Open issue 10 (en) by Prodir

open: The Prodir Magazine

ISSUE 10,2021

Focus: Openness

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Make any Prodir pen a Cloud Pen

Create your pen! Configurator on prodir.com

Cover photo by the great Italian landscape photographer Vittore Fossati

OPEN FUTURE

OPEN LOVE

OPEN MIND

OPEN DOORS

After sustainability, what’s next? Karin Frick on problems in paradise

The vegetarian, the pigs, and the ham

Kyle no longer takes showers. And he doesn’t use soap anymore either

Behind every door is a customer – almost

[p. 4]

OPEN SKIES

I’m off cloudwatching. How about you? [p. 10]

[p. 18] OPEN END

True Biotic: the natural material the future’s made from [p. 26] OPEN SPACES

The end of tourism as we know it?

[p. 48]

[p. 36] OPEN WATER

Winter swimming? Not without my axe and thermos [p. 40]

OPEN BOOK

My name’s Carl, and I’m a book addict [p. 52] OPEN PENS

Writing instruments and novelties, at a glance

[P. 30]

OPEN NOVELTY

Cloud Pens: return ticket to the cloud, please

OPEN PEOPLE

Giorgio Pagani’s little escapes

[p. 14]

The Prodir Magazine

[p. 46]

OPEN CONTENTS

If you have received Open without the DS8 as a Cloud Pen, please email us at open@prodir.ch and we will gladly send you the pen that accompanies the issue. The Prodir Magazine

OPENING

Dear Readers,

When things are still evolving and nobody knows yet how they will turn out, this is the point at which the genuinely interesting stories – whether big or small – are written. It is this sense of openness that is our topic in our latest issue. We talked to a vegetarian who swims with his pigs and makes the best ham in the world and interviewed a trend researcher who outlines the problems we may face in an idyllic and sustainable future . We also spoke with a tourism expert who perceives the travellers of the future more as temporary locals than actual tourists . And what you’re doing right now – reading – is also openness in action: reading oxygenates your brain and reduces your stress levels . This will also hold true, or at least I hope so, when you read the interview about our Cloud Pens , which are opening themselves up to the digital world while staying true to the analogue one. For the next stop on your reading journey, I’d recommend the article about the very open story of how the Cloud Appreciation Society came into being . In this tenth issue of Open, we’re even more eager than usual to ensure that the name of our magazine is a kept promise, in the sense that you will ultimately experience your reading as refreshing as a wintry dip in ice-cold water . [p. 18]

[p. 4]

[p. 30]

[p. 52]

[p. 14]

[p. 10]

[p. 40]

So stay open – even if you might not want to take your openness quite as far as my colleague Kyle ! [p. 36]

Eckhard Sohns – Chief Sales & Marketing Officer

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OPENING

It's going to be okay!

After sustainability, Ms. Frick, what’s next? Text: Eckhard Sohns

Sustainability is becoming an over-used term: We use it without really considering the implications of what is being lost, like the polar ice caps , melting under the hot climatechange-fuelled sun. Sustainability calls for a cool head, an open mind, patience and tenacity, because sustainability is tough. Which begs the question: What’s it all for? Survival is good, but what about everything else? If we really do manage one day to handle our resources in such a way that we are using rather than simply consuming them, what will the world look like? The Prodir Magazine

OPEN FUTURE

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OPEN FUTURE

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OPEN FUTURE

Or, to put it another way, will the effort be worth it? We put these questions to Karin Frick, Head of Think Tank at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Switzerland. Her answers are surprising and offer a highly promising perspective. And if it doesn’t work out, she says with a laugh, at least we tried.

OPEN: After sustainability, Ms. Frick, what’s next? KARIN FRICK: Ideally, we’ll have a system where we live off solar energy, without burning any fossil fuels. There’d be an inexhaustible supply, the resource scarcity that defines everything we do at the moment would be a distant memory, and we’d be free to do other things. We’d live in a state of surplus, robots would do everything, would make enough of everything and do so cheaply, there’d be 3D printers that were also recycling machines, and if you didn’t need something any more, such as a broken biro, it’d first be taken apart and then freshly reprinted, or rather manufactured, straight from the recycled waste. We’d have enough nature, we’d devote large swathes of land to permaculture, which would need less pesticides, because everything would be optimized mechanically, there’d be weeding robots, for instance, to deal with the weeds. What would all that mean for people’s lives? Let’s assume that solving the energy problem would also solve the social problem, because then we’d have a surplus of a fair society, so to speak. Of course, the question would remain as to how you live in a world where you can do everything and don’t need to work anymore because the machines do everything for you. How does one live in paradise? Probably in quite a chilled-out fashion. It certainly wouldn’t be worth hoarding things any more. As you know, we’ve already reached that stage as far as infor-

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OPEN FUTURE

mation is concerned. After all, we have no desire to “own” a Wikipedia page – it’s just there, and we use it. At most, you could say “I want to take everything away from everyone else,” but, assuming you don’t have this evil intent, the question arises as to why anyone would still want to own things at all, given that there would be more than enough of them freely available. If sharing were no longer a problem because there was enough of everything, there’d be a shift, a new state, in which we’d be able to focus almost exclusively on ourselves. It still begs the question: What would you actually do if you could do everything but didn’t have to do anything? What do you think? We’ve often discussed these issues. When you try to come up with scenarios for this, the “All shall be well” one is the hardest to do. Hell, the Fall, all of that is really easy to represent. But if you look at paintings of Heaven, it’s all a bit boring somehow. And if you follow the media, you’ll know that bad news gets more attention than good news. I think we find it hard to visualize what paradise must be like. We might want to go there – sea, sun loungers, palm trees – but after two weeks? Imagine you never had to go back to work and there wasn’t much else to occupy your time either. I’d say that is an extremely difficult scenario! But at least it would unlock new freedoms and latitudes. True, but we’d have to come up with tasks

to give ourselves. One scenario, for example, might be that society grows apart, because some people were focused single-mindedly on using all the resources and opportunities for themselves. People like that will get cleverer and cleverer and learn everything that is to be learned. In other words, they’d set themselves goals: I want to know more! I want to get better in everything I do, regardless of

things and activities that we’d spent generations freeing ourselves from. It used to be the case that, if you had cows in the stable, you didn’t question the meaning of life. So there would no longer be any consumption as we currently understand it? In the world of the future that we’re sketching out here, producing things will

