Photography by Bella Lieberberg.
DEAR FRIENDS OF SLEEK,
There are topics you choose. And there are topics you stumble upon. CURIOSITY falls into the second category. For me, it’s one of the most exciting topics we’ve ever had, because it is so directly connected to what SLEEK is about at its core: creativity. And creativity never begins with an answer. It always begins with a question someone asked, even though the outcome was impossible to predict. Every innovation that has truly changed something follows this logic. It is not the business plan that comes first. Nor is it the market analysis. First comes the hesitation in the face of something new, followed by the decision to look anyway. The first line of every groundbreaking design, every disruptive technology, every cultural moment that has truly shifted something is always the same: ‘What if?’ Curiosity is not the soft counterpart to strategy. It is its prerequisite. Those who stop asking questions stop creating.
Curiosity has its enemies. Not loud ones, but comfortable ones: confirmation bias, the echo chamber, routine. We stop asking uncomfortable questions, not out of cowardice, but because curiosity takes energy. Because the new always comes with uncertainty. Because it is easier to judge than to understand. Marie von den Benken sums this up in this issue with painful precision: we have long since settled into the winner’s circle of argumentation. We no longer listen to learn something, but to categorise things more quickly. The pigeon-hole closes before the thought is even finished.
What really strikes me about this topic is an observation I hadn’t expected: curiosity does not wane with age. It becomes more precise. A young person’s gaze is wide because they know so little. An older person’s gaze is sharp because they know exactly where the interesting parts lie and where only the surface glitters. From Elyas M’Barek we can draw a conclusion: stay hungry, even when you’ve made it. Sven Marquardt has been living by this principle for decades, through the camera lens, at the club door and in every new project he takes on without knowing what the outcome will be. And I dared to conduct an experiment for this issue that taught me more about curiosity than any theory could: relinquishing control before the conversation even begins. This issue is our attempt to start exactly there, with the question we must ask ourselves: What are we actually still curious about? And what have we willingly stopped asking? Curiosity is not a virtue. It is a choice. One that must be made anew every day.
Stay curious!
CHRISTIAN BRACHT Publisher & CEO, SLEEK