While it is true that digital technologies have merely accelerated processes already unfolding across the industrialized world, they have changed our world and our lives radically over the last four decades. Alongside the growing impact, unease and uncertainty are on the rise, leading the global tech industry into a crisis as we start to question more and more the impact of new technologies (fake news, human downgrading, cyber-crime, trade in personal data, etc.) on the fabric of our lives and society.
Therefore, institutions and initiatives around the globe, including Ars Electronica, are calling for a Digital Humanism that notices these omnipresent transformational processes and reflects on new pathways into a digital society. By initiating the European Platform for Digital Humanism, Ars Electronica and its partners from research, industry and cultural sectors take part in this urgent conversation focused on re-evaluating our relationship to the technologies we’ve created and how we use them – a conversation that is by no means confined to Europe but needs to be tackled on a global level.
User Manual for Digital Humanists is a new series hosted by Veronika Liebl, Director of European Cooperation, and Kristina Maurer, Head of European Projects at Ars Electronica’s Festival/Prix/Exhibitions department. In Chapter 5 they present highlight programmes of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival happening in the framework of the European Platform for Digital Humanism. They also chat with Michelle Thorne, Senior Program Officer at Mozilla Foundation and part of Climate Action Tech, about their fantastic Project Branch Magazine, the winning project of this year’s Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.
The European Platform for Digital Humanism connects the following European projects:
Creative School is funded with the support of the European Union and the French National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme.
Studiotopia is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
EMAP/EMARE is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
The European ARTificial Intelligence Lab is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, Civil Service and Sport.
Beyond Quantum Music is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
STEAM INC is funded with the support of the European Union Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships Programme.
Roots & Seeds XXI. Biodiversity Crisis and Plant Resistance is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Digital Crossover is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.
The OSHub project is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme, through Grant Agreement No. 824581.
STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.The STARTS Prize has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 956603.STARTS Ecosystem has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824950
SySTEM 2020 has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no. 788317.
