#SISTERMAG23
LIGHT & SHADOW Where there is light, you'll find shadow.
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EDITORIAL LETTER
Dear Readers, After more than three years of sisterMAG, it was time to introduce some fresh concepts and make a few changes in the way we publish our magazine. We’ve received a lot of feedback over the past several months through events with bloggers and partners, Google Analytics, and an article by gruenderszene.de, for example. We’ve given our »Journal for the Digital Lady« a little facelift to improve the reading experience for our audience. You’ll see our latest issue features a streamlined, smartphone-optimized version of sisterMAG that’s a little narrower with enlarged fonts. As in every previous year, we have chosen an umbrella motif that will dictate the theme of upcoming issues of sisterMAG. In 2016 we will explore materials, elements or, as in this issue, the optical phenomenon of light.
Where light is brightest, the shadows are deepest J.W. v o n G O E T H E
One of Goethe’s most famous quotes, which is often applied in a defeatist manner in everyday circumstances,
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offered inspiration for the second part of our current issue. Shadows, and the colour black, are here at the at centre of our attention. Since we don’t always see things in black and white, however, we’ve added a third section to this issue titled ‘From Light to Dark’. A special highlight within this concept is a food feature by Claudia Goedke and Rike Janke that explores bread »From White to Pumpernickel«, here . The two have really outdone themselves by reenacting meal time still life in the style of 17th Century Dutch masters. One thing has remained the same: this issue is filled to the brim with inspiration around food, culture, interior design, fashion (our collection includes ), eight patterns for women’s garments here digitial trends, and travel (to Singapore here ). I would especially like to thank the »sisterMAG Dream Team«, a talented collection of content managers and designers we’ve put together to guide and assist every issue we produce (see here ). A special thank you also goes out to Nadine, who led endless rounds of planning together with Toni since the beginning of this year to fine-tune the workflow of our magazine. Our Excel sheets have been in perfect order ever since and I’m never to be found without a huge copy of our publication schedule (which is always met with Nadine’s ironic smirk every time I pull it out at a meeting). Our COP house has taken on a big task in 2016: to publish 16 magazines with a few special projects sprinkled in between. We are very excited to see how you like our new issue! As always, feel free to send us feedback through any sisterMAG channel.
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COP TEAM C R E AT I O N
THEA Chief Editor & Design
EVI Fashion
MARIE Design & Production
O P E R AT I O N S
NADINE Operations
SANDRA Content Management
LAURA Content Management
MARKETING
TONI Marketing & Finance
LUISA Marketing & PR
ZOE Marketing
PA R T N E R S
WE ARE SEARCHING design interns by the way ‌
NINA Content Management
ALEX Sales
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E OF C ON T EN T
L I GH T
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OF SHADES AND SUITS Fashion editorial with feminine suits and designer lamps with free patterns for download
FROM ANCIENT FIRE PITS TO LEDS
Lighting in a Nutshell from Alexander Kords
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WHERE THERE IS LIGHT, THERE IS ALSO A DIODE
Physical enlightenment from Dr. Joerg V. Wittemann
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THE SINGAPORE SPECIAL
Thea's #BCmoment with Lufthansa
Singapore - City of Lights
Singapore for Bloggers
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#MATCHADAY16 WITH AIYA
Event Report of our workshop day around the very special green tea
TABL
122 SISTERMAG TIP Bento Boxes from TAKENAKA
124 STARTUP SPOTLIGHT:
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LIGHTBOYS
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BRIGHT TO DARK 130 BOWLING HAPPINESS
Alnatura shows recipes for colourful and delicious bowls Six bloggers interpret these recipes in bright and dark and sisterMAG illustrates everything with three cute fairytales
158 TILMAN'S ILLUMINATION Nina Annika Klotz talks about the Craft Beer trend
168 LIGHT AND SHADOW IN A GLASS From red and white wines from COP co-founder Alex Sutter
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FROM WHITEBREAD TO PUMPERNICKEL Breads staged like paintings from Claudia Gรถdke and Rike Janke
204 BLACK LOVES WHITE Sophia Schillik gives tips about living in contrast
212 DEFINITELY MORE LIGHT THAN SHADOW About becoming your own boss from Melina Royer
with Franziska v. Hardenberg from Bloomy Days
224 GAME OF DRONES We start into 2016 with a thematic focus on drones. Interview with Eunkyung from Korea
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FOTOS: CRIS SANTOS
220 DESK TO SUCCESS
SH A DO W
240 BLACK IS A WARM COLOUR (TO ME) Elisa von Hof talks about the darkest of all colours
250 LIGHT, SHADOW … AND CLOUDS The extensive sisterMAG special about depression and burnout
256 Interview with psychologist Dr. Rita Bauer 262 Depression und Burnout – Information 268 Historical Outline – Who suffered from depression and how Churchill coped with it
276 Field Reports : Jana Selig und Tanja Salkowski talk about their experiences
284 DESK TO SUCCESS with Elana Siberski from the theatre of Hannover
300 MAKE IT DRAMA The first IT-Look from Maybelline, interpreted by sisterMAG with saxophonist Fabia Mantwill
315 SISTERMAG RECOMMENDS The new TV drama »Vinyl« by Martin Scorsese and everything that you need to live »in« it
316 THE EVOLUTION OF SOUND RECORDING MEDIA – A FOTOS: CRIS SANTOS
Timeline
322 THERE IS LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET A portrait of a non-forgotten recording device by Johanna Eisner SISTER-MAG.COM
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332 DARK ROMANTICISM IN ART Robert Eberhardt ponders about the dark in romanticism
340 BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOW London-based artist Cole Peters talks about his Black and White Photography
350 #ITSAMOODYWEDNESDAY Trend Guide by blogger Anastasia Benko about the Instagram hashtag that fills social media with moody pictures every Wednesday
366 HOW TO SURVIVE NORWEGIAN WINTER Lorelou Desjardins talks about the darkest of all winters: the Scandinavian winter
PA RT N E R S You can find our partner features by noticing the logo on the right page of every promo. Thanks to the partners who enable us to publish sisterMAG regularly for you.
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#23 CONTRIBUTORS DANA LUNGMUSS FREELANCE DESIGNER
THE COVER PHOTOS Cristopher Santos HAIR & MAKEUP Lena Schleweis MODEL Henriette v. Grünberg KLEID Evi Neubauer
Dana jumped on board from one day to the next. She is probably the fastest anyone has joined our team as we needed design assistance just two weeks before launch. Already well-known through several blogging events (hello-danane.de ), she recently became self-employed and assisted Thea and Marie in laying out this issue of sisterMAG.
CLAUDIA GÖDKE PHOTOGRAPHER
We couldn't believe that we never talked about Claudi on this page. Not only a very dear friend to the sisterMAG team, Claudi is our expert when it comes to food photography and styling. We LOVE her bread pictures in this issue.
L O C AT I O N
PAT R I C I A H A A S
Heimathafen
PHOTOGRAPHER
Neukoelln
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Native Berliner Patricia Haas has been a part of our full-time photography team for several months and produced wonderful shots for this issue’s #MatchaDay16.
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TEXT
ILLUSTRATION & LAYOUT
Alena Hecker alena-hecker.de
Melina Royer vanilla-mind.de
Theresa Neubauer @thneu
Alexander Kords kords.net
Nina Anika Klotz misstype.de
Marie Darme @maridam_
Anastasia Benko @stilzitat
Robert Eberhardt roberteberhardt.com
Dana Lungmuss hello-danane.de
Cole Peters colepeters.com Elisa von Hof Xing Profil Emma Heath Jana Seelig i-say-shotgun.com Johanna Eisner remarx.eu Dr. Jörg V. Wittemann @revolutionary.gram Liv Hambrett livhambrett.com Lorelou Desjardins afroginthefjord.com
Rosemarie Dammler von COMMPartners COMMPartners.de Sophia Schillik cucinapiccina.de
Assa Ariyoshi assaariyoshi.com Alice Williamson alicewilliamson.co.uk
Tanja Salkowski tanja-salkowski.de Thomas Gorski airteam.camera sisterMAG Team Alex Sutter Thea Neubauer Antonia Sutter Nadine Steinmetz Sandra Rothfeld Nina Förster Zoe Blechschmitt
TRANSLATION Tanja Timmer @tanjastweets Alex Kords kords.net Christian Naethler @iamvolta Ira Häussler @goldblackandi Zoe Blechschmitt @znaomib Marion Sendker Katrin Greyer
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PHOTOGRAPHY
FOOD
PROOF
Henrik Folkesson @henrikfolkesson
Stefanie Kießling @KiesslingS
Vegan Architect / Iris
Cristopher Santos cristophersantos.com
Alexander Kords kords.net
Love Non Pareille / Sara
Helena Melikov melikov.de
Amie McCracken amiemccracken.com
Geschmacksmomente /
Christian Naethler @iamvolta
geschmacksmomente.com
Zoë Noble zoenoble.com Claudia Gödke claudiagoedke.com
veganarchitect.com lovenonpareille.com Karin
Trickytine / Christine
Ira Häussler @goldblackandi
trickytine.com Tinas Tausenschön /
Patricia Haas patpat-studio.com Cole Peters colepeters.com Marie Darme @maridam_
Christina
tinastausendschoen.de
STYLING
Chestnut & Sage / Julia
chestnutandsage.de
Evi Neubauer pinterest.com/evin
Virginia Horstmann
zuckerzimtundliebe.de
Christina van Zon christinavanzon.com
Claudia Gödke
Rike Janke
claudiagoedke.com
HAIR & MAKEUP Lena Schleweis lenaschleweis.de
MODELS
Patricia Heck patriciaheck.de
Julia Leifert philomenazanetti.com
Aennikin MUH aennikin.de
Henriette v. Grünberg
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Fabia Mantwill fabiamantwill.com Helena Melikov melikov.de
#23 DOWNLOADS PATTERNS
23/1 - Blue Tweed Blazer
23/2 - Blue Tweed Skirt
23/3 - Beige jacket
23/4 Material Mix Pleated Skirt
23/5 Brownish red jacket
23/6 Brownish red skirt
23/7 Pink jacket
23/8 Pink mini skirt
Drink Recipes
Beauty Recipes
#MATCHADAY16
Breakfast Recipes Baking Recipes
ALNATURA BOWL RECIPES
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
WHITEBREAD TO PUMPERNICKEL RECIPES
Onion Butter
Fruit Bread
Cheese & Ham Bread
Pesto Bread
N A T GE D R I B Y L R A E T E K C I T
Date: 05.05.2016 Location: sisterMAGoffice Berlin For more info, simply write us at events@sister-mag.com
What is a trend talk? The presentations are especially interesting for businesses, bloggers and trend seekers. They offer a forecast for things to come in fashion, interior design, or beauty. Gudy will use a diverse range of examples to demonstrate how businesses can put these trends into practice. SISTER-MAG.COM
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P O H S K R O W TREND
Gudy Herder
INTERIOR MUSINGS & TREND CONSULTING Gudy Herder is a trend expert living in Barcelona who participates in international trend panels and writes about both macro- and microtrends in the realms of lifestyle and interior on EclecticTrends.com. We are excited to partner with Gudy in early May to offer a trend workshop where you can learn about the newest lifestyle and interior trends of the Spring/Summer 2017 season. Gudy has identified »Unknown Terrain«, »Candy, Please«, and »Time Out« as three top trends of the Spring/Summer 2017 season, which she will present in the lecture. The discussion will not only
concern new colour trends, shapes and materials, but it also highlights sociocultural matters and our connection to new technologies. »Unknown Terrain« stands for a renewed lust for the discovery of nature, topography and landscapes, »Candy, Please!« is about the longing for childhood lightheartedness during an era marked by crises and stress, and »Time Out« represents tactile objects that harness sensuality, whether high-tech or natural. The workshop will take place at the sisterMAG office at the historic AEG site in Berlin-Wedding, which was designed by Peter Behrens. In addition to Gudy’s presentation (in German; also in English pending high demand), the sisterMAG team will provide trend-oriented catering and other exciting exercises around the workshop’s content. Several mood boards will accompany every trend to offer an overview of the movements shaping interiors and lifestyle.
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LIGHT
T H LIG 1 N O I T SEC
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Lam p Lam : IPNOS p by F LO F l o o r S
OF
What do designer lamps and the sisterMAG suit collection have in common?
Sh ades
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&Suits
LIGHT
Fotos: Cristopher Santos Makeup & Haare: Patricia Heck Kleidung: Evi Neubauer Model: Julia Leifert
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LIGHT
in light
The Costanza has an uncommon switch. With a slight touch on the sensoric dimmer switch the light is turned on and off and also easily adjusted. COSTANZA Soft Skin by LUCEPLAN The classic Artemide lamp in a new look. The lamp line DEMETRA includes a table lamp (with a clamp), a reading lamp (which you can see here), wall lamps & wall spotlights. You can rotate the lamp arms and shades in every direction and they are easy to tilt and swivel as well. DEMETRA TABLE by ARTEMIDE 21
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and shado
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ow
A suit in dark blue and comfortable tweed. JACKET
SKIRT
Pattern 23/1
Pattern 23/2
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One of our fav ourite of the photo shoot: The li ght object IPNOS b y FLOS. A thin aluminum frame is illuminated discreetly. IPNOS by FLOS
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suits
Perhaps this suit inspired by Prada is the most elaborate one. The suit is made up of various materials, the jacket is embellished with a back web and black piping. JACKET
SKIRT
Pattern 23/3
Pattern 23/4
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e d a h S
A reinvention of the lamp – that is what SHADE by FLOS certainly looks like. It consists of a single floor spotlight and a paper lamp shade. The shade is illuminated by a LED light from below. SHADE by FLOS
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Rust red suit with a hand embroidered pocket (a floral sequins motif). A pleated skirt and a long jacket with black details. JACKET
Pattern 23/7 P L E AT E D S K I R T
Pattern 23/8
rust red SISTER-MAG.COM
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LIGHT
The floor lamp gives a beautiful diffused light. It is incredibly lightweight due to the textile lamp shade and aluminum stand. ROSY ANGELIS by FLOS
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The Cappuccina floor lamp by Luceplan looks a bit shrewd – like a casually placed hat. Cappuccina by LUCEPLAN
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Sel
ene by Class
n o iC
The pink suit jacket is tinted with textile colour, this way the fabric gets a used finish. Inspiration for this suit was an image from the 80ies. JACKET
Pattern 23/5 SKIRT
Pattern 23/6
Pin our image s 35
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Photo: Harini Calamur
LIGHT
Text: Alexander Kords
| Illustration: Assa Ariyoshi
FROM ANCIENT FIRE PITS TO LEDS: LIGHTING IN A NUTSHELL The story of light With Christmas over three months gone, one's festive tree has ideally already been disposed of (the real ones) or stored away in the basement (the artificial ones). Still, how Christmas trees came to light over the past centuries pretty well reflects the history of lighting in general. While our grandparents used to jeopardize their homes gathering around a candle-lit Christmas tree, our parents had to put up with strings of tiny light bulbs that didn't work anymore if just a single one went out. Today, we can resort to candle imitations, which neither torch our home nor break when we stare a little too long, thanks to LED technology.
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THE DISCOVERY OF ELECTRICITY
The development of how civilization has brought light to its streets and homes basically benefited from two discoveries: fire and electricity. It goes without saying that the former was ages ago and served the purpose of being able to fillet saber-tooth tigers in the glow of crackling fire pits. Later, the open fire was poured into tighter (and therefore much safer) casts; into oil lamps. As the name suggests, another ingredient was necessary, namely oil or another flammable liquid. At first, it was animal fat that was poured into a container with a wick made of plant fibre sticking out. The oldest example of such an early lamp is a hollowed stone with burn marks that was used at least 40,000 years ago and was found in Edertal in northern Hesse, Germany. The oil lamps that we know from illustrations of the Aladdin tale were much
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prettier: bowls with a long neck from which the illuminating flame flickered. The candles that have been used since approximately the First Century AD work on a similar principle except that the fuel was solid, making the lamp vessel superfluous. Then, after people had read, eaten and socialized over the flickering light of open fire (or at least covered by glass) for centuries, the discovery of electricity made for a nice change in the concept of light in the darkness. Mankind had suspected the existence of something like this for centuries – after all, lightning flashed through the sky and electric eels roamed the waters. But it has only been 350 years that science has been able to make use of electricity, even though
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1663
OTTO VON GUERICKE
LIGHT
it wasn't anything useful at first. In 1663, Otto von Guericke, the mayor of Magdeburg at the time, invented a machine made of a rotatable sulphur globe that was used a few years later by philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz to elicit the first electrically produced spark. When the Englishman Francis Hauksbee built a similar apparatus with a glass sphere in 1706, he was able to create light through the touch of his hand that was strong enough to be used for reading. But since it wasn't very convenient to rotate the globe and touch it with your hand at the same time, Hauksbee's machine merely served as entertainment during parties. But from this time on, the study of electricity took big steps forward: Milestones such as Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod, Luigi Galvani's frog legs conducting electricity, and Alessandro Volta's battery made such progress in so little time that the International Exposition of Electricity was held in Paris between August and November 1881. Apart from the first electric car and the first electric tram, it also displayed an invention for which the American scientist
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T he wor l d's f ir s t dir ec t
KILOMETERS
current transmission
Thomas Alva Edison took out a patent just one year earlier: the "electric lamp," the light bulb. Edison's invention was a small filament connected to two wires that was heated through electricity, which therefore started incandescing. A surrounding glass bulb kept oxygen away from the filament and prevented it from burning in a short time span. Other scientists had admittedly developed a similar concept earlier, but it was Edison who, after some years of experimenting, successfully built a light bulb that lasted for 1,000 hours, didn't smell or flicker, and that was able to be switched on and off. When Frenchman Marcel DeprĂŠz introduced a system with which electricity could be transmitted over a power line almost two kilometers in length, Oskar von Miller, co-founder of
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the German Museum in Munich, did things in style and planned a transmission of electricity over a much longer distance. In partnership with DeprĂŠz, he set up the world's first direct current transmission over a distance of 57 kilometers from Miesbach to Munich. This marked the kickoff for so-called electrification, the extensive electricity supply to households. It was the foundation for Edison's light bulb to conquer the world. Since 95 percent of the electricity that light bulbs use is converted into heat, and only the five remaining percent are actually needed to produce light, the search for a more economical alternative began. Only a few years after Edison's invention, American electrical engineer Peter Cooper Hewitt patented his mercury-vapor lamp, the predecessor to today's energy-
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T S ER S E G N A L GE R H A J N E G I EIN T N E M I R E P EX Ü L G E N EI D , N E U A B U Z 41
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DE VELOPMENT OF ENERGYSAVING LIGHTS
saving light. Mercury was ionized in a bulb with electricity, which illuminated it. However, it wasn't until 1973 that Edward Hammer, an engineer at General Electric, developed today's common spiralshaped compact fluorescent lamp – this is what energy-saving lights are actually called. Instead of mercury, he used a mix of the noble gases neon and argon. As it would have cost about $25 million to produce the light in series, however, Hammer's employers set his plan aside for now. This brought imitators to the scene, and eventually Philips introduced his SL* series as the first energysaving lamps to the world market. But because they were much too long and too heavy for most lamps that were used in private homes, they were slow sellers. It was the invention of electronic ballast, reducing the dimensions of the lamps significantly, that made the SISTER-MAG.COM
energy-saving lamps suitable for large-scale use.
LED In December 2008, the EU decided to ban the good, old light bulb with the purpose of saving energy and protecting the environment. They were gradually taken off the market within four years. Since September 2012, the 130-year old invention by Thomas Edison has been history. Not only did the energy-saving lamp take its place, but as did the light emitting diode – LED in short. How this technology works was already known before the light bulb's invention, but
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it was not until 1962 that it was developed. How come? Well, the world simply should have listened to German electrical engineer Ferdinand Braun. He gave a talk about how crystals conduct power as early as 1876. According to Braun's findings, electricity flows only in one direction. LEDs take advantage of this principle. Their core is made of two semiconductor crystals that don't touch each other. One is made of silicon, the other of gallium. Simply put, the electrons discharge from silicon to gallium when the LED is switched on, triggering flashes of light that are perceived as luminous power. The elements the semiconductor crystals are made of influence the colour of the light that the LED emits. This way, we can not only choose white light for our ceiling light, but also gimmicks of different colours – like our Christmas tree, for example. 
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Dr. Joerg V. W ittemann
Where there is light, there is also a diode
Foto: Cris San tos
More specifica lly, there is the semicon ductor diode
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LIGHT
I would like to apologize right in advance: This time it is going to be a little bit more scientific. It would be a shame if you do not feel like it but in that case, you can simply skip the main part of the article and just read the last three paragraphs in order to still talk about it. In the last issue of sisterMAG I pointed out the importance of the crystalline semiconductor silicon as a raw material for the computer industry, and I also explained to you how the original electronic indetermination makes semiconductors so versatile. Semiconductors constitute the third material class in addition to the other classes namely conductors (metals such as copper and iron), which conduct electricity well, and insulators (such as glass or porcelain), which do not conduct electricity at all. The reason for this? Conductors contain free movable charge carriers whereas insulators do not.
Caution, physic ist-w it: Semiconductors are ju st more »electrifying«. Researchers have discovered that transport of electricity in semiconductor crystals does not only occur by negatively charged electrons, but also by positively charged »holes«. You can imagine this hole-principle as follows: You are standing in line at the cashier and the customer in front of you moves on to his respective front man. The result is a gap or a hole in front of you. Making a step forwards, you will close the gap in front of you but create the same gap again, only this time behind you. Continuing this process, the gap moves backwards gradually, while customer by customer moves forwards. Back in the world of semiconductors that means that positively charged holes are free spaces, where there are no negatively charged electrons.
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Great stuff Silicon is mostly used in the computer industry. However, there are many more semiconductor materials, which are suitable for different applications. All semiconductor crystals have in common that when they are regularly arranged and are bonded to one another by valence electrons. Thus, a silicon atom can, as illustrated here, enter four bonds with their crystal neighbours and therefore form an solid silicon. What else is there?
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Be 4 24
Mg 12 40
ca 20 88
sr 38
The semiconductor germanium, which you can find in the periodic table directly 11 12 14 16 b c n o under silicon, can also 5 6 7 8 be connected to four 27 28 31 32 further atoms. The result al si p s 13 14 15 16 is another semiconductor 70 73 9 79 ga ge as se crystal containing the same 31 32 33 34 structure as silicon. Arsenic 115 119 112 128 in sn sb te has five valence electrons 49 50 51 52 and gallium has three. Exchanging every even germanium crystal position with gallium and replacing every odd one with arsenic, you will get the same overall condition as in the germanium crystal and create a new type of semiconductor — the compound semiconductor. This principle can be continued until you end up with more than 40 crystal semiconductor types.
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LIGHT
This is the place where magic hap pens
Until now, semiconductors are still pretty boring, way too homogeneous. Only through targeted refining with impurity atoms, can you turn a stupid crystal into a smart component. The conductivity for electrons or holes can be set in such a way that either positively charged holes (p) or negatively charged electrons (n) are conducted particularly well. The result depends on the type and number of the impurity atoms injected into the crystals. Using the example of silicon, this is easily illustrated. We start with the still ÂťstupidÂŤ pure silicon crystal. Four electrons are provided for the bonds while every further silicon atom is connected to four further silicon atoms.
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Silicon lattice sites in the crystal can be replaced with neighbours from the periodic table. However, instead of filling every second space with something completely new and different, we only insert a few foreign atoms.
si
si
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p
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si
If now a silicon atom is replaced with an element from the right side of silicon in the periodic table, such as phosphorus with five valence electrons, the four connections still connect with the crystal neighbours. However, since phosphorus has five valence electrons, there is one electron left, which is able to conduct electricity when a voltage is applied almost as well as in a metal. We are dealing here with a so-called n-type semiconductor.
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I am bipolar: And that's a good thing.
si
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Analogously one can create a p-type semiconductor by choosing an element on the left side of silicon in the periodic table which only obtains three valence electrons. Since this is missing one electron it will create a positively charged hole. The p-type semiconductor can therefore conduct holes explicitly well.
In both cases of crystal refining, we still deal with a silicon crystal, because all in all only very few atoms are replaced.
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Now we know how to create p-type and n-type semiconductors. Under suitable voltage, electricity can be conducted in either direction. The transition from a simple electrical conductor (charge carriers can move in all directions) to the electronic directional (bipolar) component is simple: The semiconductors have to be lined up wisely. Putting an n-type semiconductor and a p-type semiconductor together, generates a diode. When the semiconductors touch, positive holes transfer to the border region of the negative n-type region and vice versa, negative electrons transfer to the border region of the p-region. Too many electrons are now located in the p-type region, so that a negative pole arises. Analog and a positive pole arises in the n-border area. The zone between positive and negative poles is decisive for all subsequent applications of the semiconductor diodes.
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Say what Light to Electricity!
