Es gab Tage, da füllte ich im Wahn die Seiten und es gab wochen- und sogar monatelange Durststrecken ohne ein einziges geschriebenes Wort. Doch nun endlich ist die erste Hürde genommen. Auf den Tag genau ein Jahr nach der Rückkehr von meiner Reise habe ich das Rohmanuskript eingereicht. 539.130 Zeichen formen 83.004 Wörter die auf ungefähr 300 Seiten eines Taschenbuchs Platz finden. Und jetzt ist es offiziell: Titel, Covergestaltung und Veröffentlichungstermin von meinem ersten Buch stehen fest.

JOURNEYMAN
1 Mann, 5 Kontinente und jede Menge Jobs

Fabian Sixtus Körner, geboren 1981, ist Designer, Fotograf, Innenarchitekt, Blogger. Anfang 2010 begann er die Welt zu bereisen und für Kost und Logis zu arbeiten. Innerhalb von zwei Jahren besuchte er alle fünf Kontinente, seit April 2012 lebt und arbeitet er in Berlin.

Ab jetzt heißt es: lesen-umschreiben-lesen-umschreiben-lesen-umschreiben…in dieser Reihenfolge.

Auf bald
fabsn

Vorschauseite für die Veröffentlichung auf Ullstein extra im Herbst 2013 – click to enlarge

A short time after I returned to Germany from my journey, I was asked by TEDxBerlin to be a speaker in their conference “Crossing Borders”. End of November it finally happened to take place.

For two weeks I had been planning, writing, re-writing and practicing. The evening before TEDxBerlin’s event “crossing borders” I attended the official final rehearsal to see how my talk goes.
I totally screwed it up. Forgot to talk about entire parts, talked way too detailled about other unimportant parts and crossed the limit of 18 minutes.
I was a nervous wreck. “I am not built for that” was what I thought.

But when I left the stage, John “maddog” Hall, the Godfather of Linux and open source software legend came to me and said:
“I wish I had met someone like you after I graduated from college to tell me about a self-determined life. I could have cut years of corporate crap and directly start doing what I love.”

The night before the event I slept well and did the talk the next day without major blackouts.

Thank you Maddog for your kind words. They helped me a lot.
Thank you Ole Tillman for being an incredible coach and thank you TEDxBerlin for this opportunity.

Greetings from Zimbabwe ( yeah, I thought it would be easier to write the book here. Best decision! )
fabsn

photo collage of TEDxBerlin “Crossing Borders” – click to enlarge

Here’s the event description and my favourite talks from that day. All videos can be found here. Information about all speakers here

“What limits and borders are we faced with as individuals, as a society? Who or what defines these boundaries? What are the results of these demarcations – demarcations as barriers that may even result in scientific and artistic limitations to us as individuals and society as a whole? Are they arbitrarily defined borders or are they erected due to their necessity? Are they obstacles or are they beneficial? And what happens if we overcome these borders?” – TEDxBerlin

Diana Nyad – Dare to Dream

John “Maddog” Hall – Borderless Development via Freedom Culture

Michael Poliza – The Power of Wilderness – How Leaving the Comfort Zone Can Heal the Soul

Carolina Gonzalez-Bunster – From Goldman Sachs to Walkabout: Forging My Own Way

A graphical journey through TEDxBerlin’s event “Crossing Borders” by information architect Mathias Weitbrecht. – click to enlarge

The big tour of talks and exhibitions will start in around one year when the book is out on the market but I thought it might be a good idea to tell my story to all my friends at once so I decided to give a first glimpse on what will be in that book in my home area around Frankfurt.

Although it is meant to be an evening for friends, it will be an open talk. Everyone is invited to come, bring their friends and have a drink at Café Tass in Hofheim while listening to some of my stories.

And some photos will be hanging on the wall too, ready to be sold.

Looking forward to see you there.

