ROUNDTABLE

A series of presentations by Harold Vladar and David Palme and a discussion about the preparations of the Artweek 2013 opened the Roundtable sessions of the summer semester 2013.

 

Harold Vadlar introduced two videos fostering questions on identity construction, he focused on the exploration of the idea of the ego, the tensions between two roles: the scientist, the artist, and the “acting” on the different expectations. He mentioned “the Russian doll”: an artist inside the scientist, a scientist inside the artist.

His first video was about everyday actions filmed every hour throughout a day for a few seconds while the second one consisted of a poem on language, memory and colour in memory of Harold’s father. The background of the video is staged at the family pond in Caracas.

An interesting discussion on expectations, double contingencies, expectations of expectations, the roles we play and how to be free were rising upon this presentation.

 

David Palme’s topic, was nicely fitting to the debate, and following Heinz von Förster, on “Constructing a reality” he introduced his thoughts dealing with virtual identity searching for a non-property platform. David Palme focused on computer games and he presented one that he created, as work in progress. The game relates to the dialectic idea of the subject and the observer. It deals with “you and me in the woods”, controlling a flashlight and the movement of a person while following the light, the game plays on the protagonist-centric view.

David Palme also explained how the game jam is working, and how a complete game can be created in forty-eight hours.

 

The discussion about our class’s proposal for an exhibition for the Vienna Art Week focused on its concept: “crucial experiments” challenging the possibilities of the different aspects of the idea, that might concern famous experiments which have become well known and taken for granted, the re-enactment of an experiment within a new perspective from today (as opposed to the historic perspective), criticism, the questions on the fields of our cooperation partners, thought-experiments, accidents, “proof”, historic surroundings and or societal aspects.