At times we wish that we could foresee the future, whether near or distant, what might unfold in the world. Individual foresight and eyesight merely share etymological roots, with the latter, seeing, retaining some objectivity among us sighted creatures. Human vision, as a complex biological process, is shaped by the proximate empirical world. This intimate bodily connection renders a “disembodied” vision virtually inconceivable. However, the aid of optical devices and technical visual prostheses has allowed for the development of a distinct form of vision, reaching beyond the immediacy of our bodily experience.
In many domains, vision is now delegated to technology. New tech sees for us—deep into our world, even into the future—leading to vision becoming increasingly detached from the body and its physiological functions. What does this mean for us?
Lynceus (from the Greek for “lynx-like”), a character from Greek mythology, had a special gift. Not only did he possess a keen and alert eye, helping him recognize our world’s beautiful moments, he also had a technical eye, allowing him to see through people, walls and objects to the very core of our world. As one of the most important Argonauts, his clear vision, both near and far, was an advantage. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe regarded Lynceus as remarkable. In his drama Faust II, Lynceus, the tower warder, announces the arrival of Helen in the third act, and witnesses Mephisto’s arson in the fifth act. The song of Lynceus the tower watchman begins with an ode to sight and the world:
To see is my dower,
To look my employ,
My charge is the tower,
The world is my joy.
My glances afar light,
My glances light near,
On sun, moon and star-light,
On woodland and deer.
In all the eternal
Adornment I see,
Well-pleaséd with all things,
Well-pleased too with me.
Ye eye-balls entrancéd,
Whate’er ye have seen,
Where’er ye have glanced,
So fair hath it been !
The first part of the poem breaks off abruptly. Nature’s harmony seems but a memory, an internalized vision, while a looming threat of danger and devastation waits:
Not alone though to delight me
Am I posted here so high.
What a horror to affright me
Threatens from the midnight-sky !
Glancing sparks stream helter-skelter
Through the lime-trees’ double night ;
Ever wilder glows the welter
By the draught fanned fiercely bright.
Ah, the inner hut is flaming
Moist and moss-grown that did stand there,
Speediest assistance claiming,
Yet no rescue is at hand there.
Misadventure oh how dreadful !
Woe is me ! The good old folk,
Once about the fire so heedful
Victims fall they to the smoke.
Flames are flaring ! Glowing redly
Stands the black and moss-grown frame.
Kindly souls, if from the deadly
Hell they could but rescue them !
Lambent tongues of flame it launches.
‘Twixt the leaves and ‘twixt the branches.
Withered boughs that flicker burning,
Briefly glow and fall, I see.
Ill-starred eyes, such sight discerning !
So far-sighted must I be !
Crashes in the little chapel
Burdened ‘neath the branches’ fall.
Barbed flames already grapple,
Wreathing, with the summits tall.
Now unto the roots the hollow
Trunks are glowing purple-red. —
What the eye once loved to follow,
With the centuries is dead.
Lynceus, the tower, a time marked by multiple crises and the many questions surrounding the power of sight: these are the starting points for the University of Arts Linz’s contribution to Hope—who will turn the tide—the theme of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival. On Linz’s Hauptplatz a tower built by die architektur, a department of the University of Arts Linz, allows visitors to reflect on themes of vision and sight, offering a variety of interpretations. The idea of having a tower rise over Linz’s Hauptplatz is something Paul Eis and Maximilian Meindl have been playing with for the last two years. Yet the tower is not meant to be seen as a symbol of power or control. On the contrary, the idea is based on critical self-reflection and encourages the ability to see different options: How do we see? Who sees for us and influences our perception? What is it we want to see?
Is it possible that Lynceus has grown weary of his analytical and predictive vision? Has it reached its limits? A vision that not only impresses with its clarity but is aware of its own limitations and directs attention to openings and potential. A vision that engages with obscurity playfully rather than attempting to lift its veil? This brings up the question of what happens after vision. What is next? What would you dream of if you could see everything? In short, what are Lynceus’ Dreams?
ARCHITECTURE
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BAUBONANZA beta
Lisa Ackerl (AT), Merlin Grossmann (AT)
AI-supported tools enable rapid production of market-friendly illustrations – also in the architecture and construction industry. BAUBONANZA beta generates architectural renderings from hand-drawn sketches. The juxtaposition of human-made input with AI-generated results encourages reflection on one’s own perception of architecture.
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postCITYlife
Daniel Schöngruber (AT)
postCITYlife is a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of current education and construction policy processes in Linz. The short film, created with the help of generative AI systems, uses surreal sequences to tell the fictional story of the founding of the postUNI on the site of the former postal distribution center at Linz’s main train station.
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Wirtschaftsräume
Daniel Bracher (AT)
A spatial view of the economy. A cinematic essay about places of production and services in forestry and heavy industry, tourism, and transport and the underlying infrastructures that cross our everyday spatial life and yet remain mostly hidden.
DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY
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Crafting Futures Lab
Irene Posch (AT), Monja Hirscher (DE), Julia Moser (AT)
The Crafting Futures Lab explores the future of crafts, crafts of the future, and the design of futures. It was initiated to provide a place for research and design practice and education that inquire into the social, technological, and aesthetic interactions of crafts and digital technologies. It serves as the central platform for associated teaching,…
FASHION & TECHNOLOGY
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cooling algae
Hannah Pekarz (AT)
Hannah Pekarz explores the possibilities of sodium alginate used in clothing by creating a biomaterial that has a cooling effect on the body.
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PULMONAUT
Lia Larrea (EC/US)
An Exploration of Art, Science, and Breathing Technology for Fashion Design Pulmonaut explores the intersection between technology and design through the science of breathing and the art of glassblowing in a sculptural fashion context. As astronauts explore the depths of space, pulmonauts explore the depths of their breath.
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Trans Voices
Sookie-Celeste Simair (AT)
Trans Voices aims to raise awareness of the diversity of trans- and gender-non-conforming people, who often hold back their voices for fear of discrimination. In interviews with three trans people, emotions are analyzed by AI and used to change the surface of a 3D object.
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WHY ARE WE SO RUDE?
Gerald Brandstätter (AT)
We are producing, consuming, and disposing at an ever-increasing rate. The WHY ARE WE SO RUDE? collection addresses this concern, seeking alternative resource management strategies.
FINE ARTS
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AI ANALOG – BREAKING THE CHINESE ROOM
Hanna Sheu (AT)
The short film AI ANALOG – BREAKING THE CHINESE ROOM explores and questions Searle’s thought experiment. The protagonist seeks answers from Alexa and ChatGPT but receives unsatisfactory responses.
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All Pigeons Go to Heaven
Lera Entmayr (AT)
Wohin denn sonst? / Where else? My activism and art desires to highlight the misery of city pigeons. Not only their role as residents of our urban spaces, but also how governments apply unethical and unproductive measures to control their population.
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Emergence Layout
Domen Hitrec (SL)
The artwork Emergence Layout integrates traditional stained-glass motifs and Islamic patterns with contemporary digital technology and intricate fractal mathematics.
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Flachspüler
Samuel Haas (AT)
An AI-generated image shows parts of a toilet and its glitchy connection to the sewer system. The toilet is an object we are all familiar with and an interface to the canal system that forwards our excretory products.
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Malassezia
Luzia Stempfer (AT)
DIY synth noise Malassezia is music for introverts, who would have preferred to stay at home with the houseplants. The live performance uses a setup consisting of small, self-soldered synthesizers and a vintage, out-of-tune zither, instead of new, expensive equipment.
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Plastic Flowers
Armin Alian (IR)
Plastic Flowers is an audio-visual installation about personal narrative, cultural symbolism, and societal dynamics through the lens of an Iranian artist in Austria. Reflecting the rich pictorial and literary history of flowers in Iranian culture, this experimental biography delves into the shifting cultural meanings in both the artist’s journey and the broader societal context.
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un:alive:obduction
Catrin Manoli (AT)
A voyeuristic stare at a lifeless animal body being autopsied: a sound is created by the contact between the flesh and the guided scalpel blade. Keeping non-human animals godless is an idea of power that human animals can have over anything that can be suppressed.
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سیمرغ /SIMURGH
Sheida Ramhormozihosseinizadeh (IR)
Simurgh: Wings of Existence Simurgh: Wings of Existence is an interactive kinetic sculpture inspired by Object-Oriented Ontology and Persian mythology. Reflecting on the interwoven nature of existence, the sculpture embodies Simurgh’s wisdom and unity.
FINE ARTS / CULTURAL STUDIES
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silent dancefloor
Noel Fischer (DE)
Where is the collective healing process? The more privileged ones need to look more beyond the spectacle. Especially now that “the scene” is exposed to so much hype. It is not just the real-estate market that is gentrifying the dance floor. Gentrification also comes from within the club. We as a potential community must be…
GRAPHIC-DESIGN AND PHOTOGRAPHY
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Confusion
Nadezhda Ivanova (RU)
The project aims to address loneliness, digital insecurity, and dependency on social media. Through three AR animations, everyday life scenarios are depicted, showing how people interact with the digital environment, which, unfortunately, is not always safe and often brings feelings of envy or loneliness. The message is simple: the internet is not evil – we…
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN
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Nexus
Verena Langthaler (AT), Marco Mrcela (AT), Maximilian Kanzler (AT)
Audiovisual Performance on the Complexity and Interconnectedness of our World Nexus explores the subtle and often overlooked connections between the opposites and contradictions that shape our world. The combination of music and audio-reactive visuals creates an immersive experience that invites viewers to navigate the spaces between digital and analog, dialog and discourse, sound and silence,…
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Smell Check
Lucas Rupp (DE), Hans Trinkaus (DE)
Smart device for detecting hypo- or anosmia Smell Check determines whether a person has completely or partially lost their sense of smell. For this purpose, the device combines electroencephalography (EEG/brainwave measurement) with a scent application.
