20181127: Technische Universitat | Zentraler Speicherkanal

Holding Graz and Technical University collaborate on developing technologies for urban management–functional systems of analysis, data and spending. The term that came up again and again when talking with experts from these institutions was "clean water.” What is “clean” exactly?

In contrast to the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Tar Sands, or even the EU's ITER energy project, Graz's contestation of the ZSK was uniquely Austrian. While North Americans militarize against protesters opposed to non-renewal, fossil fuel energy, or the French protest against nuclear energy, the ZSK is the center of three parties that all fight environmental improvement, although each party has a different notion of what that entails. The city, represented by Holding Graz, aims to reduce the untreated wastewater entering the Mur. Their position is water quality. The hydropower plant hopes to produce renewable energy for Graz. And the activists are concerned for the ecological well-being of the river, fish, snakes and the trees.

The perception of hydropower plant is duplicitous because many Grazers deduce their intentions as strictly monetary. The fact that the second largest political party in Graz has traditionally been the Communist party, exaggerates the opposition to financial interest over environmental and social benefit. Compounded with the political negation of surveys and grassroots activists who mobilized a referendum on the issue, the frustration of impunity adds insult to injury. But, as Steve Weiss stated, the general perception in Austria of hydropower is positive. Even on a global level, hydropower is considered renewable energy. At COP24, the EU lauded hydropower as a clean source of energy (the political point was that COP24 was in Poland where the right-wing government is supporting the use of coal).

Dr. Kainz, who was the department chair and now the rector of the Technische Universitat, was the Godfather of the ZSK, brokering the benefits between Verbund, which needed traction for their hydro power plant, and Holding Graz, which needed a sewer extension. Kainz had directed me to Gruber as a contact who would speak about the TU’s involvement and design of the ZSK project. Gruber's research began in 2002, when his team began studying the quantities of sewer overflow in the Graz catchment area. His research video has been used in educational settings for the last decades, and I recognized some of the footage from Werner Sprung's presentation.

It was 2pm and overcast; the late-November daylight was bluing. Günter took us to the ZSK construction site. I was hoping to enter the ZSK. We started on a bridge to nowhere, a blockaded extension that overhung the Mur by a few meters. In rainy times, rainwater enters the same drainage canals in the sewers as is used by wastewater from houses and buildings. Because the surface of the city is polluted with toxins, it’s necessary to treat it, especially after the first rain. But excesses of both greywater and rainwater spill out of the channels along the sewers and join the flow of the covered creeks and river, exiting to the Mur at an outpoint. The Zentraler Speicherkanal spans 3 kilometers and connects to exists sewer overflow points, effectively catching the wastewater before it enters the Mur and stores it in compartments that are separated by movable weirs. When the wastewater treatment plant is no longer at capacity, the weirs drop, causing a wave motion, which causes the wastewater to disturb the settled sediments on the floor of the storage canal and wash everything down to the treatment plant. Günter explained all of this from his perch on the bridge, which he explained was used for dumping snow into the Mur. From the bridge he pointed out R 05, the first wastewater outpoint that he studied back in 2002. (Why untreated snow was being dumped into the river, given the polluted surfaces from which it is plowed, while rainwater is diverted, mixed with stored and requiring more funding in the name of the ZSK was not specified.)

It's curious that all three groups of interviewees–the activists Regelsberg and Ulls, Sprung and Gruber–all foresaw and called for the integration of green and blue solutions, like roof gardens, bioswells, and tree planting. The difference was the scale of efficacy that each party claimed. The activists implied blue and green initiatives could have substituted the net effect of the ZSK. Sprung suggested it would be necessary in the future. Gruber stated that it depended on the profile of the city, but that pipes were almost always necessary to solve the problem of flooding and surface pollution run off.

We crossed the pedestrian bridge to see the movable weirs that were under construction. The hydropower plant would raise the height of the Mur by 6 meters at the dam. I asked how close to the underside of the bridge it would be, and guest a few meters; he confirmed my estimate, but I presumed it was a translation issue.

20181216: Art Brunch | LTR

The dimensions of the video on the projector were off, by about 10% in the vertical dimension, making the already difficult act of watching one’s own work even more unbearable. I sat on a bench perpendicular to the screen, meaning everything was distorted, and just looked at the floor while the video played. The edit lasted exactly 20 minutes and anticipated that the audience was largely familiar, even experts, on the topic, which allowed me to omit necessary information, such as “What is the Speicherkanal?” or “What is the relationship between the trees that were cut down for Speicherkanal to be constructed” or “Is the funding of the Speicherkanal a conflict of interest since the hydropower plant paid for half of it, but caused 100% of the Speicherkanal’s necessity?” Instead, I was able to just position different elements and see them playout.

