Regional_Express

Time Travel on the Train between Gmunden - Bad Aussee and in Cine Virtual Reality

Regional_Express is a project by Petra Ardai, Ella Raidel, and Marlene Rutzendorfer.
The train in motion as a narrator, time travelers, and the landscape as cinema.

Subject to change
Ella Raid
© Pia Fronia
Contributors

Performers:
Chris Lohner (voice of train)
Manfred Mayer (voice of Mountain)
Miaoxin Wu (voice of Traunsee Nixe)
Yakira Cang (Performer, Cine-VR)
Altmünster Gemischter Chor

Artistic Team:
Ella Raidel (concept, director VR Experience, production)
Petra Ardai(concept, direction train experience, storytelling)
Marlene Rutzendorfer (concept, curator, production)
Kerstin Reyer (assistance)
Sander Saarmets (composition)
Susi Jirkuff (animation, illustration)
Ortner etc. (graphic & web design)
Galina Mihaleva, Ingrid Thallinger (costumes)
Clemens Bauder, Marlene Rutzendorfer (installation)
Pia Fronia (set photographer, Cine-VR)

Technical Team:
Benjamin Seide
(Cine-VR, technical image design)
Matthias Kassmannhuber (Cine-VR, set sound engineer and spatial audio)
Hongjohn Lin, Chloe Wang (Assistance, Cine-VR)
Barbara Pölzleithner (hublz app)
Stefan Summesberger, Studio SteinHof Musikproduktion (sound recording)
General Assembly Singapore (consulting technical realization)

wonderland – platform for european architecture (project managers)

Simone Barlian (Head of Visual Arts)
Teresa Kranawetter (Assistant Visual Arts)

When
January - December 2024

About the project

TRAIN:

Regional Express is an audiovisual experience on the rail route; a trip from the past to the future. While traveling, passengers can hear the conversation of the Train, the Mountain and Traunsee Mermaid intercut by fragments of interviews with locals. Memories of humans and non-humans retell the story of the Salzkammergut. Petra Ardai created this docu-fiction narrative about how the landscape, the salt, and the industry formed the region. Which powers shaped structures that are still present? What is the place of tradition in the future? You can hop on the train in Gmunden, Ebensee, Bad Ischl, Hallstatt and Bad Aussee. The 5 excursions can be accessed via the QR code and from March 2024 via the Salzkammergut Culture Guide App. 

Bring your headphones!

CINE VR:

From August 2024, a cinematographic Virtual Reality experience directed by Ella Raidel takes the audience to the future and back to the present. The Cine VR  is an immersive journey to caves, mines, and landscapes around the Salzkammergut region in 360° videos. For this experience VR headsets are provided at the venues. Sander Saarmets composed the soundtrack of Regional Express for both the train and Cine VR experiences. 

Interview partners:

Katharina Steiner (Salinen Austria AG), Johannes Weidinger (Geologist, Kammerhofmuseum Gmunden), Wolfgang Quatember (Historian Zeitgeschichte Museum Ebensee), Macdonald Chiemezie Nwokeji (Hello Africa! Freies Radio Salzkammergut), Jasmin Grieshofer (Österreichische Bundesforste), Silvia Dinhof Cueto and Leo Kuhn (in remembrance of their fathers), Alexander Savel (Journalist Traunspiegel), Noelia Torres de Glasser (Tourist Guide), Alexander de Goederen (Kurdirektion Buchhandlung), Ines Schiller (Mayor of Bad Ischl), Ariane Herzog (Salinen Austria AG), Guggi Spitzer, Pauline Lahnsteiner Kienesberger & Ingrid Lahnsteiner (Frauenforum Salzkammergut), Bernd Dankelmayr (Mountain Rescue Obertraun), Rikki Müllegger & Konrad Wallinger (Kino Ebensee), Gerhard Wieser (Salinen Austria AG), Shirin Abo Zraa (Spiegel der Seele, Radio Salzkammergut), Margarete Stüger (Ebensee resident), Reverend Dankfried Kirsch (Vicar of Hallstatt)

Special thanks to:
Edda Hoefer (translations), Sophie Netzer (transcription), Peter Arlt, Martin Heinzl, Georg Rachl (extras) Marie-Sophie Pfeifer, Susanna Burghardt / ÖBB, Ulrike Dirmayer, Stefanie Daubek (Immersive Art Walk)

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