City Upgrade – The High-spirited Networked City
TU Graz / Hörsaal 2, Rechbauerstr. 12,
Nov. 22, 2007, at 16:00
Conference Moderation: Charlotte Pöchhacker, Director of Artimage Graz
PART 1 // 16.00 – 18.00
1. Golem Reloaded: The Introductory Story performed by Miss
Folly // 10 min //
with Jaschka Lämmert, Schauspielhaus Graz
2. Opening Words // 15 min //
Andrea Redi, ORTLOS architects, Graz & Charlotte
Pöchhacker, Artimage, Graz
3. Vibrant Agonistic Public Spheres // 20 min //
Chantal Mouffe, Professor of Political Theory at the Centre
for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster, London … on
the space of democracy and the democracy of space
4. Architecture: From Location to Nonlocation, from
Presence to Absence // 30 min //
Peter Weibel, Chair and CEO of the ZKM | Center for
Art and Media Karlsruhe … on a new dynamic concept of space
characterized by immateriality and nonlocality: for more democracy
5. City Upgrade: The High-spirited Networked City // 40 min //
City Upgrade Team presents results of its four-year
transdisciplinary project 2003–2007: Ivan Redi, ORTLOS
architects (A) / Georg Flachbart, mind(21)factory (D) / Grigor
Doytchinov, TU Graz – Institute for Urban Development (A) / Sven
Havemann, TU Graz – Institute for Computer Graphics and Knowledge
Visualisation (A) … on a city upgrade through less: democracy realized
further involved in the project: Emil Gruber – (A) / Martin
Krusche (A) / Vincent Cellier, JVC architecture (F) / MACHFELD (A) /
Manfred Bogen, Fraunhofer Institut Intelligente Analyse und
Informationssysteme (D), SPLITTERWERK (A) / SU.N (SpaceUnitNetwork) (A)
/ WSKKFV Oswald, Peschl (A) / reMI, (A, NL ,D) / Anke Strittmatter, osa
2 - office for subversive architecture (A, D) / Neil Spiller, Bartlett
School of Architecture (GB) / Kerstin Höger, ETH Zürich – Institut für
Urbanismus (CH)
Break // 18.00 - 18.30 // coffee, cakes & drinks, Presentation City
Upgrade in Second Life
PART 2 // 18.30 – 20.30
6. The Well Connected City // 30 min //
Nick Leon, Visiting Fellow of Tanaka Business School,
Director of Urban Programmes ThinkPlayDo Group at the Imperial College
London … on historical parallels between transforming impact of
electricity and IT, digital switchover, and on playful nature of cities
intensifying innovation
7. Negotiating Boundaries: Architecture as a Responsive
Medium // 30 min //
Winka Dubbeldam, Principal Archi-Tectonics, New York
… on possible intersections of
living and working & real and virtual space in
today's urban architecture intensifying innovation
8. Round table with lecturers // 19.45 – 20.30 // 45 min //
Trigger talk “From Real to Virtual to Annenstraße” by
Eberhard Schrempf, Director of Creative Industries Styria
Conference Concept
City Upgrade – the High-spirited Networked City
"If talent magnet developments can get the
formula right,
they will probably become key to urban
competitiveness
in the twenty-first century". _William J. Mitchell
A hard fact to start with: Our society is going through a transition
that is crazier and riskier than ever. It is partly a result of
globalization, partly of the Digital Revolution and the
information-based economy it has spawned. By freeing us from physical
boundaries and physical assets, it has made us both more flexible and
more vulnerable to competitors of all kinds. And: It forces us to
radically rethink just how long not only business companies, but
well-established institutions and even cities too, can survive and thrive.
In today's fast-moving, transnational reality, which can best be
characterized as a turbulent maelstrom of ceaseless innovation and
change, i.e. uncertain and volatile, European cities, regardless of
their ranking, need to act like businesses, i.e. as competitors
struggling to attract talents from all over the world – the hottest
ingredient of economic success in the near future, uncertain and
volatile, too.
