TU Graz | studio any

Metadata Punks

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 18:00:00 +0000

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Abstract

“In the past we were acting like data-punks. Not so much “here’s three chords, now form your band.” More like: “Here’s three gigs, now go form your autonomous art collective.” The new tactic might be more question of being metadata-punks.” (McKenzie Wark - Metadata Punk, 2015)¹

Constantinos Miltiadis, Dubravka Sekulić, and Marcell Mars are amateur librarians sharing and maintaining their collections at https://library.memoryoftheworld.org/. Like other amateur librarians they run away, on daily bases, from interesting, exciting professional duties into the boring acts of searching for new books available on the internet, meticulously editing their metadata, running optical character recognition against badly scanned books, slicing double-paged books into single-paged ready for screen. If an important author and her books are not already available on internet then they scan and make it available. Sometimes, not always, they also read, annotate, cite, and discuss with others.

In this tabletalk the three speakers will present different aspects of the inevitable role of a researcher as librarian. From the definition of a library, to the act of creating a public library and of making sense of one’s reading corpus. The talk will be followed by a workshop on Wednesday, to introduce book scanning methods, and software for annotating, citing and organizing libraries.

Marcell Mars started his research “Ruling Class Studies” at Jan van Eyck (2011-12), continued at Akademie Schloss Solitude (2013) and since spring 2015, he is a PhD student at Leuphana University in DCRL (Digital Cultures Research Lab). Public Library/Memory of the World was established in 2012 to develop sociotechnical infrastructure and invigorate (again) historical argument for universal access to knowledge. He develops software: [let’s share books] Calibre plugin and related server infrastructure. Public Library/Memory of the World was heard and exhibited at Museo Reina Sofía, 98weeks, Impakt Festival, Transmediale, The New School, Kunstverein Stuttgart…

Constantinos Miltiadis is an architect and computational designer, currently an assistant professor at the Institute of Architecture and Media of TU Graz. His work is interdisciplinary and experimental, and focuses on real-time, interactive, virtual and augmented reality design as a means of expanding the scope of architecture. Constantinos has studied architecture at NTU-Athens and at the Chair for CAAD ETH Zurich, and his current research intends to bridge Game Studies and architecture.

Dubravka Sekulić is an amateur librarian researching transformations of contemporary city. In September she joined the Institute for Contemporary Art, Department of Architecture, TU Graz as an assistant professor. She is PhD fellow at the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture, Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich. She is an author of “Glotzt Nicht so Romatnisch! On Extralegal Space in Belgrade” (Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2012) and co-editor of “Zoran Bojovic: Three Points of Support” (Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, 2013), Surfing the Black (Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, 2012) and Peti Park, Struggle for Everyday (Kontekst, Belgrade, 2012).

Wark, McKenzie. ‘Metadata Punk’. In Javna Knjižnica / Public Library, edited by Tomislav Medak and Marcell Mars. WHW Multimedia Institute, 2015. ↩︎

Virtual Spaces Master Studio: 16m2 labyrinths

Tue, 07 Feb 2017 16:13:17 +0300

Table of Contents

Outline

Course designer and lead teacher for the Virtual Spaces Master Studio module (16 ECTS) at the Institute of Architecture and Media, TU Graz, during the summer semester of 2017. The objective of the studio was to introduce virtual reality as a medium for experimental design, and to explore designing virtual environments in both space and time. At the end of the semester each student produced, presented, and exhibited a VR experience for the HTV Vive.

	Course outline
Type	Master studio module; academic; master level
Module courses	Master design studio Digital Form and Motion elective Interdisciplinary Media elective
Context	Institute of Architecture and Media, TU Graz
Module credits	16 ECTS
Duration	Full semester (summer semester 2017)
Participants	13 architecture students
Deliverables	Individual VR application (HTC Vive); video presentation; documentation booklet
Exhibitions	Graz Open Architecture Day; VR Playful Art at Kunsthaus Graz

Course information

Course Description

Virtual Spaces Master Studio: 16m2 Labyrinths is an intensive and experimental master design studio module offered by the Institute of Architecture and Media, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz. As with VSMS 2016, the course developed as final output interactive Virtual Reality applications in the format of videogames, focusing on perceptible and immaterial spatial concepts and experiences. The 2017 VSMS is titled “16m2 Labyrinths” given the physical space constraints (4x4m tracking space) of the HTC Vive VR system.

