OPEN CALL: Papers For Meta.space-Visions of Space from the Middle Ages to the Digital Age

The people with the most options in the world, specifically Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, either want to be off the planet or they want to create a different universe on this planet.“ —James D. Walsh, New York Magazine

What is currently in vogue as an escape from reality has spurred and inspired artists for centuries: the creation and design of world visions and the artistic examination of social, real and imaginary spaces has repeatedly anticipated and sustainably influenced social developments. And so current trends appear dusty and not nearly as revolutionary as they like to sell.

Just as the modern visions of space travel currently cause little euphoria in view of the pioneering achievements in the 1960s, Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse fantasy is neither new in its aesthetics nor in its draft of a social idea and, for understandable reasons, is perceived more as a threat than as a redemption. Concepts and ideas for the metaverse also emerged as utopian-dystopian answers to the escapism of the mutually stimulating conglomerate of enthusiasm for science, technological progress and artistic creation. And while human salvation is now being desperately sought in virtual worlds, artists have long since begun to spin their own visions in this new medium—as always.

With Meta.space, the OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH would like to tell the story before the story of the Metaverse and explain the cultural implications of the analog-digital collective space. For this purpose, a bilingual and interdisciplinary publication with relevant articles on this complex of topics is to be presented, which should not only reflect the current state of research, but also pursue new approaches and deal with the following focal points in more detail:

–“The Sociology of Analog Space”
–“Scientific and technological spatial revolutions”
–“Visions of space and worldviews in the visual arts”
–“The vastness of artistic creation and thought”
–“From public space to virtual space—social practice and virtual interaction”
–“An Architectural History of Virtual Space”
–“The Metaverse as an opportunity for art and culture”

Please send applications with an abstract of 350 words and a short résumé by January 31, 2022 to markus.reindl@ooelkg.at and fabian.mueller-nittel@ooelkg.at.

OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH
Museumstr. 14, 4020 Linz Austria