S+T+ARTS Exhibition

Where Artists Shape Innovation

Masha Zolotova (RU) / Co-Curator STARTS Exhibition

The triangle of science, technology and art has emerged as a catalyst for creative solutions and alternative visions for our present and future. Why? Because it—and art above all—produces the disruptive innovations we need to become more empathetic and determined in our way to confront pressing issues. How can we contribute to fostering a culture where the arts, science and technology thrive as interconnected and mutually enriching modes of exploration, knowledge and discovery?

The STARTS exhibition sheds light on the impressive and wide-ranging roles of artistic and creative communities, showcasing their potential to act as inspirations and driving forces during these times and beyond. From individual artists to larger institutional efforts, the exhibition highlights projects and initiatives that are actively working to bring about change through their innovative ideas and actions.
 
The exhibition opens with Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Power and Technology, 1500-2025, a large-scale visual manifesto by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler. It not only maps our technological present based on a five-century-long history but also encourages us to rethink how we relate to today’s social, political and technological systems. By asking how we got here, the artists call for the reflection on what the next step might be.

A Way Forward

But is it the only way to look into our past, and, thus, to think about our future? There is no singular view of history; instead, there is a multitude of perspectives that highlight the necessity of foregrounding as a catalyst for dialogue and collective actions those that have been previously oppressed.
 
With the help of technologies, the artists gain the opportunity to bring their rich cultural knowledge to the global stage and safeguard it in an open and transparent manner, to foster a deeper understanding and connection to their heritage, to engage with the audience and provoke thought. The artworks presented not only contest the history, but also empower communities to actively react to the unfairness as in the Balot NFT project that becomes a radical model of restitution of both stolen art and occupied land. The only way to move forward is to acknowledge the role of situated knowledge in the process of invention and innovation. By examining the power structures of the past, we can learn valuable lessons and understand how technologies contribute to reshaping our narratives, offering hope for a more inclusive future.

Artistic Perspectives

What are the next steps? Artistic and creative communities have great potential in shifting the paradigms by bringing their alternative perspectives to the public attention. They continuously question established norms, seek ways to contribute to a more inclusive, accessible and empathetic world.
 
The exhibition features striking creative solutions and artistic-driven innovations of different scales: from individual artistic efforts, DIY prototypes and community-led experiments to multidisciplinary collaborations and large-scale long term partnerships. In their unique manner, the artists question the status quo of technologies today and develop alternative solutions, in order to rethink them in an environmentally friendly way, to adapt the most vital of them to harsh environments or reinforce them by merging with historical methods and practices. The artists also provide insights into otherwise mystified processes, helping to improve citizens’ technological literacy, especially in connection with the rapidly developing field of AI. This is particularly crucial in times when technological advancements go hand in hand with social and economic innovation.

Infrastructures of Power and Care  

Who can help the artists in this endeavor? Institutional support plays a crucial role in nurturing the field’s sustainability and in fostering further experiments. This support ranges from facilitating and mediating dialogue between stakeholders in art, science and technology, to building frameworks and providing access to large-scale infrastructures such as CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or High Performance Computing Centers. Initiatives as STARTS, and programs as Arts at CERN or FUNKEN Academy, illustrate the transformative potential of well-supported infrastructural frameworks not only with bringing the participants together and initiating encounters with attention to all actors involved, but also with dissemination the approach and methodology to the wider community and stakeholders. These infrastructures are essential for achieving transnational scale and for providing the visibility to enable further development.

[Collaborative] Solutions

What could be the result of these collaborations? The fruitful interactions established between art, technology, science and industry can lead to groundbreaking outcomes not only from the perspective of the artists, but also participating industry partners, like small and medium enterprises, as well as decision-, policymakers and society in general. This exhibition showcases inspiring examples of such collaborations that with new products help rethink the traditional approaches, bringing creativity into an industry accustomed to conventions; develop new practices with advanced 3D printing technologies and new solutions to move beyond conventional industrial interaction protocols with robots on production sites.
 
It is precisely these forward-looking approaches and the associated paradigm shifts that the European Commission sets out to promote with its STARTS initiative—Science, Technology, Arts. Ars Electronica currently participates in three STARTS projects: STARTS Ec(h)o, STARTS in the City and STARTS4Africa funded by the Horizon Europe Programme of the European Union and DG CNECT. This exhibition features not only their outcomes as the selection of STARTS Prize and STARTS Prize Africa winners and the projects developed in the residency framework in STARTS4Africa and STARTS in the City, but also in the context of FUNKEN Academy, co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union. Part of the exhibition is presented in the context of Label4Future, funded by the European Union.

• starts-prize.aec.at
• starts.eu

Credits

Presented with the support of STARTS Ec(h)o, STARTS4Africa, STARTS in the City, Label4Future and FUNKEN Academy.

STARTS Ec(h)o is funded by the European Union under Grant Agreement No. 101135691.

STARTS4Africa has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under Grant Agreement No. LC-01960720.

STARTS in the City has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under Grant Agreement No. LC-01984766.

Label4Future is funded by the European Union (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency EISMEA) under grant agreement No. 101133162).

FUNKEN Academy is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.