“In the end, we start baking bread again, not because it’s cheaper but because we’re looking for something to do that gives us purpose. We’d go back to things and activities that we’d spent generations freeing ourselves from.” what it is! Then there might be others who will let themselves go, who get lazy, who make use of everything that’s available but don’t set themselves any work to do. And when the human body is the oldest thing around, something that hasn’t been perfected by technology, then people will get ill someday. If I were to ask what makes people happy, that would certainly be an area of work where the others could get involved: You might theoretically even be happy about those who aren’t able to manage in this state of prosperity, because this would at least mean that the others could occupy themselves by educating or looking after them. Or you take the dog out for a walk. The question is simple: what tasks do I set myself? Paradoxical scenarios, however, where you are flung back into the old world, are also interesting to ponder. The problem remains: We automate everything, but what do we do with our time? Gardening – the very thing we freed ourselves from previously! We’ve got machines that do all the work, and in the end we have so much free time that we’re more or less back living like our grandparents. This was the life I escaped from, however, and now my life is set to revolve once again around growing my own vegetables? I could also do something else for a living, if I wanted, but what kind of work makes me happy? In the end, we start baking bread again, not because it’s cheaper but because we’re looking for something to do that gives us purpose. We’d go back to

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OPEN FUTURE

probably bring more satisfaction than consuming them. And even if we do remain a little bit addicted to status, it would probably be more so skills that defined your status. My garden is nicer than my sister’s, or there’s something I’m particularly good at, be it music, math, yoga, whatever. So we’d have a society of artists and creative types. Incidentally, it also reminds me of a book – Infinite Games, by James Carse. Do you know it? I’m afraid not, sorry. It’s about precisely this question, how can I inject some purpose into my life. So many things are about winning, even if it’s actually more about always keeping the game going – because everyone is happy then. Life isn’t a game of soccer, so to speak, and, when you’re in a relationship, it’s not about “winning” the man or the woman. It’s about what kind of game we’re playing. Specifically, one where the aim isn’t to have one person win and be happy and the others lose and be unhappy. Rather, it’s one that a lot of people are playing and a lot of people are winning at, because it’s always going on and, most importantly, because it stays exciting and inspiring. Thank you for our conversation, Ms. Frick.

“And if it doesn’t work out”, Karin Frick says with a laugh, “at least we tried.”

OPEN PEOPLE Karin Frick is Head of Think Tank at the renowned GDI trend research institute based in Rüschlikon near Zurich. This text is an extract from a longer conversation from the beginning of June 2021. OPEN LINK gdi.ch OPEN READS James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games, New York 1987 Future Skills, Four scenarios for the world of tomorrow, 2020 (free download from gdi.ch)

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OPEN SKIES

Being open to doing nothing

So I’m a cloudspotter now

Text: Carla Emmenegger

Gavin Pretor-Pinney is the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and author of the main work of reference on the subject, The Cloudspotter’s Guide. You might call him the Steve Jobs of clouds, one of those people who has created a globe-spanning project out of nothing. In the process, however – and this sets him apart from everyone else – he’s always stayed true to the idea of nothing. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN SKIES

Pretor-Pinney felt that we never really do justice to our clouds – the real ones, not the digital ones – because we mainly see them as grey inducers of melancholy that blot out the sun, that chuck out large amounts of water at frequent intervals and always at just the wrong moment, thereby ruining our all-too-brief summer. This may well happen in the UK with a regularity that does indeed damage the cloud’s reputation, but perhaps this phenomenon deserves a more positive spin.

counts is the fact that now, in late summer 2021 and toward the end of the great pandemic, the Cloud Appreciation Society has become a major part of many people’s lives. Across the world, not just in the UK. And the Open editorial team will also be applying for group membership. As Gavin Pretor-Pinney says: “I always say that cloudspotting is an excuse. It legitimizes doing nothing, and I think that’s valuable these days. I think this idea

“I always say that cloudspotting is an excuse. It legitimizes doing nothing, and I think that’s valuable these days. I think this idea of stepping back, of allowing the brain to go into idle mode is really central to creative thought.” Pretor-Pinney decided to reframe the cloud, not least to defend it against its one-sided depiction in countless pop songs, from Joni Mitchell (Both Sides Now) and Sting (Heavy Cloud No Rain) through to Morrissey (Black Clouds): “We all inhabit the same atmosphere and we all have the same cloud formations appearing above us.”

of stepping back, of allowing the brain to go into idle mode is really central to creative thought.”

To draw the issue to people’s attention, he decided to give a public talk in London about the establishment of the Cloud Appreciation Society. Many members of the audience, thinking that he was referring to a project at an advanced stage of completion, went up to him afterwards to ask for membership forms. And so the Cloud Appreciation Society whose founding he had just spoken about somewhat precipitously but ultimately farsightedly, actually came into being. I will not touch on any of the annual figures, locations and Excel-related details, which aren’t so important for people who prefer to linger in the cloudy parts of the sky. What

OPEN LINK cloudappreciationsociety.org OPEN READS Gevin Pretor-Pinney, The Cloudspotters Guide, 2007 Gevin Pretor-Pinney, The Wave Watcher’s companion, 2010

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OPEN SKIES

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OPEN SKIES

Cloud Pens. The sky’s the limit.

Writing instruments in the clouds? 2

Laura Bazzali speaks with Prodir Marketing Director Andrea Bogoni and Head of International Sales Tom de Kleyn about and why heaven and earth, sensual experience and digital freedom all go together so well.

LAURA BAZZALI: Tom, what are our writing instruments doing up there in the clouds? 3 TOM DE KLEYN: Nothing, they stay down here on Earth! Searching – and above all finding something – will be those people who, starting from the writing instrument, set off into the digital world via QR Code.