All of you, who were not interested in the physics excursus, may now read from here. One of the bestknown areas of applications of the semiconductor diode is the solar cell. The »semiconductor sandwich« is predominantly made from silicon. When sunlight hits the boundary layer between the positive- and negative-type
semiconductor, radiation energy is absorbed. The p-type region generates a hole while an electron is pushed into the n-region. Now more carriers are present in their respective region of the cell than compared to the inital state. The p- and n-type semiconductors are keen to return to the original situation by pushing charge carriers through the top and bottom part of the attached metal contacts into the circuit. Voilà! We have now built a power source with the solar cell.
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!
Electricity to Light! The generation of light from electricity can also be accomplished with the help of the semiconductor diode while beeing 90% more energy efficient than normal light bulbs. The principle of the lightemitting diode (LED) is exactly the opposite to that of the solar cell. Nevertheless, careful: In order to produce a light-emitting diode, we do not need silicon, but a compound semiconductor, such as gallium-arsenide, galliumnitride or silicon-carbide.
If we connect a suitable electrical voltage to these semiconductor types, electrons flow from the n-region of the semiconductor to the p-type region and fill the holes. Therefore, radiation energy is set free and light comes from the LED. The light from an LED is always one colour — red, orange, yellow, green, blue or purple. If you prefer white light, you have to cover the LED with a dye, which changes singlecolour light into a white light spectrum.
N-DOPED
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P-DOPED
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LIGHT
From electron to electronics
A guide to more LED in your life
Depending on the application, light is either produced in a semiconductor diode or converted into another form of energy. Solar cells as well as light-emitting diodes will continue to gain in importance regarding our daily lives, as they help us to live more climate-friendly. It is fascinating that high-tech and sustainability are possible at the same time, just because electrons in a diode prefer to move in a certain direction. 51
The Demetra table lamp by Artemide (also in the fashion shooting here) sports a LED. Very low energy consumption and a warm colour of light: Osram Retrofit Classic LED-Lamp A++ LED cork stopper for an interesting table decoration or lighting for the garden path.
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ANZEIGE
t n e m o m C B y M # Trip to Singapore with Lufthansa A field report by Chief Editor Thea Neubauer In fall of 2015 we asked you whether we should visit Singapore, Hong Kong or Shanghai. The winner – not by much – was Singapore. The sisterMAG editorial team had the chance to send one of their members, Thea, on a flight to the island state in the South East of Asia. The adventure was a very special one because Thea was able to test the new Business Class Service from Lufthansa. On the following pages Thea shows her first #MyBCmoment (Business Class Moment) and what she loved about about Singapore.
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Surely we have all stood at the gate and observed the blue Lufthansa signs for ‘Business Class’ as we await boarding. For me, my trip to Singapore would be my first Business Class experience. I was looking forward to what I can expect and perhaps be surprised by during the 11-hour flight. The first surprise came right at take-off as a small Lufthansa kit arrived containing socks and toothpaste in addition to the customary fleece blankets.
Comfortable seats that fully recline for sleeping.
Favourite Food
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Thea's Singapore
The
hot
I especially find smaller, independent movies ver y appealing on longer flights. While not new and not quite a blockbuster, I really enjoyed “5 Flights Up” starring Morgan Freeman und Diane Keaton. It’s a wonderful film about New York, daily life in the city, and one’s love for home.
el
My top highlight was a stay at the five-star Fullerton Hotel Singapore sitting directly on the Singapore River downtown. It is in close proximity to Boat Quay (see right) and the nearby Financial and Business District, "Raffles Place” (easy to access via public transportation). Although my room faced the hotel courtyard, preventing a view of the city, looking over the hotel’s infinity pool and spa was just as easy on the eyes.
Where? 1 Fullerton Square
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te i r u o Fav Shop
The concept store IN GOOD COMPANY is the first and only one of its kind in Singapore. You'll find not just clothes, accessories and amazing products from local, independent labels, but also a small cafe...
Where? ION Orchard Shopping Mall
Seeing the city from above is definitely an opportunity you should take at least once. In every travel guide you'll find the Marina Sands Bay Hotel (Surfboard Building ), with a great view of the botanical garden and "super trees."
Where? 10 Bayfront Ave
What you won’t find in a travel guide is the Pinnacle@Duxton .It’s actually a massive apartment complex, with the 50th floor open to the public. The entrance isn’t easy to find, so just ask.
Where? Blk 1G
Cantonment Rd, Level 1
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The most breathtaking moment The first step out of the subway reveals the chaos of Singapore; heat, incredible humidity, and the bustle of thousands of people.
Wo? Raf fle s Pla ce Sta tio n
Favourite souvenir
A belt with attached "wings" – how to turn any dress into a peplum. This one is with grey felt.
Wo? Charles & Keith , Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre
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View onto Boat Quay, which features restaurant after restaurant.
Wo? Boat Quay am Singapore River After Thea’s introduction to this fascinating city, the sisterMAG tour of Singapore continues. Author Liv Hambrett will guide you through the festival of lights, and four winners of the Food Blog Awards report on their impressions of the city. Have fun and many thanks to Lufthansa for this #BCmoment!
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Text & Pictures: Liv Hambrett
e r o p a g n Si City of lights
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A small island with a big history, Singapore is a city, and a country, that blends cultures, religions and languages; fierce independence with a colonial past; and the very old with the very new. The various juxtapositions at the heart of Singapore, mean it bubbles with an energy and colour all its very own. Known food-lovers, Singaporeans pride themselves on their cuisine scene, which ranges across countries and traditions. They also aren’t afraid of anything that sparkles — you won’t be able to go anywhere in Singapore without seeing bright lights and loads of colour. During the period of Chinese New Year, Singapore lights up more than ever. Parades and festivals, light displays and firecrackers, ensure the already bright and bubbling neighbourhoods shine even brighter. But whether you find yourself visiting during Chinese New Year or at any other time of year, it doesn’t matter. There is never a shortage of things to do, see and eat. Chinatown’s Hustle and Bustle On any given day, Chinatown is a riot of noise and colour, stuffed full of restaurants and food stalls and shops. It is also where you’ll find Buddhist and Hindu temples almost side by side. Pick your way down New Bridge Road, where people queue for flat squares of bak kwa (barbecued meat) and you can buy bags of surprising treats like salted, dried olives. Pop down the so-called Food Street for lunch, a long stretch of hawker stalls and old shophouses turned restaurants. After a lunch of Singapore’s famous chilli crab, and a cold Tiger beer, wander through the alleys, and try not to get lost in a sea of trinkets, or swept away by a tropical afternoon downpour. SISTER-MAG.COM
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»They AREN'T afraid of anything that sparkles.«
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Nearby, and still part of Chinatown, is a neighbourhood with a completely different feel. The über cool Club Street, with rooftop bars and restaurants lining the sloping roads, is destination number one among the city’s young professionals and expats.
During Chinese New Year celebrations, Chinatown is the obvious place to take it all in. New Bridge Road hosts a light installation designed around the year’s animal. This coming year is the year of the monkey, and a beautiful big peach tree with climbing monkeys currently
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"Chinatown is the obvious place to take it all in."
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dominates the intersection of New Bridge Road and Eu Song Ten Road. Other main streets surrounding the heart of Chinatown are strung with bright red and gold discs of light that make Chinatown by night a spectacle around Chinese New Year. The Sights and Smells of Little India The MRT (Singapore’s outstanding metro system) station spits you out at a huge, loud, jostling food hall. If you’re hungry and after some seriously good Indian food, stop here and queue up. Otherwise wind your way through the crowded tables, and forge your way into the 65
market stalls and kiosks and incense-perfumed air of Little India. Fresh fruit and vegetable markets abound in Little India, rivalling restaurants in number. Pushing down the streets of colourful, long-faded buildings, there are colours and scents to be found in every crevice, from fresh flowers and spices, to vibrant fabrics. While most of the food is to be found in the food hall, there are several hidden places you can find while walking around that will give you a spicy hit. Be sure to cool down with a mango lassi or three — the curries are for real.
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"For respite you slip into the quiet green of botanic gardens." Festivals take place year round in Little India, ensuring this neighbourhood continually pulsates with its own unique blend of culture, history and life. A Slice of Quiet in the Singapore Botanic Gardens For respite from the sights and sounds of Singapore’s bustling neighbourhoods, slip into the quiet green of the Botanic Gardens. SISTER-MAG.COM
These 156 year-old gardens were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015 and are home to 74 acres of lush tropical greenery, including the National Orchid Garden, a six hectare rainforest and a ginger garden. Palm Valley offers sloping lawns perfect for picnicking, and often a spot to catch some live music, and Symphony Lake is a pocket
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of perfect quiet. In the gardens, you’ll find colour and light in natural abundance. Old and New in Downtown Singapore Few places are as luminous as Marina Bay and the restaurantlined esplanade by night. But before you get to this very modern piece of Singapore, take a stroll around the nearby Padang area. Named for the Padang Cricket Ground, this area is home to key historical and cultural landmarks like St Andrew’s Cathedral, City Hall, the Supreme Court Building, the brand new Singapore National Gallery and the Asian Civilisation Museum. From the Asian Civilisation Museum, look across the river at the skyscrapers looming above the old shophouses, the perfect picture
of the juxtaposition between old and new that lies at the heart of Singapore. Take in the stately Fullerton Hotel, which began life as a post office and is grand enough to have its own square. Cross a little bridge, and there you’ll see it; sparkling Singapore. The big white Merlion, the symbol of Singapore, looks onto the architecturally mind-boggling Marina Bay Sands Hotel and ArtScience Museum. Crouched nearby is The Esplanade, a concert hall and theatre, known colloquially as the Durian for its likeness to the fruit. A drink at the top of Marina Bay Sands, or at a bar on the top of the Singapore National Gallery, will give you a brilliant view of the lights and colour of downtown Singapore. During Chinese New Year, Marina
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Bay and the esplanade that curves around it, absolutely lights up. A floating platform hosts a light display, complete with tightrope walkers and music, and a fireworks display lights up the bay. The slick, bright modernity of Singapore is more visible than ever.
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Luminescent Luxury on Orchard Road It is easy to get lost in the tangle of malls that call Orchard Road home. On Singapore’s 2.2km boulevard of retail paradise, the only business is shopping, coffee drinking or brunching. A seemingly vast number of smaller courts and plazas jostle
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shoulder to shoulder, filled with boutiques and food courts, but the standouts are the shiny monolith malls. ION, Paragon, Japanese department stores Takashimaya and Isetan are announced by water features, huge screens and luxurious window displays. It is a constant sensory bombardment, exciting, global and likely rather hard on the wallet. 69
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e r o p a g n i S fOR BloggerS The winners of the ÂťFood Blog AwardsÂŤ 2015 got to visit Singapore for a few days and sisterMAG did not miss the opportunity to ask the bloggers how they experienced the super metropolis. There are plenty of foodie impressions, new favorite dishes and of course many photos of the city at the South China Sea.
with
Brigitte / goats.today Christine / trickytine.com Lea / veggi.es Claudia / Geschmeidigekoestlichkeiten.at SISTER-MAG.COM
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Brigitte schwarz
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Which was your favourite spot in Singapore and why? Although the smell in Chinatown had put us to the test sometimes, I found it exciting to experience new kinds of vegetables, fruits and spices there — definitely the right start if you don’t have much time to spend in the Lion City. You find extraordinary food, Chinese craftsmanship, traditional medicine (how about a foot reflexology?) and culture there. For the evening, I recommend a drink in the 1-Altitude bar (the highest bar in the world) with a breathtaking view over the lights and skyscrapers of the city, including the laser show of the Marina Bay Hotel. Which was your favourite dish and why? That’s difficult because I don’t even have a favourite dish at home. What I found delicious were the vegetarian noodles with rojak (a fried mixture of dough and vegetables), cabbage and a spicy sauce that I ate in one of the many Hawker Centers.
I drank an icy cold lemonade made of sugar cane with freshlysqueezed lime juice added to it and ate a small steamed rice cake with coconut flakes and liquid palm sugar as a dessert. What are the light and dark sides of Singapore, and why is that? Light: It’s fascinating how many different cultures and religions live side by side in Singapore. The big ethnical variety is also noticeable in the food. Dark Sides: Cleanliness and safety are important goods in Singapore, and to ensure this protection they can’t always show consideration for the individual needs. Freedom is restricted for the sake of the community. High penalties are imposed when you ignore the many prohibition signs. Securities, cameras and surveillance monitors give you the feeling of safety but also of permanent control. goats.today
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Christine Garcia Urbina Which was your favourite spot in Singapore and why?
us and giving us an insight into her life was special and unforgettable.
It was the apartment of our charming host Eunice who invited us to dinner on the last day of our stay. Along with a fantastic view over the skyline of Singapore, we experienced a very warm welcome and enjoyed delicious and homemade dishes.
Which was your favourite dish and why?
On the three days of our stay, Singapore with its modern architecture, lively food markets, stylish sky bars and grounded Hawker Centers certainly offered us many more magnificent impressions. But this evening with Eunice opening her apartment for SISTER-MAG.COM
Away from Chinatown we discovered a small Korean restaurant where I ordered bibimbap — a traditional dish of the Korean cuisine made of rice, vegetables, meat, kimchi and a roasted egg on top. I ate it with an icy cold Tiger beer ‌ delicious! Are there light and dark sides of Singapore, and why is that? Yes, there are, and I noticed them both. The light side: Singapore is completely clean, structured
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and organized. The silhouette is characterized by huge, shimmering shopping malls and exciting buildings of big hotels, banks and companies that created architectonical status symbols. It’s a safe city where women can move freely everywhere, even at night. Singapore combines exciting contrasts — cultures, languages, religions, architecture, food. I experienced the Singaporeans as being very hospitable, ambitious, striving forward, interested, diligent and reliable. The dark side: For Singapore getting this status and this safety, different and sometimes draconian laws came into force
that even could lead to a death sentence, for example in the case of drug possession. Chewing gum? Prohibited! Spraying graffiti? Imprisonment! Eating or drinking in public transportation vehicles? Financial penalty! Even homosexuality is largely tabooed and illegal in Singapore. To a certain extent, I thought of the city, the lifestyle of the people and their thinking as being forced into line — but maybe that’s the price a society that works flawlessly, is influenced by the West and is aspiring, has to pay. trickytine.com
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Lea Green
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Which was your favourite spot in Singapore and why? Between the modern financial center of Singapore at Marina Bay with the impressive glass constructions and skyscrapers and the lively Chinatown in the West, a small and urban artists’ quarter is hidden. It’s grouped around the Telok Ayer Market, a popular and nice food court which are called »Hawker Centers« in Singapore. In the surrounding area between Amoy Street and Cecil Street, you find many nice and small street cafés, individual boutiques, artistically designed bars, impressive temples and a wonderful park. Here, locals, artists, escapists, workaholics looking for relaxation and tourists get together. I loved spending my time there and enjoyed the vibrating atmosphere of Singapore in one of the many extraordinary bars. Which was you favourite dish and why? The kitchen culture of Singapore is one of the most exciting in the world. There, Indian, Malayan, Arab, Asian and European culinary traditions meet. I haven’t seen so
many dishes of different origins anywhere else in the world. As a vegetarian, I especially liked eating in Little India. There, the selection of vegetarian and vegan dishes is traditionally big. I enjoyed aromatic curries, dosas, samosas and rice with vegetables I’ve never seen before. What was the best of it? To be honest, not a special dish but the incredible variety of herbs, spices, vegetables and preparation methods. Are there light and dark sides of Singapore, and why is that? Singapore is a metropolis of superlatives. Staggeringly high glass constructions, luxury hotels and impressive shopping centers stretch over many kilometers. The »Gardens at the Bay« with the Ferris wheel, the »Flower Dome« made of glass and the glass-roofed »Cloud Forest« literally take your breath. These areas are not only modern but also excessively clean, tidy and flawless from a European point of view. The dark side of the shining facades and areas are that they appear artificial, cold and a bit sterile. If you eat or drink in a public transport vehicle, throw a cigarette butt on the street or
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spit out chewing gum, you will be fined with a horrendous financial penalty. That’s why I thought the clean and modern face of Singapore was interesting and impressive but found the more authentic and »wilder« areas of the city, like Chinatown and Little India, much more exciting and inspiring. But the conclusion stays the same: Singapore is definitely worth a visit! veggi.es SISTER-MAG.COM
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Claudia braunstein
My favorite spot in Singapore: Little India, Chinatown, the harbor. They all are wonderful places. But an absolute highlight was the nocturnal visit of the highest open-air bar of the world, 1-Altitude, with a stunning view over the entire city. My favorite dish in Singapore: I suffer from a massive restriction in terms of food, which means that eating out is always a special challenge for me. In most of
the restaurants, they cooked specifically for me. Especially outstanding was the menu in The Line in Shangri-La. Among other things, they had a granitÊ made of salad for me. Not really typical for the country, but excellent. Singapore’s light and dark sides are to me: The cleanliness. In Singapore, to me it is both. As pleasing as it is, as odd it feels sometimes. geschmeidigekoestlichkeiten.at
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6 1 y a D a h c t a M A W H O L E D AY FO R T H E V E RY S P E C I A L G R E E N T E A F R O M J A PA N
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6
aiy a - TH E TEA On January 30, 2016, we welcomed more than 20 bloggers to the sisterMAG office to discover the advantages, story, and taste of the ‘Green Gold of Japan’ – matcha. Within the pages of sisterMAG N°14 you’ll find all information about the green tea’s origin, quality, etc. This time, we’ve produced an exciting feature about the relaunch of one of the world’s leading matcha brands, aiya - THE TEA. We caught up with the company’s Brand Manager of Europe, Sabine Stübner, to find out how the new packaging design was developed, what’s new, and what stayed true to its origins. And of course there’s plenty of info about our event, innovative recipes, and a chance to win a goodie bag in case you couldn’t join us. All photos from #MatchaDay16 were taken by Patricia Haas & Claudia Gödke. Interview: Nina Förster | Photos: Patricia Haas and Claudia Gödke Event: sisterMAG (Luisa Sancelean, Sandra Rothfeld, Laura Glabbatz, Marie Darme) & ad publica Floristic: Hürriyet Bulan / Botanicart
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THE TEA WHO AND WHAT IS BEHIND THE BRAND 'AIYA – THE TEA' AND HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELVES? aiya – THE TEA is the matcha brand of our company Aiya. Aiya has been existing in Japan since 1888 and in Europe since 2001. aiya – THE TEA is our heart; the brand has existed for seven years and it was a pioneer in the sector of matcha at a time when only absolute connoisseurs knew about this kind of tea. Our matcha stands for enjoyment at the highest level. We don’t understand matcha as a trend but as our passion – not just recently, but for more than 125 years. As a family business, we combine the art of matcha production with the highest quality standards and a passion for tea. That’s why the brand aiya – THE TEA only includes products in organic quality. The cultivation is challenging master craftsmanship that Aiya perfected through decades of tradition. SISTER-MAG.COM
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I think three terms describe us best: family, love of the product, and reliability. Family because we are a genuine family business that is managed by the fourth generation. Love of the product because it is not our goal to offer the most affordable matcha, but the best one there is. That’s why we and our colleagues in Japan give our best every day. And reliability because it’s our particular concern that our customers can rely on the quality of our products completely and don’t experience an unpleasant surprise. Matcha is not a protected term, which is why you find a lot of »fake matcha« on the market now. It doesn’t have anything to do with authentic Japanese matcha like ours.
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PREMIUM MATCHA HORAI Horai is the pride of organic tea producers, a rare, high-quality matcha variety. Mild, sweet, and with a very gentle finish, it boasts a striking emerald green colour. In Japanese mythology, the term stands for »island of the bliss.« Premium Horai matcha is the ideal tea for connoisseurs and offers a very personal, zen experience. It’s the perfect matcha tea for pure enjoyment.
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t s a f k Brea D AY B E G I N S W I T H A M AT C H A B U F F E T
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Recipes: Claudia Gödke Deco: Marie Darme (sisterMAG) Floristic: Hürriyet Bulan | Botanic Art
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Improve every dish with the perfect presentation: Bowls from nanu-nana.
COPPER UTENSILS from xenos or Ikea WAFFLE IRON (square) via Amazon SISTER-MAG.COM
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MATCHA-WAFFLES
vegan
2 tsp Matcha for Cooking Tsuki 375 g spelt flour 630
800 ml almond milk 80 ml orange juice
2 tbsp baking powder
80 ml sunflower oil
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tbsp maple syrup
1. Preheat the waffle iron. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add in the wet ingredients, and mix until just incorporated. Don‘t overmix the batter; a few lumps are fine!
2. Pour batter onto the waffle iron, cook until
golden brown, and keep them warm in a preheated oven. Dust with powdered sugar and serve with fresh fruit.
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MATCHA & MANGO-PASSIONFRUIT-SALAD
COCONUT-TAPIOCAPUDDING
vegan & glutenfree 80 g tapioca (small pearls or granulated)
pinch of salt
240 ml almond milk
3 tsp AIYA Matcha for Cooking Fuku
1 can coconut milk
1 mango
4-6 tbsp maple syrup
1 passionfruit
seeds of one vanilla bean
mint leaves (for decoration)
1. In a mediumsized saucepan, combine the tapioca
pearls, vanilla seeds, salt and almond milk and let soak for half an hour. In the meantime, chop the mango and mix it with the passionfruit pulp, set aside.
2. Add the coconut milk, whisk to combine and bring
to a boil. Let the pudding cook for 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. Sweeten to taste with maple syrup.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Transfer
half of the pudding into a small bowl, add the matcha, and mix well.
4. Layer the plain pudding and the matcha pudding
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into small glasses and serve with the mango salad and decorate with mint.
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Nature at home: leaves and ferns pressed between two sheets of glass allow light to shine through wonderfully.
Small glass jars filled with tapioca pudding. A great snack to bring to the office.
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WHERE IS THE HEAD OFFICE OF THE BRAND AND WHAT ARE YOUR OTHER LOCATIONS? We manage the brand aiya – THE TEA in Hamburg. The head office of the company Aiya is in Nishio, Japan. Next to the European subsidiary in Hamburg, there is another subsidiary in Torrance, California. This sounds like a big company, but it isn’t. We currently have 12 employees in Hamburg, almost 100 in Japan, and 14 in America. It’s very familiar with around 130 employees worldwide. SISTER-MAG.COM
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WHO FOUNDED 'AIYA – THE TEA' AND WHY? While matcha is very known and common in Japan, this was completely different in Europe a few years ago. Matcha was only known by experts. We wanted to change that and show the European market how versatile and delicious matcha is. So we founded the brand aiya – THE TEA and entered the consumer market. It must be said that Aiya was solely a business-to-business company until then. In this respect, the step towards the consumer market was courageous but also (as we see now) the right one. If you look at the matcha market today, you see how much has changed since then. As matcha pioneers we are a little bit proud that we did our bit.
HOW IMPORTANT IS YOUR COMPANY HISTORY FOR YOU? Our company history means a lot to us. To this day, we are a family business that is currently managed by the fourth generation. This familiar atmosphere goes along with a close and trusting cooperation with our tea farmers. This is also very important for us because there are only 300 (out of around 30,000) tea farmers who can produce matcha. Therefore, the tea farmers belong to our most important co-workers. Our long company tradition also contributes to the continued improvement and development of our craft. Besides, the fact that we are real organic pioneers is also part of our company history. We’ve been producing organic matcha since 1978. SISTER-MAG.COM
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At that time, organic food was a niche topic, even in Germany. But back then, our president recognized the many advantages of ecological agriculture and products and invested in this sector soon. Thanks to this farsightedness, we now have almost 40 years of experience in producing organic matcha.
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BEAUTY BA R #MatchaDay 16
LIP BALM
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A different kind of photo booth: The Beauty Bar was complete with a green mirrored wall.
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Y T U A E #B
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MATCHA-COCONUT-SCRUB
1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 2. Depending on the desired consistency, add a little sugar. 3. Fill the finished scrub into a jar and store
2 tbsp raw cane sugar 2 tbsp coconut oil 2 tsp Matcha
at room temperature.
MATCHA LIP BALM The signature lip balm is prepared with only natural ingredients. Especially during the colder months, when dry air from indoor heating and damp weather dry out our lips, the lip balm is beneficial in providing necessary moisture and fat. Don’t worry: your lips won’t turn green, of course.
1 tsp sheabutter 1 tsp beeswax pellets 2 tsp almond oil A knife point of Matcha A few drops of essential oil
1. Melt shea butter, beeswax and
almond oil in a heat-safe bowl over a pan of boiling water.
2. Mix ingredients well as they are melting. 3. Once all ingredients have melted entirely, stir in your matcha powder and essential oil before the mixture starts to set
4. Pour mixture into your tin. 5. After 1 hour the lipbalm is D
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PHOTO WO RK SH OP with Claudia Gรถdke Follow Claudia
MORE PICTURES FROM CLAUDIA:
Claudia Goedke.com SISTER-MAG.COM
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Participants in the photography workshop not only learn about Claudia’s workflow, but are also given something special to take home . Don’t be surprised if you see marble backgrounds emerge on numerous Instagram photos ;)
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Claudia discusses the process behind a set of images ( some recognizable from sisterMAG ) hanging on a photo wall.
