Mz* Baltazar’s Lab presents: My Tool, My Choice**

Mz*Baltazar's Lab (Erika Farina, Olivia Jaques, Patrícia J. Reis, Lale Rodgarkia-Dara, Anna Watzinger and Sarah Wilhelmy) invites you to bring along your individual artistic practices and personal interests, and to actively engage in workshops and discussions, while trying out new or familiar approaches.

It is important to us to be curious about practice-based insights. The topics we want to focus on this semester are:
– Open source
– Making
– Artistic-activist practices (from ecofeminism to data protection)
– Care, code of conduct and safer spaces

To start the semester with plenty of inspiration, on 4 October we will attend selected events from the symposium ‘Ecofeminist Practices in Art & Activism’. Afterwards, we will visit Hito Steyerl's exhibition ‘Der Menschheit ist die Kugel bei einem Ohr hinein und beim anderen herausgeflogen’ and finally devote ourselves to reading a text together with the ECM students.

On 13 October, we invite you to Mz*Baltazar's Lab. There, we will focus on the topic of open source with input from servus.at. Among other things, social media and local data centres will also be discussed.

On 20 October, we will take time for a detailed round of introductions. Please bring an object, a picture, a tool, a text or a self-portrait that represents you as an artist or maker*. Please also bring sketches and ideas for your semester projects. What would you like to try out during the course? Please think in advance about what you could aim to achieve (a piece of work, a specific technique, a practice or a workshop).

The rest of the semester will be strongly oriented towards the needs of our group. Depending on this, we will build, dismantle, question, listen, rethink and experiment – and finally exhibit or try things out together.

ABOUT 

Founded in 2009 and based in Vienna, Mz* Baltazar’s Lab defines itself as an art, feminist* hacking, and safer(er) space – a continually evolving collective currently made up of six artists, activists, and theorists. The Lab aims to create a safe, subversive creative infrastructure for making/hacking, community building/networking, and the development/support of exhibitions and workshops at the intersection of media/art, science, hacking/making, and gender politics within its space in Vienna’s 20th district.

**The title, ‘My Tool, My Choice’, is borrowed from the FFG research project All*Makers* (Centre for Human Computer Interaction, Salzburg, Happylab Vienna, Austrian Institute of Technology, Mz* Baltazar's Lab; 2022-2025), which takes a critical look at the concept of making. https://all-makers.at/
In line with the practice and theory of Mz* Baltazar’s Lab, the course "Mz Baltazar’s Lab Presents: My Tool, My Choice" offers diverse inputs and space to rethink and (re)create/hack your own transmedial artwork or further develop your personal artistic practice.

 

 

Assessment Criteria

1. Regular and active participation in the course

2. Development of an artistic project and its presentation/exhibition on Friday, January 23, 2026

The course will be held in both German and English.

Dates (tbc): 

optional:
Sa, 4.10.2025, 12.00 – 14.00 (WUK); 14:30–17:00 (MAK), 17:30–19:00 (ecm, Angewandte)
_Please read this text beforehand: "Aesthetics of the Commons", edited by Cornelia Sollfrank, Felix Stalder, and Shusha Niederberger, Diaphanes, 2021
https://www.ecm.ac.at/_media/secure2024/Aesthetics_of_the_Commons.pdf 

Mo, 13.10.2025, 18:00-21:00h, Mz*Baltazar's Laboratory, Jägerstraße 52-54, 20.
Input by servus.at
The Internet and commercial social media have stopped being a safe space for FLINTA* people a long time ago (if they ever been), but before deleting all your social once and for all, let’s try something else! This workshop is an introduction to the fediverse universe and more specifically to mastodon -a free and open-source software platform for decentralized social networking. Additionally we gonna talk about local data centers and the importance of non-commercial and collaborative digital tools (FLOSS) which promote anonymity and autonomy in internet.
https://www.mzbaltazarslaboratory.org/de/

optional, for those who are interested in MINT: Mi, 15.10.2025
_16:00-17:30h (online, please register: https://reglist24.com/scn-4-gender-mint-jf-1510 
https://www.science-center-net.at/projekte/gender-mint-jourfixe/ , auf Deutsch); 
4. Gender MINT jour fixe; Austausch und Vernetzung zu „MINT & Gender“ für Pädagog*innen
zum Thema MINT ohne Klischees – Geschlechterreflektierende Pädagogik in der Praxis
_17:30–18:00h (online, internal)

Mo, 20.10.2025 13:30-16:00h, Mixed Media 1 (Raum 305)                       

Mo, 3.11.2025 13:30-16:30h                

optional, for those who are interested in Citizen Science, the OeAD, and AI in visualising science: Wed,5.11.2025
_14:00-16:00h (online, please register beforehand at:
https://oead.at/de/studieren-forschen-lehren/citizen-science/zentrum-fuer-citizen-science/veranstaltungen/fortbildungsreihe-2025-modul-drei; in German language); 16:00–16:30h (online, internal)
_16:00–16:30h (online, internal)                

Mo, 17.11.2025 13:30-16:30h                        

Sa, 22.11.2025, Excursion to Linz!      

Mo, 1.12.2025 13:30-16:30h                            

Mo, 12.1.2026 13:00-17:00h > Forum @ Flux1 (VZA, 3.OG)

Mo, 19.1.2026 13:30-16:30h  > Preparation of Exhibition @ Mz* Baltazar's Laboratory

Sa, 24.1.2026 11:00-open end > Exhibition Opening @ Mz* Baltazar's Laboratory

Fr, 30.1.2026, 17:00-open end > Finissage @ Mz* Baltazar's Laboratory