Poolbar Festival 2025

In 2025, the Poolbar Generator Light Art Lab, led by VOLNA, brought together four creatives with backgrounds in scenography, interior architecture, motion design, and industrial design. Their task was to design and construct a light installation for the Poolbar Festival’s “Wohnzimmer” area. In collaboration with the Literature Lab, which provided original texts, the team integrated literary fragments into the artwork, enhancing the light animations with text sequences. The result functioned both as a standalone artwork and as a versatile stage setting for festival events.

During the Generator, the team developed conceptual sketches, 3D visualizations, programmed lighting scenarios, and constructed a functional prototype. Alongside the technical work, they defined the intended atmosphere and determined the spatial role of light, making decisions on the placement of elements, color schemes, animation intensity, and the overall mood of the space.

A distinctive component of the project was its collaboration with the Literature Lab. Texts created in this parallel workshop were incorporated into the installation by translating literary fragments into light scenarios. Lifted from the page, the poetry was rendered in animated light that spanned the Wohnzimmer’s ceiling, establishing a dialogue between text and illumination.

In June 2025, the installation was presented at the Poolbar Festival. It attracted sustained visitor interest, functioning simultaneously as a self-contained artwork and as an adaptable stage environment for diverse events. The variable lighting design and integrated text elements allowed the space to shift atmospheres—from subdued to highly dynamic—inviting audiences to experience spatial change as an active, immersive process.

Credits

  • Light Art Lab: Michael Schulte-Austum, Rahel Fundinger, Paul Canfora, Nina Mischke
  • Guest critique: Manuel Schwald
  • Workshop Leader: VOLNA
  • Literature Lab: Ariane Burda, Nicole Eberherr, Luisa Kunth, Lena Reutenauer
  • Guest critique: Nika Pfeifer
  • Workshop Leader: Marianne Jungmaier
  • Development and production: VOLNA, Michael Schulte-Austum, Paul Canfora, Poolbar construction team
  • Technical support: Andreas Hölldorfer, Manuel Schwald, Klaus Tomberger
  • Photo and video: VOLNA, Ira & John
  • Music: Lapalux
  • © VOLNA (2025)
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Third Call