Angewandte Innovation Lab (AIL) is a source of inspiration, a place for exchange and a space for thought experiments.
Angewandte Innovation Lab is an interdisciplinary space and a platform for projects at the intersection of art, science and artistic research. Founded in 2014 by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, it was launched to enable exchange among different disciplines and to link art and artistic research as these are the driving forces for innovation. AIL is a venue dedicated to developing projects, facilitating discourse between various fields of knowledge and connecting partners from the fields of science, arts, design, research and business with the resources of Angewandte. AIL makes space for events, exhibitions and thought experiments, exploring future-oriented topics and making them available to an interested public and community.
AIL broadcasts the research landscape of die Angewandte and is a connecting point to other fields of knowledge and sciences. The projects in AIL's program investigate current societal issues and encourage the development of new ideas and concepts. Which tools can artistic practices develop to cope with the challenges our society faces today? What can artists, designers, activists, teachers, farmers and everyone else offer to create a well-functioning present and a future worth living? Ever since it was founded, AIL has facilitated a wide range of formats, such as multidisciplinary exhibitions, curated talks and discussions, symposia, lectures, concerts and performances as well as public experiments and informal meetings like the weekly Kochmittwoch.
The program, curated by the Executive Board and the heads of AIL, is based on research projects affiliated with Angewandte or on collaborations with external partners. As an important link between Angewandte and the general public sphere, AIL makes current projects at the university accessible to the public, connects them to other fields of knowledge and science and makes the university's organisational and content-related resources available to all interested participants.
In spring 2021, after seven years at Franz-Josefs-Kai 3, AIL moved to the former Postsparkasse in the heart of Vienna – a historic building designed by architect Otto Wagner – thus joining other departments of Angewandte and a newly emerging neighbourhood with several research institutions from the field of art and science, such as the Johannes Kepler University Linz. The new location provides the opportunity to further expand and strengthen networks for interdisciplinary work and research. On an area of about 300 square meters, divided into two rooms on the ground floor, AIL is an experimental space in which interdisciplinary practices and thought experiments are made possible in order to shape the present and the future together.
