THIS. CHANGES. EVERYTHING.
We argue that the current state of the world is unsustainable. Klasse Kartak envisions changes in our world that would have a transformative effect on ourselves and others. Simply said, our exhibition is about transformations of culture.
VIENNA 2053 Visions of our city in balance with nature. What could urban life look like in terms of infrastructure, energy production, agriculture, transportation and housing?
Annija Česka, Zoe Guggenbichler
Stop working – Be replaced! Why are we so afraid of losing our jobs to AI? The reorientation of the Austrian labor market service AMS enables people to give up their old, unsatisfying jobs and find fulfillment in new activities.
Philipp Köll, Manu-Sophie Linder
You walked, so I could run. Queer time breaks the linearity of heteronormative chronology. Solace is found through materialized memories & transformative affirmations. The objects inspire hope for a gentler, queer future & reveal traces of possible forms of becoming & being.
Winona Hudec, Maximilian Prag
W’23 – Democracy without political Parties Election campaigns, personality cults, disenchantment with politics, and low voter turnout are all things of the past. Our parliament does not need political parties and politicians. We elect those issues and citizens to the National Council that are important to us. A new form of democracy is emerging.
Sophie Schätzer, Hannah Stöger
Revolutionary School – Revolutionary Learning We are rethinking school, leaving behind rigid curricula, classrooms, and grading systems. Individual support for children and young adults is made possible through mentoring and AI-supported learning. The capacity to act, personal responsibility, and social skills are at the heart of our new school.
Elizaveta Kruchinina, Mandy Zaninovic
WILLA – Really Thinking of Tomorrow. The supermarket is turning into a place of information and education. Where do products come from? How sustainable are they? What alternatives are there? As you shop, you encounter knowledge and apply it.
Marietheres Reichegger, Danbi Sung
Keia – The Future of Healthcare What if our healthcare system focused on preventing disease instead of treating symptoms? Keia, your personal digital assistant, analyzes your health status from your bathroom mirror – without a doctor’s visit.
Philip Kosak, Matthias Schöllhorn
UPDATE ON US Throughout history, we have imagined peace without the people who cause suffering to others. Now it’s time to commune with them and acknowledge that they matter too. UOU offers insights into the processes of resocialization and backgrounds of incidents in which we harm each other in order to prevent this from happening in the future.
Maria Rudakova, Margherita Wirnsperger
VITA – Virtual Interactive Therapeutic Assistance VITA envisions a future where mental health care is accessible to all. Using a government-operated AI system, VITA provides a free psychotherapy service that can be accessed at any time from the comfort of your own home.
Bemir Bilalic, Linda Reitmeier
EVOLVE 100 years of »Evolve« prove it: Conscious reflection and conscious communication can change our society – for the better. No war, no violence. »Evolve« marks the beginning of an era of global peace through a wearable device that empowers you to find peace within yourself in a state of lucid dreaming.
Nora Eros, Claus Wares
Memory of Polyphony Fade-out of the narcissistic society. A musical ritual for the enclosure of time.
Jonas Nath, Jeroen Wijne
OneMeterWideWeb The OneMeterWideWeb restores the balance of physical experience in a highly digitized future. By limiting the availability of digital content to specific locations, the OneMeterWideWeb enlivens public spaces, real-world interactions, and greater awareness in media consumption.
Simon Hundsbichler, Lukas Juščius
In her diploma project film, Verena Repar guides the narrative through the stigmatized realms of shock, isolation, despair, and ultimately, acceptance of the inevitable. Partially in co-creation with Stable Diffusion AI this new medium proved to be a brilliant method, allowing the relinquishing of control to become a shaping force in the artistic process.
