Elias

As a kid, the first thing I remember I wanted to become when I grow up was an artist, or more specifically a painter.

My parents discouraged this wish by breaking the news to me that earning money with art while still being alive was pretty hard.

Then I remember wanting to be a researcher or scientist, but I didn't have a clear concept of it, I only thought of it as observing animals or stars, or just about anything.

Later at least I always found those scientists who observed and tried to better understand the natural world the most interesting, among them

Richard Feynman, in the physical, James Lovelock, in the chemical, and Lynn Margulis, in the biological realm.

But I never really felt like this was my own path, I only admired the great work that many scientists had done.

The model of the inventor was Daniel Düsentrieb, a friend of Donald Duck, who could build just about anything.

James Lovelock already made the leap and combined the skills of the inventor with those of a researcher in his own work.

Now I realize that I actually also somewhat managed to combine the two. I did research on something that I designed.

Design is the perfect intersection of research, invention and art. And in a way, my life itself is my art.

Maybe people have influenced me by telling me that I'm a “Lebenskünstler” (usually someone you wonder about how they make a living), but maybe this is who I always was.

But I feel like there's a missing element, a missing link, to other people. I'm not yet helping anyone with my art or my research or my invention.