Otto Neurath: Gypsy Urbanism

At a time when contemporary culture is dominated by the mass media and we are all glued to many screens, it is fascinating to contemplate the career of little-known Austrian sociologist, Otto Neurath (1888-1945), a polymath whose intellectual and moral compass - forged in the embers of World War I - led him to predict the dramatic growth of the knowledge economy and to develop tools for a universal pictorial language.

Ever in the interest of advancing participatory forms of democratic exchange, Neurath was by turn an academic, economic minister, housing administrator, museum director and philosopher of science.

He collaborated with the leading planners, designers and artists of his time, - among them Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, Le Corbusier, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and key New Deal intellectuals - and his work had a profound influence on a range of disciplines, including architecture, philosophy, economics, urbanism and graphic design.

With Otto Neurath. Gypsy Urbanism, the MAK Center for Art & Architecture at the Schindler House presents the absorbing work of this passionate intellectual in an exhibition guest curated by architectural critic and theorist, Nader Vossoughian.

On view at the Schindler House from November 4, 2009 through January 31, 2010, the exhibition is loosely divided into three sections.

The scene is set with artifacts and ephemera from Vienna's Settler Movement of the 1920s, when Neurath initiated his public career.