Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 13: Like Tears in Rain

What makes a human being human? What distinguishes humans from Artificial Intelligence? Some of the most insightful science fiction writers have been grappling with this question for many decades.

Stories about the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 12: Windansea Beach

Some places possess a unique power to draw people in. Windansea Beach in La Jolla, just north of San Diego, is one of them.

Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 11: Akira Kurosawa

“Kurosawa was a poet. His films are profound reflections on life and human nature.”

– Francis Ford Coppola

Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 10: Mind in the Waters

They live in complex, stable groups, communicate with one another over long distances, develop regional dialects, and call each other by name. They play together, learn from one another, form deep emotional bonds, and possess individual self-awareness and self-recognition.

Stories About The Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 9: The Year 1907

Perhaps it was coincidence; perhaps unseen interactions behind the scenes played their part. However it may have come about, the year 1907 marks a turning point in our thinking and in our culture.

Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 8: The Moon

No other celestial body comes as close to Earth as the Moon. Especially as a full moon, bathed in the dazzling floodlight of the Sun, its appearance has always stirred emotions, thoughts, and fantasies in human beings. It has served as a projection screen for longings and fears, a timekeeper of the night, and a silent companion to life on Earth.

Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 7: The Moebius Strip

In 1858, two mathematicians independently discovered something astonishing: a strip twisted around its own axis with only one side and one edge.

Short Stories about the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 6: Frank Zappa

One month after the release of his final work “The Yellow Shark”, Frank Zappa died on December 4, 1993, at the age of 52. This year, he would have turned 85 on December 21.

Short Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 5: The Studio

Art comes into being first and foremost within the inner space of the artist — in their brain, their mind, their soul. That is where the sources of creative power lie.

Short stories about the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 4: Space Colonies

We search for life on other planets and explore the possibilities of extraterrestrial intelligence. Perhaps one day we humans will colonize space ourselves?

Short Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 3: Leibniz

OUBEY dedicated one of his early paintings to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s monadology. I saw this painting for the first time in the summer of 1983.

Short Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 2: The Horsehead Nebula

About 1,500 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Orion, there is a dark nebula. A dark field that cannot compete with the breathtaking beauty of the “Three Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula. Nevertheless, its silhouette is no less fascinating. It is named after it: “Horsehead Nebula”  

Short Stories About the Sparks in the OUBEY MINDSPACE – Episode 1: THE FERN

In the Carboniferous period, ferns that were larger than today formed huge forests together with horsetails and club mosses.

The Pure Joy of Doing

For two years, I dedicated myself entirely to the realization of a dream. Now it has become a reality. And now I’m writing again. About what? Exactly about that.

The Best of All Possible Worlds

In his “Monadology” of 1714 Wilhelm Gottfried Leibniz developed the argumentative basis for his thesis that this world is the best of all possible worlds. It is hardly surprising that this thesis has repeatedly aroused controversy and flat contradiction since it first appeared.

A Heart´s Desire

Since the 6 July, the largest exhibition in the history of the MINDKISS project, the “Art of Resonance Show” has been taking place in the Mind Museum in Manila. It features 18 analogue paintings by OUBEY together with 8 interactive digital interactions that have emerged from, and correspond with, these analogue paintings. “Why on earth the Philippines of all places? Why Manila?” was a question I was frequently asked in the run-up to the exhibition. There are currently much hotter places for art in Asia. 

A Flowering Ensign of the History of Evolution

With the amazing findings from his research into evolution, Charles Darwin revolutionised our view of our world and humankind in the 19th century. One question, however, remained an impenetrable mystery to him.

No Biblical Story

An artist travels to three Ukrainian towns. Inmidst the ruins he wants to leave some paintings at the walls of shelled buildings – anonymously. Photos of these paintings start to go viral the next day. Some wonder who might have done this. But the handwriting is unmisunderstandably clear: This was done by Banksy.

If I had to bet …

…I would currently bet on the multiverse, said Steven Weinberg, professor of theoretical physics at Texas State University in Austin and winner of the Nobel Prize in 1979 for his groundbreaking work in the development of quantum mechanics, who passed away in July 2021. 

From Eyes to Wall

How does a work of art come into being? Impulsively and expressively with brush and palette on canvas, spontaneously as a drawing or study with pencil on paper, with hammer and chisel in hand on stone or with fingers on a keyboard? Or as an already finished image in the mind of an artist?

What does a picture sound like?

Pictures speak their own language. Even though they are seemingly silent, they do communicate with viewers and create a resonance in them. And although they only come to us as the result of an artistic process, and therefore seem static, they carry the process of their creation within them. It sounds and resonates in them.

La famille Ukrainienne

When you think of the work of the Russian-French painter Marc Chagall, the first thing that probably comes to mind are his dreamlike or biblical themes or his stained glass windows which bathe some of the world’s church buildings in such a truly wonderful light.

Life is Short as a Pair of Swimming Trunks

Three weeks ago, “between the years”, as I was once again dipping into the shelves of our collected world of books, I spontaneously reached out for two picture books. They lay across the other neatly lined up books which was very much in character with the artist whose work they contained. Herbert Achternbusch.

True Worlds

In March 2004 OUBEY announced that he would paint a thousand stars. It was the first time in twenty years that he so concretely envisaged and publicly announced an artistic project. And it was certainly no coincidence that he dedicated this project to the stars.

City of the Future

More than two thirds of all people on this planet live in cities today – and the tendency is rising. Cities made of stone, concrete and asphalt. Cities in which the air is difficult to breath and where the chirping of a bird is drowned out by the noise of traffic.  Cities in which streets and parking places take up many times the amount of space available for parks, playgrounds and sports fields. This brings up the question of whether the city of the future will, and should, look like this.