THEATRE
Stadt der Temperamente
for MAK Wien and wien 3420
A smart building in Wien Aspern accomodates four very different characters - conflict inevitable. Scenes from a smart neighbourhood, in a play written for Vienna Biennale 2019.
with Mia Meus
︎ Current Exhibition
showroom 3420 aspern
Stadt der Temperamente
for MAK Wien and wien 3420A smart building in Wien Aspern accomodates four very different characters - conflict inevitable. Scenes from a smart neighbourhood, in a play written for Vienna Biennale 2019.
with Mia Meus
︎ Current Exhibition
showroom 3420 aspern
"Everything could be oh so simple if people were to behave a bit more like I expect them to. But this house is just unpredictable..." Mrs. Volt, private power plant owner, prioritises prognosis over people and loves graphs and figures. She’s one of four characters of “Stadt der Temperamente”.
Building a new city part out of nowhere is a huge chance – to think about the ways inhabitants interact with their city and each other, to critically reflect on the effects new technology has on the quality of living, and to observe how people use, misuse and refuse smart home systems. In order to make the extensive research conducted by ASCR in Aspern publically accessible to a broader audience, we decided to wrap it in a story – a story that everybody could relate to, because we’ve all been through neighbourly troubles and have maybe even had a little crush on the new tenant on floor 1.
Loosely based on Nestroy's farce "Das Haus der Temperamente", in which four families with different temperaments inhabit an apartment building, "Stadt der Temperamente" (City of Temperaments) tells the story of four inhabitants of a smart building in aspern Seestadt, who get caught up in conflicts due to their different habits and expectations about what it means to live “smart”. In four colours and on four floors, the designers play with the absurd, they charge artificial intelligence with passion, driving it to extremes and thus into the chaos of tomorrow’s smart togetherness. The play was performed on July 5 and 6 at the Flederhaus in Vienna Aspern, Seestadt, as part of the MAK Biennale 2019.