by Anna Ozhigova -

LECTURE #4: FLORIAN DOPPEL-PRIX “IS IT ART OR CAN WE TOSS IT?”

During this lecture, I realized that, like in the previous lecture from Astrid Kury, you cannot work in isolation from other people. And it can be completely different people, professions and areas of activity. Everything can intersect even within the framework of one project. Especially if we are talking about creative specialties.

During the lecture, he also spoke about the projects on which he worked during his career in the last 20 years. They were all more associated with the art of music, sounds and various media. He presented a great job Cat-X – the company, which specializes mainly in exhibition design and multimedia.

Almost all the projects that he showed are interactive and work to immerse the visitor of the exhibition in a certain atmosphere.

After watching this lecture, the art of creating an exhibition became more understandable for me. It’s not as simple as it seems, there is always something can go wrong, you can always be unpredictable problems that need to be solved.

He also mentioned at the end that interesting and funny things are not what runs the company and keeps it moving. Here are some important stuff that can help in the creative process:

  • It’s about content, not technology
  • Prototyping, but not rocket science
  • Budgets are critical
  • Computers can do some of your work, but it don’t make it easy
  • 40/40/20% rule

The rule of 100% consists of

  • 40% of specific and technical knowledge
  • 40% of common sense, basic knowledge
  • 20% is a luck but you shouldn’t believe it and continue to work and improve yourself

by Anna Ozhigova -

LECTURE #3: ASTRID KURY „WHY COLLABORATE?”

Astrid Cury is the director and culturologist at the „Akademie Graz“. She told how important cooperation is and why creative people, especially designers, artists, etc. should cooperate as much as possible.

She also talked about the „Akademie Graz“. This is a creative association founded in 1987 by Emil Breisach and it is focused on the implementation of creative projects, art and the organization of exhibitions.

She says collaboration has many benefits:

  • unique ideas
  • perfect equation of form and content
  • increases social relevance and impact
  • includes work on democracy
  • to promote social cohesion and enable equal access

But in the beginning, the collaborative process is always very complicated. People should find a way of interaction that is comfortable for them and develop a clear structure so that it is easier for everyone to work.

Today it’s quite difficult to manage a project alone, in any area we need to interact with other people. And the more intense the exchange of experience, the faster and easier it is to find new solutions and ideas. Astrid shows how different approaches and views on a particular topic affect the result and how to use this to see a more complete picture. This is exactly what I like about this approach. Many projects simply cannot be implemented alone.

I also like the way they care about people who have had a disaster in life and offer to feel stronger and prove themselves as professionals in a creative environment. She also talked about “inclusion”, which means full integration of people with disabilities into society. Inclusion is a vision of a society without barriers to the diversity of people.

La casa Carlota & Friends is a design studio in Barcelona, where people with Down syndrome or autism fully embody their creative ideas. They create collages, paintings, hand-drawn typography for their customers. It really is an amazing place, and they work really creative and unique, made with sincerity and soul.

by Hanna Brühwiler -

idk_some words to the rest

Andrey Sudarikov

Andrey Sudarikov was the first lecture of the international design discourse, the founder of the design studio PlayDisplay which is based in Moscow. He presented four of his company projects which we could choose before the lecture, which was a nice beginning. They are specialised in augmented reality and 3D graphic design and are having projects all over the world. One of the projects he talked about was the AR interactive installation in the Changi Airport, Singapore, which you can see on the picture below.

Спасибо, Андрей!

Saskia Schmidt

Her lecture with the title “Work Work Balance” was really catchy and interesting, mainly because she is a former student from FH Joanneum and it is interesting and impressive to see where you can come and what you can do with the Bachelor degree in information design.  In her work, Schmidt is focussing on branding and has a lot of experience through the different internship she did, e.g. at EnGarde or Studio Grau in Berlin. One sentence she said during her lecture was funny and true at the same time:

“You can’t shit on everything and then wonder why it stinks”

One of the projects talked about was the “Museum Friedland” which deals with the topic of refugees which was a really important project for Schmidt. Here you can see a part of her work:

Astrid Kury

Astrid Kury is the director of the Academy Graz, a cultural scientist, art mediation and knowledge transfer. She asked the question “What kind of wirld do we want to live in?” and answered that it is about sharing and caring, to bring together all kinds of people. One specific design company she mentioned was “La Casa de Carlota & friends” from Barcelona who works with disabled people because she said that creativity has to be wild and the designs they make are without any external influence which makes it really interesting as a form of inclusion in the creative industry. The picture below is from their website:

Burcin Cem Arabacioglu

He is a professor in Istanbul which is also a City of Design in Turkey and the one thing that I kept in mind after his lecture was the following question “How can it be that he has a clip-on microphone but sounds so bad and hard to understand?” This shouldn’t sound rude, his topic “Sustainability from interior design perspective” sounds really interesting and is also important to be heard but it was really hard to follow because of the bad audio quality. Nevertheless, he said that the key is simplicity and that we should help the people to build their own sustainable environments.

Sylwia Ulicka

Design and Sustainabilty – in her lecture she questioned the material of culture. Her presentation was well structured in four important parts: Sustainibilty Development, Eco-Efficiency, Values of Material Culture, Objects of Discomfort. Ulicka said that we cannot talk about sustainable design without questioning the status quo. One project she mentioned was HUGO, the hugging pillow by Valeria Alanis Valois and Ma. Alejandra Sarmiento Casas which is about social isolation due to the use of new communication technologies – so with HUGO you can get some physical contact instead of the virtual ones.

Anastasia und Martin Lesjak

The lecture of the two designers from the cooperation of “Architekturbüro Innocad” and the Designstudio 13&9 consists of the creation of atmospheres in spaces through light and sound which is a really interesting topic. Unfortunately, their audio quality is also really bad although they are talking of the importance of sound in an interactive system. Their philosophy is “New Holism” and they show that spirit also in their promotion video “The Soul of Design” which shows the following picture:

Thanks to all the lecturers for their effort and time.

by Hanna Brühwiler -

Public Radio Work Austria

Radio – something we all know and listen to or at least we did. With todays’ stream platforms like Spotify there are less reasons to listen to the Radio than it was in the earlier days. Wolfgang Schlag, a culture editor of ORF (German: Österreichischer Rundfunk), talked in his lecture about the history, development and social relevance of public Radio in Austria. His work contains of radio journalism and making Radio features about social and political reportages. The ORF is the second oldest radio station worldwide (it was built in 1939 by the Nazis). The oldest Radio station is located in Helsinki.

The history of radio started on the 2nd November 1920 in Pittsburgh when the first Radio went on air. Straight afterwards, some governments worldwide started Radio as a new communication tool. The broadcast content started with music, literature, educational content and already the commercials. In 1934 the Austrian/German Radio was taken by the NS which influenced the program and helped them to spread their ideology. They also used the radio for giving short information about the second world war. In addition to that, Schlag mentioned that in 2000 members of the FPÖ in Austria went to Klagenfurt and took over the Radio station there, which is kind of a “Nazi reminder” if you compare it like that. As that might tell already, Radio is nowadays still an important media for politics. In 1960s Radio Luxembourg had the first “good music program” live on air, Schlag said. And with that, he mentioned the “John Peel Sessions” which was a good music format with a famous Radio DJ. Here is an example of a John Peel Session with Fleetwood Mac from 1969, broadcasted on BBC Radio 1:

With the 1960s, there came a time for modern pop music like Beatles. That’s one of the reasons why Ö3 started in 1967 with broadcasting different genres of music like latin, pop and jazz. There was a radio show called “MusicBox” which was always one hour long and – Schlag was really passionate about that show which could be felt also virtually. He said that the show provoked through diversity, funny interviews and Q&As which was especially interesting for younger people from the countryside.

