I have often been jealous of musicians who have massive amounts of material to show on their social media accounts. As a writer, my profession consists of sitting in front of desks all day, an aesthetic I am not particularly keen on broadcasting daily.

I thought: How can I show my aesthetics while showing my face – and some of my writing? So my friend and father of our child J. and I started shooting slo-mo shots of myself within and around the artist’s space in Kreuzberg.

Truth be told, people are not buying your books and zines because you are a fabulous writer these days.

They want to see your energy, your attitude, your outfits, and your facial expressions when reading tiny bits and pieces of what you are … actually writing. So instead of complaining and crying in my Hochbett, I decided to invest in my personal style again. After years of sitting at home during and before the pandemic, with nothing to wear but my worn-out jogging pants, I decided that enough was enough and finally acquired a new wardrobe, got a new haircut and put myself out there.

Appearing on camera made me think about my aesthetics in a way I hadn’t thought of before. I try to see myself as a musician, but instead of performing music, I am broadcasting written words, prose, and … well, plain sentences taken out of my books, accompanied by music.

If I were only doing it for commercial purposes, I would be bored easily, so I really try to think of the entire endeavor as an art form. It is videographic art; it marks the inception of my own performative art. I want to be on camera, I want to express my emotions. Consequently, I do believe that authors can indeed be visual artists as well. If they put the work, money and patience in the process.

Even if I’m not a visual artist yet, I still had fun creating these short prose pieces with J. – and I do hope for more stuff in the future.

groschenphilosophin
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