topic

What future do you dream of?

Dreams of the Post-Anthropocene

TOPIC CONTENT:

Ecologies and Politics of the Living

In Conversation: Ecologies & Politics of the Living

Renée Schroeder: Was ist Leben?

May I introduce: Alien!

Janina Loh: Trans- und Posthumanismus. Feministischer Blick im Digitalen

Gerhild Steinbuch: Servus Welt, sagt der Mensch

Change Is Our Only Chance – Discussion

David Morley: Home Territories – Virtual and Material Geographies

Wolf Singer: Neuronal Principles of Consciousness

Nazis & Goldmund / Hydra: The Future of Resistance 1. Interspeeches 6 – The End of Complaining?

Interspecies and novel forms of living or how can we imagine the Post-Anthropocene?

At a time when the lines between biology and technology, nature and artifice seem blurred, we want to ask what life could look like in the future and beyond traditional concepts.

A potential future, where new life is sparkling. A future worth living for all various forms of existence. Such a scenario requires new thinking, novel concepts and modes of visualization of life, nature and the environment. Overlooked and diverse living forms and ways of being, which are themselves affected by various processes and interventions, shape the state of our world. In the past as well as in the future. We take a close look to understand the present and make possible a multifaceted and polyphonic future. What makes our interdependent world the way it is, where are we?

In terms of a geological trajectory, we are currently at the stage of the so-called Anthropocene. The era’s dominant force and major factor driving long-term processes of change on our planet is humankind. The human has transcended its state of merely being a biological agent, as we are now creating matter, manipulating strands of organic DNA, and causing the climate to change. What has long been an abstract threat has now become a first-hand experience:

humans are an endangered species, just like any other on our planet, and we are inextricably bound up with the fate of all other living entities.

If we accept the hard facts of our climatic reality, we will need to create and think about new forms of living and other kinds of habitats, for a sustainable future coexistence.

exhibition

Opening: 27 May 2021, 19:30

Running: 28 May 2021 – 03 Oct 2021

Ecologies and Politics of the Living

Vienna Biennale for Change 2021

Mon–Fri 13:00–18:00
Thu 13:00–20:00
Every third Sat/month + 2 Oct 11:00–17:00
Closed on public holidays

Admission free

Exhibition attendance possible subject to the current valid regulations for museums and art halls.

Biennale program

Collage on paper by artist Ibrahim Mahama. A photography of silos from above combined with handwriting.  | Image by ©Ibrahim Mahama Ibrahim Mahama: Nkrumah Voli. Living and non-living things, 1966–2020. © Ibrahim Mahama

The exhibition Ecologies and Politics of the Living explores the relationship between animate and inanimate environments, against the backdrop of a politically and economically interwoven world – primarily from southern perspectives. Similar to ecological inquiries into the interrelations of all existing organisms and processes on planet earth, the artistic positions focus on the intersection of living beings, (in)organic structures and their economic, temporal and spatial conditions.

Instead of thinking about “Climate Care” in technological, design or solution-based terms, which only reproduce capitalist ideologies of progress and accumulation, the exhibition will present speculative narratives. By breaking with the logic of linear development and the dominant notion of perpetual progress, it deals with questions of coexisting beyond the anthropogenic status quo, as a response and an alternative to capitalist notions of progress as well as other exploitative and invasive practices that are inscribed in our global history of conquest.

While some artistic positions look at the transformation of biological matter through chemical and physical processes, others analyze cultivation and upcycling processes from a socio-economic perspective. These processual and research-based projects address the production and processing of plants and raw materials in the context of the food and pharmaceutical industries, architecture and the visual arts.

With a post-anthropocentric reading, the exhibition Ecologies and Politics of the Living explores different narratives and presents a polyphonic collection of concepts focusing on planetary coexistence.


PROGRAM

2 October, 18:00 – 22:00
Sounds of the Living
Finissage + Sound Performance with noises out of nature and field recordings by Natalia Domínguez Rangel and Robert Schwarz (Live)

30 September, 18:00 – 21:00
Tamale Territories – Interventions
An evening of video-based interventions in the exhibition space by the Angewandte’s trans-disciplinary lab [applied] Foreign Affairs. The student projects focus on the inner-urban ecologies and peripheries of Tamale, Ghana – set in dialogue with the works of Ecologies and Politics of the Living.

