by Laura Eibeck -

Wolfgang Schlag

After a short introduction about himself, Wolfgang Schlag started his lecture by talking about the first radio show that aired in the 1920s. After that, organizations, governments etc. all over the world started using radio as a new form of communication, which turned out to be a very successful medium.

Austrian radio started in 1967 with Österreich 1 and Ö3. Ö1 was meant to play classical music, educational topics and political information. Ö3 set its focus on modern music and offered different music genres. It was the time of the Beatles, Woodstock and in Austria of the Music Box, which became very popular in the German speaking area. Wolfgang described the character of the Music Box as provocative and radical. However, one concept of the Music Box was to play a whole record for one hour, which was very important for people on the country site for example, because a lot of small towns didn’t have a record store or anything similar. Therefore radio was the only source for music education at that time.

Wolfgang himself joined the Music Box in the 80s. He talked about his passion for radio at that time and his role at the Music Box. He worked there as a radio journalist and did some features like social reportages where he gave people the chance to use their own voice to speak up. During the 90s Wolfgang wanted to do more than radio and started to work for TV stations like ARTE, where he made some reportages.

Then he talked about his fascination about his job at the radio station. He describes it is as something technically very simple however also very impactful. With radio you can sit at home with your laptop and try out some concepts for radio. Shooting a film or a reportage or something similar is much more difficult, technically. 

He also shared his experiences he made during home office because of corona. Wolfgang and the whole team recorded their broadcasts at home and put them together afterwards. This reminded me a lot of podcasts and how a lot of popular podcasts are produced in the homes of the speakers. 

I also really liked how he drew a connection between design and radio concerning social responsibility and sustainability. 

All in all I really liked his talk and the topics he addressed.

by Kevin Bodner -

Lecture #3 – Astrid Kury: Why collaborate?

Astrid Kur, director of Akademie Graz, talks in this lecture about how important collaborations can be, or why we should work more together as designers, artists and cultural institutions.

„In what world we want to life in. In a rather competitive, isolated, egoistic one, or in one where we share our ideas and aim for the best outcome together?“

Thats actually a quite interesting question at the beginning from her and it raises some thoughts. For Astrid Kury collaboration has many benefits:

  • It benefits from sharing ideas and knowledge
  • it increases social relevance and a social impact
  • It creates coherence in complexity
  • you can create unique solutions with different expertises

It’s very difficult today to handle a project alone, we need to work with other people in every region. Also she mentioned interdisciplinary. I think we always need experts in every kind of field to work together in order to realize cool project. Thats crucial for finding new ideas and solutions.

In the project „Linguistic Landscape Graz“ she mentions how important it is, to integrate the audience as well during the process. The learning outcome was much bigger by learning with and through the audience.

Participation is also very important. Engaging the audience is the key for a successful project/exhibition. Participation creates a genuine outcome and play an active role in the project.

To sum it up, the importance of collaboration should be really considered and not underestimated as a designer. The project she showed us wouldn’t be realized by only one person. There is a big team behind every project therefore collaboration with different experts are essential. So I totally agree with her in the benefits of collaboration. I really liked her clear structured presentation too and that we could easily followed her seeing the information when she talks about it.

by Kevin Bodner -

Lecture #2 – Saskia Schmidt: Work Work Balance

In her lecture “Work Work Balance”, Saskia Schmidt talks about her personal path to independence and also her ups and downs during her design career.

Everything started with a design education in her hometown. She decided to learn more about design and started her Information Design study in Graz. Philipp Kanape course also leaded her to specialize in Branding.

Due to a lack of enthusiasm for programming, she had time for an internship, which she could do at EnGarde. She describes this time as one of her best experiences where she learned essential thinks to start a project.

“Ein guter Gestalter kennt die Regeln und setzt sie außer Kraft.”

This means that only when you know all the rules you can consciously integrate or break them in the design to create something extraordinary.