The aim of the studio is to approach Virtual Reality as a choropoietic medium, instead of a representational one, and explore from an architectural perspective, the possibility of designing spatial experiences that don’t rely on physical materiality but are however sensible. Our focus of exploring the architectural aesthetic potential of this medium was pursued by a wide variety of methods implemented in the student projects, ranging from the design of spatial narratives to navigable non-euclidean spaces and more abstract experiences.

Starting from the concept of the Labyrinth the studio investigated the geometrical, formal, and organizational aspects of labyrinths and mazes, and through key readings from both architecture and game studies, how such concepts can be applied to spatio-temporal interactive environments, as an intention of approaching the videogame medium with an architectural sensibility, for developing novel architectural experiences.

Course details

The course is going to work primarily with Unity 3D, 3D Max, and Premiere Pro. All course assignments and outputs are in digital form. No previous programming experience is necessary. Fluency with conventional 3D modelling, raster, and vector graphics software though is required.
The course includes the electives Digital Form and Motion taught by Oliver Reischl, and Interdisciplinary Media taught by Constantinos Miltiadis. The course is coordinated through a Slack group, collective readings performed through Hypothes.is.

Course language

The studio as well as the electives are taught in English and are open to exchange students.

Reading assignments

Ernest Adams – The role of architecture in videogames (2002)
Espen J. Aarseth – Computer Game Studies Year One (2001)
Bernard Tschumi – Architecture Paradox (1975)
Espen J. Aarseth – Allegories of space (2007)
Espen J. Aarseth – The narrative theory of games (video lecture 2009)
Umberto Eco – Function and sign, the semiotics of architecture (1980)
Penelope Reed Doob – The idea of the labyrinth from classical antiquity through the Middle Ages (1992)
Henry Jenkins – Game design as narrative architecture (2004)
Italo Calvino – Invisible Cities (1972)
Raph Koster – Theory of fun for game design (2013)
Jorge Luis – The garden of forking paths (1941)
Alex McDowell – Prejudicial Narratives: Building Tomorrow’s World Today (2015)
Tzvetan Todorov – The two principles of narrative (1971)
Lev Manovich – Navigable Space (1998)
Ian Bogost – The rhetoric of videogames (2008)

Review jury

Midterm review: Johannes Mücke (Wideshot Entertainment) and Pierre Cutellic (CAAD ETHz)
Final review: Prof. Milica Tomic (IZK TU Graz), Dejan Markovic (IZK TU Graz) Lorenz Jäger (ICG TU Graz), Volker Settgast (CGV TU Graz), and Gerriet K. Sharma (IEM KU Graz)

Student projects

Xaver Burkat – #o (video, booklet)
Philipp Sattler – Library of the Absurd (video, booklet)
Valentin Moser – Chronicles (video, booklet)
Lukas Gosch – Awakening (video, booklet)
Lukas Meindl – Moving (video, booklet)
Vesa Bunjaku – Noseum (video, booklet)
Daniel Seiwald – In-between (video, booklet)
Dinko Jelecevic – The Game of the Goose (video, booklet)
Emina Lozzo – Ghost Talk (video, booklet)
Robert Aumayr – Solitude (video, booklet)
Petrit Vesjeli – Escape from the Unknown (video, booklet)
Sabrina Kullmaier & Julian Lebitsch – Continuity (video, booklet)

Auxiliary events

Studio excursion

Travel to Linz on the 23rd-24th of March, organized by Julian Jauk. The first day starts with a visit to the University of Arts in Linz, and a presentation of the work of Johannes Braumann, followed by a visit to the Ars Electronica Center with a tour by AEC Director Andreas Bauer, and participation to the event “Human bodies – the universe in itself” at the Deep Space 8K. The second day includes a tour of the city and a visit to the Lentos Museum, Schloss Museum, Höhen Rausch, and Museums Quartier.

Guest lectures

Screening of the documentary “Gaming the real world” (Eklund, 2016)
Diagonale Film Festival visit
Button Festival visit
Gaming nights at IAM for exploring narrative and mechanic-driven games
Workshop with Emma Fraser – Thinking through ruins: Digital design practice, allegory, and the visual
Open Lecture #8 Emma Fraser – Ruined cities, video games, and digital space: virtual-material feedback
Open Lecture #9 Marco Ciciliani – CPPG Composition, Performance and Perception of Gamified Audiovisual Works
Open Lecture #10 Johannes Mücke – Independence Day : Resurgence. Designing the Alien Invasion
Open Lecture #11 Nicole Stoecklmayr – Projection & Production: Scenes of Architecture in Movies and Games

Exhibitions

Public exhibition at the Graz Open Architecture Day on June 30, and July 1, 2017.
Public exhibition at the event VR Playful Art at Kunsthaus Graz, September 1, 2017.