29 September, 17:00
Curators’ Tour

16 September, 17:00 CET
Book Presentation Vienna (Online)
Panel Discussion with
Baerbel Mueller / Co-Curator, Architect
Billie McTernan / Writer, Editor
Elisabeth Falkensteiner / Co-Curator
Eric Gyamfi / Artist
Ibrahim Mahama / Artist, Co-Curator
Marie Artaker / Graphic Designer
Uriel Orlow / Artist

9 September, 17:00
Curators’ Tour

18 August, 17:00 (GH) / 19:00 (CET)
Book Presentation Ghana
SCCA– Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art Tamale, Ghana
Panel Discussion with
Baerbel Mueller / Architect, Co-Curator
Bernard Akoi-Jackson / Academic, Writer, Artist
Eric Gyamfi / Artist
Ibrahim Mahama / Artist, Co-Curator
Robin Riskin / Writer, Curator
Tracy Thompson / Artist (tbc)
(Hybrid mode)

2 July 2021, 18:00
Curators‘ Tour

10 June, 19:00
Artist Talk with Mae-ling Lokko (IoA Sliver Lecture)
Live on Zoom

8 June, 17:00
Artist Talk with Verena Tscherner and Joerg Auzinger / Collective Action Viewer
(Preview Program Angewandte Festival)
Live on YouTube from Karlsplatz

28 May, 19:00–21:00
Artist Talk: Ibrahim Mahama and Tracy Thompson
Live on YouTube

27 May, 18:30
Online Opening of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021
Live on Zoom

27 May, 19:30–22:00
Soft Opening of the Exhibition

Curators
Ibrahim Mahama, Artist
Baerbel Mueller, Architect
Elisabeth Falkensteiner, Curator

Contributors
Eric Gyamfi
Mae-ling Lokko
Ibrahim Mahama

Uriel Orlow
New-Territories (s/he_f.Roche)
Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson

Susanne Wenger

Presspictures

The exhibition is part of
Vienna Biennale for Change 2021:
Planet Love. Climate Care in the Digital Age organized by:
MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
University of Applied Arts Vienna / AIL

Kunsthalle Wien
KUNST HAUS WIEN
Az W – Architekturzentrum Wien

Vienna Business Agency


Also in the framework of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2021:
Collective Action Viewer
Interactive Media Sculpture
by Verena Tscherner and Joerg Auzinger
@Karlsplatz

podcast

In Conversation: Ecologies & Politics of the Living

Based on recordings made during the curatorial research by co-curator Li Falkensteiner in Ghana in February 2020 and material sent by the individual artists and others

This podcast is based on recordings made during the curatorial research by co-curator Li Falkensteiner in Ghana in February 2020 and material sent by the individual artists and others. The compilation of the podcast is based on a very associative way and highlights background information as well as further questions about the artistic works and approaches to some of the exhibited artists and curators.

In addition to the publication of the exhibition, this podcast poses philosphical questions about the living matter, historical circumstances of exploitation and western hegemony and artistic engagement with post-anthropocene perspectives.

Audio recordings from and conversations with Eric Gyamfi, Uriel Orlow, co-curators Ibrahim Mahama and Baerbel Mueller, Mae-ling Lokko and Selassie Atadike, Tracy Thompson and Robin Riskin (out of Tracy Thompson (transfigurations, aural webbing by Robin Riskin & audio quality tuning by Robin Shore)

Concept & Production: Elisabeth Falkensteiner


Signation: Philipp Carbotta

All images: Elisabeth Falkensteiner

video

Renée Schroeder: Was ist Leben?

Talk in German from 2017

A poet, a philosopher, the pope, a physicist and a chemist have different views and ideas of what life is.

What is life?

