I agree, waste and garbage systems are big topics nowadays !! Also there were lots of different inspirations in the "Exo-evolution" exhibition that we visited at ZKM, with the futuristic projections of how our world would be like when nature and human artifacts merge.

I agree that also 'Zabaleen' is a great place to conduct research as it is also a very unique place just like 'City of the Dead' where we have people living around garbage collection. It is for sure a very dynamic place in terms of people interactions and also the process of garbage collection. I think that there will be interesting data to collect from there and to contrast with Germany.

Hey there, last weekend I happened to get some ideas, some might not really match the actual plan anymore, since they are about loosing/wasting time :

hourglass: an hourglass is displayed and, depending on what we want to show, a sand corn is falling whenever ones time is wasted or someone is gaining time. So for example with each denied-stamp a sand corn falls, as your lifetime is running out, with each applied-stamp one corn is put back to the top. people at the exhibition places could „help“ by pushing stamps aswell. alternatives: lemmings jumping of a cliff, a drying flower, someone crossing an ocean,…could also have one hourglass for both places together, as time is stolen of you everytime everywhere.

postcards: let’s say on the left an hourglass is shown,on the right would be written:„please say what you would like to spend your time on, right now“then they get explained what triggers the hourglassthen a postcard is printed with their quote written on it(and maybe they get a stamp aswell)the postcard is addressed to us and they are asked to send us the postcard when they did the thing they quoted. ( would take some time though =D )

making pics: impulses(from Cairo) could create some sound and color(in Offenburg) then people could push a button to take pics while dancing or doing whatever to the sound(in Offenburg) and send it to the other city(Cairo) and vice versa of course. they could also be involved in designing the sound and/or color f.e. by looping the signals, let’s say until 20 sound loops then it would start anew.

fate: People at the exhibition-places could, by pushing a button, get a message(printed or displayed) like those in the „luck-cookies“ you get in chinese restaurants. The message they get is chosen by the impulses from the other city.

games: a beamer hung to the ceiling could project a kind of chessboardy field to the ground, and a start and goal field at each sides. So people can try to get from one to the other, but loose if they step on black fields, black and white fields are changing somehow according to the impulses of the other city.

pics/videos of nice places: short videos of nice places around Offenburg/Cairo could be shown, but changing to fast to enjoy them since time is stolen of youif something „bad“ is happening, f.e. denied-stamp, a traffic jam or anything else annoying/disturbing could be shown, maybe a shot of a camera put on the rail while a train is passing above.