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BA KING WO RK SH OP with Jeanny
Follow Jeanny
RECIPES FROM JEANNY'S BLOG:
Zucker, Zimt & Liebe
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#zuckerzimtundliebe J E A N N Y ' S ( Z U C K E R , Z I M T U N D L I E B E ) M ATC H A R E C I P E S
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MATCHA ALMOND COOKIES INGREDIENTS 125g soft butter
1 egg (we recommend happy chickens' organic eggs)
100g fine sugar
150g flour
1 pinch of salt 125g ground almonds with their skins removed
1 tbsp matcha powder Chocolate coating
1. Preheat the oven to 180째C and line a baking tray with parchment paper. 2. Beat butter, sugar, salt and ground almonds
until fluffy, then first add the egg, and at the end both flour and matcha powder.
3. Scoop the dough out of the bowl using a teaspoon to form small balls. Place the balls on the tray, press flat and use a fork to draw a pattern on the upper side.
4. Bake cookies for 15 to 18 minutes; then let them cool. 5. Melt down coating chocolate and dunk the
cookies in it until they are half covered. (optional).
6. My tip: Make these already great cookies into amazing cherry jam matcha treats! After you have pressed the dough balls onto the tray, use the wrong end of a wooden spoon to make a small indentation and fill it up with cherry jam. Bake as per instructions above.
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MATCHA CHOCOLATE MUFFINS INGREDIENTS
1 sachet of baking powder
2 eggs (size M)
200g sugar
125ml oil
1 tbsp matcha powder
250ml milk
1,5 tbsp Bensdorp cocoa
400g flour
Frozen raspberries and blueberries
1 pinch of salt
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. 2. Line your muffin tray with paper muffin liners. 3. Beat the eggs with a hand-held mixer until fluffy. Then add oil and milk. 4. Mix the flour with salt and baking powder and
sieve it on the dough. Add sugar and blend until everything is well incorporated – make sure not to over-blend!
5. Divide the dough in two halves. Add matcha powder to one half and cocoa to the other. 6. Fill paper trays with both the chocolate and the matcha dough in turn – adding berries to taste – and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
7. Sprinkle
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with icing sugar or coat with chocolate if you like.
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MATCHA SWIRL BANANA BREAD INGREDIENTS 175g soft butter
1 pinch of salt
200g sugar
2 large bananas (very ripe)
3 eggs (size M)
3 tbsp sour cream
350g flour
2 tbsp matcha green tea powder
½ sachet of baking powder
1. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Line a loaf pan with baking parchment. 2. Beat butter and sugar with a hand-held mixer until a
creamy paste has formed, i.e. 3 to 4 minutes. Slowly incorporate the eggs.
3. Blend flour, baking powder and salt. Mash the bananas
with a fork (or in a food processor), then stir them into the cream. Add both the flour and the banana-cream mixture to the dough and blend until everything is well incorporated.
4. Divide the dough in two halves. Add matcha green tea powder to one half of the dough and blend coarsely. 5. Pour the dough into the pan using matcha and nonmatcha dough in turn. 6. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes. 15 minutes in, take a knife
and cut a 1 cm deep lengthwise slit into the surface. If necessary, cover with aluminum foil after 50 minutes to avoid excessive darkening.
7. Let the loaf cool then remove it from the pan and pour a light layer of sugar icing over the surface (optional). 8. My tip: Mix a handful of bake-proof chocolate chips into the dough before dividing it and give yourself (and/or your guests) a banana loaf with a chocolate-y surprise. 107
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PROMO
CO CKTAI L BA R with Cris Santos
MATCHA LATTE Follow Cris
csantosphoto
2 chashaku spoons of matcha 2 ounces of water Milk of choice (Preferably soy/rice milk) Sugar syrup
1. 2 chashaku spoons of
matcha sifted through a fine sifter.
2. Add about 2 ounces of water and whisk. 3. Pour into a coffee mug. 4. Steam milk of choice
CRIS AS A PHOTOGRAPHER
Cristopher Santos.com
(Preferebly soy/rice milk) and add to the mug to the top.
5. Stir in sugar syrup to desired sweetness.
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MATCHA PINA COLADA 1 chashaku spoon of matcha 1-2 ounce of water 1 ounce Malibu rum Pineapple juice Pineapple
1. 1 chashaku spoon of matcha sifted through a fine sifter 2. Add about 1-2 ounce of water and whisk. In a long glass add ice and the prepared matcha.
3. Add 1 ounce Malibu rum and top with pineapple juice. 4. Stir and garnish with pineapples. 109
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PROMO
MATCHA MARTINI 2 chashaku spoons of matcha 1-2 ounces of water 2 ounces high-quality gin 1 lime Sugar syrup
1. Add ice to a martini glass to chill and discard ice before pouring 2. 2 chashaku spoons of matcha sifted through a fine sifter. 3. Add about 1-2 ounces of water and whisk. 4. In a Martini shaker, fill with ice halfway up. 5. Add 1/2 ounce simple syrup and 2 ounces quality Gin (we used Bombay). 6. Squeeze 2 lime wedges and add to the prepared matcha. 7. Shake vigourously and pour into a prechilled martini glass. 8. Optional: rub lime peel around the rim
D
O
W
N
L
O
A
D
before pouring the martini.
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Bartender Cris shows how versatile the magic green powder can be at the Matcha Mix & Match Bar – either in a latte, martini, or Pina Colada. He compiled the recipes for you here so you can create the drinks at home as well.
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PROMO
WHAT COMPRISED THE RELAUNCH OF 'AIYA - THE TEA' AND WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR IT? WHAT DID CHANGE FOR THE CUSTOMERS OF AIYA - THE TEA?
NEW LOGO
MATCHA LATTE TO GO
The relaunch affects the whole brand. This means that we not only updated and redeveloped the product packaging but also the logo, the website, and the whole communication material. Our goal was the combination of the modern and trendy aspects that distinguish matcha with the tradition of the product. That’s why you find the patterns of the stone mills that have been grinding the matcha for centuries on our packages. It also was important for us that the design reflects the premium character of the products and makes it stand out from the mass. Next to the new design, the point of purchase is new for our customers. As of now, our products are purchasable in our new online shop at www.aiya-europe.com/shop as well as in selected specialty tea shops and delicatessen stores. Moreover, we expanded our product range. The popular matcha for beginners, Izumi, is now available in a tin with 80 grams, our ceremonial matcha Hikari is now called Akashi, and we changed the composition of our matcha for latte to-go. It now contains more matcha and is certified organic. Next to matcha, we provide four new premium green teas.
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SUPER PREMIUM MATCHA TEN
PREMIUM MATCHA HORAI
MATCHA AKASHI
WHAT ROLE DOES THE COMPANY'S HISTORY WITH 125 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE PLAY IN THE RELAUNCH? HOW CAN WE SEE AND EXPERIENCE IT? The company history reflects the quality of the products. We remain true to our high demands and didn’t use the relaunch to add new and cheap products to our range and sell them en masse. No, we want to concentrate on what we can do best: produce high-quality matcha in organic quality. As I mentioned before, the packaging design also reflects the long tradition of the product. The selected pattern is not a random, pretty, geometrical one, but it represents something that's been at the core of our business for centuries. I like these small details the customers don’t recognize at first sight and that you think of after recognizing, »Oh, cool, there’s more to it!«
MATCHA FOR BEGINNERS IZUMI
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We needed about six months from the first ideas to the launch.
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PROMO
HOW WAS THE NEW DESIGN CREATED? I think that not only the aforementioned stone mill pattern reflects the brand, but also the entire look and many further details. Among the most frequent feedback I receive concerning the new design is, »It also could be an expensive cosmetics brand.« This association doesn’t bother me at all, quite the contrary actually. Cosmetics are precious products of high quality as well. And matcha is »cosmetics from within« thanks to the high concentration of antioxidants. Furthermore, it was our goal to stand out from the mass and not to look like typical tea – because matcha is much more than tea, which is what the design was supposed to show.
The most important thing for us is that our customers can rely on the quality of our products, that they like our matcha like no other, and that they find a lot of matcha inspiration with us. That’s what we work for every day with passion. SISTER-MAG.COM
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Also, the design is very puristic. In my opinion this goes very well with the product and the brand since matcha is the pure, clean, ground tealeaf. Green tea in its purest form, so to say. With the packaging material, we were mindful of paper with a nice feel. We had the logo embossed so that you can feel the structure with your fingers. The choice of colours of the different products reflects their qualities as well. For instance, we chose gold and rosegold as an accent colour for the two high-quality products in our range, the super premium matcha Ten and the premium matcha Horai. As you can see, we emphasized the small details since they are what define our brand.
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PROMO
#Ma t c ha Day16 What happened on Social Media
YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT OTHERS POSTED AND SNAPPED? #MATCHADAY16
#MATCHADAY16
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BAKING AVENUE
SERENDIPITY BLOG
HEY LILA HEY
EXPERIMENTE AUS MEINER KÜCHE
MINZGRÜN
EXTRASCHÖN
BL O G
JAMINA1404
POS TS
C'EST LALI
THE UNIQUE FASHIONISTA
SYLVIS LIFESTYLE
MEINE KÜCHENSCHLACHT
ANDY SPARKLES
KOCH KARUSSELL
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Thanks so much for your lovely words and postings!
SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
PROMO
ONLY BUY MATCHA
aiya Online Shop Follow Aiya
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OR WIN ONE OF OUR GOODIE BAGS FROM SISTERMAG & AIYA
How?!
6 1 y a D a h c t a M # 119
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LIGHT
Ende 121
Pin our image s SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
is sterMag Tip
BENTO BOX FROM TAKENAKA
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LIGHT
What we love most in the sisterMAGoffice: finding new and exciting products and smart solutions for everyday problems. With the Bento Box from TAKENAKA we found both merged into one. For our Matcha Day these cute and colourful little boxes were just perfect, because the producing company is from Japan. However they are rolling out their products in Europe as well. A few days before our event our office was filled with the little boxes in all colours of the rainbow. We were tempted to just keep them for ourselves. However if you also want a Matcha Goodie Bag (including the colourful Bento Boxes), just take part in our giveaway here .
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S TA R T UP SP OT L IGH T LIGHTBOYS INDUSTRY
Photography / Interior Design
www.lightboys.com
INTRODUCTION
Hi! We are Lightboys from Hamburg. HEAD OFFICE
FOUNDERS
Hamburg
We
Philipp Baumgaertel & Philipp Westermeyer
and light. They could be installations
create
products
that
range
somewhere
between
photography
for hotels or luxury yachts but also home decoration like the polaboy. INSPIR ATION
LOGO
The idea came while we monitored advertising
technology.
Everybody
knows the illuminated billboards on bus stops. We asked ourselves if it would be possible to create these things in a »beautiful way«. Nothing with Media Markt content but with art or beautiful pictures. We elaborated
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LIGHT
the technology as well and made it
best Polaroid photographers with us.
slimmer so it fits in every room.
This is a big honor! THE CUSTOMERS
FOUNDERS' CVS
I was in the technology sector before; our designer Jirko is actually a metalworker; our investors are marketing people – we are quite diverse!
In the private sector, mostly women over 30 and men over 40 purchase our products. Many objects are limited, which most of our customers appreciate. Those who know even a little bit about art and design don’t always wish for a classical piece
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRODUCTS
everyone owns but are looking for their
For us, it’s all about uniqueness. We
own style. Those people purchase our
ask ourselves: What looks good? How
products. But there are many hotels,
can you give back to a photo what it
restaurants or concept stores that
had when it was born – the light? Our
are excited about our product line as
gallery is unique, we have some of the
well.
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FINANCING
Primarily with our sales but we also have some excellent business angels with us who are internationally active. Some of them built up companies with 1,400 employees and revenue of millions of Euros. We also started a
crowdfunding c足 ampaign
recently.
BIGGEST SUCCESS AND THE GRE ATEST COOPER ATIONS
Building up a brand and having a really great team that has everything FACEBOOK
Polaboy
one could wish for!
polaboy
There are a lot of great cooperations.
INSTAGR AM
#thepolaboy
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For example, we worked with Colette
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LIGHT
in Paris. But discovering new artists
the constant improvement of the
and photographers is a lot of fun
products and a unique gallery. But we
as well. But eventually, it’s the
will have new products as well: The
customers. When we receive an email
digital polaboy is in the development
that says how great something looks
phase and will access new target
somewhere, it makes us very happy!
groups with issues like »Instagram as interior design«. We are very much
ART OR DESIGN?
looking
I believe it is something in-between art and design. For sure, the content
forward
to
this!
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF FREELANCE
we use is art. But the way we render
The light certainly is the opportunity
this content is design.
to do your own thing. To push your own agenda gives you a great feeling.
FIRST EMPLOYEE?
Also, success is always nice. A great
Next to product design, the sales
customer,
department is always very important.
becoming reality – all this encourages.
But with serial production, things
The shadows are the cold sweat and
like the supply chain become a hot
the doubts you have when you lay
potato. You need competent people
awake in bed at night and ask yourself
there quite quickly. And fortunately
what will happen when all of this
we found them!
doesn’t work out. But this is what you
new
employees,
plans
have to get through with. If it doesn’t
WHERE DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN 5 YEARS?
go forward it can also go up and down.
We want to become a global design brand. This doesn’t only involve
WEBSITE
activities on all continents but also
www.lightboys.com
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BRIGHT
TO
DARK
T H G I BR E C T I O N 2 S TO K R DA 129
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PROMO
Whether you are a foodie, a master chef, of severely limited kitchen prowess, open to experiments, or stick to what you know; like it simple or sophisticated, local or exotic, savoury or sweet, a ÂťBowlÂŤ is adjustable to any taste. And also very nice to look at. #smoothiebowls have been around for quite a while now, having first popped up on Instagram. Decorated lovingly and with a great eye for detail, the bowls have developed into a veritable food trend online as well as offline. Promising to
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unleash new levels of creativity and redefining the limits of diversity in design, the bell is about to ring in the next round. This has inspired Alnatura to help us embrace the trend: They are now offering idea panels showcasing on their website meal options for any time of day which are ideal for preparation in a bowl. So get ready to replicate these ideas, be inspired, and/or come up with your own variations. Breakfast is not the only meal that looks good in a circular container; lunch, dinner and snacks are all waiting to be dressed to the nines in a bowl. With great flexibility and the option to swap ingredients to taste, a
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Introduction Text: Zoe Blechschmitt | Illustrations: Alice Williamson | Fairytails Texts: Emma Heath | Translation: Tanja Timmer & Thea Neubauer
feast for any palate is guaranteed. Until February 29, anyone is invited to share their ideas with their fellow food enthusiasts and judge the efforts presented. And as if making your meal times more exciting wasn’t reward enough, there are fabulous prizes up for grabs as well, ranging from hotel vouchers (at a combined value of 1500€) to Alnatura hampers. Reading this after the deadline? Don’t worry. Pop by your nearest branch and keep Alnatura an eye on their social media channels so you won’t miss their next promotion, which is sure to be announced soon. We have asked some of our food blogger friends to recreate their favourite bowls based on
Alnatura recipes. Check out the tasty results on the following pages and let them inspire you to get a little creative yourselves. Be warned though: Browsing these pictures may make you hungry! Author Emma Heath and illustrator Alice Williamson introduce us to the topic through three Alice in Wonderlandinspired trips to the heart of the bowl. The fairytales were inspired by a cooperation with organic food label Alnatura. Allow these journeys to inspire a sense of sustainability and the sensible consumption of resources. Have fun!
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PROMO
Early
sisterMAG Commuter Fairytail
Once upon a rush hour Monday, you’re waiting for your bus again. Hemmed in between black mood clouds and stiff grey-suited men.
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You’re poked by bony elbows and knocked by knobbly knees. Tumble down into your breakfast bowl, and out beneath a... tree? You’re clueless how you
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got here. Phones don’t work in mystic lands. So you sit and wait, then wait some more. Surely someone must show up soon to lend a hand?
You’ve been waiting by the tree for hours, forlornly counting sheep, When an apple hits your forehead – ow! – and stirs you from your sleep. You watch the apple bounce and roll. It disappears behind a bush. Well, you finally make a move! Stand up and take a look.
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PROMO
Fields stretch to the horizon, a patchwork quilt of greens, and snaking through the middle? An apple-laden stream. You watch the apples bob along. They stir your appetite. You dive into the water, grab one and take a bite ...
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You’re right back where you started, crammed in by grumpy people. The bus comes round the corner, belching dust and spitting diesel. You watch the others clamber on. Then turn and walk away. Because you realise you’d rather wander in today.
The moral of this story? You’ll never really know all that the world can offer ‘til you just get up and go!
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PROMO
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T H E TA S K To interpret the recipe of a breakfast smoothie bowl by Alnatura: Bright, breezy breakfast
Dark Breakfast
THE BLOGGER Iris from
Sara from
The Vegan Architect
Love Nonpareille
10 minute s
Serves 2
Break fast!! SMOOTHIE:
100 g Alnatura frozen raspberries
160 ml Alnatura fruits and
vegetable juice »carrot«
Thoroughly blend the ingredients for the smoothie with a handheld TOPPING: blender or in a food processor. 1 small orange or blood orange Peel any additional fruit and cut 1 green kiwi fruit into small dices, where applicable. 1 small apple (or pear) Divide smoothie between two bowls and sprinkle with topping. 2–4 heaped tbsp 100 g semi frozen banana
heaped tbsp Alnatura Crunchy
2 tbsp Alnatura coconut flakes 1 tbsp Alnatura chia seeds*
DOWNLOAD RECIPE
* According to the EC regulation concerning novel foods the maximum daily intake is 15 g. Due to their absorbing properties, consume with sufficient amounts of fluids.
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PROMO
B R E A K FA S T R ANGE
A L N AT U R A F R U I T- & V E G E TA B L E JUICE
A L N AT U R A COCONUT FLAKES
I T ´S G E T S C R E A M Y WITH NUTBUT TER, E.G. CA SHE W CREME!
A L N AT U R A S P E LT C R U N C H Y
A L N AT U R A CHIA SEEDS
NUTS & SEEDS
BUY MANY INGREDIENTS FOR THE B R E A K F A S T- B O W L A T T H E A L N A T U R A O N L I N E S H O P – w e' v e m a d e a n o n l i n e s h o p p i n g c a r t!
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FOTO: M AGDA LEN A HUT TER
My name is Iris C. M. Frank from the blog The Vegan Architect , my way of sharing my love for vegan cooking as a counter measure to my stressful dayjob as an architect. I like experimenting in my kitchen and hence there are many different cultural influences represented in my blog. They range from Caribbean dishes to Indian ones. But they are all vegan.
I am Sara and my blog is lovenonpareille.com . Nonpareil, also known as hundreds and thousands, are the little multi-coloured sugar sprinkles with which you decorate cakes. The mixture of my recipes is just as colourful: sweet things, savoury dishes, healthy stuff, and the occasional guilty pleasure. Almost all of them are vegan.
Is there an ingredient you really like?
Is there an ingredient you really like?
Frozen bananas for a creamy base, fresh peaches, raw buckwheat porridge and avocados for a special twist. Plus spinach, raspberries and coconut flakes.
Definitely porridge! I have it almost every morning – with vast amounts of fresh fruit and nuts sprinkled on top. And also salads of any kind – from arugula and beet root to oriental lentil bowls.
Favourite product? I discovered Alnatura many years ago when I was a new vegan. Their mushroom spread was a revelation. Today I often buy the Alnatura cashew puree, the Arrabbiata tomato sauce and their unsweetened spelt drink.
Favourite product? Their wide selection of seeds; nuts and grain flakes never fails to inspire me when it comes to creating new porridge variations.
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PROMO
The smoothie base ‌ For improved creaminess and richness, blend in half an avocado or stir in a dollop of Alnatura nut spread.
Alternatives to juice? How about swapping the juice for some Alnatura Coco Drink Mango or almond milk?
BRIGHT The Vegan Architect
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DARK
Love Nonpareille
The Topping Robust yet fruity, that’s the way to go! As an alternative to chia seeds, try Alnatura flax seeds or roasted nuts. Mix up your choice of fruit each day. 141
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PROMO
LUNCH
sisterMAG Blogger Fairytails
Once upon a late night Wednesday, you’re working 'round the clock again. Your friends all warn »it’s unsustainable«, but you can’t resist your pen. You make yourself a midnight snack – it must be LUNCH somewhere! – but you’re too tired and fall asleep, your spoon still in midair. You can’t believe your senses when you wake up in... a field?! Up in the sky, as clouds waft by, a curious sun's unveiled.
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You’re certain that the exit hatch is back inside that bowl. But looking 'round you’ve no idea quite how to reach your goal. A fragile little seedling pokes its head above the ground. Unfurls its leaves, then stretches, and slowly looks around. You whisper to the fledgling shoot, »Can you grow very high?« -»I think I may be able to. At least, I'll have a try.«
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PROMO
Weeks pass. You grow impatient: »Hurry up and reach full-size.« »I’ll get there when I get there,« the scrawny stalk replies. And one day, at the season's end, the plant says, »Now I'm done.« You clamber up its knotted trunk, right through the bowl-shaped sun!
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You jolt awake. You're at your desk. Outside, the breaking dawn. You turn from your computer and go welcome in the morn. The moral of this story? Some worthwhile things take time. Don't always be impatient to get on and do the climb.
* When Alnatura founder Gรถtz Rehn developed the Alnatura brand more than 30 years ago, he had a clear goal: Alnatura shall promote an alternative modus operandi, one that places sustainable production ahead of the pursuit of profit. A practice where people play an integral role in using the earth without harming her, beneficial for both humans and the planet.
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PROMO
T H E TA S K To interpret the recipe of Alnatura's Oriental Lunch-Bowl: Light of the Orient
Dark Orient
THE BLOGGER Karin from
Christine from
Geschmacksmomente
Trickytine
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I am Karin from Geschmacksmomente ! My blog offers a collection of »creative simple recipes«. I want to take my readers and their taste buds on a journey all across the globe. I like cooking with strangers and discovering new cultures. I also like to travel and let new places inspire me. But I also like the regional touch and creating new interpretations of traditional recipes.
Hello, my name is Christine and my food blog is called trickytine ! Easy, tricky, delicious, happy, curious for new culinary experiences – that’s my personal credo and also the positive attitude I want to convey to my readers through my blog.
Is there an ingredient you really like? Since I got a high-powered blender I have taken to preparing smoothie bowls for breakfast. Generally speaking, I would describe my taste as classic, though with fruit salads and nuts on yoghurt or delicious, hearty, hot soups as my staples.
Is there an ingredient you really like? Thai dishes and the versatile salads from my cookbook »ShakingSalad« are my staples.
Favourite product?
Favourite product?
I really enjoy using Alnatura‘s full range of flours and grains – for baking as well as cooking. Their selection of dried fruits and nuts is also fabulous and makes for great healthy snacks. And I love their tea with mountain herbs!
My favourite Alnatura products are their steel-cut oats. I love porridge with dried cranberries, fresh persimmon, cinnamon and cardamom.
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PROMO
LUNCH time … for
35min
2 O R I E N TA L L U N C H - B O W L
125 g Alnatura millet 1 carrot 1 apple
Alnatura lemon juice Alnatura raw cane sugar Alnatura see salt
Peel kohlrabi, cut into small sticks, and boil in lightly salted water.
Alnatura black pepper
4- 5 twigs fresh coriander (cilantro) 1 small kohlrabi 1 small onion 3 tbsp Alnatura garden vegetable spread »spinach walnut«
Cook millet according to package instructions. (This can be done on the day before). Peel and grate carrot and apple. Stir with lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Finely cut cilantro and incorporate.
1 EL Alnatura olive oil 100 g Alnatura chickpeas, drained
40 g pomegranate seeds 4 tbsp Alnatura Alnatura spread
1 glass Alnatura beet root, drained 40 g Alnatura feta cheese 10 g Alnatura alfalfa sprouts
Mango-Curry-Papaya
Peel onion, cut in half and slice finely. Stir olive oil into spinach walnut spread then add onion, chickpeas and pomegranate seeds and stir to incorporate. Stir cooled millet into mango curry papaya spread. Divide millet mixture into two bowls; this will form the base. Then add chickpea salad and top with kohlrabi and carrot apple salad. Sprinkle with feta cheese and sprouts.
or any other sprouts of your choice
DOWNLOAD RECIPE
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COLOURFUL LUNCHMIX
A L N AT U R A L E M O N JUICE
A L N AT U R A S E E S A LT
A L N AT U R A MILLE T
A L N AT U R A SPROUTS A L FA L FA
A L N AT U R A A L N AT U R A G A R D E N S P R E A D M A N G O - V E G E TA B L E S P R E A D C U R R Y-PA PAYA » S P I N A C H W A L N U T«
A L N AT U R A O L I V E O I L N AT I V EXTRA
A L N AT U R A BEE T ROOT
A L N A T U R A CHICKPE A S
BUY MANY INGREDIENTS FOR THE LUNCH-BOWL A T T H E A L N A T U R A O N L I N E S H O P – w e' v e m a d e a n o n l i n e s h o p p i n g c a r t!
