So much has happened in the Ars Electronica think and do tank since it began in 1996. The way it reacts directly to changing times has made the lab what it is today: a place to develop prototypes for the future. New people with unconventional ideas and experiences have created a wide variety of new perspectives on the principle of innovation. And they keep bringing new approaches, methods and technologies into the lab’s system to keep up with constant change. Only one thing has remained the same over all these years: A common mindset that unites the team and inspires them to develop their own individuality, to critically question the familiar and to constantly reflect on the status quo to overcome boundaries and reinvent the future. With a clearly defined goal: technological progress must be in the service of life on this planet. Art serves as a compass for the Alchemists of the Future — and as an important source of inspiration. So on its 25th birthday, September 9, 2021, the lab celebrated one thing above all: the people who have committed to this challenge; both as individuals and as part of an international, interdisciplinary community.

Ars Electronica Futurelab Team 2021
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab: Roland Haring, Technical Director
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab: Horst Hörtner, Managing Director
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab: Hideaki Ogawa, Artistic Director
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The lab’s international team celebrates 25 years Ars Electronica Futurelab. Production team of the 25th Anniversary Series
Photo: Birgit Cakir

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Morning Inspirations – Inspiring the world together

The pandemic as well as the climate crisis and the digital transformation have brought one thing home to us: Changes are coming to our society and our daily lives and there are no easy answers to the open questions. And yet it is high time to act, because the call for change is louder than ever.
With its experience in developing prototypes of the future, the Lab makes a valuable contribution in the search for inspiration; with the help of a tried-and-tested concept: Art Thinking is the thought experiment lived daily in the Ars Electronica Lab — a promising combination of art, creativity and collaboration.
Transcending geographical, cultural, economic and even disciplinary boundaries, the Lab offered a wide-ranging discourse with Morning Inspirations on September 9. Former and current Ars Electronica Futurelab staffers, international guests and partners, and the students who had traveled from 43 nations as part of the Festival University took part in the event in person in the Ars Electronica Center’s crowded Skyloft, or attended remotely. The response from participants from a wide variety of nations was overwhelming, and their different perspectives on today’s big questions became part of the program.

Denise Hirtenfelder, Ars Electronica Futurelab: International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Hideaki Ogawa, Ars Electronica Futurelab: International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Ghost Dive with Kyoko Kunoh, Ars Electronica Futurelab: International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Ghost Dive with Kyoko Kunoh, Ars Electronica Futurelab: International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Anna Oelsch, Ars Electronica Futurelab: International experts, researchers and artists, young innovators and future activists were interviewed about the important questions of the present and the future in Deep Issue Talks and an open discussion. They offered their thoughts on a viable path and what specific actions to take.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

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Afternoon Experiences – Developing sketches of the future

Later, the lab team invited participants to spend some time with future perspectives and innovation in Afternoon Experiences: from personal conversations and encounters to guided journeys to interactive experiences in the hybrid exhibition Alchemists of the Future, which presents the innovative approaches using works from the lab. Visitors had a chance to embark on an unusual journey into the future.

A highly sensitive Wacom tablet makes the characters visible to the naked eye but can also store them digitally. Everything else is taken care of by biological processes from the realm of nature: the living microorganisms expand the human-designed messages into an amazing natural spectacle.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

In the Ars Electronica Center’s Bio Lab, visitors were able to discover their fascination for the microcosmos and personally experience the interplay between nature and technology by watching living ink grow (Bio Ink Experience).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

In the Ars Electronica Center’s Bio Lab, visitors were able to discover their fascination for the microcosmos and personally experience the interplay between nature and technology by watching living ink grow (Bio Ink Experience).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

In the Ars Electronica Center’s Bio Lab, visitors were able to discover their fascination for the microcosmos and personally experience the interplay between nature and technology by watching living ink grow (Bio Ink Experience).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

In the Ars Electronica Center’s Bio Lab, visitors were able to discover their fascination for the microcosmos and personally experience the interplay between nature and technology by watching living ink grow (Bio Ink Experience).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A “Social Wall” made of recycled e-ink displays offers the opportunity to make a collective visual statement through hand signs (Hands for the Future).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

An entertaining stay between future perspectives and innovation was offered by the Lab’s team within the framework of the Afternoon Experiences: personal conversations, encounters and guided tours (Guided Journeys) to interactive experiences in the hybrid exhibition Alchemists of the Future.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

