What if less was enough?
There is nothing one couldn’t buy with money? Need a friend? – buy one! In need of a shirt in a different kind of blue? – here you go! Hungry? – choose your favourite dish! And not only is everything available all the time, it seems as if we have also become defined by our consumption. You are what you eat, you are what you wear, you are what you own. We spend money for the one perfect moment, for likes, love and lust, constantly in the search for identity and belonging. But somewhere on the way we seem to lose the power over our own needs and simply want more. Things break, things get lost, things get outdated, things get forgotten. So we need new things, more things – whenever, wherever and the more the better. But is more really better? Or do we eventually have to ask an entirely different question?
about consumption and needs in disguise.
A lyrical reflection on the desire for recognition and love without conditions. About the need to be allowed to simply be and want what one really desires.
Dye for fashion
Is there such a thing as sustainable fashion consumption? TEMA spoke with Sophie Nelissen the head of the small sustainable fashion label ‘Studio Sufi’ and sustainability manager Maike Vierkötter. They talked about the loss of craftsmanship and challenging the status quo.
The Olympics of challenging expectations
Every four years, the whole world watches the athletes' performances at the Olympic Games as if spellbound. But what happens when a virus completely changes the games and the eerie silence of the empty arenas has to be filled with something else? In 2021, when we witnessed the games of "Tokyo 2020", the consequences became visible. Having less of some things definitely meant having more space for others.
To fail is how to prevail – critique of an hourglass
An introduction to the emergence of the concept of design as we know it today. How problematic profit-oriented production can be and what an hourglass can do to change our perception of this problem.
Chasing the dream of prosperity
As a daughter and granddaughter within a family that is shaped by migration and new beginnings, Valeria Bajana shares the story of a grandfather migrating to post-war NYC, chasing the American dream of status and prosperity . Not without realising, how the idea of a boa vida has changed throughout the generations.
Zen and the busy city
In the midst of Leipzig's bustling city life, tucked away on a corner, the Zen Lab offers a magically quiet space for everyday reflections and meditation. Justin sat down with two of the Zen Lab’s founders and talked about the project and how Zen might help us live and consume more consciously in the busy, modern world.
“Ike-100-Yen-Shop” – More love for cheap products
Photo series “Ike-100-Yen-Shop” by consumer artist Stephanie Senge who, by collecting consumer goods and placing them in a new context, realigns the observer’s gaze on the most mundane of everyday products.
“Art has no intrinsic value”
Raymond Salvatore Harmon, an US-American street art artist, moved to the Portuguese countryside to get away from London’s bustling, capitalist art world. In an interview with our author Meike Brunkhorst he talks about making money with art, NFTs and his decision to live off grid.
A head start on sustainability
How is sustainability linked to society’s mental health? How can we shift the focus from what clothes we buy or the car we drive to how we can make our own mentality one of sustainability.
Are we consuming freedom?
Why the idea of “less” does not seem desirable to many people can be traced back, among other things, to the modern understanding of one of the most important normative ideals in our Western societies: Individual freedom.
Why is IKEA drawing cute globes on their posters?
After moving out of a student dormitory in the Netherlands, Viola observed how waste container after waste container was filled up with old IKEA goods. Shortly afterwards, in Hamburg, she spotted the company's campaign: ‘There is no plural of home’. The Alarm Bells go off and it’s time for a new article.
Can money buy happiness?
Maybe it’s not about consuming less, but consuming differently? Ann-Katrin Schmidt takes a little bit of a different approach to our topic and explores in which ways consumption can actually make us happy.
“The rest is noise” – An interview with the portuguese writer Joel Neto
After living in Lisbon for 15 years, the Portuguese writer Joel Neto decided to move back home. He lives a simple life on the Azores and documents the sweetness of simple things in his novels. Catarina Gonçalves Pereira talked to him about the importance of the small things in the world.
A moderation of likes
That extra second to think about a reply makes us wittier, a good photo crop makes us hotter, the right location tag makes us cooler. But how much of this truly strengthens how we are perceived by others?
My Privilege of wanting less
What if less was enough? – What a privilege to even get to ask this question. Some personal thoughts.
Degrowth and its proposal
Juan got in contact with the ideas and values of the degrowth or post-growth movement during his Masters in International Studies of Peace, Conflict and Development at the Valencian University Jaume I. In his article he explains what degrowth means and what kind of world this group of activists and researchers is aiming at.