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UN.DISCIPLINED
Felix Grabmaier (AT), Bernhard Grabner (AT), Dominik Inreiter (AT), Alexios Klits (DE), Jakob Mair (AT), Leonhard Pauli (AT), Florian Steidl (AT), Alexander Werth (DE), Liam Wohlwend (LI)
A critical design laboratory for desirable future visions Our world is created through visions. What do images of a positive future look like? Can speculative design encourage and inspire us to imagine a different future technology?
INTERFACE CULTURES
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(Very) Neural System
Martina Pizzigoni (IT)
(Very) Neural System delves into the intricate dynamics of identity construction in the digital age. Harnessing the power of AI, a hyper-realistic emulation of the artist’s persona emerges as an amalgamation of seemingly authentic features collected from major companies.
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4everfeed
Maria Orciuoli (IT)
Once Alessia_3K, now the face of an AI-powered video ad, scrolls her way through self-staged caricatures and CGI effects for the era of mass entertainment. The artist blends fiction, the lexicon of online performances, and the generative paradigm to stage ads scripted by TikTok’s AI assistant.
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Blue Danube
Sofia Talanti (IT)
The artist’s brainwaves, used as input for the visual output, bring the project to life. Through a data visualization and resolution of mental health issues (depression and PTSD), the artist gives space to numbers and data collection to catalyze thoughts as a time factor.
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City Culinary Journey
Liyuan Dong (CN), Weichen Zhang (CN)
This is a microwave-based interaction experience where you can taste the signature dishes of a city and listen to its stories. Set the city parameters in the tangible microwave, choose the ingredients, and wait for the AI to find the prepared dishes.
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Création Nocturne
Maria Konstantinova (RU)
A mystical ceremony is conducted to honor and nurture a rare species, Création, blooming for just a single night. Création Nocturne is a participatory performance that invites visitors to study and reflect on the causes of existential terror-induced insomnia through collective meditation.
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EchoCore
Rene Preuer (AT), Mathias Gartner (AT), Ingrid Graz (AT)
The human heartbeat pulsates as an echo of our innermost feelings and longings. In EchoCore, this essence comes to life through illuminated and malleable soft spheres, awaiting the touch of the viewer. Through touch, the heartbeat is imprinted, setting the spheres in motion.
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Echoes of the past
Viktoria Angyal (HU)
Echoes of the past is an interactive installation that collects, records, organizes, and fuses the memories of the audience together. Visitors are invited to contribute by talking about their pleasant childhood memories, which are then presented as a collection.
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Ghosts
Ahmed Jamal (EG)
Ghosts is an interactive installation that uses sensors and robotic arms to create a dynamic, playful space. It challenges the expected behavior of machines, sometimes responding to users, sometimes not, creating confusion and mistrust. It represents the glitches and distractions of everyday life and aims to make machine interaction more human.
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GODSPEED
Andrea Corradi (IT)
Godspeed explores the Doppler effect as a compositional tool using a drone equipped with speakers to create real-time harmonic shifts. This acoustic performance is being tested through the support of qujOchÖ in the southern harbor district near the former Quelle department store, the LINZ AG sports field, and the Hello Yellow Velodrome.
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I am, We are
Yuseung Lee (KR)
How do you perceive yourself, and how do we see ourselves? I am, We are is an interactive installation with two sections, “I am” and “We are.” In “I am,” users complete the sentence starting with “I am…”. AI analyzes and visualizes these responses, assigning emotional scores.
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io
Doğuş Karlık (TR)
io (in/out) is a term used for the interface of signals or data received or sent by a system. It can also be interpreted as inside and outside. This device stands at the point where those two meanings dissolve into each other. An artificial auditory environment is generated inside the helmet from the video stream…
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Leonardo LASER Linz
Fabricio Lamoncha (ES) & Christa Sommerer (AT)
Scientific revolutions lie not only in discoveries but also in changes in their practices, goals, protocols, and evaluation methods. The laboratory, originally dedicated to scientific work and characterized by rigor and dedication to experimentation, now resonates across disciplines, promoting creativity and collaboration. Through our guests’ experiences and songs, we will explore the laboratory as a…
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New Cartographies
Behiye Erdemir (TR)
New Cartographies explores the unseen landscapes of electromagnetic space. Transmitted images capture snapshots of this landscape at specific moments and locations, visually representing the dynamic electromagnetic spectrum. Variations in clarity and distortions reflect the flux of electronic activities, offering glimpses into our digital habits.
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On the breathing wings of a horse
Maria Dirneder (AT)
On the breathing wings of a horse is an interactive art installation that merges human breath with the essence of equine movement. The horse’s gait captures a unique breath, intertwining with the rhythm of nature. This project explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and horses.
