Projekt | Szenarien | Veranstaltungen | Förderer | Information | 2. Ebene | Archiv | english
Projekt | Szenarien | Veranstaltungen | Förderer | Information | 2. Ebene | Archiv | english
Michael Zinganel
FORTRESS or UNDERGROUND - Crime as Producive Force of Urban Life
Lecture Performance
Thursday, April 16, 8 p. m.
Already over 150 years ago, Karl Marx pointed to the productive force of ‚the criminal‘ regarding the development and growth of capitalist society. The fear of ‚crime‘ displays itself in aesthetic creations just as much as in preventive measures in the realms of construction, architecture and urban development. That way the alleged crime – real or imagined – opens up a considerable market and, if some day it should dissapear, the profiteers of fear would certainly have to reinvent it.
The subject which is well grounded in discourses of control and critique of capitalism will soon be convinced of this line of argumentation. Yet from a perspective of cultural studies it seems justified to bring additional motives and other kinds of capital into play. And to indicate that the condition of threat and its symbolic representation are perceived in very diverse manners in different social milieus and stages of life. Occasionally, signs of danger are appropriated and turned outward to align oneself to deviant subcultures in the ‚urban jungle‘.
In his lecture-performance Michael Zinganel resumes his occupation with the field opened up in his book „Real Crime – Architektur, Stadt und Verbrechen“ (Vienna 2003). Sound recordings taken from radio interviews mirror his role as an expert in the media and become the subject of a reflective self-commentary.
Michael Zinganel works as cultural scientist, architecture theorist, visual artist and curator in Graz and Vienna. Exhibitions, projects and publications on mythologies of design and the architecture of everyday life, „the productive force of crime“ and „tourism as driving force of transnational culture transfer“. Teaches at the Faculty of Architecture at Graz University of technology. Until April 26 artistic works (together with Michael Hieslmair) are shown at NGBK and Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien as part of the exhibition Islands+Ghettos.
Further information at: http://www.zinganel.mur.at
Lecture will be held in German language.