When the Ars Electronica team saw the Telegarden by American artist, writer, inventor and robotics researcher Ken Goldberg at Siggraph 1995 during the preparation and construction phase for the first Ars Electronica Center, it was clear to him that he wanted to bring this work to the Ars Electronica Center. Ingeniously, it addressed the vision of the Internet as a social space and raised the question of the social behavior of people who could only meet virtually. From 1996 to 2004, the Telegarden was exhibited on the ground floor of the museum and was online around the clock for its international community of gardeners. The robot was connected to the Internet and the garden could be observed via two cameras. With its small tools, the robot, controlled via the network, could place seeds in the soil and the users themselves were responsible for watering their plants on a daily basis. Over time, the Telegarden community grew to over ten thousand members. Hackers attacked it, sometimes successfully, but the Telegarden community was always on the spot and helped with countermeasures. Telegarden members from all over Europe also met several times for real meetings in Linz.
In our Throwback series, we look back at past events, exhibitions, installations and other exciting happenings from the Ars Electronica universe since 1979.