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.

Johannes Grenzfurthner’s workshop wants to present various tricks and practices from fields like theatre, activism, games and political intervention that help to improve artistic practice.

The workshop consists of a lecture performance, followed by hands-on context hacking experiences in the cityscape.

Johannes Grenzfurthner is an award-winning artist, director, writer, and researcher.

He is the founder and artistic director of monochrom, an internationally-acting art and theory group. He is founder of US-based movie production company monochrom Propulsion Systems, LLC.

He is head of “Arse Elektronika” (sex and tech festival) in San Francisco, “Hedonistika” (food tech festival in Montréal and Tel Aviv) and host of “Roboexotica” (Festival for Cocktail-Robotics) in Vienna.

He directed the dark sci-fi comedy “Die Gstettensaga: The Rise of Echsenfriedl” and is currently working on several other film projects (“Over Lunch”, “Sierra Zulu”, “Nothing To Hide”).

Johannes’ artistic and textual work are contemporary art, activism, performance, humor, philosophy, postmodernism, media theory, cultural studies, sex tech, popular culture studies, subversion, science fiction and the debate about copyright and intellectual property.