Rado showcases how time, architecture, and materials come together – with Moving Materials and Le Corbusier.

From March through August, motion designers had the opportunity – as part of the RADO MOVING MATERIALS competition – to showcase animations produced specifically for the video wall at the Rado boutique in Vienna, this time on the theme Architecture of Time. During the VIENNA DESIGN WEEK, all six episodes of the collaborative series will be screened again, both at the Festival Headquarters and at the Rado Boutique at Kärntner Straße 18. The showcase at the Festival Headquarters will be complemented by design pieces from the “True Round × Les Couleurs® Le Corbusier®” special edition.

EPISODE 1: REFRESH-RATE RITUALS (STAR TIME TO SCREEN TIME)
Maximilian Prag

“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 the 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.”

EPISODE 2: FEELING FOR TIME
Alessa Wolfram

“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 anew time and again, but also the feeling of going round in circles and not making any progress.”

EPISODE 3: IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE
Liza Borovskaya-Brodskaya

“Time is not a natural phenomenon, but 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.”

EPISODE 4: TIME WELL SPENT (THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF NOTHING)
Thomas Albdorf

“TIME WELL SPENT is a tender exploration of everyday objects we encounter constantly – these become the protagonists and the focal point of the filmic composition. The meditative, aimless engagement with seemingly mundane objects encourages and enables us to find joy in everyday life, which demands only time in return. The objects in question are filmed and staged conventionally at first, only to have their temporal representation shifted in subsequent post-production stages. Multiple temporal levels are shown simultaneously using various techniques, thereby exploring the possibilities of film and animation in contrast to conventional perception.”

EPISODE 5: PARENTS OF TIME
Diana Bobb

“My inspiration stems from the rhythms that structure our lives. Long before humankind developed mechanical clocks, we oriented ourselves by the stars, the shifting shadows of the sun, the length of the night and the phases of the moon. From these recurring movements, an architecture of time emerged. Modern physics shows that time is not a universal constant. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, it passes at different rates depending on motion and gravity. Yet our bodies, too, have their own sense of time: our heartbeat, breathing and biological rhythms determine how we experience duration. Different living beings move at different paces – their heart rates, metabolisms and lifespans each follow their own rhythms. My animation explores the relationship between these two levels of time: the cosmic rhythms that structure our planet, and the biological rhythms that govern our lives. It asks whether time is a property of the universe, or whether it only becomes perceptible through recurring movements and our own perception.”

EPISODE 6: SCREENTIME
Simon Hundsbichler / Jonas Nath

“This project explores the intrinsic time of screen-based media through two complementary manifestations of time – the ghost image and the screensaver. The ghost image preserves past states as an irreversible material footprint, permanently burned into the display through pixel aging. In response, the screensaver acts as a technical countermeasure, protecting the screen through subtle animation. Inspired by the concept of the cinemagraph, this standby mode freezes the moment into a paradoxical state, oscillating between still and moving image. The image is built upon an infinite, seamless loop that erases any sense of beginning or end, lingering as a romanticized place of longing. These two phenomena enter into a dialogue where the ghost image autonomously preserves an echo of the past, while the screensaver simulates an endless, hypnotic present. The project poses the question of how digital media shift our perception of time and how supposedly transient images leave behind permanent, material traces.”