“Mapping Austrofascism” and Beyond : Report on the Digital Research Lab Campus Medius

Abstract

The Campus Medius project Mapping Austrofascism explores and expands the possibilities of digital cartography in cultural and media studies. In this article, I elaborate on the project’s development from a historical case study to a mapping platform. The first chapter presents the initial version, an interactive map with a timeline displaying 15 events within 24 hours in Vienna on the weekend of May 13 and 14, 1933. The second part discusses the current version of the project that additionally focuses on the main event of this exemplifying time-space or chronotope: an Austrofascist “Turks Deliverance Celebration” (Türkenbefreiungsfeier) in the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace, which is imparted from a bird’s-eye perspective, panoramically, and in street view by five mediators each. The next chapter deals with the technological infrastructure and the data model of Mapping Austrofascism, which operationalizes the theoretical concepts of the dispositif and the actor-network. In conclusion, I outline our plans to establish a digital platform for describing and visualizing media experiences in everyday life.

Keywords

• digital mapping
• cartography
• mediality
• media experience
• Austrofascism
• Turks Deliverance Celebration