Applied Correlation Laboratory
In the context of the cooperation between the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Frederick Kiesler Foundation, students of the Transmedia Art class were provided with a comprehensive insight into the archive and Frederick Kiesler’s artistic legacy. An exhibition presents now the results of this artistic research project.
Applied Correlation Laboratory, exhibition view © 2023 Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Vienna, Photo: Michael Nagl
Frederick Kiesler, visionary architect, designer and stage decorator, founded his holistic Laboratory for Design Correlation at Columbia University’s School of Architecture in New York in 1937. In a transdisciplinary setting with students from all departments and disciplines, Kiesler’s design theory of Correalism was to be tested and explored. For Kiesler, the human being is a “nucleus of forces” who is constantly interacting with his or her environments, especially with the “technical environment” that humans create themselves. From the starting point of its research into “existing facts,” the Laboratory for Design Correlation sought to develop “new objectives” that, in an open-ended design process, should generate “new objects.” Case studies provided a means of investigating both Kiesler’s theory and his methods of artistic teaching.
Frederick Kiesler, Study for Vision Machine, New York, c. 1938 © 2023 Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Vienna
How would Kiesler’s teaching methods work today and what solutions can be generated by them? The Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation is home to the artistic estate of Frederick Kiesler. In a research collaboration with the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Doris Krüger and Gerd Zillner explore these questions in the exhibition and investigate in the Applied Correlation Laboratory how the historical material can be activated for a young generation of students and artists. Perceptual experiments, theatrical moments, sculptural and cinematic references are interconnected by an expansive display in the exhibition.
Applied Correlation Laboratory, exhibition view, © 2023 Frederick Kiesler Foundation, Vienna, Photo: Harald Wolfbeisser
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 and a place for shared learning. It is an artwork, a lecture-series, a research project, an exhibition and a publication.
With works by Francesca Centonze, Ganaël Dumreicher, Kirils Ēcis, Aleksandar Gabrovski, Jaiyun Lee, Jona Lingitz, Isolar Mesec, Michi Schmidl, Marlene Stahl and Bofan Zhou
Display structure by Jasmy Chieh-Hsuan Chen
A research project by Doris Krüger/Krüger & Pardeller, University of Applied Arts Vienna,
and Gerd Zillner, Austrian Frederick and Lillian Kiesler Private Foundation.
Save the Date: Closing event and book launch on Wednesday, January 25, 2023, 6 p.m. at the Frederick Kiesler Foundation.
