The man Gottfried Hattinger and the machine have history. It began in the mid-1980s when the 71-year-old curator and cultural manager from Ottensheim was artistic director of the Ars Electronica Festival. “When I deal with a topic, I always go back a long way. I’m interested in how something developed, and that’s where you always end up with the machine,” he says. So an archive piled up that he never thought he would ever need.
Now, after more than five years of continuous work, Gottfried Hattinger has published his personal journey of discovery in book form. Unsurprisingly, the extensive work is called “machine book” and comprises more than 600 pages. It is a valuable, always tongue-in-cheek companion to the current exhibition “Weltmaschine” in the Linzer OK, curated by Hattinger. The show is an artistic homage to Johannes Kepler’s 450th birthday.
The former, long-time director of the Festival of Regions designed the layout of the book himself as a graphic designer. It sometimes contains strange machines such as mechanical puppet theaters, confessional machines or electronic pet dogs. More than 800 color illustrations round off the work, which is unique in the professional world and, thanks to the lively descriptions, is also easy and amusing to read. Hattinger is neutral about machines: “Ludwigs have always existed. For example with Peter Rosegger, who compared the first steam-powered locomotive to the devil.” Gottfried Hattinger’s favorite appliance is an indispensable daily companion: the coffee machine.
“machine book”: A collection on the culture and art history of Gottfried Hattinger’s apparatus, Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess, 656 pages, 38 euros
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Source: Nachrichten
