"My approach to the electronic networks is that of a visual artist."

Robert Adrian was born in Toronto, Canada, on 22 February 1935 and lived in Vienna since 1972. The visual artist and pioneer of telecommunication art passed away on Monday, September 7th, 2015.

It is not only the international telecommunications projects he has conceived, for instance "The World in 24 Hours" (1982) and "WIENCOUVER IV" (1983), or the ostensibly easy accessibility, at least on the simplest level, of his pictures/sculptures of “poor materials” that has made Robert Adrian an important model for many artists, particularly of the younger generations. It is above all his theoretically founded way of working, of engaging in constructive collaboration and discussions.

ROBERT ADRIAN and KUNSTRADIO

ORF KUNSTRADIO, which was established in 1987, took its name from the KUNSTFUNK project organised by the artists group BLIX (Robert Adrian, Helmut Mark, Zelko Wiener). This network project had its headquarters in the Vienna Secession and not only resulted from the collaboration with international artists, but was also created together with radio amateurs who brought their satellite Oskar into the network.

Not least through the close collaboration with artists who participated in or were influenced by early telecommunications projects, KUNSTRADIO was able to contribute on an international level to the new definition of radio art in the 90ies and it has also come up with a number of innovative projects.

2015 - 20 years of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE

The KUNSTRADIO homepage went online in April 1995. This was initially made possible by x-space, a Graz group of artists (Gerfried Stocker, Horst Hörtner, Martin Schitter), with a self-built server that soon was replaced by the provider thing.at, which was operated by artists (Helmut Mark, among others) and became the home of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE until 2004. In 1995 Robert Adrian created the basic structure and design of KUNSTRADIO ONLINE, which is still being used today. Until 2000 he managed the artist-staffed team of this website with strong personal commitment. It didn't take long before KUNSTRADIO ONLINE became one of the most important and varied radio art homepages in the world.