Teaching team

Teaching assistants

Ludwig Grimm
Julian Jauk

Teachers

Constantinos Miltiadis (course leader; design studio; Interdisciplinary Media elective)
Prof. Urs Hirschberg (design studio team)
Oliver Reischl (Digital Form & Motion elective)

Project posters

Graz Open Architecture Day 2017

Tabletalks on Architecture (2016-2017)

Fri, 05 Aug 2016 15:33:29 +0300

Tabletalks on Architecture was a lecture series produced by a group of university assistants at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz between 2016 and 2017. The initiative was conceived as as means to foster current research and as a casual event outside of formal university structures where academics, students, and practicing architects can converge, engage, exchange, and discuss matters related to architecture and architectural research.

Founding members of the initiative include Constantinos Miltiadis, Diederik de Koning, Marcello Fantuz, Sophia Walk, and Christoph Braser.
Graphic design by Lilly Hafner.

Tabletalks on Architecture ran between 2016 and 2017 with four sessions listed below. All events took place at Cafe Kork and were free and open to the public.

Tabletalks archive

TToA 1: Diederik de Koning – Agricultural Architecture & Land Management

TToA 1 event poster
Tuesday, 06.12.2016, 18:00
Kork, Lessingstraße 25, 8010 Graz

This tabletalk will focus on the role of architect-educators in the design of agricultural buildings and land settlement for the post-war European countryside. The research aims at building up the required body of knowledge for establishing an international discourse on agricultural design as part of the architectural discipline.

Diederik de Koning graduated cum laude in architecture from Delft University of Technology, and also holds a master’s degree in Environmental and Infrastructure Planning from the University of Groningen. Since the spring of 2013 he has taught a variety of courses at The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design in Delft. He now works for the Institute of Architecture and Landscape at Graz University of Technology. He is currently working on his PhD research at the Borders & Territories research group at TU Delft, which deals with agricultural buildings in the post-war European countryside. Results of the research have been presented at conferences in Warsaw and Venice in 2016. In parallel, he runs an independent architecture practice together with Laura van Santen under the name la-di-da (http://www.la-di-da.nl/) which was recently included as one of the 33 invited young Dutch and Flemish offices to present their work as part of the 2016 “MAATWERK/MASSARBEIT” exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt.

TToA 2 – Petra Eckhard: The Anti-canon of Architectural Modernism

TToA 2 event poster
Tuesday, 10.01.2017, 18:00
Kork, Lessingstraße 25, 8010 Graz

In her talk Petra Eckhard will explore architectural structures located in the Western hemisphere which emerged during the second half of the 20th century as an anti-canon of modernist architecture. As manifestations of personal desires and individual creativity, the works analysed have been realised without the burden of economic, functional, temporal or aesthetic restrictions–aspects which usually accompany architectural practice. In their important function as foils, the anti-canonic works discussed unfold a special relationship to modernist forms, which paradoxically does both counteract and mirror the “greatness” and hubris associated with the modernist canon.

Petra Eckhard is a literary and cultural studies scholar at the Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies at Graz University of Technology. She studied English and American Studies in New York, Bern and Graz, where she also received her doctorate in 2010. Her fields of interdisciplinary research involve practices of architectural writing, postmodernist works of literature and architecture as well as their cultural implications. She is the author of “Chronotopes of the Uncanny” (2011) and co-editor of Graz Architecture Magazine (GAM). Currently, she is working on her second book which explores the anti-canon of modernist architecture.

TToA 3: Mars, Miltiadis, Sekulić – Metadata Punks

TToA 3 event poster
Tuesday, 21.03.2017, 18:00
Kork, Lessingstraße 25, 8010 Graz

See Metadata Punks.

TToA 4: Christoph Walter Pirker – Visual Ontologies of the Indefinite

TToA 4 event poster
Tuesday, 13.06.2017, 18:00
Kork, Lessingstraße 25, 8010 Graz

In the epoch of the Anthropocene, human and non-human agencies are entangled in an extensive fabric, which determines the condition of our world. Such fabric is not balanced in a static equilibrium, but conceived as a flowing and intensive coexistence of currents and conditions, which define the expressions of our environment. The Anthropocene not only gains its geological importance by having inscribed the human’s impact in the geological strata of the planet, but similarly by formulating the conception of geological strata as artificial and virtual layers containing a productive, yet unknown potential.

