APPLIED
CORRELATION LABORATORY
A Cooperation between the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian Frederick and
Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation Doris Krüger / Krüger & PardellerArtist
/ Senior Artist at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna.
Gerd ZillnerDirector at the Austrian
Frederic and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation, Vienna.
The
Applied Correlation Laboratory
is conceived as a pilot project to establish a sustainable cooperation of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian
Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation. Its core purpose is to
investigate and contextualize experimental
artistic teaching as a specific methodology of artistic research at art universities in reference to Frederick Kieslers holistic
Laboratory for Design Correlation.https://vimeo.com/793463538The Austrian Frederick
and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Historic Context / Scientific Research The Kiesler Foundation
houses the artistic estate of
Frederick Kiesler. As an internationally established research center it links
the European avant-garde of the early 20
th century to the most recent discourses. The foundation not only explores
historical contexts, but is constantly activating Kiesler's visionary ideas for the youngest generation of artists.
Born in 1890 in Chernowitz, in the easternmost Crown land of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kiesler's path led via Vienna,
Berlin and Paris to New York. He soon started experimental forms of artistic teaching after his arrival in 1926. The culmination
of his educational activities was certainly the
Laboratory for Design Correlation at Columbia University's
School of Architecture. The laboratory, which he founded in 1937 and headed until 1941 was a programmatic experiment to integrate
a scientific approach into design processes and artistic education. In a transdisciplinary setting with students from all
departments and disciplines, Kiesler’s holistic design theory of Correalism was to be tested and explored and finally culminated
in his legendary exhibition design for Art of This Century, Peggy Guggenheim’s Gallery Museum in New York.
For Kiesler, the human being was a "nucleus of forces" and in constant interaction with his environments, especially with
the "technical environment" which was designed by man himself. Based on the research of "existing facts", "new objectives"
were to be developed,
leading to "new objects" in an open-ended design process. Case studies served to test both,
Kiesler’s theory and his methods of art education.
The curriculum of the
Laboratory for Design Correlation
combined lectures, research and workshop practice with unorthodox input on anthropology, biology, bio-chemistry and the latest
psychological and epistemological insights. Other than producing functional objects, Kielser conceived a space of shared learning
to generate visionary ideas in response to the rapid changes of the political, socio-economic, and technological realities
of his time.
Gerd Zillner Director at the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private
Foundation provides insight into the archive and actively supports the students to acquire tools for scientific research.
With his profound knowledge about Kiesler Gerd Zillner accompanies the students working process, turning the Applied Correlation
Laboratory into a rich source of accessible knowledge.
The University of Applied Arts Vienna
Art-Education
as a method of Artistic Research and as a form of Artistic Practice The University of Applied Arts
Vienna with its wide and multi-disciplinary curriculum lives an open and transdisciplinary conception of contemporary art
education. It is a lively place for hands on artistic research, for international theoretical exchange and for a future-orientated
conception of university education.
As a senior artist at the University of Applied Arts Vienna,
Doris
Krüger takes an artistic and experimental approach to teaching. As part of the Austrian-Italian artist duo
Krüger
& Pardeller, she provides a material and spatial framework that serves as a tool and catalyst for the students'
working process.
Within this setting, strategies of
artistic research and methods of
artistic
teaching intertwine, stating
art-education as a specific form of artistic practice.
The Applied Correlation Laboratory
A Place for Shared Learning The
Applied
Correlation Laboratory is not meant to be a re-enactment of the historic situation. It is conceived as a contemporary
tool to face current challenges. Thus, the discourses on artistic research that have been subsequently established, as well
as contemporary approaches will be an integral part of our new laboratory. We draw from concepts of systems theory (interdisciplinarity)
as well as Ludwik Fleck's (1896-1961) concept of the “thought collective” (Denkkollektiv). A source of innovation in this
context is not only the "intra-collective exchange of ideas" but also the exchange across different "thought collectives",
i. e. between institutions of science and proponents of the civil society.
Along Kiesler's transdisciplinary
practice, the
Applied Correlation Laboratory serves to build an internal cooperation network within the University
of Applied Arts Vienna. As a mobile basis, it docks with different departments and institutes on an annually changing basis.
