multiplex fiction
 multiplex fiction 
See some works by Ralo Mayer

• in this twinkling overview right here,
• more structured as blog and projects,
• or please write for a portfolio.pdf
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About: 
My work delineates ecologies of contemporary history, exploring the relation of nature and society as a collapsing dichotomy. Objects like space shuttles, artificial ecosystems, the everyday life of post-Fordism, or digital cultures interweave into meshes of past futures and today’s Science Fiction.

More often than not this breeds monsters of translation – cross-media ensembles of installation, film, text, or performance. My practice is based on performative research, a processual approach to knowledge production in which I employ dramatic means like scripts, roles and props.

From 2003-2008 I was a co-founding member of the self-organized Manoa Free University, where I also started the continuing research series of HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORLDS on the performativity of models.
Since 2007 I've been working on transmedia translations of the SciFi novel The Ninth Biospherian about the experiment “Biosphere 2”.
This has also lead to my current artistic research PhD project on "Space Un·Settlements".


...and multiplex? Because. Just the place you got lost in while looking for the right movie. "Height, width, breadth, and a couple of other things."
Extra-Terrestrial Ecologies
Essay-film, DCP, 43 min, 2018
Installation, objects, 2-channel video, 2017
Lecture performance, 2016-17
A series of works tracing historical, present, and future links between outer space & ecology.
A Frankenstein monster patched together from essayistic formats, pseudo-biographical elements, and loads of archive material from countless sources. Kind of Eco-Noir.
exhibitions: Salonul de proiecte / Bucharest , Kunst Haus Wien
Space Post Colonialism
Installation, prints, video, 2013-15
Based on a trip to the San Francisco Bay area, researching the history and legacy of space settlement designs of the 1970s.
The distance between the Earth & the Moon, and the stuff that happened in the space between.
exhibition views: X AND BEYOND / Copenhagen, Kunsthalle Exnergasse / Vienna, rotor / Graz
Das Innenleben der Sonde als
Monument unermesslicher Suess-Effekte, vergeblich isoliert
frozen Viennese tap water, 100 x 100 x 100 cm, 2015
A probe at the UNESCO Biosphere Park Wienerwald, investigating the effects of Eduard Suess, from coining the term "biosphere" to the Wiener Hochquellwasserleitung or the Anthropocene.
Just because ur paranoid doesn't mean ecology
Prints & video essay, 2014
„All things are connected“: Falsely attributed to the Native American Chief Seattle, this slogan can be often found in the context of the ecological movement. At the same time it is characteristic of conspiracy theories.
Obviously a major malfunction /
KAGO KAGO KAGO BE
Installation / exhibition, 2011/2012
The space shuttle as a vehicle to travel through time / a history of the past three decades / two disasters framing global transformation.
exhibition views: Kunsthaus Baselland, Lentos / Linz
Why do we see the photo of the Whole Earth so often (that we don’t even see it anymore)?
Video, 2012
Tracing the history of the Whole Earth photo and its legacy for seemingly disconnected developments of the past decades: an endless array of Earth photos, annotated by handwritten comments.
The Ninth Biospherian
Installations, exhibitions, performance, 2007 –
Tracking down history, context and legacy of Biosphere 2, a miniature world under glass; from 1991-993 eight people lived inside this closed ecological system, exploring ecological networks and testing future space colonies.
Transmedia-Translations of The Ninth Biospherian: a Science Fiction novel, a phantom, a MacGuffin.
exhibition views: Secession / Vienna, ARGOS / Brussels, Triennale Linz,
Kunstpavillon Innsbruck, 21er Haus / Vienna
I HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT THIS PLACE BUT I’M GOING TO PROMOTE IT
Intervention in public space, Chengdu, 2008
During a residency in Chengdu I put up eight red banners in addition to the ubiquitious Chinese propaganda, announcement and commercial banners.
Writing - selected texts:
– Beyond the Blue Marble -> peer-reviewed paper on space and ecology in Acta Astronautica

– On Performative Research

– The Familiar / Schwindel is the Best Translation
   -> engl. (.PDF)

– On Steve Bannon and Biosphere 2

– HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORLDS, 26a
   -> engl. (.PDF)

– Translator's note: The Ninth Biospherian
   -> dt. (.PDF), engl. (.PDF)
Publications & Catalogues
in & out of print -
please ask for availability

Der Raum, der sich unter einer Treppe ergibt, die (...), 2007/2008
Der Raum, der sich unter
einer Treppe ergibt, (...)
self-published booklet,
dt., 2007/2008

Die Ziolkowski-Achse / The Tsiolkovsky Axis
dt./engl., Adocs, Hamburg, 2011
Die Ziolkowski-Achse
The Tsiolkovsky Axis
Adocs, dt./engl., 2011

Den Meteoriten die Würde zurückgeben
dt., booklet, 2010
Den Meteoriten die Würde zurückgeben
dt., 2008

HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORLDS
various Offset-Posters, with Philipp Haupt and others, 2006-2007
HOW TO DO THINGS WITH WORLDS
various Offset-print posters, 2006-2007