Sen.Sc. Mag.arch. Valerie Messini
Valerie Messini is a registered architect, digital artist and Senior Scientist at the Weibel Institute for Digital Cultures.
Her research dives into the concept of nothingness, examining how digital technologies and digital design tools impact space, identity, and perception, alongside the role of immersive media and virtual space in shaping our understanding and interaction with the digital realm. Her PhD “void set – about emptiness in virtual space” was initially supervised by Peter Weibel and after his demise by Clemens Apprich. She published in international journals and presented her research at multiple Conferences around Europe.
In 2022 she curated the exhibition “Günther Domenig: Dimensional @ Heft/Hüttenberg”.
Since 2022, she teaches the interdisciplinary Seminar “OTHER MATTER Exploring Spatial and Curatorial Strategies with Augmented Reality” at the Angewandte.
In 2022-23 she was co-teaching design studios at the IKA-Institute for Art and Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. As a senior lecturer at the ./studio3 – Institute for Experimental Architecture, University of Innsbruck (2013 to 2019, 2022), she was teaching VR seminars and novel digital artistic strategies, multiple design courses, supervising master’s theses and organizing multiple excursions and events.
Valerie graduated in architecture from the University of Applied Arts (studio Prix) in Vienna in 2011, with distinction. She worked for International architecture firms (i.e. Coop Himmelb(l)au [AUT], Snohetta [NO], Flying Elephant Studio [IN]) as design architect and realized several large-scale installations together with the artist Eva Schlegel. In 2017 Valerie became a licensed and registered architect.
In 2018, she co-founded 2MVD, an artistic collaboration with Damjan Minovski that focuses on combining architecture with innovations and advances in the field of digital art and technology.
Their work was shown in galleries and at festivals repeatedly i.e. Angewandte Innovation Lab [AIL], Vienna Design Week, aut. architektur und tirol in Innsbruck, GIFF – Geneva International Film Festival, Transart21 together with Laurie Anderson, MAK Vienna, Venice, Berlin and Barcelona at Sonar+D Festival23.
Contact
Office Hours: by Appointment
Email: valerie.messini[at]uni-ak.ac.at
Showroom: Valerie Messini
- title
- Void Set
- subtitle
- About Emptiness in Virtual Space
- type
- Doctoral Dissertation
- keywords
- Digital Technologies, Digital Arts, Virtual Space, Phd, Void, Emptiness, Nothing
- texts
- Abstract
- The era we live in is deeply defined by the advancement of digitalization, coming alongside with abundance of information, resources, and technology. This, being available to individuals and businesses alike, does not only have a positive imprint on our society, but is also overwhelming. Currently, the omnipresence of digital interfaces and the overstimulation they engender, particularly social media, is often yielding a perception of digitalization as negative, dangerous, capitalist, surveillant, and as a disjunctive force alienating us from the “real” world. This research advocates for a reevaluation of digital environments as spaces that can foster soothing and beneficial experiences. It argues for the integration of digital virtuality with the physical world, harnessing virtual spaces to alleviate the overstimulation pervasive in contemporary society and to meet the escalating demand for tranquility and emptiness in our hyper-connected era. The research explores the confluence of digital virtuality and the conceptualization of the void within Western art and architecture throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This interdisciplinary inquiry employs a blend of theoretical exploration elaborated in five papers as well as artistic and practical experiments to propose “virtual voids,” an experiential concept realized through immersive digital art works. Virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, are utilized to delineate how these technologies can effectively bridge the physical and digital realm, engendering a state of visual and sensory calmness through digital virtuality. The diverse theoretical framework departs from Weibels disappearance of the distance and media-centric perception, crosses Doesinger’s notion of bastard space and its differentiation of gaming vs. playing, which through the theory of affect (Deleuze, Guattari, Angerer) and Barad’s agential realism, leads to Butler’s performativity and Haraway’s posthumanism to reveal that digital design tools and processes, viewed through these theoretical lenses, inaugurate new possibilities for understanding identity beyond traditional human boundaries. The concept of the void in digital spaces, coupled with inquiries into the nature of “nothing,” catalyzes a paradigm shift in critical thinking about the world, positioning the void not as emptiness but as a space brimming with potential. Looking forward, this research invites further exploration of the ideological implications of digital nothingness. It raises questions about how these voids relate to capitalist consumption and production, and sheds light on the potential for art to challenge new forms of control imposed by digital technologies, of virtual spaces to transcend traditional power structures, and prevent new forms of exclusion by the development of non-ableist digital environments that integrate multiple sensory experiences. The hope is that such advancements would enhance accessibility and contribute to a comprehensive approach to inclusive societal knowledge formation and education.
- authors
- Valerie Messini
- editors
- Valerie Messini
- publishers
- Valerie Messini
- date
- 2024-09-13
- location
- Universität für angewandte Kunst in Wien, Wien, Österreich
- pages
- 278
- language
- English
