by Maria Unterluggauer -

#08: 13&9 und INNOCAD

Anastasia und Martin Lesjak stellen in ihrem Vortrag von 13&9 (Produktdesignstudio) und Innocad (Architekturbüro) vor. Das Büro befindet sich in der Grazbachgasse im Golden Nugget, dieses wurde von ihnen selbst entworfen und geplant. Es ist eine transdisziplinäre Gemeinschaft. So ist auch ihr Büro in verschiedene Bereiche aufgeteilt: Architektur, Produkt Design, Sound Design und Research. Ihre Philosophie ist ganzheitlich – sie beschreiben sie als „New Holism“.

by Celia -

Design Lectures_SS20

In this post you can read my personal statements to the Design Lectures.

For three of them, I made extra posts in earlier times.

#1 Andrey-Sudarikov

The lecturer told about his international exhibitions. I think it is awesome what this guy is designing and bringing up on ideas, but for me the project with the airport was a little bit irritating. Because aircraft or flying is an aspect we should not support in that way, designing with or for non-environmentally friendly products or services is not the best in my opinion. But I liked the project with the multimedia exhibition in a museum, because much more people take part and get education, if the museum is an experience. This has a positive effect to the society.

#2 Saskia Schmidt

Mr. Schmidt told a lot about self-employment and her way to there. She mentioned that networks are especially in self-employment very important and necessary. For her networks studying was very significant, because the best network consists of friends. I totally agree with the lecturer that creative work needs a free time space and time to think about something, therefore self-employment is a great solution.

#3 Astrid Kury

Inclusion is the vision of a world without barriers to the diversity of human beings.

I am very impressed from the project, which collaborates with people who live with Down’s Syndrome. The project works fine and develops great products. The motto is: Original design, original people! -> La Casa de Carlota

I really liked the sentence: “finding new ideas is easy, when very different brains work together, because I am also convinced that collaborations with different people from different subjects and fields have great potential.

#4 Florain Doppel-Prix

The lecturer was production manager at ARS ELECTRONICA and told some experiences in his lecture.

…content, not technology

…prototyping, but not rocket science

…budgets are crucial

…computers don’t make it easier

…40/40/20% rule (specific knowledge, common basic knowledge (Hausverstand), luck)

Learn stuff by doing

The more famous people get, the less you must scary, they were very helpful.

The lecturer gave a lot of tips to us, and I think I can profit from the most in life.

#5 Burcin-Cem-Arabacioglu

The lecturer talked about sustainable architecture and interior design, especially in Istanbul. It is very difficult to change the building-behavior of the people, because often they do not know why it should be sustainable. For me this lecture was not that interesting, maybe because I am not that interested in interior design.

#6 Sylwia-Ulicka

This lecture was also about sustainability and examples how to improve the world, but the lecture itself was not that good structured like the lecture from Ursula Tischner, and for me it was not that easy to follow her.

#7 Ursula Tischner

This lecture was very good structured. She presented in a very good way. The statistics were also very impressive. It is sad that the happiness is declining since the 1950s in the US, I think this is also true for other rich countries. People are getting richer, but less happy. This fact is very bad. Mrs. Tischner mentioned that the rich society have to dematerialize. 1% of our products are just in use after six months we bought the products; this is very inefficient and not good for our environmental issues. The Global Overshoot Day is every year earlier, so we really must act now.

To bring sustainability to the people she presented the “Sustainable Dance Floor Rotterdam” (Thefuntheory.com). By dancing power can be generated and by climbing on steps music comes out of the loudspeakers.

She introduced also her project, Sustainability Maker (innonatives.com), it is a crowdfunding platform, where you can solve challenges and problems, and you can benefit from this.

I was really impressed by this lecture, because she had a real practical approach to sustainability. I am also convinced that the people should get involved in this process of making a better world.

#8 Klanglicht Lecture INNOCAD

The transdisciplinary lab „INNOCAD“ involves Architecture, Interior Design, Sound Design, Product Design und Research. Projects like Golden Nugget, Visitor Center in Graz and the Dynamic Floor had been presented in the lecture. For me the Solar Innovation Center (Dubai/United Arab Emirates) was very interesting. Characteristics from nature got a new touch

For me as sound designer, the importance and consciousness of sound in the projects was very nice to hear, because Sound Design has not all the time the significance it needs.

#9 Radio Work by Wolfgang Schlag

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

I agree with the lecturer 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 Thomas Alpers -

Is it art or can we toss it?

Florian Doppel-Prix works in the field of exhibition technology. In his lecture he shares some insights about his company and projects where he was involved.

His company cat-x made some very interesting installations and exhibitions, containing music technology, video mappings and much more. Also, Florian Doppel-Prix builds tube amps with another company named Kaulbach.

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 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.

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.