Take care
fabsn

Here are the specs in german:

////////////////////////////////////////

AUSSTELLUNG AB MONTAG, 03.09.2012

VORTRAG: SAMSTAG, 08.09.2012, 20:00

CAFÉ TASS, BURGSTRASSE 13, HOFHEIM TS

////////////////////////////////////////

2 Jahre und 3 Monate war Fabian Sixtus Körner als Design-Wandergeselle unterwegs, mit dem Ziel, auf allen Kontinenten dieser Erde zu arbeiten. Angelehnt an die traditionelle Handwerkswalz wurde er dabei nicht mit Geld, sondern ausschließlich durch Kost und Logis entlohnt.

Viele Geschichten aus 6 Kontinenten und 15 Jobs wird er in einem Vortrag in Text, Bild und Bewegtbild erzählen.

“Ich habe 30 Meter hohe Bambusgerüste bestiegen, um für David Chipperfield Architects historische Gebäude in Schanghai neu zu gestalten; schüttelte die Hände zahlreicher Minister und anderer hochrangiger Politiker als International Ambassador der Kuala Lumpur Design Week; legte tausende von Kilometern in Zügen, Bussen und Autorikschas zurück, um im Süden Indiens einen vertikalen Garten für ein Gebäude aus Supermarktregalen zu entwickeln; wurde in die Freihandelszone von Alexandria geschmuggelt, um ein neues Corporate Design für eine der führenden Werften im Mittelmeerraum zu entwickeln; veranstaltete mit einigen der besten afrikanischen Fotografen das größte afrikanische Fotografie Festival in Addis Abeba; gründete eine Organisation zur Unterstützung junger, indischer Fotografen in Bangalore; fotografierte Modekollektionen und produzierte einen Song für ein Musiklabel in Brisbane; kuratierte das Wira Foto Fest und saß in der Jury eines Modelwettbewerbes in Malaysia; assistierte einem Beauty- und Fashionfotografen in San Francisco; war Videojournalist auf Kuba; drehte eine Kurzdoku über Hahnenkämpfe in der Dominikanischen Republik und half in Kolumbien als Gallerieassistent und Fotograf eine Künstlergruppe aufzubauen.”

////////////////////////////////////////

Fabian Sixtus Körner lebt derzeit in Berlin. Erst kürzlich siedelte er wieder in Deutschland an, nachdem er für sein Projekt “Stories of a Journeyman” die Welt für über 2 Jahre bereiste, um als Architekt, Graphikdesigner und Fotograf zu arbeiten.

Nach der Fachhochschulreife in Textiltechnik und Bekleidung ( 2003 ) studierte er 5 Jahre Innenarchitektur an der Hochschule RheinMain in Wiesbaden und erhielt sein Diplom für die Arbeit “shopZweipunktNull”, ein crowdsourced popup-store für das T-shirt label laFraise.

Fabian ist ein multidisziplinärer, kreativer Enthusiast, der nichts davon wissen will nur eine Profession auszuüben. Nach Fashion Design, Architektur, Graphikdesign und Fotografie begann er während seiner Reise auch das Kreieren von Videoclips. Für den Kurzfilm “The Bollywood Movie Star” wurde er 2012 mit dem deutschen Webvideo Preis ausgezeichnet.

Momentan arbeitet Fabian am letzten Schritt seines Reiseprojekts. Bis Ende 2012 wird er Autor, um das Buch zur Reise zu schreiben. Im Spätsommer 2013 wird die Reiseerzähling im Ullsteinverlag erscheinen ( Titel wird bald bekanntgegeben ).

It’s been 3 month already since I returned to Germany.

After the first two weeks in my home town near Frankfurt with an incredible homecoming party, I moved to Berlin. And this city I call my home now. Berlin and its people are doing a good job in preventing the wanderlust blues for me. I feel O.K. not being on the road and I feel especially good with the fact that I will be switching professions again.

From now on I’ll take a break from being a designer or photographer or architect. Today is the day I become an author.

During the past one and a half months I was preparing the synopsis for the book about my travels and yesterday I finally signed the contract with the publishing house that I’d call my favourite one in Germany. Ullstein is my new “employer” – what a catch!

The rest of 2012 I’ll write and write and write until the manuscript will be ready to deliver in december.