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Post-humanity Zoo
Ahmad Aiuby (EG)
In 20xx, a deadly pandemic outbreak killed 60% of humanity. A disaster has led a group of zoologists and environmentalists to build a zoo as an archive of what capitalism/humans, which/who caused this pandemic, have done to our environment.
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Self – eluded
Lilly Stelzer (DE)
Perception shapes our reality, a reality in which we seek understanding, yet fear the feeling of being exposed. Can we truly grasp the essence of others? What happens to our understanding of reality when perception itself becomes elusive?
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Shock Value (or Cadavre Exquis)
Alessia Fallica (IT)
Shock Value is an exploration of how image generation positions itself in the stratified issue of digital violence and gore voyeurism, and how the medium employed for its production – artificial intelligence– influences its impact and consumption.
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Super Tapestry
Sule Suarez (CO), Lukas Romero (CO)
Super Tapestry is an ambient proposal that blends into an experimental ensemble: live coding, a phase vocoder in Max, and guitar with effects pedals. The project is a collaboration between musician Lukas Romero (Niu Toronja) and visual artist Sule Suarez.
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Symphony of a Koi
Flavia Luna Somarriba Perez-Desoy (ES/FR/NI)
This project is meant to help hospital patients feel calm and more at ease. It features a concrete audiovisual environment with intuitive, game-like interactions, allowing patients to momentarily escape the mental challenges and stress of their situation.
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Tangible AI
Salma Aly (EG)
Tangible AI is an interactive installation that explores the evolving relationship between artificial intelligence and human emotion. It utilizes AI to detect and interpret the emotions of the audience through facial expression.
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Technosymbiosis
Emma Silvana Tripaldi (IT)
The project delves into the relationship between users and algorithmically-driven social media, designed for personalized content selection. It presents this relationship as a symbiotic connection where both influence each other.
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The AI is on vacation
Till Schönwetter (DE), Miguel Rangil (ES)
The AI is on Vacation humorously subverts the initial promise of a helpful assistant by presenting an AI that is taking a break. Set against a sandy, beach-like backdrop, this GPT-based model playfully dodges typical utility-driven responses, offering evasive replies that challenge the expected functions of such advanced tools.
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The Scream of Music
Daniel Fischer (AT)
The Scream of Music is an innovative audio installation in a public space that reinterprets national identity, communication, and borders. An iconic image from The Sound of Music, associated with Austria, is transformed into yodeling music and transmitted across the Danube in Linz using an LRAD (long range acoustic device) loudspeaker.
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Through Other’s Eyes
Camilla Scholz (DE)
Through Other’s Eyes delves into the subjective nature of perception through an interactive video installation. Videos of everyday life in Linz are fragmented into an interactive collage of human, animal, and computer vision.
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What is it like (to be)?
Danielius Šermukšnis (LT), Mantė Elelueta (LT)
Have you ever dreamt of being a bat? What is it like (to be)? is an immersive experience that delves into the individual’s relationship with their environment and senses using echolocation. The artwork invites the viewer to take on a new role of a creature locating itself by emitting sound, while others observe the newly…
MEDIA CULTURE AND ART THEORIES
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2022
Inga Morawski (DE)
2022 is an art project by Inga Morawski that explores the year 2022 from the artist’s perspective and its connection to world events. The project consists of 365 personal photographs taken by the artist, accompanied by screenshots capturing politics and world events during the same time. The project raises questions about the artist’s life and…
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Dreaming in Bubbles
Andrea Hörndler (AT)
Sometimes we build dream worlds; we float in bubbles. We leave the world behind us. We dive into new worlds. Technological progress is often a springboard that catapults us into fictional worlds and allows us to jump from bubble to bubble, to stay in some for longer, in others not so long. Sometimes, however, we…
MEDIA DESIGN
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CrochetGPT
Vera Dittenberger (AT), Rosa Schwarz (AT), Mika Brandhofer (AT), Iris Reisenberger (AT)
So far, only humans possess the ability of complex crocheting. No machine can produce something comparable. But what about artificial intelligence? How justified is our fear that AI could replace humans in all their abilities? In this project, we explored the creative symbiosis of human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence by immersing ourselves in the crochet…
PhD-PROGRAM
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ARTeFACT
Erika Mondria (AT)
Is it only an electromagnetic field or is it a glimpse into the sixth and seventh senses of humans, defined by the biochemist and researcher Ruppert Sheldrake.
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BEEHIVE
Maria Esperanza Sasaki Otani (PE)
Interactive installation for playgrounds BEEHIVE explores how the big data sector, particularly YouTube, threatens children’s rights when they play.
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Epizoons
Jürgen Buchinger (AT)
Generative art as catalyst of multispecies relationships Epizoons are fictional lifeforms made out of ceramics and electronic sensors that react to their environment with changing voices and sound. The project draws inspiration from Lynn Margulis’ theory of evolution by symbiosis and Donna Haraway’s concept of “becoming with” of all lifeforms.
