AIL Ping-Pong #4: Blob

In its fourth edition, AIL Ping-Pong circles around the term and meaning of ‘blob.’

As an onomatopoeia [a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound it describes], blob can be read as something that surprises or comes or ‘blobs’ up. In Computer Science and Technology BLOB stands for a ‘Binary Large Object’ and is a collection of raw binary data stored as a single object. In biology, the term blob refers to a specific type of fungus consisting of a single, enormous cell. It has no brain, yet it can still learn, solve problems, and move. A blob is a form without fixed contours. It defies clear categorization: it grows, melts, merges, engulfs, and mutates. Something between body and mass, organism and data packet, slime trail and digital artifact. It can appear soft and funny – or threatening, viral, uncontrollable.

Presented in the small vitrine of the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse, four graduates of the University of Applied Arts Vienna open a window into their diverse artistic practices, offering a range of perspectives that explore parallels, contrasts, or extensions within the given thematic framework.

About the artists:

Christos Kyritopoulos-Ninas
In his artistic practice Christos Kyritopoulos-Ninas employs both digital and analogue media, such as drawing, sculpture, video and web based media. His research and practice investigate the bidirectional effects of the human-technology relation, systems of representation and the shifting thresholds between image, interface and interpretation. 

Christos Kyritopoulos-Ninas studied painting at the School of Fine Arts in Florina, Greece and completed his Master studies at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, at the department of Art & Science in 2023.

Florian Sorgo
Florian Sorgo works in Vienna and Rottenmann (Austria). His practice engages with authorship and the conditions of artistic production, as well as the relationship between art / labour and art / life. The social function of artistic labour, its recognition and its conditions are central questions of the work. He also works collaboratively or within collective settings.

He studied Philosophy at the University of Vienna and graduated from the department of Transmedia Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2016. He is a member of the art association RHIZOM from Graz.

Felix Helmut Wagner
Felix Helmut Wagner deconstructs the functional logic of the world at the intersection of media art, engineering, and performance. Within his projects the used materials (infused with textile, sonic, gestural and symbolic significance) serve as media for inscription, projection and repetition.

Wagner studied civil engineering at the Nuremberg University of Applied Sciences, fine arts at the Braunschweig University of Art, sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, and Transmedia Art at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where he graduated in 2021.

Agnes Varnai
Agnes Varnai is a Hungarian-born artist and designer based in Vienna, working across video, multimedia installation, and experimental object design. Originally trained in fashion, she approaches clothing and other articles not as purely functional forms but as agents with their own narratives. Her practice bridges across physical and virtual realms, examining how private rituals intersect with collective desires and anxieties. She is driven by a fascination with the relentless ways material culture absorbs and reproduces our shared fantasies. 

Varnai graduated from the Fashion department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2017. 2023 she co-founded discotec, an artist-run space for new media and performance in Vienna.