My Desk

Chaos before order

A small detailed and unsparing look at my desk on 26 February 2023.

I don't know what drives me to write this little article, since I am not famous, nor will I be, it has no meaning for posterity. On the other hand, I like to look for meaning in the everyday, or at least examine the everyday for its effect or content. Maybe something can be found out.

So I thought I might write something about my desk on Sunday 26 February 2023, where I am currently sitting and working. And thus document something that is actually too rarely documented: How the everyday person lives and works.

Chaos

My Desk

My desk is big. Even if it doesn't look like it in the photo. It measures 90 cm deep and 180 cm wide. It is 72 cm high, the desk top is made of 38 mm thick laminated wood called multiplex. It is coated on both sides with smooth white Formica/Resopal , which is easy to clean. I had the board made by Werner Kuhr in Wuppertal-Sonnborn, Germany around the year 2000. The corners are rounded, the radius is 9 cm. The edges are first straight downwards for 1.5 cm, then they are chamfered at an angle of 30°, which gives the thick slab a slender nature. It looks so light, but is difficult to carry by two people.

The top rests on 4 feet of cast aluminium, which date back to the good Ikea days when feet were not fixed with a central screw but with several scattered screws. Because the top is so thick, the feet were shortened by 3 cm. The feet have the shape of a splayed tuning fork and consist of 2 struts that gradually widen towards the top. Despite a search lasting several minutes, I could unfortunately no longer find the article designation.

Technic

The desk is dominated by two black Samsung 24-inch screens that rise 50 cm above the tabletop. In the middle of the tabletop, an oblong hole 7 cm long and 3.5 cm wide has been milled through which 11 cables run under the table. Now that I count them, I almost can't believe it. The monitors have bulky base plates that take up a lot of space on my desk. Maybe there will be a better solution for this one day.

Three cables belong to the 2 Logitech boxes that are slightly offset to the left and right behind the monitors.

On the left of my desk is my telephone, it still has a landline, which is actually digital now. It's a Gigaset DL500 A, about 16 x 26 cm and about 11 cm high. It is older, I would guess 2014 or older, but I can't say for sure. To complete the list of technical devices: I write on a Cherry Stream Keyboard JK-85, it's now the third of the same series. I think I wear out a keyboard every five years. My keyboard is a Logitech MX Master 2S, my first wireless mouse, it's only been a guest here since 2022. Complementing the equipment is a wireless Fastcharge element from Samsung, it's the Ep-1100 model.

On the far right is my printer. It's a Canon IP 3600, and it suffers from the problem that most printers suffer from: excessive ink consumption at start-up, planned obsolescence in the technology. It squeaks terribly when it is switched on, received original ink from me for years, and has not since 2022. It is the second model of the same type, this one I bought second-hand on a web platform. Also next to the printer is a small hole in the desk top, through this the USB cable leads to the computer and a power cable to the power strip with 12 possible slots, which I screwed under the desk top. All the power cables end in it, and all the cables are neatly tied together with cable ties so that you can't see any of them when standing. The cable chaos on the desk is also kept within limits. My mouse pad takes up a lot of space, but I'm just wondering why I still have one, because I have the same mouse in the office, but I don't use a mouse pad any more.

On the left under the desk, between the two left feet of the desk, my PC is hung on the desk in a homemade holder so that a hoover still fits under it. That was important to me.

A small pattern can already be discerned on the basis of the keyboard and printer; I don't like to change anything.

My Desk - My desk on 27 February 2023. The image suffers somewhat from the strong distortion of the wide-angle shot.
My desk on 27 February 2023. The image suffers somewhat from the strong distortion of the wide-angle shot.
Too many

Objects

What is still standing and lying around today? From left to right.

  • a shiny black coffee pot by Alfi, the design is from 1985 and is by Ole Palsby (1935 - 2010)
  • a white coffee cup by Habitat
  • a 3D-printed, two-coloured flowerpot with a climbing plant, a gift from a valued new colleague
  • a large, grey and dented granite stone, a find from a stone pit
  • a block of Postit notes, 7.5 cm square, bright yellow
  • three pens, a TK pen with refill 2B, a roller pen, Uniball eye fine black, a fountain pen with a 0.8 mm nib, black with black ink
  • a teddy bear in a matchbox, knitted by my wife, it is supposed to bring me luck and reminds me of her every day
  • two tan-devices, because I still like to pay with a TAN-generator, the black one is out of battery, the red one is almost out of battery
  • an invalid EC card
  • an unopened advertising letter from SKULIMA Wissenschaftliche Versandbuchhandlung in Westhofen, Germany, postcode 67593, it's book letter 162
  • a Vodafone business card, I have forgotten the name of it
  • a Walbusch jacket price tag
  • a folding rule made of birch, without advertising imprint
  • a bottle of UHU all-purpose glue, 90 ml, the good old stinky kind
  • one bottle of PUR-Ratiopharm nasal spray, 20 ml
  • a key ring with all the keys I need every day, including an electronic office key for my office at university and a key fob that I once found in a basket at my mother-in-law's, it has the initials S&G on it. And my car key also hangs from it, unfortunately it's very clunky. But I don't usually carry my car key in my trouser pocket, so that's not a problem.
  • a torn letter, I was too lazy to take it to the waste paper basket one room away (until now)
  • a paid ticket for speeding between Heumar and Königsforst, at 60 km/h in a construction site I was doing 66 km/h after deducting the tolerance. The fine was 20 euros. I was lucky.
  • 2 printouts of Booking.com bookings, yes, I still believe in the power of paper, call it old-fashioned, I think it's safe. Who knows where I will have my head, my mobile phone or any electricity at all on the day of my arrival
  • a sheet of new address labels for the letters to my son. Since I use coloured envelopes, as a friendly person for the post office, I better put machine-readable labels on the envelopes
  • an invoice and its duplicate, which I still have to file for myself and tax purposes
  • the box of my Samsung Galaxy S7, I needed it yesterday because I had to change the SIM card of my old mobile phone into my new one, you know what I mean, that little PIN, but you can also use a paperclip
  • an unfiled invoice from the Zeller Versandantiquariat about the purchase of Emerson's diaries for 62,90 Euros
  • an empty DIN envelope without a window
  • an empty spectacle case
  • a lemon-yellow notebook by Leuchtturm from the Bauhaus series, it bears the imprint Everything starts from a dot
  • a hole punch from Novus
  • 2 packs of gummy bears from a carnival parade, given to me by a colleague
  • a white cotton rag from an old white T-shirt
  • a pair of reading glasses
  • another bottle of UHU, see above
  • an orange buff
  • a small letter scale from Staples
  • a mask
  • a roll of scotch tape
  • another pen, again the roller pen, Uniball eye fine black
  • a brown B5 envelope
  • two hand warmers knitted by my wife

