Running Freight on the River. A Clean Cargo Prefiguration
(2023)
author(s): Tim Boykett, Tina Auer
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
We are interested in exploring the types of futures that are preferable for us all. Discussions of preferable futures can be made difficult by a lack of understanding of the lived experience of that possible future. We like to think that some wise person once said: “I hear futures and I forget. I see futures and I remember. I do futures and I understand.” In order to explore scenarios of possible futures, we thus look into experiential modalities.
This exposition examines our Danube Clean Cargo project. The prefigurative process imagined what small scale localised transport could be like and attempted to run a pilot scheme. Reporting on that, merging the quantitative, qualitative and experiential aspects of the project, we present some resulting insights and imaginations. The project leaves us with speculations and visions drawn out by the process of prefiguration. It also leaves us with questions around heterotopic instantiations, queered economics and the everyday to be pondered as artistic research. This helps us reflect on the process of imagination and speculation, on dreams of various freedoms and the harsh realities of logistics chains.
The exposition develops ideas in both internal and external reflective modes. The exposition is oriented along a chart of the Danube river for the region of interest. Along the south bank of the Danube the project and its internal reflections are arrayed as episodic text fragments, leading up to a short vision that echoes older stories of sailing cargo barges. Along the north bank a more external reflection is positioned, bringing the project and its understandings into context with a collection of previous developments and external references. The entire exposition is arranged as a single page paper nautical chart, which in contrast to a digital chart plotter, always displays all of the information and does not hide features.
This exposition is part of Curiouser and Curiouser, cried Alice: Rebuilding Janus from Cassandra and Pollyanna (CCA), an art-based research project from Design Investigations (ID2) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and Time's Up. It is supported by the Programme for Arts-based Research (PEEK) from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): AR561.
Sense of Entangled Being, The Emotion of Awe in Weaving Towards Polyperspectivity
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Miranda Kistler
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
How has the concept of the sublime informed an unconsciously internalized world view throughout the history? And how could a mindset driven by the emotion of awe be a foundation for new understanding towards our environment as polyperspective?
Small elements all play a part in how we perceive. The choices of words we make, influence how we experience and how we define our reality. It becomes clear that to be aware of definitions and the use of words in a certain context, is crucial to avoid unconsciously misinforming our own perception and creating a reality we do not want to be in. Words create realities, realities we live in and others tap into when enforcing exchange. But would it be possible to alternatively inform an exchange that can reach beyond words and their established structures?
Sublime and awe are terms which often seem to come hand in hand. Some might refer to them as synonyms. However, the word ‘sublime’ from the contemporary perspective, has throughout history accumulated multiple connotations. It is thus that it differentiates itself from the word ‘awe’.
This research paper investigates the difference of the two linguistic definitions. By comparing the difference between the philosophical works on the sublime, by thinkers such as Longinus and Edmund Burke to contemporary psychological works on awe by Dacher Keltner. The paper investigates the sublime from its early origin up until its transformation into the contemporary time.
By tracing back the development and unfolding of the sublime experience with a focus on nature, into a sublime influenced by technology, the paper will come to speculate how nature of the modern age can then be experienced and perceived if modern technology is drawn away within that experience.
As a counter proposal, the paper will there conclude in proposing the emotion of awe as a new guiding concept in replacement for the sublime. Sublime has influenced a world view and ontology, with a perspective led by distinction for the majority of history. Awe will hold a new aim to foster interconnectivity and polyperspectivity between the human and the environment, making awe to become the new guiding concept for viewing interspecies relation between human, nature and technology of the future.