Virgil Widrich
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Works:
All Exhibition Stage Film Research Lecture Jury Member Publication Bibliography checkpointmedia University of Applied Arts

Books and texts in which Virgil Widrich's work is mentioned or discussed – including his own publications.

Projects · 51
2025

Animation in Austria – An Almost Invisible Art

Schmidlechner devotes a dedicated section to Virgil Widrich (Ch. 13.6) and describes „Vienna table trip“ (2015/2016) as „Widrich's heartfelt tribute to his adopted city“.

2024

Kunst und Stahl. The Kupelwieser Dynasty from Piesting to the World

Virgil Widrich and Hans Kupelwieser mentioned as great-great-grandsons of the painter Leopold Kupelwieser, today counted among the most prominent artists in Austria.

2021

Intertextualität und Intermedialität: Theoretische Grundlagen – Exemplarische Analysen

This volume offers an introduction to theoretical foundations and central aspects of the relationality of texts and media. It traces the development from classical intertextuality (Genette, Kristeva) to more recent intermediality research (Rajewsky, Paech), but also addresses the question of the combination and competition of media from the rivalry of the arts in antiquity and the early modern period to contemporary media convergence. Three detailed chapters of analysis present possible applications based on literary and audiovisual examples.

2021

Conservation and Restoration Rethought – Festschrift

p. 269: Biographical entry on Virgil Widrich as one of the founders and managing directors of checkpointmedia and full professor of Art & Science at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

2020 Publication

Hans Moser. Weltschmerzkomiker

Text contribution “Hans Moser in North Korea”, Virgil Widrich in conversation with Arno Rußegger, edited by Gottfried Schlemmer, Georg Seeßlen, Arno Rußegger. © Filmarchiv Austria, 2020.

2020 Publication

Data Loam Sometimes Hard, Usually Soft. The Future of Knowledge Systems

Data Loam focuses on the future of knowledge systems in texts about artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and cryptoeconomics – as a means of counteracting end-of-the-world fears.

2019 Publication

Expanded Animation – Mapping an unlimited landscape

Text contribution “Images between Digital Realism and Analog Believability” by Virgil Widrich in: Expanded Animation – Mapping to Unlimited Landscape

2018 Publication

The Future of Museums

Text contribution in “The Future of Museums”, edited by Gerald Bast, Elias G. Carayannis and David F. J. Campbell: “Transforming Education and Labor in a Museum as a Model of the Future: Vacancies in the Future Museum”.

2016 Publication

Bei den Fischottern in der Ebene und auf den Bergen

In his “biographical fragments for the home and village”, Hans Widrich (born 1936) describes his life.

2015

Found Footage (Korean Edition)

Page 102 to 105.

2012 Publication

Hundert Jahre Kupelwieser auf dem Mönchsberg

“Eine kleine Haus- und Familiengeschichte” by Hans Widrich.

2011 Publication

An envelope for arts, sciences, politics and us

Mixing realities and mediating myths & methods. Editors: Valerie Deifel, Bernd Kräftner, Virgil Widrich

2011 checkpointmedia Publication

Presentation and new Media – 10 Years checkpointmedia: concepts, paths, visions

Besides an overview of projects carried out by checkpointmedia between 2001 and 2011, the book “Presentation and New Media – 10 Years checkpointmedia: Concepts, Paths, Visions” contains essays by leading contemporary protagonists on the current discourse in the media, worlds of experience, communication and internet sectors.

2011

Car Fetish: I Drive Therefore I Am

“Fetisch Auto” presents the automobile as a source of inspiration for the art of the last 100 years. Starting with the Futurists, who saw in its beastly roar and thrilling, dangerous speed a new ideal of beauty, the book provides an overview of the most beautiful and inspiring of the artworks we owe to this “tin muse”. Among them are examples of Pop Art and creations by the Nouveaux Réalistes, with Jean Tinguely as biggest Formula 1 fan. These are supplemented by thematic focuses such as “Traffic,” “Withdrawal and Escape” and “A Fascination with the Accident / Danger.” The extensive exhibition catalog places the automobile in the context of cultural history as a key cultural artifact of the 20th century, exemplifying the concept of the product, sexual and religious fetish. The automobile as a love affair in material form is a mirror for our life experiences: on the one hand a profane mode of transport, and on the other a carrier of meaning, a means for distancing ourselves from others and raising our individual profile – both uterus and personality prosthesis alike.

