Documentation and Development

Mimicking the fleeting nature of memory, ephemeral projects are programmed to disappear. Therefore, a variety of project documentation initiatives are in progress, designed to preserve the important legacies of The Vienna Project. We will maintain social media platforms to communicate project activities, in this phase of project development.  These initiatives include:

• A semi-permanent installation of the street stencils for a number of the 38 Memory Sites will be developed to support the Smartphone app and Holocaust curriculum, which will be maintained on the website. Initial permissions have been granted, formal permissions are in progress.
• A project video is in the works that will combine documentary footage with interviews of team members. The stand-alone video will capture the artistry of the digital projections, can be used as a teaching tool, and may accompany a traveling exhibition.
• A book that highlights the project’s innovative, interdisciplinary design and the unique interactive approach of The Vienna Project is under development. The text will situate the project within the spectrum of public memory in Vienna dealing with Holocaust history and within 21st century practices of memorialization. The book will also capture ideas about diversity that not only shaped the project’s content, but also helped us attract a large and diverse audience over the duration of the project. This issue is especially relevant to today’s treatment of minority groups across Europe, which The Vienna Project addressed again and again.
• An international traveling exhibition is also under discussion. The interactive design of The Vienna Project produced a number of unusual and intriguing artifacts to be placed on display. In addition to a 20-minute project video, professional photographs will showcase our opening and closing events, plus street stencils, video projections from “Parcours des Erinnern,” a large 3-D memory map made from archival letters written by Austrian victims and survivors of the Holocaust, a Smartphone app and guided tours reformatted as gallery-based virtual tours of Vienna, and a miniature model of the “Naming Memorial” featuring shadow projections. We will develop installations of objects used in a series of public performances, such as: a unique memory game; coded erasers and large Nazi-era posters for writing and erasing “hate” speech; an installation of pansy plants; and a poetry & text performance, to be reproduced as individual high resolution giclee prints. The design of the exhibition will be interactive in keeping with the original design of The Vienna Project and will include a catalogue, panel presentations and new curricula.

Each of these initiatives will strengthen the original contribution the project makes to ideas about cultural memory, Holocaust history and education, and issues of social responsibility.

Stay tuned for additional developments!