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OPEN NOVELTY

How do I have to imagine that, Andrea? 2 ANDREA BOGONI: First we bring the users to a hub for mobile content. From here, the process continues in a customized way. This web app is the interface between digital and analogue communication. Isn't a link to a company's website enough? AB: That wasn't enough for us. With the Web App, much more is possible. You can customize the digital content linked to the Cloud Pens and update it at any time or target users in other digital locations through retargeting. Analytics also allows you to measure the performance of

the campaign, and if you're not happy, you simply adjust your content and calls-to-action. All this can only be done with a Web App.

Q R Co

Don't you need special knowledge for that? AB: To manage the dashboard? No! It's very intuitive. If you can manage your LinkedIn page, you can manage the dashboard of our Web App. TDK: The same is true for the users arriving at the landing page after scanning the QR Code. The page is clear cut, with no frills. Everything works as you would expect from other mobile apps.

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R et ar g

Tom, can you give me a few application examples for Cloud Pens? TDK: The web app can be used to manage many different digital services - from special offerings to videos and contact functions to the latest information services. You can shop, call, email, read or make bookings. For a fashion company, the app might be a hub to bring pen users to its online store and Instagram page; for a pizza service, it might function as a menu with an integrated Google map and ordering function; for an insurance company, it could replace the business card; for a furniture brand, the app could provide access to current special offers and designer interviews, in addition to a store finder function. The sky's the limit! Really.

Why actually QR Codes? TDK: They are the best solution! First of all, you can find them everywhere nowadays, they work reliably, and everyone knows how they work. Then QR Codes are more environmentally compatible than chip-based NFC solutions, which are not recyclable and contain valuable raw materials. And finally, QR are the most cost-efficient solution, already for mid-range quantities. Not only niche, but also volume is feasible here. Who actually owns the QR Code in the end? TDK: We are quite open about this: the QR Code belongs to the customer for whom we develop and customize it. Industrial customers can also use it, just like the associated web app, for other means of communication. We only exclude writing instruments from other manufacturers.

D ra g a

Only a QR Code is printed on the writing instrument itself? AB: Precisely. Scanning the QR Code takes you to the landing page, where you can then find the special content of the company whose logo is printed on the writing instrument.

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Can the landing page be customized? AB: Absolutely! You can integrate the landing page into any brand presence. Every detail, right down to the page URL, can be personalized. By the way, you don't need any special knowledge for this either, customers can do it themselves or our graphic designers can take care of it.

The sky’s the limit!

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OPEN NOVELTY

What models are available as Cloud Pens? TDK: You can have all Prodir models as a Cloud Pen, only QS models in the Stone version are not available.

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The final question goes to you, Andrea: What was the biggest challenge this project presented? AB: There were a few. For example, we wanted compact and filigree QR Codes, so as not to interfere with the value perception of the writing instrument. That was a challenge in itself, but we were able to solve it in the end. There was still one problem that we could only solve with help from Cupertino: iPhones couldn’t handle the small QR Codes. We turned to everyone, to the developer community and to Apple itself – with no result. They seemed to have other priorities than we did. Until one day in January 2021, the iOS 14.4 update was released. Right at the top of the list of improvements the sentence stood out: “The camera recognizes smaller QR Codes”. Suddenly everything fell into place. I remember it so clearly, it was just after midnight, and I immediately called everyone and got them out of bed. It was simply fantastic.

Se n d e

Thank you both for the interview!

C a ll f u n cti

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OPEN VIDEO Scan to see what Cloud Pens can do for you.

D o w nl

OPEN DEMO Experience the Cloud Pens Admin Dashboard. Access the demo account using the following credentials:

D o w nl

Website: www.cloudpens.site Username: prodir@cloudpens.site Password: demo1234

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OPEN NOTE Laura Bazzali is Product Manager, Andrea Bogoni Head of Marketing and Tom de Kleyn International Sales Manager of Swiss Pagani Pens.

OPEN NOVELTY

Plans? How am I supposed to know?

Pigs are vegetarians too Visiting Eduardo Donato at Dehesa Maladúa

Text: Herbert Genzmer

Shady cork and holm oak trees line the way along the rough track that leads to Dehesa Maladúa, not far from the famous town of Jabugo and right in the heart of the Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche natural park. It is here in this unique landscape that the most expensive ham in the world is produced. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN LOVE

Jabugo – Andalusia 37°55'00.12"N 6°43'00.12"W

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OPEN LOVE

Maladúa is just as unflashy as the person who owns it, Eduardo Donato. Eduardo is a quiet, rustic, burly man with a quiet voice and a modest demeanour, a man who laughs a lot, who values simplicity and who I know does not eat meat. His Maladúa is a world away from other luxurious, opulent Andalusian estates. You would never guess that it was home to a product that attracts visits from TV broadcasters, newspapers and magazines from all over the world and that has even made it into the Guinness Book of Records. Eduardo Donato came to Andalusia 31 years ago from the Catalan city of Tarragona. I wanted to know what drew someone from Catalonia to Andalusia to devote themselves to something as archetypically Spanish as Iberian ham: “I spent over a year travelling down the entire Mediterranean coast and also explored the inland,” he recounts, “until I found this place that radiated a unique sense of calm, permanence and, yes, I can only say an absolute absence of human intervention – my paradise, in other words.” OPEN: And how does a vegetarian come to breed pigs? EDUARDO DONATO: When we first came here, it was a question of getting away from the big cities and living in the countryside. Far away from everything, I wanted to grow what we needed in order to live, I never thought about selling my produce, our lives were to be open to any possibilities, without a specific plan. By chance, I then discovered a breed of pig

twice as long to do so. People said that you couldn’t make money with this breed, that it grew too slowly and weighed less, also I understood that this breed was on the verge of disappearing because it wasn’t a profitable venture. I didn’t want that to happen. Many dehesas are being destroyed because breeders are replacing the traditional grazing animals with large numbers of more productive breeds … … What do you mean by “productive”? Actively breeding animals in a way that makes them grow faster, the extra feed they need is imported, meaning that they don’t just eat acorns. Like your pigs? Yes. You can spot a dehesa that has a lot of grazing animals by looking at how the vegetation has been eaten off the bushes. Here, everything grows all over the place, this land cannot be harmed or damaged by only a hundred animals, because they don’t need to look for their food, don’t need to eat any bushes because these trees produce enough fruit for hundreds of animals. My animals are happy, they live freely, can roam where they like, their food has nothing added to it or harmful in it, and we spend many hours of each day with them. Sounds idyllic … Mock if you must … but, back to your question, why do I breed pigs?