Sounddesign: Haris Kahriman
Music: Lan Sticker, Tom Liesinger, Bernhard Hadriga
„A Pile of Love“ was an exhibition of paper sculptures by students of Design and Narrative Media (formerly Graphic Design) at Neugebäude Vienna, a palace from the 16th century. The theme was LOVE in its various forms. PAPER in all its forms was the material. Love is one of the strongest feelings, perhaps even the strongest there is. It transforms us, it changes us. The resource paper is readily available, was obtained from waste for the exhibition and was ultimately recycled at the end of the show (some sculptures were sold to collectors:-).
left: Nils Kozeluha – Mother‘s Care
A collection of sculptures in the shapes of Post-Its written by my mother.
right: Danbi Sung – Complexity of Love
Love, in all its forms, grows in the heart through the traces left by personal experiences and memories. Our perspectives vary and sometimes multiple emotions coexist.
Poster Design by Jeroen Wijne, Verena Müllner
Exhibition Design by Anaïs Eriksson, Dominik Leitner
right: Mandy Zaninovic
Hass und Liebe / beide messen / ringend / stur besessen
Philipp Köll – Lips
This object explores the painful intensity in relationships. The lips, a place of tenderness, symbolize broken promises and emotional thorns. An ambivalent act that combines attraction and pain into a haunting experience.
Close Up right: Mandy Zaninovic
Sophie Schätzer – Layers of Love
under, between, over / after, now, before / there it is unknown / there it is complete
Cheyenne Cattaneo – Pulsum Monologue
Being in love, whispered in my constant beating. A secret, revealed in the rhythm of my heart.
left: Geli Mayr – Reclaiming my Femininity
I don’t like plastic women, and artificial nails look fake, especially if they’re so long that you can tell they’re not yours. Men also don’t like women who are made up like clowns or whose eyebrows are just painted on.
middle: Hannah Stöger – When we touch
front: Laura Burtscher – Noses Noses
TWO NOSES NOSES / ARE THERE FOR EACH OTHER / TOUCH EACH OTHER, FEEL EACH OTHER / NOSE-CLOSE
behind right:
Margherita Wirnsperger – In The Mood for Love
Joschua Kappel – 3,61 bar
Keep what you feel to yourself. Euphoria and affection have no place where discipline and rules are valued. Love, as we tell you.
Hannah Stöger – When we touch
we touch connect strengthen each other
Gao Di – Wisdom tongue (Don’t know where to be)
My pages in it, gentle / Explore this book, mental / I write my name on its spine / Don’t need a pen or pencil / All I need is my body / This will never fucking end (it won’t)
Verena Müller – Stages of Love
Margherita Wirnsperger – In The Mood for Love
It must be like I’m in your dream, and you’re in mine or something.
left: Dominik Leitner – The value of falling out of love
societies dirty obsession; pure and perverted / intertwining the strands of joy and sorrow, passion and pain
front: Xiangyu Qi – The Love Knot
center: Daria Peshnyuk – Whispers of Affection
behind (from left to right): Anaïs Eriksson, Margherita Wirnsperger, Laura Burtscher, Joschua Kappel
Anaïs Eriksson – Fühle mich
feel me, touch me, reach me, sense me, search me, perceive, grasp, explore me.
Niki Hermkes – Take Care
Take Care is a transformation of the traditional Wailing Wall into a source of solace. Consider it an invitation to explore the multifaceted roles of everyday items like tissue papers, often overlooked. Tissues embody solace during times of grief, intimacy and touch, but also care and self-love.
Nora Eros – Mein Schlaraffenland
My land of milk and honey magically revealed itself to me in many different places. Quite unexpectedly and out of nowhere. I never want to leave here again. Thank you so much. <3
Marietheres Reichegger – Cooked
tried out new dishes / over and over again. / tried through / overcooked / once again. / tried anew / perfect / served.
Barbara Knapp – Drapieren der Defekte
Only a perfect world for you. Show you only the beautiful things, protect you. Hide the rest, keep you safe. Save you from gray days with everything I have.
Xiangyu Qi – The Love Knot
Two destinies meet here at this point and then tie a knot. The Love Knot is a symbol derived from traditional Chinese culture.
Tobias Takats – Words Fail Me
I’m letting myself fall, landing soft and hard. The warmth embraces me, the softness encloses me. I’m sitting here and it stings so beautifully.
