Zombies have come to Vienna. They are living among us. You might be a zombie, and not even know it!

On November 10th, our containment team (consisting of monochrom and eatbrains) will turn on the Zombie Attractor Device (ZAD), and all of the Zombies in Vienna will be paraded up Mariahilfer Strasse (and down Gumpendorfer Strasse) to a special location where they can be disposed of safely.

While the ZAD is functioning zombies will only be able to smell gaffer tape. If you have a cross of gaffer tape on your chest, the zombies will attack you, shred your clothes, and turn you into one of them. Otherwise they are harmless.

This is a free public event, and everyone is invited to join.
The zombie march begins at 15h, so if you want to come in regular clothes and be a “victim”, you can just meet us anywhere on the route at that time. If you want to have professional makeup, meet at monochrom’s office in Museumsquartier between 12h and 14h. Martin Nechvatal and Bre Pettis (of Make Magazine) will be the FX specialists.

We will release the exact route of the zombie brood on our website three days before the event (so that you can avoid the zombies, of course).

More information will be found here and of course you should join the mailing list to be warned of future zombie activity.

Good luck everyone, may we all live to see another day!

So it’s not without a bit of alarm that I note the fact that a man tried to enter the US Embassy carrying a backpack bomb. While I’ve never been there, I know people who must go there often, so I’m glad this guy was almost as inept as the last round of idiot London bombers who burned themselves up.

Unfortunately, the era we live in will see this type of thing all over the world for years to come — and I fear it will be increasingly random and more difficult to prevent. Remember the bombs on the train in Germany that didn’t go off? The series of inept bombings in London the came after the massacres carried out on the public transit all could have been horrific.

Sure, this guy tried to attack the Americans. It’s the oldest trick in the Islamist playbook and, from what I’ve read, this guy almost sounds like a “lone wolf” type — a loony fucker who had “had enough”. But the fact is that Austria has been announced as a target more than once, so it’s likely just a matter of time now before *something* happens. And the real shame of it all is that Austria is such an open, trusting and safe-feeling place.

I am not trying to stir up unnecessary fear for my Austrian friends because, quite frankly, the chances are low you’ll get killed and, as the survivor of a previous terrorist attack (the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing, for which I was mere meters away from the bomb), I have been struggling with this fear since well before 9/11. Here’s the things: you’ll manage. Have a good life, and lets all try to think hard about how to get out of this mess.

More than two years ago when I used to attend the German language class, my teacher told us the sensitive Viennese architect who masterminded the construction of the State Opera.

“Never criticise a talented Viennese…” She told us.

This was the time I learned of Eduard van der Nuell and his master August Sicard von Sicardsburg and the fate of State Opera, which was known then as Hofoper.

Van der Nuell was famous for his “exceptional ornamental and decorative talent.” Together with Sicardsburg, “They advocated an internationally open-minded and independent concept of the total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk) without restrictions of style or norms, a very twentieth-century approach to architecture.” (Source)

Because of different styles associated in constructing the State Opera building, instead of praises what they heaped was a strong opposition from the public. They accused the team of Van der Nuell and Sicardsburg of having no style insinuating that they didn’t really invent anything new.

Although the building of State Opera also brought them critical acclaim from abroad, the last straw was Franz Josef’s dislike towards the building. It was rumoured that the emperor never favoured the architecture and even complained that it was an eyesore. Van der Nuell, who couldn’t handle the amount of flak he received especially from the Austrian emperor, committed suicide by hanging himself.

The emperor was so shocked after he heard the news of the ill-fated architect. From then on every time he wasn’t pleased with the new trends in art he was caught saying the cliched yet diplomatic phrase “Es war sehr schoen, es hat mich sehr gefreut ” to assure/please the artists.

A few months after Van der Nuell’s death, Sicardsburg died of a heart attack.

#1 The myth of the bloody street: Blutgasse

One of the first legends I was told upon arriving in Vienna was a pleasantly terrifying tale of Templars.

As a teenager fascinated by chaos magick, obsucre history, and anything vaguely reminiscent of something Robert Anton Wilson might like, it was the most perfect possible introduction to the city.

In the first district, just behind Stephansplatz there is a short street running between Singerstrasse and the Domgasse. Mozart once lived around the corner. The houses here are some of the oldest in Vienna, with some of the fundaments dating back to the 12th century. History isn’t some abstract concept, it’s a physical part of daily life.

The legend of Blutgasse goes back to the beginning of the 14th century. The Knights Templar, whose influence, wealth, and tax free status had become a thorn in the side of Royals indebted to them, were under attack. King Philip IV of France had been pressuring the church to take action against the Templars. On Friday the thirteenth of October, 1307, he finally made a move against the group, arresting and torturing Templars in France until they confessed to various blasphemies.

According to the Legend, the Knights had founded a secret Refugium in the Fähnrichshof in Vienna. When the Refugium was stormed in 1312, the street now known as Blutgasse was turned red with the blood of the Knights.

Err, should we feel alarmed now? Should we take cover?

