Invitation to the Defense of Anamarija Batista

The Examination Panel is made up of: Doris Guth (chair), Diedrich Diederichsen (supervisor), and Daniel Gethmann (external appraiser, TU Graz).

Abstract

As an ephemeral event, sound is easier to understand as a process, as a progression, than as a self-contained unit. It is indexical and more difficult to translate into discrete symbols than the iconic world of the image. The question arises as to whether this is due to a multitude of gradual gradations of the sonic, which occur or alternate in short time intervals, as well as the multitude of sonic overlaps, or whether the lack of engagement and thus the lack of practice with auditory space in the field of design is the reason for this.

Architectural designs often emphasise the idea of function, so that actions that take place in the space are primarily thought of in terms of a purpose-oriented use of the space. This problem is currently exacerbated because the intensive commercial utilisation of spaces is being promoted.

But what would it be like if architects considered themselves to be instrument designers?

The affirmation of the new role within planning would subsequently require an expanded aesthetic and material organisation of form in architectural thinking and demand new ideas and methodological concepts and approaches. For a form or a material would also have to be selected and evaluated according to the criteria of its acoustic dimension. The question of expanding the visually focused concept of space and its usage practices to include other sensory dimensions, such as the acoustic dimension, means questioning visually dominated approaches and searching for forms that enable the sketching of sound. But it also means that the idea of the body entering the space and acting in the space, whether collectively or individually, needs to be included in the planning as an imaginative aspect of architectural and urban space. The search for overlaps, boundaries and unfolding is also to be understood as a search for sound variations, intensities and atmospheres.

Short biography

Anamarija Batista is an interdisciplinary researcher and curator working at the intersection of art, architecture, and economics. After studying economics, she spent five years conducting macroeconomic analyses in the healthcare sector. Batista also completed studies in art history and a program in German as a foreign language at the University of Vienna.

As a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Art Theory and Cultural Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, she researched and developed methods in artistic and academic practice as part of the project “Collective Utopias of Post-War Modernism: The Adriatic Coast as a Leisure and Defense Paradise,” reflecting on the socialist perspective on leisure. She gained further research experience in projects such as “Obsolete City,” “Artist as Urban Planner,” and “Work & Coercion.”

In addition to her extensive research work, she has substantial experience in curatorial and artistically-scientific practice. She curated numerous exhibitions, including “Free Time / Die freie Zeit” (Kunstraum Innsbruck, 2024), “The Distance View” (Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2023), “Productive Work – What Is It Supposed to Be?” (frei_raum, Museumsquartier, 2018), “Bosch & Hofbauer” (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Art Gallery, 2018), “The Munchhausen Effect – Micro-utopias on Time in the Time of Having No Time” (Galerie 5020, 2017), and “Crisis as Ideology?” (Kunstraum Niederösterreich, 2016).

The thesis defense will be held in German and at the Academy at Schillerplatz in room M13a.

We are looking forward to welcoming you.