After her time at EnGarde, the next internship was just around the corner: Studio Grau and Wednesday Paper Works in Berlin. She talks about her learning outcomes and the advantages of smaller studios. Also by showing some cool project, her bachelor thesis was also included which she wrote at Studio Grau. After graduating she found her first job where she was not quite satisfied. Therefore she decided to work at Von K Design at the same time.

„Du kannst nicht auf alles scheißen & dich dann wundern wenn’s stinkt“

Actually she wanted to work independently, which is why she quit her two jobs. It doesn’t worked out fully so she cooperated with EnGarde again for a short time project. After that, she really wanted to work exclusively on her own – but it didn’t work out again. Unexpectedly a call came from Studio Grau in Berlin. She again held back her independence to take the opportunity to represent the managing director because she got pregnant. She was not only working as a designer anymore, but also had to deal with management tasks. The projects which were created at that time were really impressive for me.

Her network, which she had already built up during her time in Graz, was her foundation for her career. Today, she works with a broad network of agencies, many of which originated during her internship and they became really good friends to her.

I really liked this lecture because I could comprehend so many situations. What I also find interesting is that she also describes the importance of not only working for big prestigious design agencies, but also of looking more closely at which company is most appealing to you. I will definitely keep that in mind.

by Kevin Bodner -

Lecture #1 – Andrey Sudarikov: Playdisplay

I really liked the Sudarikov lecture so I decided to write more about it. He presents three projects in total and I think it was cool to vote for it beforehand. Shortly about the person: Andrey Sudarikov is a designer from Russia and founder of „Playdsiplay“. It’s a studio from Moscow which focuses on interactive installations and mixed-media-installationen. They also build large exhibition for bigger companies in the asian market.

Project 1: Let your colors take flight

The first project was about an augmented reality installation for the Changi airport. One camera was placed on the right and one on the left of a video screen. One camera was placed above the screen, which filmed a drawing surface that was placed in front of the screen. The idea of this project was that you could paint airplanes on a sheet of paper and transfer these paintings to a 3D model. The team used already existing materials like models of airplanes from computer games and screenshots from Google Earth. I really liked it because everyone gets the possibility to design something with simple things like a pencil and a sheet of paper.
Sudarikov also mentioned that the project would probably look different if his team were doing it today and that he actually got all his jobs from acquaintances and that shows how important networking is.

Project 2: Interactive Trampoline

The second project is an interactive trampoline combined with a big screen which was placed at an airport and also later in shopping malls. The faster and higher you jumped, the faster you became on the screen and you also could collect extra points. So how does it work? There is a HTC belt which tracks the movement and position and sent the data via Bluetooth to the game. Sudarikov also talks about problems during the presentation. The project will be developed further because of its success. I like also the mix of analogue and digital environment combined with gamification.

Project 3: Stalingrad Exhibition

The third project was created for a museum. A panoramic video was projected in a circular room. The consequences of the Second World War were shown in an immersive experience. He also mentioned that they had some issues with communicating with the client and ask for permission. I saw some similar exhibition in Berlin about the history of the city and I really like these immersive videos.

All in all Sudarikov is a really entertaining guy and talks about insights of the design process and also that problems often could occur. His approach to design was very interesting and the way he interacts with the team and clients.

by Schabnam Imanpour Azad -

04 – Florian Doppel-Prix

„Is it art or can we toss it?“ Is probably one of the most funny quote in Design, I enjoyed to see how Florian-Doppel-Prix starts his presentation with it. He shows some experimental exhibitions and art installations including himself as a sound engineer. There were also nice examples of galleries specialized on sound arts. This makes me curious to visit once a auditive installation, because usually people just think of visual impressions when visiting a museum or exhibition, so you experience it another way and focus mainly on your hearing senses.

by Celia -

#09 Lecture Radio Work

by Wolfgang Schlag

Mr. Schlag was talking about the radio history, especially in Austria, and his work at OE1.

The history of radio started in 1920 in the USA with KDKA, which was organized by a big company; after that governments also started radio. It started in America and also in other countries with music, literature and commercials.

The first radio station started in 1924, the station was named Radio Verkehrs A.G. (RAVAG), the radio station was overtaken by national socialists in 1934. In 1939 they built the “Funkhaus” in Vienna, which still exists.

