With this talk series the AIL provides more insight into the work of different departments and their
professors from the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Aim of the series is to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue, to discuss
and debate divergent or complementary theoretical approaches, artistic practices, innovative forms of expression, experimental
questions, and innovative research ideas beyond one's own fields and disciplines.
Martina Griesser-Stermscheg
is a conservator and a museologist. She is Professor of Conservation and Cultural Heritage Conservation Management (since
2024) and Co-Director of the study programme /ecm educating – curating – making (since 2006) at the University of Applied
Arts in Vienna. From 2021 to 2024, she established the Research Institute at the Vienna Museum of Technology (TMW). From 2013
to 2021 she served as Head of Collections at TMW. She is Author of
Tabu Depot. Das Museumsdepot in Geschichte und Gegenwart
(2013) and Co-Author of
Sich mit Sammlungen anlegen. Common Things and Alternative Archives (2020). She is researching
and publishing at the interface of museology and conservation (currently on collection strategies and community-based conservation).
She is on the core team of
schnittpunkt. ausstellungstheorie & praxis (
schnitt.org),
Fellow of the IIC (
iiconservation.org) and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of
the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
Isabel Kranz is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University
of Applied Arts Vienna. As a literary scholar with a keen interest in broader cultural questions, Isabel’s areas of research
range from the so-called ‘Erste Kulturwissenschaft’ to imaginations of the future and theories of translation. As one of the
key figures within the emerging field of Plant Humanities, Isabel co-founded the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network
(with Joela Jacobs) and is a Principal Investigator of the research group Phytological Critique. Her publications include
a study of the poetics of history in
Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project (2011),
Sprechende Blumen: Ein ABC der
Pflanzensprache (2014) as well as an edited volume about alternative futures around 1914 (2017). Currently, Isabel is
working on a manuscript about
Flowers as figures of knowledge from 1700 to today as well as co-editing an extensive
handbook on cultural theory and the vegetal, due to be published this fall.
This talk will be held in German. Moderation:
Florian Bettel
