Week Twenty Seven

This week went super fast and was very full. I wrapped up at Zeughaus where I’ve been working recently which was actually devastating! I’ve been super looked after there, handed projects of my own, sent on excursions to Lichtenstein, been in photos for the Catholic Church of Vorarlberg, been taken out to lunch, had my smoke salmon groceries shouted for me, poured petrol over cardboard typography and set it on fire, been bullied into drinking Prosecco, taught elements of Austrian dialect and learnt a few design things along the way. Although only a small team (Oliver, Klaus, Christoph, Patrick, Mathias & Julia) they make some really awesome things and I encourage you to check them out. http://www.zeughaus.com.

I got to partake in a few projects whilst I was there including making a stop motion video. The final one to wrap up though was a display window at the local train station. I was given free reign and pushed towards drawing my perspective of Austria. They didn’t want the window to be too branded as them but saw it more as a creative space. This was very kind. It turned out to be a huge project though. Having drawn the design, I decided to get it printed on different layers and then install it into the window – some elements being propped up in Z space, others hanging. The cardboard wasn’t thick enough so this resorted in being donated carton from the printer (who also printed all my stuff for free! gem!) which was then scalpeled out and acted as a backing for the printed layers. Fortunately I have a friend like Maddy who offered to swing by on Thursday and help, speeding up the process. My bosses took us all out to lunch and gelato as a thank you which was super kind. We still didn’t finish though, so I came in at 5am the next day to wrap it up. Mathis and Patrick helped me install the work into the window and it was finally done at 5:45pm on Friday, followed by celebratory pavlova (hideous oops) and prosseco. Here are a few photos of it. Unfortunately being in a dark tunnel, it’s hard to shoot but I’ve also included a picture of the original file ft. Arnie, Sound of Music, Conchita, Bratwurst, Churches, Mozart etc

During the course of the week I hung out with new exchange students a bit. We had a pot luck dinner which was nice and well catered for and also the international party of Friday night at Anziehbar. There’s so many of them 65! Which is 30 more than last semester. They’re really nice though and I look forward to getting to know them more. Today we hung out in Bregenz by Lake Constance to survive the heat. That was particularly good.

Okay this is chronologically all over the place but back to Saturday. Congratulations if you’ve followed til now. Saturday morning post International Party (tough), Davide day and I caught a VERY early morning train to Bregenz to get a car share ride to Zurich. There, was the annual street parade, the largest techno music festival in Europe hosting 1 million people for the day. I’ve been to Zurich before but never really spent the day there. It is BEAUTIFUL but so obviously expensive. Everything just seems perfect from the pristine streets to the swans on the lake. We arrived at about 8:15 and made our way down Bahnhofstrasse, one of the main streets. Davide told me that when his mother was younger, it used to go for one million euros per square metre on that street. We walked around a bit, went for an impulsive swim in the lake to combat the 32 degree heat, napped in a park and then watched the cleanest city I’ve ever been to get absolutely destroyed.

We made some friends with another group of Italians and ended up hanging out with them for the following 12 or so hours, particularly Alessandro and Beatrice. Together, the four of us went between the 6 stages and watched the 27 floats, admiring costumes and enjoying the sounds of the festival which featured the likes of Fedde Le Grand, Paul Kalkbrenner, Otto Knows, Robin Schulz etc. It was a really colourful and insanely packed day – a lot of fun particularly thanks to our new friends. I caught the train home which was a battle and half, arriving home in the early hours of Sunday, but ran into some school friends on the way back which made it more enjoyable.

That was that.

Here’s an image of Saturday to help show the scope of it