’s pledge to offer alternatively powered vehicles by 2022—eDub is converting classic VW mini-buses into fully electric models and in order to finance further effort, renting out the campers for weekend excursions. As nice and hopeful as the latest advancements in cleaner energy and electric-vehicles are, there’s always the point of return on investment to aspire towards—with presently the amount of pollution generated to build that brand new car won’t ever be balanced out by the tidiness of its performance throughout its lifetime. I’d dare suggest that putting out on the market anything less is just green-washing, but I think what eDub Trips is doing with its modernization campaign represents genuine progress in the right direction.

gleichschaltung (12. 393)

From the relatively contemporaneous neologism developing apace with electrification, the term which historians employ to describe the system that Adolf Hitler used to impose totalitarian coordination and control over all aspects of German society within the constitution bounds of the Weimar Republic—from the press, to the economy, to culture and education—and refers to the conversion of alternating to direct current, technically rectification or phasing—it is usually translated in the socio-political sense of Nazification as “synchronisation” or “bringing into line.” The Nazis adopted similar terminology, like Ausschaltung, the act of switching off, the deletion of anyone counter to this fusion of party and state. Enabled by a series of laws enacted following Hitler’s election as chancellor in the space of nineteen months that undergirded various orders and decrees: measures include the declaration martial law following the burning of the Reichstag that suspended civil liberties and the media outlet, a cover for voter intimidation and suppression of opposition parties ahead of the general election; the formally titled “Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Reich” suspending parliament and giving the executive the power to pass legislation without them—called the Enabling Act, Ermächtigungsgesetz; deploying chancellery-appointed governors in each constituent state to reconstitute local legislatures according to ballots cast in the above 5 Match 1933 elections; the Law for the Restoration of a Professional Civil Service which dismantled the bureaucracy. Later supplemented by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to promote Nazi values and prejudices through clubs and associations (infiltrating existing ones and establishing compulsory membership in new ones) and oversee news and entertainment, and industry and trade unions were also aligned. Those whose loyalty was deemed unimpeachable, regardless of station or influence, were rewarded with the Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) programme with vacation resorts, hobbyists groups, vocational opportunities and motor clubs, leading to the building of the Autobahn network and the Volkswagen—which also aided in the perception that they were bolstering the German economy through make-work initiatives.

bulli for you

After the successful launch of the reinvented Beetle (albeit more than a decade earlier but Fahrvergnügen takes time), Volkswagen has decided to reintroduce its Microbus, the Bulli, to new generation of drivers and nostalgic adventurers.

The design looks very flashy and I am sure a good work of engineering--however, I think this new model is no comparison with our classic: where is the VIP lounge, the little kitchen with cook top, refrigerator and sink? I am sure everything is sleek, clever and modular--but where is the place to sleep and stretch out? I don't think camping could be as much fun and would be more like just parking, adverse to getting this car too dirty. Also, there is the matter of all those dials and electronics and I am sure that this modern car couldn't be overhauled on the side of the Autobahn with a hammer, spanner and syringe, like our 1984 version, and without computerized diagnostic equipment. Plus, the face and eyes on the new model are a bit harsh and severe, more like a Decepticon's rather than your friendly neighbourhood Autobot's.

Still, I think this is a good thing to promote exploration and freedom and maybe recapture something genuine from that time. Personally, I can't wait for the Spring, when we can tinker with ours and take it out on the road again.

type 57

Last week, we were taken for a test drive in a porcelain Bugatti called L’Or Blanc (White Gold) and now we are given a demonstration of another fully-functional Bugatti model—a Chiron supercar—that was almost entirely built from LEGO Technics pieces, over a million assembled by hand.
The car is a legacy brand first founded by Ettore Bugatti in the city of Molsheim in 1909 that produced a line of high performance luxury and racing automobiles through the 1950s when the company went bankrupt and the factory acquisitioned for the aviation industry. Bugatti saw a comeback in the 1990s when the name and distinctive chassis style saw a revival, with Volkswagen engineering the Chiron, two-seated sports car, which was revealed for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show in 2016. See footage of both cars in action at the links above.

WWII week: gravity's rainbow

Though after the war, these two locations on the Baltic (Ostsee) coast remained state secrets and off-limits under DDR leadership, being repurposed, occupied and then neglected, both the Colossus at Prora at the rocket research facility at nearby Peenemünde survived and are today exemplary edifices of the aspirations and determination of the NSDAP, well curated and accessible testimonials. The intended beach resort complex consisted of eight identical monolithic buildings and would have housed twenty thousand holiday-makers, planned as an affordable vacation destination for the average family and for soldiers on leave. The scale of this place was just unreal, cavernous and unending as it repaired into the vertical horizon along the shoreline.