Schlag divided the content of radio in two main categories – the journalistic format on the one hand and the sound/music/voice combination format on the other hand. So there were “Headphone-Shows” where you especially and really listen to the music and the sound content on the Radio instead of having it turned on while doing something else.

Nowadays, the working conditions for Radio are rather simple by just using a laptop and a microphone. That’s why it was quiet easy for him to work from home while the Corona crisis. His point of view about his work is that he is taking care about the Austrians through Radio by offering education, democracy and fun.

One really interesting fact that Schlag mentioned was that the fake news which are spreaded all over the social media platforms are coming from Russia as a way to destabilise Europe through the fake content. If that is true – I have no idea. But he is the journalist, I hope he knows what he is talking about, this is quiet an indictment.

Nevertheless, he also pointed out the sustainable effort and design in the Radio work. There is the social aspect, to be responsible and doing something for the society to help the people to work on a sustainable future and society. Schlag mentioned the Radio inniciative “Reparatur der Zukunft” which should help to form and influence the market of the future.

To end this blog post with his words:

“These are times to change something – let’s do it!”  

by Hanna Brühwiler -

Better Future – By Design or by Disaster?

It both starts with a “D” but there is a huge difference – Design or Disaster? How can we get a better future? This question was asked by Ursula Tischner at the Thinking and Design Symposium in 2015 regarding Eco-Design and Sustainability Design.

Tischner has a background of architecture and industrial Design and she is teaching already since 1993. This reflects also on her lecture because it is interesting and well-structured which made it easy to follow through and to get a deeper look into the field of sustainability and design.

Sustainability

Humanity is facing a lot of issues like climate change and over population. That’s why there should be a long term thinking of the value to earn for the future instead of just looking at the short time profit of something. Tischner mentioned the approach of the “Triple Bottom Line” of the United Nations (UN) which you can see in the following graphic:

This graphic shows well that the way to reach a sustainable life is to combine the three main parts (Planet, People and Profit) for reaching for a better future.

Interesting was the fact Tischner pointed out – Canada is the biggest contributor in climate change in emission. I didn’t expect that it would be Canada at the top of that list. Also some scary fact she mentioned the extent of the resources depletion, e.g. of oil or biodiversity because at the moment, there are already 75 % of fish completely gone. And also the fresh water scarcity in India, Africa, South America and Australia is a huge world problem, too.

Tischner sees the problem for that in our consumption, so the consumption of the people in rich countries. She also pointed out the solution for that – dematerialisation! That means that there would be more consumption out of less material. There are already ways to that with the up and recycling of old furniture and lots of “Do-it-Yourself”-Tutorials to shrink the waste of old material. Tischner also brought the example that the people in India are re-using a lot more than we do here in Europe – we should “cut off a slice” of them.

The key is to have a good life but still thinking of the long period of time – the future.

Another interesting fact she mentioned was the result of the UN-Happiness which says that after the 50s, the happiness is sinking although we have in general more improvements and achievements in the economy. That means that we are in physical needs rather than in happiness needs although we are not happy. So she said that we are trashing everything without having fun which is doubly shitty. There are three main consumption domains which are most impactful in society:

  • Energy and Housing
  • Mobility and Tourism
  • Food and Agriculture

Eco-Design/ Green-Design

The product design itself is not enough because of the overconsumption of the people. That’s why we have to look also in the production process (Product service system design). So the production process needs to be also sustainable.

Tischner mentioned that the crowd has a lot of power, also when it comes to new innovations for sustainability. To include the people and give them more voice improves the thinking process. This is important because the problems and information on that must be spread in a way that the “normal people” are also getting included into the process. An example for that is the recycling flashmob which reward the normal people for doing something simple but good for the world like picking up somebody else’s trash:

And there are events like that all over the world. Also in Germany, Joko and Klaas reward the normal people for their good will with their program “Instant Karma”. Here you can see one example of that:

So, Tischner says that the social change is what we need through bottom up social innovations and it has to be fun, too – be sustainable by having fun like dancing on the sustainable dancefloor in Rotterdam, walking on musical stairs or throwing trash in the worlds’ deepest sounding bin.  

