In 2024, Upper Austria will celebrate 200 years of Anton Bruckner. That’s why visitors to the Ars Electronica Center can immerse themselves in the world of the famous composer with “Being Anton”. A sound experience in Deep Space 8K with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and an installation on the world of thought of Bruckner and his time await, both developed by the Ars Electronica Futurelab.
From mid-January 2024, visitors to Deep Space 8K will experience Anton Bruckner’s sound world and its special features visually and musically – in 3D and interactively, right in the middle of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Another highlight awaiting visitors to the Ars Electronica Center 2024 is an immersive sound space that takes them into the world of thought and intellect of Bruckner and his contemporaries. Here you’ll find musical examples, quotations and cross-references to events that shaped the great composer’s time. The visitors become part of an “interactive mixer”: the room changes with each step that brings other quotes and sounds to the foreground – and thus opens up individual journeys through Bruckner’s world.
Improvisation and innovation
Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden, Upper Austria, in 1824 and musically educated in the neighboring monastery of St. Florian. In Linz he distinguished himself as an organ improviser and composer with a unique tonal language. Later, Bruckner lived in Vienna, where he established contacts with famous fellow musicians and further developed his love of composition. He enriched the music world with nine symphonies and extensive church music. In addition, he was as influential and respected as a music teacher as he was for his extraordinary improvisational skills as an organist. During his lifetime, however, Bruckner was sometimes harshly criticized for his new musical style – it was not until late that his skills were recognized. Since then, it is undisputed that Bruckner is one of the most innovative musicians of the Romantic period, with great influence on music history into the 20th century.
In 2024, Anton Bruckner will therefore be honored with numerous concerts, exhibitions and participatory events throughout Upper Austria. More information is available on the 200th-anniversary website. More information about the work of the Ars Electronica Futurelab, which among other things conducts research on creative AI and music, can be found on the Futurelab website.
Experience “Being Anton” twice a day for about 30 minutes during museum opening hours in the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K starting in mid-January!