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Johannes Grenzfurthner (; born 1975 in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
) is an Austrian artist, filmmaker, writer, actor, curator, theatre director, performer and lecturer. Grenzfurthner is the founder, conceiver and artistic director of ''
monochrom Monochrom (stylised as monochrom) is an international art-technology-philosophy group, publishing house and film production company. It was founded in 1993, and defines itself as "an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop att ...
'', an international art and theory group and film production company. Most of his artworks are labeled ''monochrom''. Grenzfurthner is an outspoken researcher in subversive and underground culture, for example the field of sexuality and technology, and one of the founders of "techno-hedonism".
Boing Boing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice w ...
magazine referred to Grenzfurthner as ''leitnerd'', a wordplay with the German term
Leitkultur ''Leitkultur'' is a German concept, which can be translated as 'guiding culture' or 'leading culture', less literally as 'common culture', 'core culture' or 'basic culture'. The term was first introduced in 1998 by the German-Arab sociologist Bas ...
that ironically hints at Grenzfurthner's role in nerd/hacker/art culture.


Career

In the early 1990s, Grenzfurthner was a member of several BBS message boards. Grenzfurther used his online connections to create ''monochrom'', a
zine A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very sma ...
or alternative magazine that dealt with art, technology and subversive cultures. His motivation was to react to the emerging conservativism in cyber-cultures of the early 1990s, and to combine his political background in the Austrian punk and antifa movement with discussion of new technologies and the cultures they create. The publication featured interviews and essays, by e.g.
Bruce Sterling Michael Bruce Sterling (born April 14, 1954) is an American science fiction author known for his novels and short fiction and editorship of the '' Mirrorshades'' anthology. In particular, he is linked to the cyberpunk subgenre. Sterling's fir ...
, HR Giger,
Eric Drexler Kim Eric Drexler (born April 25, 1955) is an American engineer best known for studies of the potential of molecular nanotechnology (MNT), from the 1970s and 1980s. His 1991 doctoral thesis at Massachusetts Institute of Technology was revised and ...
,
Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels. Pratchett's first no ...
and
Bob Black Robert Charles Black Jr. (born January 4, 1951) is an American anarchist and author. He is the author of the books '' The Abolition of Work and Other Essays'', ''Beneath the Underground'', ''Friendly Fire'', ''Anarchy After Leftism'', and ''Def ...
, in its experimental layout style. In 1995 the group decided to cover new artistic practices and started experimenting with different media: computer games, robots, puppet theater, musical, short films, pranks, conferences, online activism, which Grenzfurthner calls 'Urban Hacking' or more specific: 'Context hacking', a term that Grenzfurthner coined. :Context hacking transfers the hackers' objectives and methods to the network of social relationships in which artistic production occurs, and upon which it is dependent. In a metaphoric sense, these relationships also have a source code. Programs run in them, and our interaction with them is structured by a user interface. When we know how a space, a niche, a scene, a subculture or a media or political practice functions, we can change it and "recode" it, deconstructing its power relationships and emancipating ourselves from its compulsions and packaging guidelines. The group is known for working with different media, art and entertainment formats. Grenzfurthner calls this "looking for the best weapon of mass distribution of an idea".


Conferences and festivals

Grenzfurthner is head of the
Arse Elektronika Arse Elektronika is an annual conference organized by the Austrian arts and philosophy collective monochrom, focused on sex and technology. The festival presents talks, workshops, machines, presentations and films. The festival's curator is Joha ...
festival in San Francisco (2007), an annual academic and artistic conference and anthology series that focusses on sexuality and technology. The first conference was curated by Grenzfurthner in 2007 to answer questions about the impact of sexuality on technological innovation and adoption. Grenzfurthner is hosting
Roboexotica Roboexotica (sometimes spelled: ''Roböxotica'') is an annual festival and conference where scientists, researchers, computer experts and artists from all over the world build ''cocktail robots'' and discuss technological innovation, futurology an ...
, the international Festival for Cocktail-Robotics (2002–) which invites researchers and artists to build machines that serve or mix cocktails.
V. Vale V. "Valhalla" Vale (born February 4, 1944) is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and ...
calls Roboexotica "an ironic attempt to criticize techno-triumphalism and to dissect technological hypes." Grenzfurthner is head of ''Hedonistika'', a festival for artistic food tech and robotic indulgement. The festival took place in Montréal at the 2014 'Biennale internationale d'art numérique', in
Holon Holon ( he, חוֹלוֹן ) is a city on the central coastal strip of Israel, south of Tel Aviv. Holon is part of the metropolitan Gush Dan area. In it had a population of . Holon has the second-largest industrial zone in Israel, after Haifa. ...
, near
Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
at 'Print Screen Festival', and in
Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital of ...
at
Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...
2022.


