Berlin and Los Angeles are cities rooted in the future.

These are places that encourage the development of unconventional ideas, and that meet unorthodox cultural projects with both enthusiasm and direct support. In Los Angeles and Berlin, I’ve found two cities that have much in common: Broad and often challenging urban landscapes filled with highly diverse micro-communities of people who share similar ideals for the future. The open-mindedness and intellectual generosity of the creative community, specifically, means that esoteric, forward-thinking ideas (and their transgressive applications) engender direct support to a degree that I’ve found to be far less common in other world capitals - rooted, as they are, more firmly in the past. Both cities promote a civic culture that actively supports creative and idea-generating communities, with awareness of the full diversity of potential applications. In short, Berlin and Los Angeles are cities that focus on the future, and - also - on encouraging arts on the individual and the organizational level. It's because these cities share so much that the Institute for Art and Olfaction is working on opening a Berlin outpost, which we hope to launch in late 2018.