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BRIGHT PROMO
Savoury Moments
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Trickytine
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PROMO
DINNER-MIX
A L N AT U R A G A R D E N V E G E TA B L E S P R E A D FENNEL PE AR
A L N AT U R A S A L D SEEDS MIX
A L N AT U R A MOZ Z A REL L A-MINIS
A L N AT U R A T O M AT O S A U C E TUSCANNY
A L N AT U R A BL ACK PEPPER
A L N AT U R A CAPERS
A L N AT U R A BAL SAMIC VINEGAR
A L N AT U R A PESTO VERDE
A L N AT U R A O R I G I N K A L A M ATA OLIVES
BUY MANY INGREDIENTS FOR THE DINNER-BOWL AT T H E A L N AT U R A O N L I N E S H O P – the shoppingcard w e h a v e d o n e!
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T H E TA S K To interpret Alnatura's Mediterranen Dinner-Bowl recipe. Summerdinner in bright
Winterdinner in the Dark
T H E B LO G G E R Julia from
Christina from
Chestnut & Sage
Tinas Tausendschön
Dinnertime
Serves 2 35 minutes
MEDITERRANE DINNER-BOWL
120 g Alnatura quinoa 170 g small tomatoes 200 g brown mushrooms 6 balls Alnatura mozzarella
4 tbsp Alnatura Origin Kalamata olives
4 tbsp Alnatura garden vegetable spread »fennel pear«
minis
250 g zucchini 2 Alnatura Mediterranean
patties
4 twigs fresh basil About 5 tbsp Alnatura olive oil
2 tbsp Alnatura salad seeds mix Prepare quinoa according to package instructions. In the meantime cut tomatoes and mushrooms into quarters (or smaller if necessary). Cut the mozzarella balls in half and dice the courgette.
Alnatura balsamic vinegar Alnatura sea salt Alnatura black pepper
Cut the patties into sticks of 1cm width (0.4"). Chop basil.
1–2 heaped tbsp
Alnatura capers
1 heaped tbsp
Alnatura Pesto Verde
1–2 pinches
Alnatura oregano (dried)
4–5 tbsp Alnatura tomato sauce
Mix the tomatoes and mozzarella balls and season with 1 or 2 table spoons of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
»Tuscany«
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Continuation Recipe SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
PROMO
Fry the mushrooms in 1 table spoon of oil until golden-brown. Add capers and continue frying for a short while. Season mushroom mix with pesto, salt and pepper to taste. Reheat olive oil, then add the zucchini and season with oregano, salt and pepper. Then, placing the vegetable on one side of the pan, fry the patty sticks. Heat the tomato sauce and stir in the boiled quinoa. Divide the tomato quinoa mixture between two bowls; this will form the base. Then add tomato salad, mushrooms, zucchini and patty sticks and top with olives and fennel pear spread. Sprinkle with basil and salad seeds mix.
Alternative: Try Alnatura pulses or spelt pasta as an alternative base. Tip: Prepare your chosen base the day before. For an even quicker bowl, try Alnatura mie noodles!
DOWNLOAD RECIPE
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Christina Bumann from Tinas TausendschĂśn . Original everyday life-proof dishes which I like to present in such a delicious manner that it will make your mouth water just looking at them!
Is there an ingredient you really like? I like to mix it up with pasta. It is so versatile and you can reinvent any dish by changing a few ingredients.
Favourite product? The bell pepper a& cashew spread. It’s just as good on a nice piece of dark rye bread as it is on a fresh baguette.
My name is Julia and on my blog Chestnut & Sage – you'll find anything related to food and drink and savouring the two, spiced with curiosities and the occasional bit of naval-gazing.
How would you describe your style? I like quiet pictures that aren't too crowded, which is true for my cooking too. More often than not, it's just a few simple ingredients that make the best dish.
Is there an ingredient you really like? Pulses – especially lentils! They are very healthy and also incredibly versatile.
Favourite product? Alnatura's beluga lentils are my favourite.
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PROMO
The topping decides! Crunchy toppings are the crown of every great dish. Instead of nuts and seeds, opt for Alnatura's delicious chia crisps.
BRIGHT Chestnut & Sage
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DARK
Tinas Tausendschรถn
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BRIGHT
Text: Nina Anika Klotz
TO
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| Photos: Helena Melikov
Tilman’s Illumination From light lemon yellow to dark midnight black– beer can be so much. Yet very few people know this. If we think of beer, we usually think of Pilsner. And that’s a pity. The craft beer revolution brings a number of almost forgotten beer styles back on the table. We explore a controversial movement, brewers with passion, and a slightly difficult term. The idea took little convincing: At the beginning of 2014, Tilman Ludwig of Munich decided to set up his own business as a brewer and to put a light beer on the market. In Bavaria. Light beer county. In relative terms, there is no place in the world where they brew more light beer than in Bavaria, and almost every Bavarian brewery has a light beer in its regular repertoire. Simply put, light beer is what people in Bavaria mean when they say beer. Augustiner? Light beer!
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CRAFT BEER, THIS IS BEER WITH MORE PA SSION . A »Halbe« (a tankard with half a litre of beer)? Light beer! Oktoberfest brew? Light beer! There was reason to critically question the business plan of the young brewer. Another light beer in Bavaria – wouldn’t that be like carrying coals to Newcastle? Does the Free State of Bavaria need this; can one sell another light beer here? It soon became apparent that Tilman Ludwig can. His first batch, »Tilmans Das Helle« (Tilman’s The Light One), was sold out after four weeks. 5,000 bottles of beer – gone, zap, sold out. The trick was easy: You neither can reinvent the wheel nor the Bavarian light beer. But you can make it better. Different. And most of all, with much more passion. And this is what it is all about. Craft beer is beer with more passion; with emotion and love. It sounds like salesman gibberish, but it is true. For about three years, the term »craft beer« wanders through the German SISTER-MAG.COM
beverage landscape like a ghost. Like the product itself, the term comes from the USA. The literally translated »Handwerksbier« (craft beer) arose there in the 1960s when three big companies – Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors – dominated the entire American beer market. All three of them brewed pretty much the same beer, crisp lager, which was a cost-efficient, highly drinkable light beer with a slightly watery and, most of all , always the same taste. Those who wanted to drink something different had to brew it themselves with passion, craft and muscle. This is how a robust home-brewing scene developed. Thanks to an amended law President Jimmy Carter signed in 1978, America’s hobby brewers got the opportunity to sell their home-brewed beer. This way, home-brewing became microbrewing – or craft brewing. This gave the hobby of wellbehaved family fathers the most remarkable change in the beer
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business since prohibition: the craft beer revolution was born. It is a revolt of the underdogs, the alternative people, the indie people. Craft beer is the counterweight to the mainstream; beer from small, independent breweries in contrast to industrial crisp lager from the factory. The craft brewer distinguishes himself by brewing anything but crisp lager, by reviving old, unusual beer styles, by making strong beers, dark, sour ones, and ones fermented with fruits. If we take a look around we realize that we all know a lot of beer brands. The styles, however, are always the same: Pilsner, lager, simply light beer. On the local level, there is Koelsch, Altbier, wheat beer. And what else? Even committed regulars often don’t know that there are far more than one hundred beer styles, varieties like Pale Ale, IPA, Porter, Barley Wine, Lambic, Gose. Also, as far as taste is concerned, our idea of beer is often quite limited. If we
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think of beer, most of us think of the taste of Pilsner (except for Bavarians, who think of light beer). They are both rather bitter beers. But beer can also taste like chocolate, coffee and caramel, like an Imperial Stout, for example. Or like peach, grapefruit or honey. West Coast IPAs often do so. While the former originates from the malt, the latter stems from the hop. And a Belgian Kriek tastes like cherries because the brewer puts cherries in it. The German purity law actually prohibits things like this. It doesn’t have anything to do with the homogeneous beer wasteland over here, however, because there are plenty of exotic, essentially German beer styles that aren’t brewed anymore, like Lichtenhainer, Grätzer or Adambier. Never heard of these? Well, here's why. SISTER-MAG.COM
In Western Germany, in the region around Aachen, Sebastian Esser founded »Freigeist Bierkultur« (free spirit beer culture) and dedicated himself to exactly these beers. He looks for hundredyear-old recipes in libraries, archives and old books and tries to brew them. Esser actually didn’t learn how to brew; he is a businessman. He is autodidact, like many other craft brewers. He also doesn’t have his own brewery; he is a »gypsy brewer« like Tilman Ludwig. He rents smaller breweries for individual days or brews and uses their machines to make beer according to his recipes. Esser is one of the pioneers of the German craft beer movement. For a long time, he sold his beers mainly to the United States where »Freigeist« is no longer an insider tip in the craft beer scene. He's only been
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selling a considerable amount of beer in his home country for two or three years. The idea of craft beer fits the zeitgeist that makes more and more people question what they consume, that makes them want to know where the meat they eat is from and who made the cheese. The wish for more transparency and proximity between producer and consumer makes them go shopping at the weekly market and look for alternatives to massproduced goods. Through this course, craft beer gradually Berlin became came to Germany three to four the hotspot of the years ago. German craf t beer Berlin became the hotspot of the revolution. German craft beer revolution. There are now more than 10 different craft breweries with their own exciting stories. One example is Johannes Heidenpeter , a visual artist who set up a small brewery in the basement of Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg. Or the team of BRLO , a duo from the startup and digital scene who got together with a master brewer to brew Pale Ale, light beer, and Porter. Or Berliner Berg , where a master brewer from the USA specialized on Berliner Weisse. But there are also brave lateral entrants and uncompromising brewers in Hamburg, Munich, Mainz and Hanover – and in small cities and villages around the country, be it Waakirchen or Truchtlaching. 163
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The idea of craf t beer fits the zeitgeist that makes more and more people question what they consume, that makes them want to know where the meat they eat is from and who made the cheese..
Even the term 'craft beer' is difficult to grasp for most of them. The truth is, there is no definition for it – at least not one that is applicable in Germany. The American Brewers Association established for the more than 4,000 craft breweries in the country states that »an American craft brewer is small, independent and traditional«. Small means a maximum of 9,5 million hectolitres of beer per year. No more than 25 percent of the brewery may be in possession of a company to be classified independent. To meet the 'traditional' specification, a beer has to consist of the classic ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. If you transfer these specifications to Germany, almost SISTER-MAG.COM
all of the 1,349 breweries, even the big ones like Paulaner with 3,5 million hectolitres, would be included. Because of the German purity law, they all brew 'traditional' anyway. In this respect, the term craft beer is a hot topic in Germany. Can a brewery that belongs to a group like Bitburger be craft when it makes great, creative beers? What about the hundreds of independent, medium-sized breweries in Franconia that do nothing but the standard trio of light, wheat and bock beer? That a craft brewer needs a minimal level of creativity is an argument that is continually mentioned in discussions and finds a broad consensus.
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Which brings us back to »Tilmans Das Helle«. How creative is it to brew a light beer? Well, quite a bit if you do it like Tilman Ludwig does. He »dry-hops« his light beer like they say in brewer slang. »Dryhopping« is an old brewing technique that is completely unusual in the industry. In former times, the antibacterial effect of the hop made the beer durable. The concept is easy: some hop makes it a little bit durable, lots of hop makes it durable for a long time. That is why they hopped the beer twice, once during the process of brewing and once during the storage time. In doing so, they stuffed the hop into the tank – dry-hopping. Nowadays, beer is made durable by pasteurization. The brewer can actually save the dry-hopping. And since hop is quite expensive, most of them do so.
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THE FL AVOURS
But there are a lot of flavours missing from the beer. Hop is full of essential oils that vanish during brewing but get back into the beer during dry-hopping. Depending on the hop variety, peach, grapefruit or blossom flavours could get into the beer; even something grassy, resinous,
a touch of honey. All of this can be tasted in Tilman’s light beer. The Munich resident works with a special hop variety, Chinook, an aromatic hop from the U.S.A. Eventually, Tilman Ludwig was sick of his fans moaning that he should make more of these great beers and started producing the logical addition to his light beer: »Die Dunkle«, a Bavarian dark with the taste of caramel and berries that's close to an English Stout. The beer range of Tilman Ludwig covers the colour spectrum quite well – for the middle between »Das Helle« and »Das Dunkle«, he also brews a »Brown Ale«.
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L IG HT & SHADOW
IN A
GL A S S SISTER-MAG.COM
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Text: Alex Sutter
Every once in a while my co-founding colleague Thea asks me to contribute a small article even though my main job in the sisterMAG family is promotions, i.e. forming partnerships and securing financing for our magazine.
In order to not make this demand look all too excessive, Thea has graciously agreed to let me write about my penchant and hobby — wine — but not without tying me and my contribution to the current issue’s subject of »light & shadow«.
lines of »in vino veritas«
So I decided to start with a round of free association to find my article’s subject. I quickly decided to give the obvious shadow aspects, the dark side of alcohol, a miss and also came to the conclusion that enlightenment along the
maybe, but hardly a new
was a bit on the nose. I did, however, notice a pattern of complementarity: light white wine is best enjoyed sitting in a cool summer shade
while
the
full
flavour of dark red wine develops by bright candle light.
A
nice
thought,
one. Instead I have decided to share with you three of my notes on the impact light and shadow have on wine, plus the obligatory wine recommendation.
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Light & Wine & Shadow wine cannot be stored as well as red wine is simply false. A good quality Riesling is just as delicious at a young age with light notes of grass, hay and fruit as it is at a riper age when it has developed into a rich golden liquid. Case in point: Dry selection wines of the Kallstadter Saumagen vintage from the Koehler-Ruprecht winery in the Palatinate region. Just a few days ago we sampled a wine from 1996 — a 20-year-old treat.
• First of all it has to be said that light has a detrimental effect on wine even once it has been bottled. It makes it age quicker. That is why wine comes in coloured glass bottles. In Germany, extra dark brown glass was used for especially fine wines until a while ago but brown bottles have now become rather unfashionable. I still like them though. • Wine is best stored in a shady cellar with as little light as possible, at a temperature (which increases with added light) of around 11 or 12 degrees Celsius and at the right level of humidity. So don’t assume an aged brown bottle with a mouldy label must hold some mangy old liquid that’s been improperly stored; it could turn out to be quite valuable.
If
succumb to a cliché and would indeed like to sample a prototypical
»light »deep
white« and
red«
I
c a n h i g h ly
recommend the following
• The claim that a light white
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TREBBIANELLO aus
S omm ac a mpagn a ( Vene to) from the
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GARGANEGA FERNANDA
Vine ya rd • A light and easy-going white wine that’s still concise with great clarity. This highly enjoyable wine is predominantly made from grapes known by the melodious name »Garganega« . • At about 5€ per bottle (when bought directly at the winery) it is a bargain, too, and in no way inferior to the »hip« alternative Lugana which is widely available at about 8€, alas, per glass. • The white bottle suggests that this wine should be drunk while it’s still young; and with its moderate alcohol contents and thanks to the very clean production in stainless steel tanks, it is perfectly possible to save a considerate amount of this wine from the pains of old age with great enthusiasm.
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Corvina Corvinone Rondinella Croatina
e le g a st ruc
V a l p o l i c e ll a From
Mezz ane
Superiore di
Sotto
( A ls o V e n e t o )
from
R o c c o l o G r a ss i
winery
the
• An elegant and structured red wine rich in flavours and essences without dullness or any jam-like quality • At 20€ a bottle (bought at the winery) it doesn’t come cheap, but it is more than a match for many of its even more expensive fellow wines from the same region and beyond (it dwarfs many a high-priced Amarone vintage in terms of flavour, but like those also
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sports an alcohol content of 16%). • Made by a very likeable brother-and-sister team who hold themselves to exorbitant expectations in terms of quality — a rarity in mass wine production • The owners didn’t want to use their family name to market the wine (because of another producer by the same name) and decided to christen their vineyard for the first man ever recorded as the owner of the land, a farmer named Roccolo Grassi.
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Both suggestions w e r e t h o r o u g h l y, a n d e n t h u s i a s t i c a l l y, t r i e d and tested, by myself as w e l l a s To n i a n d C r i s , on our travels through Ven e to f o r t h e f ir s t ever issue of our travel magazine » D E A R S O U V E N I R« . They might not be a permanent solution to lighten the dark or chase s h a d o w s a w a y, b u t i f y o u are looking to enjoy a good glass of wine you could do a lot worse both on a bright summer patio a n d i n a d a r k c e l l a r. . . SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
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BOAT HEEL BUTT TOPPER
From White Bread to Pumpernickel Photos & Recipes: Claudia Gรถdke Styling: Rike Janke Text: Nina Fรถrster
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From White Bread to Pumperni ckel Topper, heel, butt or even boat – there are many words for the last slice of a loaf of bread. Or do you prefer baps? But call them cob, oggie batch or bridie!? Wherever you feel at home on the bread map it is a staple and it’s hard not to resist its gorgeous freshfrom-the-oven smell.
From soft white bread to crusty rye from
4-6
slices of bread per day is recommendend by the DGE (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung e.V.) (= 200-300 g)
breakfast to supper the cereal based product is a regular on most our plates. Whether you prefer adding butter or a vegetable spread, like it sweet or savoury or just eat it plain – bread is popular with all generations.
Turkey is sole lead at pro captia consumption of bread
Claudia Gödke has showcased a variety of types of bread for this sisterMAG feature. You will also find interesting information and helpful tips on baking and recipes for all kind of delicious breads!
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104 kg/YEAR
300
types of bread exist in Germany (we couldn't accommodate all of them in this feature)
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a short HISTORY OF BREAD It may sound hard to believe but
was a particular advancement.
the history of bread is almost
Allowing the dough to rise
as old as the history of men. As
made the bread much fluffier.
early as the Neolithic age our
The Romans were the first
ancestors grew einkorn wheat,
people to build large scale
spelt and wild emmer. Since these
mills which allowed for the
didn’t taste particularly well in
grinding of particularly fine
their raw and unprocessed form
flour. At roughly the same it
they ground the grains, and let
also became popular to knead
them soak in water. Our earliest
the dough in troughs. The
ancestors ate the resulting pulp as
dough hooks were moved by
it was but later baking said pulp
slaves or oxen.
on a hot stone resulted in the invention of an early kind of pita bread.
EGYPT The first »proper« loafs of bread were baked by the Ancient advanced
Egyptians.
The
civilization
on
the Nile also had the first bakeries Their discovery of how to ferment dough SISTER-MAG.COM
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THE CELTS
the rural areas. White bread was
North of the Alps yeast, which
particularly popular at the time.
was used to brew beer, was added to the bread dough. This allowed for more variety and let to the
Usually this privilege was reserved for
the
wealthy
individuals,
though, while the less well-off had
invention of sourdough and hence
to make do with dark bread.
leavened bread.
The Romans
Middle Ages
With slight improvements
In the Middle Ages baking bread
over time, the basic techniques developed by the
fell to the men in the cities while
Romans were used all over
it was the women’s domain in
Europe to bake bread until well into the 19th century. Communal ovens were a common sight in villages and everybody got to put their bread in once a week.
20th century Until the 20th century white bread remained a food exclusively available to the wealthy classes in Germany. Dark varieties were the only types of bread the less well-off could hope to afford. 181
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braided PESTO BREAD Time: 40 minutes| makes 2 breads
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1 organic spelt bread
100 g basil pesto
baking mix
100 g tomato pesto
Prepare the bread dough according to the instructions. Cover and let rest at a warm place for 30-60 minutes until the dough has double in size.
both sides with the cut facing up
Shortly knead the dough on a floured surface and devide it into two portions. Using a rolling pin, roll out half of the dough into a rectangle.
baking paper covered baking sheet.
Evenly spread the basil pesto on the dough using a knife or spatula, while leaving a little space on the edges. Start rolling the dough lenghtwise and cut it in half lenghtwise. Turn
and start braiding them. Carefully pinch the edges together and fold them under. Place the first pesto bread on a Make the second pesto bread in the same way, but se he tomato pesto instead. Cover the breads and let them rest for further 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 190°C and bake the bread for 30-40 minutes until they‘re golden brown. Let cool completely and store in an airtight container for up to two days.
DOWNLOAD
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Cheese and Bacon BREAD IN A JAR Time: 40 minutes | makes 2 breads in jar
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4 tsp chopped thyme
1 organic farmhouse bread baking mix
4 tsp chopped rosemary
500 g boiled ham, sliced
6 tbsp olive oil
400 g cheddar, sliced
2 weck jars á 850 ml
Prepare the bread dough according to the instructions. Cover and let rest at a warm place for 30-60 minutes until the dough has double in size.
teaspoons thyme on top. Arrange
Shortly knead the dough on a floured surface and devide it into two portions. Using a rolling pin, roll out half of the dough into a rectangle. Loosely roll up the dough and stick it in one of the glasses to make sure it doesn‘t stick out of the jar. If it‘s too long, cut it according to the size of your jar.
Prepare
Butter and flour the weck jars. Unroll the dough on the floured surface. Brush 3 tablespoons olive oil onto the dough and sprinkle two teaspooons rosemary and two
the bread is golden brown.
half of the cheese and boiled ham slices evenly on the dough. Roll up the dough lenghtwise and carefully place it in the jar. the
second
bread
accordingly and place it in the second jar. Cover the jars and let them rest at a warm place for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the weck jars on a baking tray and bake for 30-40 minutes until Remove the jars from the oven and let cool completely. The bread stays fresh for a few days.
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(gluteenfree) FRUIT AND SEED BREAD makes one loaf
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30 g almonds
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100 g dried figs, chopped
60 g sunflowerseeds
50 g dried apricots, chopped
1 tbsp chia seeds
4 tbsp raisins
70 g glutenfree rolled flakes (buckwheat, rice and millet) or glutenfree rolled oats
1 tbs salt 1 tbspmaple syrup or rice syrup
50 g ground flax seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp psyllium husk seed powder
200-400 ml water
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. In a measuring cup whisk 200 ml water, maple syrup and oil together and add to the dry ingredients.
Line a loaf pan or a 20cm springform
Using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix the ingredients until well combined. The ,dough‘ should be firm but not too crumbly and dry, so just add water and mix until this consistency is reached.
until the surface is golden brown.
pan with parchment paper and transfer the dough to your baking pan. Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the bread for 50-60 minutes Take the baking pan out of the oven and let cool completely. Serve with cheese or salted butter. The bread keeps fresh for up to a
Set the bowl aside and let the dough rest for 1-5 hours.
week.
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butter with
CARAMELIZED ONIONS time: 50 minutes
4 shallots
250 g salted butter, room temperature
3 tbsp olive oil Peel the shallots and chop them into very small pieces. Heat up the olive oil in a medium
time to time. Remove the shallots from the pot when they start to caramelize. Let cool.
shallots. Cook the shallots over low
In a bowl combine butter and shallots and mix well, using a fork.
heat for 30-40 minutes and stir from
Store in an airtight container.
sized saucepan/pot and add the
DOWNLOAD
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Crispy ‌ How do I get my bread really fluffy and moist?
How do I achieve the perfect crust?
To make sure the bread is nice
Baking bread requires a lot of tact and plenty of practice. After the dough is prepared comes the challenge of producing a crispy crust. This is how you do it correctly:
and fluffy, you need to give the dough enough time to settle. The subsequent fermentation process releases carbon dioxide, which loosens the dough. To bake a moist bread, you need to choose the right flour. Whole wheat and rye flour absorb considerably more water than light flour and swell slower. If you want it particularly moist, use a mould to prevent moisture from escaping at the sides. You’ll achieve a crispy crust by placing a small bowl of water in the oven during the first 10 minutes of baking. The steam moistens the bread and creates a crispy crust.
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1 Nick
or cut the dough before it goes in the oven. Flat breads should be poked with a fork before baking. Let it settle for a little while after.
2 Apply
the following shortly before baking while the bread is still in the oven; a For a golden crust: coat the loaf with milk-whisked or pure egg yolk. b For a dark crust: coat the loaf with coffee or a syrup. This also gives a shiny exterior.
3 After
baking, coat the bread with water or saltwater to make the surface smooth and shiny.
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56kg
of bread are consumed per person per year in Germany bread is categorised in ryewheat bread, wholemeal bread, wheat-rye bread, rye bread, wheat bread, multi-grain bread, spelz bread, rye-wheat bread, oat bread, other matters
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How do I know if my bread is fully baked? The first test you can do is to knock on the bread with your knuckles. If it sounds hollow, it’s done. To be fully sure, take it out of the oven and test the baking point with your flat hand.
How do I properly let it cool? The bread must be taken directly from its mould or sheet after baking. Ideally, you would place it on a rack. Cover the loaf with a kitchen towel to prevent moisture from escaping. Bread baked with yeast should sit for at least two hours.
What is the best way to store my bread? Never in the fridge! Bread should always be stored at room temperature. Keep in mind that it will harden faster if kept in containers made of wood, metal or paper and stay fresh up to 10 days if kept in a bread crock or ventilated plastic container. To play it safe, you should only store bread a maximum of three days.