Theatre work, performance art

Grenzfurthner wrote and directed theatre plays and pieces of performance (e.g. Eignblunzn) and interventionist art.


Film

Grenzfurther is the CEO of film production company ''monochrom Propulsion Systems''. He is member of the Austrian Director's Guild and the Association of Austrian Documentary Filmmakers. He wrote and directed shorts and feature films. His first feature film was the independent fantasy-comedy Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl (2014). Grenzfurther first feature documentary was ''
Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as ...
'' (2016), followed by '' Glossary of Broken Dreams'' (2018). His horror feature '' Masking Threshold'' was premiered at
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Giant'' and '' Secondhand ...
in September 2021 and was released by
Drafthouse Films Drafthouse Films is a film distribution company based in Austin, Texas which releases "provocative, visionary and artfully unusual films new and old from around the world". It was founded in 2010 by Tim League, who had previously founded the Alamo ...
. His horror film '' Razzennest'' had its premiere at
Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse, Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies, writer of ''The Iron Giant'' and '' Secondhand ...
2022. Grenzfurther is developing several feature films, for example, his documentary feature ''Hacking at Leaves''. Grenzfurthner teamed up with
Juliana Neuhuber Juliana Neuhuber (born 1979) is a director, screenwriter, and artist from Austria. She is based in Vienna. Neuhuber has been active in the Austrian independent film scene since 1998, and realized many short films and artistic projects. Her firs ...
to co-directing the sci-fi feature comedy '' Je Suis Auto'' (featuring
Chase Masterson Chase Masterson (born Christianne Carafano on February 26, 1963) is an American actress and singer. Early life Chase Masterson was born Christianne Carafano in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As her father was in the Army,


Academia, writing, lecturing

Grenzfurthner lectures at art institutions, symposions and political events, teaches at universities and mentors students. He has published books, essays and articles on politics, contemporary art, communication processes and philosophy including ''Mind and Matter: Comparative Approaches Towards Complexity, Do androids sleep with electric sheep?, Of Intercourse and Intracourse: Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere and Pr0nnovation?: Pornography and Technological Innovation''. Grenzfurthner published the much debated pamphlet "Hacking the Spaces", that dealt with exclusionist tendencies in the hackerspaces movement. Grenzfurther extended his critique through lectures at the 2012 and 2014
Hackers on Planet Earth The Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference series is a hacker convention sponsored by the security hacker magazine '' 2600: The Hacker Quarterly'' that until 2020 was typically held at Hotel Pennsylvania, in Manhattan, New York City. Occu ...
conferences in New York City. 2020 through 2021, he was editor-in-chief of the print and online magazine ''The Free Lunch''.


Entertainment and acting

Grenzfurthner has taken a comedic turn and performed at various venues, e.g. Vienna's Rabenhof Theater. Parts of his comedy show "Schicksalsjahre eines Nerds" form the basis of his documentary film
Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as ...
(2016). Grenzfurther is a presenter and emcee for various industry events, and guest performer at events like Goldenes Brett. Grenzfurthner has had supporting and lead parts in several theater plays. He performs in Andi Haller's feature film ''Zero Crash'' and
Michael J. Epstein Michael J. Epstein (born 1976), is an American filmmaker, musician, writer, and auditory scientist. Epstein has also spoken and written about the impact of local media on the arts, music service gatekeeping, effective social networking, and crowd ...
's and
Sophia Cacciola Sophia Cacciola is a Los-Angeles-based, American filmmaker, artist, and musician. Career overview Film Cacciola is known for her sociopolitical genre feature films that showcase women: ''TEN'', Magnetic, Blood of the Tribades, Clickbait, ...
's feature film '' Clickbait'' and ''Umbilicus desidero''. He portrays one of the two lead characters in his own film Je Suis Auto. Grenzfurthner voice acted director
Fritz Lang Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (; December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976), known as Fritz Lang, was an Austrian film director, screenwriter, and producer who worked in Germany and later the United States.Obituary ''Variety'', August 4, 1976, p. 6 ...
in Karina Longworth's Vanity Fair
podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
''Love Is a Crime'' (together with
Zooey Deschanel Zooey Claire Deschanel (; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She made her film debut in '' Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known for he ...
and
Jon Hamm Jonathan Daniel Hamm (born March 10, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Don Draper in the period drama television series ''Mad Men'' (2007–2015), for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Televisio ...
).


