WEBVTT

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Hello!

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I am Petz

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and today I'd like to tell you about my education,

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and how I came to the Academy.

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Or what the academy has to do with me.

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I grew up in the countryside

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as an organic Austrian working-class child.

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I went to secondary school there and then to a technical college for electrical engineering,

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and I also worked in that field.

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But I was also always interested in studying,

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in politics and activism,

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in social change and,

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on the other hand, in aesthetics,

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do-it-yourself,

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punk and activist aesthetics.

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And that's how I ended up

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moving to Vienna at some point

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and a friend told me that you don't

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need a high school diploma

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to study fine arts at the academy.

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and that you can get into the university

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if you pass an entrance exam.

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And so I applied to several universities

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that offered such exams.

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I applied to the University of Applied Arts, the Academy of Fine Arts,

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and because I was interested in acting and performance,

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I applied at the drama conservatory as well.

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And luckily I was accepted at one of them,

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the Academy of Fine Arts.
I was rejected from the others.

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In retrospect,

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it was really important

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that I was accepted to the academy and was able

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to push ahead with my studies.

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vorantreiben konnte.

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However,

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the academy wasn't always

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the easiest place.

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Also because being there and studying there

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and then moving around in this space,
even if you are admitted

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- officially.

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Exactly.

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I later wrote

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a poem about how

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I felt about it.

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I'll read it out briefly.

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The book is called "I am an Other"

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with my alter ego Walter Ego,

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or Walter Xenia Ego today.

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And it's now in English

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and it goes like this:
“Once I studied at

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the Academy of fine Arts in Vienna.

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It made me feel like, “I am this

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provincial person who has no clue

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how the world is functioning.”

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I really hadn ́t.
The architecture,

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the air of power and knowledge,

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the educated people, it was so powerful

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I could not stand the pressure inside

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me.
For a while I got

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very nervous when going to the academy.

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When I was on the way to the academy
my whole body got affected.
My stomache

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contracted and I got attacks of diarrhea
all the time.
Everytime I arrived at

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the acedemy I had to run to the toilet.

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Once it was already
on its way.
I was not aware that I could

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use it as a part of my art.
I could not imagine that

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this is the stuff art

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is made of.”
This ought to be funny too.

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Although it´s very serious.

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Yes, and,

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there's already another book that

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I'm currently reading again:

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“The Pedagogy of Hope” by Paolo Freire..

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I went to school after the academy

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and taught there for a long time

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as a lateral entrant.

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I taught at a high school in Vienna for nine years.

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I have always dealt with

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education and the questions of

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how social change can work.

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And now I'm at the University

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of Arts in Linz,

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where I teach in the Department

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of Learning - Engagement - Research

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also do research there,

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which is really exciting.