“I gave up meat years ago, because I think that the current practice of industrial livestock farming is inhumane and destructive.” that was nearly extinct, the Manchado de Jabugo, of which there were only a few left. They’re smaller, lack the familiar black hooves and have a very distinctive spotted skin. And now you’re looking after a herd of them. Yes, but never more than a hundred animals. This breed is slimmer and more agile and puts on weight more slowly and to a lesser extent. In fact, it takes

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OPEN LOVE

Tell me! You should know the answer yourself. After all, you don’t eat meat either? I want to hear it from you … I gave up meat years ago, because I find processed meat disgusting and think that the current practice of industrial livestock farming is inhumane and destructive. In his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari calls it a mistake that threatens

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OPEN LOVE

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OPEN LOVE

our very existence. Do you happen to know how much a pig farmer running a factory with thousands of pigs earns on each animal?

the heartland of Spain think of being outdone by a man from Catalonia? You know, we’re all colleagues and we’re all trying to do the same thing.

Not much, thirty or forty euros? They’d give their eye for that – in actual fact, they are left with about nine euros.

Which is? For me, it’s sustainability, it’s about having respect for life and, most importantly, about raising awareness so that people understand that we won’t have a future if we carry on living like we are and, above all, treating other creatures inhumanely with our farming methods. We won’t, the animals won’t, the land won’t, our whole planet won’t.

As little as that … So what do they do to increase their profits? They need to accelerate their growth in order to get two or more harvests, as they call them, every year. Harvests? Yes, harvests. A bit cynical, isn’t it? Better rules apply at the dehesas, and the animals will have put on enough weight after eighteen months. By contrast, my animals live sustainably, enjoying between three and five years in a privileged setting in an area that UNESCO has declared a Biosphere Reserve, I give them love, massages and baths, they listen to classical music, live with their young, in fact, they live better than many human beings on this Earth, I can guarantee you that. After that, the ham, our trademark product, needs up to six years in the bodega depending on its size. We are making genuine slow food. For us, the focus is on the animals, their diet, their happiness and their life and not on how much money we might make from them. That’s something I can justify, meaning that, as a vegetarian, I can live with that and eat this ham as well. And you like it too, don’t you? That notwithstanding, how is it that, after not all that much time, a Catalan is making the world’s best and most expensive ham here in the heart of Andalusia, a ham that is also scooping all the eco-awards across the globe? At the start, people laughed at us, and we weren’t any kind of threat to the traditional dehesas. After all, our production is very limited, we never manage more than 200 hams a year, but exclusivity and quality have their price.

The Moors were the masters here in Spain for over 700 years, and there were pigs living here back then. People say that the Arabs introduced their culture to Spain. They undoubtedly knew how to enjoy their food – do you think they also ate ham? I don’t think so! The Christians domesticated pigs, but it’s not an animal that you can milk or put to work. I mean, people must have valued them very highly to keep them going, because they were only there for food. First it was Judaism that forbade them, then Islam, and they had no place in Al-Andalus society, so why breed them? They left that to the Christians, who let the animals roam free, just like we do today. What are your plans? (He looks at me in incomprehension.) What do you mean? Plans? How am I supposed to know? I don’t have any plans. My plan is to carry on and get others to catch the bug.

What does one of your hams cost? 4,100 euros. As we both know, this price has also secured you a place in the Guinness Book of Records. But what do the people here in

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OPEN LOVE

“I give them love, massages and baths, they live with their young, in fact, they live better than many human beings on this Earth, I can guarantee you that.”

OPEN LINK dehesamaladua.bio OPEN NOTE Herbert Genzmer is an author, translator and lecturer. He divides his time between Berlin and Tarragona.

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OPEN LOVE

New QS40 True Biotic

We want whales in our oceans,

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not waste.

Whales feed in the deep ocean then return to the surface to breathe, where their iron-rich faeces create the perfect growing conditions for phytoplankton. These microscopic algae capture an estimated 40% of all CO2 produced – four times the amount absorbed by the Amazon rainforest. New QS40 True Biotic. Casings are made from natural biopolymers (PHA), biodegradable in seawater.

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OPEN END

Aumentare fondo

New

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QS40 True Biotic.

Created by nature for nature. The revolutionary biopolymers (PHA) used for the casings of the QS40 True Biotic are synthesized naturally by microorganisms. They are then biodegraded, rapidly and without residue – even in the sea. Certified by TÜV Austria.

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OPEN VIDEO Scan to watch the video:

Create free and open spaces!

Now that we’ve had immobility forced upon us, do we need to reimagine tourism? Text: Claudio Visentin

Let us go back to the year 1921. Three years earlier, as WW1 was ending, so three years previously, a devastating influenza pandemic – the “Spanish Flu” – had broken out. It went on to kill fifty million people, many more than the war itself. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN SPACES

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OPEN SPACES

Field hospitals, face masks, quarantine. In addition to the years of suffering caused by the war, people experienced an extended period of immobility. All the way back then, in 1921, nobody remembered what it meant to travel. For that, you’d have to look back to the summer of 1914, to a different time, a different world.

But it was precisely this time that ushered in an extraordinary age of travel. Innovations came thick and fast over a period of just two decades. Just think of all the possible ways of getting around: the Ford Model T turned the automobile into an everyday means of transport, trains snaked across the continent, huge cruise ships plied the seas, Imperial Airways opened the door to the first international flights with its seaplanes, and there were even serious plans to allow massive Zeppelin airships to land on top of the Empire State Building. The very place where cinema – like radio, another expression of this new modernity – had directed the outof-control King Kong to climb in 1933. In their Villa America in Antibes, Gerald and Sara Murphy invented the summer. Through her influence, fashion designer Coco Chanel made tanned skin acceptable in the salons. And the young American couple did the rest, together with their famous guests: Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Pablo Picasso, Cole Porter, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Of course, it was also Fitzgerald who described that never-ending summer in Tender is the Night (1934): long afternoons on the beach, cocktails, jazz playing on the gramophone, dinners on the terrace, summer flings, racing the cabriolet down the Corniche … Denied its summer by the profligate artists from America, Switzerland turned its attention to winter: skiing came into fashion, and St. Moritz welcomed the Winter Olympics in 1928. The story of these momentous years could go on and on. You will undoubtedly have