Community work

Grenzfurthner was one of the core team members in the development process of netznetz, a new kind of community-based funding system for net culture and net art together with the culture department of the city government of Vienna. He started the "Hackbus" community. Together with Florian Hufsky, Leo Findeisen and Juxi Leitner, Grenzfurthner co-organized the first international conference of the
pirate parties Pirate Party is a label adopted by political parties around the world. Pirate parties support civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively participation in government, reform of copyright and patent law, free shar ...
.


Commercial work

Grenzfurthner conceptualized and co-built a robot installation to promote the products of sex toy company Bad Dragon. He created an artistic online ad campaign for
Cheetos Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the U.S. The initia ...
.


Personal life

Grenzfurthner lives and works in
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
. Grenzfurther grew up in
Stockerau Stockerau () is a town in the district of Korneuburg in Lower Austria, Austria. Stockerau has 15,921 inhabitants, which makes it the largest town in the Weinviertel.https://statistik.at/wcm/idc/idcplg?IdcService=GET_PDF_FILE&RevisionSelectionMetho ...
in rural Lower Austria and talks about it in his stand-up comedy "Schicksalsjahre eines Nerds" (2014) and his semi-autobiographical documentary film
Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as ...
(2016). :If I had not grown up in Stockerau, in the boonies of Lower Austria, than I would not be what I am now. The germ cell of burgeoning nerdism is difference. The yearning to be understood, to find opportunities to share experiences, to not be left alone with one's bizarre interest. At the same time one derives an almost perverse pleasure from wallowing in this deficit. Nerds love deficiency: that of the other, but also their own. Nerds are eager explorers, who enjoy measuring themselves against one another and also compete aggressively. And yet the
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tech ...
's existence also comprises an element of the occult, of mystery. The way in which this power is expressed or focused is very important. Grenzfurthner uses his personal history and upbringing as a source for his work. In a conversation with ''Zebrabutter'' he names the example that he wanted to deal with his claustrophobia, so he started a series of art performances where volunteers can be buried alive. As a child, Grenzfurthner spent a lot of time at his grandparents' farm in the small village of Unterzögersdorf (a
cadastral municipality A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria,Cadastral Template for Austria, web-pageCT-AT Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Sloven ...
of Stockerau). His grandparents' stories about
Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...
, World War II and the Soviet occupation in
allied-occupied Austria The Allied occupation of Austria started on 8 May 1945 with the fall of Nazi Germany and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955. After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In 1943, however, ...
(1945–1955) influenced monochrom's long-term project Soviet Unterzoegersdorf.


Controversy

Grenzfurthner's name was one of 200 activists, politicians, and artists from Germany, Switzerland and Austria (only one of a total of 10 Austrian names) that were published on an ultra-right
doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this in ...
list distributed on a variety of online platforms in December 2018 and January 2019. The list's extremist creators threatened "#wirkriegeneuchallee" (sic!) – "We will get you all". Grenzfurthner openly addressed this on online platforms and in lectures. An artistic fake image posted by Grenzfurthner in July 2021 on his Twitter account sparked some controversy on social media and in the news. Jean Peters reports in his book "Wenn die Hoffnung stirbt, geht's trotzdem weiter" (2021, translation from German) about a special form of anti-fascist prank Grenzfurthner staged: :Austrian artist Johannes Grenzfurthner, who himself has also published on context hacking, mingled in disguise with a Nazi demonstration in Bavaria in the spring of 2005. When cameras passed by, he made the forbidden Hitler salute. When he started doing so, the dam quickly broke; everyone around him joined in. In doing so, he had created media images showing the group as it really was. It turned bizarre when a few of them then approached him and said, "Stop, stop!" which, coming from a Nazi, sounded like a performative peculiarity, "we're not allowed to do that here." Whether over-affirmation or mimicry, the point is to make truly visible what would rather remain hidden behind a facade of self-righteousness.


Awards

* Won (as director of "Udo 77")
Nestroy Theatre Prize The Nestroy Theatre Prize is an Austrian theatre award named after the poet Johann Nestroy Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy (; 7 December 1801 – 25 May 1862) was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the ...
(2005). * Won Coke Light Art Edition Award (2006). * Won (as the artistic director of monochrom) the Art Award of the FWF Austrian Science Fund (2013).