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Equality | Equity
Hanny Wijaya (ID), Qi Shi (CN), Sicheng Wang (CN)
In between gender roles and cultural perspective The artwork Equality | Equity represents the idea of “balance” through a kinetic sculpture.
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GOYO
Jung In Lee (KR/AT)
Dance and Interactive Visuals The choreography aims to express the concept of “flow” through physical movement, accompanied by interactive visual effects.
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Last summer’s yield
Melissa Ryke (AU)
An array of clay slip sculptures that function as haptic instruments forming a multichannel “garden”. Fossil-esque or embalmed, akin to sea shells, they conceal secrets within.
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Research Collective heterotopia
Carolyn M. Amann (AT), Marta Beauchamp (IT/UK), Amir Moradi-Bastani (AT/IR), Emanuel Gollob (AT), Martin Höfer (DE), Eva Kadlec (AT), Caroline Salfinger (AT), Samet Yalcin (TR)
A relational space created by practice The PhD Research Collective of the University of Arts Linz is a bottom-up structured doctoral program for artistic research.
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Somniloquy
HyungJun Park (KR/DE)
Somniloquy (Sleep Talking) is Park’s ongoing PhD research on human and machine dreaming, exploring the unconscious aspects like dreams, unlike traditional AI research that focuses on consciousness.
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THE GLORIOUS LAMENT
Ellie Kyungran Heo (KR/GB)
THE GLORIOUS LAMENT encounters the recumbent body of a fallen tree, which unfolds a stage for new connections and relationships and, thus, new life.
POSTDIGITAL LUTHERIE
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Luminiferous
Performative spatial sound installation New technologies such as digital screens, LED devices and power-saving lamps, are filling our environments with technogenic light streams containing phonoptic information hidden from the human eye, but located within the temporal limits of our auditory perception. Using a light-sensitive spatialization system in the form of the dodecahedron – the fifth…
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OGDL
Ozan Tezvaran (TR), Gundega Graudina (LV)
Feedback Club OGDL is a duo of Ozan Tezvaran and Gundega Graudina. They met during their Postdigital Lutherie studies at the University of Arts Linz. OGDL merges noise, ambient and deconstructed club in experimental music performances, often held in unusual locations ranging from zoos to churches. Their concerts are a mixture of lullabies, screams, sad…
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Technobiocommunication protocols
Olli-Pekka Lankinen (FI), Boris Shershenkov (RU/AT)
Sound performance Pushing to the extreme the latest tendencies in the musical industry, performers use neocybernetic principles to design their own electroacoustic, analog, and (post)digital sound devices capable of making musical decisions. Forming the techno-biological ensemble, human and non-human performers can communicate with each other using different signal systems such as visual signs, gestures, CVs,…
SCULPTURAL CONCEPTIONS / CERAMICS
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Flow of Thought
Jieun Kim (KO)
This project, themed “waves of emotion,” immerses viewers in a whirlwind of feelings, highlighting emotions’ fluidity like water. The artwork visualizes the complexities of emotions through water’s movement, symbolizing their power and beauty.
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Gnop gnop man
Younggon Kim (KR)
It is an interactive artwork with a shell-shaped base and contains abstract sculptures of eyeballs and a penis. Viewers use an air pump to create or burst a bubble man, engaging individually or in team games. The piece modifies Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus and explores themes of masculinity, duality in patriarchal societies, and true…
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The GPS Signal Lost
Aban Salehi (IR), Gundega Graudina (LV), Hooshyar Zaheryani (IR)
The idea for this project came during my early days of migration when I left Iran. In a new place with no memories or sense of belonging, the most frequent sound I heard was the map guide helping me find my way. Often, I got lost in the city.
SPACE&DESIGNSTRATEGIES
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remain unexplained
Robin Renner (AT)
The mixed-media installation pays tribute to our deepest feelings that we fail to express in words; occurrences that our minds cannot grasp; to people prosecuted for having no acceptable explanation; to us letting go of written identities.
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rrRrotoVenicEe
Lorenzo Iannantuoni (IT)
A design intervention was conducted based on empirical observations of public spaces in Venice. Immersing himself in the local reality, The artist analyzed the low-tech micro-systems in Venice that impact daily life.
TEXTILE ART AND DESIGN
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pisskino
Aleksandar Murkovic (HR)
This project is about taboos, fetishes, and fun. By focusing aesthetic value around the objects themselves, I hope to construct a kind of unreal beauty, combining surreal elements in digital space. I created this short using Blender 3D software.
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Sodium Alginate Yarn Samples Project 2023
Woonji IM (KR)
This project explores the use of yarn made from seaweed-derived sodium alginate as a bioplastic. Over 100 samples of 10cm segments of yarn are dyed using spices, tea powders, cosmetics, markers, and paints to highlight recyclability.