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spotted where I am going with this some time ago. Will we also see something similar after this pandemic? Will we, after two years of physical and psychological lockdown, calmly and lazily pick up our old habits again, or will we invent a new future, as happened in the “Roaring Twenties”? A fair few people have long been fed up with this fast, banal, consumer-driven idea of tourism at any and all costs. Tourism that is dictated by Ryanair and Airbnb algorithms and churns out an unhealthy deluge of Instagram posts. How about some examples? In Venice over the past few years, various associations have campaigned for a ban on the massive cruise ships – representing a particularly aggressive form of tourism – entering the Lagoon. And, during the pandemic, locals joyfully took control of their city once again, promenading through their calli and campi. After the number of tourists had increased from two to thirty million in the space of twenty-five years, in 2015 – at the peak of this success – Barcelona elected a mayor, Ada Colau, with a decidedly anti-tourist agenda: No more noise on Las Ramblas, no new hotels in the Old Town and a halt on short-term lets via online platforms. Femke Halsema – the first female mayor of Amsterdam – recently followed suit: despite steady growth in tourist numbers and an associated rise in earnings, the biggest city in the Netherlands stopped advertising trips

there. Tourists will soon be banned from the infamous cannabis cafés, and even the lights in the windows of the notorious De Wallen red-light district will be switched off. In other words: “Do Something New”, as the latest campaign from New Zealand’s tourist board recommends. This campaign shows fictitious rangers patrolling the country’s most famous sights to persuade

It’s time to change the rules of the game. Why should somewhere especially beautiful be the preserve of people who come from somewhere else? What would happen if we were to simply see visitors as “temporary locals”? tourists to stop taking the customary selfies in identical poses. In fact, the future might end up being even more radical. As part of its three-year development plan, Copenhagen has decided to drop the term “tourism” (something that I will also do for the next few lines), as these antiquated concepts convey outdated ideas and result in repetition and a vicious circle. It’s time to change the rules of the game. Why should somewhere especially beautiful be the preserve of people who come from somewhere else? What would happen if we were to simply see visitors as “temporary locals”? With corresponding rights and obligations, of course, but not completely different to everyone else? If we were to stop being obsessed by growth, figures and calculations? Ultimately, Copenhagen regularly comes toward the top in the list of the world’s happiest cities … So let’s give society the freedom to choose, to innovate, to create free and open spaces.

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OPEN NOTE Claudio Visentin is an author and journalist and teaches history of tourism at Università della Svizzera Italiana.

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OPEN SPACES

Who needs soap!

Confessions of a soapless man One year ago, I stopped showering. I stopped using soap, too. I’d been thinking about it for a while, ever since I watched a video a few years ago with doctor, writer and public health expert James Hamblin interviewing people who’d simply given up cleaning themselves, mostly to help treat chronic skin problems medicine couldn’t treat. I don’t have chronic skin problems, but I had a low-level awareness of being trapped in my own bad skin care loop: showering, getting annoyingly dry itchy skin, and then moisturizing to deal with it. Maybe the problem wasn’t related to the products I used, or even bad skin. Maybe the problem was showering itself. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN MIND

Text: Kyle Dugan

I’m not an expert, or a scientist of any kind, but here’s the theory in a nutshell: We have a skin microbiome – or rather microbiomes, plural – composed of many millions of bacteria that coevolved with us, and live on us. By constantly blasting them with soap and cleansers, we’re knocking them horribly out of balance, with possible negative consequences for our skin and immune systems. In the West, where we’ve long since conquered the problems of basic hygiene, we now may be too clean for our own good. You might be wondering, was a global pandemic really the smartest time to stop showering and using soap? Let me specify here that my journey to soaplessness has taken a detour around my hands. I’ve never stopped washing my hands with soap, and do so as frequently as is recommended. But socially speaking, it was the very best time to stop, because in Italy where I live lockdowns and social distancing started early and persisted, and I didn’t set foot in the office for nearly 18 months. Which was useful, because when I stopped, I stank. At least at first. My wife, who has a nose so sensitive she can’t stand most commercial deodorants and beauty products, says I stopped smelling bad, and started just smelling human, after about the first week or two. My kids are still too young to be mortified by their weird father. And my friends … well, so far we’ve mostly spent time together outdoors, and the ones I’ve told have been mildly interested and indulgent.

tainly made it easier for me to keep other parts rinsed throughout the week. I still don’t use soap of course, except when I wash my hands afterwards. One year on, was it worth it? I can’t give you any quantitative data on my skin microbiome, but I’ve certainly broken the endless cycle of cleansing and rehydrating, and my skin feels just fine. My environmental conscience is cleaner, as my new routine means no shampoo or conditioners down the drain and into our seas, and the water savings are enormous. And interestingly, just as I’ve realized I don’t need a shower to wake me up in the morning, I’ve also realized I don’t need as much coffee, either. I used to drink loads, but now I’ve drastically cut back to just one short espresso in the morning and one after lunch. And I often forget to have even those. Rather than feeling slack, like I’m giving up something essentially human, I take delight in the disciplined minimalism that humans can afford themselves, proving I can actually live well with much less. This far into my soapless journey, I’m not itching to go back.

Now, I rinse a little more frequently than I did at first. I often splash water on my face in the morning, and I get a quick rinse in the shower about once a week, after I go running. And the bidet, that most marvelous fixture in every Italian home, has cer-

OPEN NOTE Kyle Dugan is a copywriter and translator living in Varese, Italy.

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Powerful

Climate-friendly All of the electrical energy used to make our writing instruments comes from local Swiss hydropower. Precisely where we live and work – and manufacture them. This enables us to reduce CO2 emissions and play an active part in preserving our planet’s natural resources.