2011

Bastard Culture! How User Participation Transforms Cultural Production (MediaMatters, Volume 6)

New online technologies have brought with them a great promise of freedom. The computer and particularly the Internet have been represented as enabling technologies, turning consumers into users and users into producers. Furthermore, lay people and amateurs have been enthusiastically greeted as heroes of the digital era. This thoughtful study casts a fresh light on the shaping of user participation in the context of, among others, popular discourse in and around new media.Schäfer’s groundbreaking research into hacking, fan communities and Web 2.0 applications demonstrates how the dynamic of innovation, control and interaction have shifted the boundaries of the traditional culture industry into the user domain. The media industry undergoes a shift from creating content to providing platforms for user driven social interactions and user-generated content. In this extended culture industry, participation unfolds not only in the co-creation of media content and software-based products, but also in the development and defense of distinctive media practices that represent a socio-political understanding of new technologies.

2010

Die Kunst des Einzelbildes: Animation in Österreich - 1832 bis heute

Cinema animation in Austria is a terrain of artistic activity of manifold manifestations. The common feature is the temporally manipulated artistic image. The book is determined by a broad view of the history of animation. Instead of insisting on a “dividing line” between commerce and art, the aim is to present the rich spectrum of manifestations of animation between pop culture and the avant-garde without devaluing or overvaluing any of the poles mentioned, and also to appreciate the fact of mutual influence and stimulation.

2010

Robot Dreams

Talking iceboxes, learning seat electronics in cars, self-controlling vacuum cleaners, nano robots for medical use: research into artificial intelligence and its applications in practice may still be utopia and even cause fear today, but will already be used as a matter of course in household appliances tomorrow. The catalog “Robot Dreams” is dedicated to this exciting topic and shows what contemporary art has to contribute to the understanding and handling of this rapid advancement in the field of artificial intelligence. It accompanies an exhibition at Museum Tinguely Basel and Kunsthaus Graz and includes newly developed works by artists Luc Mattenberger, Jon Kessler, Thomas Baumann, John Bock, Daniel Reichmuth / Sibylle Hauert, Niki Passath, Francois Roche, Virgil Widrich, and Kirsty Boyle, as well as other works by Edward Kienholz, Tom Sachs, Nam June Paik, Richard Kriesche, Stelarc, Jessica Field, and others.

2010

Cinéma brut. An Alternative Genealogy of the Avant-garde Cinema

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Virgil Widrich as a conversation partner for the research.

2010

Streitbare Brüder. Austria – Germany

p. 210: Widrich (Copy Shop) is mentioned alongside Christoph Waltz, Birgit Minichmayr and Götz Spielmann as a recognised Austrian filmmaker.

2009 Publication University of Applied Arts

Catalogue “Alias in Wonderland”

Catalogue for the exhibition of the department “Digital Art” at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in the Freiraum/quartier 21 Vienna.

2009

Der Filmische Hypertext: Links im Film - Film als Link

Scientific Essay from the year 2005 in the subject area German Studies - Semiotics, Pragmatics, Semantics by Carola Unterberger-Probst.

2008

After the Avant-Garde: Contemporary German and Austrian Experimental Film

Filmmaking in Germany and Austria has changed dramatically in the last decades with digitalization and the use of video and the Internet. Yet despite predictions of a negative effect on experimental film, the German and Austrian filmscape is filled with dynamic new experiments, as new technological possibilities push a break with the past, encouraging artists to find new forms. This volume of theoretically engaged essays explores this new landscape, introducing the work of established and emerging filmmakers, offering assessments of the intent and effect of their productions, and describing overall trends. It also explores the relationship of today’s artists to the historical avant-garde, revealing a vibrant form of artistic engagement that has a history but has certainly not ended. The essays address such questions as the effects of transformations of cinematic space; the political effects of the breakdown of barriers between experimental film and advertising, and of the rise of music videos and reality TV; the effects of the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the rise of capitalism, and the European movement on experimental film work; and whether these experiments are aligned with mass political movements -- for instance that of anti-globalization -- or whether they strive for autonomy from quotidian politics. Randall Halle is Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Reinhild Steingröver is Associate Professor of German in the Department of Humanities at the Eastman School of Music.

2008

The animation bible: a guide to everything – from flipbooks to flash

The Animation Bible covers every conceivable animation process and technique, explaining and exploring their use through case studies of eminent and cutting-edge animators past and present. Illustrated with 750 colour images, the book also includes a series of applications exercises where students can put into practice the techniques they have just been reading about. In addition, students are taken through all the stages of making an animated film, from pre-production concepts and scripts to the debut screening and distribution of the finished animation.

