An Envelope for Arts, Sciences, Politics and Us ― Mixing Realities and Mediating Myths & Methods

Sealed in the book/envelope are a variety of thoughts, images, considerations, and theoretical references about the immediate and broader context of establishing an Art & Science class at the University of Applied Arts of Vienna. Two main sources of material are combined: first, contributions that document the development of the department; and second, contributions by invited guests and interesting positions that refer to a wider art/science field. The compiled materials reflect upon experimental investigations into the reality of production of systems, discourses, and institutional structures. The book contributes to the questions of how artistic and scientific methods and practices relate to each other, and how these relations can be enriched and transformed.

Valerie Deifel Born in 1982. Studied theatre, film, and media studies and philosophy in Vienna. From 2007 to 2010, fellow at the Initiativkolleg "Senses, Technology, Mise-en-Scene: Media and Perception" at the University of Vienna. Since December 2009, assistant in the master programme Art & Science at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Works on a doctoral thesis on the blank space in film with focus on the aesthetics of experimental film. Bernd Kraeftner Born near Lake Constance, Austria. He studied medicine and worked as a filmmaker and author. Since 1998, he has been exploring the messy interfaces between science and society. He was principal investigator of various transdisciplinary research projects funded by the Austrian Ministry of Science; the Wellcome Trust's SciArt initiative, London; the Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; the Humboldt University, Berlin; the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) ; the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF). He co-curated the science exhibition "the true/false.inc" in Vienna (2006). As founding member of the "Research Centre for Shared Incompetence", he investigates method development in science(s) and art, transdisciplinarity, science and technology studies, and the arts. http://sharedinc.net Virgil Widrich Born 1967 in Salzburg, has worked on numerous films and multimedia productions. His first feature film for cinema Heller als der Mond ("Brighter than the Moon", 2000) received several awards and his short film Copy Shop won 35 international awards and was nominated for an Academy Award. His short Fast Film won 36 international awards, has to date been shown at 285 festivals, and in 2006 was included in the list of the 100 most important short films of the past 100 years by 30 leading film critics at the Annecy Animation Festival. From 2007 to 2010, he was a university professor of digital art at the University of the Applied Arts Vienna; since 2010, he has been leading the master programme Art & Science at the same university.