The ARS Electronica Festival is the leading festival for art, technology and society. After the corona pandemic the festival is back in full swing and I was exciting to attend and explore the festival once again.
Future Festival with a long tradition
The Ars Electronica festival first took place on 18 September 1979. At the beginning it was a biennial festival and has been an annual festival since 1986. It also awards the Prix Ars Electronica. Over the years it has developed into an annual highlight when it comes to the discussion of technology developments by means of artistic expression. It asks critical questions but also makes you think about progress. Can the speed of human development keep up with technological progress?
With the opening of the Ars Electronica Center and the Future Lab in 1996 and was remodeled in 2009. It unfolds its whole splendor at night when it is lit up in all different colors. It is certainly a modern highlight of Linz – a city that is a place where one can feel innovation.
As a matter of fact Linz is one of those cities where I always like to come back. But now back to the Ars Electronica. For me the Ars Electronica is one of those highlights where I wish there was such an event every week.
The ARS Electronica Center
The ARS Electronica Center can be visited all year long. It is just like any other regular museum. On different levels the center tackles different parts of digitalization and technological innovations – be it technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning, big data or virtual reality.
You might want to start in the basement of the museum where they tackle the questions around big data, AI and data security. What data trace does a human leave over the course of 24 hours. Is artificial intelligence impartial or biased? Can it even ever become impartial if it is trained by humans? Already this part of the museum provides tons of opportunities that make you think. Considering this quest for enormous amounts of data is it not that some big companies act like drug addicts to an extent? And as humans add more and more devices to their lifestyle the amount of data collection increases. The argument of companies like Apple is that it would benefit us. But does it really? Does collecting all these health data for example really benefit humanity? Well, for me there is at least room for discussion. But this area of the Center also tackles other important like climate change, population growth and environmental pollution.
The upper floors are divided into different thematic areas. The one floor I really like is the one where they combine AI and music. There, visitors can try out all kinds of things. One of the highlights is certainly the Boesendorfer Piano where they work on the issue whether artificial intelligence can comprehend music and play a piano with the same „emotions“ as a human. I find this part almost metaphysical. What are emotions? On what level do they take place? From a biological standpoint are they a chain of chemical reactions?
Probably my favorite part of the Ars Electronica Center is the DeepSpace 8K – an 8K cinema experience. This time I watched two presentation in a row. The first was the presentation of the gigapixel project of Pietro Perugino’s frescoes in the SIstine Chapel. That one was really great! Unfortunately filming and taking pictures was not allowed. And the second one was a concert with solo piano and visuals. Something I really like in this venue. This is always a unique experience.
Kepler’s Gardens
The headquarter of the Ars Electronica Festival is at the so-called Kepler’s Gardens which is essentially at the Johannes Kepler University. The Johannes Kepler University is a little bit outside of the center of Linz. It takes approximately 20 to 30 mins by tram to get there. Whenever I come here it feels like a playground for tech geeks. There are so many different parts to discover. On the one hand there are all the exhibitions that one can discover in all the buildings and on the other hand there are all the exhibits outside like the sound gardens. This year I liked that part of the festival.
Ars Electronica Festival: 11 Different Locations
For those that want to experience the whole festival which pretty much runs the whole week they can also attend different events at the festival with their festival pass. I might consider doing that next year. All in all the whole festival takes place at 11 different locations all over the city.
The one thing I liked a lot was the AI driven art installation at the St. Mary’s Cathedral. This cathedral is the second largest cathedral in Austria after the Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna. And the inside is so impressive. Now, they put an art installation there and the program said that one should come after the sunset in the evening. So that is what I did. And I must say this experience was almost magic for me. The cathedral was almost empty and with the darkness and only a few parts that had light it was great. I really like the open-mindedness that a church agrees to such an installation.
I was sad that I had to leave in the end. Even though I must say that there are so many experiences on needs to „digest“. It is an exhausting festival because they present so much information. But for next year I am really considering to go for the whole festival with a proper festival pass etc.
More Info
The festival website: https://ars.electronica.art/festival
The Ars Electronica Center: https://ars.electronica.art/center
DeepSpace 8K: https://ars.electronica.art/center/en/exhibitions/deepspace
