Ernst Logar

In his second workshop, Herwig Turk presents several of his art projects dealing with laboratory research to our project partners at the Department Petroleum Engineering at Montanuniversität Leoben. These projects can open up creative and playful possibilities of using the lab equipment at Leoben for us. Herwig presents the works hands on (2014), labscapes (2007), and tacit knowledge experiment 1 & 2 (2011). He then talks about value/order (2011). For this work, he asked scientists to order objects according to their value, encouraging them to think about different forms of value: monetary, sentimental, scientific, and so on. The scientists’ systems…

Amanda Boetzkes presents her research on “plastic capitalism”, opening with a series of powerful images from Chris Jordan’s ongoing project Midway (Albatross) (since 2010). His work shows how the albatross, attracted to the substance, ingests plastic objects with lethal consequences. Plastic is thus shown as the exemplary substance of the predicament that waste never disappears. The ability to create plastics through chemical refinement exceeds our capacity to subsequently deal with plastic. Plastic is an aesthetic agent that technologically mediates the planet in several ways. Firstly, plastic conditions the future under the pretence of disposability. Secondly, it integrates itself into the…

Peter Troxler researches the intersection of business administration, society and technology and has been living in Rotterdam since 2005. From 2001 to 2005 he lived in Aberdeen, Scotland, and also worked on previous arts projects on the oil industry with members of the project team. Peter tells us about the project Oil and the City (2005), which he co-initiated in Aberdeen, and his current research on virtualization, sustainability and the circular economy. When living in Aberdeen, Peter personally felt that it was dominated by oil. Oil and the City (2005) was in part developed to counter the rising right-wing populism…

Simone Gingrich is a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Social Ecology at the University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences Vienna. Her work focuses on interdisciplinary sustainability (sustainability sciences). She is interested in resource use and land use – how fossil energy is used and how it affects the land, and how this changes during industrialisation processes. Simone studies the biomass extracted each year, which is measured in terms of carbon. Fossil energy use can also be measured in terms of carbons. Biomass requires more labour to generate energy than fossil fuels. Simone talks about two ways of…

Herwig Turk, Senior Artist in the Social Design department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, discusses his interdisciplinary work with scientists with our team. First, he presents his working relationship (2003-09) with the Centre of Ophthalmology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. As it is impossible for him or any artist to ‘catch up’ with the specialised knowledge that scientists handle, he organises situations in the lab which allow him to ‘work around’ knowledge. For hands on (2014), Herwig asked scientists to perform scientific procedures (without the required instruments) that they are used to as part of their…

Holger Ott’s workshop focuses on oil properties from the reservoir engineering point of view. His presentation, ‘Aspects of Reservoir Engineering’, firstly discusses the notion of creativity from his personal perspective. Subsequently he provides a provides a schematic view on oil reservoirs and production, and goes on to link subsurface processes to oil. Lastly, he touches on the relationship of modern petroleum engineering and climate problems and their solutions. He considers that there have been many creative acts throughout the history of science. He draws parallels between art and science in terms of their shared reliance on ‘observation’ and ‘techniques’ and…

Arianna Mondin, currently a PhD student at the University of Genoa and on the editorial staff of Vesper. Journal of Architecture, Arts & Theory (Iuav University of Venice), presents the research she undertook for her Master’s degree in Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna: Architettura di Petrolio. In this analysis of Italian writer and film director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s unfinished last book Petrolio (1972-75), she asks: “What is the architecture of oil today?” Petrolio, intended by Pasolini as a “form” consisting of appunti (notes) rather than as a novel, relates in interwoven multiple narratives a story of power…