SHAKEN GROUNDS. SEISMOGRAPHY OF PRECARIOS PRESENCES FWF-PEEK Project, AR-780

Shaken Grounds. Seismography of Precarious Presences is a research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund and is affiliated with the University of Applied Arts Vienna at the Angewandte Performance Lab, aiming to explore and extend basic research in the arts. In this research project, a transdisciplinary team, Nikolaus Gansterer, Mariella Greil, Peter Kozek, and Lucie Strecker, re-explores the role of artists as seismographs to train the perception of the interconnectedness between humans and a technologically changed, geological environment at selected sites of seismic activity. "Shaken Grounds" will research the tremors felt in the ground upon which artists stand today and the significance of developing trainings in sensing "future vibrations" and tools and practices for hypersensitizing the body to cultivate geo-sensory skills by critically reflecting the artists' role as "seismographer" >>>>>>The project Throughout history, worship sites have been constructed where humans connect with the Earth's interior — volcanoes, fissures, and caves—echoing a geological time beyond individual, human lifespans. Rituals enacted at these sites transform perceptions of time, cultivating a heightened responsibility towards the future. The Oracle of Delphi stands as a renowned example, where mind-expanding gases emerged from rock seams to the surface and influenced predictions. Today, humans are extensively harnessing the Earth's interior, altering surface stress distribution through mineral extraction, drilling, injection, and geothermal power generation, even triggering earthquakes. This interdependency underscores the inseparable link between humanity and the planet's structure, revealed through shock-waves. Across cultures and epochs, artists have been declared seismographs (Riedl, 2014), capable of sensing and articulating forthcoming dynamics or shocks. Although ideas about the role of artists have changed and art has long been deprived of its special status (Luhmann, 1995), transdisciplinary artistic research in alliance with the sciences is said to be able to produce innovative solution models for the future of an ecologically, politically and economically shaken world community. In this research project, a transdisciplinary team re-explores the role of artists as seismographs to train the perceptionof the interconnectedness between humans and a technologically changed, geological environment at selected sites of seismic activity. Man-made earthquakes are a phenomenon that has only recently gained prominence, and few artists have addressed the issue. This research endeavor investigates this phenomenon through artistic research, aiming to foster a new socio-ecological consciousness. Our focus encompasses artistic performative methodologies, anthropology, geology, and body awareness through somatic-therapeutic techniques, offering avenues for addressing the human-induced shockwaves of the Anthropocene.

Nikolaus Gansterer (AT, artista, performer) è profondamente interessato alla diagrammatizzazione sperimentale di atmosfere e ambienti fragili. Dispiegando le loro strutture immanenti di collegamento, mette in discussione la soglia immaginaria tra natura e cultura, arte e filosofia. https://www.gansterer.org/

Mariella Greil (AT, dance-maker, performer) asks through her somatic and therapeutic practices how artistic strategies can support the development of future scenarios of living with the trauma created through environmental damage and actively shape rather than suppress the anxieties surrounding these global urgencies. https://mariellagreil.net

Peter Kozek (AT, artist, performer) is interested in a nuanced yet personal artistic perspective on local conditions, landscapes, their history, present, and future, as well as their economic and social nature. Regions become transfer spaces between myths, realities, and fictional and constructed worlds. https://www.peterkozek.com/, http://kozek-hoerlonski.com/

Lucie Strecker (AT/DE, artist, performer) puts non-human entities at the centre of installations and life art. She considers microperformativity as a way to question human levels of perception (both spatial and temporal), emphasizing biological and technological micro-agencies. http://luciestrecker.com/

Victor Jaschke (AT, filmmaker, interactor) approaches people as animals, with a provoked basic trust in our essentiality. After four decades, he is still amazed by the concentrated images that enter the quiet chamber of his camera: what there is to see when you look back, free from expectations of interaction! A camera makes love easy. https://www.victorja.com