What does it really mean to shape the world? How do you find confidence in your ability to influence? What role does our mental health play in society? Who takes responsibility? Will we turn the tide?
The theme of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival is “HOPE” – a manifestation of the fact that there are indeed many reasons to be hopeful. As part of this theme, there will be a “festival within the festival” – the create your world Festival. Or: The Future Festival of the next generation. Four days that invite you to experiment and try things out: New technologies, special ideas and unusual lifestyles in different open labs create a space for sharing and discussing different individual definitions of hope. There will be a special focus on mental health, especially for young people. By immersing themselves in a variety of processes, visitors will be able to find new approaches to art, technology and society.
The youth of today
‘The create your world festival is an initiative. We work with children and young people, we want to see what concerns them and how they are doing,’ says Hans Christian Merten, who has been in charge of the u19 CREATE YOUR WORLD initiative at Ars Electronica since 2013. ‘The young generation bears a great deal of responsibility. These days, you wake up and you’ve already done five things wrong. In times of pandemics, between reports of war and destruction, young people are often left alone and feel powerless. We live our lives with a guilty conscience, while at the same time we feel a constant obligation to make the world a better place. And the fact is that the suicide rate among young people is rising dramatically,’ he says. ‘Our society has many challenges. But in terms of democracy and individual needs, maybe we should think about what we can contribute. Creating our own mental health and environment so that we feel good and strong is perhaps the best way to help us all.’ And it doesn’t take superstars to do it. This is the message of the Prix Ars Electronica’s u19 – create your world category, whose winning projects will be presented at the Festival. Instead, we are looking for perspectives and ideas for a common future.
The future leaders of tomorrow
The Prix Ars Electronica’s u19 – create your world category is the first point of contact with the people who will shape the world of tomorrow. ‘The participants are getting younger and younger,” says Merten. ‘That shows how great the need is to look and listen.’ What moves them? What weighs on them? And where do they find hope? The winning projects, which will be presented at the next festival, are not only an expression of good ideas and great visions, but also raise questions, change perspectives and provide insights. They show once again that change is not only desirable but necessary: sustainability, digitalisation and community are key themes. Subtitled ‘The Page Turners’, the festival from 4 to 8 September 2024 will explore the concept of hope and collective change, emphasising the importance of individual mental health as a basis for contributing to society. ‘For me, this is a democratic precaution,” says Merten.
Who will turn the tide?
Is there really only two sides, or is it more of a multiple choice scenario that we as a society have to go through together? For initiator Hans Christian Merten, reorientation is not a binary process, but one in which many different aspects have to be taken into account. Of course we should all change something – but who can or wants to take the lead in making decisions? Each and every one of us. And that should not sound threatening, but hopeful: ‘The definition of hope is a very individual process. Now it is a matter of integrating our individual hope into the global collective hope in order to turn the tide together. That sounds complex and intractable. Perhaps it is. But there is still hope that we will embark on a path of change,’ says Merten. ‘Because only if I feel good can I change the world!’
The next chapter: Time to create!
This year’s festival will bring together a wide range of renowned artists, associations and companies to offer visitors of all ages a glimpse into the world of tomorrow, and the opportunity to share and discuss their own personal definitions of hope. ‘The idea is to forget time and focus on one thing for as long and as intensively as you like. Asynchronous learning, far from rigid systems,’ says Merten. ‘Immersing oneself in the various open labs gives visitors the opportunity to find a new approach to art, technology and society.’ This year’s create your world festival brings together a colourful mix of projects from a wide range of fields that will shape the world of tomorrow. For example, the ‘do-together’ app for local help that is often forgotten in our fast-paced times. The interactive game ‘Ecopolis’ invites participants to learn about sustainable urban living. The game allows them to explore and test solutions for creating green and resilient cities. The best way to explore the Power Playground of Energiewende Linz is by exploring the interactive installations on sustainable living and energy transition. The roadLab, a mobile makerspace from the Technical Museum Vienna, offers visitors the chance to get hands-on with ingenious technology. Equipped with 3D printers, laser cutters and workshops, visitors are invited to get to know digital production techniques.
Pageturners welcome!
The “Hoffnungsschmiede” (Forge of Hope) is a particularly good example of how to become a “page turner”: the Rube Goldberg machine is started twice a day and is based on the conviction and experience that every person is capable of creative and self-organised processes of problem solving. Inspired by the artist Joseph Herscher, it is a playful device that performs everyday and mundane tasks, but covers incredibly complex and long distances. This involves triggering a series of reactions, including falling books, rolling marbles, swinging pendulums and turning wheels.
Ready to change the world?
‘Shaping the world is more important than ever, because we have to take care of ourselves before we can help others,’ says Merten. From 4 to 8 September, all inventors, thinkers and knowledge seekers are invited to try out the various open labs at POSTCITY Linz free of charge and immerse themselves in new worlds. If we focus on individual and collective development at the same time, there is a realistic hope that we can successfully master the challenges of the present and the future together,” he is sure.
The create your world festival will be held as part of the Ars Electronica Festival from 4 to 8 September 2024. Tickets are available here.
Hans Christian Merten
Hans Christian Merten has been in charge of the u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD initiative at Ars Electronica since 2013. He studied audio technology and design in Vienna and completed various courses at the Bruckner University in Linz. From 2002 to 2010 he taught at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg (media technology and design) and at the Secondary School for Communication and Media in Freistadt. From 2010 to 2013 he was artistic director of the award-winning festival ‘kult – das neue Mühlfestival’ in Freistadt, and since 2005 he has been a freelance artist and director of the project studio Music for Film & Media in Gutau (Upper Austria).