Travel today is heavily influenced by the social media and digital networks in which we move. The way we travel often reflects our relationship to the social system. The consequences of this contemporary travel culture can be seen in mass tourism - and the associated impact on the environment and society. But why do we travel so much?

Travel often serves the purpose of self-realization, whereby people are often only focused on their own experience and the surroundings are hardly noticed or respected.

Freiburg is a city that, although it has no beach, no sea and no palm trees, has something very special: it shines - and not just thanks to many hours of sunshine and solar energy. Freiburg embodies the energy of a more conscious, more sustainable coexistence that is more strongly oriented towards ecological values.

The work “Freiburg Spirit” shows how Freiburg's special atmosphere makes it a meaningful destination.

It invites you to go on a journey to the spirit of this city and to be inspired by its energy. It also creates a link to the past: Because people have been drawn to the Black Forest in the past, motivated by place-related myths, stories and legends. The project calls for a return to precisely this form of travel and reminds us that traveling was once a way of experiencing oneself and the world around more deeply.

Ben Blume is a german media art student at Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe.
Interested in philosophical questions about the essence of life in context with modern life structures he studies to explore these topics with media such as photography, digital image processing, 3D and AR.