Project by Rainer Prohaska, part of the series ‘Toy-Kit-Architectures’

Often, at new media arts events, terms such as “interface”, “media” and “networking” are used in a purely technical, even device-centric sense. In the initial exploratory talks on “transistor”, we decided to use those terms in a wider sense and to go off the beaten tracks. To understand the city as relational and social interface with all its opportunities and problems, as a ‘complex and larger whole’ should be exemplary not only for the project “transistor”, but should be understood as prototype for a future and more encompassing artistic and medial praxis.

“Toy-Kit-Architectures” are temporary sculptures built with modular systems. Often, those modules consist of parts from concrete shuttering (h-20 carriers) or mass-produced goods, such as inflatable objects. Those elements are modeled to “temporary sculptures” using lashing strips. The main characteristic of the sculptures is their flexibility, which allows to construct site-specific configurations on-the-fly and to ensure an architectural connection to buildings, areas and objects in public space nearby.

“Transistor” will be built from end of August 2011 at the Wienflussmündung (at the mouth of the river Danube) under the Radetzky bridge (Radetzkybrücke). After a three weeks building process, the sculpture will be exhibited for one month, before the area will be restored again to its original setting.

The final form and aesthetics of the sculpture represents an experiment itself, since the artist is not the designer: Rainer Prohaska is the executing agent for a vast number of municipal authorities, funding bodies and a structural engineering office. In the end, the sculpture is formed and designed by flood water protection and legal representatives, preservationists, property owners, navigators, structural engineers and funding bodies without them knowing it.