Sustainable Maker

At the end, I want to mention the demonstration project of Tischner “Innonatives” which is a European innovation consisting of a community of like-minded people who all want to do something for improvement of the people and the planet. There you can offer a solution for a sustainability problem in the following process flow: crowd sourcing – crowd voting – crowd challenges – crowd funding – online shop to sell the solutions. If you want to read more about that, you can visit their website:

www.innonatives.com

by Hanna Brühwiler -

Is it Art or can we Toss it?

Is it art or can we toss it? This is a great title for starting a design lecture because we all ask this questions sometimes if it comes to design matters. Florian Doppel-Prix is the musicologist and sound engineer in the field of experimental media and electro-acoustic music who asks this questions in the field of exhibition technology.

He presented a lot of work of his company cat-x which is specialised in exhibition design with multimedia technology for a greater immersion. The most interesting part in his lecture was for me the way he talked about sound and how he includes it in his installations for a bigger improvement. The reason for his major interest in sound might be his background with sound and music and that he is also a designer of amplifiers called “Kaulbach”. He also mentioned the conference Prix Ars Electronica with the exhibition part cyberarts which is kind of a try-out/ do-it-yourself area for interactive installations with a kind of chaotic, artistic and experimental vibe. But sometimes you can get pretty afraid of the professional artists who are working on their projects there but Doppel-Prix said something really true:

“The more professional and famous they get the less you have to be afraid of them”

Besides the audio and sound part, he is also specialised on creative video mapping with projectors and interactive walls which is also quiet interesting. For his work, he brought up some examples. One of those was from 2017 and it had a gamification installation with interactive parts like the touch wall with contact paint colour and sensors behind it to trigger something. In that project, he also pointed out the importance of audio feedback as an interactive reaction on the visual changes through acoustic elements. You can also guide a person wherever you want them to go or what to touch next through the right placement of sound.

Another interesting project he talked about was at the U2xU5 Exhibition in 2016 where they built an emulation of a subway station through projection mapping for the “Wiener Linien”. Buttons were really important for that project although the people are getting more used to touch surfaces because of the smartphones etc. But for the interactive part, Doppel-Prix said that the buttons and their haptics made it lively. And for sure, if you want to bring something to life, you need fitting audio elements like a shaker for really feeling the machine moving. A short story to that, when I did my internship at Idee und Klang in Basel, I was working on the emulating an elevator ride for the new Visitor Centre of Schindler (the company does mainly elevators and escalators – you probably have been in one of the “Schindlers Lifte” already without actually knowing that. And for that project we also implemented two shakers in the ground to support the sound design and the immersion of the elevator emulation.

A funny project Doppel-Prix did as well was the moving grand piano which is called “Verdichtungsflügel” – a project by Georg Nussbaumer. Here you can hear and see a short example of that live exhibition:

It is moving through vibrations on all four feet, kind of like a jackhammer and the stones lying inside the grand piano on its strings make the moving object to a sound object.

Unfortunately, he mentioned at the end that the interesting and funny stuff is not the on which is running the company and keeping it moving. That’s why he pointed out some important points at the end which I’d like to repeat here:

  • It’s about the content, not the technology
  • Prototyping, but not rocket science
  • Budgets are crucial – never downgrade your money because there are people behind working on the content, you always need more money!
  • Computers might do some of your work but they don’t make it easier

100 % consists out of – 40 % specific and technical knowledge
40 % common sense, basic knowledge
20 % luck (but don’t rely on that one)

All in all, I’d like to say that I enjoyed watching Florian Doppel-Prix lecture although I had some technical problems first to struggle with. He is a nice and passionate person about his work which he can forward through his presentation.   

