Our Ars Electronica Garden Taipei with the title “Formosa Grand Tour” is based on the idea, that in order to cope with the impact of Covid-19, a scientific and efficient action in the digital world must be taken. The Taipei Urban Intelligence Center has developed a digital system that can quickly respond to the risk landscape, people flow, and medial resources across different parts of Taipei by integrating live streaming and data instantly. It also informs the policies of the government. The digitized action on the ground helps us build a more secured environment.
Ars Electronica Garden Newcastle 2021 presents an inspirational response to the Global Digital Deal from the Australian coastal region of the Hunter. Art Thinking et al. join the Experts of the Future frame with a new Future Innovators Summit program dedicated to participants under 19. The program will run over the period of a month in Newcastle with the kickoff happening on Ars Electronica Festival Sunday.
In connection with the core theme of our festival this year, one of our aims is to overcome distance in digital spaces and to support the community of all Online Festival attendees! For that reason, several interactive events will happen during the festival, and we would like to invite you to participate. In today’s session we will introduce our “Buddy System” in specific.
The times we are currently living through are characterized not only by the pandemic, but also by global protest movements. With impressive foresight, Johannes Rass, Julian Pixel Schmiederer, and Gregor Franz have created an entire documentary film on this subject. In “The 2020 Rise Up”, the filmmakers not only examine protest movements—from local offshoots of the worldwide climate protests to the mass anti-government protests in Hong Kong—but also were able to interview key figures in these movements. Their documentary-film work is highly professional and got a Young Professionals Honorary Mention from the Prix Ars Electronica.
“The Burst of Things / Where Are We Standing?” is an artistic project from the two artists María Ignacia Court, Trinidad Piriz from Chile. It is a six-part podcast. Each episode tells the history of Chile’s social movements from the perspective of the objects that shaped them: the saucepans that were banged in the streets, the yellow vests worn by protesters, the turnstile that was vaulted over by students refusing to pay fares, the face masks worn on marches, and a unique interview at a retired Police Weapons Rehabilitation Center. The final episode was Constitutional Therapy, where the current Chilean Constitution, created in the middle of Pinochet’s dictatorship, decides that it is ready to heal its past and go to therapy.