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You may get brain frozen

Swimming, with an axe! Text: Kathrin Reisinger

You may have heard about people in the UK jumping into the freezing sea on New Year’s Day. But what if New Year’s came once a week? Marion Preez is a German landscape architect living in Edinburgh, Scotland, who takes a cold water plunge every week of the year, even when the sea is covered in 10 cm of ice. OPEN: How did you start cold water swimming, Marion? MARION PREEZ: I started one November about three years ago. I was inspired by a friend of mine who’s also East German and really promotes it. She did a challenge of taking a new woman swimming every day through the winter, and invited me to come along. What was it like the first time? In Scotland the water is usually warmest in September, and I’d been swimming as late as October before, but that first time with my friend it was November.

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I think the colder it is the bigger kick you get, more endorphins, and more emotion, the sense of “Oh my God I just did this”, which all leaves you feeling great. That November, for the first time, I got the full effect, and from that point on I was hooked. Do you wear any kind of special gear, or do you just jump in? Among wild swimmers there are two camps: people who wear wetsuits and people who just wear swimsuits, like I do. I had some neoprene shoes for the first year, just to protect my feet, but I lost

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OPEN WATER

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OPEN WATER

them and never got another pair. Some people wear gloves, but I don’t. I just wear a normal two-piece bathing suit. Where do you swim? From where I live it’s about 20 minutes by bike or car to the Firth of Forth, in the North Sea, or about 20 minutes in the other direction to a reservoir. It’s close enough that I go swimming at least once a week, all year round. Do you really swim in December? Yes, I do, but I don’t exactly swim laps. As with a lot of wild simmers, for me the goal is simply to immerse myself. In the winter I usually stay in for no more than about 5 minutes. And I usually don’t put my head under water because you just get ice cream head. Besides ice cream head, are there any dangers associated with cold water swimming? In the Firth of Forth there are waves, currents and tides that will suck you out, so you have to be able to really swim. That’s much more serious in winter because your body tries to protect and heat up your core by pushing your blood there, meaning your hands and feet get pretty cold and swimming can be hard. Are there safety precautions to think about? The air temperature can get down to around -2° or -3°C, and when you get out of the water you’ve got about 10 minutes before your body temperature really drops. That means it’s key to lay out your clothes in order so you can get dressed as fast as possible afterwards. Sometimes I take a hot water bottle and stand on it when I get out, and in winter I always have a flask of tea with me in non-insulated metal so you can get the heat through the metal. In winter, if I go to the sea by myself, then I usually call my husband just to let him know I’m

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OPEN WATER

getting into the water and then after so he knows I made it out. What’s the most extreme experience you’ve had? I’d been wanting to swim in the ice for a long time, but I hadn’t had the chance until this past winter, when one day I went out and found the ice maybe 10cm thick. I only managed to get in because someone had been there hours before with an axe and opened a hole in the ice. By sunset, when I got there, the ice had already refrozen over the hole, but not very thick, and even though I’d forgotten my axe I used my metal thermos to smash the hole open again and get in. What do you like about cold water swimming? One thing is that living in Scotland you just don’t get much warmth, and the winters are long and dark and rainy, and after years living here I felt the winters were getting tougher. But since I started cold winter swimming you just go. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or windy or cold, you just go. You also experience nature differently – you’re immersed in nature, literally. I love hill walking but you’ve always got your boots on, and with swimming, it’s just you and the water. Has your general cold tolerance increased? I think I’m much more resistant than I used to be. I’ve stopped wearing full gloves in the winter (I only wear fingerless mittens) and have stopped wearing a hat as well. And when I go in my garden I go barefoot, even in winter. Do you see this as being therapeutic? Well, people say it strengthens your immune system but I had Covid and have been suffering from long Covid ever since – and winter swimming didn’t prevent me from getting it, unfortunately. But I definitely think from a mental

health point of view it makes you feel happier and more positive just being out there and connected to nature, and with long Covid it has helped with the physical aches and pains. Is there a sort of subculture around swimming year round? Yes, and it really exploded with lockdown. When I first started it was only serious athletes, but when pools were closed lots of people started swimming wild. I’m even part of a Facebook group, Wild Swimming Scotland, and people swim all over. And what's next? Are you going to keep on cold water swimming? I’m a cold water addict now, so I don’t see myself ever stopping.

“I had some neoprene shoes for the first year, just to protect my feet, but I lost them and never got another pair. Some people wear gloves, but I don’t. I just wear a normal two-piece bathing suit.” The Prodir Magazine

OPEN WATER

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OPEN WATER

Prodir people

Little escapes When you’re cycling, it doesn’t really matter how fast you’re going. On long stretches and mountain stages, endurance is what counts. Giorgio Pagani founded Premec in 1961, 60 years ago. The company manufactures as many as eight billion ultra-precise tips every year for pen manufacturers all over the world. Prodir was spun off in the 1980s. Its elegant, high-quality writing instruments created a new segment in the haptic advertising market. After years of strong growth, Prodir and Premec merged in 2017 to form Pagani Pens SA. Giorgio Pagani still guides the company’s fortunes as its owner, CEO and President of the Board of Directors. For those little escapes during a hectic day – sometimes you just need to clear your head – there’s always a bike at hand. This is Giorgio Pagani’s second passion, and the one that has a lot in common with his first – the company. NAME Giorgio Pagani POSITION

Founder, Board Member and CEO

PERIOD OF SERVICE

Since always

OPEN LINK paganipens.com

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OPEN PEOPLE

Knocking on heaven's door

A burning desire

Text: Kyle Dugan

It doesn’t start with a burning desire, but with trepidation. You’re about to do something you’ve never done, in a place you’ve never been, with people you’ve never met. It would have been the same with cruise ship work, or a job in an Alaskan cannery, those other summer jobs that have agents prowling the campus, pinning up signs and passing out brochures, looking for eager recruits. But your job is something different: you’re going to spend the summer selling books door to door. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN DOORS

