Peter Noever, the Director of MAKVienna and Thomas Geisler, curator at the MAKVienna have kindly invited Wollersberger& Charlesworth to donate the entire Citizen Evolution project to the MAKVienna’s permanent museum collection.

Project Vienna - Exhibition Catalogue

The Citizen Evolution project is featured in the Project Vienna exhibition catalogue and available now to buy from the MAK Design online shop.

Published for the exhibition (30.06.-12.09.2010) and with contributions from Andrea Branzi, Sam Jacob, Elizabeth of Samsonov, Christoph Thun-Hohenstein and Peter Noever,  this special edition of the Vienna Map by well known map makers, Freytag & Berndt contains the three winning projects and the 17 selected projects from the Project Viena MAK and departure competition.

Projects result in a cross-section of international and interdisciplinary submissions each subversive, socially & environmentally motivated hypothetical and design solutions and scenarios. All of them deal with the powerful cultural and urban heritage of Vienna, not a blockade, but as a driving force for new ideas.

Citizen Evolution Map and PigeonPoo RoofGarden featured in the book

The Main exhibition space - 3 scenarios, 3 objects and map of interdependence

Three wall hangings: Pharmaceutical Distribution Network, MicrobeSky and Zentralfriedhof Power Plant

Map of Interdependence wall hanging

PigeonPoo Roofgarden and The birdlovers Microbe Full Cell experiments

PigeonPoo Roofgarden Microbial Fuel Cell

Microbe Sky's StephansDome Cloud Cannon

“More than a hundred submissions came in from twenty countries; an expert jury chose three projects, which won the day because of their subversive approach and hypothetical, inspirational tendencies.”

The exhibition will be part of the “design^> new strategies” series of lecture and exhibitions – a joint initiative of MAK and departure – and sees itself as a research site of cutting-edge design developments and a laboratory of art production.

The tension between the climate change debates, the break down of the capitalist system and the lack of social cohesion between citizens is the context within which the project sits. In this alternative future, we have focused on the future implications for the city if its key systems were to be shut down and in particular how citizens might survive, adapt and be ready for change.

In our scenarios the State has given maximum authority to the Viennese by putting them under obligation to live in a self-sustaining way. It encourages them to live autonomously and rely on naturally existing systems, in particular, introducing grass root movements such as permaculture***into the public service infrastructure.

The four case studies exhibited here offer a glimpse into the many ways the Viennese citizens have evolved their way of life and created their own sustainable services and initiatives.

*Synthetic biology is the merging of biology and engineering and focuses on the design and build of novel biological functions and systems.
**Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies.
***Microbial ecology is the relationship of microorganisms with one another and with their environment. It concerns the three major domains of life — Eukaryota, Archaea, and Bacteria — as well as viruses.

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ÜBER CITIZEN EVOLUTION

Wie könnte die Stadt Wien ihre Bürger dazu animieren, nachhaltige Dienstleistungen und Initiativen zu schaffen? Könnten sich neue Sozialstrukturen und Dynamiken entwickeln, wenn den Bürgern freier Zugang zu den neuen technologischen Entwicklungen in synthetischer Biologie*, Gentechnik und mikrobischer Ökologie** ermöglicht wird?

Das Spannungsfeld zwischen der Klimadebatte, dem Niedergang des kapitalistischen Systems und dem Mangel an sozialem Zusammenhalt unter den Bürgern bildet den Kontext des Projekts. In dieser Zukunftsvision gilt unser Hauptaugenmerk den Implikationen, die ein Zusammenbrechen der Schlüsselsysteme für die Stadt hätte, und hier im Besonderen, wie die Einwohner überleben, sich anpassen und dem Wandel entsprechen können.

In unseren Szenarien verleiht der Staat den Wienern maximale Autorität, indem er sie dazu verpflichtet, autark zu leben. Sie sind gefordert, sich existierender Systeme zu bedienen und Graswurzelbewegungen wie etwa die Permakultur*** in die öffentliche Infrastruktur zu übernehmen.
Die vier hier ausgestellten Fallstudien zeigen, wie die Wiener ihre Lebensweise anpassen und spezifische nachhaltige Dienstleistungen und Initiativen entwickeln.

* Synthetische Biologie ist die Verschmelzung von Biologie und Technik und beschäftigt sich mit dem Erdenken und Errichten neuer biologischer Funktionen und Systeme.
** Mikrobische Ökologie ist die Beziehung von Mikroorganismen untereinander und mit ihrer Umwelt. Sie betrifft die drei wichtigsten Bereiche des Lebens – Eukaryoten, Archaeen und Bakterien – sowie Viren.
*** Permakultur bezeichnet das Gestalten von menschlichen Siedlungen und landwirtschaftlichen Systemen, die natürliche Ökosysteme nachahmen.

“The year 2010 saw the first installment of the ideas competition “Project Vienna – A Design Strategy. How to React to a City?”. This competition was initiated by the MAK in cooperation with departure, the creative agency of the City of Vienna, and it took place as part of the joint MAK and departure program “design> new strategies.” On 22 April 2010, the jury selected 20 projects from a total of 101 submissions from 20 countries, and from these finalists they chose the three winners. The submissions of the winning architects Klaus Stattmann, Gregor Hoffelner and Sebastian Schmid, as well as by the designers Marei Wollersberger and Jessica Charlesworth, will form the focal point of the exhibition, which is to open on Tuesday, 29 June 2010 at the MAK DESIGN SPACE. This exhibition will be accompanied by a publication documenting all 20 selected projects with contributing texts from Andrea Branzi…”

via Domus Architecture

This map introduces Citizen Evolution and how humans are adapting the way they live and interact with each other and with the surrounding flora and fauna.

“Interdependence” describes the dynamic interconnectedness and the reliance on one another socially, economically, environmentally and politically, required in this alternative future.

The map highlights the changing role of the citizens of Vienna as they participate in designing, producing and delivering new service initiatives that mimic the relationships found in natural ecologies. These citizens have become self-sufficient citizen-designers, citizen-producers, citizen-scientists and citizen-pharmaceutical farmers.

Case Study 4_PigeonPoo Roofgarden

A  biochemist birdlover of Vienna experiments with his flock to generate fuel for his home. He adapts the roof of his art nouveau house to plant seedbombs and attract pigeons to perch and feed. Over a period of time as they deposit their waste, the pigeon poo is scraped and washed off the roof. Gradually the slurry is infused into the extracellular biomatrix and combined within the anode of a microbial fuel cell.

(A microbial fuel cell is a device that converts chemical energy to electrical energy by the catalytic reaction of microorganisms. A typical microbial fuel cell consists of anode and cathode compartments separated by a cation (positively charged ion) specific membrane.)

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Taubenkot-Dachgarten
Ein Vogelfreund mit Kenntnissen der Biochemie experimentiert mit einem Taubenschwarm, um Energie für seine Behausung zu generieren. Er bepflanzt das Dach seines Jugendstil-Hauses, um Tauben anzulocken, die sich zum Fressen niederlassen.

Nach einiger Zeit wird der von ihnen hinterlassene Kot zusammengekratzt, vom Dach gewaschen und zur extrazellulären Biomatrix der Anode einer mikrobiellen Brennstoffzelle geschleust, in der Elektrizität erzeugt wird.

Case Study 3: The Pharmaceutical Distribution Network

Located on the recreational island of Gänsehäufel, enveloped by the Danube in the middle of the city lives a small group of citizen biofarmers who have bred a very special breed of pigs. Pigs have long been been modified and bred to replace various human organs due to the genetic similarities with humans. Yet these special breeds of pigs have been genetically adapted and the Gänsehäufel has become a zone where antibodies are bred in these pigs and then distributed through natural existing systems.

The most fit-for-purpose pharmaceutical distribution network for that area of city is via the mosquito. The Gänsehäufel offers the best conditions of a wet and warm climate ideal for breeding vast quantities of the mosquito. The accelerated evolutionary cycle of the mosquito ensure it is strong enough to suck the blood of the pigs and virally pass on the antibodies to the human population.

Antibodies are naturally transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. When a mosquito bites a pig, a small amount of the blood is taken, which contains antibodies.  These develop within the mosquito, and when the mosquito takes its next blood meal, the antibiotics are injected with the mosquito’s saliva into the person being bitten. After a period of a few days the antibodies multiply the white cell blood count in the body and kill or inhibit the growth of foreign microorganisms.

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Pharmazeutisches Verteilersystem
Auf der Freizeit-Insel Gänsehäufel lebt eine Gruppe von Gentechnik-Landwirten, die sich auf Schweinezucht spezialisiert haben. Schweine werden aufgrund ihrer genetischen Ähnlichkeiten mit den Menschen schon seit Längerem für pharmazeutische Zwecke verwendet.

Das Gänsehäufel wird zum Lebensraum einer Spezialzucht, die synthetische Antikörper verschiedenster Krankheiten in sich trägt. Diese Antikörper werden dann durch natürliche Systeme weiterverteilt.

Der dafür am besten geeignete Verteiler ist die Gelse, die durch das feuchte und warme Klima ideale Brutbedingungen vorfindet. Der beschleunigte Evolutionszyklus der Gelse begünstigt die virale Verbreitung der Antikörper vom Schwein zum Menschen.