Radio was politically very important.

In 1967 OE3 started, it is a Pop Radio Station, it was structured like Radio Luxemburg, which was the example for Radio OE3. Also, OE1 went on air in 1967, this radio broadcasted mainly classical music at this time and educational content.

In this time new music forms and festivals appeared, like the Beatles, Woodstock-festival etc. The modern Pop Music started also in this era. These occurrences had been also interesting for broadcast stations, because new material could have been broadcasted to the people.

The lecturer mentioned also the radio program “Musicbox”, which was an one hour program in the evening, which was a little bit provoking.

Especially for people living at the countryside, programs like “Musicbox” were very interesting, because they had no opportunity to get information or music in an easy way.

In the 80s and 90s OE1 changed a lot, more world music, ethic music, critical pop music and latin music were broadcasted, because OE3 had less world content. So, OE1 changed to a colorful broadcast station, capitalism, environmental crashes, healthcare, traveling, globalization and stories of people are nowadays content of this radio station.

Mr. Schlag switched for some time to the television, but he came back to the radio. He likes the radio much more, because of its simplicity. It is very easily to broadcast, especially nowadays. You need just a good microphone and a laptop. In Corona times he told that everybody produced at home, because it works so easily. Television is still much more complicated.

OE1 is a special idea of taking care of the Austrians, working on democracy, education and on fun. He thinks that the radio will survive. One aspect is the missing orientation about fake news in social media. Information broadcasted from Radio like ORF, is always checked and save.

Furthermore, the lecturer told a story from a friend from Italy about fake news. He made the experience that 100% of fake news came from Russia, there is a web-platform, then a radio station, then a newspaper, and this newspaper is connected to Russia. The goal is to destabilize Europe threw fake news and fake media.

So, the job for the radio is the responsibility doing something for society and a sustainable future.

I think also that the radio will survive, not just for cooking, but also for getting right information and to educate people, who do not have the opportunity to other broadcast platforms like “spotify” or who just want to turn on the radio and do not want to search for information at the internet.

by Laura Eibeck -

Saskia Schmidt

Saskia Schmidt gibt in ihrer Lecture einen Überblick über ihren Werdegang und wie sie zur Selbstständigkeit kam.

Zu erst erzählt sie von ihren Anfängen in Deutschland, wo sie eine Ausbildung zur Mediengestalterin gemacht hat. Dort ging sie in die Berufsschule und arbeitete zeitgleich in einer Agentur. In der Berufsschule wurde eher das technische vermittelt und in der Agentur sollte das kreative Arbeiten stattfinden, was leider nicht der Fall war und ihre Aufgabe eher in der Umsetzung von Konzepten lag.

Nach ihrer Ausbildung wollte sie sich also noch mehr aus dem kreativen Bereich lernen, weshalb sie sich entschloss studieren zu gehen und sie an der FH Joanneum landete um Informationsdesign zu studieren. Ihre learnings aus dieser Zeit waren vor allem, dass man Kreativität nicht lernen kann, man aber aus jedem Projekt das eigene machen kann. Außerdem setzte sie wegen einer Branding und Markenbildung Vorlesung ihren Fokus in genau diesem Bereich.

Da sie aufgrund mangelnder Begeisterung am Programmieren eine sogenannte Ehrenrunde auf der FH drehen durfte, hatte sie Zeit für ein Praktikum, welches sie bei EnGarde machen konnte. Diese Zeit beschreibt sie als eine ihrer besten Erfahrungen. Sie hätte dort genau das gelernt was sie wollte. Beispielsweise der Umgang mit Schriften, Erstellung von Mood Boards oder die Arbeit mit verschiedenen Materialien. Dabei zeigt sie auch einige Arbeiten welche in dieser Zeit entstanden sind.

Nach ihrer Zeit bei EnGarde und der erfolgreich abgeschlossenen Programmier-Prüfung stand das nächste Praktikum vor der Tür: Studio Grau und Wednesday Paper Works in Berlin. Zwei zusammengehörige Studios. Sie erzählt von ihren Learnings und von den Vorteilen kleinerer Studios. Außerdem stellt sie einige Projekte aus dieser Zeit vor einschließlich ihrer Bachelorarbeit welche bei Studio Grau entstanden ist.

