FASHIONOFFICE INSIGHT
by publisher Karin Sawetz
Feb 2009
"... Your magic binds again
What fashion sternly parts.
All men become brothers ..."
Text: 'Ode to Joy' (1785) by Friedrich Schiller used by Ludwig van Beethoven for his 9th symphony, premiered on 7 May 1824 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, Austria.
(The German word "Mode" in Schiller's text is mostly translated with "custom"; this excludes the very important fact that in 1785 the new fashion of clothes (the trend was invented in England in the 17th century) became in Europe and America - worn by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson for example - a mean for communicating new ideas of "Liberté, Egalité, et Fraternité" - "Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood". On the picture below you can see Beethoven writing the 'Missa Solemnis' at around the same time as he created the 9th symphony, dressed in the "English fashioned" suit with wild hair to express his participation in the movement. Please take a look at Beethoven's collar: the open, widely over the jacket lying shirt collar was entitled after Friedrich Schiller - the "Schillerkragen". In Germany, Austria the "Schiller-collar" was a sign for revolution and life close to nature. By the way: left on Beethoven's portrait you can see parts of a forest in a golden light.)
Can the world change in a few years?
It is not possible that everything changes and becomes better in a short time; but step by step we can work on it. Take a look at the revolutionary spirit of Beethoven or Schiller and the endurance of this generation to realize their visions - so what are 10 years?
Post Media Revolution
Revolutions happen any time! If the Internet had existed in times of Schiller, Beethoven, their works would have been widespread online. Since 1996 Fashionoffice is part of the biggest media revolution since Gutenberg. Internet has changed the means for journalistic investigation as well as the instruments for the evaluation of the editor’s work.
During the post-media-revolutionary years (since 2006) new standards and regulations have been settled to ensure the internet in all its facets: child security, malware, viruses, phishing, spam ... are themes we have to consider when we are speaking about the work/private space of many million people who have integrated the internet into their daily life. Because of these reasons Fashionoffice has worked intensively even with official authorities since 2006.
New Tools for New Media
In these years Fashionoffice has simultaneously developed new editorial features, made the work of journalists valuable by counting it with international standardized tools (Google Analytics), and offers advertising opportunities accorded with world wide accepted guidelines. It’s a tradition of the media market that all three aspects have to be organised in a harmonious synergy; this rule is still valid in a market after the biggest media-revolution since Gutenberg.
Fashionoffice and the Revolution
Fashionoffice never wanted to be part of a revolution - but sometimes the revolution takes part of you.
fig.: This picture was made during the cold days in January 09 on a frozen lake in the former Viennese hunting forest called 'Prater'. On the image (in the middle-right behind the trees) you can see the hunting palace 'Lusthaus', built in the 16th century. In 1814 on occasion of the 1st anniversary of Napoleon's defeat in Leipzig, the members of the Congress of Vienna who were remapping the continent after the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleon Wars in the capital city of Austria, held their luxurious festivity in this location with celebrities such as the Russian czar Alexander, the kings of Denmark, Prussia, Bavaria and Wuertemberg ... .
fig.: Painting of Ludwig van Beethoven (1820) by Joseph Karl Stieler. Source: Beethoven-Haus Bonn beethoven-haus-bonn.de.
"Beethoven's political commitment, this utopia -- the "Ode to Joy" by Friedrich Schiller, which he set to music, is a utopia -- hasn't lost any of its relevance. We are still living in an age of war, suppression, hunger and many other injustices." Beethovenfest Director Ilona Schmiel in an interview by Klaus Gehrke, 26 Aug 2008 on
deutsche-welle.de/dw/article/0,,3593874,00.htm
Video: Philharmonic orchestra and chorus conducted by Herbert von Karajan who rearranged the 9th symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven for the 'Anthem of Europe' youtube.com/watch?v=GdPvHtLAYco in 1972. The hymn expresses freedom, peace and solidarity.
Dr. Karin Sawetz, founder and publisher of fashionoffice.org (since 1996), is journalist, media researcher and fashion scientist.
Karin Sawetz has a diploma from a higher-level secondary college for the fashion and clothing industry. She was awarded with the first prize for her design of the male work trousers for the OMV filling stations (OMV is Central Europe's leading oil and gas group) - the design has been realised. Before and while studying for the diploma she was designer for her own label, which she has presented international.
Beneath her studies at the University of Vienna she worked as costume designer for theatre and film, was civil servant at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economics (Department Fashion & Textile Industry), ...
After she has finished her studies at the Institute for Journalism and Communication Sciences, the Institute for Film-, Theatre- and Media-Sciences, the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Vienna, and the Institute for Artistic Sciences, Art Education and Communication, Department for Cultural and Intellectual History, at the University of Applied Arts, she was lecturer at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, published scientific studies, ...
In the last years she focused her work on fashionoffice.org as an international magazine and organization for intercultural approaches in fashion and art.
More publications> sawetz.com/publications.htm
FASHIONOFFICE INSIGHT:
Sept 2009
Aug 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
Apr 2009
Mar 2009
Feb 2009
Jan 2009
Dec 2008
Nov 2008
Oct 2008
Sept 2008
Aug 2008
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Sawetz (C) 2009 |