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»My bread is crumbling!«
– The dough was kneaded for too long with the machine – Too much yeast – No or too little sourdough was added to a large rye flour bread.
»It's too compact!«
– The dough wasn’t kneaded enough – The liquid dough was too cold – The dough was exposed to drafts of air while settling – Too much sugar, eggs or fat has been used
»Imploded bread!«
– It was too hot while rising – The dough sat for too long
»It didn't rise!« – It was too hot when the yeast
was added – The sourdough was bad – Too much flour or not enough liquid was added – The liquid added while kneading was too hot»
»My bread is soggy!«
–– Too much liquid was added –– The oven was too hot; the crust is done, but the loaf slightly raw –– The dough wasn’t kneaded enough SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
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The end
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Photo: Breather
black loves white Text: Sophia Schillik | Cucina Piccina SISTER-MAG.COM
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LIGHT AND DARK IN I nte ri or Desig n A Six-Ac t Love Stor y
The presence of white also demands the presence of black. Opposites attract, you cannot separate such a strong team. A room in monochromatic design is the perfect home for a creative head. Styling your home in black and white is as simple as it is genius — and never boring; as long as you know to combine things elegantly. Setting contrasts with purpose creates an air of pure relaxation. Reducing your space to two colors will both make it shine and draw attention to your favourite pieces. There are just a few simple rules to be obeyed and a few neat tricks to be employed, and your new minimalist home in shadow and light is but a turn of the hand away.
Using white as a basis will make full use of any light available: sand-coloured walls, light furniture and crisp white curtains will reflect the sunlight and make your rooms feel airy. White glazed or white oil-treated floorboards add light and expanse as well as a beautiful Scandinavian flair. There is no need to pick one shade of white and stick with it; use all the shades and nuances white has to offer. Just make sure the different hues go well together. Consider pairing coconut and lily-white or how about oxidized silver and shell? Enter the realm of white and be amazed by the countless options you will find.
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Photo: Breather
Style
minimalism
means dispensing with anything unnecessary. When it comes to a monochromatic or black-and-white design, less is more. So make sure to tidy up! Use boxes, chests and cabinets to hide anything that disrupts the picture. Going monochrome in itself, however, will help you not to overdecorate, space pieces of furniture generously and give your unique treasures their well-deserved room. Add dark eye-catchers, carefully creating a clear and well-structured space with visual highlights which invite both the eye and the mind to linger and rest.
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Mix and Match
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Flickr, Little Greene Paint company
is a widely acknowledged approach to creating a cozy home that has both soul and character. If that is true for furniture and accessories in all the colours of the rainbow it holds even more true in the world of black and white. To avoid an air of clinical cleanliness, mix old objects and new ones, plain and ornate ones, romantic feminine objects with rustic male counterparts. Going »art nouveau only« is just as boring as sourcing every last thing from IKEA. It’s a clever mix of the brand new with vintage finds and trashy flea market oddities that makes an apartment an individual place with its own story to tell. A perfect symbiosis of clean-cut cool and homely coziness is what we’re looking for.
Materials Don’t stop the mixing and matching at style and epoch: combine and arrange materials to complement each other too, but make sure to stick to a clear colour concept. The countless shades of grey (metal, concrete, rock) and natural shades (leather, wood, wicker, rattan) provide a perfect link between black and white and nonchalantly add to the shadow play of light and dark. This takes the edge off some the more stark contrasts in the world of binary colour schemes. So it is fine to add a softener here and there to make your apartment a little livelier.
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How about a new coat?
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second chance
photo: Andrey Yachmenov
Great-aunty Emily’s old dresser is fabulous but hideously brown. That poison green swivel stool from the yard sale deserves a new lease on life. So don a shirt that doesn’t mind paint stains and off you go. With a bit of paint and the right brush any piece can be made to fit your style. Sometimes it can be a good idea to sand it down first, but that’s not always necessary. An old chandelier? A pair of antlers? A vintage basket? A can of black spray colour will turn anything into your next new favorite. Make sure to apply a base coat before adding new paint to chairs and tables though. By the way, you don’t have to wait for the original paint to peel before you can give an old piece a new coat.
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Black is the new black
inten sive
Black is the new black: Why not paint an entire wall black or go for black tiles in the bathroom? A matt dark-gray can look just as good and may be the easier way in for a black-newbie. Take the time to apply several coats so the shade will be both deep and retain its depth in sunlight. You don’t need palatial rooms to make this work, either. Pick a small room, maybe even one that isn’t permanently inhabited like a guest bathroom or the laundry room. If you have found the perfect shade of black it will work anywhere. Would you like a trial run? Mount a large slate tablet to the kitchen wall and try it out in a testing environment first or paint a piece of chipboard as high as your ceiling in what you think could be your perfect shade of black – viola: your new moveable feature wall.
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DEFINITELY MORE LIGHT THAN SHADOWS My way into self-employment Text & photos: Melina Royer
My job in itself was exciting: editorial design for magazines and sometimes the layout of a really great tome. While many designers only made business cards and advertisements, I did the big things. My eyes light up when I have paper between my fingers and brush over it. I always store well-designed print products and will be happy about the special colours and lacquer in 20 years.
I am a designer. A dream job, isn’t it? And I even had a really good job in a publishing house. Why »had«? Because I threw it all away to do something on my own.
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I C H W O L LT E M E H R . SISTER-MAG.COM
Nevertheless, I always was unhappy and wanted a new beginning. I wanted more. For a long time, I just didn’t know exactly what this »more« should be.
More money? Nice, but that was of secondar y impor tance. More fun? I’d love that . More r esponsibil i t y and own ideas? Absolutely! Eventually, I lived in the shadows of my own existence: work started at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. The company slowly went downhill and everybody was watching. My work was absolutely worthless; it was just about processing as many orders as possible and printing out a daily slip that pleased the publisher. I couldn’t even acknowledge myself for my work and soon didn’t want to give my best anymore. Don’t get me wrong – every job has its downsides, and you can’t always have fun, fun, fun. I’m not a dreamer who hunts for unattainable ideals.
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FIND OUT WHAT PUSHE S YOU!
At that time, my husband was his own boss for a long time already. I wanted to do the same: choose my work hours and my customers, think for myself, and lead my own way. So, looking for a new workplace wasn't an option. Somebody who has their own ideas is not the best choice for many companies. And there it suddenly was: the idea to set up my own business. Work, under the right terms, is fun and motivating, that’s for sure. The wish for freedom is not the call for less work. Quite the contrary, actually. Nobody wants to lay in the hammock all day and drink cocktails, right? Right! That’s why finding out what pushes me is one of my most important discoveries. That I can be different from everyone. For me, it is the strong urge to be independent. Making the decision of setting up my own business was easy. Putting it into practice wasn’t so much. The whole process took
me three years. There was an infinite loop of the lyrics of a song by the German band Fettes Brot: »Should I really do it or let it go?« I always asked myself the same questions:
»What would I sacrifice f or my wish?« »Am I really good enough?« »Should I waive a secur e wor k pl ace?« »Wha t if t he money isn’t enough?« With blockades like these in your head, you can go on forever thinking that it is not a good idea to risk something. But if there is one thing I learned in my first year as a freelancer, it’s this: There is neither the right time nor the optimal circumstances. And there are the naysayers as well. Naysayers say things to you like:
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don’t know what you know.
»Can you make a living ou t of i t ?« » Did you s t ud y t ha t ?« »Wha t if i t doesn’t work ou t ?« »Isn’t i t way t oo uncer t ain f or you?« In other words, you struggle with yourself, and then there are people who pull you down instead of really getting to know your idea. My reaction to all of these arguments is the same now (although it wasn’t always like that): »That’s what I thought in the beginning, too. But then I found out that…« Or I just ignore it. Some discussions are not worth having. Don’t forget: People who make statements like these thought about things half as much as you did. They don’t come from your line of business, earn their money in a totally different way, and have other concepts of fulfilling work. By all means, don’t let them upset you! Sometimes these statements come from your closest friends. That really hurts, but even they
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So, let them talk. Look for people who know what they are talking about and already do what you want to do. And who says that there is no way back? Seriously. In Germany, almost nothing can happen to us. If you fall, you fall softly. Not that it should come to this, but at least it calmed me down. There is no »real« safety anyway, neither as a permanent employee nor as a freelancer. Everything is very relative.
TEST RUN
This is how I started. I reduced my working time from fullto part-time, a good start to gradually rethink and to build a new basis of existence. I broke away from the thought of being dependent on a regular salary. Instead, I considered which extras I could waive to have the freedom of starting my own business. In February 2014, it was happening; my letter of resignation was on the table.
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CHECKL I ST
WHAT I AM DOING NOW
1.
Don’t think that you have to do everything at once. You can gradually reduce your working time and work freelance on the side. A cold start is not necessary.
Now, my husband and I manage a joint agency for corporate strategy and visual communication. We can motivate each other and work with a common vision. This also gives me room to take care of my own project: Vanilla Mind, a blog for self-employed women who want to learn how to outsell and to stand on their ground.
2. Do
your homework and create a real business plan. Reflect what makes you unique and distinguishes you from other business ideas. You don’t want to be one of many.
Whether there is plenty of excitement and I work until late or there is nothing going on, I love my job. I get to know many exciting people and never do the same. I can decide when to get up in the morning and when I go to bed and whether I accept a client or not. For me, it was the best decision I’ve ever made.
3. Find out about training offers and support (e.g. founders seminars, assistance...). Take everything you can get.
4. Don’t lose courage. I didn’t
get startup promotion from the employment office. But that’s all the same, since success is a matter of attitude. You don’t depend on the welfare of others.
If you also think about accepting a new challenge, I can give you the following tips: SISTER-MAG.COM
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Start to train all the virtues like self-discipline, perseverance and a good amount of persistence. You will be surprised how much of it you will need every day.
6.
Talk to people who already work successfully in your desired occupation. Family members sometimes are the wrong reference because they want to protect you (too much) against risks.
7. If
you don’t work out regularly, start! You need this compensation both physically and mentally. Sports also help you to develop assertiveness, which you will need a lot!
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9. Keyword
pa pe rw or k: Ca lc ul at e ho w m uc h yo u ne ed fo r liv in g an d wh ic h ne w co st s yo u ha ve to de al wi th . Fo r ex am ple, th e he al th in su ra nce wi ll be m uc h m ore ex pe ns ive th an yo u are us ed to fro m yo ur pe rm an en t em ploy m en t. At le ast at th e be gi nn in g, yo u ca n wa ive ot he r th in gs , like yo ur ca r.
10. Make
provisions. Before you start your own business, it is smart to be secured by your savings for at least six months.
11. Expect
8. Deal with paperwork. It’s no
fun at all, but when you already understand taxes and the associated dodges before you even start, you feel much safer. 219
that you not only perform your dream job, but many more as well: You are your own manager, psychologist, motivational accountant, tax consultant, assistant all in one person! But don’t panic; you can outsource many things over time. SISTERMAG 23 | 02 / 2016
Desk t o Success N째3 FR ANZISK A VON HARDENBERG
Founder of Berlin Startup Bloomy Days
W EBSITE
www.bloomydays.de CIT Y
Berlin PHOTOS
Cris Santos SISTER-MAG.COM
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What about your work environment or workplace is most important to you? A good mood, a nice atmosphere, and many fresh flowers, of course!
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Desk t o Success
Can we imagine your workplace to be as colorful and joyful as your products? Is there something special at your workplace? My workplace is quite colourful because there are always many things lying around‌ I can manage to tidy up, although I like everything being in order. There is a big iMac and piled up business cards on my desk. I especially love my sofa. I purchased it last year when I was pregnant. It was very pleasant to put my legs up occasionally and to work on the laptop. A very special piece is a small golden bird, a paperweight that I bought on our honeymoon on Santorini. It is a symbol for good times.
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Do you absolutely need a desk in the line of business you are in? Yes, absolutely. I am on the road quite often but I have to handle many things on my desk. Also, I like to know where my things are and that everything has its place. I wouldn’t like to work at other places all the time. Where is your workplace and what are your considerations behind it? At the back of our meeting room, where it is quiet but open and always accessible for everybody.
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How long can you get along without your smartphone? Are there »time-outs« for it? I can get along for 6 to 7 hours – while I am sleeping. But during the day, it’s almost impossible. Which wallpaper is on desktop of your computer?
the
As a matter of fact, it is a picture of flowers; blue larkspur. Everybody evolves a system over time. How would you describe your »desk system«? Every thing in its place all the time; there is not much more of a system.
in your company work? Does
What is an absolute no-go on a desk?
your team frequently use certain
A pot plant.
programs, and if so, which ones? We work a lot with Skype and
Is there a digital gadget you can't live without?
Asana.
My smartphone.
How does the communication
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Foto: Airteam
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Intro Text: Nina Förster
GAME OF DRONES
Way too often we loose track of how beautiful the earth actually is. Overwhelmed by a daily routine we have lost sight of the bigger picture. As known from other examples in life a change of perspective might be the needed remedy. Casting a glance from above helps us falling in love again with aesthetic landscapes and stunning city sceneries. The founder and team captain of the startup »Airteam« Thomas Gorski conjures fascinating pictures and videos with drones. Drones cast a truly holistic light on grand sceneries, capture landscapes and record much more than mere "top views". The drones' shape and size make them ideal versatile companion for various projects. The 4K footage by Airteam transforms mere images close to palpable reality. sisterMAG presents in the coming issues the "Trend drone" and which exciting perspectives are opened up by this hot technology. Already on May 5, a drone will have an important role during our trend workshops with Gudy Herder (check out more here ). And because drones are certainly not just toys for lads, we start with an interview with the Interactive Marketing Manager of Coca-Cola Korea, Eunkyung. You might ask: "What's her deal with drones?" -- Well, you have to figure it out on your own and read the article.
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Interview: Thomas Gorski
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LET WOMEN BEHIND THE WHEEL Interview with drone pilot Eunkyung from South Korea
Thomas Gorski: First of all, can you quickly introduce yourself and tell us how you got introduced to drones? Eunkyung: I’m EK, Interactive marketing manager at Coca-Cola Korea for 12 years and responsible for leading innovative and digital media. I’m often known in the Korean marketing community as the »Digital Midas« because I'm good at identifying and capturing new opportunities. Regarding the new technology adaptation, I created the Coke Dance Vending machine, Giant Vending machine as interactive outdoor (OOH), utilizing motion sensor, projection mapping, Kinect and Virtual Reality (VR) etc.
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»
Once I read an informative feature about drone my subconscious had exploded to fly one.
«
How I get in touch with drones? There was a very informative feature article of drone in magazine named 'IM (Interactive Marketing)' and my subconscious had exploded to fly drone once I read the article on magazine. Then know that the drone, I practice to fly drone whenever take a break because my drone is entry level so, can be fly indoor easily. T.G.: How long have you been flying drones and which model are you currently flying? EK: I just started to fly drone last summer. I have 2 entry-level drones which are »X5C« and »Galaxy Visitor«. I’m planning to have DJI Phantom 3 pro soon. T.G.: I am sure many of our readers are also intrigued to
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buy a drone. How much did you spent to get this hobby started? EK: For people who interesting in flying drone, »X5C« which less than $90 is useful for entry level and »Galaxy visitor« is around $150. Especially, »X5C« is the price-performance ratio is very good for entry level drone and can easily buy both drones through e-commerce like Amazon. T.G.: What do you enjoy most about flying drones? What was your most exciting or funniest moment? EK: Flying drone at »Han« river in weekend to see that I was not seen in the normal sky often and recognize how beautiful sky is. I get excitement to control drone directly to the sky and relieve the stress and worry, I feel this
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DJI Phantom
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F LY I N G D R O N E S
is true leisure for me. It’s really nice and get physical refresh to go outside and I feel freedom emotionally. And after practice a lot to control drone, I would like to buy DJI Phantom 3 Pro next month and flying outside and take air photos. Watch air photos (or film) taken by DJI Phantom 3 Pro, this will be most attractive things to me. I recommended to team members to fly drone together as a hobby for fun last summer and funniest moment was hovering time with all together. I cannot forget it because it was like a scene from a movie. Have T.G.: experienced situations?
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you
already dangerous
EK: It wasn’t too dangerous situation but I got scratch first time because of inexperienced driving. Actually, when flying drone of professional level, I’m aware that I have to be careful for receiving wounds because the propellers are too powerful. T.G.: Up until now drone flying is quite a male dominated area. Why do you think this is so? EK: At the beginning, people who have hobby of ‘flying drones’ are mostly men, yes! I think it is because men are relatively interested in machines control. But now, women getting start to involved, even some teenagers. So from now, it getting diversified more for ages and gender.
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Alfred Grupstra
While flying drones in the weekend I often recognize how beautiful sky is. 231
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Âť
So from now, it getting diversified more for ages and gender.
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T.G.: What are the reactions if you tell people that you are flying a drone during your weekends? EK: People who heard my hobby are very interested as well as surprised. There are few communities of drone in Korea, but I think that it’s unfamiliar with many people yet. In Korea, flying drone is just beginning stage T.G.: Do you use your drone only for recreational purposes or also for your current job at CocaCola? EK: Since I’m still in entry level, I am using drone for recreational purpose such as fun. But I’m planning to create digital/social contents utilizing drones this winter for winter campaign such as Coke Festive. T.G.: Which fields do you see drones being used for in the future, which currently may not even exist?
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EK: Currently It can be provided new consumer experience to engage for marketing purposes. In the future, drones will be utilized in many different fields such as Traffic watcher, Pack delivering in e-commerce fields. T.G.: Do you see Coca-Cola using drones in the foreseeable future? EK: Of course. We used drone to shoot Sprite viral film at last summer already. In the foreseeable future, there are huge opportunities to utilize drones and I expect high quality contents like movie leveraging drones. T.G.: What excites you most about the future for drones? EK: It will be contribute creating new types of interactive video contents such as drone with the 360 degrees camera as well. And lastly I’m having great time
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F LY I N G D R O N E S I N KO R E A in initial stages
with flying drones as a hobby since last summer. I already introduced to my team members and we will participate ÂťNew York City Drone Film FestivalÂŤ after practice.
Thank you again, Eunkyung (EK) The Interview was conducted by Thomas Gorski, Founder of Airteam, Germany's first drone provider.
Thank you so much for sharing your time and should you have any questions, please let me know.
Photo: Airteam
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Pictures made with the DJI Phantom 3 Pro
Photo: Caillum Smith
Photo: Steinar Eiler책s
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DJI OSMO Keeping both feet on the ground The phenomenal professionals at DJI have left the technical world in awe once again, using the best camera stabilisation technology to create a new standard for handheld cameras. The sisterMAG team has put the OSMO camera to the test (watch video ) The high image quality of the enclosed 4k camera easily excels the performance of its competitors, the GoPro Hero Black and the iPhone 6s, especially considering its brilliant colour and luminosity. One of the special features of the DJI OSMO is its outstanding image stabilization, enabling super-smooth tracking shots. Equipment that would have cost thousands of euros just a couple of years ago is now available for just 749â‚Ź. A great investment for video bloggers and ambitious amateurs alike.
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Text: Elisa von Hof
BLACK IS A WARM COLOUR (TO ME) A tribute to the best colour of the world Batman and Zorro wear it, so does Catwoman, new Netflix super heroine Jessica Jones opts for it more often than not, and for Coco Chanel it even worked with her pearls. What more proof could you possibly need to admit that black is the coolest colour in the world? No matter which shade happens to be the flavour of the month or which hue all the current must-have may sport — black is always en vogue! It suits everybody, it goes with (almost) everything, and it’s slimming. But I am the first to admit that I might not be thoroughly objective here because black is my favourite colour! I am writing this wearing black jeans, a black cardigan, black crocodile pattern shoes and — surprise — an 80s black leather jacket. I am not mistaken for a Goth, Emo or Punk girl because of my blond hair (and my pink backpack) but also because over the past couple of years black has successfully claimed its place at the centre of fashion (thank god!). This winter it has had some help from its sisters coal and grey and together they have gone everywhere: coat, bomber jackets, culottes, fringed scarves, bootleg pants, ankle boots.
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BLACK IS IN SISTER-MAG.COM
Even on eyelids and nails they have become omnipresent. Black is in. Like no other colour black is associated with symbols and emotions on completely opposing sides of the spectrum: death, melancholy, sadness, emptiness on the one hand but also rebellion and individuality. Black therefore is more than just a colour — it’s a way of expressing an attitude to life, tradition and zeitgeist(s). Just like these have varied through the ages so has the judgment of black. Even in antiquity the colour black was traditionally associated with the underworld. Hades, where departed souls where exiled to a plagued existence, was a dark place according to contemporary imagination. But it also means that black was one of the first colours in the arts. Contemporary depictions of musings about life and especially what came after it made liberal use of black. A negative connotation is therefore expected. Black is death, pain and suffering. These associations have taken deep roots in both our cultural consciousness and our language. 242
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We still use expressions like »paint s.th/s.o. black«, »blacklist«, a »black day« or »as black as the devil« and none of them means anything good. But it would be wrong to isolate our ancestors’ idea of the underworld as the only culprit. Not everything is a socio-cultural construct; some associations occur completely naturally. The fact that we don’t think of black as representing happiness, innocence and purity has also got to do with how we experience it in nature: the night is black. Associating blackness with a potential threat or danger is down to our survival instinct. And that’s why up until the Middle Ages black was not a popular colour for items of clothing. Seigniors and aristocrats wore colours associated with
more positive attributes. It wasn’t until the discovery of America and sea routes to India that the colour’s reputations started to change: merchants’ ships brought new dyes to the European shores including logwood which would make textiles black. This was a rare commodity and therefore precious. Anyone sufficiently well-off enough to afford it now dyed their clothes black. The first members of the aristocracy who wore black did so purely to demonstrate their special social status. The dye became particularly popular in Spain which can still be seen
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A s y mbol o f exc l usi v i t y, pow er and el eganc e.
in contemporary portraits of King Philipp II and his consorts. So suddenly there was a whole new aspect to black: it became a symbol of exclusivity, power and elegance. This has manifested itself in traditions still observable today. In Japan, kimonos for especially festive occasions are still predominantly black. In Seville, men’s flamenco costumes, in their most dressy version, are black and, closer to our own shores, the robes worn at court are black too. Black has still not shed its association with darkness and fear though. But that’s not to be expected either because life threatening things do happen in the dark as do scary things. Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are a good
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example with horror lurking in the dark or in the black void of a lost memory. Or in the shape of a black raven. Yes, the most dreadful literary and artistic motives do indeed tend to be black. Ravens have been harbingers of bad news since Homer; or take the devil, the epitomized »Prince of Darkness« of Medieval tales: always dressed in black. Myths are full of black cats hailing great misfortune and the term Black Death for the worst disease ever to haunt Europe, the plague, can’t have helped either. And neither did the visual arts. From Caspar David Friedrich’s iconography of dark romanticism to Picasso’s depictions of the atrocities of the Spanish civil war and Caravaggio’s plays with light and shadow: none restricts his
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use of black to highlight contrasts; they consciously employ it to evoke pain, melancholy and shadow. The Spanish painter Francisco de Goya continued the tradition. His »Desastres de la guerra« depicts atrocities, excessive violence,
the wounds and the pain of the Peninsular War and the etching Caprichos shows abuse, brutality and grotesque representations of the Spanish authorities — all in black. With all this black imagery it
What black really comes down to is the absence of light. is really no wonder occultists, Satanists, mystics and followers of Gothic chic have all opted for black as their colour of choice. Death itself is black too; not only figuratively, because we don’t know what comes after, i.e. the black unknown, but also because the Grim Reaper garbs himself in black dress. But even all those negative connotations couldn’t stop the rise
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to popularity of one very important piece of clothing: the little black dress. Its creation myth revolves around the increased demand for black clothing by widows after the First World War. This is rumoured to have inspired fashion designer Coco Chanel to create modest but elegant items of clothing. A first sketch was printed in Vogue and the little black dress was born. And who could blame anyone who is not a widow for wanting
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to wear this elegant new piece. Just think of Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Hubert de Givenchy’s interpretation of the new classic put any questions to rest as to whether it was all right to wear outside a funeral or periods of mourning. It became an essential and is still a regular on the catwalk when a new collection is being presented. From Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace to Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior, no fashion designer’s line is complete without it. Karl Lagerfeld was once reported saying that black quite simply guaranteed your being well dressed. In picking and mixing we like to focus on the
positive connotations of black: the mysterious and enigmatic. And more than anything we attribute a certain level of individuality to ourselves by confidently wearing black, this most negative of all colours. We get to feel like a rebel painting the town red in black and laughing in the face of all the negative associations it might have had in the past. It’s no coincidence the most recognizable symbol of the teen rebellion is the »Perfecto« black leather jacket Marlon Brando wore in the 1950s, cruising through town on his motorbike. All negative connotations aside, what black really comes down
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BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK
to is the absence of light. Our cognitive brain functions allow us to differentiate between a variety of colours and shades. Something we perceive as black just absorbs all the light in its vicinity; it doesn’t reflect anything, it doesn’t radiate. British scientists have recently managed to create a substance which eclipses (no pun intended) any other shade of black observed before: »Vantablack«. It is blacker than anything that can be found in nature. Nature doesn’t get any blacker than the night sky above an
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island or the depth of the ocean — or indeed a black hole in space. The complete absence of light makes us lost and blind. It reduces us to what we are ourselves with nothing to observe but our own body. But it can also be an opportunity, a chance to accept the freedom within the darkness and give ourselves over to ourselves — completely unobserved. Observing ourselves the way we really are; although in a way we have always been able to do that by wearing a black leather jacket. For me, black is the new black.
