Art, Technology, Society

Ars Electronica or Measuring the New World

As a “Museum of the Future” and “School of the Future,” the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria, shows how new technologies like robotics and artificial intelligence are changing our lives.

PHOTO: ARS ELECTRONICA/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The digital revolution has turned everything upside down. It has brought forth new technologies and established new business models. Airbnb obtains more overnight accommodation than the five largest hotel chains of the world combined; however, it operates no single hotel. Uber is the world’s largest driving service enterprise, possesses however not one cab. Alphabet takes up to ten times more money for advertisement than the world’s largest traditional media company without producing contents themselves or even feeling responsible for contents. But is that all? Is it enough for us that a few corporations have become immeasurably rich?

Together with thousands of artists, scientists, technologists, developers, activists and entrepreneurs from all over the world, Ars Electronica is working to bring about a “Human-centered Technology” and a “Digital Humanism.” This global network of universities, labs, local authorities, governments, the EU Commission, companies, and NGOs is doing everything it can to make technological innovation a catalyst for social innovation.

Mirage – An Interactive Experience, Ars Electronica Festival 2020.
PHOTO: ARS ELECTRONICA/TOM MESIC/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

But how is this to be achieved? By acting between the chairs and forming a common endeavor from individual concerns. Since 1979, Ars Electronica has been a stage, forum, laboratory, atelier, workshop, and school all in one, constantly building bridges between disciplines, industries and “worlds” that otherwise remain separated. This tireless search and the forging of new alliances is driven by the conviction that technology is a cultural achievement and that culture therefore shapes technological development. From this, in turn, it follows that a platform like Ars Electronica must always operate in and with a broad public and not in some ivory towers.

Anyone can have a look for themselves: At the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria, aimed at young and old, experts and laypersons alike, visitors can explore how technologies like artificial intelligence are changing our lives and how we can influence them.

The annual Ars Electronica Festival, which is considered Europe’s most important and largest event for visions between art, technology and society, brings those who shape the future into conversation with those who will live and work in that future. Always in attendance are also artists whose outstanding works have been honored in the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s most traditional competition for cyberarts, as well as researchers from the Ars Electronica Futurelab, Ars Electronica’s think tank and innovation engine, who present their prototypical future scenarios for discussion. A hotspot of this fair for future ideas is not least the Ars Electronica Campus, which every year becomes a showcase for achievements and a discussion forum for more than 50 universities from all over the world.

The future is being shaped everywhere. Since 2004, Ars Electronica has therefore not only been active in Linz, Austria, but has also been designing exhibitions, open labs, workshops and conferences for and together with museums, universities and companies all over the world. A central and year-round venue for these international activities is Japan, the number one technology country.

“Not the smallest piece of technology on our planet has fallen from the sky, but was conceived, constructed and implemented here by us humans,” says Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica. “That is exactly why it is up to us alone to decide what we want to do with our ever new technologies. And in order to be able to answer this question again and again, we at Ars Electronica are pushing for artistic research that focuses on us humans, our needs, our desires and our feelings, and seeks a dialogue with the broadest possible audience.”

More information:
Ars Electronica: https://ars.electronica.art/news/en