Volkmar Klien (*1971, Hollabrunn, A) spent his childhood in Vienna engulfed in the city’s rich musical life with all its glorious traditions and engrained rituals. Working from this background Volkmar Klien today strives to extend traditional practices of composing, producing and listening far beyond established settings of concert music. He works in various areas of the audible and occasionally inaudible arts navigating the manifold links between different modes of human perception, spheres of presentation and the roles these play in the communal generation of meaning. His works have been widely recognized, exhibited, performed and presented. He has received commissions from institutions truly varied in nature. For the Volksoper Wien (Vienna, A) he composed music to a full evening ballet, the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) (Troy, USA) invited him to produce multi-channel electronic sound works, and for Transitio_MX (Mexico City, MX) he produced a mixed media installation acoustically surveying landscapes. In his installation Aural Codes he turned the radio sphere over London into his exhibition space inviting residents to tune in and also interact. Throughout his career he has collaborated with his choreographer brother Michael on numerous performative projects exploring relationships between sound, bodily movement and human communication. Works stemming from this ongoing collaboration have been produced and presented at the ZKM Karlsruhe, Ballet Frankfurt, the Hayward Gallery London, and - most recently - by the Martha Graham Company in co-operation with the New Museum (NY). Volkmar Klien’s work has been awarded numerous prizes and awards, amongst these are the Media Arts Prize of the City of Vienna, State Scholarships for Composition of the Republic of Austria, an Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica, the Max Brand Prize for Electronic Music, the Scholarship of the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra, the Alban Berg Stipendium and the Gustav Mahler Prize for Composition. In his artistic work Volkmar Klien can draw on experience gained in academic research. Having received a PhD in electroacoustic composition from the City University London he has held research positions at the Royal College of Arts in London, the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (OFAI) and the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. He is a professor for composition at the Anton Bruckner University (Linz, Austria).

Joseph Kohlmaier ist Künstler, Designer und Lehrender. Bis April 2026 war er Associate Teaching Professor für Geschichte und Theorie an der School of Art, Architecture and Design der London Metropolitan University. Er ist Gründer und künstlerischer Leiter mehrerer Kollektive, Organisationen und Bildungsprojekte, darunter Field Studies, das experimentelle Chorensemble Musarc (2009–heute), das Grafikdesignstudio Polimekanos (mit Stefan Kraus, 2000–2020) und das unabhängige Imprint Cours de Poétique. Durch diese Strukturen entwickelt sich Josephs Praxis, und hier hat sie ihre größte Wirkung entfaltet, indem sie Räume schafft, in denen Menschen mit neuen Ideen experimentieren. Als Kurator und Produzent hat Joseph aufstrebende und etablierte Künstler:innen beauftragt und mit ihnen sowie mit führenden Kulturinstitutionen im Vereinigten Königreich und in Europa an Projekten zusammengearbeitet, die die Landschaft von Bildung, zeitgenössischer Musik und Performance nachhaltig verändert haben. Josephs Arbeit ist vielschichtig und an der Schnittstelle verschiedener Disziplinen und Tätigkeiten angesiedelt, die zwischen individueller und kollektiver Praxis bewegen. Sie ist getragen von der Frage, wie wir lernen, wie Denken mit symbolischen Formen zusammenhängt, von der Prekarität und dem Potenzial kollektiver Handlungen, von der Ökologie des Chors sowie von marginalisierten Denkweisen, etwa der Rolle von Körperlichkeit und leiblich erfahrener Wahrnehmung (felt sense) in der Entstehung von Wissen. Joseph ist der Gründer und künstlerische Leiter von Field Studies. Er unterrichtet Figures of Eight in Wien.

Frank Wasser is an Irish artist, writer, curator, and educator whose interdisciplinary practice encompasses performance, installation, text, and critical theory. Engaging deeply with issues of institutional power, authorship, and the politics of art production, Wasser's work is known for its conceptual depth and critical edge. He interrogates the structures that shape contemporary art discourse, with a particular focus on the mechanisms of value, knowledge, and identity within cultural institutions. Wasser has exhibited and performed widely across London and Europe, including at Tate Modern, South London Gallery, Jerwood Arts, Salzburger Kunstverein, The Bluecoat, BALTIC, MoMA, Palais de Tokyo, The National Sculpture Factory, PEER, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and CCA Derry. These institutions often serve not only as venues but as subjects of his ongoing critique, as he explores the complexities of institutional frameworks and the politics of display. His research frequently challenges prevailing assumptions around exhibition-making as a decolonizing practice, scrutinizing the sustained presence and symbolism of the white cube. His work unfolds through a wide array of materials and forms—performative lectures, sculptural interventions, publications, images, installations, and gestures that range from the discreet to the overt. Central to his practice is an investigative preoccupation with class, colonialism, and the bureaucratic and pedagogical structures embedded within the art world and academia. Often evading conventional forms of exhibition making, documentation and mediation, his works demand active engagement and reflection. Pedagogy plays a vital role in Wasser’s practice, both his work as a lecturer and through his art, he treats education as a dialogic and critical process. His lecture-performances, often held in institutional settings, dissolve the boundaries between teacher and student, artist and audience, transforming educational encounters into spaces of collective inquiry and resistance. In 2024, Wasser completed a practice-based doctorate in Fine Art at Oxford University (Ruskin School of Art), supervised by the artist Katrina Palmer and Lee Triming. He currently lectures in Fine Art and Critical Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is also the current artist-in-residence at Tate Library and Archive, supported by Askeaton Contemporary Arts (Ireland) , where he is developing a new book scheduled for release in 2026.