Filmography (Features)

*''Hacking at Leaves'' (to be released 2023) – director, writer, producer, actor *'' Je Suis Auto'' (to be released 2023) – director, writer, producer, actor *'' Razzennest'' (to be released 2022) – director, writer, producer *'' Masking Threshold'' (2021) – director, writer, producer, actor *''The Transformations of the Transformations of the Drs. Jenkins'' (2021) – segment director, actor *''Avenues'' (2019) – producer *''Zweite Tür Rechts'' (2019) – producer, actor *'' Glossary of Broken Dreams'' (2018) – director, writer, producer, actor *'' Clickbait'' (2018) – actor *''
Traceroute In computing, traceroute and tracert are computer network diagnostic commands for displaying possible routes (paths) and measuring transit delays of packets across an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The history of the route is recorded as ...
'' (2016) – director, writer, producer, host *''Shingal, where are you?'' (2016) – associate producer *''Valossn'' (2016) – associate producer *''Zero Crash'' (2016) – actor *'' Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl'' (2014) – director, writer, producer *''Kiki and Bubu: Rated R Us'' (2011) – director, writer


Theater (examples)

*''Udo 77'' (Rabenhof Theater, Vienna, 2004/2005) – director, actor, writer *''Waiting for Goto'' (Volkstheater, Vienna, 2006) – director, writer *''Campaign'' (Volkstheater, Vienna, 2006) – director, performer, writer *''monochrom's ISS'' (Garage X, Vienna and Ballhaus Ost, Berlin, 2011 and 2012) – director, actor, writer *''Schicksalsjahre eines Nerds'' (Rabenhof Theater, Vienna, 2014) – director, performer, writer *''Steppenrot'' (komm.st, Styria and Theater Spektakel, Vienna, 2017) – director, actor, writer *''Die Hansi Halleluja Show'' (komm.st, Styria and Theater Spektakel, Vienna, 2018–2019) – director, actor, writer *''Das scharlachrote Kraftfeld'' (komm.st, Styria and Theater Spektakel, Vienna, 2019–2020) – director, actor, writer


Music (examples)

*'' Carefully Selected Moments'' (album,
Trost Records Trost Records is a record label located in Vienna. History In the early 1990s, Trost was founded as a tape label, releasing records of Austrian alternative and underground bands, such as Valina, , and Holly May. In 2011, the sublabel Cien ...
, 2008)


Publications

* Editor of magazine/yearbook series ''"
monochrom Monochrom (stylised as monochrom) is an international art-technology-philosophy group, publishing house and film production company. It was founded in 1993, and defines itself as "an unpeculiar mixture of proto-aesthetic fringe work, pop att ...
"'' (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2010) * Editor of ''"Stadt der Klage"'' ( Michael Marrak, 1997) * Editor of ''"Weg der Engel"'' ( Michael Marrak and Agus Chuadar, 1998) * Editor of ''"Who shot Immanence?"'' (together with Thomas Edlinger and Fritz Ostermayer, 2002) * Editor of ''"Leutezeichnungen"'' (together with Elffriede, 2003) * Editor of ''"Quo Vadis, Logo?!"'' (together with Günther Friesinger, 2006) * Editor of ''"Spektakel – Kunst – Gesellschaft"'' (together with Stephan Grigat and Günther Friesinger, 2006) * Editor of ''"pr0nnotivation? Arse Elektronika Anthology"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Daniel Fabry, 2008) * Editor of ''"Roboexotica"'' (together with Günther Friesinger, Magnus Wurzer, Franz Ablinger and Chris Veigl, 2008) * Editor of ''"Do Androids Sleep with Electric Sheep?"'' (together with Günther Friesinger, Daniel Fabry and Thomas Ballhausen, 2009) * Editor of ''"Schutzverletzungen/Legitimation of Mediatic Violence"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Thomas Ballhausen, 2010) * Editor of ''"Urban Hacking"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Thomas Ballhausen, 2010) * Editor of ''"Geist in der Maschine. Medien, Prozesse und Räume der Kybernetik"'' (together with Günther Friesinger, Thomas Ballhausen, Verena Bauer, 2010) * Editor of ''"The Wonderful World of Absence"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Daniel Fabry, 2011) * Editor of ''"Of Intercourse and Intracourse – Sexuality, Biomodification and the Techno-Social Sphere"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Daniel Fabry, 2011) * Editor of ''"Context Hacking: How to Mess with Art, Media, Law and the Market"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Frank Apunkt Schneider, 2013) * Editor of ''"Screw The System – Explorations of Spaces, Games and Politics through Sexuality and Technology"'' (together with Günther Friesinger and Daniel Fabry, 2013) * Editor of ''Subvert Subversion. Politischer Widerstand als kulturelle Praxis'' (together with Günther Friesinger, 2020)


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Grenzfurthner, Johannes 1975 births Living people 21st-century Austrian male writers Austrian artists Austrian bloggers Austrian contemporary artists Austrian art curators Austrian theatre directors Austrian film directors Austrian documentary filmmakers Austrian screenwriters Austrian male screenwriters Film people from Vienna English-language film directors Writers from Vienna 21st-century Austrian artists People from Stockerau Creative Commons-licensed authors Male bloggers 21st-century screenwriters Theatre people from Vienna