A supposed to be warning coming from an Islamist group via Globale Islamische Medien Front (GIMF) is threatening the governments of Austria and Germany for representing “an important support for Bush and his gang.”

Although reading the warning issued, you could say that these guys are reading the current events in Austria, especially the way they specifically pointed out the policies set down by the new government. It mentioned the socialist party’s broken promises: the planned deployement of troops, ability to maintain Austria’s neutrality and most of all, the botched abolition of university fees.

Populist idealogy, but hey, if it works?

It also talked about Austria’s political stability.

Austria was and is still, one of the safest countries in the whole world. Its people does not know correct threat and its economics is rosy, because mainly the winter and summer tourism on, which bring Austria annually much money, relies.

… and the Austrian soldiers’ proximity to Mujahidin.

They are closer to them as others (soldiers). And the Mujahidin prepares at present forwards for the spring attack, because of which the whole world trembles, before it took place. Fast and take off your soldiers decide, because this is not your war and this war can it also bear. This is a war between the Mujahidin and America and everyone, which places itself into its rows.

Lastly, it spoke of impending terroristic attact if the current coalition government will be like the the social democrats in Spain, “when they deceived their people, by withdrawing their soldiers from the Iraq, but sent 600 others to Afghanistan.”

So, should we be afraid now regardless of the Interior Ministry’s calling of the video “relatively abstract”? Although the ministry has been on alert ever since Mohammed caricatures came out in May 2006.
Hmmm…

(Thanks to Altavista because I am lazy)

For a couple of days now this particular Pissoir has been the talk of the town sending the women of People’s party, Greens and the Socialists demanding for the woman’s mouth-shaped urinals’ total removal. The head of the Inner District Ursula Stenzel already gave an official complaint that these particular urinals are a public disturbance. And according to Sonja Wehsely, the pissoirs are “disgusting and tasteless.” Monika Vana, the Stadträtin of the Greens, explained that they are “sexist.”

Because of the pressure, the owner has promised that they are gonna dismantle them in 14 days. As a woman, I find them amusing and don’t strike as offending. I mean, I really don’t see the point of this aggression and conflict. The sight of it doesn’t make me vomit nor attack the one who sculpted the “mouths. Yes, yes, the men, and women too, might have many ideas of whatever games they could think of in bed, and imagining an open mouth of a woman might be one of them. But to complain only now and suddenly be offended by it is just, well, questionable of their intentions.

Why don’t they just build a female counterpart of these toilets? Like, you know, loos complete with men-shaped mouths complete with beard or moustache? It would be just fair.

I am pretty sure there are much more pressing issues in Vienna than the urinals close to State Opera. Politicians, whatever gender they have, are almost always the same.

pic courtesy of Kurier

I think I’m one of millions blogging about Erwin Wurm’s new sculpture… but why not?

The artist told the press that he actively criticizes “urban sprawl”.

(Location: MUMOK, Museum Of Modern Art, Vienna)

Tattooed men and women, rejoice! The Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum) is inviting you. Its special exhibition “Lebensspuren Hautnah: The Cultural History of Tattooing” has been prolonged until the 28th this month. That means you just have to show (off) your tattoo and voila you only have to pay 6 euros instead of the usual 8.

Though I love to visit its more expensive and more popular sister museum which is the History of Arts, the Naturhistorisches is often snubbed by the visitors. There are a lot of interesting stuff one can see inside the majestic halls. One of them is mentioned above.

And to make people more aware of this eight-legged creature called Dornfinger, or Yellow Sack Spider (Cheiracanthium punctorium) in English, which has become sensational ever since reports of attack have been documented last week, is staging two nights discussing the spiders you can find in Austria. That is to combat arachnophobia and stop people from panicking.

(courtesy of Natur Lexikon)

“Not even wrong” reports about John Horgan and a project he’s funding in Vienna.

Science writer John Horgan has just written a piece about the Templeton Foundation that is causing a bit of a ruckus. It first appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and is also posted a the Edge web-site, where perhaps some further discussion of it will appear.

Horgan participated in a program held at Cambridge as a Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science and Religion, an all-expenses paid gig that came with an additional $15,000 that made it hard to turn down. He had very mixed feelings about the experience, and explains these in detail.

The financial scale on which Templeton operates is unparalleled in this area. As in Horgan’s case, the people they invite to participate in their programs are often offered a lot more money than usual for this kind of thing. The foundation has an endowment of $1.1 billion, and is funding more than 300 projects at the rate of $60 million/year, a rate they intend to double. By comparison, the total NSF budget for supporting theoretical physics is also about $60 million/year. The sheer number and diversity of organizations using Templeton money to promote bringing science and religion together is staggering. I keep finding new ones at various places around the web, and also have yet to run into any organization trying to bring religion into science that isn’t getting Templeton funding.

One new Templeton-funded project is called Foundational Questions in Physics and Cosmology, and has a very illustrious advisory board of physicists. It has just finished accepting proposals for a first round of grants to total $2 million, and has received a 172 proposals, totalling $23 million, from top institutions including Caltech, Harvard, MIT, Princeton and The Institute for Advanced Studies, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Oxford, and Cambridge. Sean Carroll (who turned down Templeton money since he disagrees with what they are trying to promote) has a posting about this, including a guest blog entry and discussion with Anthony Aguirre, who is one of the physicists running the project.