Publication date will be late summer/early autumn 2013 and I am pretty sure, a lot more will happen during these months. When the winter knocks on Berlin’s doors, I might be ready to leave the country again – but that’s future talk.

Unfortunately, the book will be written and therefore published in german. But as we all know, successful books will be translated in different languages. You can bet I am not giving up hope that everyone who I met during my trip will be able to read it one day!

I wipe off the dust from my keyboard that a dozen of countries left behind and start to remember how it was when I left Germany towards Shanghai two and a half years ago…

Save travels everyone
fabsn

As you all know by now, I am back in Germany. I had a great first week in Berlin hosting a photography workshop at a school around the corner.

A couple of weeks ago I won the German Webvideo Awards ( deutscher Webvideo Preis ) with a video from India and finally, after almost a month, the original Bollywood posters you can see in that video arrived from India. Thanks to Ria at Jaaga for sending them over.

They are limited to 85 pieces. The printing plates from the manufacturers don’t exist anymore so these posters will be the only ones ever printed. No reprint possible.

If you want to save your copy send me a message and let me know how many posters you want. ( Yes, if you wish I can write you a nice “hey, all the best from fabsn”-note on the back )

The price per poster is 20€/26US$ plus shipping. ( Size: 76 cm x 52 cm )

If you wanna meet up for a drink in Berlin, let me know. I live in Kreuzberg.

Cheers
fabsn

Yes, you read correctly. Today is my last day in Colombia, the last day as a Design-Journeyman traveling the world.

I had a fabulous farewell party with the people from Vida Augusta in Medellín. With confetti, costumes, choripán, a piñata, 90’s dancefloor music and lots of Rum.

I will spend a week in Frankfurt to see friends and family and meet some people at radiostations and newspapers for interviews as well as potential publishers for my book. It’s not gonna be boring in Germany.

After that I will move to Berlin in a nice room in Kreuzberg where I will have my base for an undefinite amount of time. I will prepare exhibitions about my trip and write the book. Once that is done, I hope to go on a small tour to give talks about the incredible travel I had.

I will keep this blog running for upcoming information about the whole Journeyman project. Of course there so many things still to do. Lots of videos, photos and stories to present for which I haven’t had time to prepare while traveling and working.

Thanks to the lovely people from Medellín. I had a great time with some amazing projects.

Next week more – by that time from Germany.

Saludos
fabsn

On march 31st 2012 I won the Jury Prize of the German Webvideo Awards ( Deutscher Webvideopreis ) in the category OMG for my protest video from India:
THE BOLLYWOOD MOVIE STAR

Since I am still on the road I couldn’t attend at the award show. So I decided to perform a small speech in the center of Medellín, Colombia…

With help from the people I work with right now I took the chance to visit the not-so-safe center of Medellín to find some real local musicians. With 1 liter of Rum and 1 Liter of Aguardiente we convinced a music group and some other people to take part in our project. After several obscene maledictions by a female group of coffee sellers against the Gringo with the camera, the mood became a little bit aggressive. But as always…the Rum solved the problem and after 5 takes we finally thought we got what we need.

Big thanks to:
Cristina and Clara from Vida Augusta
Edgar from Ragde Design
Lucas from brainwash24hours
Rob from Brik a Brak
as well as Samuel lo mejor, the Ladies, the band and all the people shouting.

Thank you so much
fabsn

// If you want to buy an original poster from the video THE BOLLYWOOD MOVIE STAR, write me a message. And hurry, they are limited to 80 pieces only. 10€/13US$ Per Poster ( plus shipping ) //

Here’s the complete gala. Category OMG with nominees and winners from minute 0:49:40.

winners logo – click to enlarge





the lovely Katrin Bauerfeind announces the winner video The Bollywood Movie star – click to enlarge





the speech video live on screen in the theatre – click to enlarge





sold out Savoy theatre in Düsseldorf – click to enlarge





winners and prizes and a bollywood picture on stage – click to enlarge
all photos by Deutscher Webvideopreis

Behind the scene from the Speech-videoshoot

finding the right composition – click to enlarge





last check for the right order – click to enlarge





having shots of rum with the people around – click to enlarge





the signs after the shoot – click to enlarge

Saturday, March 31st, is the day of the days for me this year…at least so far.

