Research Project ACONTRA
Project team: Birgit Haberpeuntner (tfm, University of Vienna), Elias Berner (IMI, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), Stefan Benedik (House of Austrian History); Julia Jaklin (IMI, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna)
Term: 01.10.2022–30.09.2024
Funding body: ÖAW – Austrian Academy of Sciences (Call: GO DIGITAL! 3.0)
Cooperation with: University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, House of Austrian History; ORF, DokuFunk Archive, Österreichische Mediathek
In a collaborative project, researchers and curators from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the University of Vienna and the Haus der Geschichte Österreich examine the role of Austrian radio in the formation of a national consciousness after WWII. In particular, it examines how imaginations and projections of the country’s past and future are affectively mediated on an auditory level, and the extent to which the medium contributes to the shaping of such a new national temporality. Important aspects to focus on, in this respect, are the difficult relation with a tabooed but ever present Nazi past, as well as Austria’s positioning as “belonging to the west” in the looming cold war.
In close cooperation between researchers and curators, the results of our analysis, as well as select sources, will be presented to a broad public at the Haus der Geschichte Österreich. A physical exhibition will be installed at the Almá Rose-Plateau in the Neue Burg imperial palace at Vienna’s Heldenplatz square, and a digital exhibition will go online towards the end of 2023, in time for the anniversary celebrations of 100 Years of Radio in Austria.
Link: hdgoe.at/acontra_en