In addition, guest lectures, workshops and text assignments will strengthen and expand the international networks of both
cooperation partners.
Taking up the basic ideas of its historical predecessor, the
Applied Correlation
Laboratory is an open and process-oriented tool of cognition at the intersections of art, science and society. According
to Kiesler's paradigmatic transgressions between disciplines, the cooperation between the University of Applied Arts Vienna
and the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation has the highest potential for establishing a powerful innovative
place for shared learning.
General Setup / Kiesler’s Vision
Machine as a Case Study 1) Archive
The holdings of the Frederick Kiesler Foundation are
an integral part of the cooperation with the University of Applied Arts - the artist’s estate serves as a starting point.
By making the foundation’s archive and its knowledge accessible to the students, they are introduced to the field of artistic-scientific
research.
Archival documents on Kiesler’s perception studies are selected for the theory-centred introductory semester
that precedes the actual project. The students explore the laboratory and one of its core experiments: the
Vision Machine.
Kiesler conceived the
Vision Machine as an audio-visual apparatus to visualize the creative act of human sight. It
was placed in the
centre of a crossover of display structure and a “theatre of perception”. His studies at the
Laboratory
for Design Correlation formed the basis for his Manifests on Correalism (mid 1940s, published as
Manifeste du Corréalisme
in 1949), as well as for his exhibition designs, most notably for Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery-museum
Art of This Century
(1942). Based on the foundation’s collection, new focal points can be set in the following years.
2.) Case
Studies on Display
As an actualization of Kiesler’s
Vision Machine we shift our focus on current findings on
visual and tactile perception. After the theoretical introduction, the students develop artworks as case studies in the following
semester. The spatial settings conceived for this purpose generate the students' individual works as well as a collaboratively
designed exhibition display. In this sense the work by Krüger & Pardeller functions as both: as a tool for artistic research
and education and as a tool for mediation. The display not only serves the presentation, but turns into an experimental platform
for the Laboratory itself. As a dynamic system, it enables spatial as well as perceptual experiments, relating bodies and
objects. Material studies on surface qualities, of color effects as well as experiments on spatial acoustics are integrated
and tested in collaborative scenarios that allow psychological and social experiences. Beyond that, the students’ case studies
will be exhibited at the Frederick Kiesler Foundation.
3.) Editing the Future
A publication will document
the project and its case studies. It is an active contribution to the current international discourse on artistic research.
The editorial work on the publication allows us to connect with an international research network and to critically reflect
and adapt our methods. Therefor the publication is not the end of the
Applied Correlation Laboratory. It will serve
as the beginning of a continuous and sustainable collaboration of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian Frederick
and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation.
The Applied Correlation Laboratory is
an institutional cooperation, it is a tool for artistic and scientific research, a workshop-setting for hands on experiments,
a platform for education, a method of artistic teaching, a site for exchange and collaboration, a structure for mediation,
and a place for shared learning. It is an artwork, a lecture-series, a research project, an exhibition and a publication.
Film: Kiesler’s Body
The
film „Kiesler's Body“, developed as part of the the INTRA project „Applied Correlation Laboratory“, was invited to the film
festival Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film.The architectural theorist Friedrich Kiesler designed a
site for film projection that places focus on the screen, allowing everything around it to be forgotten. With animated spatial
models of the cinema that Kiesler constructed for the Film Arts Guild, Ganaël Dumreicher conveys the idea of a borderless
cinematic space in a surrealistic, visceral, and extremely direct way.
Premiere: Diagonale, Festival des österreichischen
Films 2023
Screening:
2023-03-23 14:30
2023-03-26 16:30
Credits:
Concept & Directed
by: Ganaël Dumreicher
Director of Photgraphy: Jaakko Taavila
Modeling: Juliana Nozomi
VfX: Alejandra Murillo
Advisor: Doris Krüger
1st AC: Florian Koeppl
PA: Kaspar Kuoppamaki
Supported by INTRA Project: Applied correlation
laboratory / University of Applied Arts
In cooperation with the Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation
Technical Support by: Filmakademie Wien 