TIME-BASED AND INTERACTIVE MEDIA ARTS
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a²
Pal Klex (AT)
The video installation a² addresses physical and psychological expectations placed on people socialized as men. The artist assumes the role of a man under pressure, symbolized by a self-optimization coach. This tension leads to an endless “optimization loop,” a constant interplay between food, sport and the pressure to live up to the image of the…
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An der Kassa musst’ ich an dich denken
Lisa Studener (AT), Pat Göckert (AT)
What is falling in love, and how does one experience it? The documentary thoroughly explores the multifaceted theme of falling in love, shedding light on various realities through the perspectives of its protagonists.
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Bare Souls
Elena Jäger (DE)
The work arose from the problem of having unrealistically high expectations of myself when it came to the perfection of a work of art. To compensate, I chose techniques where I could not influence the outcome as much as I would have liked (pottery, drawing, and for the first time 3D-modeling and -painting).
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Catfeet
Maryam Ibrahim (DE)
Gummy bears are artificial objects designed in vivid colors, with bright smells to generate an assumption of ongoing fun. In Catfeet, the famous candy is taken out of its consumption context and instead transformed into a material that provides a variety of patterns. Furthermore, it has a complex relationship with light where it reflects, reacts…
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Dream States
Maxemilian van der Meer (DE)
Dream States captures the unique warping of reality and perception in dreams, which only becomes apparent when reflecting on them after waking up. Recurring dreams of being stuck at a train station / on a train going nowhere are reinterpreted as 3D-scanned environments.
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echoes of ferro
Janik Valler (DE)
An arm raises dust, shaping it into a drip-like form before allowing it to settle back into its original state. It is a cyclic procedure of chance, existing somewhere between control and chaos. The mechanism remains constant, yet each outcome is distinct and unique.
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Entre deux mots
Cécile Bucher (CH)
Entre deux mots is an audiovisual and immersive dance piece developed for the deep space environment. Fragmented words and past conversations echo in the visualization in an abstract manner while performers navigate between the seen and the unseen, the spoken and the unspoken.
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everything beautiful and everything dead
Isabel Schulz (AT)
This animated short aims to experiment with an abstract way of storytelling – reminiscent of poetry – in animation. In the story we are transported to a foreign, drab world made up only of grayscales, where its inhabitants strive for a way to turn their world colorful.
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HUMAN BREEDER: PROTOTYPE: 01
Sidse Rebien (DK)
Human Breeder: Prototype: 01 is a sculpture made of metal, paper and bio-foil. Recordings of breath are implemented inside a sound system to give the artefact mechanical lungs and the association of life, which also grows within.
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ILLUMINATED NOTHING
Emilia Vogt (DE)
A public 24-hour act of doing nothing: non-action is contrasted with external influences, reversing the roles within the context of art. InILLUMINATED NOTHING, performer Emilia Vogt spends 24 hours in a publicly visible room doing nothing except basic life-sustaining needs like sitting, standing, drinking, using the toilet, etc.
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Im Lot
Noah Berger (DE), Josef Hamberger (DE), Emilia Vogt (DE)
Im Lot was originally an installation by Josef Hamberger, featuring hundreds of sheets marked by Rosa Still, an Alzheimer’s patient. Rosa, now deceased, wrote nearly all her thoughts, from basic needs like “I’m hungry” to expressions of her fear of death.
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Klaus – Special Episode #2
Daniel Walter (AT)
Klaus is a man of European origin who emigrated to America and attempts to showcase his life from his small apartment. He aims to share his experiences on his own YouTube channel with the world, hoping to build a small community with which he can interact.
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Like a hippie on an island
Friederike Weber (DE)
The artist explores the concept of freedom by asking various people abstract questions. Questions like “What color is freedom?” invite the interviewees to reflect on the topic. The documentary features 11 people of different ages, backgrounds, and beliefs, allowing them to share their personal views on what freedom means to them.
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Linear Dialogue
Daniel Walter (AT), Sofiia Zeifert (RU)
Linear Dialogue is an improvisational piece between a guitar player and a dancer who are both trying to read the other person’s movements and actions to sync with each other. The performance is visualized with a reactive patch made in Max Msp which functions as a backdrop projected on a screen.
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LINIE 101
Joachim Smetschka (AT), Holunder Manuel Heiß (AT)
An interactive light installation consisting of 101 light bars, a touchscreen and tracking sensors: for the first time ever, it seems to have become possible to move through space at the speed of light without huge danger.
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Lost Iterations
Ariathney Coyne (GR/US), Hazem Wakaf (SY)
Lost Iterations is a visual experience, approaching abstraction and narration. A random reconfiguration of light, movement, cameras, and humans, leads to organic, hypnotic, and abstract visuals.
