Mythical matter – invisible, or maybe glowing in the dark, with the power to heal or to kill, hard as stone and soft as silk, growing forever or magically dissolving when daylight fades… The Golden Fleece, Sandman’s Sand, Dragonglass, the biblical Manna or Redstone from the Minecraft world – the stories we tell are full of promising materials, mythical matter with magical properties.
Guided by guest lecturers Johanna Pichlbauer and Isabel Prade, students of Kunstuniversität Linz/ Design: Tech. Tex (Teacher Training Design & Technology) took a semester to work on their own legends, exploring the narrative potential of material. In an ironic twist, a type of matter that is as invisible to us as it is dangerous thwarted the workshop plans – but legends can also be spun at home. And so student kitchens turned into fantastic alchemy stations and transformed the inconspicuous into the mystical.
The Imaginarium shows the results of our experiments, matter from distant futures, myths and fairytales.
Robert Angerer
Sammlung Autonoe
As an archaeologist, Robert Angerer has set out into the future. His findings from the 23rd century tell of the scarcity of resources on the continent of Autonoe and of an unusual alliance between technology and living organisms…
Sofie Lüftinger
Vertical Pets
Vertical Pets? Sofie Lüftinger’s association for the protection of biodiversity is committed to pets with a difference. These organisms love windows with lots of sunlight and prefer to feed on the dead skin cells of their owners. The association presents three organisms that, equipped with different needs and sensory abilities, are looking for a new, loving home.
Neriman Polat
Die Granatapfelinsel
Once upon a time…
Neriman Polat wrote a fairy tale of Mrs. Nar, whose most fervent wish is for a child. The woman decides to take her destiny into her own hands and sets out on a journey to the legendary pomegranate island – but to reach the source of fertility, she first puts the island to numerous tests…
Alessandra Steiner
Forschungszentrum für genmanipulierte Bioressourcen
Alessandra Steiner represents the Research Centre for Genetically Manipulated Bioresources and presents its main research areas on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. They are particularly proud of the modified molluscs. Their electromagnetic pearls promise to become a valuable part of the energy production chain – and the Research Center’s pulp fungi have already become an integral part of the construction industry. Congratulations!
Project Credits / Acknowledgements
Kunstuniversität Linz, Design: Tech.Tex (Teacher Training Design & Technology)
Johanna Pichlbauer, Isabel Prade, Irene Posch, Astrid Young
Biography
The study program Design:Tech.Tex at the der Kunstuniversität Linz spans from basic technological knowledge to craftsmanship, from free experimentation to research practice and didactic discourse in a broad field of materials and techniques. It is the teacher training for the secondary school teachers in design and technology.