There is a dock for cruise ships and dancehalls and cinemas. Work on this compound, a project of the KdF (Kraft durch Freude, Strength through Joy) programme, which also brought the Volkswagen to the public, had to be halted as the work escalated and the forced labour that went into the building was diverted to other more pressing concerns before it saw a single guest, like rocketry research and development at the Peenemünde laboratories.

Werner von Braun and other physicists and engineers here tested and perfected the jet-propelled V-1 armaments that were used to bombard Allied territory. Never before had war-makers the ability to hurl terror from the skies in this way and connive such destruction from a distance. Originally, the push was for another kind of action-at-a-distance with drone-bombers operated by remote-control but the prototypes were not tenable in the battlefield, and experimentation and application eventually saw use during the Cold War and in peace time with space exploration, often at the hands of the same architects. The laboratories demanded huge resources and had a dedicated power plant and railhead, in addition to the vast testing-grounds, dormitories and workshops. Both sites host excellent museums, chronicling their existence, legacy and the Zeitgeist.

vee-dub or pão-de-forma

Via Jalopnik comes news that the last of the T-2's, which until this year were being produced at a Volkswagen factory in Brazil, will be manufactured and released on 31 December, due mostly to more stringent safety standards for automobiles.
To honour the end of the of the sixty-four year production run of the Bulli, the micro-bus (the hippie van was also known as the vee-dub to English speakers, since, like the world-wide-web, enunciating the W's of the initialism took more time than the whole name), the factory will be producing a special nostalgic line with the classic off-white and baby blue colour scheme of the sixties. In Brazil—which I remember manufactured the classic Beetle along with a plant in Mexico also for decades after it disappeared from US and European markets, the buses are modified to run on sugar-cane and are as popular as ever. It is sad to see such a classic line finally go but I know its legacy will live on.

zebra crossing

On this day in 1969, photographer Iain Macmillan staged the iconic image that would be used as the album cover for the Beatles Abbey Road, captured outside their recording studio.
Released in September of the same year, the picture fueled elaborate but false narrative that Paul McCartney had died and was replaced with an imposter (a conspiracy instigated by MI5 to shelter the public from trauma), and that the “funeral procession” was a sort of confession with McCartney barefoot and walking out of step with the other band members and holding a cigarette (often airbrushed out) in his right hand—whereas any fan would know him to be left-handed. Furthermore, the number plate of the white Volkswagen Beetle in the background behind George Harrison has the characters 28IF—supposedly representing McCartney’s age if he had lived.  The rumour is a persistent and perennial one.

brave little toaster

At a Geneva automotive showcase, Volkswagen unveiled its autonomous, self-driving concept vehicle that’s being called Sedric (an abbreviation of “SElf-DRIving Car”) whose boxy chassis is being characterised as looking like an angry toaster bearing down on traffic. I find its appearance to be pretty endearing but I don’t know if I could adjust to being chauffeured around on a comfy sofa, the cockpit stripped of all controls. If I wanted that experience, it’s readily available at little to no cost and it’s called the bus. In any case, I would imagine that the notion of car-ownership will undergo a pretty radical change not long after these first prototypes are rolled-out.

fahrsprung

H has become quite handy and bold with assaying our fair Lady, and making sure she is fully outfitted for our upcoming big trip. The word jalopy has, I think, too many negative connotations and can't aspire to be something refined and finely engineered. Our third generation Volkswagen Transporter--sometimes sold as Vanagons in the States (Lady is a "Sport R" and I always thought that was a very special and rare model... maybe we should have named her VGER like the Voyager space probe in the first Star Trek movie)--was the first model of bus water cooled (instead of air-cooled) and was the last VW of any type to have the engine in the rear. That's a bit like those dinosaurs that had two brains, one in the head and one in the tail to govern each. The word jalopy does suggest, however, dependability--or at least, flexibility, serviceableness and the ability to intuit. It is always comforting to know that one's trip won't have a contrary, single-minded computer as a roadblock and that with less, one can go further.

