Horst Hörtner

  • AI Ink

    AI Ink

    Noise is an important element in the creativity of artificial intelligence. To understand the relationship between noise and the “soul” in a machine, we used temperature and human interaction as noise in the AI Ink project while composing music with artificial intelligence. After all, temperature is also associated to emotions in the human body.

  • Bio Ink

    Bio Ink

    In Bio Ink, we bring together biotechnology and digital pen tablet technology to create living ink that grows freely beyond human input. The research explores co-creation with other organisms and nature. Bio Ink is part of the Ars Electronica Futurelab’s Future Ink research.

  • Hybrid Space

    Hybrid Space

    Over the years, the Ars Electronica Futurelab has done a lot of research on various forms of reality and their forms of presence or interaction. In the wake of the pandemic forcing us all into virtual video spaces, the Lab is dedicating its 25th anniversary to collective exploration of the intersections and boundaries between different…

  • Future Ink

    Future Ink

    Life Ink / Bio Ink / AI Ink / Space Ink

    The Future Ink Project is a collaborative research project between Wacom and Ars Electronica Futurelab to explore the future of creativity from all aspects of ink. As the world’s leader in pen tablets, interactive pen displays, and digital interface technologies, Wacom brings people and technology closer together through natural, intuitive interface solutions. Through the joint…

  • Open Futurelab 2020

    Open Futurelab 2020

    The Open Futurelab already planned for 2020 was redesigned into a major experiment due to the Covid pandemic – intended to create a hybrid interaction space that confronted the difficulties of social distance as well as the opportunities presented by telepresence. For not only the lab itself, but the entire festival was challenged by the…

  • Open Futurelab 2019

    Open Futurelab 2019

    The festival site at POSTCITY in Linz was used as a stage for Open Futurelab until 2019. Created with the Japanese public broadcasting company NHK, Media Platz was a prototype of an open media plaza consisting of cardboard and high-resolution screens, which was used as a forum for public debate. Various panel discussions took place…

  • Swarm Arena @Miraikan

    Swarm Arena @Miraikan

    In the beginning, there was a shared research interest: How can swarm-based technology be embedded in everyday media use and what new possibilities of communication or artistic expression does it offer as a visual medium? The Japanese telecommunications company NTT and the Ars Electronica Futurelab have been investigating these questions since 2017 and have repeatedly…

  • swarmOS

    swarmOS

    swarmOS is a powerful operating system to control large-scale swarms of UAVs (flying drones) as well as UGVs (drones that drive on the ground), invented and constantly expanded by the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

  • Understanding AI

    Understanding AI

    What can we understand by the term Artificial Intelligence and what do we want to understand by it? What do we actually understand about human intelligence and what does it have to do with attempts at modelling it?

  • Lazarus

    Lazarus

    For the musical’s adaption of Lazarus for the Musiktheater Linz (English with German dialogue), the Landestheater Linz engaged in a special cooperation with the Ars Electronica Futurelab, in order to utilize media art to stage the material in a special contemporary appearance.

  • Swarm Compass

    Swarm Compass

    Japanese telecommunications giant NTT and the Ars Electronica Futurelab have been working together since 2017 on how to use drones—aka unmanned aerial vehicles—as a means of communication. The Sky Compass project laid the groundwork in 2017; now, Swarm Compass takes this initiative to the next level.

  • Swarm Arena

    Swarm Arena

    Swarm Arena is the latest outcome of joint research efforts by the Ars Electronica Futurelab and Japanese telecommunications giant NTT. The collaboration started in 2017 with the aim to work on using unmanned aerial or ground vehicles (UAVs and UGVs) as a means of communication.