Nach ihrem Abschluss an der FH und zurück in Graz suchte sie sich ihren ersten Job, in welchem sie nicht zu 100% glücklich war und die Zusammenarbeit nicht gut funktionierte. Deshalb arbeitete sie zeitgleich in einer anderen Agentur, nämlich Von K Design, wo sie im Branding und High Fashion Bereich arbeitete.

Eigentlich wollte sie aber selbstständig arbeiten, weshalb sie ihre Jobs kündigte. Das mit der Selbstständigkeit funktionierte anschließend erst mal aber nur teilweise, da sie als erstes ein drei monatiges Projekt in Kooperation mit EnGarde startete, welches sie in ihrer Lecture auch vorstellte.

Danach wollte sie wirklich ausschließlich selbstständig arbeiten – was aber wieder nicht klappte, da ihr eine Stelle bei Studio Grau in Berlin angeboten wurde, weil ihre ehemalige Chefin schwanger wurde und Saskia als Vertretung einspringen könnte. Sie nutzte die Chance und hatte die Möglichkeit nicht nur als Designerin sondern auch als Leiterin eines Teams zu arbeiten und sich beispielsweise auch um die Kunden zu kümmern, wobei sie eine Menge lernte. Die Projekte aus dieser Zeit waren auch wirklich beeindruckend.

Anschließend hat sie sich dann in Graz selbstständig gemacht, was bis heute sehr gut funktioniert. Ihrer Meinung nach liegt das an ihrem großen Netzwerk das ihr vor allem am Anfang sehr geholfen hat.

Alles in allem hat mir ihre Lecture sehr gefallen und ich konnte viel mitnehmen!

by Schabnam Imanpour Azad -

06 – Sylwia Ulicka

Sylwia Witzke is a designer, researcher and professor from Mexiko who is presenting in her talk the idea of design and sustainability by giving some examples of interesting projects. Sustainability is defined by the triangle model of sustainable development which is baed on the three columns society, ecology and economy. This reminds me on the talk I heard before of Prof. Dr. Burcin Cem Arabicioglu where he also mentioned such a kind of model in terms of sustainability. Witzkes aim is to bring more sustainable ways of living closer by defining sustainable development, but she talks also about the challenges to achieving the goals as designer.

by Anna Ozhigova -

LECTURE #5: BURCIN CEM ARABACIOGLU “SUSTAINABILITY FROM INTERIOR DESIGN PERSPECTIVE”

In this lecture, Professor at the University of Istanbul, where this city is also a city of design in Turkey, spoke about environmental friendliness, sustainability and conscious design in terms of architecture and interior design. This topic is very close and interesting to me, since I did this at my bachelor’s degree. But, to my great chagrin, it was extremely difficult to follow the lecture due to the low quality of the sound, which did not allow me to concentrate.

The lecture begins with a story about Istanbul and the problems that it encountered, and which can and should be solved. Project concepts today often cannot be sustainable and environmentally friendly due to the pursuit by construction companies of other goals that do not intersect with the interests of the environment and, in some cases, even a resident of the city! I observe the same trend in my own country, although in recent years in large cities like St. Petersburg and Moscow the situation with the construction of new architecture has been slowly improving.

I believe that this situation should be improved by educating of people, explaining and showing also what is good and what is bad. After all, people – this is the main consumer. A Mr. Burcin said that the concept of sustainability is not initialized and understandable for most people.

Sustainable city should be a place with a minimum energy requirement which can not be renewed. TTo achieve sustainability in cities, there are Briam criteria for interior designers that include health and satisfaction with energy water and materials that classify cities and help improve the situation.

In the end, to improve something globally, you need to start with a small step – from yourself. And starting with ourselves, we will be able to implement large-scale changes, building a sustainable and environmental friendly environment in bricks, preserving our planet and life at all.