H- hat sehr kompetent bei der Ausrüstung der Ladys geworden, und sie ist fit für die Reise. Jalopy heißt Bleichkiste, aber hat das Wort einen negativen Beigeschmack und steht nichts für etwas ausgereift und verfeinert. Unserer dritte Generation Modell war das Erste mit Wasserkühlung die letzte mit einem Heckmotor. Statt Transporter ist die Lady als Sport R genannt--eine sehr exklusive Sonderauflage. Dennoch verspricht das Wort Bleichkiste Elastizität und Zugänglichkeit. Wir kommen mehr mit weniger aus.

barnevernet

Though the comparison is surely disparaging, like the taint that clings to the Autobahnen, Volkswagen and Hugo Boss by dint of association, but the dispositioning of the Norwegian child welfare agency makes me think of the Nazi-era policy and programme called Lebensborn, the fount of life.

Authorities promoted rampant breeding among the racial elite though coercion, assault, violence and sometimes kidnapping to ensure that the future generation would be afforded all the best of both nature and nurture, sometimes removed from parents deemed incapable of indoctrinating their children with Nazi ideology. The Norwegian practise does not have any openly xenophobic overtones, of course, and the way its characterised in the media may not be accurate, but the intent is essentially the same. Government agencies monitor immigrant families and if the children’s cultural, assimilated development is found to be lagging, the children are placed in foster-care. Even if everything is going swimmingly, the children are treated to a mandatory retreat monthly with a native Norwegian family to instruct them on proper and becoming Norwegian mannerisms. Maybe it is obtuse to take this contrast any further but it does strike me as ironic that outside of Germany, most Lebensborn children grew up in Norway and have become (to a degree) a generation of stigmatised war-babies (Krigsbarn med norsk mor og tysk far). This method of integration and screening is probably a very civic-minded and ultimately helpful—if assessed without the confounding historicity that bespeaks maybe a little arrogance. Other places have a longer history of immigration but also generational isolation and ghettoization. What do you think? Is Norway’s model a good one for furthering harmony?

ingénue and konkurrenz

The Iron Curtain created some interesting parallels among products and services, like the Soviet answers to the Concorde and the NASA Space Shuttle, which unfortunately was never launched due to the end of the Cold War and break-up of the Soviet Union. In divided Germany, I think the pressure to provide consumers with market analogues was especially piquant. There are food and cleaning products that still demand a high level of distinction and brand-loyalty, though the closed economies that fostered their separate identities has not existed in more than two decades. Automobiles were too a cultural aspect governed by scarcity over abundance, embarrassment of choices and ingenuity. Having loved and cared for an old Volkswagen T3, it was with more insight and respect that I could meet again its DDR counterpart: from 1961 until 1991, Barkas was the sole manufacturer of service trucks, vans and minibuses. Like its western equivalent and forebearers, these vehicles came in a huge array of different models, tailored for public and private use, as postal trucks and garbage kips and other public utilities and even, I understand, as roving paddy-wagons by the Stasi when on the prowl for thought-criminals (but I think that the fleet and compliment of B-1000s was mostly associated with caravaning and public-works), and with an equally robust and technically accessible engine. The artefacts of isolation are interesting things and the convergent determination and engineering are impressive.

counting crows (11. 621)

Previously we’ve visited general corvid intelligence (see previously here and here) and numeracy in bees—and given the recent discoveries of a whale language (not forgetting the Plant Kingdom, ibīdem) and elephantine endonymy—it is no wonder that we learn, via Clive Thompson’s latest Linkfest, that our cawing friends too understand the concept of numbers, according to preliminary studies undertaken at the University of Tübingen. Crows furthermore have been shown to vocalise actual numerals, corresponding to values from one to four consistently and have sophisticated maths skills. More at the links above.

synchronoptica

one year ago: assorted links worth revisiting

two years ago: the precursor to the bicycle, Cleopatra (1957) plus good wine needs no bush

three years ago: Clash of the Titans (1981), shutter sounds, Russia Day, Deep Throat (1972), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) plus the tripartite devil

four years ago: Loving Day, more concatenation plus a unique geometrical construct

five years ago: Canada decriminalises abortion and homosexuality (1969), Volkswagen tries to clean up its reputation, vintage Kellogg’s advertising plus a horse of a different colour

tin lizzy (10. 054)

