Ars Electronica Festival 2019
Don‘t miss the Deep-Space-Festival-Program!
During the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival, you can visit not only the many new exhibitions at the Ars Electronica Center, but also a multifaceted program in Deep Space 8K. In this interview, you’ll learn why that program is one you shouldn’t miss!
Swarm Intelligence and Art: The artistic vision behind Swarm Arena
A modern-day alchemist, electromagnetic Folklore instruments and display-carrying groundbots: The artistic vision behind the Swarm Arena performance at Miraikan, Tokyo, in July 2019 shaped a spectacle bordering on magic. Here, we hear from participating artists Akiko Nakayama and Ei Wada – and find out which elements of Swarm Arena to expect at this year’s Ars Electronica Festival.
A design concept based entirely on fun: FUNGUAGE
At the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival (September 5 – 9), FUNGUAGE ROOM will show what happens when you design human-to-object interaction with FUN in mind. We talked to the two leading artists and researchers responsible for the new design concept that wants to bring more joy to communication with our inanimate surroundings.
Gallery Spaces 2019: "Contemporary Art is Media Art"
For the third time in 2019, the Gallery Spaces Program will bring numerous international galleries and collections with their different positions on digital art to the Ars Electronica Festival, September 5-9. With its ongoing work and experience in the production and presentation of media art and digital art, Ars Electronica is the ideal environment for this exchange.
So many gorgeous ideas
Festival Friday is STARTS day - or rather S+T+ARTS, because the magic formula is Science + Technology + ARTS. Exactly in this connection lies a powerful potential for innovation, to consider the innovations of our time on various levels and to think socially, ecologically and economically.
World premiere: 8K Live Stream from Japan to Linz
On August 28, 2019, Deep Space 8K at the Ars Electronica Center will be the venue for a real world premiere: This is where the first intercontinental 8K Live Stream will take place via a public link from Japan to Linz. In the interview, we found out what challenges this entails.
The infinite spaces of the POSTCITY
One last time the Ars Electronica Festival takes place in the POSTCITY. One last time, the festival takes over new spaces and locations in this abandoned postal distribution center. Martin Honzik explains what's new this year.
"WE GUIDE YOU" through the festival jungle
The WE GUIDE YOU programme offers an overview and orientation in the thicket of 10 locations, 500 events and countless projects by over 1,000 artists. This year Spotlight Tours, Experts Tours and Community Parcours, among others, will give visitors an insight into the programme.
Kalina Bertin: "ManicVR was part of a deeply healing process"
Kalina Bertin, filmmaker and director of ManicVR, invites us to join her on a journey into the "inner worlds" of her siblings who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In 2019, she was awarded the Golden Nica in the Computer Animation category for her work.
Space to think: Ars Electronica Art Thinking School
“Art Thinking is not a methodology, but an attitude”, says Ars Electronica Futurelab curator and key researcher Hideaki Ogawa. As such, Art Thinking can be cultivated – which is precisely the aim of the new initiative Art Thinking School, premiering at the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival.
Lots of green and fiery red flowers for the POSTCITY
Corn, grains, sunflowers and beans: We visited the City Gardens Linz to convince ourselves that the plants for the Ars Electronica Festival are growing and flourishing. They are part of the festival architecture and will bring some warmth into the bare halls of the POSTCITY.
The last Big Concert Night in POSTCITY
It is the prelude to the first ever "AIxMusic Festival" and at the same time one of the last concerts to take place at POSTCITY Linz during the Ars Electronica Festival. We talked to Norbert Trawöger, the artistic director of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, and Gerfried Stocker, the artistic director of Ars Electronica, about this fascinating place, Gustav Mahler and artificial intelligence.
BR41N.IO Hackathon for Creative Minds: The Direct Wire to the Brain
Connecting the human brain with the specially developed controller - from September 7 to 8, this will become reality for several teams at the Ars Electronica Festival 2019 in POSTCITY Linz. Whether controlling drones by thought or mixing the right cocktail by brain activity, you can now get your place for brainstorming and developing software and hardware together in 24 hours!
"We are not alone!": Bauhaus and Ars Electronica celebrate together
The Bauhaus University Weimar is not only celebrating 100 Years of Bauhaus this year, but students, teachers and alumni are also presenting themselves as a partner university at the Ars Electronica Campus 2019. In exhibitions and panels, they are encouraging: "We are not alone!"