The lure is money. You could net thousands, you’ve heard. You’re running your own business, and this is America: Anything is possible. Of course, anything means you could fail, too, and end up in debt, but you have so little idea of what you’re about to get into that nothing feels harder and more real than the profit you’re spending in your dreams. Some people are suspicious about the company and its promises, but not you, because one summer in middle school your mom bought these same books from a sunny English boy whose name you remember strangely as Large Tooth. You never used them, but you know that the product is real. School ends, and you go to Nashville. The company’s weeklong crash course in sales feels like you’ve joined a megachurch, everybody insistently cheery and positive and bright, telling you that with faith and works the future is yours to make. You want to have a burning desire, and you feel it there for a moment, listening to the keynote speech, the best speech you’ve ever heard in your life, but when the lights go up that burning desire sputters and winks out as quickly as it sparked. You listen to more speeches, learn the products, and you lug your turquoise sample case with you wherever you go. You practice your sales talk so many times that Mrs. Jones takes on flesh, and gestures, and sweetness, in your imagination: she’s your highschool girlfriend’s mother, the one who was always crazy about you, the one who always met you at the door with a joyous hello and welcomed you in.

wood. It lives in the shade of sprawling live oak trees hung with Spanish moss, on broad shaded verandas cooled by twirling fans. You won’t see big wood for a long time. First, you have to earn it. You’re new, and for now, you hustle up and down the long straight rows of lower middle income housing, African American families, Hispanic families, small brick, each house with a tidy fenceless front yard festooned with warnings from private security companies: Keep Out, Keep Off the Lawn, Beware of Dog. You knock, and they answer, through the door’s metal security grille. “You what?” “What are you doing out there in the sun like that?” “What are you selling?” “You’re from where?” You stammer through your sales talk. You still don’t have any names, any sales, and no references, but the words seem to work like magic: to your surprise, they let you in. A few people buy, but put down only small amounts: $10, $5, or nothing, with a promise to pay you the balance when you deliver the books at the end of the summer. Little by little, in these small sales, you get comfortable with your talk. You start living in it, making it real, adding touches of color and gesture, until it's a part in a play, half you, half someone better, someone more confident and more at ease in the world. Storms tear into the early afternoon, and in the sweltering heat that follows you can

And you’ll sell and sell and sell. You’re sunburnt, you’re lean, you eat problems for breakfast to earn your day’s success. Sales school ends, and they tell you your territory: Mobile, Alabama, as far south as you can get. On the ride down, you dream of big brick. Big brick, you learned, is those clusters of upscale brick housing where the real money is. But you don’t know yet that in central urban Mobile, where you’ll be working because you don’t have a car, the brick is small. The money doesn’t live in brick, it lives in

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practically hear the kudzu – invasive Japanese ivy – growing, swallowing up the bushes and fences and street lights at the rate of 30cm per day. One day you’re running from a storm when a woman invites you in. She’s Black, and looks slightly too old to have kids, and walks with cane and a limp, but she talks almost like she’s shouting in church, laughing, full of joy. And her name is actually

Mrs. Jones. Maybe she’s got a grandchild, or a niece, you’re not exactly sure, but she sits you down at her kitchen table and offers you fried green tomatoes on a disposable plastic plate. You want to stay on schedule, you try to start on your pitch, but your heart’s only half in it. You’re mostly just relieved to be out of the rain. And Mrs. Jones knows it. “If you really want it, you gotta claim it!” she hoots. Block by block through urban Mobile, you’ve been telling stories to Mrs. Jones, but now Mrs. Jones is going to tell you one. She tells you how she suffered, with her family, with her bad leg, with the material things of life, but when it came to things she needed, the Lord helped her claim them. If she wanted it enough, the Lord would make them hers.

not have will be theirs. For a moment, you worry the Lord might lead her to claim your books. But as you listen to her story, you feel that burning desire flicker to life once more in you. You step off Mrs. Jones’s porch with a righteous certainty that will carry you through the next two months across Mobile, on a newfound bike, through small brick and big wood. You’ll get to know the people so well you can map their intertwining family trees from memory, know who the kids' teachers are, the hard ones, the easy ones, and know which mother serves the best sweet tea. And you’ll sell and sell and sell. You’re sunburnt, you’re lean, you eat problems for breakfast to earn your day’s success. It’s inside you, driving you: You’ve found your burning desire.

"Do you know how I got my car? I claimed it! In the name of the Lord!" She had needed a new car badly, and the Lord guided her into the dealership and showed her a new car: a big, burgundy Buick. The car dealer tried to sound her out, steer her elsewhere, but she walked right up to that car and sat down on the hood and repeated what the Lord had told her. She perched on the hood and refused to move until it was hers. You’re not sure exactly what she means, but you know there’s a big burgundy Buick sitting in her driveway. And it’s hers. And you know that for the first time since sales school, you are looking into the face of burning desire. Mrs. Jones looks nothing like that tall White man who gave the keynote speech, but they proclaim with the same righteous certainty that what they do

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OPEN DOORS

Mobile – Alabama USA 30°41'40"N 88°02'35"W OPEN NOTE Kyle Dugan is a copywriter and translator living in Varese, Italy.

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OPEN DOORS

Open a book, open your mind

Hello, my name’s Carl, and I’m a book addict Text: Carl Schneider

Yes, I admit it: I’m a reader. Several times a day, and for no apparent reason, I voluntarily take myself off to handy mobile rectangles, which I carry with me and which, as far as anyone else is concerned, have nothing to offer bar unanimated black letters on a white background arranged in a random, desert-like fashion. There is none of the movement, pictures, movies, colours, links, ads or anything else that is usually so important. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN BOOK

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OPEN BOOK

There were times when this dependence was tolerated, even encouraged – as used to be the case with smoking back in the day. Nowadays, we stand out, us readers. And, just like for nicotine addicts, it’s become harder to secure a reliable supply of the good stuff. We’re the ones who sit with our corners in front of our faces, while everyone else is staring at their screens.