The decision will be announced about the audience and jury prizes for the German Web Video Awards 2012.

I am nominated in 2 categories and pretty excited about it. recently I saw that there will be a live stream of the whole show which takes place in the lovely Savoy theatre in Düsseldorf.

The stream will be available directly at webvideopreis.de or at myvideo.de

// UPDATE: LIVE STREAM AT www.webvideopreis.de/live/

Kick-off is 6:30pm GMT ( 19:30 german time ).

I will check the address again and will update it before it starts should there be changes.

Keep your fingers crossed.

OMG!!!
fabsn

_____________________________________________________________

Just a short notice. I finally reached the mark of 100 articles. Spent uncountable hours to foster this blog and keep it updated. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I’m glad the number of my readers constantly grew. Otherwise I’d propably have kissed it goodbye into the depths of the web.

Here is an update of happenings from the past, the present and the future:

- After 100 articles I thought I could change the header. Was about time.

- I recently ( finally ) installed a facebook page where I will post photos from my travels and tell short stories about it. Kind of an appetizer for the upcoming book. Some untold information that you shouldn’t miss.

- An interview that german travel mag MERIAN did with me.

- A great article about my Design-Journey on german mag SPIEGEL ONLINE.

- I was nominated in the german web video awards. The award show will be on march 31st in Düsseldorf. You’re still able to vote for my video THE BOLLYWOOD MOVIE STAR and of course for all the other great web videos.

- Another article on SPIEGEL ONLINE about my nomination at the german web video awards with some interesting user comments.

- I found my last job of this trip in the lovely city of Medellín at a place called Vida Augusta, a new found art collective with gallery space. My first job was to help setting up an art show about traditional colombian laundry and also placed myself as an exhibit as you can see at the photo on top of this post. Tomorrow I will be going to a farm house in the mountains to do a fashion shoot for local label Kabura. Next week a product shoot for an awesome furniture brand called Brik a Brak.

- Early april I will take my last night bus on this world trip, heading to Bogota and taking the plane to Frankfurt city.

- Visiting friends and family and als some media to talk about my travel project.

- Heading to Berlin mid april to give a photography workshop at a school and move into my own room. Yes, I already found a place to stay. How exciting. My own room after 2 years and three months.

- Starting to do a concept for the rest of the year: writing the book, preparing exhibitions and lectures.

Thanks for following
yours fabsn

Once more I am stoked how uncomplicated things can be if you meet the right people.

One week ago I packed my bag in the small fisher village Taganga at the caribbean coast of Colombia to take a 17 hour bus ride down south. The city of Medellín fascinates me since I first heard about it. Former “most dangerous city on planet earth” with 6500 homocides in 1991 it was home to famous druglord Pablo Escobar and to many of his asassins.

The city is a beauty, build in a green valley between two breathtaking mountain ranges. Since the era of Escobar ended with his death the city regenerated pretty fast and is today a sparkling newcomer with a busy night life and a growing art scene.

I contacted quite a few people through the usual websites but also did a call on couchsurfing.org this time. And that was when I got lucky. An australian guy contacted and forwarded me to the young creative community Vida Augusta which just happened to open its doors 6 weeks ago.

I contacted Cristina, the founder and artist herself and the day after I met her at the gallery.

To cut a long story short: Vida Augusta is my new and very last employer on my trip as a Design-Journyman. And what a catch. I am living in the most extravagant appartment just 5 minutes up the hill ( will post photos some day, incredible ) and looking forward to help setting up an exhibition for coming saturday. Next week we’ll be going uphill to a farm house where I will do a fashion shoot for a scarf brand and a product shoot for a furniture brand and many more things afterwards. This – is – so – exciting!

Please check out Vida Augusta on facebook and like it to spread the word about colombian creatives.

Thank you all and of course I’ll keep you updated
fabsn

having a break at the gallery with my new colleagues – click to enlarge

The view from my room into the green

Here are some pictures from the fisher town Taganga and around.
More pictures in the photo section.

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