From 2022 exclusively on record – until 2046: “Memo Futurum”.
Credit: Birgit Cakir

AI Ink allows visitors to interact with the composition-AI “Ricercar” in an intuitive, creative way. At the interactive station, participants can use a digital pen tablet to describe how they experienced the past year emotionally based on a temperature curve. The curve is analyzed by the system and translated into an individual musical interpretation of the Blue Danube Waltz.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

How does robotic origami work? Visitors to the Alchemists of the Future exhibition can try their hand at creating complex structures and immerse themselves in Oribot research.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

How does robotic origami work? Visitors to the Alchemists of the Future exhibition can try their hand at creating complex structures and immerse themselves in Oribot research.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

How does robotic origami work? Visitors to the Alchemists of the Future exhibition can try their hand at creating complex structures and immerse themselves in Oribot research.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

How does robotic origami work? Visitors to the Alchemists of the Future exhibition can try their hand at creating complex structures and immerse themselves in Oribot research.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

How does robotic origami work? Visitors to the Alchemists of the Future exhibition can try their hand at creating complex structures and immerse themselves in Oribot research.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Understanding AI: An entertaining stay between future perspectives and innovation was offered by the Lab’s team within the framework of the Afternoon Experiences: personal conversations, encounters and guided journeys to interactive experiences in the hybrid exhibition Alchemists of the Future.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A special highlight of the exhibition was the Hybrid Space. As a place between worlds, it offered a wide variety ways to interact through telepresence robots and consider the tension between analog presence in the exhibition and digital presence in virtual space (Hybrid Space).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A special highlight of the exhibition was the Hybrid Space. As a place between worlds, it offered a wide variety ways to interact through telepresence robots and consider the tension between analog presence in the exhibition and digital presence in virtual space (Hybrid Space).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A special highlight of the exhibition was the Hybrid Space. As a place between worlds, it offered a wide variety ways to interact through telepresence robots and consider the tension between analog presence in the exhibition and digital presence in virtual space (Hybrid Space).
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Meet the Alchemists: Online Networking Session
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Meet the Alchemists: Online Networking Session
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A varied program in Deep Space 8K also showed visitors current developments at the intersection of art, technology and society that the Lab has been working on this year: A behind-the-scenes look at the Lab’s 25th Anniversary Production featured Deep Virtual, offering plenty of room for new ideas for video production in a virtual environment.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A varied program in Deep Space 8K also showed visitors current developments at the intersection of art, technology and society that the Lab has been working on this year: A behind-the-scenes look at the Lab’s 25th Anniversary Production featured Deep Virtual, offering plenty of room for new ideas for video production in a virtual environment.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

A varied program in Deep Space 8K also showed visitors current developments at the intersection of art, technology and society that the Lab has been working on this year: A behind-the-scenes look at the Lab’s 25th Anniversary Production featured Deep Virtual, offering plenty of room for new ideas for video production in a virtual environment.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

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Night Performances – Shaping change through art

A highlight of the extensive program was the Night Performances in Deep Space 8K. Visuals based on the sound, electric noise from the artists’ render engines and deep neural networks bathed the packed Deep Space in a charged atmosphere on the evening of September 9. Lots of guests — partners and former employees of the Lab — celebrated this very special day together with the Ars Electronica Futurelab team.

Futurelab Day: Night Performances in Deep Space 8K
Photo: Birgit Cakir

With a specially designed Experts of the Future workshop, the Lab’s youngest members gave children from around the world a voice — and a stage to participate in the discussion about their future.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

With a specially designed Experts of the Future workshop, the Lab’s youngest members gave children from around the world a voice — and a stage to participate in the discussion about their future.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day: Night Performances in Deep Space 8K
Photo: Birgit Cakir

These prototypes for Electronic Origami Instruments were produced in a multi-part workshop with Anna Oelsch. During the Night Performances, the participants wowed the audience with the sound of hybrid art at the intersection of origami and robotics.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

These prototypes for Electronic Origami Instruments were produced in a multi-part workshop with Anna Oelsch. During the Night Performances, the participants wowed the audience with the sound of hybrid art at the intersection of origami and robotics.
Photo: tom mesic