The dynamic of the anthropocenic fabric brings about a new approach to ontogenesis, which no longer occurs by means of substantialist or hylomorphic principles, but through the process of becoming in the intra-action between the natural and the cultural, the conscious and the unconscious, the visible and the invisible. Matter is conceived as a living entity, which intra-acts with the human in complex networks, thereby abolishing traditional hierarchies and dichotomies imposed by the hegemonic system. To investigate such complexity by focusing on the construction of space is the aim of this research, while concurrently rendering visible the overall construction of the anthropocenic fabric.

Paul Virilio dates the origin of a global overformation with the development of the war landscape. It shows the anthropocenic fabric in its global dimensions, constructing an artificial climate and an ecology wherein the real and the virtual move and continuously flow together. Thereby, the construction of the bunker is seen as the mirror image of such war landscape, no longer being object or artefact, but an integral part or knot within the artificial fabric. Its geological investigation allows to consider the rhythm of the Anthropocene in its totality and to establish its rhythmic material as a tool for future inquiry and research. In referring to the notion of duration, “Visual ontologies of the indefinite” outlines an intra-acting method, which stands in a geological present and understands the geological relict as an atmospheric particle of our immediate environment. Developing practices of embodiment and intuition, the field of warfare is thus not conceived as a mere historic seclusion, but as vibrating object of investigation for our planetary entanglement, encompassing politics, ideology, space, media, visuality, and art to a cohesive body of action.

Christoph Walter Pirker (1989) is Assistant professor at the Institute for Architecture and Landscape at the Graz University of Technology. Furthermore, he is trained as an architect, musician, and visual artist. His transdisciplinary interest is based on studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, the TU Graz and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Denmark. Highly engaged in practices of performative research, he is currently working on his PhD project (supervised by Milica Tomić) entitled “Visual ontologies of the indefinite –Investigating spatial relationships of the human, the non-human, and the unknown”. The doctoral thesis is a continuation of the 2015 master thesis, which was awarded the Graz Architecture Diploma Award in October 2016. His work is at studiobirkenblau.com

Virtual Spaces Master Studio

Sun, 07 Feb 2016 16:21:47 +0300

Table of Contents

Outline

Course designer and lead teacher for the Virtual Spaces Master Studio module (16 ECTS) at the Institute of Architecture and Media, TU Graz, during the summer semester of 2016. The objective of the studio was to introduce virtual reality as a medium for experimental design, and to explore designing virtual environments in both space and time. At the end of the semester each student produced, presented, and exhibited a VR experience (for Gear VR and Kinect v2).


Type	Master studio module; academic; master level
Module courses	Master design studio; Interdisciplinary Media elective; Architecture & Film elective
Context	Institute of Architecture and Media, TU Graz
Module credits	16 ECTS
Duration	Full semester (summer semester 2016)
Participants	13 (architecture students)
Deliverables	Individual VR application (Samsung Gear VR); video presentation; documentation booklet
Exhibitions	Graz Open Architecture Day; TU Graz VR Night

Course information

Course description
Virtual Spaces Master Studio (VSMS) was an experimental VR game design course (16 ECTS master design studio module) taught during the summer semester of 2016 to a group of 13 architecture master students, at the Institute of Architecture and Media, Faculty of Architecture, TU Graz. The aim of the studio was to introduce architects to VR as a platform for experimental architectural design that doesn’t need to result in building form. The VSMS module included the electives “Interdisciplinary Media: Space to Sound” and “Architecture & Film”. The module was taught by Constantinos Miltiadis and Prof. Urs Hirschberg.

Working essentially in the videogame medium, the design approach of the studio is a fusion of disciplines, techniques, and skills that require the parallel development of both technical and conceptual tools such as concept design and narrative development, storyboarding, interaction design, UI design, 3d modeling, sound design, video editing, scripting, app development, etc. The course introduced theoretical discussions of culture and space, analyzing and drawing inspiration from diverse discourses including video games, films, novels, architecture, and critical theory. In addition to VR the students were asked to experiment with spatial evocations in other creative media such as text, sound, video, and 2D graphics.

The breadth of the 13 works developed by individual students demonstrates that VR and the videogame medium hold significant potential for architectural explorations of many different kinds, including the design of experienceable spatiotemporal environments that are impossible to come across in physical reality. Furthermore, the course showed that many aspects of designerly and tacit knowledges as well as technical design skills are well transferable between architecture and game design and development.

Course language

The studio as well as the electives are taught in English.

Setup

The VR setup is wireless and full-body immersive, was based on project Anywhere (2014) and made use of GearVR headsets (courtesy of Drei Austria) deployed in a space tracked by Kinect V2 sensors which can follow 25 points of a user’s skeleton, synchronized with the android app through a web cloud in real-time.

