University of Applied Arts Vienna starts the new academic year with eight new professorships and a new rectorate

Sofia Bempeza and Annette Krauss, Art and Communication Practices (kkp): The two artists and teachers, whose research and exhibition experiences are as wide-ranging as their publications, are particularly interested in artistic-educational issues and in artistic and aesthetic practices as catalysts of situated perception, experience and communication. Sofia Bempeza brings a strong commitment to a post-migrant reconfiguration of teaching and learning processes, which she understands as peripatos, narrative and empowerment processes. She has previously taught at Leuphana University Lüneburg, Zurich University of the Arts and F+F School of Design Zurich. Annette Krauss continues her artistic-scientific research in anti-discrimination teaching and learning processes in school and art education contexts. She previously directed the Master Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Utrecht and is in the process of completing her Elise Richter PEEK postdoctoral project at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. The internationally connected artists and scholars are looking forward to sharing the new professorship for Art and Communication Practices (kkp) focussing on collaborative, queer-feminist and power-critical pedagogies. This is how they explain their approach: "We understand artistic practices, art education and art mediation as possibilities for controversial experiences of difference within teaching and learning processes. We are not only concerned with unlearning habits of thinking, doing and perceiving, but also with shaping social and artistic processes with care."
Bempeza and Krauss take over as heads of the Department of kkp from Barbara Putz-Plecko, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.
 
Craig Green, Fashion Design: The British fashion designer established his namesake label in 2012, shortly after graduating from the renowned Central Saint Martins College in London. Green became known for his menswear, in which he explores the concepts of uniformity and utility. Several of his designs are considered to be rigorously thought-out, constantly evolving and highly distinctive garments, such as the Worker Jacket. The versatile designer's work is by no means limited to fashion design, but seeks and finds its way into the arts as a whole. For example, his designs have found their way into opera or film productions as costumes and have been featured in exhibitions - including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 2015 and 2018. Green enters his first year at the Angewandte with curiosity and joy: "It is a great honour to join the incredible team and students of the Modeklasse at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and I am very much looking forward to working closely with them over the next three years."
Green takes over as head of Modeklasse from Grace Wales Bonner, whose professorship has ended after three years.

Petra Gruber, Building Construction: As a new professor at the Institute of Architecture (I oA), Gruber will intensively research building constructions at the interface of biology and construction: How do processes in nature shape future conditions while providing designs for a new living architecture? Gruber's own office transarch is dedicated to research projects in traditional architecture and spatial as well as functional aspects of biological structures for biomimetic innovations in architecture and the built environment. The new Angewandte-professor has already taught at TU Wien, FH Villach and the University of Akron, USA. In Addis Ababa, she designed and implemented the first master's programme in architecture in Ethiopia and taught there. Since 2021, she has been acting as a programme expert for the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). "I am looking forward to working in the I oA's Department of Building Construction and to passing on experience, curiosity and the courage to experiment," is Gruber's first statement on the occasion of her appointment.
Gruber takes over as head of the Department of Building Construction from Karin Raith, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.

Sam Jacob, Architectural Design 3: Sam Jacob runs his own architecture and design studio in London, UK, working on urban design through architecture, design and art to curatorial projects. The British architect and designer is particularly interested in how architecture and design can turn ideas into reality. His previous projects include social housing, nightclubs, community centres, parks, TV studios and exhibitions. Current projects include the National Collection Centre, public spaces in Belgravia and Covent Garden, and the William Morris Gallery. As University teacher he has gained experience in Chicago, Hong Kong, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, TU Vienna, etc. and regularly publishes columns in the Art Review. At the Institute of Architecture (I oA) of the Angewandte, he will focus on the question of 'architecture as representation': "It is exciting to think about how the current interests of Angewandte can be developed in new ways to deal with architectures that are changing technologically, culturally, socially and ecologically," says Jacob, who is pleased to "become part of the I oA, and thus belong to an institution whose history is marked by radical and innovative design."
Jacob takes over as head of Studio of Architectural Design 3 from Hani Rashid, who is leaving the University to retire.

Boris Odehnal, Geometry: Boris Odehnal studied mathematics, geometry and architecture at the TU Wien, where he habilitated in geometry in 2007 and taught and researched both before and after. Numerous publications as well as international research stays mark his career, which brought him to the Angewandte in 2021. As professor of Geometry, he works at the Institute of Art and Technology and thus at the interface between the arts in general and geometry and mathematics in particular. His enthusiasm for his subject and for its universality, as well as his passion for teaching it, are clearly expressed when he says: "Geometry is the oldest and at the same time the most modern science. Geometries are in all things of daily life. You only have to get into the habit of seeing the world through the eyes of the geometer and you are immersed in a wonderful cosmos."
Odehnal takes over as head of the Department of Geometry from Georg Glaeser, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.

UBERMORGEN, Digital Arts: The artist duo UBERMORGEN, who have been working together since 1999, began their artistic work with digital actionism, followed by the production of digital concept art and then research-based art. Since 2017, Liz Haas & Luzius Bernhard have been focusing on AI and machine learning as well as blockchain technologies. Numerous exhibitions around the globe, a busy schedule of lectures at symposia and talks as well as several publications can be found in both their CVs. An appointment Networks at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne and a professorship for Net-Based Art at the University of Art and Design Offenbach underline her teaching and research experience. For UBERMORGEN, its interest in the professorship of Digital Arts at the Institute of Fine Arts and Media Art lies particularly in leading a department where contemporary art and technology collide in an explosive mix of techno-political research and aesthetic innovation. According to UBERMORGEN, the convergence of media shapes life and creation, and this digital catastrophe is to be critically addressed together with teachers, researchers and students. Their message just before the launch: "If you don't get help from us, please get help somewhere."
UBERMORGEN takes over as heads of the Department of Digital Arts from Ruth Schnell, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.
 
Marina Vishmidt, Art Theory: Lecturer and author Marina Vishmidt most recently taught at Goldsmiths University of London and Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research and teaching activities have taken the theorist to numerous universities over the past ten years, and Vishmidt has made an international name for herself through her extremely active publication activities in the current discourse on cultural theory, cultural studies, art history, gender studies, political theory, philosophy and curatorial studies. It is precisely the multidisciplinary orientation of Angewandte as a whole and the Institute for Studies in Art and Art Education in particular that form the most important motive for her to come to Angewandte. "My approach as professor of Art Theory will be to deepen the transversality of this field and to show how art thinks philosophically, politically and economically within - and beyond - the conditions of a world that needs to be remade," says Vishmidt in her first statement.
Vishmidt takes over as head of the Department of Art Theory from Helmut Draxler, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.

Ebba Fransén Waldhör, Textiles - Free, Applied and Experimental Artistic Design (tex): The designer and lecturer most recently researched and taught at Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe and at weißensee kunsthochschule berlin in the field of Design Experimental Material. In her artistic work, she investigates the performative and symbolic aspects of textiles and has developed spatial concepts for renowned institutions in Berlin, in cooperation with artists, dancers and writers. The Swedish-born designer is particularly interested in how a sustainable approach to materiality can be achieved through textile ways of thinking. Her extensive artistic activity - complementary to her teaching and research duties - has taken her to Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, MoMA in New York and to the Institute for Contemporary Arts, London, to name but a few. Waldhör explains her approach to her appointment at the Institute of Studies in Art and Art Education: "We are all surrounded by textiles every day, but few know the processes behind their production. For me, appropriating textile practices and their knowledge systems means that we are empowered to understand and help shape the material culture that surrounds us."
Waldhör takes over as head of the Department of tex from Barbara Putz-Plecko, who is leaving the Angewandte to retire.