To succeed in this struggle, new socio-spatial configurations are
required – vibrant agonistic public spheres (Ch. Mouffe) – in which
technology, economic and institutional organizations, social
relationships, and spatial structures are very closely intertwined, thus
enabling all kinds of possibilities for expanding individual
opportunity, transforming the structure of work, and creating the future
of Europe on its way from the background-based world to the talent-based
and performance-based world of universal urbanism. A necessary
prerequisite for this is a new dynamic concept of space that is enhanced
by dimensions immateriality and nonlocation (P. Weibel), thus propelling
emergence of the new (innovation, change) in an unprecedented way.
Keyword: Imagination Economy – the future of Europe.
And it is this scrutinizing of the empowering potential of such new
socio-spatial configurations, enhanced by dimensions immateriality and
nonlocation, that is the formidable challenge of the conference City
Upgrade – the High-spirited Networked City, based on the principle of
shared research interests. Experts from internationally renowned
scientific institutions, research labs and architectural studios will
help us get results and, in doing so, come closer in making our vision
of Boulevard of Production in Graz 8020 come true.
Focused, well-designed, fast-paced, and free of charge, the conference
will also feature a very special guest – Miss Folly – performing the
introductory story.
Credits City Upgrade
Conference “Vibrant Agonistic Public Spheres”
Conference initiation, organisation & graphic: ORTLOS architects
Conference concept and programme: Georg Flachbart
Host & technic: Institut für Städtebau, Grigor Doytschinov
Performance "Golem Reloaded: The Introductory Story" was written and
directed by
Georg Flachbart in collaboration with Erasmus of Rotterdam and Reich
College of
Education, Boon, North Carolina
The interdisciplinary team - 3 years of research // 2004 - 2007
The project was initiated and is leaded by ORTLOS architects –
association for experimental architecture und Interface Design, Graz, A
Core team:
3rd project year “City Upgrade – Vibrant Agonistic Public Spheres” 2007
ORTLOS architects, Graz – A / Georg Flachbart, Philosoph der Tat,
mind(21)factory – Stuttgart D / Emil Gruber, Fotograf, Graz – A /
Grigor Doytchinov, Prof. für Urbanismus, Institut für Städtebau, TU-Graz
- A / Sven Havemann, stv.Leiter Institut für ComputerGraphik und
WissensVisualisierung – TU Graz - A / Martin Krusche, NetzLiterat,
Gleisdorf – A / Vincent Cellier, JVC architecture, Lille - F / Manfred
Bogen, Fraunhofer Institut, Intelligente Analyse und
Informationssysteme, St.Augustin – D
Additional to the core team:
2nd project year “City Upgrade - City of the Multiverse” 2006: MACHFELD
(aka Sabine Maier & Michael Mastrototaro), Medienkünstler, Wien – A /
Anke Strittmatter, OSA 2 (A, D), Städtebauerin, Darmstadt - D
Start-up Workshop & 1st project year “City Upgrade – High Spirited
Networked City” 2004-2005: Christian Buchmann, als Stadtrat für Kultur,
Graz A / Nebojsa Dinic, Programmierer, Nis – SCG / Urs Hirschberg,
Prof.für Architektur und Medien, TU Graz, A /Kerstin Hoeger, Urbanistin,
ETH Zürich, CH / reMI, (A, NL ,D) / SPLITTERWERK, Architekten Graz – A /
Aleksandar Stoiljkovic, Programmierer, NIS - SCG /su.n –
spaceunit.network, Neapel, I / Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Architekt, New
York – USA / WSKKFV (Oswald/Peschl) Graz - A
more info about the project:
http://new.ortlos.at/conference and
www.ortlos.org
The three-year research project City Upgrade has been supported by:
Kulturamt Stadt Graz / Forum Stadtpark / Amt für Wirtschafts- und
Tourismusentwicklung Stadt
Graz / Zukunftsfonds Land Steiermark / Land Steiermark Kultur /
steirischer herbst 2005 /
Kammer der Architekten und Ingenieurkonsulenten für Steiermark und
Kärnten /
.KUNST Republik Österreich / KulturKontakt Austria /