Everyone has a different answer to this question. Everyone sees life a little differently. A poet, a philosopher, the pope, a physicist and a chemist have different views and ideas of what life is. For the chemist, life is mainly the production of complex molecules like sugar from solar energy and carbon dioxide.

And how did it come into being? From the origin of the life on the earth up to the emergence of homo sapiens 3.5 billion years have passed. About 70,000 years ago, man was able for the first time to think something that does not exist. That was the birth of our culture. I will present some important events of this time to explain how we humans understand ourselves and the world.

Renée Schroeder is an Austrian researcher and university professor at the Department of Biochemistry at the Max F. Perutz Laboratories of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna. From 2003 – 2012, Schroeder was elected the second woman member of the Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

The Talk was held on March 14 2017 as part of the series AIL-Talks.

Video: Edward Chapon, David Pujadas Bosch

exhibition

Opening: 22 Jun 2020, 11:00

Running: 22 Jun 2020 – 23 Jul 2020

May I introduce: Alien!
online

Depressed monkeys and sensitive dodos

Whether Bacteria, plants, humans or other animals – aliens welcome!

Our interactive exhibition invites you to explore our ALIEN universe! Take a look at the projects of contributing artists Solmaz Farhang, Alexandra Fruhstorfer, Ege Kökel, Lena Violetta Leitner and Andrea Palašti through different lenses of observation.

Image by ©

We share with you why migrated plants have to register at the integration centre and why it is a scandal that depressed orangutans do not possess e-cards. And that our houses are not equipped barrier-free for raccoons and pigs is simply outrageous!

In our exhibition we build entanglements across the borders

The exhibition was accompanied by a series of online talks, AILien Talk zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst. All talks were held in English.

Watch the talks here:

Von träumenden Fischen im Reagenzglas…

Von Frauchen zu Herrchen – wer ist hier das Haustier?

Serbische Affen und Japanische Knöteriche – hier spricht man Deutsch!

An Online Exhibition

Whether Bacteria, plants, humans or other animals – aliens welcome!

Open to all species.

May I introduce: Alien! is a project by Alexandra Fruhstorfer and Lena Violetta Leitner in collaboration with Angewandte Innovation Lab in AIL.alternate mode.

It was featured as a part of the Angewandte Festival.

Alexandra Fruhstorfer and Lena Violetta Leitner are alumni of Angewandte.

video

Janina Loh: Trans- und Posthumanismus. Feministischer Blick im Digitalen

Talk in German from 2019, part of Vienna Biennale For Change

Where do patriarchal inscriptions, gender identities or stereotyping hide in the field of artificial intelligence and future technologies?

When we think about the digital future as well as new values, the feminist view must not be missing. Where do patriarchal inscriptions, gender identities or stereotyping hide in the field of artificial intelligence, what is reproduced in future technologies? Questions of gender are essential, also in post- and transhumanism.

Technology philosopher Janina Loh gives us an introduction to the school of thought of post- and transhumanism, in which humans are considered equal to other species and postulate a better version of themselves by means of technology.

  • Introductory words: Elisabeth Falkensteiner, Curator, AIL

  • Lecture: Janina Loh, philosopher of technology, University of Vienna

  • Performance: Lucie Strecker, Angewandte (see video documentation here)

Janina Loh is a PostDoc in the Department of Philosophy of Technology and Media at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include trans- and posthumanism, robot ethics, feminist philosophy of technology, theories of responsibility, Hannah Arendt, theories of judgment, and ethics in the sciences.

The talk was held on June 27 2019 in the context of the Exhibition Change was our only chance, part of the Vienna Biennale For Change 2019.

text

Gerhild Steinbuch: Servus Welt, sagt der Mensch

From our Newsletter 2020

COMMON GROUNDS – 4. Manchmal hab ich so eine Wut, dass ich die ganze Zeit nur kotzen könnte

Servus Welt, sagt der Mensch.