2008

In the Beginning was the Gaze. Event Horizon of a Film

p. 146: Fast Film in the context of Austrian experimental film premieres (Short Film Competition Cannes 2003).

2008

The Cinema of Jan Švankmajer – Dark Alchemy

p. 219: Widrich is listed alongside Roy Andersson, Peter Mullan, Javier Fesser, Jean-Luc Godard and Tom Tykwer in a DVD compilation.

2008

The Business of Word and Image. Economic History

p. 239: Biographical entry on the Virgil Widrich Film- und Multimediaproduktions GmbH and Copy Shop (2001).

2007

Processes of Transposition. German Literature and Film.

The essays collected in this book focus on the multi-faceted relationship between German/Austrian literature and the cinema screen.

2007

Basics Animation 01: Scriptwriting

“Scriptwriting: n. developing and creating text for a play, film, or broadcast.” – “Fast Film” is discussed on pp. 67–68 of Paul Wells's textbook on scriptwriting for animation, as a case study for innovative found-footage animation narration.

2007

Science / Culture: Multimedia

The volume addresses New Media Design both in the context of its application in museums and in the field of CD-Rom, DVD and Web projects. On the one hand, it contains a qualitative analysis of multimedia projects on knowledge topics (Jewish Museum Berlin, Technical Museum Vienna, Salzburg’s Carolino Augusteum, Documenta, Academy of Sciences, Whitney Art Museum, etc.), on the other hand interviews with experts (Dieter Bogner, Fons Hickmann, Joachim Sauter, Christian Doegl, Peter Messner and others) from the fields of content conception, teaching, design and evaluation. In addition, essays explore the question of the essence of multimedia communication in order to develop a design-theoretical model.

2007

Introduction to Film Studies

Introduction to Film Studies is a comprehensive leading textbook for students of cinema. This completely revised and updated fourth edition guides students through the key issues and concepts in film studies, traces the historical development of film and introduces some of the worlds key national cinemas. A range of theories and theorists are presented from Formalism to Feminism, from Eisenstein to Deleuze. Each chapter is written by a subject specialist, including four new authors, and a wide range of films are analysed and discussed. It is lavishly illustrated with over 123 film stills and production shots, many of them in colour. Reviewed widely by teachers in the field and with a foreword by Bill Nichols, it will be essential reading for any introductory student of film, media studies or the visual arts worldwide.

2007

42 Portraits. Life Stories from Salzburg

p. 176: Portrait of Virgil Widrich – „won the European animated film prize Cartoon d'Or with his ‚Fast Film‘“.

2007

Le cinéma d'animation

p. 13: Fast Film as an example of animation work using digital photography.

2006

Stadtbühne und Talschluss. Building Culture in City and Country

p. 111: „A gain is the installation by Virgil Widrich“ – on the touchscreen at the Salzburg Museum.

2005

Rollenspiele. Österreichische Filmkünstler im Portrait

Even more than all of life is a theater, it is a movie, and everyone plays his or her very own role in it. “Role-playing” is an essential part of how we all cope with existence and life. Who better to convey this truth than those who have made role-playing and its banishment on celluloid their profession? In sensitive photo portraits that attempt to expose the interfaces between private and public, but also cultivate the gentle play with dramaturgical content, props and poses, photographer Manfred Pauker presents a masterful kaleidoscope of more than two dozen contemporary Austrian filmmakers.

2005

Tonspuren: Musik im Film: Fallstudien 1994-2001

Includes the text by Arno Rußegger: Between Homage and Persiflage. Alexander Zlamal’s music and sound design for Virgil Widrich’s “Copy Shop” (2001).

2005

Trickraum - Spacetricks

Animated films have a preference for showing fantastic, paradoxical, even impossible places that have little in common with our lived experience of the world. “Trickraum - Spacetricks” looks at international animation filmmaking today and brings together for the first time the sources of inspiration, working processes and materials used in the creation of innovative trick spaces. The rich visual material bears witness to the diverse working techniques of the approximately 25 filmmakers represented.

2005

Das Motiv des Doppelgängers als Spaltungsphantasie in der Literatur und im deutschen Stummfilm

For the first time, a book discusses the enigmatic motif of the doppelganger, which is examined here not only in German literature, separately in drama, poetry, and epic poetry, and undertakes a broad attempt to build a bridge to (silent) film. What has only been hinted at in the secondary literature available so far is addressed in this interdisciplinary work, which also deals with splitting fantasies in painting and photography. The focus is on the richness of facets, ambiguity, and longevity of the fantastic doppelganger motif, which hardly loses its appeal even in literary realism or through the insights of psychoanalysis, and which makes an impressive comeback in the age of the technical reproducibility of psychic phenomena on the screen. This topic is just as interesting for literary and film scholars as it is for philosophically and psychoanalytically trained readers.