Output

All projects were made with Unity3D for Android/GearVR. All module output is digital.

Review jury

Final review (30.06.2016) : Jan Markus Ludwig (Wideshot), Lewis Scott (VizConnected), and Florian Fend (IAM).

Hardware

The studio was sponsored by Drei Austria with four sets of GearVR headsets and Samsung Galaxy S6 smartphones.

Note: The projects trailer video is a collage of video trailers of students’ projects. It is a reupload of the original first published in 07.2016, which was archived due to the university’s privacy policy, along with the course websites (course website (IAM TU Graz) and project videos collection).

Student projects

Edna Basanovic - The Island
Björn Gerd Seidl - Beyond Space
David Seiwald - basic needs
Felix Obermair - dream XYZ
Ines Zajkic - Museum
Kathrin Wutte - Room Dilemma
Kelly Man - Architecture of I
Ludwig Grimm - ΜΕΘΕΞΙΣ
Michael Deutsch - RISEvr
Philipp Glanzner - volunteer
Philipp Schnitzhofer - Future Visions
Primoz Brglez - GYRO
Xin Guo - The Labyrinth

Auxiliary events

Studio excursion

2-day excursion to Linz, including a tour of Ars Electronica and Deep Space 8K by AEC managing director Andreas Bauer; Hohen Rausch; Lentos Museum, Schlossmueum; Tabak Fabrik.

Guest lectures

Michael Hansmeyer (Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna) – Tools of Imagination (IAM guest for the Graz Architecture Lectures 2016)
Prof. Werner Jauk (Musicology Institute, KFU-Graz) – Sound to space
IOhannes zmölnig (Institute of Electronic Music, Kunst Uni Graz) – Introduction to granular synthesis with Pure Data

Exhibitions

TU Graz VR Night, public exhibition, 28.06.2016, organized by the TU Graz Institutes CGV, ICG and IICM, in cooperation with Fraunhofer Austria.
Graz Open Architecture Day, public exhibition, 01.07.2016

Teaching team

Teaching assistants

Ludwig Grimm
Julian Jauk
Martin Schrotz

Teachers

Constantinos Miltiadis (course leader; design studio; Interdisciplinary Media elective)
Prof. Urs Hirschberg (Architecture & Film elective, design studio)

Gallery

Sound to Space

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 16:34:00 +0300

Digital design 2 (dm2) is a week-long course taught to third-semester architecture students at the Institute of Architecture with the aim of introducing computational design thinking and related practices. The course was originally taught using MEL scripting in Maya.

The course theme for 2016 was “Sound to Space” and aimed at using sound input to generate geometry. In January 2016 I ran an iteration of the course using the programming language Processing. For this purpose I also wrote a short booklet introducing basic programming concepts in Processing (see Processing Booklet). This workshop iteration used FFT over a live sound input to generate interactive graphics.

Teacher
Constantinos Miltiadis

Teaching assistants
Markus Bartaky, Ludwig Grimm, Martin Schrotz

Open Lecture Series (2015-2019)

Fri, 06 Nov 2015 19:00:04 +0300

The IAM Open Lecture Series was founded in late 2015 at the Institute of Architecture and Media (IAM), TU Graz. The project slowly formalised as a mapping of the research ecology concerning computation and related discourse in the wider field of architecture and media. The series hosts talks by younger academic researchers and practitioners aiming to present and promote experimental, interdisciplinary and ongoing research. All sessions are hosted at the New Media Lab of IAM, Kronesgasse 5/III, Graz.

Open lectures archive

For the documentation of sessions 1-30 see the IAM Open Lectures Archive on this website. For the complete catalog of the series see IAM Open lectures at iam.tugraz.at.

Video documentation of the IAM Open Lectures is archived at: TU Graz Tube and on Vimeo.

Credits

The IAM Open Lecture series was founded in late 2015 by Constantinos Miltiadis who curated and produced the first 30 sessions of the series until mid 2019–except lectures #1 and #15 organized by Urs Hirschberg, and #10 organized by Florian Fend.
Since late 2019, the Open Lectures Series is carried out by current members of IAM.

Filming & Production

Department of Educational Technology, TU Graz

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Ypatios Grigoriades (TU Graz Educational Technology Unit) for supporting the lecture series throughout the years; to Antonia Manhatsberger and Alexis Kalaitzopoulos who filmed and edited most of the lecture sessions; and to IAM student assistants Nora Hoti, Julian Jauk, Ludwig Grimm, and Martin Schrotz for their help in producing lecture sessions.