Elizaveta Kruchinina – Schutzschichten, Seelenschichten, Kerngeschichten
Dominik Leitner – The value of falling out of love
Marie Schütz – Sitting in love
I’m letting myself fall, landing soft and hard. The warmth embraces me, the softness encloses me. I’m sitting here and it stings so beautifully.
IMMERSION was an amazing and very successful Virtual Reality Show by Klasse Kartak at the Festival of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Students created 22 VR experiences for the Oculus Quest 2. Visitors had their own experiences there and when they resurfaced and someone asked them, »What happened?« they told their story. VR projects were developed on Unity and Mozilla Hubs platforms.
»We seek the same feeling from a psychologically immersive experience that we do from a plunge in the ocean or swimming pool: the sensation of being surrounded by a completely other reality, as different as water is from air, that takes over all of our attention, our whole perceptual apparatus.«
Re-Animate Vienna is a 47min Projection Mapping Show. The Location is the Flaktower at Augarten in the 2nd district. This Tower, with a height of 42 meters, is one of six large reinforced concrete defense and protection structures in Vienna, built between 1942 and 1945 as huge air raid shelters with mounted anti-aircraft guns and fire control systems.
21 Students created digital animations in Cinema 4D and TouchDesigner to transform this monument, that reminds of the destruction and pain of war, into a radiant sign of live. Soundtrack created by the Austrian composer Lukas Koenig. Artistic supervision by Prof. Oliver Kartak, Katharina Uschan, Christian Schlager. Projection Mapping, Software Support, Artistic Support by Jakob Hütter, Jakob Figo @handmitauge.com. Projection Technology by Gerald Heribauer @4youreye-projection.design.
The pandemic has shaped our lives. Media and their images bear witness to unemployment, economic crisis, illness, death tolls, triage, vaccination strategies, and public protests. We all also live with feelings of fear, uncertainty about the future ahead, and social longing. Therefore, in the summer of 2021 we realized a wallgallery in Vienna that will serve our own revitalization as well as the revitalization of our city and its people. Location: Lobkowitztunnel, linke Wienzeile, 1150 Wien
Angewandte Building at Oskar-Kokoschka-Platz, Vienna
Angewandte Building at Vordere Zollamtsstraße, Vienna
Promotional Images for the Angewandte Festival 2022. Angewandte Building at Postsparkasse Otto Wagner, Vienna
Original Concept by Winona Hudec, Simon Hundsbichler
3D Imagery by Winona Hudec
What if designers no longer want to solve problems? What if they prefer to cause trouble? If they prefer to offer new problems in response to problems? If they are pessimists or cynics? If they are out to spoil the game for others and spit in their soup?
The exhibition of Kartak’s class at the University of Applied Arts deals with the theme „The Designer as Troublemaker / Der Designer als Unruhestifter“ and shows projects in a mixture of static, interactive and audiovisual media, performances, interventions and installations.
by Mirjam Lingitz & Sebastian Lou
The Western Consumers’ Collective (WCC) has always been the driving force behind the economic growth of emerging nations. We create jobs, even for the youngest, we provide employment, even for the elderly, and we make sure everybody earns a full minimum wage.
We aim to disperse disreputable claims that the so-called »fast fashion industry« may have a negative impact on its workforce. Because those big smiles say it all, don’t you agree?
by Ludwig Pfeiffer
The classic board game has taught generations to suppress, rather than express, their anger. But there are plenty of reasons to be angry. Life is unfair!
All boards in the series violate the conformity of the determinist world of the orig- inal game. With twelve modified versions, players cannot rely (solely) on their “luck.” In the game as in real life, one person’s pain is another person’s gain. Guaranteed to frustrate players of all ages!
by Julia Winkler & Andreas Palfinger
Am I realizing my full potential? Am I good enough? Have I wasted too much time? Should I have done things differently? Am I truly the best version of myself that I can be?
