Paraflows 06/Welcome
A bit more background about the Metalab and Paraflows for our two english-speaking guests:
Metalab
The Metalab is a hacker space, an open center for people who do creative things with technology. Our main interest groups include things like urban hacking/street art, free public networks, "avant gaming" (augmented reality, etc), hardware hacking, ubiquitous computing, ai, security, photography, genetic programming, audio and video production, privacy and civil rights, etc...
We openend our doors in April of this year, renting a 200 square meter space right behind City Hall and the Parliament. We have around 80 members at this point. Numerous workshops on topics like Microcontrollers, the Blender3D software and social engineering as well as several parties have taken place at the lab so far, in addition to regular daily operation (ie a couple of nerds hanging out until the wee hours).
We're still busy renovating and building up the infrastructure, so don't expect a slick lounge-type artsy gallery space, but brace yourself for a little chaos among mismatched furniture and space invader stencil graffiti on the wall...
Paraflows
Paraflows is a net art & net culture festival held for the first time this year as part of the annual convention of "Netznetz", a community of artists that successfully petitioned the local municipal government to let them self-distribute their arts funding in what turned out to be a somewhat broken voting scheme that they came up with after a year of massive arguing and epic mailing list flamewars.
The exhibition takes place at 7 different locations around town, from Sept 9 to 16, with regular opening hours from 4-8 pm.
Special events at the Metalab are:
- Saturday, Sept 9
- Opening
- Sunday, Sept 10, 11am
- Net art brunch - artist presence requested!
- Tuesday, Sept 12, 9pm
- Blinkennight - LED hacking at the Lab, featuring a 3D LED cube, throwies, floaties, microcontrollers etc.
In addition to this, there are panel discussions and other social events at the various other locations throughout the week.
You're obviously welcome to hang around at the lab during the exhibition, but that's not an obligation apart from Sunday morning. Most of the tourist spots are close by thanks to the lab's central location, so it'd be quite easy to combine keeping an eye on your exhibit and going sightseeing.
Getting here
Metalab Rathausstraße 6 1st district
- Subway U2: stop Rathaus, exit Josefstädter Strasse
- Tram J: stop Rathaus
- Trams 1, 2, D: stop Stadiongasse/Parlament + 3 minutes walk
Links
- Metalab @ Google Maps (address search doesn't work for Vienna yet, though)
- Vienna on Wikitravel: general tips and guide
We're looking forward to seeing you at the Metalab!
