University of Applied Arts, Vienna

Zentrum Fokus Forschung

Rustenschacherallee 2-4

1020 Wien

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Impulse
25 May 2023, 19:00 – 20:30

Workshop
26 May 2023, 10:00 – 12:30

Museums have undergone significant changes in the last decades as many have shifted their focus from institutions representing the past to functioning as platforms for transformation and as sites for civic engagement. In her research, Yael Eylat Van Essen explores how museums can better connect past heritage to the present reality, speculate, and even impact the future.

As the current reality relies on intensive processes of datafication and technological sensing, she explores the possibilities of contextualizing heritage by designing heritage sites as smart and dynamic platforms. These platforms operate in real-time while being integrated within a broader interconnected technological ecosystem. Using this approach as a curatorial strategy aims to identify concealed patterns within real and virtual spaces. Based on the ability of new technologies to connect data from different ontological fields, this methodology enables exploring culture by connecting human and non-human agents in new ways and thus offering new perspectives.

Workshop: Contextualizing Heritage in the Prater Neighborhood

The workshop, conducted jointly by museum researcher and curator Yael Eylat Van Essen, and urban scientist Katja Schechtner, will explore the possibility of converging rhizomatic curatorial strategies relating to the multi-faceted history of the Prater Neighborhood with practices originating from smart cities systems.

‍Understanding Practice is an event series hosted by the ZFF and the PhD in Art Program. With our renowned guests, we explore their respective practices and experiences, questioning the possibilities of understanding and practising art and research together. In both a staged performance or lecture and a conversational workshop and exchange format, we will dive into different perspectives of art and research. This approach allows for an encounter with the work of the invited guests, as well as a joint reflection of their practice and its specific challenges and implications.