OPRES is an innovative system for the human resource management of big companies and a psychological tool to increase one’s own performance. In reality, however, it was designed to make users doubt themselves in everything they do. The predictive abilities of artificial intelligence trigger human feelings, such as fear of failure, helplessness and powerlessness. OPRES puts us in a hamster wheel of performance boosting and keeps pushing us on relentlessly in the race for success.
by Ludwig Pfeiffer
The iconic blue cylinder shows a lonely bear without the familiar colorful bubbles. Inside the plastic bottle, the characteristic red ring is missing from its stem, which now resembles a chewed lolly stick that is dipped into a gooey mixture. If you blow, all you’ll get is stains. No cheerful colors, no lovely bubbles. No short, weightless moment of transient beau- ty. Pustenix is a slap in the face of all dreamers. A pessimistic product — bottled lost dreams that haven’t even had time to burst.
A film by Maria Rudakova, Maximilian Prag, Marlene Kager, Lisa-Marie Leitgeb
The documentary Better NOT portrays a designer defying all norms. NOT is what we all can call a successful creative professional: living off his work for big-name brands, whilst not losing his moral compass. His unconventional approach of “not doing design” sparks interest, but also scepticism. NOT doesn’t shy away from working with corporations. His professional skills are not used for creating PR, but for initiating internal change, that tackles the problem of overproduction and overconsumption.
by Ludwig Pfeiffer
Three authentic play mats show places where hardly anybody would like to go, even in their imagination: The Austrian border, a never-ending roundabout with no connection and a multi-lane motorway junction.
How do you play driving (or cops and robbers) when the barrier is down at the border? Will you get dizzy in the never-ending roundabout? Where can we change lanes in this complex mesh of motorways that seems simply unmanageable, even from above?
by Ludwig Pfeiffer
The rewritten new edition of the Conni series is a work of fan fiction. It uses biting humor and exaggeration to dismantle the lightheartedness with which the charac- ters in the picture book world manage their lives. All issues in the new series —Conni forgets how to swim /Conni doesn’t get a cat / Conni’s camping nightmare — end tragically.
We are once again living in a time of intense global instability.
Social, political and economic systems are in turmoil. But the most radical change, the most fundamental transformation has taken place inside us and it generates massive insecurity. When there are no definite answers to the questions of the future we retreat into the apparent safety of the familiar. But consistence is an illusion. All temporal things, whether material or spiritual, are subject to continually changing states and form the eternal cycle of development and decline. Our exhibition traces this cyclical up and down via the states of fatigue, recovery and gain.
Catalogues describing all projects featured in the exhibition were available as handouts. Designed by Frances Stusche and Terézia Denková.
An installation about global warming and its relentless advance.
Ever since pre-industrial times global temperatures have been on the rise. Since enormous disasters don’t happen overnight, people tend to diminish the problem as something that will be taken care oftomorrow or the day after. Meanwhile the politicians whogovern our world, who make decisions that alter our lives, the ones whocan actually make a difference, are struggling to stay awake.
They are sleeping or yawning through their press conferences and important meetings. They talk and talk and talk and talk about “finding” solutions while real action is nowhere to be seen. They are forgetting just one teeny tiny thing in their everlasting blabbering: our melting earth doesn’t sleep, doesn’t wait…
A repositioning of the pathology of depression.
The starting point of this work is the public image of antidepressants in a performance-oriented society in which weakness is a taboo. According to the World Health Organization depression will be the most common health issue in the world by 2030.
The installation repositions the image of the disease as a taboo at the other end of the spectrum of public perception: fan cult. This new extreme is not intended to serve as a solution but to encourage debate. Prozac stands for all antidepressants, as a well-known and notorious representative.
In a success-oriented society motivational and inspirational quotes have become a regular feature in our professional and private life, popping up in our newsfeed. Whether we always take them with a grain of salt or honestly feel inspired by them, they speak to a certain group of people who have the means to achieve success and well-being, but exclude groups of people whose life circumstances do not enable them to join the race for success.
An interactive allegory of our daily routine.
