User:Umwelten/sandbox

= Umwelten (anonymous collective) = Umwelten ( Pronunciation: [ˈʊmvɛlt(ə)n]) is an international practice working at the intersection between the fields of art and architecture. The identities of those involved within the practice remain unconfirmed and subject to speculation. It is not precisely known when the practice was founded, though notable work attributed to the collective emerged from as early as 2025. The practice has been the recipient of a number of prominent awards including a Global Award for Sustainable Architecture and was controversially awarded the 2042 Pritzker Prize though this has never officially been recognised by any representative of Umwelten to date. As elucidated by Dr. Jang Hee-Lee of the Strelka Institute in the introduction to the practice's eponymous 2038 monograph, the work of the practice "challenges anthropocentric notions of the built environment and marks, if not the first, then surely the most radical and provocative architectural manifestation of posthumanist theory to date."

Identity
The identities of those involved within the practice remain unconfirmed and subject to speculation. In a 2029 phone interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist transcribed and published by the LUMA foundation, it was revealed that one of the members of the practice is pseudonymously named Ben. According to Obrist, the anonymity of those within the practice is fundamental to Ben as "both a mechanism to dismantle the illusion of the singular genius and as a signifier that the work is not altogether the product of and for human intervention and will."

Ben
Ben is the pseudonym of one of the members of Umwelten. Information regarding Ben's history is extremely limited but knowledge regarding the workings of the practice has been vaguely disclosed via interview. Personal information is avoided with all known interviews taking place over landline phone services. As the subject of considerable media attention these phone calls have been traced across the globe to nondescript locations within major cities including: Brussels, Istanbul, London, São Paulo, Seoul, Seattle, Tokyo and Zurich. The spatio-temporal variety of the interviews has convinced many media outlets that Ben does not represent a singular person and is in fact a pseudonym used by a variety of Umwelten members whose voices are artificially altered to sound similar over the phone.

Practice
The practice is registered as a limited liability company (LLC) believed to work as an architectural collective whereby all members exist separately as identifiable individuals attached to various creative outlets across the globe. These members come together and collaborate anonymously to produce work under the Umwelten title. Describing and analysing the practice's output is challenging as a consequence to the elliptical nature of the work with critics acknowledging this fact in review. The work has however been variously characterised as non-intentional, posthumanist, phenomenological, relational and intuitive. As one critic writing for the Architectural Review has stated, "the work finely navigates and acknowledges the vital elisions between human and non-human life, designing for a world beyond the end of our noses."

Etymology
Umwelten is the plural of the German Umwelt meaning "environment" or "surroundings" and often translated into English as "self-centered world". In the semiotic theories of Jakob von Uexküll and Thomas Sebeok, umwelt is the "biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal".

Influences
Through multiple interviews with Ben a variety of influences have been discussed. Ben has stated that the work of Swiss architect Peter Zumthor was a considerable influence due in part to his philosophy that the power of architecture lies in its direct experience and that preconceived agendas/signs/representations should be limited where possible. This philosophy, coupled with support of the Cypherpunk movement, has guided the practice's endeavour towards anonymity and accounts for the fact that the work is largely unpublished besides the practice's eponymous monograph published by Verlag Scheidegger und Spiess in 2038. The works of other phenomenological architects and scholars such as Juhani Pallasmaa and Keneth Frampton have also been cited as influential as well as the ontological philosophies of Martin Heidegger, Michel Serres and Gilles Deleuze. Environmental philosophy has also been a major subject of interest with the work of Donna Haraway, Emanuele Coccia, Timothy Morton and Arne Næss quoted in numerous interviews. Various other artists and architects that have had influence on the practice include Baukunst, Smiljan Radic, Pierre Huyghe, Tracey Emin, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Gregory Crewdson and David Lynch.

Multilateral NDAs
As the practice is inherently cross-disciplinary, Umwelten regularly collaborates with a wide variety of external parties. In order to ensure anonymity the practice enters into multilateral non-disclosure agreements with all external parties by necessity. Examples of the types of collaborators include builders, artisans, master craftsmen, engineers, scientists, local residents and governing bodies.

Location
The practice is believed to be decentralised with no publicly known office building or premises. The practice is registered as an anonymous limited liability company (LLC) in Nevada, whose registered agent pertains to the PwC offices in Las Vegas.

Funding
Though never fully disclosed by Ben, funding for Umwelten projects is speculated to be largely sourced from individual members as earned from their external creative outlets. Further funding is sourced from the sale of the monograph and the project sites of Umwelten interventions whereby human entry is often contingent on monetary payment and temporary surrender of all photographic/permanent data gathering technologies. These conditions are ensured through automated electronic identity entry and security systems installed on site.

Projects
Umwelten projects are varied, highly site specific and often located in isolated environments distanced from major human populations.

The non-human interventions are initially established through intentional physical manipulation of site conditions. These interventions are designed to encourage or discourage inhabitation and proliferation of various non-human entities, both biotic and abiotic. According to Ben, "it is expected that the projects deviate from any intentional scenario we design on site, we are interested in studying the vital dramaturgy of ecological systems."

Aside from the non-human interventions, the projects also usually include a form of human inhabitation with specific programmes including shelters, viewpoints, short and long stay accommodation, entertainment venues, memorials and environmental research/procurement facilities. The locations of specific projects have intentionally never been disclosed publicly by any member of Umwelten, encouraging an "appreciation for the spontaneous excitement and mystery of discovery." As a consequence many of the projects are first found serendipitously by mountaineers, climbers and hikers.

Enthusiasts
Due to the apparent secrecy and mystery surrounding the work and practice of the collective, Umwelten has gathered a cult following.

There are multiple instagram accounts documenting enthusiasts as they travel to isolated environments in search of Umwelten projects. The environmental implications of such pilgrimages has been the subject of negative critique. On one occasion when questioned about such issues, Ben responded saying "our practice is concerned with intensifying the presence of things in the hope that this might bring about change. The environmental impact caused by human curiosity is much more a critique of human transportation methods and energy distribution than a critique of our work."

A particular group of enthusiasts who call themselves "The Acolytes" run the subreddit /r/acolyte and are dedicated to the pursuit of guiding other enthusiasts towards Umwelten project sites. They release a series of cartographic data sets revealing vague locations of project sites found through their own excursions. In line with the subreddit rules, no location can be precisely revealed with a requirement that at least a 15km "mystery" radius surround a specific located work.

Recognition
The practice has been the recipient of notable awards though none of these prizes have been officially recognised by any representative of Umwelten to date. As a consequence there are discussions to revoke awards presented to Umwelten. Others see the practice's apparent apathy as a call to abolish the toxic power structures that govern such awards.

Awards

 * 2025: Marcel Duchamp Prize
 * 2032: Turnip Prize [revoked]
 * 2035: European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (aka Mies van der Rohe Award) for undefined Scottish project [revised]
 * 2037: Praemium Imperiale, Japan Arts Association [revised]
 * 2038: Dale Cooper Award for Achievement in Anonymity
 * 2039: Jane Drew Prize
 * 2039: Global Award for Sustainable Architecture
 * 2042: Pritzker Prize [revised]