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Photo: Harli Martens Aas
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Text: Thea Neubauer
| Photos: Henrik Folkesson
Model: Helena Melikov
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| Styling: Aennikin
LIGHT, SHADOW … AND CLOUDS …or why we deal with depression and burnout in this issue
Last week it happened again. I was enveloped by an unspeakable sadness and it took all my willpower to even get up in the morning. Although I have learned to do it by now there used to be periods in my life in which for days on end I was not really able to do anything. For years now I have called this phenomenon »clouds«. It’s a term which describes really well how I feel during these times: like a dark cloud is covering my brain and my entire body. When you can’t make yourself leave the house. When your bones feel like they weigh you down and even just thinking becomes a near insurmountable task. You may find yourself being irritable and short with people you really care for; but you just can’t muster the strength to talk to them. And there is the fear of disappointing them with your own lethargy. I used to find ways to put off telephone calls with my – very talkative – family for days. This, of course, let to them being able to tell exactly when I wasn’t doing well;
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which in turn made them call me even more frequently. Whenever I managed to answer the phone, however, and find a way into the conversation, this did actually help more often than not to break the vicious circle.
So what helps? Putting on my running shoes and getting out there does it for me. Talking to nice people and just putting myself together. Fresh air! All the things that sound so easy but yet sometimes seem so difficult. Over
Personally I think what upsets you most at this time is this feeling of not liking yourself. The more you expected of yourself the bigger your disappointment if you are too sad to reach or even chase the goals you set for yourself. My life used to be divided between weeks of inaction which I would spend in bed, staring at the ceiling and weeks in which I had to catch up with everything that had been left undone. I worked from dawn till dusk (and longer) to make up for the time I had lost. Maybe that’s why the work routine I follow today – which involves working every day, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot – is a source of such pleasure to me. But the experience has also left me with a peculiar trait: While a Sunday spent in bed is the highest form of bliss for many, to me it feels like a defeat. It just reminds me too much of the clouds.
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the past couple of years depression has become a relevant topic in our society and it’s no longer taboo
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to talk about or admit to it. But let’s be honest: it‘s still a far cry from easy to talk about your own depression. Because it is in itself not an easy thing. You can’t just set it aside and it requires a lot of understanding and attention (at
least in my case) from the people around you. So why have we chosen this issue to talk about depression? We made the connection when
What made me feel better right away: A hug and his words: »Sometimes it is ok just to be sad.«
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we worked on the topics of »light and shadow«. Because casting a shadow is what a depression does. The clouds cast many a shadow on the things in my life and I can say from personal experience: once those clouds disappear you experience light and sun even more intensely than before, relieved and happy. With 6 million Germans suffering from depression, this is not a niche subject which we can afford to ignore. We thought it was important to: hear from those affected, be open when approaching the subject, and show possible solutions. The
experts and psychologists to give you as concise an introduction as possible. And for all those who would like to dive deeper into the matter we have compiled even further information here We hope to encourage those who have so far not dared speak to find ways out of the clouds. And we would also like to inspire understanding for close friends and acquaintances in your life who every now and then just suddenly disappear or react in an inexplicable way. Identifying symptoms and offering help and advice.
When clouds drifts by … fact that in this day and age there are also digital ways to get help makes it an all the more suitable topic for the leitmotif of our magazine: a journal for the
I am continually grateful to the people in my immediate surroundings who know about my clouds and help me when they come. And I know that that isn’t always easy.
digital lady. We have also talked to
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Melencolia by D端rer: No artist after him managed it to illustrate the typical rumination of a depressive that aesthetic. 255
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WITH Dr. Rita Bauer
Q+A
sisterMAG asked expert Dr. Rita Bauer about DEPRESSIONS – all about symptoms, reasons and counselling to be found below.
PD Dr. phil., Dipl.-Psych., Dipl.-Theol. Rita Bauer is a psychological psychotherapist, scientific associate in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the university hospital in Dresden as well as a lecturer. SISTER-MAG.COM
On the basis of you experience: Are depressive disorders foreseeable in the long term, can everybody suffer from them and what are typical symptoms for it? A depression can affect everybody, nobody is immune against it. Affected people often report that they never thought of falling ill from a depression. But the fact is that 20 to 25 percent of all women and 7 to 12 percent of all men fall ill from a depression in the course of their lives. Depressive disorders are not »foreseeable« though. The disease occurs on all social levels, regardless of education and nationality. But we refer to different vulnerabilities which means that some people are more prone to a depressive disorder while others rather suffer from a gastric ulcer or another disease. There are different risk factors that promote a depressive disorder, like a genetic predisposition, long lasting emotional stress, a learning experience that constantly reduces the self-worth, the experience of loss, violence in childhood and youth, but also organic factors with physical diseases, medication or drugs. Normally, the three areas »feeling«, »thinking« and »acting« are affected by a depression:
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patients often suffer from a gloomy mood, joylessness, a reduced self-esteem and selfconfidence, a sense of guilt and a feeling of worthlessness and/or the lack of the ability to react emotionally to a friendly environment or joyful events. Then again, this can burden the interpersonal relations. Concerning the »thinking«, a reduced concentration and attention, a pronounced brooding, negative and pessimistic future prospects, even suicidal thoughts are reported as being burdensome. If the person thinks and feels this way, it often has serious effects on their »acting«, the third area of the symptoms: The depressive patients suffer from a strong loss of interest, withdraw from social life, suffer from insomnia, wake up early and lose appetite, along with a loss of weight. They lose the joy of activities that are normally pleasant, and since the mentioned feelings and thoughts often strongly occur in the (early) morning, we refer
to it as the »morning low « that complicates the start into the day for the patient a lot. In contrast, some activities are a little easier in the evening. A significant loss of libido that often is tabooed burdens the relationship with the partner. Furthermore, various physical symptoms for which no explanation can be found – despite of detailed organic clarification – can be a sign for a depression. In cases of a severe depression, delusional symptoms can occur, like a delusion of guilt and/or impoverishment. There are different kinds of depression. Which ones are there, which one is most frequently diagnosed and which symptoms does it include? The most frequently diagnosed depression is the »depressive exhaustion« that occurs after a long-term high load, also with persistent inner-psychological fundamental conflicts and for people with a high entitlement to benefits. It is characterized by a strong exhaustion, rapid fatigue
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and lack of concentration, but also a high irritability and multiple mood lows, often accompanied by different physical symptoms like pain in the head, heart or back, stomach or intestinal complaints.
Moreover, there are depressions in the case of neurological diseases and depressions as accompanying illnesses for diseases like thyroid diseases, infects, tumor diseases and poisoning.
Moreover, there is the »restrained depression« that is particularly characterized by apathy. But there is the opposite as well, the »agitated depression« that is characterized by a strong inner and/or motoric restlessness.
Does the age play a role for depressions, and if yes: Why?
Other kinds of depression are possible in pregnancy and puerperium (the so-called postpartal depression) and in menopause. Furthermore, there are depressions within the scope of bipolar disorders in which the patient switches between symptoms of depression (»saddened to death«) and symptoms of mania (»shouting with joy«). In cases of masked depressions, the physical symptoms are in the foreground and the depressive mood is rather in the background. SISTER-MAG.COM
Young adults who have to find their place in life and often suffer from difficulties with disentanglement and education as well as lovesickness are more frequently affected by depression. Depressive symptoms also occur more often among people over 65 years – in these cases, the suicidal risk is especially high! The reasons are social isolation and loneliness but also brain-related degradation processes and pressure concerning increasing physical pain and immobility. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge for depressive patients? Depressive patients often see themselves, their environment and the future negatively. We refer
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to it as the »negative cognitive triad«. The depression sits down on the feeling and thinking like black glasses. The biggest challenge for patients is to recognize and accept this. When a depressive patient can say: »I feel ill but I am not bad – I don’t see a way to feel fine but this doesn’t mean that I am not on that way«, the patient already made it far in their disease management. In questions of health, we can largely rely on our feelings whereas with depressions, we have to correct our feelings with our thinking: I feel like being in a black hole but my relatives, my professional helpers say: »I get out of there«, »I am not alone«, «there is help”. During the depression, feelings must not prevail since they are depressively wasted and the perception of depressive patients often is too negative and doesn’t reflect the real situation and the personal future. What exactly is done with a depression in a therapy? There are different cornerstones in the therapy of depression: SISTER-MAG.COM
With regards to the psychotherapy, there are different elements that verifiably support depressive patients in their disease management: The »cognitive behavioral therapy« focuses on the negative brooding but also on reduced self-esteem, self doubt and the aforementioned trias and tries to support the depressive patients by imparting knowledge about the disease, helping with the coping of specific problems and offering exercises for relaxation and mindfulness. The »interpersonal psychotherapy« aims at the support in solving interpersonal conflicts. »Depth psychological procedures« are also possible, following the classical psychoanalysis. Biological therapies are pharmacotherapy, but also sleep deprivation therapy and light therapy. In cases of severe depressions, the electroconvulsive therapy already proved to be effective a long time ago. Concerning the pharmacotherapy,
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there are different active ingredient classes that the doctor will select individually. Antidepressants target to fix a serotonin deficiency in the brain. It’s important to know that no antidepressant causes an addiction or changes the personality and that these pharmaceuticals are normally well tolerated. In your experience: In which phase and why decide patients to start a therapy? What is the motivation or the trigger?
knows about the symptoms, and misunderstandings
that
often
burden the interpersonal relations can be avoided. Then, they can consider together what is helpful in order to cope with the disease and what is not. Excessive demands of the patients as well as too few demands have to be avoided. This can only succeed in dialogues, in mutual and permanent inquiries: What is possible for the patient, in which areas do they need just
The psychological strain is very high because of the variety of the mentioned symptoms. Despite the greatest discipline and the strongest will, the patients can’t fulfill the obligations of their everyday life, are desperate and therefore look for help.
a little support, in which areas
Which advise do you give relatives and people close to a depressive person when dealing with them?
the best partner can’t »catch«
First of all, the best support is the information about the disease so the family of the patents
do they only need motivation and encouragement and what is impossible right now. Moreover,
relatives
should
motivate the patient in any case to get professional support. Even a depression. The support of close relatives is important for the patient in the treatment recommendations of the clinical or psychological therapist.
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GR APHIC S & STATISTIC S DEPRESSION
16 % of the German citizen (18-65) suffer from de足 pression during their life
25%
In 2011, 59.2 m days of incapacity to work were recorded in Germany cited psychological illness as their cause. This number represents an increase of 80 percent over a period of the past 15 years.
BURN-OUT
Up to
13 Mio
within the German workforce are affected by burnout (estimated)
1,6 %
OF ALL SICK DAYS IN THE LABOR MARKET ARE DUE TO DEPRESSION
percent of all sick leaves notes in 2013 were issued citing depression as the cause
MAIN SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION
depressive mood lack of interest, bleakness a lack of drive; fatigue
ACCORDING TO THE WORLD HE ALTH ORGANIZ ATION (WHO) A BURNOUT WILL ON AVERAGE LE AD TO 30.4 DAYS OF SICK LE AVE PER YE AR
S WAYS OUT OF A BURN OUT
EE
your own need for treatment
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NBURDEN
immediate shortterm unburdening followed by long term adjustments
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R
ELAX
recover, calm yourself; relaxation and other activities
EN F O R C E Recognize your own needs and enforce their integration into your life
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Text: COMMPartner
| Photos: Henrik Folkesson
Depression and burnout
WIDESPREAD SYNDROMES OR PASSING FADS? Since the beginning of the new millennium, an increasing number of stories in the media have been concerned with accounts of growing inner voids, an inability to act or make decisions and a general feeling of hopelessness. It seems counterintuitive that a society which puts a premium on the individual‘s constant availability and its ability for flexible, creative and accelerated thought would create a »disorder« that represents its exact opposite. How and why have depression and burnout suddenly become such omnipresent syndromes? Medical history tells us that sadness or melancholy were known to societies dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. In Hippocrates‘ theory of bodily fluids, melancholy was described as a predominance of black bile (the Greek words »melas« and »cholé« meaning »black« and »bile«). Attempts at a cure therefore included the reestablishment of balance between the four bodily fluids – blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm – mainly by avoiding the consumption of dark-coloured foods but also with the help of laxatives and the then popular method of bloodletting. The theory of bodily fluids and the aforementioned treatments prevailed until well into the Middle Ages.
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RENAISSANCE Melancholy as a breeding ground for creative ingenuit y In the modern era, philosophers and theologians began their own research into the phenomenon of melancholy. While the church categorizes it as one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (14331499), an acquaintance of Albrecht Dürer‘s, offered a reinterpretation of the ancient writings and saw melancholy as a breeding ground for creative ingenuity which had the potential to overcome any norms and standards hitherto considered customary. In 1514, Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528) cereated a copperplate etching he called Melencolia I. It is still revered as remarkable today as no other artist after Dürer has ever managed to capture the characteristic pondering of someone afflicted with depression in the same way. The medical term »depression« as we understand it today has been around for about 250 years when the Scottish physician William Cullen (1710-1790)
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first mentioned depression in connection with the human body in his writings: Cullen postulated that the body is criss-crossed by a network of nerves which carry socalled nerve juices which in turn are responsible for the pressure in the vessels of the brain. A »depression«, therefore, meant decreased pressure which Cullen believed could lead to melancholy. Despite Cullen’s unquestionable advances in nervous deceases, the treatment of psychiatric conditions remained the purview of private, later to some extend also publicly run, mental hospitals which merely detained patients, until well into the middle of the 20th century. Examining the historic roots of the term shows how far our modern idea of depression has been removed from its early concepts. But it took even more time for depression to be accepted as a genuine psychological disease: it wasn’t until 1976 that it first made its way into a dictionary as a medial term.
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In 1974, the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger first recorded a »burnout«. Burnouts were first noticed in people working in care and educational professions, like physicians, geriatric nurses and teachers. Later, however, experts realised that burnout can affect people in any kind of profession. By now the media has also covered several cases in which burnout was suffered by celebrities. German chef Tim Mälzer admitted to the affliction, as have several competitive athletes. Physicians usually diagnose burnout as a direct result of a concrete excessive personal and/or professional burden, while depression is regarded as less specific and can affect any part of your daily life. This has lead to burnout being regarded as something a person has »earned« through their labour rather than a potentially stigmatizing psychological illness. The expectations of our modern professional lives, the increased scarcity of resources, and our own demand to be better, faster and do more than others are all part of the reason depression and burnout have become omnipresent phenomena in our world. 265
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DEPRE SSION IS TRE ATABLE The discovery of psychotherapeutic drugs and the biorhythm cycle
The discovery of psychotherapeutic drugs was a milestone on the way to the acceptance of depression as a psychological disease and the treatment of nervous afflictions in general. MAOIs in the U.S. or TCAs in Germany – a new horizon of options had suddenly appeared and fundamentally changed the entire concept of psychological illness. It made depression both tangible and treatable. The decisive bit of insight was this: Depression – regardless of its cause – is always connected to a regularization disturbance within the central nervous system. And this is what modern treat-
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ments attempt to adjust. In recent years it has become apparent that depression can also be understood as an illness of the patient’s biorhythm. Not only did this insight offer new therapeutic options, it also afforded patients the opportunity to take action themselves. We would still like to take this chance to strongly advise you to seek professional medical help should you or someone you know be affected by depression. Thankfully, in this day and age there is a whole host of options available to support patients and help them find ways out of their self-destructive ponderings.
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SICK AS A DOG An historical overview about the phenomenon »Depression« From Churchill to Robert Enke Text: Alena Hecker
Did you hear about the black dog? It’s a big one with floppy ears that just comes from nowhere and decides to stay. Those who know the black dog know that its presence can spoil the mood and the appetite, keep you from sleeping at night, scare away friends, destroy relationships and spoil the joy in life since everything has to be about it. Suddenly, there is nothing more than this big black dog or – as professional circles call it – a full-grown depression.
Winston Churchill coined the term of the black dog that he tried to scare away.
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Winston Churchill coined the term of the black dog that he tried to scare away. The fact that the British Prime Minister who is considered to be the most significant statesman of the 20th century had to suffer from depression only became known after his death in the mid-1960s. Churchill’s personal physician and trusted friend Lord Moran published his diary entries that show a different image of the Prime Minister than the public knew by then: the image of a hypochondriac who let his pulse taken regularly because he was afraid of imaginary diseases but who, in crucial situations, was sicker than his physician was allowed to admit. In retrospect, many well-known characters of history can be diagnosed with depression. Alexander the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte are said to be affected, SISTER-MAG.COM
Ludwig van Beethoven, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, actress Audrey Hepburn or comedians like Charlie Chaplin or Heinz Erhardt. Experts assume that creative people are more prone to derail mentally. Emotional disturbances like depression, but also bipolar disorder that includes extreme mood changes, outstandingly often occur to actors and artists. Apparently, Robert Schumann was a candidate too. Musicologists and psychiatrists interpret the often surprising changes in his music as the expression of a manicdepressive disorder. In hypermanic phases, Schumann worked with eagerness on big creations like the Spring Symphony but then again, he remained in paralysis for months and didn’t work at all. People who are affected by a bipolar disorder experience life like a roller coaster and
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permanently switch between infinite euphoria and absolute low. For most of them, the depressive phases prevail. According to numbers of the World Health Organization (WHO), every fifth European experiences depressions or states of panic over the year. Half of the cases remain untreated – because either doctors and their staff
teeth. Often they see themselves as being responsible for their life crisis. They withdraw, feel helpless, lost, unable to cope with their life. For their environment, the disease is often as hard to bear. What is wrong with the loved person? Why can’t they get a grip of themselves, get on their feet and continue as before?
Experiencing life like a rollercoaster. overlook the problem or the person affected tries not to let their disease show. It often is a combination of both. Many affected persons are ashamed that it suddenly is difficult for them to get back on their feet, to get up in the morning or to brush their
The suicide of the German national keeper Robert Enke in 2009 shook up the public and made it more sensible for the suffering of depressed people. He also tried to keep his depression secret, made his friends and family promise not to tell anyone about his problems.
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Winston Churchill painting After his death, Theresa Enke made the disease of her husband known. »Let us talk about depressions like Guido Westerwelle talks about cancer«, she wrote in her blog in 2015 for sixth anniversary of Enke’s death, right after the former German foreign minister talked about his cancer in public
However, scientists believe that a depression also has positive aspects, just like other diseases. Carsten Wrosch, professor of psychology at the Concordia University in Montreal, showed in a study that pubescent girls stopped pursuing unrealistic targets when they show symptoms of depression.
»We have to manage to deal with depressions as open, competent and natural as Westerwelle does with his cancerous disease. Because although they are different diseases, there is one crucial parallel: Just like cancer, depression is a disease that can affect anyone; like with leukemia, breast or prostate cancer, it’s not the affected person’s fault to suffer from depressions.«
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Gemälde von Winston Churchill
All paintings: Churchill Heritage Ltd. Neel Burton
Sort your thoughts and feelings in periods of depression. In manic phases, collect visions and build creative work. According to Wrosch, this period of life is crucial since juveniles develop their identity, and target identification and failure are important processes. So, when the girls lost their motivation and gave up their unrealistic targets, they saved resources to find and aim for a new target that was easier to achieve. The theory of the British psychiatrist Neel Burton goes in a similar direction: Those who suffer from a bipolar disorder can reconsider themselves, sort their feelings and thoughts, delete unimportant ideas. However, in manic phases the affected
persons can gather their visions and build up self-confidence and resilience for their creative work. This seemed to be the way statesman Churchill took. He used sleepless nights for writing; his literary work was awarded with a Nobel Prize. The politician and author also applied himself to painting. After his death, he left behind more than 500 paintings. For Churchill, art was not just a pastime, it was essential. Whenever the black dog stood on his doorsill, Churchill didn’t know a way to scare it away but how to to take it on a leash.
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CASE STUDIES OF PEOPLE AFFECTED BY DEPRESSION
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»MINUS GEFÜHLE«
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SS CHAD TO TW EN
Jana MY EXPERIENCE JANA SEELIG
I would say about myself that I lead an average life. I have a job that I like most of the time. Of course, there are days when I struggle and would like to stay in bed but everybody knows those days. In my leisure time, I meet my friends to have coffee with them, sing karaoke or go to clubs where I can party till the morning without getting tired. I date and have sex; I hate sport but do it anyway, and I more or less like being with people. When I don’t feel like being with somebody, I lay on the couch, watch series on Netflix, read books, paint pictures or surf the World Wide Web for hours and laugh about cat videos. Generally speaking, I feel
okay with myself and the life I’m leading. Sometimes it’s exciting, sometimes it’s boring. Of course, there are things that could be different or better but I know that I am fine and that I have all the securities I need. But there are moments in which everything looks different. Moments in which the nasty monster called depression that sleeps inside of me opens a way to the outside and paralyses me. Sometimes it’s only for a few days, sometimes for weeks, months or even years. Then, nothing in my life works anymore. I can’t get up, sleep, laugh, eat. I simply am emotionless, don’t have
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Jana has written the book »Minusgefühle« (only in German available) a about her feelings and experiences
any interests anymore, and even my voice is gone since speaking is way too exhausting. I know that I have a job, friendships and relationships that I have to maintain, obligations that I can’t get out of, and that I have to eat in order to survive. But I can’t. As much as I try, I am not capable to do anything, and the fight against these »Minusgefühle« makes me even more depressive. Everything I can do in these situations is to accept them as they are. To be okay with feeling lousy without any reason although the sun is shining outside and my life is fine in a rational way. To see things rationally is not possible during a depression. Then, I have SISTER-MAG.COM
to stand in the rain for days, weeks, years because the rain becomes a hurricane when I try to push away the thunderclouds. I have learned to accept the wetness and the discomfort that comes from this rain that actually is a depression and to take it as a part of me that changes as it likes – like the weather does – and can’t be influenced from the outside. And when this part disappears again – sometimes slowly, sometimes rapidly – I can see the sun again, even when it‘s behind clouds. And then, my life is completely normal again. Sometimes exciting and sometimes boring, and it feels as if I never was depressed.
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SONNEN GRAU
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Tanja
MY EXPERIENCE
TANJA SALKOWSKI
I could have spent the weekend with friends, but instead I opted for loneliness and tears – again. For dark thoughts, resignation and complete isolation. Just me and myself. And nobody must know. Not even those who bothered to ask how I was. »Good,« I said. I lied. A defense mechanism. Depression can make you a great actor. Just put on your mask so nothing real will make it to the outside. Another performance worthy of an Academy Award. Also effective: focusing on the others so they don‘t even think to worry about you. I couldn’t bear that. I want everyone to be happy. I don’t want to be a burden to others. And the very last thing I want is for them to feel obliged to help me. Me, of all people! Who customarily wears her Superwoman outfit and fights the good fight – always for someone other than herself. I am here to support you, help you. But I don’t want anyone to help me. Because I don’t deserve that – or so I think. If anyone pops by to take my mind of things I send them away. Anyone trying to do me a boon will be pushed away. Heartfelt, handwritten lines to nurse me back to life will be ignored. In this state of complete and utter indifference. I am deaf and immobile. Thinking things which aren’t real but still exist. I need to retreat from the world; to dive deep into myself, into the deep basin 281
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of pain inside me, which at that moment has become my entire life. There is nothing friends and family can do but remain steadfast and patient. Understanding, acceptance, and no expectations. The more a depressed person feels expectations placed upon them, the more they will withdraw. The smaller and more useless they will feel. Just stay in touch. Yes, a WhatsApp message with nothing but a full stop is just fine. No letters required. Just your being there. I read the full stop. And I forget the full stop. But while I read it, I know the world is still out there even though I am not currently a part of it. But at some point I will be again. And I will laugh again. Maybe in two hours. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not until next week. But it doesn’t matter. It will happen at some point. And then I will embrace life again. Once you have made it through, once you are back out there in the world, »functioning,« there are situations in which a person suffering with depression will actually have to justify their behaviour. It's crazy, but here’s an example: People sometimes ask me whether I am ACTUALLY depressed. »Because you don’t really look it.« Which is due to the fact that I got up and showered and dressed, and am at that moment wearing make-up. And I am out and about. Both at work and out with friends I am funny and have a good sense of humour. I laugh. I am a part of the group, not recognizably different. Because I am alive. My answer to such a question varies depending on the situation; that’s if I answer such a question at all. It depends on the mood I am in that day. A person suffering
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Tanja Salkowski, author of: »sonnengrau iach habe Depression - na und??« (only available in German)
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with depression does not lie in bed 24/7 for 365 days a year to ponder the merits of various suicide methods. At least I don’t.
don’t want others to see the tears
A person suffering with depression can have fun – real and proper fun. They can go to work. Or the gym. They can see colors and feel joy. They can even show their teeth, cheer up others and rejoice in the beauty of life.
to get to know me well enough to
They can be incredibly strong, to the extent that they surprise themselves. They can be a part of something, one of many of whom nobody would ever guess that they suffer from an illness. They can live!« Yes, of course, there are times when it’s a facade. I may seem happy on the outside but inside I am just one big lump of pain. But in those moments I am a pro. I
I am hiding. I am suffering with this illness and I am taking the liberty of deciding who is allowed know and who isn’t. The bottom line of my experiences, an insight which has actually helped me tremendously over the past couple of years is this: It is a part of you and that’s the way it’s supposed to be! Sure, much like any other illness, the big D can make you feel like crap. But there are also moments of beauty. It can open doors to opportunities. It can lead you down paths which turn out to be incredibly beneficial for you. It all makes sense in the end. Take it for what it is and accept it. Be authentic. Because you are awesome.