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Murmur
Lynn Mayya (SY)
Murmur is a sound installation that creates a sensory trip within space and body; it harnesses the qualities of white noise. The aim is to create a soothing hypnotic space by simulating the wind’s movement and the changes the thin surfaces dance to.
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mushroom universe
Elena Katharina Richtsfeld (AT), Hannes Buchwieser (DE)
The project mushroom universe creatively displays mushrooms to inspire curiosity and appreciation for fungi and science. It combines minimalist art with scientific concepts, featuring living mycelium in terrariums, videos, photos, mushroom paper, dried mushrooms, and spore prints.
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NOUMENON
Hannes Buchwieser (DE)
NOUMENON shows microscopies from the Bio Lab of the Ars Electronica Center, featuring microorganisms like tardigrades and amoebas, revealing a hidden world alongside images from the NASA archive. It showcases environmentally harmful “glitter” which creates striking optical effects, while nothing living remains in the sample after it is added to the water.
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Obsessive Realities
Milena Stępień (PL)
what if you live out the darkest thoughts / recreating the unimaginable outcome / diving into and / exploring paranoia / obsessive realities / the worst that could happen / that one scene, that could not have been real
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Paragon
Carlotta Borcherding (DE), Semi Lim (KR), Veronika Maidukova (UA)
Paragon tells a story of two characters, their dynamic with each other and their relationship to light and darkness. The performance is based on an interactive program responding to movement within a sensory tracking system.
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Persona
Teodor Dumitrache (RO)
Persona is an experimental, interactive, audio-visual exploration of how we constantly change our inner selves. With a control surface, it is possible to change the two halves of the virtual psyche to assemble a new persona. In this implementation, each variant of the psyche has an accompanying sound; sounds combine to convey feelings that cannot…
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Rivity
Alex Villard (MX), Julian Villegas (AR)
This project showcases a live collaboration between a drum player and an electronic-based musician. The performance brings with it an unlearning philosophy as it distances itself from all traditional paradigms of traditional sounds and rhythms and incorporate new technologies as well as coming back to the roots.
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Sachen die keinen Grund haben
Ronja Hoffert (AT)
In the rarest events, it is satisfying to accept not knowing things, although it seems like the easiest and most satisfying thing to do, because all you must do, is nothing. Or not? Without knowing what it is, the whole theme about nothing caught my interest (intensively).
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SHE MAKES ME FEEL
Stella Weiß (DE)
This work highlights the emotions of two women discovering their true sexualities together for the first time. Three different surfaces (Plaster Pussy, Soft Spheres, The Layers In Between) were made by the artist to serve as a projection backdrop.
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Sojakas Boating (Arcade version)
Jakob Florian Luckeneder (AT)
Sojakas Boating is another playable excerpt from the Sojakas-Universe: A dystopian sci-fi universe with critical undertones. The game takes the players to an absurdist cyberpunk version of Venice and places them in the roles of delivery/taxi drivers, competing for the high score and avoiding water traffic.
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tell me everything about love
Julian Holzer (IT)
The short film tell me everything about love is a personal artistic exploration aimed at describing and depicting love. Inspired by the artist’s own curiosity about love, having never experienced it firsthand, the movie explores this emotion through interviews and recordings.
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The Mark of Them
Hazem Wakaf (SY/BR), Mahsa Jalili (IR)
The Mark of Them is a poetic digital installation navigating the depths of alienation and the fractured identity of being an outsider; too Eastern for the West, too Western for the East, non-belonging and constantly defeated.
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Universal Story
Florian Klammer (AT), Naho Takeda (JP), Lynn Mayya (SY)
Universal Story is a collaboration between Time-based and Interactive Media Arts, University of Arts Linz and the Anton Bruckner Private University. It follows a hero and their journey in three parts: departure, initiation, and return.
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What Awaits Out There?
Sharon Nesyt (DE)
What Awaits Out There? invites viewers on a journey into the unknown. The work consists of a painting and an accompanying sound installation. The painting explores the beauty of a future world, still open and uncertain to us humans. The sound represents the here and now – the concrete human experiences in the moment.
TIME-BASED MEDIA
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Biophony: Dancing Nature
Lesia Kvitka (UA), Cameron J Laing (GB/LU), Miriam Strasser (AT), Alina Tofan (RO), Alberto Monreal (ES), Lucía Callén (ES), Alec Ilyine (BE), Salomé Méndez (CO), Fernando Fernández Sánchez (ES)
The Biophony art project, from interdisciplinary research at the MolinoLab Residency in May 2024, showcases the synergy of technology, science, art, and human interactions. This collaboration illustrates how humans can create with nature using technology.
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Blütenstaubzimmer
Stephanie Bergwinkl (DE), Caroline Alena Bergwinkl (DE)
Two artifacts from the family archive – our grandma’s poetry album from 1943 and our granddad’s clothing as a Bavarian police officer after 1945 are featured. Artifacts from our father’s side act as pollen, as the male part that contributes to inheritance.