by Schabnam Imanpour Azad -

01 – Andrey Sudarikov

With Andrey Sudarikov we had already our lecture because of our Moscow excursion, which was very interesting to see. He is one of the most known designer from Russia focusing on interactive installations in public spaces like museums, airports and exhibitions. In his lecture he shows some examples which we students were asked to vote the favorite ones. One of my favorite project was the interactive trampoline, where people can fill their waiting time at an airport and playing a digital game by jumping on the trampolines. It was very fun to see how people from all ages tried it, but also getting to know the process behind the whole project from the idea to the realization and the problems including.

by Madeleine Haider -

International Design Discourse | all Posts

Saskia Schmidt – Work Work Balance

In her lecture, Saskia Schmidt talked about her “Werdegang”, from what place she started her career, where she is now and all the steps in between. Also, she showed various projects she did or worked on together with her colleagues in the past. A lot of emphasis was on internships, the winding path of starting your own venture as freelancer and what it’s like working in agencies. To me, it felt like she spent a lot of her work time being the intern and going through struggles while trying to create her own, independent business. It made me doubt whether I’ll ever be a person really flourishing in the “agency life”. I do like collaborative spaces, however I’m not too keen on design companies in a traditional sense, spending so much time and energy in shaking off the “intern” label.

Andrey Sudarikov – playdisplay

Andrey had a very energetic spirit and put a lot of information (maybe a bit too much for me to process) into a short timeframe. His company playdisplay is known for creating interactive media installations all around the world, even at airports. It was interesting to hear how much the amount of people working on a project can vary – from a few 7 people to around 100. They manage to get even adults into a state of playfulness and unconcerned presence, one that’s unfortunately often reserved to children. Also, Design in Russia seems to differ quite from what we’re used to.

Astrid Kury – why collaborate?

To me, Astrid Kury presented a very well thought out selection of projects she either worked on or was inspired by herself. Since her talk was all about collaboration, the projects featured lots of different people from different backgrounds. She asked the question “what kind of world do we want to live in?” Do we hoard information and only look after ourselves or shouldn’t we actually invest in a sharing culture and aim for the best outcome together?

Astrid brought up the benefits of collaborating, but also any challenges that might occur. I enjoyed her talk, especially the part regarding involving people with special (dis)abilities.

What impressed me most was the design agency La Casa De Carlota Astrid mentioned. In this bureau, there are several people with disabilities of all kinds (e.g. down’s and autism) employed as illustrators, artists and typographers. They get paid the industry standard and are included into the design process just like any other person. Astrid showed us a short video by theguardian.com featuring many of the employees. It was stated that those are very creative and free spirits; rather than copy, they all have their own unique style. To me, it seemed that the people working at La Casa De Carlota truly create from presence, not from hoarding pictures from Pinterest on a mood board and then synthesising it to one’s own project (nothing wrong with that in many cases, though).

Burcin Cem-Arabacioglu on Sustainability

It is truly scary to think about the small time frame it takes us to drive the earth’s resources near exhaustion with that kind of lifestyle we call “normal”. In my eyes, it is nowhere near normal. Hearing about Istanbul, the city Cem is living in together with around 50 Million other people was quite interesting. It made me think, “that can’t be sustainable”. Cem however stated that surprisingly, urban systems can be more sustainable than rural life due to more efficient transport, proximity, fostering of social interactions etc. This is where interior design plays an important role. The quotes from well-known authors he recited really struck home with me.

Florian Doppel-Prix – Art or Trash?

First of all, I enjoyed the short piece of Cat Content in the beginning 😊 I did like the setting where Florian Doppel-Prix held his talk. The passing planes or trains were a bit distracting, though. Florian talked about the numerous media installations and exhibitions he co-created throughout his career and the experiences along the way. The excursions into the technical aspects of installations were interesting, but I mostly enjoyed some of his statements like “It was chaos, but it was fun” or “The more professional people get, the less you have to be afraid of them (event their students)” and certainly my favourite, “It’s real mess”. And this one was equally important, but more serious to me: “Technology is not going to save you, what’s important is the content”.

