Invitation to the Rigorosum of Waltraud P. Indrist

The Examination Panel is made up of: Univ.-Prof. Ines Weizman Ph.D (chair), Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Ing. Angelika Schnell (first supervisor), and Assoc.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Daniel Gethmann (second appraiser, University of Technology Graz).

Abstract

In the work of the architect Hans Scharoun (1893–1972), who is considered a modernist, there is a specific type of photography that has not yet been recognised by scholars. It is characterised by the fact that it positions the individual photographed, whose identity I was able to reveal for the first time, just as centrally in the pictorial space as the architecture itself. But what role does the human being play within this spatial concept? Hence, one of the central theses developed from this is that this medium has a communicative intention, which is why I refer to it as “performative architectural photography”.

Furthermore, not only can I date the first appearance of this photography to the summer of 1934, but at the same time a significant change in Scharoun’s architecture can be observed. With my dissertation, I will therefore show that performative architectural photography can be used as a pivotal means of knowledge to analyse and re-evaluate his transformed socio-spatial understanding in the years since the National Socialists came to power, 1933, until 1939. Alongside the established methods of analysing the understanding of space, I have developed a specific method (design-by-research) to generate new questions and findings: the “phenomenological-photographic re-enactment”.

The aim of the work is eventually to examine the question of how the architect Scharoun dealt with the social-political caesura after the National Socialists came to power. This reveals a variety of alternative strategies that have hardly been investigated to date, ranging from manoeuvring through and exploring possibilities within the Nazi regime to more active forms of distancing oneself.

Short biography

Waltraud P. Indrist is currently a research associate at the Institute for Art and Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and holds a university assistant position (cf. Assistant Professor) at the Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies, Graz University of Technology (TU Graz).

Together with Angelika Schnell (PI), Ingrid Holzschuh, Monika Platzer and Susanne Rick, Waltraud Indrist got granted the stand-alone project “Ambivalences of Modernity. The Architect and City Planner Roland Rainer between Dictatorship and Democracy” (P34938) by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Recent (design-based) research at the TU Graz has been published together with her colleague Daniel Gethmann. The publication Topographie des Widerstands presents the output of a design and research studio on resistance against the Nazi regime in Styria, whereas Pasubio: Friedens-schauplatz – Theatre of Peace approaches architectural design as a critical instrument of examining a concrete theatre of war.

Since Indrist got granted the Marietta Blau Scholarship of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy in 2016 she did archive studies at the Academy of Arts Berlin and artistic (performative) research in single houses of architect Hans Scharoun.

Indrist contributed excerpts of her PhD research in publications such as Entwerfen Erforschen – Der ‘performative turn’ im Architekturstudium, 2016 together with Angelika Schnell and Eva Sommeregger and online at wissenderkuenste.de, a platform of the Universität der Künste Berlin. She has been writing for architectural magazines such as ARCH+, stadtaspekte, Detail, Modulør.

The rigorosum will be in German and will take place hybrid –  in room 211a at the Academy at Schillerplatz and online via Zoom.

Zoom Meeting: https://akbild-ac-at.zoom.us/j/65421385353
Zoom-Meeting-ID: 654 2138 5353We are looking forward to welcoming you.

We are looking forward to welcoming you.