With OK│CyberArts 2019 on the pulse of time
Every year, the OK im OÖ Kulturquartier exhibition takes on its role as a visionary observatory and uses international media art projects that received awards at the 2019 Prix Ars Electronica to showcase the trends and current developments of our time.
"Ars Electronica Campus is like a chamber of wonders"
Since 2002, the Ars Electronica Campus at the Ars Electronica Festival has brought international universities to Linz to present their work and exchange ideas. This year, 57 universities will be represented with more than 200 projects both at POSTCITY and at the University of Art and Design Linz.
Futuristic sounds, danceable pop and a pinch of humor: The Ars Electronica Nightline 2019
Ars Electronica Nightline is an annual highlight of the Ars Electronica Festival program not only for the dance-lovers. The train hall of POSTCITY hosts this late Friday lineup of media art, electronic music and performances.
Volkmar Klien: Total Optimization and Defiance - About artificial intelligence and musical composition
Volkmar Klien, co-curator of the AIxMusic Festival as well as of the Sonic Saturday at the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival, on the relationship between AI and music.
Human Limitations - Limited Humanity: The Possibility of Going Beyond Borders
At the 2019 Ars Electronica Festival, artists from all over the world fill the POSTCITY bunker with media art. This year's projects will be exploring the question of human limitations with different approaches.
From Chile to the Ars Electronica Festival
After a successful debut at last year's Ars Electronica Festival, they will be back again this year: Selected media artworks by Chilean artists are again part of an extensive program of guest projects to be shown in Linz from September 5 to 9, 2019.
"Ars and the City": In the City, with the City, for the City
What has Ars Electronica done in the city, with the city and for the city? The exhibition "Ars and the City" at the LENTOS Kunstmuseum will explore these questions during the festival on the occasion of this year's 40th anniversary of Ars Electronica.
AI x Music Festival: A look ahead
Music is probably the most emotional art form of all. If we observe people talking about music, recalling their experiences and memories, a difference to their usual style quickly becomes apparent. They touch their hearts, lower their voices, look inside, let their emotions run free. Music is an art form that expresses our feelings in an almost magical way.
"The PERI elements are like Lego"
To build an 80,000 square metre abandoned industrial area with structures that enable media art. The architects Jürgen Haller and Christoph Weidinger are once again taking on this seemingly unsolvable task this year at the Ars Electronica Festival 2019 in POSTCITY.
Gender, Virtual Reality and playfulness at the Ars Electronica Animation Festival 2019
The best of 835 Prix Ars Electronica submissions in the Computer Animation category will be presented at the Ars Electronica Animation Festival. In an interview, curator and director Jürgen Hagler talks about what visitors will be able to expect this year, what trends the industry is currently experiencing and what he personally looks forward to the most.
"What does exploitation smell like?"
Sweat and work are inseparably linked in Paul Vanouse's installation LABOR. In an interview, the winner of the Golden Nica explained to us how odours develop and why he recreates this process in the laboratory.
“Technology is nothing without the human intention behind it”
Claire B, one of the two artists behind the exhibition Mirages & miracles, talks in this interview about technologies, stones, poetics and the relationship between these elements. The new exhibition at the Ars Electronica Center opened on June 25 and continues until March 2020.
netidee promotes innovative projects that make the Internet better
No more entries can be submitted for the Prix Ars Electronica 2019, the winners have been announced and the Golden Nica awards are planned. However, you can still apply for the netidee call 14. We'll introduce you to a few projects and explain how you can apply.
Life gets better through Artificial Intelligence
It is the second most densely populated metropolis and one of the three most visited cities in Europe: Barcelona. The Innovation Bureau 300,000 Km/s, which was awarded the STARTS Prize 2019 for the "Ciutat Vella's Land-use Plan" project, shows how new technologies can help to make urban space a place worth living in.
The apt noise for our disturbed existence
The Prix Ars Electronica 2019 Golden Nica in the category “Digital Musics & Sound Art” is staying in the country: for the first time, an Austrian has won the prize as a solo entrant. The Austrian composer and producer Peter Kutin studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, and has written and developed music for film, theater, performance, contemporary dance, and radio.
Project Alias: Rediscovering the Private Sphere
With “Project Alias,” Bjørn Karmann and Tore Knudsen of Denmark demonstrated a simple yet effective way to take back control over our own private sphere, which earned them the STARTS Prize of the European Commission. We talked with both of them about privacy, parasitic fungi, and the appropriate narratives.
