Roomservices (Evren Uzer & Otto von Busch)

ADVENTURES IN LOCAL KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION

Industrialism and modernism as we know them appear to have moved to China; media tells us that our future welfare is based on hyped mantras of “knowledge society”, “research and development” and “creative industries”. But which movements can be felt at the street level, and what new forms of occupation exist in the public domain? What happens when we try to map these mostly unseen connections between micropolitics and knowledge production and identify their archetypes, hubs and channels?

Roomservices has produced a small atlas that might serve as a tool for seeing these aspects of the city: an ingenious intervention to reveal hidden networks and communities forming in the urban dynamic. The alternative knowledge production atlas was prepared as a toolbox that revealed the layers of knowledge production in Innsbruck in the form of a booklet and series of cards. The knowledge production atlas of Innsbruck looked at networks, places and lines connecting the first two on the basis of production type, medium and transparency. Cards showed the three types/levels of local knowledge production in Innsbruck and their subtypes under each title. The three main categories identified in this field included Archetypes, Hubs and Channels. Each group and their sub-groups described 2-3 examples from Innsbruck that could easily be found in Istanbul, Malmö or any other city. The basic idea to prepare it in the form of cards came from thinking about different cities and making the toolbox more open, thereby enabling change, re-interpretation, re-naming or re-classification and creating a the of inspiration rather than instruction.

Mapping this low- and mid-level knowledge production, they focused on the serious hobbyists, spare time specialists and professional amateurs who rigorously practice their interests and live for their generative sideline activities. More and more people spend as much time on a hobby or interest as they do on their professional work, or have even made their hobby a source of income (midnight programmers, clans of professional computer players and eBay pickers, to name some active on internet).
(Text source: Roomservices)

In 2005, Evren Uzer and Otto von Busch were awarded the Stipend of the City of Innsbruck at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen.