Infrequently Asked Questions (2015 – 2016)

Photographs: kollektiv fischka / kramar

All people develop skills to survive in their particular physical, social and cultural environments. Once a person migrates to another place, however, some of those skills become entirely obsolete. The person might be confronted with a new climate, language, and new rules of social behavior, customs, and attitudes. And the common expectation from them is to enter an endless learning process. Infrequently Asked Questions was created by asking an unusual simple question to newcomers in Austria: What are you good at? A selection of migrated knowledge and skills is displayed to remind us of something that we often forget: Values of things are social constructs, not absolute facts. What one considers valuable skill or knowledge depends on where and by whom the evaluation is made.

IFAQs was awarded the 2015 Erste Bank MoreValue Design Prize. Developed in the context of Stadtarbeit/Vienna Design Week in 2015.