Er beugt sich über Karten und wühlt sich da rein. Er betrachtet das Weltgeschehen und gräbt sich drin ordentlich ein. Nein, der gräbt vor allem sich ordentlich ein. Wer nix hört und sieht ist schließlich klar im Vorteil. Schön eingeheimelt im Europapulliflausch. Das war ja einfach. Der Mensch steht in der Mitte, weil wenn man eine Mitte hat, das ist schon was Schönes. Wenn man ziemlich mittel ist, das ist schon –

Ausm Zentrum schaun wir in die Welt, wir machen uns die Welt, wie sie uns gefällt, und was uns nicht gefällt, das wird dann einfach abgeschnitten an den Rändern, einmal ordentlich abgekappt, einmal ordentlich weggetreten, einmal ordentlich weggeräumt, einmal ordentlich wegerzählt, eins zwei drei, wir erinnern uns an keine Namen, weil wir uns auch an keine Gesichter erinnern, und wenn wir uns an Gesichter erinnern, dann bloß verschwommen und aus weiter Ferne, wie so eine ziemlich anstrengende Hintergrundmusik ist das dann, wir fahren in unsrem Fahrstuhl auf und ab, na, zum Glück muss man ja nicht das ganze Leben Fahrstuhl fahren und darf sich auch schöneren Dingen zuwenden, zum Beispiel dem eigenen Spiegelgesicht. Wir erinnern uns an keine Namen. Wir erinnern uns an Täter, immerhin, manchmal erinnern wir uns an Täter, und weil wir darauf ziemlich stolz sind, weil wir auf uns nicht stolz sein können, weil wir darauf jetzt stolz sein müssen, erinnern wir uns an Täter und weil wir gerne stolz sind, ham wir uns gedacht: wir erinnern uns an Täter, mehr nicht, andere Menschen erinnern wir nicht, war da was, egal, wir erinnern uns an keine Gesichter, und an Namen ohnehin nicht, vor allem wenn sie nicht unsre sind, und wenn sie schon nicht unsre sind, dann erinnern wir uns höchstens an Namen, die man in wen reinsagt, damit der sich nicht mehr wehren kann, bis der sich nicht mehr wehrt, bis die sich nicht mehr wehrt. Alexa, wie schreibt man privilegiert? Alexa hält das Maul wie ein richtig richtige Frau. Na, da frag ich doch das Internetz, da hat doch sicher irgendso ein Mann wieder was Schlaues aufgeschrieben. Da hat doch sicher irgendein Ethnopluralist was Lautes gesagt. Da hat doch sicher irgendsoein Mensch was überschrieben, was mich vielleicht eigentlich interessiert hätt. Da hat doch sicher wer was überschrien, fuck! uff!

So, und jetzt atmen wir ein bisschen gegen die Egopanik

Wir zählen bis drei, eins zwei drei, und manchmal zähln wir auch bis fünfzig, aber fünfzig Opfer kann sich schließlich keiner merken der sich nicht mal eines merken kann, der ohnehin nix merkt, und fünfzig Menschen ist auch ziemlich viel, die passen grade so in meine Altbauwohnung wenn ich mich dann selbst auf den Balkon, aber welcher Mensch lebt schon aufm Balkon, frag ich mich, fragen wir uns, na, aber besser als raus in die Welt, die Angst macht, weil Veränderung ja leider immer Angst macht, und weil wer Angst hat grundsätzlich ja nie selbst das Problem ist, nicht wahr, ach, die Angst die ist so groß und schwer, dass ich mich jetzt ja auch noch fürchten muss da postwendend und baldigst durchzubrechen, also noch mehr Angst, verdammt, also rein vom Balkon, und erstmal Panik, womit dann eindrücklich bewiesen wäre, dass fünfzig Menschen viele Menschen sind. Macht nichts. Was Aufnahmen betrifft da reichen schließlich ja auch Tonaufnahmen, da reichen ja auch Bilder, weil irgendwann reichts ja auch, irgendwann reichts dann aber auch mit den Bildern und mit dem klagenden Hintergrundgeräusch, also, was Aufnahmen betrifft, und wir sind ziemlich aufnahmefähig wenns um Ablenkung geht, um Ablenkung und um Lenkung, ja, wenn man eine Geschichte hat, das ist schon was Schönes, nicht wahr, und das reicht schließlich auch, oder nicht, das reicht ja schließlich an Geschichte, die reichen ja schließlich, also, unsere Geschichten, und was Aufnahmen betrifft reichen ja auch Sprachaufnahmen der eigenen Stimme, die von den eigenen vier Wänden majestätisch widerhallt. Schon schön.

