Veronika Liebl, Managing Director, Ars Electronica and Andrew Newman, Producer European Platform for Digital Humanism, Ars Electronica dedicate the fourth edition of Inside Festival to the topic of “Critical Journalism” and present a total of four projects that address the topic from different perspectives.
The artistic project of Celeste Rojas Mugica (CL/AR) “Ejercicios de aridez (Aridity Exercises)”, developed between 2017 and 2021, focuses on the image of a two-kilometre-long “Corvo” knife, a historical emblem of the Chilean armed forces, meticulously drawn with chalk on the surface of the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth. There is no certainty about the authorship of the drawing, but the image testifies to intention and the permanence of the physical territory into which it was etched.
Curated by the recipients of the first ever Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity, Branch Magazine, this year’s theme conference explores the ways in which, moving forward, the internet must serve society’s collective liberation and ecological sustainability. Four panels chaired by Michelle Thorne, Chris Adams, Christine Lariviere, Andres Colmenares and Alex Deschamps-Sonsino engage critically with topics such as climate justice and equality, populism and the dismantlement of power structures, solidarity and care as well as low-carbon design and education.
The Werkleitz Festival 2021 in Halle shows with the support of Creative Europe, 44 artists and artist collectives have been working over the last four years on the most urgent challenges of our time at the eleven institutions of the European Media Art Platform. They are exploring global warming, maritime pollution and water quality and creating artificial creatures as metaphors for post-human maritime life.
*INCERT* is an experimental animated film that looks at current political and social developments and shows them in their extreme form. The title is composed of the words “invert”, “insert” and “uncertain” or “certain”. Isa Mutevelic had the idea for the project. He brought Simon Effenberger and David Stummer on board to realise it. An animated short was created over a period of four months and received the Young Professionals Award in the u19-create your world category at the Prix Ars Electronica 2021.