ONB Labs Art Program 2022-2023

The ONB Labs Art Program was ONB’s third and most extensive artistic experiment for the ODL project. We invited four art students to engage creatively with our digital collections.

Our third artistic experiment greatly benefited from the lessons learned in the first two programs and from feedback and exchange with project partners, the National Library of Estonia and the National Library of the Netherlands. While the first two programs had an international focus and targeted artists at different experience levels, the third program addressed students from Austrian art universities (University of Applied Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and the University of Art and Design Linz) as its audience. For the artistic supervision of the program and the jury, we were able to enlist Irene Posch and Manuela Naveau, both professors at the University of Art and Design Linz.

Exploring Digital Collections

In consultation with Irene and Manuela, we opened four digital collections of historical holdings for artistic exploration, connecting them to relevant contemporary topics. These collections include:

• Wiener Zeitung Newspaper: Approximately 34,000 editions spanning 1703 to 1882, which had previously proven fruitful during the web residency.
• Digitized Postcards: Around 75,000 postcards from the late 19th century to the 1940s. They were selected for their geographical approach facilitated by the AKON project’s user-friendly interface.
• Botanical Illustrations: A visually appealing collection of approximately 1,800 digitized watercolors by court botanists of emperor Franz II./I., Mathias Schmutzer, and Johann Jebmayer, sourced from the ÖNB’s image archive.
• Travel Reports: English, French, and German reports from 1501 to 1850, compiled into a bibliographic corpus in research projects such as “Travelogues — Perceptions of the Other” and “Ottoman Nature in Travelogues” (ONiT). Many reports include illustrations and maps.

These collections are available as images, with digitized postcards and botanical illustrations accessible in their visual form. The newspaper editions and travel reports were offered as both images and searchable full texts.

From Kick-off to Mid-Term Checkpoint

At the beginning of the ONB Labs Art Program, we organized a kick-off workshop where the students were provided with information about the history and structure of the collections and introduced to the materials. Experts from the collections and a representative from the Wiener Zeitung familiarized the students with the history of the selected holdings and presented original items. Even though the students in the Art Program exclusively work with digital holdings, knowledge about the materiality of physical holdings can sometimes be indispensable for artistic work.

In January 2023, we organized a mid-term workshop at the University of Arts Linz to gather feedback and assess the progress of the works. This workshop served as an essential checkpoint in the creative journey, providing an opportunity for participants to share their insights and receive guidance.

The Final Phase

After the deadline for completing the artworks at the end of February 2023, we entered the crucial phase of integrating them into the ONB Labs Artspace, working closely with the artists to ensure that their works fit the Artspace environment while maintaining their original essence. Through ongoing collaboration and consideration of technical and aesthetic aspects, we decided on the visual presentation and facilitated interactivity, resulting in an immersive amalgamation of artistic expression within the digital realm.

Celebrating the ONB Labs Art Program Finissage

The final results were launched in the Artspace on May 8, 2023 and presented at the ONB Labs Art Program Finissage, an event we held at the Museum of Literature in Vienna. The whole process of planning and designing the event was done in close collaboration with the artists and the supervisor Manuela Naveau. We agreed on having a kind of exploratory space for the artworks in one room while having space for discussion and exchange in the entrance hall of the Literature Museum. A discussion forum was opened in the second room. We invited visitors to stroll between the two rooms. Seated on a sofa, the ONB Labs team members Sophie Hammer and Martin Krickl invited the artists and the supervisor Manuela Naveau to share their perspectives on the work with the collections.

Artworks

Each artist brings their unique perspective, employing diverse techniques and media to explore themes ranging from sound and image connections to memory, hyperconnectivity, and the reimagining of narratives.

Lisa Puchner, a multidisciplinary artist, explores the interplay between sound and image in her artistic practice. For her work in the ONB Labs Art Program, she used postcards from the AKON archive as a source. In her artwork titled “Horizon Noise” Puchner uses the symbolic significance of the horizon on postcards to set the tone for her exploration. By abstracting and translating these views, Puchner prompts the audience to listen closely to the differences in melodies between the various horizons, enabling a new perspective on the relationship between sound, imagery, and our understanding of place.

Katharina Birkmann, an artist focused on cross-disciplinary practices, explores memory and spatial organization in her work. As part of the ONB Labs Art Program, she delves into various collections and the physical archive space itself to create her thought-provoking piece titled “Flower City Venice or The Electric City. Exterritorial.” Birkmann examines the notion of memory tied to specific places and highlights the fictional and fantastic nature concealed within archival buildings. Her exploration of virtual archives aims to reanimate hybrid impressions of space, time, memory, and knowledge.

Miguel Rangil, an artist from Spain, explores the hybrid nature of humanity and the interplay between technology and nature. In the ONB Labs Art Program, he investigates the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on our perception, understanding, and interactions. Rangil uses AI tools and draws inspiration from historical archives to uncover connections and patterns that transcend time. Through his project “Hyperconnected Past” he sheds light on the essence of images and their role in shaping our understanding of the past, offering new perspectives on our hyperconnected world.

Valentina Rodríguez Morales, an artist from Colombia, reinterprets archival images to establish a dialogue between the present and the past. In her project “Echoes of Experience” she creates a digital open letter using texts from the Travelogues and AKON archives. Drawing from her personal connection to the archive and her experiences as a migrant, Rodríguez Morales explores unconventional narratives and the sensations of foreignness and exoticism. Visitors to the project engage in an exercise of empathy, reflecting on their own sense of place and belonging while discovering connections to foreign landscapes depicted within the archive.

To see, explore and experience the works go to https://labs.onb.ac.at/artspace/.

ONB Labs are dedicated to experimentation and making its collections accessible for creative use. For previous examples of experiments working with the ONB Labs data see: labs.onb.ac.at. The Art Program is part of the international research project “Open Digital Libraries for Creative Use (ODL).” The project is collaboration between the Austrian National Library, the National Library of the Netherlands and the National Library of Estonia. The project aims at supporting creative and scientific reuse of open digital library collections. For further information on the project and reports from art programs undertaken please visit the project website. ODL is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.