Designed by the engineering team of Joseph Galamb, Eugene Farkas and Childe Harold Wills and hailed as the United States entrée into the modern machine era, the first Ford Model T was built on this day in 1908 at the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detriot—leaving the factory at the end of the following month. Proceeding through the alphabet sequentially starting with Model A in 1903, though not all vehicles went into production, Henry Ford ended the series here with the first mass-produced automobile, using an assembly line (though credit for the concept is owed to Ransom E Olds) and interchangeable, standardised parts—marketed to a growing middle class that was in the reach of most. Just under fifteen-million were produced (a record not surpassed until the Volkswagen Beetle in and within a decade over half the cars on American roads were Model T, and while Ford’s pronouncement to his managers, “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black,” was not apocryphal during the first four years of production only green, grey, blue and red was available

liduina of schiedam (11. 487)

Venerated on this day on the occasion her death in 1433, aged 52 after a life of suffering progressively worsening ailments due to an accident as an adolescent, the sainted Dutch mystic (see below) is celebrated as the patron protector of those stricken with chronic pain and disability, her hometown near Rotterdam and of ice-skaters and roller-skaters, which seems a bit of a painful reminder. Cultivating a reputation as a healer, and judging from the symptoms recorded in her hagiographies perhaps the first documented case of multiple sclerosis—though such diagnoses are problematic, she is said to have fasted and foregone sleep throughout the decades and her cultus grew popular following her death thanks to the writings of Thomas à Kempis who epitomised her piety from Keulen.

synchronoptica

one year ago: an AI writes fortune cookies plus assorted links worth revisiting

two years ago: solar new year

three years ago: sequencing the human genome, more links to enjoy plus an outstanding landing page, business 

four years ago: a medieval UFO encounter, an unhinged press briefing, a cosmopolitan coffee break, a museum at the Volkswagen factory, safe social distancing plus more accidental art

five years ago: an AI authored country and western song, the N'ko script, designer Verner Panton plus Easter fountains

home office

Prototyped in a studio space in the Harkotten Palace near Münster in Westphalia by industrial designer Lutz “Luigi” Colani who began his career in the early 1950s fashioning automotive concepts for Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Volkswagen and BWM pivoted to homewares with items ranging from modular kitchens, television sets, cameras, work uniforms, ballpoint pens, grand pianos and this typing chair that embodied his “biodynamic” signature. Find more of Colani’s designs curated at Vintage Everyday above and this online gallery, arranged by product type.

vee-dub

Car guy Jesse Bowers shares a gallery of impressions from the Bob Baker Volkswagen Customer Appreciation Show, that happens every spring in Carlsbad California and is a forum for collectors and dedicated caretakers of vintage VW buses. There are only the older models to be found in the States as an import duty has been levied against Transporters for years, customs classifying the van as a truck. Let’s hope we’re on the right side of any coming trade-war.

auto sportive (11. 426)

Renowned Italian car designer associated with Gruppo Bertone, producing a number of iconic models for Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari, Marcello Gandini has passed away, aged 85. His signature Stile Bertone developed chiefly in a studio outside of Turin, created many prototypes and concept cars, innovative wedge formats, like the pictured mid-engine mounted Miura, the futuristic flagship of the company in production from 1966 to 1973, scissor doors for the two-seaters, also lending his talents to Volkswagen with the first Polo, Lancia’s rally car and BWM’s 1970 Garmisch—as well as venturing into architecture and interior design. More from designboom at the link up top.

synchronoptica

one year ago: Florida tries to outlaw cabaret shows

two years ago:  bicolour

three years ago: your daily demon: Andromalius, global stock markets crash, the bombing of Würzburg (1945) plus proposed repurposing submarines as oil tankers

four years ago: St Urho, a portentous sea monster plus pandemic restrictions and air quality

five years ago: Sushi Singularity, more Olympic pictograms, hydrogen-power plus the Vessel

leatherface (11. 895)

Going into general release on this day in 1974 in the US after its premiere on 1 October near the filming locations in Austin, the independent horror movie by Tobe Hooper and Kim Henkel, the low-budget Texas Chainsaw Massacre, costing about a hundred thousand dollars to make with a cast of virtual unknown actors (narrator John Larroquette was paid in marijuana), had an international box-office of over thirty-million. While billed as based on a true story (a composite of criminals informed the plot including Butcher of Plainfield Ed Gein, serial killer and body-snatcher, who also inspired Norman Bates of Psycho and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs), the director and cowriter Hooper states the plot of a group of friends pursued by cannibals is more an allegory for the shifting political landscape of misdirection on the part of politicians with Watergate, the Oil Crisis and massacres in Vietnam coupled with the glib brutality of the nightly news. Controversial for its gore and (notably off-screen) violence, it was well-received by audiences and critics alike and set the standard for horror films to follow.

*     *     *     *     *

synchronoptica

one year ago: the death of Pius XII (with synchronoptica) plus assorted links to revisit

seven years ago: a collection of samplers plus composite mug shots

eight years ago: hairdresser to the stars

nine years ago: lost time and calendar conversion plus more on the Volkswagen emissions scandal

twelve years ago: Germany’s Energy Transition 

baby out with the bath water

There have certainly been some chilling exchanges between Germany and the United Kingdom over the UK’s peripheral participation in the European Union and (at least perceived) German insistence that if one is in for a penny, then one is in for a Pound--or rather the Pound Sterling ought to be retired in favour of the common euro zone currency. These tensions are not being distilled in the most helpful of ways, and given the way words and intent has been twisted and other consequences of membership dues (like Germany’s being privy to the Irish budget before Ireland's leaders saw it) and other overtures to Britain, I think it is not surprising to hear of such aversion and ire. The UK is a member of the EU and that partnership ought to be respected, and not just over potential obstinacy that would threaten any unanimous range of movement submitted to Brussels.

Both sides ought to realize the limits of reparations and accusations before diplomacy is exhausted as well: sacrificing national self-determination for the sake of monetary-security is as big a farce as the security-theatre of the absurd of the States. And although the old arrangements have been shown to be less than ideal and Europe’s true-believers have been given a great gift in the chance to re-think and re-build the framework of this cooperative, one should not be tempted to dismiss the overall health and well-being of the EU with such prejudice. Some are crying socialism and collectivism, very reminiscent I think of the harsh treatment and fear-mongering propagated by the opponents of Obamacare when they cited horror stories from the British NHS (National Health Service) as reasons to avoid socialized medicine, but in large parts of Europe, the people are seeing benefits from the taxes they contribute realized in affordable health-care, less gentrification, labour laws that protect the worker, preservation of heritage and the environment, rule of law without tolerance for corruption. The financial institutions that are ailing for the most part are limited to those that were over-extended in the American real-estate market and the imaginary numbers game of derivatives, Volkswagen is worth more in real assets than all of American auto manufacturers combined, and though employment and future prospects have sadly diminished in many places, there is great potential for recovery, should national entities only be able to deliver on their original promises. There is not, I think, so much outside pressure mandating change as restructuring for competition, enforcement of regulation (taxation) and growth, within reason. There's already enough crap in the world to satisfy any consumer (though possibly not at the right price), but the de-industrialization of the world's former factories (the US and the UK have grown a bit shrill in their criticism along with moving to a service-based economy) had nothing to do with a grand-anti-consumerism movement and more to do with greed.

Countries that retained their manufacturing sector continue to enjoy economic health and good levels of employment all around--not to over-simplify matters and not to disparage those nations that have picked up the slack with the outsourcing and off-shoring of corporate colonialism, tasked nominally with the production and export of things out-of-proportion with their own needs, means and tastes. It is not just the cars, planes, computers, etc. but also the management and control in line with demand and the dirty part of the business that leaves a mess to clean up: increased demand and improvements in standards of living has not pushed the tolerance of the environment to unseen heights but the struggle to maintain profit and productivity has. Remanded to one's own backyard, manufacturing and the challenge to do it all better and within one's neighbourhood imperatives, I believe, to mend the environment and the economy. National branding won't heal rifts nor will it safeguard statehood but maybe without the artificial threats of endless debt and austere futures, nations can resume talking about what works and what hasn't and without entendre and vitriol.

hello light

Attempting to reform and reclaim its reputation after the misleading missteps that influenced the purchasing decisions of many drivers, going for diesel-fuelled models believing that they were far cleaner and more efficient than they were in reality, Volkswagen is acknowledging its past transgressions and lack of candour with an advertising campaign that references its older reputation—making lemonade out of lemons.
The new series of commercials debut the long-awaited production of the microbus (see also), reborn as a fully electric vehicle. I hope that the company has learned a valuable lesson in transparency and can again lead the industry towards better transparency and accountability and that they are earnest in their new direction. What do you think? Just the other day, however, I caught the tail end of a comment from company executives reportedly pressing governments to reverse the mothballing of nuclear plants (a fraught decision in itself but also a pledge) so they’ll be sufficient energy to power its electric fleet, which was a bit discouraging to hear and might be yet another wedge that big business can hold up as an excuse not to reform or take responsibility.