Sylwia Ulicka – Questioning Material Culture

Sylwia Ulicka brought my attention to the ambiguity of design – on one hand, design is associated with growth (in a sense of our consumerist lifestyle), but design can and also should be used to improve current circumstances regarding sustainability, social justice etc. Sylwia also talked about various design approaches. “The consideration of ethical values is reflected in the form of the object; and the enabling, challenging and searching for meaning are crucial.”

What made me think as well is the enourmos amount of mobile phone usage in Mexico that Sylwia mentioned; and a project that revolves around the resulting missing human interaction. Hugging a specially designed pillow named “hugo” while using your phone, Sylwia called “fixing the problem without really questioning the cause of it.”

Wolfgang Schlag – Radio

Wolfgang Schlag introduced us to a brief history of radio technology, which was pretty interesting to listen to since I remember picking up these things somewhere, but tend to forget over time. I liked the focus on Austria and its broadcasting past. Also, him talking about his career was nice, it’s always interesting to hear a whole life of experiences etc. His point that radio will survive easier than TV might at first seem far-fetched, but after hearing his arguments and little anecdotes I can see where he is coming from. I tend to stay away from mainstream/pop music broadcasting stations (except for fm4) since they don’t really serve my tastes concerning music, but it’s very true that radio can also be a medium of political matter (except when used as means of manipulation or to spread fake news).

Ursula Tischner on Sustainability

Although Ursula Tischner’s talk about crowd based systemic design was quite long and featured lots of information, it was very well structured and interesting to listen for me. There were parallels to some of the other lectures we had to watch. Especially how much of a wasteful society we as a collective are. Remarkably, Ursula mentioned Canada as an example of being not as much affected of climate change as other countries, yet it is one of the biggest driver in using up the resources we have way too fast. What was shocking to me was the fact that from all the things we as designers create, approximately only 1% would be still in usage after one year. One year. That seems to be virtually nothing to me. And what’s already known for years it that although people that live in wealth (or at least middle class) still aren’t as happy as they are told to be. What stuck with me was this quote by Annie Leonard “We are trashing the planet, trashing the people, and aren’t even having fun”. But how can these numerous issues actually be tackled?

A possible solution could be crowd based – to work together, internationally on projects that would improve social climate, lessen poverty or help with the inevitable climate change we are causing. Ursula pledges for the power of community. In the networking platform she is hosting, people can get together and research on issues, develop possible solutions together, share them with other people in this network. This system is open access-based, working with creative commons, but feature also the possibility of working in an closed-off space if a company participating chooses a money-earning path. I was reminded of several classes we had at FH – from game design to sustainable design to gamification apps. In these settings we had to form groups, do research on the status quo, problems, existing solutions and our general aim for that certain project. Also, what I want to take on with me is Ursula’s reminder that in the fight for sustainability fun should be included as well.

Klanglicht Symposium

I feel like the lecture by innocad and Studio 13&9 did not teach me a lot per se, but it showed me plenty of impressive and inspiring projects. The intertwining of sound and light installations was very well executed. Looking at some of the projects, matters of sustainability are in question in my opinion, but they do certainly serve a purpose, nevertheless. I would really like to experience those installations myself.

by Schabnam Imanpour Azad -

02 – Saskia Schmidt

Wie sieh ihr Studium in Österreich an der FH Joanneum begonnen hat. „Kreativität kann man nicht lernen, aber man kann viele Einblicke bekommen.“ Besonders hinsichtlich den Schwierigkeiten beim Programmieren kann ich sie sehr gut nachvollziehen 😀 aber das zeigt auch, dass jedes Problem, dass das Leben mit sich bringt, auch eine gute Chance für einen anderen Bereich sein kann. So ist Saskia dann auf ihr Praktikum bei EnGarde in Graz gekommen, das eine ihrer besten Erfahrungen war. Diese und weitere Arbeiten teilt sie uns in ihrer Präsentation. Besonders beeindruckend fand ich ihr weder & ducré Projekt, das im Stil von Grand Budapest Hotel designed wurde.