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Desk t o Success N째4 EL ANA SIBERSKI
Lighting master at the Staatsoper
Behind the spotlight CIT Y
Hannover TE X T
Elisa von Hof PICT URE S
Cris Santos SISTER-MAG.COM
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Desk t o Success She’s standing in the spotlight — centre stage. Covering her eyes with one hand from the blinding light she says »23. And then 25, please.« And goes on »and now 43« smiling to the left side of the stage outside the spotlight area. Place a huge plastic drum next to her and she might pass for a lottery girl. But Elana Siberski is not announcing today’s lucky numbers. She is the chief lighting technician at an opera house, and not just any opera house, the Staatsoper Hannover, in the capital of the German state of Lower-Saxony, and right now she is lighting the stage for tonight’s performance of Rusalka, a production with a particularly extravagant stage setting: countless death masks mounted to brick walls, lifeless embryos floating in jars, a conservatory with a spiral staircase leading up to a huge cathedral with equally huge windows on the floor above. The more elaborate and extravagant the setting the more Elana can work her magic SISTER-MAG.COM
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with light. The lighting design of Rusalka calls for no less than 120 spotlights. And each and every one of them is reset after each performance which means their cones are readjusted and their individual shades fine-tuned. »It’s a very exact science,« Elana explains, squinting at a series of marks she made on the stage floor to trace the light cones. Elana has been in Hannover since 2008. Coming to work here was fulfilling a dream: she stood on
this stage herself as a ten-yearold girl. She enjoys remembering this time in her life and — laughing her throaty laugh — sharing her passion for the opera which she developed back then. Her father had always listened to opera and classical music at home so this kind of music was always around her anyway, but back then she decided to join the opera’s children’s choir and hence got her first glimpse backstage. She discovered an entire world behind
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the curtain that the audience does not get to see and which completely enthralled her — this fascination has not gone away and is still very obvious when you talk to her. So in 1993, after high school and ready to see what the world outside of Hannover has to offer, Elana decides to go to Bayreuth to study theatre and music at the local university. Most of her fellow students are on their way to becoming script editors or dramatic advisors, but that’s not Elana’s plan. When the course stages its own production after their first year of studies, Elana volunteers to be the lighting technician. »I had absolutely no idea what this entailed but I thought it would be an interesting job,« she explains. And when the house lights went down and she switched the spotlight on for the very first time, she suddenly saw what lighting can do. It makes everything look better. Her fellow students on stage, the set, the props. »I had to know more about how to use light to achieve this,« she says. So her next step was to pick up the phone and ring the opera house in Hannover — where they still knew her from her days in SISTER-MAG.COM
the choir — and ask if she could do an internship after her next term. She could. And Elana’s passion for light was nourished further. After further internships in Berlin and Munich, she has made her decision: she will not finish her university degree but instead work as a lighting technician. »I love the creativity and also the
fact that it sometimes requires some proper knuckling down. The technical aspects are also very interesting. At university I really missed the physical work.« She says, looking at her hands which have supported her last remarks with enthusiastic gesticulation. When creating a new design Elana always starts by reading the play or listening to the music, i.e.
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she gets to know the material she is about to stage. Then she gets the director’s and stage designer’s interpretation and initial ideas for the production which gives her the esthetic path down which they will want to take it. Elana models her lighting design to this vision. She figures out which of the 400 fixed lights will be used and whether or not any of their 150 moveable companions will play a role. She considers shades, focus levels and angles of all available lights. Takes note of what to place in the spotlight and what to conceal. She considers ballet the most easily lit form of stage art because of its, or rather her, relative freedom. There is only one priority: the dancers’ bodies must be well lit. In addition to that she is free to add her own highlights through lighting design: working with individual bulbs, lighting from the left to the right, projecting graphic patterns or images onto the dancers’ bodies or the stage itself, using bold colours and stark contrasts. Designing the light for a play is much trickier. Any individual facial expression, 291
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any move of a finger must be visible because their sum is what makes a play. Elana’s familiarity with different forms of stage art dates back to her time at the theatre in Ulm, where all three sectors of the performing arts — opera, play, ballet — are staged. Elana went to Ulm in 2001, a newly appointed master craftswoman, after finishing her training as a lighting technician at the Bayerischen Theaterakademie (The Bavarian Theatre Academy). And she got to flex her muscles from day one on a new production of Lessing’s Nathan the Wise. »Something easy to get my feet wet« she now jokes. But everything went down a treat and Elana got to develop light designs for around 20 different works each season; ballets, plays and operas. A wide range of productions, esthetic concepts, directors and stage designers. A huge output but little in terms of input. This period is tough and the basic rhythm drum beats fast, as she puts it today. After six years she needs a change and goes to Argentina for a sabbatical. »That’s where I learned how SISTER-MAG.COM
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little I really need to make me happy. It was an amazing time,« she says looking at the cigarette in her hand. She is in Buenos Aires when she hears that the job of chief lighting technician at
the Hannover opera is hers if she wants it. She is over the moon. It’s her chance to return home with the start of the new season and it becomes clear that it is indeed her time to go home.
»Sometimes I miss no longer lighting plays, but if I had to choose I would pick opera and ballet over them anyway, because of the beautiful music,« she says, looking over her shoulder on her way through the Rusalka set speaking into a walkie-talkie. Her dark hair is tied in a tight bun today and she is wearing a black shirt with dark jeans and sturdy boots. The latter are indispensable in
this job; Elana clocks up several miles each day. The hallways, staircases and connecting paths are like a big labyrinth. The only moments of rest are to be had while the performance is going on when the 43-year-old can retire to the director’s booth to see if and how her lighting design concept is working. The light rehearsal starts three to four hours before the day’s
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performance. That’s when she takes to the stage to set the lights, direct the cones and adjust any colours and their intensity. She has seven lighting technicians assisting with this task. The final decision about the particulars of a lighting concept often depends on the stage setting and cannot be made before this is finished. That’s why there is a special lighting rehearsal, as well as a piano rehearsal and a
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final rehearsal when the entire piece is performed. »Some of the best ideas come about from pure coincidence at this stage and much that looked great on paper turns out to be a real let down,« Elana muses. When she is stuck for ideas she has a safe go-to solution: simply going for optimum visibility. Because being able to observe everything equally well will let you discover which odds and ends to highlight. For Rusalka these turned out to be the face of a big clock and a painting mounted to a paper-mâché wall. One hour of performance translates roughly to eight hours of lighting rehearsals. »A lighting designer is much like a painter but instead of starting with a blank canvas we start with a dark space,« she says with her left hand on her hip. Ironically that’s one of the big drawbacks of her job: a lack of light. In the weeks leading up to a new production’s opening night, she and her 297
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colleagues spend up to 15 hours inside the opera house. »And I walk home looking like a zombie«, she says, pointing the walkietalkie at spotlight 364 (the sign for »switch it on«). That’s why she spends as much time as possible outside during the summer. The
six weeks between seasons are dedicated to hiking in Iceland and Norway — just putting one foot in front of the other without having to think of light. But that doesn’t really work, of course, because you can’t escape the light. Today’s lighting rehearsal runs pretty
smoothly. The fog machine is a bit clogged and a filter has burnt through; one of the spots is mounted the wrong way around. Not a problem, though, and all easily fixed. Fixing problems quickly and on the go is part of
the job. »We’re all pretty good at improvising,« Elana explains and laughs. It’ll all be all right on the night! And if it isn’t? Elana sighs. Well, it’s live so there will always
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be mistakes. That’s part of the deal.
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PROMO
The trends of tomorrow were presented on the Makeup-Runway at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Berlin. After the big show in February, Maybelline turned the catwalk looks into three 23 wearable IT looks for you. Every month you can discover a new IT look and find all the products needed to complete it as a product kit available at the Maybelline counter. The sisterMAG issue interprets these IT looks and shows the world behind each one. Saxophonist Fabia Mantwill kicks off the project at the ‘Make IT Drama' shoot! Get an inside look at the world of the talented jazz saxophonist, singer and composer from Berlin in our extensive interview. You’ll also find our IT-Girl Series on the sisterMAG blog , which will feature a new look every month together with our inspiration.
Watch the video with all IT
Looks from 2016 Maybelline Fashion Week S h ow
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M ake I T a m a r D PHOTOS: Zoë Noble
MAKE-UP & HAIR: Lena Schleweis STYLING: Christina van Zon MODEL: Fabia Mantwill
PRODUCTION: Nina Förster, Thea Neubauer LOCATION: Heimathafen Neukölln 301
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PROMO
W H AT D O I N E E D F O R T H E L O O K ?
LIPS
Color Elixir Lip Creme in 110 Hibiscus Haven
EYES
The Falsies Push Up Drama Mascara
FOUNDATION
Dream Velvet Matte Creme-Gel Make-Up
BROWS
Brow Satin Powder Liner
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PROMO
MAKE IT DRAMA MEANS TO ME
Power, Expression and Emotion My name is Fabia Mantwill, I am 22 years old. I was born in Berlin but raised in Saxony and then return to Berlin when I started uni. Since 2011 I have been studying jazz, with saxophone as a mayor, at the Berlin University of The Art’s Jazz Institute. I travel internationally and all over Germany performing as a saxophonist, singer and presenter.
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THIS
IT -G irl 305
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PROMO
W E A R S B A L L G O W N S O N M O N D AY S
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INTERVIEW
FA B I A M A N T W I L L
When did you start playing the saxophone? Have you always wanted to be a musician?
Originally, I wanted to learn to play the violin but my parents carefully steered my interests in a slightly different direction; so at the age of 6 I started taking piano lessons and aged 10 I eventually chose the saxophone over the violin. I have always had a penchant for music, the arts and movement but I was also sure I wouldn’t want to study music at university. However, as time moved on and I
gained more experience it began to dawn on me that this may after all be my path. So after finishing my secondary education at Clara-Weck-Gymnasium, a school for enhanced education in the arts, in Zwickau I took the plunge and applied to study jazz in Berlin! Like any other path in life it has its ups and downs but I have definitely not regretted this step.
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PROMO
What does your daily routine look like? What role do the stage and the theatre play in your life?
I first took to the stage at the tender age of 3 as part of a dance group. Later I performed as a pianist, then saxophonist and ultimately also as a presenter. To me the stage is the place where everything comes together: music, people, joy, excitement and any other kind of emotion you’d like to name and I feel them all and can share them with the audience.
For a musician there is no such thing as a daily routine. Every day is different and any day can have its unique rhythm. My days are filled with a variety of tasks: Practice (saxophone, clarinet, flute), composition and arrangement, organizing and preparing for concerts, teaching classes at university, musical exchanges with fellow musicians, developing ideas for new projects, going to concerts; and in whatever time is left after that I like to cook, work
PERFORMS HERE
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out and enjoy the heat and silence of a sauna afterwards. Every now and then, however, your life is infused with a musical highlight: I have been invited to join the two-week master class »Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead« at the Kennedy Center in Washington and New York which is run by renowned teachers like Eric Harland, Jason Moran and Carmen Lundy. So from 4 April 2016 I will be there, playing and making music, meeting new people and a getting to know new musical scene, being taught by the greats of jazz and making many unforgettable memories. I am so excited to have been given this chance!
SCHUHE: Stine Goya www.stinegoya.com
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RELAXES HERE
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PROMO
HIGH HEELS: Schumacher via www.seenbefore.com BLACK DRESS: Joop via www.seenbefore.com
BALL GOWN: Andrea Schelling www.andreaschelling.com SISTER-MAG.COM
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C AT WA L K V S . R E A L L I F E
A M A R D MAKE IT
MAKE IT DRAMA S E E S T H E W O R L D A S H E R C A T WA L K
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PROMO
Where have you performed? Do you have a favorite venue of location?
I have played at several beautiful venues and also some crazy locations. But every place has its special charm and unique atmosphere. Off the top of my head I would name these venues: A raft in the Mecklenburg Lake District: I played a gig as part of a quintet on a raft in the middle of a lake. We noticed every single smallest wave trying to keep our balance. We shared the float with the PA system’s huge boxes and our drummer lost more than one stick in the lake. In 2014 I hosted a show called »Movie Hits for Kids« at the town hall in Zwickau. I presented, sang and played the saxophone to 2500 beaming children with sparkling
eyes. It was a truly special experience. With an audience of children you have five minutes tops to win them over. Children are open an honest and will give you immediate feedback. I also have fond memories of the venues I played outside Germany like Bangalore in India, Montreal and Quebec in Canada, Accra in Ghana and also Greece. Every new country also means a new adventure and a new audience with very different musical preferences. It’s a challenge but an amazing one; it makes every single concert unique My life as a musician is multifacetted, colourful and definitely not boring. I am always looking for new ideas, unique music, people and moments I won’t easily forget.
A N D W E A R S M AT T E !
SERVES HER COFFEE IN A FLORAL OCEAN
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More infos, dates etc. here:
F A B I A M A N T W I LL . C O M
There is light and shadow in the life of a musician or an artist just like there is in the life of anyone else – but it is up to each individual to decide on which of them they want to focus on.
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PROMO
HOW WILL THIS CONTINUE?
L L A T I E BAR
You can find the next IT Look on maybelline.de with a Step-by-step tutorial to style this look yourself.
sisterMAG interprets this look with a moddboard on our blog in the category »Make IT Happen« Just click on the symbols below to stay in touch with Maybelline and sisterMAG and never miss the new IT Look!
M AY B E L L I N E
IT-LOCOO MKS
. AT S I S T E R M A G
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Vinyl SISTERMAG RECOMMENDS
a m a r d V T The new r o c S n i t r a from M S U e h t m o r f sese
Music Ramones Sex Pistols The Clash The Strangers The Stooges New York Dolls Rolling Stones
exhibition
Must-Have
New York
We stay in the dark. With eyes wide open, you can visit the exhibition from Artist Pierre Soulages »Le Noir« in Essen.
Pleated Skirts Pantsuit Platform Shoes Sunglasses Headscarfs green Eyliner
The US-Photoreporter Arthus Fellig (1899-1968) also known as »Weegee The Famous« photographed the old New York in black and white images
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Text: Nina Förster
The evolution of sound recording media
The invention of the phonograph (sound writer) by Thomas Alva Edison & patent registration in February 1878, contemporaneous invention by Charles Cros who didn’t have the financial resources for the patents.
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1870s
A passage from Händel’s oratorio »Israel in Egypt« is presumably the oldest music recording of the world, though the playback sounds only like a distant humming.
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1890s
The first gramophone record made of shellac is made with a diameter of 12 cm and only a few minutes of playing time. The predecessor to the vinyl record was born.
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1897
The German Emil Berliner works out a procedure to record sounds on a flat disc and to play them back on a gramophone.
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The Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (German gramophone company) started the mass production of shellac records. The bestselling genres are exotic folk music and Tango.
1928
1902 >1921
1898
The Italian tenor Enrico Caruso records more than 200 records in almost 20 years and becomes the first shellac record millionaire. He earns around $200 million.
The first fully electronic gramophone is on the market and makes the hand crank unnecessary. Fritz Pfleumer has the first tape recorder patented. It was presented years later. 319
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RCA publishes the first record with 33 1/3 revolutions per minute. SISTER-MAG.COM
Dirk Becker
1948
1935
1931
1930s
The first stereoscopic record is published. Listeners experience the spatial origin of sounds.
The magnetophone »K1« by Pfleumer is presented at the 12th Berlin Radio Show (Berliner Funkausstellung). It weighs 50 kilograms and consists of a drive, an amplifier, and loudspeakers.
Vinyl is used for records now. The black sound recording media are more solid and rustle less. It’s a breakthrough for the first discotheques, jukeboxes, and turntables. Thanks to rock’n’roll, vinyl booms – Elvis, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones provide record-breaking revenues. 320
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Sony publishes the Walkman. Cassettes can be listened to on the go now.
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1987
The compact disc, CD in short, causes a stir on the sound recording market. As handy as the cassette, the CD is an optic storage system. Rumors: Philips and Sony supposedly agreed on the 12 cm diameter because Beethoven’s »Ninth Symphony« runs without interruption this way. Turning the record becomes unnecessary.
1980s
1979
1963
Philips presents the music cassette. It’s robust, smaller and better suited for everyday life. Revolution: The cassette recorder can record songs from the radio.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits develops the MP3 format. From now on, sound recordings can be conveniently provided via download.
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Text: Johanna Eisner | remarx.eu
THERE’S LIFE IN THE OLD DOG YET. »Play it once, Sam. For old time´s sake.« Casablanca In the late 80s, when fewer and fewer black discs turned at a leisurely 33.33 rotations per minute in our living rooms, the vinyl long player was officially declared dead. Cause of death: a lack of speed. The future, they said, belonged to a new kind of small, cool silvery disc; aptly named a »compact disc« which was portable, didn’t require turning halfway through and would allow you to skip individual songs without risking damage to the disc by scratching it with a needle. By the beginning of the 90s, CDs were spinning their way into the future towards a digital revolution: they even allowed for the conversion of your music into digital audio files. Today CDs seem but an anachronistic remnant, a rare find excavated at a dig into the pop culture of a bright neon era just before the advent of the new age of information and data. CDs are like your boring square relatives while a vinyl long player feels closer to a cool uncle with an electric guitar.
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VINYL IS DEAD, L ONG L IVE VINYL . For the longest time, music was anywhere and at any time. But restricted to the creation of a that hasn’t really made anything live sound and could only be any easier. All over the Internet, consumed immediately. Then it on streaming and download made its way into our living rooms platforms and blogs we are by way of radio waves, followed by threatened by what would qualify shellac and even later vinyl discs. as an environmental catastrophe Now music has once more freed for any climatologist: a flood of itself of a physical carrier medium data. As a listener you have to be to become an information; one active, selective and attentive; it of many in an endless stream of requires much more time than it data. Music never lost its free used to; it has become an effort spirit, although it seemed to have to find the right kind of music and been captured and forced into the not get lost. On the other hand restraints of a carrier medium, it music seems to be under the has managed to break YET THERE IS NO free again. Without a physical form it buzzes M U S I C A L C A R R I E R through our clouds, M E D I U M M O R E PCs, smartphones, R O M A N T I C I S E D T H A N networks, streaming V I N Y L . F O R S O M E , platforms, drives and I T ’ S A L L A B O U T T H E virtual — as well as real H A P T I C E X P E R I E N C E . — rooms. As a listener F O R O T H E R S , I T A L L you now have the option C O M E S D O W N T O T H E to copy music, keep it in S O U N D. P O P C U LT U R E a digital archive and play E XPERTS AT TRIBUTE it any time you choose. IT TO OUR NOSTALGIC But you cannot touch it. Music is available L O N G I N G F O R T H E
ANALOG AGE.
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Photo: Kai Oberh채user
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Photo: Aspen Plummer
Photo: Yanko Peyankov
constant threat of devaluation: it has become arbitrary; listeners are supersaturated. The only way out is a strict data diet plan: a return to analog consumption.
Vinyl is dead, long live vinyl. Actually, it never left. Even when cassette tapes got tangled up in the Walkman, when small silvery CDs were spinning in massive stereo units and the first MP3 files were being downloaded from Napster, vinyl was still there gathering dust on the shelves of dedicated collectors. And now it’s back with a bang, dusted off, freshly pressed, colourful and sought-after like never before: no doubt aided by the indie hype of the noughties and its SISTER-MAG.COM
inherent longing for individuality and authenticity. If any official announcement of the new vinyl boom was needed, it came in 2015 when the previous year’s sales numbers were confirmed to have exceeded the seven figure barrier. The demand is huge, especially where re-issues of long since unavailable albums are concerned. Supply shortages are already an issue: The long players are pressed on machines which aren’t made anymore and hence have to be treated with extra special care to avoid breakdown. Vinyl prices are up. Large orders by major labels take precedence at the presses which means independent labels who have been the true guardians of the vinyl treasure have to wait for months to have their orders fulfilled. Manufacturing a vinyl long player is a clinical, mechanical process as far removed from the romantic
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Umberto Cofini
crackling we associate with listening to it: physics, chemistry, technology. Pressing a vinyl long player takes 10 times as much time as manufacturing a CD. The advent of vinyl not only changed the music industry but also society itself. It paved the way for rock ’n’ roll, i.e. the biggest cultural revolution since the emergence of Jazz. Columbia Records presented the first long player with »micro grooves« which allowed for a playing time of 20 to 30 minutes per side in 1948. Vinyl enthusiasts endearingly refer to it as the »12 Inch«. A 10Inch version was also available, and in 1949 the easy-to-handle 7 Inch was introduced, making vinyl fit for radio and cementing the economic success of the »black gold«. Still the 12 Inch was the version to profoundly change our music consumption habits as well as production methods. A large-
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scale format demanded largescale music, an album so good you wouldn’t want to miss a single song. Many of the most influential albums of musical history would never have been made had it not been for the long player. Individual original issue specimen of particularly genre defining long players like The Beatles’ »The White Album« or Andy Warhol’s ironic yet bold cover design for »The Velvet Underground« are sold for four to six figure amounts. 100.000 dollars for a flat black disc with a modulated groove which mechanically saves notes which can be scanned by a needle. The resulting minute vibrations of this needle are then transformed into acoustic impulses. A suitable pickup is also required; as well as boxes. So strictly speaking the long player is just a circular carrier medium made from polyvinyl chloride, also known as
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PVC; in other words: wretched plastic! Yet there is no musical carrier medium more romanticised than vinyl. For some, it’s all about the haptic experience. For others it all comes down to the sound. Pop culture experts attribute it to our nostalgic longing for the analog age. And if you ask a vinyl sceptic, it’s neither. Vinyl has long outgrown its existence as a rare collectible; it’s a status symbol which demonstrates your love for music in a prominent place on your
along flea markets or take their MacBook to a café where they have a macchiato. The urban organic Bohéme which abhors plastic but adores vinyl because it’s got just the right vintage chic. On the other hand, pulling a vinyl long player out from the selection on the shelf, taking it out of its sleeve, p l a c i n g it on the turn table,
WARM, FULL AND RICH, W ITH A NOSTALGIC CRACKLING. living room shelf. The renaissance of vinyl is in part down to the collective individualism of the socalled generation Y. For a specific social group, it’s an inalienable pop cultural habit which fits right into their fashionable place-tobe boroughs of their respective metropoles in which they stroll
dusting it off and carefully placing the needle in the groove has become a ceremonial act of de-celeration. Listening particularly consciously, pausing, as a way of stemming the dominant tide of volatility. It
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DIGITAL ELIMINATE S THE CRACKLING, BUT YOU CAN’T TOUCH IT, CAN’T TURN IT AND CA N’T DI SPL AY IT IN YOUR LIVING ROOM.
is the same focus on aesthetics and haptics that brought about the renewed interest in analog photography in certain circles. The cover artwork that comes into its own on the 12 Inch sleeve, the perceived value of holding a piece of black gold — and then there’s the sound: warm, full and rich, with a nostalgic crackling. Vinyl enthusiasts will insist that »it just sounds better«. And you can’t argue with them. It’s a myth, of course, albeit a stubborn one which will only hold up as long as you are wearing
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your vinyl-tinted goggles: The listening sensation is just as individual as musical taste itself. The somewhat inconvenient truth is: the sound of a long player can be unbearably grinding. Digital is better! At least as long as you play your music at a sufficiently high bit rate. In any case the difference between vinyl, CDs and files is almost impossible to detect for laypeople. It’s true, digital eliminates the crackling, but you can’t touch it, can’t turn it and can’t display it in your living room.