Six books

There are 6 books on the desk

  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo, und Brôcan, Jürgen (Übersetzer) : Tagebücher: 1819 - 1877. Erste Auflage. Berlin: MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2022.
  • Emerson, Ralph Waldo : Natur. Herausgegeben von Harald Kiczka. Schaffhausen: Novalis-Verlag, 1981.
  • Das Kommunikationsbuch von Mikael Krogerius und Roman Tschäppler mit Illustrationen von Sven Weber
  • Sennett, Richard: Der flexible Mensch - Die Kultur des neuen Kapitalismus. Deutsch von Martin Richter, 9. Aufl. Berlin: Berlin-Verl, 1999.
  • Koepf, Hans. Struktur und Form : e. architekton. Formenlehre. Stuttgart; Berlin; Köln; Mainz: Kohlhammer, 1979.
  • Koltermann (Hrsg.), Udo und Tange, Kenzo : Kenzo Tange. Zürich: Artmis, 1970.
  • Joray, Marcel : Beton in der zeitgenössischen Kunst. Neuchâtel: Editions du Griffon, 1977.

Order

My desk tells a story about me. It is not long. I love continuity. I hate change. I seem to have run out of space on my shelves. I need better paper filing. I might need more time for my paper filing?

My desk tells a story about me and about the order in my head and the strength in my heart. I have a strong mental focus at the moment and it shows in the state of my desk. It is easy for me to mentally avoid the disorder. I direct my gaze into the book, into this screen I am writing on. The world could end next to me, it wouldn't bother me.

What did Cicero already write in De officiis?

For this reason alone, no other living being feels beauty, grace and harmony of parts in everything that is perceived with the sense of sight; the rational nature of man directs this sensual perception from the eyes to the soul and assumes that one must preserve beauty, reliability and order to a much higher degree also in thoughts and deeds, and guards against not performing something decently or without energy and then also doing or thinking something uncontrollably in all convictions and actions.

Source: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Vom pflichtgemäßen Handeln / De officiis, 44 v. u. Z. / Translation by me

(...) one must preserve beauty, reliability and order to a much higher degree, also in thoughts and deeds. Reliability = the exact filing. The things that can be found. The order in small things. In thoughts and deeds. An empty desk. A cup that has been drunk. Room for something new, no, room for something better.

And Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his diary on 14 March 1826:

Accuracy is essential for beauty.

Source: Oktober 1842; Emerson, Ralph Waldo: Tagebücher. 2022. S. 74 / Translation by me

Chaos is not very precise. Or rather, let's say we don't yet know exactly what order governs chaos. It is not chaos either. It is disorder. Order, on the other hand, is precise. Is order therefore beauty? Another question. There is order, which is definitely not beautiful. But that's not what Emerson is saying. He says: accuracy is essential to beauty. He refers to Plutarch's "Accuracy of the Beautiful" in Life of Pericles. And what does it say?

And yet it is said that once, when the painter Agatharchus loudly boasted of the speed and ease with which he made his figures, Zeuxis heard him and said, "Mine take a long time and last a long time." And it is true that skill and rapidity in work do not give to the work a lasting weight of influence, nor an exactness of beauty; whereas the time spent in laborious creation has a large and generous share in the preservation of the creation. 

Quelle: Plutarch, Leben des Perikles, XIII,2 Genauigkeit des Schönen, Translation by me

Skill and speed do not create exactness of beauty. That's where it comes from. The difference between an early and a late work by Picasso. That's where it is. The text goes on to say that Pericles' works were all the more valuable and praiseworthy because they were created in such a short time. The works of art outlasted their time forever. This blog post did not take me much time either. It is ephemeral, but is that what makes it beautiful? Another question.

I don't tidy up much now. Because in doing so, what I learned in the morning can spread out and disperse in my mind, while I bring the inner calm of my spirit into the outer chaos.

Addendum at 13:37. The tidying up and cleaning took 7 minutes.

Addition:

Susanne @Pyrolim followed my example and also wrote a long post about her desk: My Desk: Cigarette Cans and Polar Bear. Very readable and very personal. Maybe someone else will be inspired? Send me the link in the comments!

tl, dr;

In this little essay in between, I ponder my messy desk and find out something about the exactness of beauty and the order in things.

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