2005

Action, Animation, Archival Abyss: Virgil Widrich's Fast Film

Essay by Jon Davies in Animation Journal Vol. 13–15 (2005), p. 26.

2005

Wien / Vienna – New Urban Architecture

p. 128: Description of the Ars Electronica Center installation by Virgil Widrich – „Beneath a silver metal wing one walks up the ramp to the future“.

2004

Hans Moser, 1880–1964 (Theatermuseum Catalogue)

p. 6: Thanks to Virgil Widrich for his advice on the installation of the technically demanding presentation.

2004

Austria 2005. The Reader for the Anniversary Year

p. 202: Widrich is mentioned in the context of Austrian film prize winners – „by far the most international awards“.

2004

Academy Awards – The Complete Unofficial History

p. 316: Entry on the Oscar nomination for „Copy Shop“ as best short film (live action) 2001.

2004

Filmszene D – The 250 Most Important Young German Stars

p. 350: Mention of „Heller als der Mond“ (directed by Virgil Widrich) in the context of German-language film stars.

2003

Future cinema: the cinematic imaginary after film

Throughout the history of cinema, a radical avant-garde has existed on the fringes of the film industry. A great deal of research has focused on the pre- and early history of cinema, but there has been little speculation about a future cinema incorporating new electronic media. Electronic media have not only fundamentally transformed cinema but have altered its role as a witness to reality by rendering “realities” not necessarily linked to documentation, by engineering environments that incorporate audiences as participants, and by creating event-worlds that mix realities and narratives in forms not possible in traditional cinema. This hybrid cinema melds montage, traditional cinema, experimental literature, television, video, and the net. The new cinematic forms suggest that traditional cinema no longer has the capacity to represent events that are themselves complex configurations of experience, interpretation, and interaction. This book, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the ZKM Institute for Visual Media, explores the history and significance of pre-cinema and of early experimental cinema, as well as the development of the unique theaters in which “immersion” evolved. Drawing on a broad range of scholarship, it examines the shift from monolithic Hollywood spectacles to works probing the possibilities of interactive, performative, and net-based cinemas. The post-cinematic condition, the book shows, has long roots in artistic practice and influences every channel of communication.

2003

Horst Buchholz – His Life in Pictures

p. 188: Filmographic details on „Heller als der Mond“ – Buchholz as Paolo, directed and co-written by Virgil Widrich.

2003

Code: The Language of Our Time

p. 389: „A chase scene through film chase scenes, staged with found footage“ – description of Fast Film in the Ars Electronica catalogue.

2003

Encyklopedia kina (Encyclopedia of Cinema)

p. 282: Entry on Virgil Widrich in the Polish encyclopaedia of cinema.

2003

Austrian Industrial History 1955–2005

p. 306: Widrich as a success story of the creative industries – „has presented himself internationally from the start“.

2001

Machine Times

In the wake of the recent millennium excitement, this publication takes a close look at the role of time in the constitution of our technological reality. At least since Einstein’s theory of relativity and Bergson’s aesthetics, we have been aware that time forms an indispensable dimension of the reality that surrounds us, and of the way in which we perceive this reality. The artists in “Machine Times” explore the manner in which time both delimits and constitutes our spatial reality. “Machine Times” is published on the occasion of the DEAF 2000 festival in Rotterdam, which investigates the phenomenon of time through a variety of formats--interactive image manipulation, sound performances and virtual environments--in art projects, stage events, essays, and interviews. A sequel to “The Art of the Accident” (1998), “Machine Times” includes essays, interviews and projects by Francisco Varela,, Detlef Linke, Isabelle Stingers, Peter Weibel, Perry Hoberman, Cybernetic Culture Research Unit, Helga Nowotny, Woody Vasulka, Eduardo Kac, tx-transform, Atau Tanaka, and several others.

1998

Ars Electronica 98 – Infowar / Information, Power, War

p. 196: Chapter „tx-transform“ by Martin Reinhart and Virgil Widrich – the first print publication of the tx-transform technique.

1993

The Sound of Klein-Hollywood. Film Production in Salzburg

p. 494: First book-length recognition of Widrich – highlighting „Vom Geist der Zeit“ (1986), the two-hour Super-8 epic in the style of a sci-fi monumental film.