Back in November, TEDx (a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience) made it finally to Vienna for the first time. As someone, who gets a lot of inspiration out of TED talks, but only follows the conference over the internet, I was eager to visit the event live at Studio 44 in Vienna. And I was not disappointed, I really enjoyed the show and must complement the organisers for the event and selection of speakers. This makes me hopeful, that further conferences will follow.

My favorite talk was by Johannes Grenzfurthner  the founder of monochrom, an internationally acting art and theory group based in Austria. He refers to himself as a "context hacker", someone who selects and uses the best context for mass distribution of messages.

Quite a task in todays world of diminishing values and sensory overload. Isn' it?

In his talk he explains the shift we went through from a disciplinary society of the 50s/60s/70s (society tells you what you should not do) to a society of control today (individuals have only self-imposed control in their head on what they should not do). In todays world of Jackass the "actionism" of last centuries artists like Hermann Nitsch doesn't shock anymore and gets lost in noise.

Johannes's take is that today one needs to "subvert subversion" to make serious tent in the world and he goes on to tell an amazing story on how he and his team invented a fictitious artist a couple of years ago who would then go on to circumvent China's efforts to undermine Taiwan's independence.

Just watch this video yourself - 18 entertaining minutes worth spreading.