Geo-located data in a spatial context: Augmented space – speculative space in the topic of art storage


Christine Schranz

For my contribution I have chosen the example of CSCS in Lugano.
It plays an important role in the research work for the Collegium Helveticum.


During a four-year research project (2015–19) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), I explored the spaces of bonded warehouses as places for duty- and tax-free storage of goods before they are imported or exported. Therefore, I made a spatial analysis of the former bonded warehouse in Basel, where today the Campus HGK FHNW is located. Furthermore, I have taken a closer look at how up-to-date infrastructures and extraterritorial tax zones shape economic and sociopolitical realities. Almost every country has bonded warehouses, but only a tiny number are significantly involved in the international art trade. However, more and more art collectors are taking advantage of the fact that goods can be stored duty-free in bonded warehouses. In Geneva’s free port alone, 1.2 million artworks are said to have been stored in 2014. Their total value is estimated at ca $100 billion.

Based on this analysis, an augmented-reality app was developed in collaboration with the FHNW School of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geomatics, which provides insight into the practice of today’s bonded warehouses within the art context. In a critical-political dimension, images, information, and real-time messages condense into a speculative space. https://augmentedspace.ch





Christine Schranz (Dr. phil.) studied scenography (MA) and visual communication (diploma), both at the Zurich University of the Arts. She is a designer and holds a PhD in Film and Media Studies from the University of Vienna (Austria), in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland). She is head of research at the Institute for Contemporary Design Practices (ICDP) at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel. Research activities include fellowships in the Archaeologies of Media (AMT) research group, a research group at Winchester School of Art - University of Southampton and the Chair of Art Theory and Curating at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, as well as a PhD fellowship at the Chair of Visual Arts at TU Berlin. She is the author of “Augmented Spaces and Maps. Das Design von kartenbasierten Interfaces” https://doi.org/10.1515/9783035620252