ECLAT 5

Happiness Machine
3 hours of happiness with Klangforum Wien

 

Matthias Meinharter: Tiki Tiki Men

 

Elizabeth Hobbs/Carola Bauckholt*
The Flounder (2018) WP

 

Sven Hartberger

 

Rebecca Blöcher/Eva Reiter*
Lickalike (2018) WP

 

Gerald Preinfalk

 

Eni Brandner/Misato Mochizuki
PANTOPOS (2018) ^WP

 

Vera Fischer

 

Joanna Kożuch/Ying Wang
Music Box (2018) ^WP

 

Andreea Dosa

 

Samantha Moore/Malin Bång*
Bloomers (2018) ^WP

 

Vera Fischer

 

Vessela Dantcheva/Electric Indigo
Hierarchy Glitch (2018) ^WP

 

Christoph Walder

 

Ana Nedeljković/Hanna Hartman
The Happiness Machine (2018) ^WP

 

Mikael Rudolfsson

 

Susi Jirkuff/Joanna Bailie
Measuring the Distance (2018) ^WP

 

Günther Bernhart

 

Andrea Schneider/Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri*
Generator/Operator (2018) ^WP

 

Andreas Eberle

 

Michelle Kranot/Iris ter Schiphorst*
Suggestion of Least Resistance (2018) ^WP

 

Anders Nyqvist

 

Rebecca Saunders
Sole (2018) ^WP

 

 

Production: Jacqueline Kornmüller
Dramaturgy: Peter Wolf
Speakers: Günther Bernhart, Andreea Dosa, Andreas Eberle,Vera Fischer, Sven Hartberger, Matthias Meinharter,Anders Nyqvist, Gerald Preinfalk, Mikael Rudolfsson, Christoph Walder

 

Klangforum Vienna
Peter Böhm [&] Markus Urban, sound direction
Martin Repka, video projection
Musical direction: Konstantia Gourzi

 

 

Happiness Machine is a project of Klangforum Wien, Musik der Jahrhunderte and Amour Fou Vienna in cooperation with Tricky Women funded by the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Chancellery of Austria, the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna and by Interfaces/Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

 

Christian Felber’s »Economy for the Common Good« is based on the same values that make relationships successful: Appreciation and trust, attention and solidarity, cooperation and sharing. The sociologist’s alternative economic model establishes a clear, measurable link between economic criteria and the well-being of the population. Not the greatest possible economic gain for a company, but the greatest possible gain for the common good should be the goal of every entrepreneurial action. The focus of economic and political attention should not be on growth for the sake of growth, but on orientation towards values relevant to the common good: human dignity, solidarity, ecological sustainability, social justice and democratic co-determination.

 

The means of art make it possible to create connections and to convey specific experiences. In this spirit, the Klangforum Wien wants to take social responsibility and, by organizing Happiness Machine, animates nothing less than a »European discussion about the future of the world«.

 

The ensemble has invited ten film artists and ten composers to discuss aspects of the common-wealth economy, its opportunities and dangers, its theory and practice using animated film and contemporary music.

 

Ten very different film-music projects were created: visionary, analytical, documentary and allegorical. They point out »the power that arises when individuals cooperate rather than compete«, want to restore failed visions through alternative scenarios of social relations, and ask who actually defines the »common good«. The fairy tale of »the fisherman and his wife« becomes a parable for greed and striving for power. The example of the Paris banlieue documents how proximity or distance to the urban (power) centres decide on the possibility of participation. Poetic visual worlds create an atmosphere of solidarity and cooperation–and in the simulation of a video game the neoliberal maxims of capitalism are deconstructed.