Paul Pacher

A myriad of small wooden pieces protrudes from a tarry surface, reminiscent of an oil film, yet recalling at the same time distant cratered landscapes, whose colour appears by turns a glossy black and matt grey according to the perspective. […]

»Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction.« A saying by Francis Picabia was the conceptual input after which the key visual of the »Rundgang« 2022 was constructed. At the end of the academic year, Germany's largest art university opens the workshops, studios and rehearsal rooms of its four colleges, during the open day’s.

What makes us happy? What unhappy? A question that provokes diametrically opposed answers, depending on who it is addressed to. 22 columns—written by Carolin Emcke, publicist and author, winner of the »Friedenspreis« of the Deutscher Buchhandel«—form the textual underpinnings of a reader devoted to this question and illustrating the answers on behalf of princes, individual cases, egomaniacs and profiteers.

The Berlin Summer University of the Arts is home to a multitude of workshops and courses incorporating all disciplines of the Berlin University of the Arts. This design was chosen as the visual identity of the year 2023.

Contrary to the view of zero as a state of stagnation, in this work it is understood as the center of a dialectical process that continually oscillates back and forth between two opposites. Zero is not a symbol of stagnation, but that of a dynamic alternation between positive and negative, plus and minus, thesis and antithesis. In an experimental design process, six designers react to each other in a cycle. In the process, a work is continuously interpreted and a counterpole to it is formed. The reaction can be of visual as well as content-related nature—only format and color were determined. The result: 48 images, fanned out in a reaction chain. (Collaboration with: Josephine Aymar, Anna Beilmann, Lisa Leitgeb, Willie Neumann, Iuliia Volokhina)

The new, the unknown and the different—associations that are caused by these terms are often perceived by many as a burden. Relief is often sought in conventions that are even vigorously defended if they should not be taken into consideration or questioned anymore. And yet it is actually the opposite attitude that is worth striving for: thinking against the norm. The aim of this paper is not to show a graphical discussion of changes and adaptions, but rather a substantive one. Questions of design are only secondary in that process. Once most of the content-related barriers have been removed, the graphic design options can be explored at the next level. 94513 characters—a norm criticizes a norm.

The project »blubber« was launched in 2017 and is a film production studio, film collective or maybe you simply call it a passion project. In everyday professional life, the three founders were driven in similar yet different directions. Nevertheless, there is a desire to realize self-written scripts, putting a team together and refine the final product. In their debut short film, they use the horror genre and elements of the psychological thriller. The attraction of playing with the feeling of fear and at the same time challenging the imagination of the audience makes this genre so interesting and versatile for them. Horror—a good start.

In 1993, when an exhibition was first organized by architects for architects from the drawing rooms of the University of Technology Graz, the banale was continued in the following years with an opening in terms of content as an interdisciplinary series of exhibitions. So this year's banal in the summer of 2021 is to be organized as an open-minded, interdisciplinary retrospective with an overarching banal topic, in keeping with the lively and critical culture of discussion that prevails in the drawing rooms. To begin with, an action in public space—the construction sins procession.

The Styrian Orienteering Days are part of the European City Race Tour, which is a league of orienteering events in major european cities just like Barcelona, Roma and Liverpool. An aim of organizing such events in urban environment is, among other things, an increasing popularity of the sport orienteering. To enhance this process a visual identity of the event had to be developed.

"Frisch, gut duftend – ein Labyrinth aus Bäumen – außen knusprig und innen vielleicht noch leicht warm. Die Dunkelheit und drei Freunde am Heimweg ihres Ausflugs. Die Versuchung ist groß, der Speichel rinnt, aber der innere Zwang hat entschieden. Zuerst aufbrauchen. Morgen wird es dann soweit sein. Orientierungslosigkeit und schließlich der Verlust des Glaubens noch am rechten Pfad zu sein. Die einzige Rettung eine abgeschiedene Hütte. Auch morgen das Gebiss in einem harten, zähen Stück. Oder war das gestern? Niemand öffnet, doch das Gulasch kocht am Herd. Nicht nur der Hunger schleicht sich langsam ein, ein dumpfes Gefühl kommt auf und zurück bleibt ein süßlicher Geschmack auf der Zunge."

The Wiener Festwochen today are positioned as a multidisciplinary art festival in the city. Among Vienna's cultural offerings, the point is to present and allow things not yet seen and not yet heard, and to work as a content engine linking genres, thoughts, and ideas. The task of the Wiener Festwochen will therefore be to create frameworks for new alliances, rather than to build new borders and fences of art.

The Museum of the Future is a place which communicates cosmopolitanism to the outside world. This is not only reflected in the facade, but also in the name. Artwerk. An Anglicism, a production facility, a museum—the future. A project where I was not only responsible for the editorial design of this complementary booklet but also fo the architectural part.