A crank activates several meshing cogwheels, each of which turns five times slower than the one before. The last wheel is attached to a needle that is about to prick a balloon.
Will you crank wildly to make it pop or will you think about how little of your energy reaches the end of the machine?
A life-sized board game about the consequences of careless pill consumption.
Will you be lucky and survive your consumption of pills or are you leading a healthy life, avoiding the risks that may kill you? How carelessly do we let ourselves be persuaded to take pills? How much do we know about their side effects? What is the pharmaceutical industry not telling us? Can we actually rely on being fully informed by our doctors or is it safer to trust our bodies? Which of your little ailments is so serious that it makes a doctor’s advice indispensable? Play the Game of Pills and try to finish it alive.
Sticker Dispenser in the exhibition, free to use for all visitors.
We want to be winners, the most beautiful, the most efficient, the most industrious, the most relaxed – it’s a competition of superlatives. But what happens if there is an infinite mass of the best and suddenly everybody is a winner?
An interactive utopia.
Individuals who have experienced little or no love in their development will for the most part act in an unloving and calculating manner in their later lives. They are lacking in their ability to experience emotions and in their emotional and social competence. Without an understanding of what affection feels like, their social actions are based on sober, calculating schemes and are executed without empathy, conscience or social responsibility.
These are characteristics of a dissocial and sociopathic personality. Deep Feeling lets artificial intelligence experience human affection to enable the growth of a social, feeling and loving AI.
This prototype of a computer input device is equipped with sensors that transmit human touch to the AI.
Excerpt: Chapter II (Labeling and Packaging), Article 8, 1: “Any packaging of a food product and any external packaging must carry warnings in accordance with this chapter in the official language(s) of the member state in which the product is distributed. With its entry into force the Directive 2018/40/EU will prevent consumer deception in mass-produced foods.”
To make sure this directive is implemented as quickly as possible, the European Parliament and Council now provide packaging extensions.
RIGOUR, the Research Institute for Global Oversight and Unilateral Recovery, is an independent think tank. Our mission is to help build a sustainable, just and balanced world.
Earth is experiencing severe problems caused by the effects of overpopulation. RIGOUR presents a policy to deal with this threat by means of reformed development aid on the basis of deliberate sterilization. Our policy goal is a sustainable quality of human life on a global scale for the benefit of all mankind.
Around the year 2050 the ecological situation of the world had reached a critical state. In 2061 a group of young people started a You-Tube channel and named it “I am human”. They promoted a “harmless” eco-friendly lifestyle – minimizing your impact on nature, and thereby rescuing it. Their channel attracted more than 6 million followers within the first year. But on October 21st 2063, five scandalous videos were uploaded to their channel. In each video a member of “I am human” committed suicide in front of a camera by taking an unidentified pill and speaking the same final words: “I am more than human.” Soon after that, copycat videos of young people from all over the world committing suicide spread on the internet.
Huge inflatable object depicting the logo of the show „ESSENCE 2018“, designed by Andreas Palfinger & Noah von Stietencron.
The slogan is a german wordplay and translates to „Backwards Shit – No Thank You“.
The students of the Class of Graphic Design explore situations and conditions that in today’s world are out of balance. The topics covered are climate change, health, sexuality, waste recycling, resource management and pollution, threats to democratic systems, distributive justice, migration and many more.
The show “Out Of Balance” presents various forms and interpretations of data visualizations, infographics, maps and user guides in collaboration with the design festival “Graphic Matters” in Breda, Holland.
Measurements open: 70 x 100 cm
“New Right” is the descriptive term of political right-wing and extreme right-wing movements and parties – and they are in vogue. Their goal: the authoritarian state; their path: destabilizing and transforming our democracies; their means: populism and disinformation.
Student: Andreas Palfinger
This guide provides 7 steps on how to transform a democratic system into dictatorship. The “New Right’s” guiding principles are translated into the design of this guide, implementing the dissolution of existing systems, progressive radicalization and network structures in layout, typography and imagery of each step. Reading the guide from back to front yields possible answers on how to restore democracy.
