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Emmy Award 2008 · Nature Tech

We make the invisible visible.

Alfred Vendl. Materials scientist, cinematographer, director. Working at the border of research and television since 1968.

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200+
Documentaries
40+
International awards
1
Emmy Award, 2008
80
Scientific publications
ORF BBC ARTE ZDF WDR Discovery Smithsonian Terra Mater
Emmy Award

Award

Emmy Award 2008

For the cinematography in “Nature Tech”. What was honoured is a visual language that did not exist before: electron microscopy and CGI within a single shot. Two further nominations in the same year.

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Selected

Jackson Hole
2007 Best Limited Series · „Nature Tech“ 2009 Best Earth-Science Film · „O2“ 2012 Best Visualization · „Planet You“
New York Festivals
2002 World Gold Medal · „Limits of Perception“ 2013 Gold World Medal · „Planet You“ 2013 Silver World Medal · „Limits of Light“

Profile

Two careers that never split apart.

One path leads into the laboratory, the other behind the camera. Their combination produces footage that would not exist otherwise.

Science & Research

Studies in materials science at TU Vienna, PhD. Research at Imperial College London, University of Freiburg im Breisgau, University of California San Diego and the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart.

Full professor at the University of Applied Arts Vienna from 1981 to 2014 and head of the Institute of Art and Technology. Since 2016 director of the Science Visualization Lab at the Department of Digital Art.

Around 80 scientific publications in materials science, archaeometry and art technology.

Film & Television

Trained as a cameraman in Vienna, freelance cinematographer since 1968. From 1970 working for ORF as cameraman, writer, director, producer and host of scientific talk formats.

Writer, director and producer of more than 200 prime-time documentaries, among others for ORF, ARD, ZDF, WDR, BR, ARTE, BBC, Discovery, Smithsonian and WNET.

Numerous international television awards, among them the Emmy Award 2008 for the series “Nature Tech”.

1968
since
15
Films
43
Awards
1
Emmy

awarded further works

Phone
+43 676 5079209
Production
alfred.vendl@uni-ak.ac.at
University
alfred.vendl@uni-ak.ac.at

Films & Awards

Forty years of prime time.

a selection

Nature Tech – The Genius of Nature 13 Emmy Award

Emmy Award CINE Golden Eagle Award, Washington 2006

Nature Tech – The Genius of Nature

ORF · ARTE · Smithsonian Channel · BMBWK

2006 · MR-Film · 3 × 52 min

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Science Visualization Lab

Too small, too large, too fast, too slow.

Processes in the micro- and nanometre range lie outside human perception. Light, confocal and electron microscopy, micro-CT and purpose-built CGI are combined into moving sequences that show these processes instead of describing them.

Publication

Doors to Hidden Worlds

The Power of Visualization in Science, Media, and Art

2023 · De Gruyter · Edition Angewandte

If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.

William Blake

Forty years of making things visible: how measurement data turns into imagery, and what comes to light that the eye alone would miss. Scientists, media practitioners and artists of the Science Visualization Lab present their work and explain how it…

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Festschrift – 10 Years Science Visualization Lab

Publication to the exhibition: 10 Years Sci Viz Lab – Celebration and Outlook!

2026 · Science Visualization Lab, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien

Published in 2026 for the tenth anniversary of the Science Visualization Lab at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, edited by Martina R. Fröschl. The Festschrift accompanies the exhibition “10 Years Sci Viz Lab – Celebration and Outlook!” and gathers…

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Current Projects

Noise Aquarium

A project of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Department of Digital Art. Plankton, microscopically imaged and reconstructed in three dimensions, meets the noise humans introduce into the oceans. Shown in Los Angeles, Brisbane and Singapore, among other places.

noiseaquarium.com →

Direction

Alfred Vendl · Martina Fröschl

Microscopy

Rudolf Erlach · Stephan Handschuh · Martin Glösmann · Thomas Schwaha · Manfred Walzl

3D Animation

Reinhold Fragner · Martina Fröschl

Institution

University of Applied Arts Vienna, Department of Digital Art

Symposia & Talks

Outside the Routine

Work that fits no broadcasting slot.

Tattoo
Tattoo 1969
Wer zuletzt lacht
Wer zuletzt lacht 1958
Visiting Carl
Visiting Carl Short film
Microskopia
Microskopia Experiment

Contact

Questions about the work?

This site documents a body of film and scientific work. For enquiries about the films, the archive or the use of material, a message is enough.

Alfred Vendl
+43 676 5079209
alfred.vendl@uni-ak.ac.at