Why is it that so many people are crazy about bags? There is a purse-mania nit just in the It-girls world, and I admit that I can feel the magic behind a cool bag. But I found out, that you travel the streets with a completely different gravity [more]
Why is it that so many people are crazy about bags? There is a purse-mania nit just in the It-girls world, and I admit that I can feel the magic behind a cool bag. But I found out, that you travel the streets with a completely different gravity if you leave your bags at home and keep your hands and your shoulders freely. But to travel without a bag requires a of selfconfidence and training. This is how I did it.
This is my bag story.
It started as a child with Scout Rucksacks, then as a rebelling teenager of course it had to be a no name unbranded army rucksack which I tagged from top to bottom with phrases like “fuck the police”. As a graffiti writer I had to realize that it was completely the other way around: the police fucked me, 5 times. Later as a DJ (not as illegal as graffiti art) I started wearing shoulder bags like record bags. That made my shoulders crooked and My back today suffers a lot from wearing one shoulder bags. The latest bag I have bought was an “Affentor”-bag which actually is a totem bag but I can wear it like a rucksack. I use screenprinted jute bags the most, like everyone in Kreuzberg. Women can not live without bags, and so is my wife: Fortunately she doesn’t like the Paris Hilton purses that serve more as an accessory than as a bag. She was very happy with a Fjällräven Kanken Rucksack (69 Euros) in rose red.
When I travel I take my Ikea PS Trolley which actually is functionally seen the best travel bag ever!
When I go to the office to work I used to take the Affentor, because I have to carry my airbook inside. At the fleamarket I have purchased a white old Tennis bag, which I use to transport tools such as my Japanese saw collection that Mister Hennrichsen pledged to me. But I have started to leave my computer at home now. The screen is broken anyway. I have started to carry no tools with me, such as notebooks or saws. What I did is what I call “Inside-Outing”. Yes this is my kind of outing. I turned all the stuff that I had to carry in my bags inside out. Well, actually this only works in urban environments, where you can use the infrastructure of a city (Subway, parks with benches, Cafés, dm-grocery stores with baby changing tables and free diapers), free newspapers in cafés, libraries, fablabs, repair cafés (where you get your clothes and devices), bus stations where you have a city map for orientation.
What do people always have to carry with them? Actually the things that make you independent from the infrastructure. Because once the infrastructure – such as a closed DM Store (where you find the diapers for your crying baby) – is leak, you are lost. That’s right, but only if you act dumb. If you act like MacGyver you will always find a creative solution. This is what people carry around all day: Laptop or iPad, wallet, keys, cosmetics, books, pampers (if there are babies in your life), right?
I just take with me light things that fit in pockets: iPhone in my right jeans pocket, my wallet (in my parker’s inside pocket), my crowdbook-calender (in my right parker’s pocket), a book that I am reading currently (in my left Parker’s pocket), my baby (in a turquoise baby sling, no buggy or maxicosi required (these maxicosis are design monsters!). What about tools I need for my daily work? Things like programs (Photoshop, Word, Powerpoint) in my computer (all required files such as powerpoint slides, pictures, notes up in internet clouds such as Slideshare.com, photos up in facebook (attention: NSA sees your flicks), my email-account (attention: NSA is watching you), wikia, pinterest, etherpads, blogs (attention: the world is watching)). What about money? My credit card (I threw it away and draft cash money once in a month and try to live with a ten Euro bill a day), tissues (They are stored in bars, Cafés, Restaurants – why should I block my pockets with things that are stored everywhere). Once in a while I organize Hartz IV Möbel Assembling classes for which I need tools. Well I have put my drills or my saws to sharing walls such as Betahaus or shared workshop spaces such as www.offene- werkstaetten.org.
What about travelling long distances? As far as I am away for less than three days, I try not to carry any bags. And of course everyday I wear new fresh socks and underwear. But how transporting them without a bag? I call this the baboushka-method. Three days means three shorts I simply wear them over, same with T-shirts and socks. This only works if it is not too hot outside, because once you sweat this doesn’t work. So when I travel to another city, my first destination is the hotel where I can get rid off my baboushka-clothes.
If books exceed the size of a pocket, you cannot put them in your parker. What then? I won’t put them in a bag, I will carry them in my hand with the cover to the outside so everyone can see it. Why I don’t like putting my current book in a bag? Because this means hiding what I am interested. I am what I read. This means: Hiding who you are. What’s wrong about showing to the world what you are coping with. You also are what you eat! And you don’t hide the dish you are eating in a restaurants, aren’t you?
Today I carry “Erich Fromm – Haben oder sein” in my right hand. It provoqued a lot of conversations with inspiring people I met in the subway and in the streets. When I held “Karl Marx” once at an event, a man said to me: “Wow that’s impressing, you read Karl Marx? Did you know that there are some countries where you get in jail for this?”