Hallo Solidarität, sagen wir, klar, sagen wir, das unterschreib ich, sagen wir, und wir verifiziern die steile These postwendend mit unsrem Daumenabdruck, wenn ich irgendwas bin, sagen wir, dann ist das solidarisch, Daumen hoch.

COMMON GROUNDS ist eine Radioarbeit des Theaterkollektivs Freundliche Mitte, das – rund um den Musiker Bernhard Fleischmann, die Bühnenbildnerin und Künstlerin Philine Rinnert und die Autorin Gerhild Steinbuch – Initiativen, Vereine und Expert*innen unterschiedlichsten Alters und Backgrounds in einem kollektiven Arbeitszusammenhang verbindet. Freundliche Mitte beschäftigen sich in COMMON GROUNDS mit dem öffentlichen Raum und seiner Benutzung als „Grundrecht“ der Gesellschaft.

COMMON GROUNDS wurde von 13. bis 17. April 2020 auf Deutschlandfunk Kultur in der Reihe „Radiokunst im Aufnahmezustand“ im Rahmen von „Fazit“ gesendet.

Gerhild Steinbuch ist Professorin der Abteilung Sprachkunst und war im Januar 2020 mit dem Projekt Hydra: Die Zukunft des Widerstands 1 Interspeeches 6 – Das Ende der Beschwerde? zu Gast im AIL. Den Auszug aus COMMON GROUNDS hat sie uns für unseren Newsletter und Homepage zur Verfügung gestellt.

video

Change Is Our Only Chance – Discussion

Talk in German from 2019, part of Vienna Biennale for Change

Change Is Our Only Chance – Roundtable Discussion

An utopian future requires a critical present in which the urgency of ecological, economic and political-social change is taken seriously. The program aims to stimulate reflection on possible alternatives and strategies.

Discussion with:
Simon Pories for Fridays for Future
Laura Grossmann for System Change not Climate Change
Katharina Rogenhofer for Klimavolksbegehren
Friedrich Hinterberger for Scientists for Future
Eva Maria Stadler, University of Applied Arts
in the presence of Tina Auer (Time’s Up).

The individual initiatives introduce themselves and we discuss the scope for action together. What role can we play with regard to social problems and in which areas of life can we become active ourselves?

The Talk was held on September 25 2019 as part of the exhibition Change was our only chance in the framework of the Vienna Biennale for Change 2019.

video

David Morley: Home Territories – Virtual and Material Geographies

Talk in English from 2018

The relationship between virtual and material spheres

To be home, home and homeland have always been contentious terms. Especially in times of increased mobility – physical, virtual, voluntary or forced – one starts to question their definition, while the phenomenon of ‘delocalization’ becomes more and more relevant.

David Morley, who works at the intersection of media studies, mobility studies and cultural geography, will talk about the relationship between virtual and material spheres and argue the case for a position that combines spatial practices and different forms of communication and transport.

This event is part of the lecture series (be)coming home, and takes place in cooperation with the University of Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the research platform Mobile Cultures and Societies.

David Morley is Professor of Communications at the Department of Media and Communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

talk

Opening: 07 Sep 2016, 19:00

Running: 07 Sep 2016 – 07 Jan 2016

Wolf Singer: Neuronal Principles of Consciousness

This lecture will discuss the findings of both research approaches to point out the limitations of the neuroscientific explanation attempts

Wolf Singer’s research focuses on the neuronal processes of cognitive performance and is primarily concerned with the binding problem, which poses the question of how sensory processes in different brain regions are combined into a single coherent cognition.

