Retropia

→ Video of Retropia. An exhibition at the Volkskundemuseum Vienna about the idealized depiction of the countryside via images.

Idealized landscapes

The longing for a life on the countryside is shaped by images of idealized landscapes. Which images get curated by generations to write the history of the countryside? Based on the photo collection of the Volkskundemuseum Wien, the exhibition shows results of the research projects "Stadt-Land-Kind" and "Stadt-Land-Bild" of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in cooperation with the Laboratory for Empirical Image Science of the University of Vienna, the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, the Werkraum Bregenzerwald and the Volkskundemuseum Vienna.

Image conversations

We also accompanied one of the numerous workshops with our camera. In these workshops, visitors were able to engage in so called "image conversations" and share their impressions and interpretations of the various images with other participants.

Citizen Scientists

One of the research questions was: How do children and young people look at certain places? Which location or landscape do they choose to capture in a photograph? In photo-expeditions, the young Citizen Scientists conducted active-reflective research, creating new images of the countryside along the way. The resulting postcard exhibition was documented by us with special attention.

Image relations

A database of images could be tagged by visitors of the exhibition. Two large interactive walls then presented the image relations diagrammatically. As these walls formed the visual and contextual focal point of the exhibition, we paid special attention to the walls and played through all the possible interaction methods.

Credits

The video was created in collaboration with Stella Butz. The exhibiton was part of the research projects "Stadt-Land-Kind" and "Stadt-Land-Bild" from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in cooperation with the Laboratory for Empirical Image Science of the University of Vienna, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, the Werkraum Bregenzerwald and the Volkskundemuseum Vienna.. The exhibition was designed by dform.