Student: Andreas Palfinger
We are able to significantly reduce emissions through our individual choices. On top of this, we need to change the system on a global level. Only if we join forces and put pressure on existing structures will we be able to live on this planet – as we know it – permanently (and at the same time meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals of 2015).
*CO2e is a measure that includes other greenhouse gases besides C02, taking into account their greenhouse gas potential.
Students: Dominik Einfalt, Noah von Stietencron
We are able to significantly reduce emissions through our individual choices. On top of this, we need to change the system on a global level. Only if we join forces and put pressure on existing structures will we be able to live on this planet – as we know it – permanently (and at the same time meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals of 2015).
*CO2e is a measure that includes other greenhouse gases besides C02, taking into account their greenhouse gas potential.
Students: Dominik Einfalt, Noah von Stietencron
With today’s technology it is possible to outsource mental tasks through apps. This form of externalization can benefit us by increasing our efficiency. But are there any consequences that could arise from our potential dependency on outsourcing? This holographic installation shows the parts and functions of our brain that are affected, both positively and negatively, by certain apps.
Students: Aliya Nurgaliyeva, Gao Di
What if the capitalistic aspect of citizenship by investment programs becomes a perk understood and used by many?
“Get Comfy” is a critical overview of the possibilities to obtain citizenships and the dynamics it creates once it’s a good of trade. Mapping the various citizenship by investment programs, this project questions how the value of citizenships is and will be perceived in the future, and encourages to rethink our global as well as personal relation to this issue.
Student: Carina Stella
What if the capitalistic aspect of citizenship by investment programs becomes a perk understood and used by many?
“Get Comfy” is a critical overview of the possibilities to obtain citizenships and the dynamics it creates once it’s a good of trade. Mapping the various citizenship by investment programs, this project questions how the value of citizenships is and will be perceived in the future, and encourages to rethink our global as well as personal relation to this issue.
Student: Carina Stella
Pornography is part of our society. It idealizes bodies, sexual behavior and sexual needs. In the end, porn leaves us with biased ideas and notions of intimacy and sexuality. In XXX Life we point out the surreality of stereotypical pornographic acts. We want to discuss how behavior and needs are influenced by what we see – an issue particularly relevant for young people who consume porn before having sex for the first time.
Students: Marion Müller, Julia Winkler
Pornography is part of our society. It idealizes bodies, sexual behavior and sexual needs. In the end, porn leaves us with biased ideas and notions of intimacy and sexuality. In XXX Life we point out the surreality of stereotypical pornographic acts. We want to discuss how behavior and needs are influenced by what we see – an issue particularly relevant for young people who consume porn before having sex for the first time.
Students: Marion Müller, Julia Winkler
In our modern society, we have come to take for granted the consumption of meat in particular. We are able to buy meat dishes on a daily basis while forgetting to think of the consequences our actions have. Our meat consumption has become so distorted and twisted that we have lost the perception of its true cost. The lightbox menu points out the excess availability by using a design style that is quite commonly recognized in our surroundings.
Students: Lisa-Marie Leitgeb, Jacopo Perico
In our modern society, we have come to take for granted the consumption of meat in particular. We are able to buy meat dishes on a daily basis while forgetting to think of the consequences our actions have. Our meat consumption has become so distorted and twisted that we have lost the perception of its true cost. The lightbox menu points out the excess availability by using a design style that is quite commonly recognized in our surroundings.
Students: Lisa-Marie Leitgeb, Jacopo Perico
The management of the oncology ward of the General Hospital Vienna asked Klasse Kartak to create interior designs for their patients‘ rooms. Many cancer patients visit the ward every day to receive their treatments. In order to provide positive emotional support for these people in their emotionally stressed state, the students developed a large number of designs, that are currently awaiting realisation.
Student: Philip Kosak
Student: Philip Kosak
Student: Matthias Schöllhorn
Student: Matthias Schöllhorn
Student: Anais Eriksson