Neurobiology posits that all mental phenomena we experience ourselves and see in others are the result and not the origin of neuronal processes. These phenomena include our cognition, emotions, thoughts, decisions and our consciousness. For almost three decades, an increasing number of brain researchers has been trying to find the neuronal correlatives to our consciousness. The research field is quite diverse: Some are interested in finding the required conditions for a brain to be ‘conscious’, to perform in a way that can be called ‘conscious’. This usually points to a distinction between unconscious and conscious processes. Others focus on the ‘hard problem’ of how immaterial connotations of the content of consciousness, which can only be determined subjectively, can be related to material neuronal processes, which can be viewed from the outside perspective of the involved scientist.

This lecture will discuss the findings of both research approaches to point out the limitations of the neuroscientific explanation attempts. The presentation will suggest that these limitations are the products of a naturalist approach that we need to overcome by thinking of mental phenomena as social realities that require further interpretation in the context of cultural evolution and epigenetic self-modification.

Wolf Singer during the Lecture  | Image by © Wolf Singer during his talk

Wolf Singer was born in Munich in 1943 and studied medicine in Munich and Paris, completed his PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and habilitated at TU Munich. He was director of the Department of Neurophysiology at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt and founding director of the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS) as well as the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neuroscience (ESI). He was also head of the Ernst Strüngmann Science Forum in Frankfurt. His research focuses on the neuronal processes of cognitive performance and is primarily concerned with the binding problem, which poses the question of how sensory processes in different brain regions are combined into a single coherent cognition.

People sitting outside and discussing | Image by © Discussions after the Talk
People standing outside AIL | Image by ©

Photos: Martina Lajzcak

workshop

Opening: 24 Jan 2020, 12:00

Running: 24 Jan 2020 – 20 Jan 2020

Nazis & Goldmund / Hydra: The Future of Resistance 1. Interspeeches 6 – The End of Complaining?

A call for civil disobedience

While inhumane behavior has been normalized, many have also started to decry the discursive exclusion of the Right. The many-headed writers’ initiative Nazis & Goldmund Hydra prefers to talk to those who are really interested in being part of this discourse.

image with sign saying "Ängst" from former conference | Image by ©

While inhumane behavior has been normalized, many have also started to decry the discursive exclusion of the Right. The many-headed writers’ initiative Nazis & Goldmund Hydra prefers to talk to those who are really interested in being part of this discourse.

For are we not more beautiful, daring and diverse than everything the new, old, reactionary Right can offer?

In the summer of 2018, the writers’ collective Nazis & Goldmund organized a conference in Berlin to talk about the erosion of democracy. Titled Ängst is now a Weltanschauung, this event brought together colleagues from the field of literature and other artistic disciplines to create a space for reflection. The argument was made for a rebuttal of the normalization of nationalist, illiberal and Neo-Nazi tendencies, while positive visions of a future society and planet were also presented. This has now been continued by a series of events at brut Wien since January 2019 – Nazis & Goldmund has regrouped and taken on a different name: Hydra. In cooperation with other initiatives and based on artistic and scientific input, this supranational, many-voiced and many-headed monster invites you to an open plenum at studio brut to develop, discuss and find strategies for potential narratives of a social plurality.

The sixth event in the series of Interspeeches – The End of Complaining? – with the reformation of the initiative as the many-headed hydra – represents a call for civil disobedience. Just before we all come together for the think tank in April, we want to return to the initial question:

What to do? What to do in view of the post-general election, the post-interim government, post-Ibiza fatigue & what to do with those who do not lift a finger?

The collective invites you to talk about potential acts of resistance.

Program

12 –6 pm: Workshop: Civil Disobedience with Jean Peters (Peng! Kollektiv)*

6 pm: Freundliche Suppe by and with Freundliche Mitte

7 pm: Interspeeches 6 – The End of Complaining? with Jean Peters (Peng! Kollektiv) and Martina Schöggl + Lisa Wölfl (Sorority)

Talk / Workshop in German

Conzept: Gerhild Steinbuch for Nazis & Goldmund

Moderated by: Florian Kessler

Coproduced by Nazis & Goldmund and brut Wien, in cooperation with AIL, Burg Hülshoff – Center for Literature and the Institute of Language Arts.

Image by: Sabrina Richmann / Schilder: Christophe Köster & Marius Wenker