When I’m not going quite so far, to Italy for example, and can take suitcases, I always bring several folding rectangles with me so I’m prepared for all eventualities. In this case, they’re not just for escaping into my own little corner in the piazza in the evenings. No, when on vacation in Italy, a closed rectangle whose brightly coloured title sits slightly mysteriously, like a hidden sign,

Now, I’m not proposing to ban flights and replace them with subsidized book club memberships. I’m interested in freedom, genuine freedom. We’re outsiders. Reading seems to be something unsocial, outdated and shorn of all sensuality. You risk not training your immune system enough through lack of exercise, get more susceptible to viruses, put yourself in danger of dying fat and alone. Any attempt at self-improvement that shifts from the gym to the reading chair risks a ban from my health insurer. And yet I can't get enough. When I go on holiday, which I actually still do, I don’t pick beaches based on the quality of their water or the fineness of their sand. More important as far as I’m concerned is their proximity to thick, shady trees that will keep the heat and light away and allow my mobile rectangles to be unfolded with ease. Incidentally, the best ones are stone pines, not least because of their pleasantly unobtrusive smell, which undoubtedly enhances the reading experience in a sensual way. Travelling to parts of the world untouched by civilization should serve as good preparation for book addicts. They have to be prepared to compromise. For reasons of weight if nothing else, they’d be advised to swap their traditional mobile rectangles for a lightweight, equally portable slab with its own light, which gives its user somewhere to escape to and provides a welcome distraction from acute snoring terror, for example in the dormitories of tiny mountain huts. What’s more, it means that, even in completely bookstore-free places like southern Patagonia and northern Texas, they can download new books in their native language that would never all have fitted in their rucksack otherwise.

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OPEN BOOK

on the bistro table next to my Campari and soda and little aperitivo nibbles, can perform a social function and, at least now and then, can lead to some thoroughly welcome conversations: “Oh, I’ve read that too!” But, and now let me be honest, as a reader I believe that travelling is overrated – and this despite lockdown. Because why would you need to travel when you can experience the world and meet people without having to go outside your own front door? Now, I’m not proposing to ban flights and replace them with subsidized book club memberships. I’m interested in freedom, genuine freedom. Because, for me as a book addict who’s resistant to therapy, travelling with my mind is just as liberating as the other kind of travel. If not more so. Open a book, open your mind is what it says on the T-shirts at the public library in Burlington, Iowa. I agree. And, besides opening up new horizons, if travel is supposed to be mainly about relaxing, then I can only say that a head that voluntarily puts itself in a rectangle will get close to achieving this aim extremely quickly. Researchers at the University of Sussex discovered that as little as six minutes of reading a day can reduce stress levels by up to 68 percent. These six minutes reduce your heart rate and ease tension in your muscles. But researchers, you might say, are not really a reliable source, because they themselves are always hiding behind some mobile rectangles in their ivory towers. But maybe you could try to embrace this new

attitude. As an experiment, let’s say. After all, I’ve already drawn you a little bit out of your comfort zone and away from your cell phone – you’re reading now, aren’t you? In fact, the study revealed some more surprising comparisons. It discovered that reading, with its significant capacity to reduce stress – which, incidentally, is only achieved in the analogue rather than the digital way – is demonstrably more relaxing than drinking a cup of tea, going for a walk or listening to music. This is surprising, of course. Because, if we get 68 percent from reading, then it doesn’t really matter, does it, if tea gives us only just under 54 percent, let’s say. In other words, it’s these really simple things – not the Maldives, Hollywood or power shopping, but drinking tea, going around the block and putting on some Rolling Stones. Wherever you do it. And if you put all of this together in a completely unscientific way, then the combination of these simple things will produce a kind of multifactorial doping administered through the medium of reading. So why not drink a cup of tea under a shady tree with an occasional forest view while reading a good book before breaking off for your evening walk complete with Stones soundtrack? How low will our stress levels fall then? Let’s give it a try. I think that, now in particular, in these (hopefully) post-pandemic times, we need and should use every single bit of stress relief that we can get our hands on and make no apology for doing so. Because we’re all so very ready for our island getaway. So it’s really good to know that this island may well be much closer than we all think. But, as I’ve said, my name is Carl, and I’m a book addict. And how about you?

It’s these really simple things – not the Maldives, Hollywood or power shopping, but drinking tea, going around the block and playing The Rolling Stones. The Prodir Magazine

OPEN BOOK

The Prodir Magazine Issue 10, 2021 open.prodir.com open@prodir.ch © 2021 Pagani Pens SA Pagani Pens SA - Prodir Via Serta 22  CH 6814 Lamone www.prodir.com Concept Eckhard Sohns Studio CCRZ, Balerna Art Direction Studio CCRZ Copy Carla Emmenegger Kyle Dugan Herbert Genzmer Kathrin Reisinger Carl Schneider Eckhard Sohns Claudio Visentin Marketing Prodir Translations Baker & Company, München Photos Vittore Fossati [cover] Mattia Balsamini [p. 5] Sandra Blaser, GDI [p. 9] Pexel [pp. 1/6/10–13] Dehesa Maladúa [pp. 19/21/25] Santi Veiga [p. 22] Getty images [p. 26] Unsplash [p. 31/36] Claudia Manzo [p. 31] © Palinchak Dreamstime.com [p. 35] Anna Neubert-Wood [p. 41] Alan Gordon [p. 42/45] Studio 9010 [p. 47] CCRZ [p. 53] CGI and Still-life Studio 9010 Typeface Avenir SangBleu Republic Paper FSC® Garda Matt Art Holmen TRND Print Grafiche Mariano, Mariano Comense

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P J

T01 T07 T10 T21 T28 T27 T50 T62 T54 T53 T47 T48 T76 T75 P02 P75 J02 * J94 J92 J93 J95 J91 S14 S70 S75 S80 C70

M02 M05 M13 M20 M23 M27 M61 M60 M49 M77 M70 M75

Button P02 P05 P13 P20 P23 P27 P61 P60 P49 P77 P70 P75

Metal clip S14 S70 S75 S80

Clip holder P02 P07 P10 P20 P21 P28 P27 P55 P62 P54 P50 P58 P48 P47 P70 P75

Button T

M02 M07 M27 M58 M47 M70 M75 P02 P10 P20 P55 P75 R10 R21 R28 R50 R62 R54 R48 R70 R75

Clip T

Button F

P02 P10 P20 P52 P58 P75 M02 M75 Nose cone

S C

F01 F06 F10 F21 F30 F50 F51 F35 F41 F42 F76 T01 T06 T10 T21 T30 T50 T51 T35 T41 T42 T76 M02 M75 P02 P10 P20 P53 P41 P74 P75

Metal clip

P S

T01 T07 T10 T21 T28 T27 T50 T62 T54 T53 T47 T48 T76 T75 P02 P75 S14 S70 S75 S80 C70

Ring P

P02 P05 P13 P20 P23 P27 P61 P60 P49 P77 P70 P75

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