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Dark Romanticism in Art
Text: Robert Eberhardt
Caspar David Friedrich Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
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When the German naturalist and travel writer Georg Forster summarized his impressions of the contemporary art scene in England in 1789 he identified the effect a work of art inspires in its beholder as its highest objective; with beauty becoming a mere side effect. He experienced art which wants to amaze and surprise, squash by virtue of its gigantic size, shock with extreme passion; grasping for the truth of nature in its most cruel moments and allowing fantasy to take flight – not to a fairy land of ideals but rather into the forbidden realism of Gothic fiction had started to ghosts and develop in England in the late spirits. 18th century and excited the audience with mysterious and macabre characters. The visual arts weren’t far behind with their most distinctive representative the innovative painter Johann Heinrich Füssli who was exiled from Switzerland. His penchant for the supernatural drove him to explore the dark side of the human soul in his works expressing dark fantasies and in a very suggestive manner. Together with a number of young literary artists he created a genre dedicated to the opposite of reason; visualising the Johann Heinrich Füssli Nachtmahr
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Their focus on the terrible, wondrous and grotesque pulled into question the supremacy of the beautiful and immaculate.« Edvard Munch, Moonlight
Goya, Selfportrait
secretive and in explicable. Felix Krämer, curator of the exhibition Schwarze Romantik (Black romanticism) which was held at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt in the 2012/2013 season calls it an exploration of the fantastical realm of the invisible and immeasurable; explaining how their focus on the terrible, wondrous and grotesque pulled into question the supremacy of the beautiful and immaculate. As contradictory as this may sound in the context of the general German terminology, what we refer to as the artistic movement of romanticism is often associated with Novalis‘ blue flower, escapism and an idealization of the past. Outside Germany romanticism
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had been tied to negative and scary elements of night, murder, lust and dark passion from the start. The lines between the enjoyment of the picturesque and a developing fascination with death were so thin and blurred that a clear distinction between gothic and dark romanticism is almost impossible to make. Alongside Füssli’s activity in England, the exhibition black
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cinematographic works Destiny (Der müde Tod) by Fritz Lang, in Nosferatu by F. W. Murnau, Tod Browning’s Dracula or Vampyr by Carl Theodor Dreyer; photographic works by Brassaï, sculptures by Paul Dardé, Jean-Joseph Carriès, Christian Behrens and the opera Der Freischütz (The Marksman) by Carl Maria von Weber. All of these artist and works of art contributed to the continued existence of
Romanticism had been tied to negative and scary elements of night, murder, lust and dark passion from the start.
romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst also showcases Casper David Friedrich and Carl Blechen in Germany, Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin and Norwegian artist Edvard Munch as representatives whose attitude of mind found its characterization in the paintings of dark romanticism. It also gives room to modern adaptations of common motives: night themes, the occult, and necromancy as represented in the
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symbolism and surrealism. Works by Goya, Johann Heinrich Füssli and William Blake as well as Théodore Géricault and Delacroix and all the way to Caspar David Friedrich trace the romantic attitude prominent all over Europe from the 18th up to the 20th century in which artists like Salvador Dalí, René Magritte or Paul Klee and Max Ernst continued the movement into the art of surrealism.
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» Do w ha t you w il l , t his wor l d's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.«
William Blake
It highlights the decisive characteristic all these artists‘ creations share in common: the urgency of loneliness and melancholy, passion and death, a fascination with horror and irrational dreams. This seemingly irrational develop ment and its grotesque results stemmed from the extinction of optimism and the loss of faith in the new age characterized by free, enlightened and progressive thought coming out of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. What began as a wave of great fascination and optimism soon turned to disenchantment
Magritte, The Pilgrim
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and boundless disappointment with the supposedly positive spirit of enlightenment soon showing its tough political face. Instead of following through on proclamations of freedom, equality and fraternity, a reign of terror, bloody civil wars, suffering and the disintegration of society because the harsh reality in many areas of Europe; with disastrous consequences.
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ommitted to the enlighten ment, contemporary artist and literary figures dedicated themselves to the downside of the much revered idea of reason. Goya and Géricault recorded the unspeakable atrocities of war in their works of art standing acts of human cruelty on their head depicting them as a wild disarray of good and evil incorporating whores, murderers, cannibals, crucibles, lovers and somnambulists. Füssli and Delacroix created illustrated nightmares and visual version of the demons of Milton, Shakespeare and Goethe. In Füssli’s oeuvre, night becomes an arena of bodily ecstasy, sexual turmoil and physical cruelty. In this sense, Der Nachtmahr (The nightmare - 1790/91) is a perfect example of the darkly-romantic grotesque attitude of mind at the end of the 18th century. Sleep – supposedly a state of utmost tranquillity and relaxation – thwarted to become an arena of demonic and nightmarish acts and experiences in which the sleeper falls victim
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Dracula, movie poster
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Myths, legends, folk and fairy tales and a newfound fascination with the Middle Ages exerted an unforeseen force of attraction.
to the surpassing insanity of his dreams. Caspar David Friedrich and Carl Blechen pull their audiences into eerie, mystical scenes. The artists‘ intention was to hold a mirror up to the people and present them with their fears and contradictions; the inherent evilness and cruelty inside every human being, the very real danger of collective degeneration; the epitome of a disillusioned present. Ugliness, wondrousness and the plain grotesque called the supremacy of beauty and perfection into question. Myths, legends, folk and fairy tales and a new-found fascination with the Middle Ages exerted an unforeseen force of attraction. Indulgence SISTER-MAG.COM
Fascination with the Middle Ages in fantasy and extravagance seemed increasingly appealing and provided a diametrical and uniquely effective opposition to the ideals proclaimed in antiquity. Added focus was also put on the immediate natural surroundings, especially forests which soon became a particularly popular motif with artists. Bright daylight was juxtaposed with fog and dark, Eleusinian nights. The roots of the autonomy of night time scenery in the arts, as well as
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Carl Gustav Carus
Carl Blechen
became the leading artistic forces the contemporary association with light let the interest in night time scenes fade and it wasn’t until the emergence of the romantic countermovement
landscapes in general, by the way, lie in the depiction of background scenes of biblical themes. Night time landscape painting had experienced an important boom during the Renaissance and reached its peak in the Baroque. When reason and enlightenment
that landscapes arousing longing such as those created by Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Gustav Carus and Carl Blechen hailed its resurgence putting the divinely inspired human being in a sunken state of observation in its centre.
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BETWEEN LIGHT AND SHADOW SISTER-MAG.COM
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Text & photos: Cole Peters
I remember the moment I fell in love with black and white photography. I was fresh out of high school, still a child to the world of image-making. At the time, as an aspiring graffiti artist, everywhere I went I carried a camera loaded with film to capture whatever new and interesting pieces of street art I might encounter. The camera had been lent to me by my father; what he didn’t know was that I was also using the camera to document the graffiti that my friends and I were committing to the city walls and trains in secret. One evening, I asked my father for a roll of film that would work well for taking photographs at night. He handed me a roll of Fuji Neopan 1600 — a high-speed black and white film — and off I went to join my friends to paint at the train yard. I captured our exploits that night on the roll of Neopan not knowing of the love affair it would soon
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spark within me. I went some days later to retrieve the incriminating photographs from the local photo lab, and as I sat alone in the car examining the results of that night’s photography, I found myself looking with greater interest at the structure of the images rather than their subjects. The Neopan film had left a distinct imprint on those photographs: a particularly brittle grain, and a pronounced contrast between black and white, lending the photographs an air of otherworldliness. These fascinating transformations in tonality caught my attention and wouldn’t let go. I have been entranced by black and white photography ever since. From Niépce to now Photography itself began its life with just few shades of grey, with Nicéphore Niépce’s ‘View from the Window at Le Gras’ being widely credited as being the first permanent photograph. Captured at his estate in 1826 or 1827, the image is very roughly detailed, appearing almost as
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a photocopy gone wrong; but at the time, it was a wonder of the age. Photography would evolve in rapid fashion in the decades following, but it would take until the mid–1900s before colour film exploded into the world of amateur photography. By the 1980s, black and white photography had become something niche. I have been photographing exclusively in black and white for almost a decade now, in both film and digital formats. This approach is not just a style for me, but rather a fundamental way in which I perceive, transform and describe the world through my photographs. It is also in some ways a tribute to photography’s beginnings and history — the absence of colour engendering a sense of the old and primal in our modern world of technology and efficiency. Yet, to perceive black and white photography as merely ‘the absence of colour’ would be doing it a disservice. Where photography of this sort fails to describe the colour of light, it
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heightens the viewer’s sense of geometry, luminance, and the contrast and interplay of light and shadow. By exploiting these opportunities, black and white photography can achieve certain aesthetic qualities and impacts all its own: colour becomes a membrane of reality ready to be peeled back, leaving the light, line, and form of the scene naked without the distractions of hue and saturation.
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In this sense, the negation of colour in fact adds something far greater to the work: it leaves the photograph in a state where reality is instantly questioned and closely examined. When these qualities are then further transformed by manipulating aspects such as contrast and the luminance of the light itself, the pseudo-reality of the photograph can quickly become a fantastic place for the captured moment to inhabit.
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Stepping into black and white For those intent on entering into the world of black and white photography, it has never been easier to take your first steps — whether you’re working with a mobile phone or a dedicated camera. For the quickest and easiest approach, a host of mobile photography apps are available to transform your images into glorious shades of grey. My favourite is VSCO Cam. A number of professionallooking monochrome presets can be purchased inexpensively (I
particularly like the ‘B’ series), and none are so wild as to make your photographs look too fantastical or kitsch. Other apps that may prove useful include Snapseed and Hueless, a strictly black and white camera app (though this one is only available for iOS devices). For greater control over your images, consider a desktop application like Adobe Lightroom paired with a digital camera. By making use of the wide range of adjustments available, you can discover a myriad of ways to bring the light and shadow in your pictures to life.
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W Because you’ll be working without colour, variations in exposure and contrast become increasingly important. It’s also wise to explore how you can adjust the luminance across the ranges of highlights and shadows of your image. For example, try making the deep blacks and shadows very dark and bringing down the intensity of highlights and white levels to create a brooding atmosphere. If you’re shooting on a digital camera, try setting the preview mode to black and white. This not only lets you see your results in monochrome immediately, but can also help you to begin imagining what your shots will look like without colour before you even take them. (Note that if you’re shooting in RAW format, your originals will remain in colour and will need to be converted to black and white afterwards). In terms of subject matter, explore everything. Street photography, landscapes, and
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portraits may be obvious starting points, but anything can look good in monochrome. Even images of flowers and plants can take on new life in black and white — refer to Karl Blossfeldt’s ‘Urformen der Kunst’ for some wonderful examples. Finally, stepping outside of your own photography is important for anyone making pictures, and there’s no shortage of books and master photographers to learn and gain inspiration from. I have learned as much through examining the work of the photographers I look up to — Josef Koudelka, Jeanloup Sieff, Garry Winogrand, Michael Ackermann, and Sebastião Salgado, to name a few — as I have through formal study. Spending time studying and comparing the images of photographers whose work moves you most can be the best thing you’ll ever do for your own photography. Be sure to explore across generational gaps, as well
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— there’s as much to learn from the late greats as there is from more recent photographers. Considering photography’s history and speaking of generational gaps brings to light one more intriguing aspect of black and white photography: the way in which it engages a shared but fading cultural memory. My generation may be the last which collectively recalls a time when news photography and photojournalism as a whole were largely communicated in black and white. As such, people of my age (and those older) are prone to experiencing a certain sense of nostalgia when viewing photography in monochrome — one which younger generations may lack the context to experience themselves. Black and white photography was once a necessary product of the photographic process;
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later, many photographers chose to work with black and white film for its advantages of speed, efficiency, and flexibility over colour film. And now we live in a world where opting for black and white is largely an aesthetic decision — one which can be made with the convenience of tapping a filter on Instagram. It would, however, be short-sighted to consider this change of context in a negative or cynical light. As with so many things in photography, how we realise and share our visions of the world through images is a
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matter steeped in subjectivity, and I am eager to discover how future generations will encounter and work with the concept of the monochrome photograph. For myself, the sense of fascination I experienced when first examining those photographs from my roll of Neopan still hums deeply within me, and I feel I have only begun to scratch the surface in my exploration of the world in black and white. And so I continue to scratch away, never tiring of uncovering the mysteries held between light and shadow.
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#ITSAMOODYWEDNESDAY
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Text: Anastasia Benko | Stilzitat
is a weekly Instagram challenge curated by Jocelyn (@jocelynhefner) and Anastasia (@stilzitat). Participation couldn’t be easier: Just upload a ‘moody’ picture on a Wednesday, tag the two curators, and add the hashtag #itsamoodywednesday. Jocelyn and Anastaisa will present their four favourite photos on the following Monday on their Instagram channels. The word ‘moody‘ on its own can easily conjure up ideas of grumpiness, sullenness and even gloom, so you’d be forgiven for thinking of photographs focusing on dark scenes and motives. But this Instagram challenge shows that this absolutely needn’t be the case.
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@jocelynhefner sisterMAG: How did you and Jocelyn come up with the »It’s a moody Wednesday« challenge? Anastasia: The #itsamoodywednesday challenge was actually initiated by my friend Gudy (@gudyherder) on Instagram. After a few months she wasn’t able to continue to look after it due to time constraints. But by this time a truly devoted community had formed around the challenge, creating brilliant pieces of art. Gudy was aware of how popular the challenge was so she entrusted me to take it over. She had told SISTER-MAG.COM
me how time-consuming managing a weekly challenge would be and she had also given me free rein of the rules, so I decided to make a change: I wanted my friend Jocelyn (@jocelynhefner) to be my co-curator! It’s not just the creative style of low-key photography that fascinates me; it’s also the windows into the lives of people all over the world it opens. While I delight in pictures of a walk through dense fog in the bleakest midwinter, someone else might be uploading pictures from a single shadow on
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a beach. Isn’t that just wonderful? It was this exotic cactus shot of Jocelyn’s that I just couldn’t get out of my head when I had just taken over the challenge and I desperately wanted to see more of her ‘moody’ visions. So I was truly excited when she agreed to become part of the #itsamoodywednesday team. sisterMAG: Why did you pick Wednesday for your moody picture challenge? Aren’t people more moody on a Monday? Anastasia: We took over an existing challenge so we weren’t in a place to change the day or the name, but I am actually grateful it’s on Wednesdays. It is neither on Manic Monday when you tend to be particularly stressed and prone to forgetting to upload your photo, nor on Sunday when you’re all relaxed, maybe napping the day away on the sofa and not necessarily in the mood to go on the hunt for a photo. sisterMAG: What does the typical ‘moody‘ photo look like? Anastasia: By standard definition, ‘moody‘ pictures are either underexposed or very dark with stark contrasts. Black-and-white
photography is often associated with this type of picture. We apply these standards quite loosely to our challenge and leave it up to our participants which stylistic tools and elements they want to employ. Everybody has their own personal idea of what makes a ‘moody’ photograph and that’s what makes the challenge such a wonderful experience. A wider definition allows you to approach the task more creatively, which has led to the creation of amazing atmospheric photos. I love being immediately captured by a photo’s atmosphere to the extent that I want to dive right into it. The motive isn’t all that important, by the way. It can be anything from a basket brimful of supple fruit or a cozy reading sanctuary to a view over a lush green meadow at the break of dawn or a dramatic sunset shot. From dark and mysterious shots to illuminated scenes of poetic secretiveness – anything goes. There are many ways to create a ‘moody‘ photo. I have compiled a guide to some of them: My »HowTo…«. sisterMAG: Did you expect your
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challenge to resonate so strongly with participants? Anastasia: There is no limitation when it comes to selecting themes for our challenge, which allows contributors a lot of freedom. We are thrilled with the response and that it continues to grow on a weekly basis. There are so many wonderful challenges and we are
incredibly grateful that ours has yielded such a positive reaction. It is also a pleasure to see participants mutually strengthen each other’s theme selection and that they look forward to discovering our favourites every Monday. We couldn’t be happier to support such a creative and diverse challenge.
sisterMAG: Which of your photos is your personal favourite?
@stilzitat
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sisterMAG: Which photo from another contributor is your favourite? Why? Anastasia: I have to cheat a bit here and answer with three favourites! It's impossible to choose a single photo out of the roughly 8000 submissions. Here is a small but superb selection of my favourites:
@the_gardeners_daughter
@gigglemay
@madame_love
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HOW TO ... C R E AT E A M O O D Y P H O T O
@lucysnowephotography
The defining characteristic of a ‘moody photo’ is deliberately employed under-exposition. The relative darkness of the photograph leads the beholder’s eye straight to the sparse detail, thereby immediately creating a dramatic air. This kind of moody photography also uses bold colours to create few but all the more striking contrasts.
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@zuzu365
Another important tool in the management of a photograph’s content is the conscious and deliberate use of light. Diffused light can make a shot particularly atmospheric.
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@li.sense.a Strong effects are also possible to achieve by exposure to direct sunlight. Depending on which kind of light is employed, a variety of different atmospheric moods can be captured.
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@a.light.thing
Shadow play is another wonderful element. It allows for added shaping and sculpturing of the object, affording the shot additional levels of depth. A little secretiveness can help you work miracles. The more attention to detail is given in the focus area, the more secretive the photo will look and feel. 359
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@lucysnowephotography
Can I blur my photo? Yes, of course! This will capture the beholder's imagination even more.
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@donnellday
There is no such thing as bad weather! Grab a mac and off you go. Admit it, this picture makes you want to pull on your Wellies right now.
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@poppybarach
Garden waste, anyone? With a keen eye for detail, the most beautiful sculptures can be found in just about any environment.
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@thislife.ofmine
‘Moody‘ white-out? Even the brightest photos can have an air of secretiveness… and bring a tear to your eye.
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@tilija72
Patina and vintage are two fail-safe options for photographic time travel. Minimalistic pictures can often feel too clinical. This is a great example of how the addition of an old carpet can enhance the setup with an air of history.
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@fihoughton
Petals and raindrops – this is a beautiful example of the photogenicity of flowers, even when they are not caught in the best light.
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Text: Lorelou from 'A Frog in the Fjord'
HOW TO SURVIVE A NORWEGIAN WINTER
As a French national moving here six years ago, I expected Norwegian winters to be cold. The toughest part, however, is the darkness. »Where is the sun?«ƒ I wondered from October to March. Countries like Norway, which are so close to or even north of the Arctic circle, have very little sunlight in the winter. Sadly, I am not a bear, and my boss did not allow me to hibernate during my first winter in Norway. So I had to find ways to survive this dark winter and the seasonal depression creeping in on me. The lack of sunlight made me feel sleepy, sad, and slightly depressed. But do not be scared; people have been living in these regions for generations and they manage just fine. Here are a few insider tips on how to survive and even enjoy a winter in the North.
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Get on the Sex, Alcohol and Syden plane The first thing you need to fight winter depression is with what I call SAS (not the Scandinavian airline). It stands for Sex, Alcohol, and Syden. Unless you already have someone waiting in bed for you with chocolate cookies and a cheeky smile, getting laid can help you feel better. You can, of course, go to bars and hook up with strangers to get temporary comfort through sex; Scandinavia has the highest rate of one night stands in the world. You can also get insanely drunk every Friday and Saturday to enjoy the
beers and freezing temperatures in Oslo, Copenhagen or Saint Petersburg. Why do you think Christmas parties were invented in December? Comfort through booze. The last key to surviving winter is »Syden« (»the South« in Norwegian), which is the act of traveling south for a few weeks to somewhere warm, sunny and where the booze is cheap – Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaria, Thailand. You come home with a nice tan and, voila, Vitamin D and self esteem replenished!
Cod liver and light therapy A bit healthier than casual sex and drinking every weekend, but just as important, is drinking a spoonful of cod liver oil every day. Start this as soon as October, and eat a lot of fatty fish. The fish oil will give you the vitamin D and Omega 3 you need to feel better (capsules are also available, though they taste a bit gross). You can also eat cod liver on toast with a bit of lemon – a delicacy. Another way is SISTER-MAG.COM
to do light therapy with a special lamp you put next to you 30 minutes per day, but those are very expensive. How do you think the Sami people survived all those generations up North without a single minute of sunlight during the three long months of winter? They ate a lot of liver of the animals they fished/killed, and had strong social bonds. Learn from the experts!
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John Christian Fjellestad
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Tobias van der Elst
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Torodd F. Ottestad
Make t hings c o s y, or koselig
Koselig is a Norwegian word that can be best understood as 'cosy' in English, though it is for the most part untranslatable. In Norway, virtually everything needs to be koselig. And there is no manual for foreigners to know how to be and make things koselig in all circumstances. So, what is a koselig decoration in a house? What does a koselig kitchen look like? A koselig cup? According to my experience in Norway, a koselig evening involves candles, good music, warm colours around you, a fire, good food on the table, wine, and people you like and feel comfortable with, chatting away the
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evening and into the night with a little tipsiness and warmth. I am sure you get the picture – unless you come from a tropical country where sitting with wool plaids among closed windows and a fire sounds like a crazy idea. In the end, I believe making things koselig is a necessity for Norwegians because, as we spend so much time inside during this dark and cold time of the year, homes need to be comfortable for the body and mind. It is like an inner summer that Norwegians create for themselves to feel like it’s warm all year long no matter the circumstances.
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»NO BAD WE ATHER , O N LY B A D C L O T H I N G «
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Tobias van der Elst
Foreigners living in Norway hear this sentence a lot, and it means that you have no excuse to stay in. Is it raining, snowing, windy? You just need to get appropriate winter clothes (you will need wool to cope with negative temperatures) and as much sunlight as you can get while it’s there. Winter has so much to offer in the North – as soon as you manage to get out of bed. You can indulge in outdoor activities like skiing, sledging, ice-skating, bikini-skiing, bear-hunting or igloo-building. Physical exercise will give you the kick you need to have more energy. Finally, you can sit tight for a few months and survive on hope. The hope that, eventually, spring, sun, and smiles will come again (and one day they will, I promise).
Author Lorelou Desjardins is a French lady who moved to Norway some years ago to follow her dream job. She writes about Norwegians and their quirky culture in her blog, afroginthefjord.com, and has published articles in many European newspapers and magazines. She lives in Oslo and travels all around Norway to discover more of this beautiful country.
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#24 P R E V I E W
A new format, many changes in the layout, a new year topic and 30 features later: We hope that you enjoyed our issue Number 23 of sisterMAG. If you want to make us really happy: Tell us when you read our magazine (Twitter, Instagram or FB: @ 足 sister_ mag ). Let us know which features you enjoyed the most and what you would like to see more of! #sisterMAG24
LAUNCHES IN CW 17 (END OF APRIL) SISTER-MAG.COM
Our next issue focusses on one of our very favourite materials to work with: PAPER. Whether in the office, while crafting, scrapbooking or just when handling invoices: paper is all around us, even if we live digitally. However we will show you how to declutter your desk, will showcase different paper ideas for your office and have a few craft DIY ideas in store for you! Looking forward to seeing you again!
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IMPRINT SISTERMAG – JOURNAL FOR THE DIGITAL LADY w w w. s i st e r - m a g . d e Chief Editor Operations
Theresa Neubauer Nadine Steinmetz (Operations Dir.), Sandra Rothfeld, Nina Förster
Fashion
Eva-Maria Neubauer
Design
Theresa Neubauer (Art Dir.), Marie Darme, Dana Lungmuss
Contributing Editors (Text)
Alena Hecker, Alex Sutter, Alexander Kords, Anastasia Benko, Cole Peters, Dr. Jörg V. Wittmann, Elisa von Hof, Emma Heath, Jana Seelig, Johanna Eisner, Liv Hambrett, Lorelou Desjardins, Luisa Sancelean, Melina Royer, Nina Anika Klotz, Nina Förster, Robert Eberhardt, Rosmarie Dammler von COMMPartners, Sophia Schillik, Tanja Salkowski, Theresa Neubauer, Thomas Gorski, Zoe Blechschmitt Contributing Editors (Food) Sara Heinen, Christina Bumann, Julia Herrmann, Karin Stoettinger, Christine Garcia Urbina, Iris C. M. Frank, Virginia Horstmann, Claudia Gödke Contributing Editors (Photo) Henrik Folkesson, Christopher Santos, Helena Melikov, Zoë Noble, Claudia Gödke, Patricia Haas, Cole Peters, Marie Darme Styling Lena Schleweis, Patricia Heck, AENNIKIN, Christina van Zon, Evi Neubauer, Rike Janke Illustration Alice Williamson, Assa Ariyoshi, Marie Darme, Dana Lungmuss, Theresa Neubauer Translation Tanja Timmer, Theresa Neubauer, Alex Kords, Zoe Blechschmitt, Christian Naethler Proof Stefanie Kießling , Alexander Kords, Amie McCracken, Christian Naethler, Ira Häussler Published bi-monthly by Carry-On Publishing GmbH, Gustav-Meyer-Allee 24, 13355 Berlin, Germany. Re-use of content is only allowed with written permission of the publisher. There is no liability for unsolicited manuscripts and photographs. The Carry-On Publishing GmbH assumes no liability or guarantee for the accuracy, currency and completeness of the information provided. All information is provided without warranty. Contact: mail@sister-mag.com Management Sales Marketing
Antonia Sutter, Theresa Neubauer, Alex Sutter Alex Sutter (Sales Dir.) Antonia Sutter (Marketing Dir.), Luisa Sancelean, Zoe Blechschmitt
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SISTERMAG #24 APRIL 2016 PHOTO: ZoĂŤ Noble
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