The ethical questions involved in the question of whether to accept money from a source one is not completely happy with are not at all straight-forward. One can sensibly argue that there is nothing wrong with taking money from someone whose goals one disagrees with, as long as they let you do what you want with it, and one isn’t forced to further such goals. On the other hand, publicly associating oneself with an institution to some extent lends ones credibility and prestige to the institution and inherently furthers their goals. It’s also true that money talks, and a large amount of money talks loudly. Many scientists in recent years have probably ended up doing one thing or another that they wouldn’t otherwise have bothered to get involved in because Templeton money made it rather attractive.

There seem to me to be several different things about Templeton to be wary of. One is that the foundation’s leader, Sir John Templeton, is in the process of turning over control of the organization to his son, John Jr., who has a much more politically right-wing, evangelical Christian, point of view than his father. Even if one has no problems with what the foundation has done in the past (e.g., it has not supported creationism), this doesn’t mean it won’t change what it does in the future.

I personally happen to think that bringing religion into physics is inherently a bad idea. Whatever one’s view of religion is, it is inherently a quite different thing than science, and at a time when standards of what is science and what isn’t are under attack, a blurring of the distinction between science and religion may be very dangerous. Much of what Templeton supports seems to me rather silly, but not much of a threat to anything important. For example they are funding a project in Vienna that will bring together physicists, philosophers and theologians to study the foundations of quantum physics. I don’t believe the theologians will be much help here, but they’re not likely to cause much harm. On the other hand, the large amount of Templeton funding promoting symposia devoted mostly to pseudo-science like this one on the Multiverse and String Theory is much more worrying.

It took three days to make it official, but the kind yet a little slow people of Netznetz finally succeeded. Infrastructure will be built, cool new locations will see the light of day, whole communities will get a second living room, €50.000 will be spent.

In the beginning, one could observe heated discussions and nervous faces, but the more people joined our waiting, the more civilised everyone seemed to be. I’m sure the hired security guard knows how to deal with boredom though.

The weakest part of the event was also the most interesting one: the presentations. Most presenters are obviously not professional speakers, some didn’t even show up, others weren’t given the material they should’ve been used. I think everyone has learned from this and will try to do it better in 6 monts.

The crowd was seemingly getting bored/nervous during the last hour, but gladly most got woken up a bit by Esel, who started a wonderful attack on several projects. He questioned their relevance as backbone projects, who are in his opinion projects that should provide infrastructure for more than just the community one is already part of. I think that’s an important detail the Netznetz community should focus next time.

The voting seemed to work fine, except for the humiliating fact that the presenters sat there and begged for the little coloured papers that would decide how much money they will get. I think boxes would make that a little easier and less frustrating. Contrary to the presenting part here, the voting one was quite nice: you could exchange your ballots and give more projects you were fond of your vote.

But let’s get to the results.

€9.015,87 go to:

• Artist in Residence: For a tighter international social network, providing basic human and artistic needs for artists from god knows where.
• Gustav Böhms Gatschhaus: as Johannes Grenzfurthner put it, a permanent CCC hacker camp.
• Roböxotica: The one and only festival for cocktail robotics.
• Cuisine Digitale: A place where producers and interested people in media, art, architecture and music meet regularly. Events, Screenings, Talks, Workshops and Exhibitions take place [there].

€8.804,23 to:

• einreich.plan: A new hybrid club/café by some of the people that were involved at the architecture project add-on.
• Project Speis: Event/workshop/party/screening/gaming/surfing space. All free! Except for the beer.
• CMS-Server: a CMS server for anyone interested? Wasn’t so clear.
• Transforming Freedom: Community driven audio/video “indexing” of material relevant for digital cultures. A collection of statements/interviews/talks from known and lesser known netculture key figures.

They certainly will be happy about €7.449,74:

• Happy Lab: The Viennese version of MIT’s FabLab.

€8.253,97 will be given to:

• Malmoe/fiber/Context XXI: Covering the digital needs of the printmedia.
• X-purple: The basics for the sonance artistic network which forms a flexible structure for the integration of contemporary art, culture and science-”producers”.
• machfeld studio: … an interdisciplinary art- and medialab founded in april 2004 [...] working in the different fields of net-, streaming- video- and interactive-art. [They] explore the borderland between new and old media.

The highest score will get them €10.000,00:

• Metalab: The Metalab is an open centre for meta-disciplinary magicians and technically creative enthusiasts. The Viennese version of C-Base.

And finally, there are €6.476,19 for:

• q/spot reloaded: The wonderful and widly popular free hotspot at the MQW gets siblings in more green environments.
• d.construction.site: Based at the EKH, the d.construction.site sees itself as place, for communication and exchange of information, apart established media- and information-channels. The

One word: Exciting! They’ve done it. Congratulations to everyone. It was a really really cool experience and I wish everyone involved all the best.