COMMUNICATION . ARTS . TECHNOLOGY . ARCHITECTURE
A platform for possible utopias in a post-utopian state of mind
Creation of a platform for an interdisciplinary exchange
and cooperation in the fields of communication, arts,
technology and experimental architecture.
Location:
Studio KulturAXE, A-1030 Vienna, Esteplatz 7
CATA stands for the creation of a platform for interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation in the fields of communication, arts, technology and experimental architecture. The aim is to enable a joint cooperation in concept development and implementation of specific projects of transdisciplinary and transnational nature.
The location of this platform is the KulturAXE LOD Lab Vienna (Landscapes of Desire Laboratory), A-Vienna 1030, Esteplatz 7. The partners are artists, communication experts, art associations, institutions and universities (Fine Arts/ Technology/ Architecture) in Middle- and Eastern Europe and Southern Africa.
CATA will initiate its activities with the model development of the first project, the ‚CATA tent‘, an autonomous mobile art- and communication centre, an expandable flexible ‚dock station‘ in a ‚Landscape of Desire‘ – an heterogeneous open art and culture space. Focus will be set on the following themes, which will be explored, elaborated and illustrated in project examples: ‚New Nomadism‘, migrations, centre/periphery, mobile communication spaces.
Project 1 of the platform:
Development of the model for the CATA tent and basic research:
Aims:
Creation of a physical temporary structure as a ‚mobile and autonomous centre‘ for art production, new presentation and dissemination methods, information pool and communication exchange. For usage in rural or city-peripheral locations in Middle- and Eastern Europe.
Lightweight, rapid in assembly and reassembly, flexible and adaptable in its shape, with autonomous energy and communication systems, as well as visually striking.
Functions:
- Spaces for art making and dissemination
- Workshops and presentations
- Information centre for contemporary art (focus on nations with limited or missing reference systems/structures for contemporary art)
- Transnational communication forum
- ‚Transmitter‘ to public media and lab for interactive media processing
- Catalyst for thinking processes
- Idea-, Impulse- and Inspiration Centre
- Festive productions
- Dock station for experimental and mobile architecture, mobile and border crossing art projects
Themes:
- New Nomadism, migrations and refugee tides
- Periphery and Centre
- Networks and ‚Divided Society‘ in the global context
- Networks: ‚closed universes‘
- West-centred reference systems and centralistic mega events in art and culture
Examples of spaces in the tent:
- Media-centre, Think- and time-space, Docu- and press-centre,
- Interactive library, info- and talk-lounge, communication space,
- Workshop rooms, experimental labs and dock stations,
- Stage, rehearsal and audio room, Internet café,
- online presentation space, bar and dj spaces, spaces/halls/
- lounges for video and film presentations and lectures.
Background information:
Since 12 years KulturAXE organizes international art symposia in Eastern Europe with artists and participants from all continents: temporary, ‚global villages‘ always at peripheral decentralized locations; the emphasis is placed on:
Project oriented interdisciplinary workshops, new media, fostering of discourse, reflection and ‚think-spaces‘, communication, personal encounters and social interaction by being accommodated on the same premises, grant programmes (with focus on Eastern European nations and nations with travel restrictions), involvement of the local population through staged festive events.
Through these activities, the performance on changing locations, the use of new media, the exploration of the notions ‚periphery‘ and ‚centre‘ (both in a physical and virtual sense), various thought models were developed in the last years aiming at creating mobile, autonomous and self-governed structures: environments for art-, communication and information exchange and transmission.
In summer 2002 a first contact was established with Dr. Gyula Galaskó, Technical University, Budapest, in whose department a group had specialized on the design of tent structures, the development of algorithms and computer programs applying new theory in this field. Since several years tent structures are being developed following different requirements, produced and employed on a national and worldwide level. It was convened to cooperate and to jointly develop a model for a mobile art- and communication structure in tent-form.
Parallel to the development of the model of this mobile structure, the philosophical and sociocultural backgrounds will be explored, such as the ’new nomadism‘, migration as well as mobility and movement as new categories in urban research.
New Nomadism
Today the ’new nomadism‘ is lived and propagated – in work life, in social environments, in housing and dwelling structures and in urban landscapes. At the same time the phenomena of new nomadism manifests itself, in the West as working necessity, trend, fashion and lived longings and in other parts of the world as forced mass migrations and refugee tides.
Globalism, networks, the permanent development of communication and information technologies as triggers and also as instruments of a permanent mobilization, run parallel with the issuance of a multitude of projects and studies – such as Michel Maffesoli (‚The Time of the Tribes‘ – sociality today: the wandering mass-tribes), Paolo Soleri (Arcosanti, 1970) ‚Shifting populations will be the norm in the future: the human species is on the move.‘, Rem Kolhaas (..the generic city is always founded by people on the move), Ron Herron (Instant City: the metropolis would arrive like a circus, operate for a period of time, and then move on), Hou Hanru & Hans Ulrich Obrist (‚Cities on the Move‘ – the new cultural identities are claimed to be open, unstable, ever-changing, hybrid and transgressive of established boundaries), Costa Vece (The city of dream and hope, 2001): ‚temporary architecture as spaces of encounters‘ up to the notion of ‚movement‘ as a new category in urban research.
Working process
Special emphasis is placed on the working process, which from the very beginning will be directed in an interdisciplinary and transnational manner; artists, technicians, architects, thinkers, researchers of different nations, fields and generations will be invited to the process of development; dynamic processes, synergies, transfer and exchange of experience and knowledge of different specific fields and faculties as approaches to innovative solutions and cost minimizing implementations.
Working modus and documentation of relevant information
Meetings, round-tables, working-groups as well as lectures and presentations of specific fields and projects. The information forwarded in the different fields during the working process will be collected and documented, a CD produced.
Working phases:
- Conceptual study, feasibility study and model development.
- Special focus on autonomous renewable energy systems, communication systems and strategies, participatory elements and modules, synergy with other mobile art- and architecture projects.
- Presentation of the models and concepts in Vienna, Budapest and other partner cities and submission of the project for presentation at International Conferences.
- Implementation of the tent and usage.
Structure:
Project Direction:
KulturAXE
Email: info@kulturaxe.com
Project Team:
- Caroline Fekete-Kaiser, Director KulturAXE
- Wolfgang Preleuthner, Finance, KulturAXE
- Dr. Christian Zillner, Author and Chief Editor of Telekom Future Magazine, Falter Special Editions a.o.
- Mag. Nora Fuchs, Agency for press and PR
- Christian Spiegelfeld, Multimediaproducer and PR consulting, Vienna
- Nicolas Kaiser, Webdesign
A project in cooperation with
Technical University, Budapest
Dr. Gyula Galaskó,
Faculty of Civil Engineering / Dpt of Structural Mechanics
University of Pécs / H
Gábor Majoros, Assistant Professor
Furthermore, universities, academies and institutions from Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Brno, Liverpool, Johannesburg, St.Louis and Kiev will be invited for cooperation amongst others.
Artists, architects and experts of other fields will be invited for conceptual development, presentations and consultancy.