Timbered buildings, just restored like a doll’s house, decorate the wide streets of Haßloch, a village in the Rhein region. The only thing that seems worth noticing is its inconspicuousness. One thing, however, which does distinguish Haßloch from all other German towns is that the whole village is a testing ground. For 18 years the ‘GFK’ (society for consumer research) has been running its ‘behaviour-scan’ in this village, named “the most average village in Germany”. The ‘behaviour-scan’ is behavioural research that is conducted for enquiring the effectiveness of advertising in media. It is the aim to test the introduction of new products under realistic conditions. Therefore, you can find products in the supermarkets of Haßloch which are not to be found anywhere else in Germany; advertisements
are shown on TV, printed in magazines and on posters that can only be seen in Haßloch. The GFK looks into every shopping trolley and meticulously scans the contents in order to find out whether the new test products are being accepted, or remain on the shelves.

Kopfende Hassloch, de, 2006, 37:00

Berlin-Friedrichshain. Long rows of empty houses, newly opened and shut down shops dominate the streets. The former founder Henriette W. has handed her enterprise over to the following tenant Christian S. Only the black folder from her business-founding course is left. Its potential was discovered and it was adopted as a film script. The experimental film documents the story from a euphoric beginning to the rapid demise of the founder of a new business, contrasting it with the theoretical texts of the business-founding course.

Der Ordner, de, 2006, 33:00