RADO MOVING MATERIALS 2026 — Vienna Design Week

Architecture of Time

Time, movement, and materiality lie at the heart of the long-standing collaboration between the Swiss watch manufacturer Rado and VIENNA DESIGN WEEK. Together, both partners actively support emerging design positions and experimental creative approaches.

In 2026, this partnership continues with the RADO MOVING MATERIALS competition. From March to August, six motion designers are invited to develop animations produced specifically for the videowall of the Rado Boutique in Vienna, responding to this year’s theme, “Architecture of Time.” Their works explore temporal structures, rhythm, transformation, and the visual translation of motion.

All six contributions will be presented during VIENNA DESIGN WEEK at both the festival headquarters and the Rado Boutique (Kärntner Straße 18). The festival will also announce the recipient of the RADO MOVING MATERIALS Award 2026.

Participants 2026:

Maximilian Prag
Alessa Wolfram
Liza Borovskaya-Brodskaya
Thomas Albdorf
Diana Bobb
Simon Hundsbichler & Jonas Nath

FOLGE 1: Maximilian Prag

refresh-rate rituals (star time to screen time)

In their video work Maximilian is treating time as both physical and metaphysical material. From deep sea internet cables navigating our faster than real-time social media timeline to planetary timescales of erosion and decay. Combining both human and non-human time-forms (lines, cycles, spirals, liminal, seasonal) they use time as a material for world building. In their CGI approach they use (de-)generative algorithms together with digitized archival matter in form of 3D scans to bridge tangible with intangible matter representing an open dreamscape of realities.

The video shows their research into time as a fourth dimension and visualizing time as cause and effect, but also the act of recording or experiencing time itself as a moving material. Time is treated not as a linear progression, but a flow measuring itself as it streams in and out of consciousness.

Maximilian Prag (they/them, *1997, Linz) is an interdisciplinary artist and designer testing contemporary visual and new media culture. Working with new media technology in between visual communication and art, they create new formats of digital representation, virtual worlds, digital generative imagery and multimedia installations.

FOLGE 2: Alessa Wolfram

feeling for time

"Time is movement, and yet it can stand still. Time moves steadily forward, and yet it is ever-recurring. Time is invisible, and yet one can see all its effects. Time is something you feel. The animation’s approach to the theme ‘Architecture of Time’ is to show the forms from which time is constructed in terms of movement, how time becomes visible, and how it feels. The animation guides the viewer through various abstract scenes in which familiar feelings regarding time are depicted using shapes, movement and materials. An example of this: time runs in a cycle. Things happen over and over again, like the seasons, the feeling of being able to start afresh time and again, but also the feeling of going round in circles and not making any progress."

Alessa Wolfram is a 3D artist and illustrator based in Vienna, holding a Master’s degree in Digital Arts from Hagenberg, where she specialised in 3D animation. Today, she works freelance as a 3D generalist, combining technical skill with a keen sense of visual storytelling in her work. Her animations are often characterised by humorous elements and frequently place a particular focus on expressive characters.

FOLGE 3: Liza Borovskaya-Brodskaya

"Time is not a natural phenomenon, rather a social artifact. We see motion, change and processes, while we move through a flux of situations that assemble and disassemble. Time might seem as something outside of our control; in fact time is human made: Clocks – frames for time, slicing organic processes into abstract units. Film seemingly does the same, yet – despite the rigid rhythm of the frames – it can transcend time, creating movement through constructed images."

Liza Borovskaya-Brodskaya is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Vienna. She works with various forms of media, such as book design, visual identities, web design and all forms of printed matter. In her illustration practice “LizaCutz” she creates paper collages. Her work explores arrangements of unique shapes and the re-assembling of the leftover papercuts into dynamic, playful and tactile compositions. The cutouts of previous collages can often be found in the subsequent works, where they form new compositions while still pointing at previous works, even if discreetly.