About Me
Artist, Designer, 2001Stefan Schönauer is an Austria-based multidisciplinary artist and designer working on the intersection of art, technology and mythology.
Their work methodology entangles in-depth, iterative research with poetic and at times personal experience. This process uncovers analog and digital desire paths towards alternative futures and provocative narratives.
Untangling and reconstructing the mosaic of everyday phenomena creates an adaptable framework in which these can be reconsidered and examined in a new light.
As a designer and artist, they see their role as one of a communicator, dissecting oral, tacit or digital traditions and relating them back to our lived realities in order to find ways of settling into present-day uncertainties.
Modern-day problems are relational and highly entangled, rendering solutionism useless. Art and Design can help us in unravelling their peculiar connections and assessing possible ways forward. Soft, gentle and provocative exploration of a matrix of possibilities will show us a way of being and questioning that goes beyond linearity.
Education
2019 - Graduated High School; BRG Gmünd
2020 - Beginning of Studies @ Design Investigations, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Prof. Anab Jain
2022 - Guest Semester @ Fashion Design, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Prof. Grace Wales Bonner
2023 - Erasmus Exchange Semester @ Design Academy Eindhoven, Invisible Studio, Prof. Mario Minale and Amanda Montanari
2024 - Intensive Program (Erasmus); “Emergence - Non-Human Communication in interactive Art”, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Prof. Vygintas Orlovas
2024 - Traineeship at Superflux Ltd.
Exhibititons
Shedding Skin, Exhibited at Angewandte Festival 2021
The Foundling’s Tale, Exhibited at Angewandte Festival 2022
Group Exhibition “Sourrendering as Nature”, @ One of Many Rooms, Eindhoven, 2023
Digital Ruins, Exhibited at Angewandte Festival 2024, @ Design Investigations and @ Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures, Curated by Luiza Prado
Digital Ruins Exhibited at Ars Electronica 2024
Digital Ruins featured at the 63th Short Film Collection in Bremen, DE, 2024
“A Designer’s Toolbox for Revolution”, as part of the “Design Revolution Now”-Collective, Vienna Design Week 2024
Other Work
“Utopia Build-a-Box”, Possible Futures Workshop @ European Forum Alpbach 2024, together with @ Johannes Lotze, @ Angela Neubauer
Mentions
Shedding Skin featured as student project in Dezeen, exploring gender and sexuality, 2023
Digital Ruins BTS-Photo featured in Der Standard, Article on Angewandte Festival 2024