Jürgen Neumann is one of the three artists working on Ohanda.One, a speculative design project, where the artists design and built and operate a futuristic zero emission ocean vessel. Jürgen started working with computers in 1984, and since then has been looking for ways to deploy information technology in useful ways for organizations and society. As a consultant for IT strategy, Jürgen has worked for major German and international companies and NGOs. As an activist, he co-founded and participated in Freifunk, a non-profit community of free and open wireless network activists. His recent activities include lobbying for open source hardware at OHANDA – an open source hardware and design alliance – and for free software, like DMX – a human-centered knowledge management tool. As an artist Jürgen tries to explore curiosity on the edge of utopia.
On board the Godzilla, Jürgen hopes to enjoy the physical presence and togetherness of friendly and inspiring people, and the exchange of thoughts and ideas. He hopes this will bring him closer to the matters that he wants to explore in Ohanda.One, in the sense that Godzilla can be seen as a smaller version of the desired large scale sailing ocean vessel in the utopian speculative design project. He’d love to discuss and make plans about how to continue Ohanda.One’s journey in the near future. He is also very curious to learn more about this specific environment while being on the sea, and to hear stories from fellow crew.
“For most of my life the Baltic Sea has been connected with the political threads and conflicts between the East and the West. While in the 90s the feeling of a pacified area arose, taking a ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki recently, we actually got threatened by a Russian submarine. It was a lively reminder of the war and how unsolved conflicts and human aggression are affecting and changing Europe and the world these days. In addition to that, the level of pollution and the dieback of species are another dark chapter on the matter.
At the same time the Baltic Sea connects me with my friends in the adjoining northern neighbouring states. And visiting its many various coastlines has often been a very peaceful and recreative experience for me. My last sailing trip there back in the days became a nightmare with four days in a storm and a broken engine with no electricity. For the first time in my life I became very seasick. Hopefully Godzilla will be calm and cozy!”