My working direction on the edit was not to produce a final video, but simply a vignette of the most interesting footage I had shot since in Graz. This was a mental leap because a month before I was thinking that I would try to at least treat everything that I filmed prior to the screening, and in a sense make something more “finished.” In that period, I was really preoccupied by the my perceived impossibility of this task, and really it was impossible. Just logging the footage that I shot, prior to the screening would have been very demanding. I was filming even the morning of the day before the screening. When I conceded to myself not to attempt something encyclopedic of my endeavor in Graz, I had a clearer sense of not only what could be done but what I would like to do. This equated roughly to three minutes of my four most compelling interviews, which I had time to work over, and some B-roll. I had over thirty hours of footage and hadn’t even had time to process Joachim, Saubermacher or Walter Felber’s footage.

The film opens on Werner Sprung talking about the air improvement project at the waste treatment plant and how neighbors were complaining about the air quality. The neighbors had wrongly assumed that the treatment plant was exuding horrible smells that were actually being emitted by a neighboring industry. The next shot is Romana Ull talking about the loss of the huchen salmon due to the construction of the hydropower dam, and then cuts to the carp in the hands of the statue at the human rights plaza. Steven Weiss gives the statistic that every year since 1900 a hydropower plant was built or being built in Austria, which was to suggest that this particular project was not an aberration but the norm. Viewers were oriented toward the Speicherkanal by Günter Gruber who was introducing the necessity of the combined sewer storage after the water level will rise when the hydropower plant begins production. He then talks about the need for sewer pipes in order to maintain other urban infrastructure. This was a sort of advance response to Martin’s forthcoming remark. The film cuts to a statue in the Stadtpark of lady justice, blindfolded, with no arms and then cuts back to Romana talking about her experience as an activist and what it was like to see the trees cut down. The film drew from the known public symbols of Graz and, during the edit, I realized it’s opacity was largely contingent on the familiarity of the audience with the visual symbols. It had become an homage to Graz.

After the film, Steve Weiss joined Iris and I in a panel discussion, which quickly became a question and answer session on the verge of public announcements without questions. Most of the questions pertained to things I had learned about the Speicherkanal, inner workings or nuances that weren’t known to the activist community, or my perception of something as an outsider. In a sense, I had been presented as an artists but interpreted as a journalist. Part of the rouse may have been my attempt to answer their scientifically or technically directed questions to the best of my ability, i.e. from memory of what I had learned while making the film. Only one person asked about the video as an artwork.

For the most part I tried to hold the line of a reticent sympathizer. The most controversial thing I said, which is a good indicator of my overall position, since that's what the audience of protester's sought, a position, was that protest is important and has made progress and because of that, this uniquely Austrian situation with the Speicherkanal had been reached. Whereas in the United States and Canada, the ecological protest is occurring at the Dakota Access Pipeline, or the Tar sands, in which corporate-funded paramilitary are exercising force over demonstrators, toward the benefit of a non-renewable resource, in Graz the protesters are fighting against hydropower, which by international standards is considered 'green.' Yes, there is third-party research about the detriment of marine diversity and ecological destruction, but even at COP 24, in Poland, hydropower is held up by the international community of politicians concerned with climate change, as a renewable energy.

Eva had prepared me for the turnout, which was predominantly activists, some of whom, like Betty Baloo, I had encouraged not only to attend, but to subvert the event by passing out pamphlets. The most concerning individual in the audience was Werner Sprung, from Holding Graz. The first question was from Remi, director of ESC, and, as the microphone got passed toward the back of the room, the questions became less interrogatory and more commentary. The toilet rolls acted to break up what could have been a siege of activist negativity that, had it gone unmitigated, would have likely co-opted the entire screening event. These serious, pressing questions, aimed at sharing and anchoring perceived forms of corruption were followed by a mention of gratitude and delivery of a signed toilet roll, which charged a chuckle.

After the talk everyone mingled and the chili vanished before I could make it to the buffet. The turnout was exceptional, I was told by Michael. The most rewarding thing I saw was Steve Weiss and Werner Sprung, two people who thought of each other on the other side of the contest of the Speicherkanal, having what looked to be a fun and friendly conversation.

*

LaTable Ronde is a program of structured, anonymous, invitation-only conversations about a predetermined topic within a closed setting. Iris had helped me organize a talk to commence 90 minutes after my conversation ended. The topic was “Soft Skills.” We re-arranged the chairs and the few outliers who were not privy quietly exited as we began on time. The conversation was slow to start and I was interested to see how it would take off in this setting. I knew about 30% of the group; most of them knew each other.

The most surprising element was the frequent reference to neo-liberals and by the third utterance I realized that I had not heard nor discussed them for over a decade. Was this still a thing here? Hadn’t neo-libs won? That is, the deregulatory, multinational corporations became the old guard and well established and now the question was how to bridge the economies of start-ups, which operate by default within a neoliberal reality, with democratic governance that was more suitable to models of production from the mid-20th century.

I made only two comments, preferring to watch the ecosystem of conversation play out. Stefan Schmitzer made many contributions; he is a verbal thinker. Heidrum explored and advocated for the return of the empathetic. I was happy by the vitality of the talk but skeptical about the affirmations. At the end of the 90 minutes, everyone seemed energized and grateful for participating. Courteous and politely, the afternoon slipped into the dusk.