These prototypes for Electronic Origami Instruments were produced in a multi-part workshop with Anna Oelsch. During the Night Performances, the participants wowed the audience with the sound of hybrid art at the intersection of origami and robotics.
Photo: tom mesic

These prototypes for Electronic Origami Instruments were produced in a multi-part workshop with Anna Oelsch. During the Night Performances, the participants wowed the audience with the sound of hybrid art at the intersection of origami and robotics.
Photo: tom mesic

These prototypes for Electronic Origami Instruments were produced in a multi-part workshop with Anna Oelsch. During the Night Performances, the participants wowed the audience with the sound of hybrid art at the intersection of origami and robotics.
Photo: tom mesic

Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Numerous guests – partners and former employees of the Lab – joined the Ars Electronica Futurelab team in celebrating this very special day in the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K.
Photo: tom mesic

In Sounding Letters, Ali Nikrang accompanied the celebration with a musical homage to the letters A.E.F. and A.E.C., translating the initials of the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ars Electronica Center anniversaries into music generated jointly with the AI.
Photo: tom mesic

Morphologies: Realtime visualized concert by Maki Namekawa (JP/AT), Rubin Kodheli (AL/US) and Cori O’Lan (AT)Visualisiertes Konzert in Echtzeit von Maki Namekawa (JP/AT), Rubin Kodheli (AL/US) und Cori O’Lan (AT)
Photo: tom mesic

Morphologies: Realtime visualized concert by Maki Namekawa (JP/AT), Rubin Kodheli (AL/US) and Cori O’Lan (AT)Visualisiertes Konzert in Echtzeit von Maki Namekawa (JP/AT), Rubin Kodheli (AL/US) und Cori O’Lan (AT)
Photo: tom mesic

Morphologies, the visualized piano performance by pianist Maki Namekawa and visual artist Cori Oʼlan, transformed Deep Space 8K into an atmospheric landscape that expresses music with a real-time visual interpretation, in a melancholic dialogue between analog sound and digital image.
Photo: tom mesic

Temazcal (Javier Álvarez, 1984):Visualisierte Percussion Performance von Elliot Gaston-Ross (UK/IE) und Florian Berger (AT)
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Temazcal (Javier Álvarez, 1984):Visualisierte Percussion Performance von Elliot Gaston-Ross (UK/IE) und Florian Berger (AT)
Photo: tom mesic

The audiovisual performance [ˈdaːzaɪn] by the artist duo Sective is an abstract narrative of a disembodied figure in virtual space and its return to the natural state of physical reality
Photo: Birgit Cakir

The audiovisual performance [ˈdaːzaɪn] by the artist duo Sective is an abstract narrative of a disembodied figure in virtual space and its return to the natural state of physical reality
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day: Night Performances in Deep Space 8K
Photo: Birgit Cakir

To audiovisually explore the geographical edge of the planet in the Mariannengraben, Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth-Fohringer and Johannes Pöll delivered a graphic firework accompanied by an incomparable accordion noise performance.
Photo: tom mesic

Horst Hörtner, Ars Electronica Futurelab Managing Director
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day: The Ars Electronica Futurelab Team Welcomes Guests to the Night Performances in Deep Space 8K
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director of Ars Electronica, and Horst Hörtner, Managing Director of the Ars Electronica Futurelab, receive the Mayor of the City of Linz, Klaus Luger.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Numerous guests-friends, partners and (former) Ars Electronica employees-joined the Ars Electronica Futurelab team in celebrating this very special day.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Numerous guests-friends, partners and (former) Ars Electronica employees-joined the Ars Electronica Futurelab team in celebrating this very special day.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

Futurelab Day, Night Performances: Numerous guests – partners and former employees of the Lab – joined the Ars Electronica Futurelab team in celebrating this very special day in the Ars Electronica Center’s Deep Space 8K.
Photo: Birgit Cakir

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Read more about the Ars Electronica Futurelab‘s milestones and stumbling blocks on its path to the future and the Art Thinking philosophy of the interdisciplinary team – in a book recently published in collaboration with author and curator Andreas J. Hirsch. Get to know the Future Alchemists and the background to their research at the boundary between art, technology and society – in an extraordinary video series created on the occasion of the lab’s 25th anniversary. Or visit the hybrid exhibition Alchemists of the Future in the Ars Electronica Center or also online. A brief preview is provided by Hideaki Ogawa with a video tour of the exhibits.

Translation: Laura Freeburn