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Cultural Reorganization
Yinglin Zhou (CN)
Cultural Reorganization by Zhou Yinglin is a textual-video piece based on her research on cultural issues. Described as a fictional narrative, it falls under her concept of cultural futurism. The narrative envisions an experiment of Earth’s civilization reorganization after human extinction, exploring cultural relativism, inclusivity, diversity, and addressing issues like cultural hegemony and homogenization.
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Dirty Data
Simon Hehl (DE)
Whenever we think about data and data-processing systems, we are mostly thinking of something clean. So, what do we mean when we use the term “dirty data”? What does “dirty” signify? What makes our data dirty? And how do we deal with it?
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Disrupted Reality
AmiRali Bashiri (IR/AT), Sashe Urdovski (MK/AT)
Disrupted Reality is a collaborative live video-audio performance/installation project where equipment serves as the medium rather than just tools. Input devices are being fed with the same material they are producing. Therefore, there is a considerable time delay in this re-feeding process.
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Eigengrau
Verena Mayrhofer (AT)
Eigengrau is described in German, as well as in English, as that color which one perceives in complete darkness. Since a perception of black is only possible with simultaneous bright contrast, black exists for humans in the external, but not in the internal.
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Gomboc in Space
Onur Sekmen (CY/TR)
Gomboc in Space is created through a callandresponse technique formed between Gökçe Göbüt, Neslihan Yakut, and Onur Sekmen. Visuals from Göbüt’s art game “Quasicritical ” and Yakut’s text “The Space” are brought together by Sekmen in a media form that explores the relation between body and space using the form Gomboc as the body in…
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HyperHuman
Vildan Dülgeroglu (TR), Güney Tombak (TR)
A phase space is a diagram that defines all possibilities within a system. HyperHuman, composed of a phase space diagram, exists through the dark possibilities of our personalities, drawing from our losses within the systems we create and inhabit. By digitalizing extreme individuality, HyperHuman survives, mirroring our undefined forms through phase space visualization.
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sehen, gesehen werden, sich selbst sehen und drunter, drüber, gegenüberstehen
Isabel Wöckl (AT), Ellinor Brandenburg (DE)
A figure crafted from multiplied and distorted fragments of various people and body parts: not an individual but representing a group that is shaped, altered, and defined by its environment. Visitors are invited to wander through the space and take a closer look at the installation, placing not only their gaze but their entire body…
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The Garden of Earthly Delights – Bird, Human and Geology 1&2
Jieyuan Huang (CN)
Inspired by Bosch’s work, the first video uses generative adversarial networks and 3D graphics to create a digital Garden of Eden. Birds, humans, and geology are rendered as virtual forms, symbolizing technological algorithms.
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Y O U W E R E A L W A Y S T H E R E
Sanaz Rafii (IR)
This project revisits significant pages from Iran’s history with the focus on the presence of women in Iran and the struggle of the people for freedom. I captured these photos during the human chain event amid the presidential election period in 2009.
VISUAL COMMUNICATION
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Regimes of Growth
Anika Haider (AT), Jakob Hauser (AT)
Given beneficial environmental conditions, algae populations double their numbers every few hours, pushing ecosystems past tipping points. Algae goes from a crucial energy base to a destructive force.
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The Beauty of Decomposition
Rehab Hasanen (EG)
7 days of more-than-human impressions It all started when I began observing the bio trashcan and my flatmates’ consumption habits. I realized they would buy many vegetables and fruits, let them rot without consuming them, or throw them away owing to small defects.
MORE PROJECTS
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BIP on Critical Data
The Blended Intensive Program (BIP) on Critical Data is a collaborative effort with partner universities in Sevilla (Spain) and Limassol (Cyprus) together with the University of Arts Linz (Austria). It was established to address issues, challenges, and perspectives in a technology-dominated world. Students and professors of the three institutions engage in regular knowledge transfer sessions…
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Circular Consumer Experience
Bruna Petreca (BR), Ricardo O’Nascimento (BR), Marianna Obrist (IT), Christopher Dawes (UK), Nona Shabanova (RU/CA), Sharon Baurley (UK)
Research by the Textiles Circularity Centre reveals that linking human well-being with material flow contributes to reducing textile consumption. Visitors will experience a multisensory VR simulation of the future High Street and will use a special keyboard to express their well-being.
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DORFTV – Radical Broadcast
In 2024, DORFTV will once again set up its studio in the former ‘Studio Schirmmacher’ at the Infopoint of the University of Arts Linz at Hauptplatz, and invite guests for an afternoon/evening. Students, teachers from the University of Arts Linz and artists will present their projects in a live open house broadcast and talk about…
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SOUND CAMPUS
Sound Campus is a program presented in collaboration with Ars Electronica and University of Arts Linz, from September 3-5, 2024. This year’s edition Sound Campus – Sonic Fever takes the shape of a carrier bag of sounds and diverse forms of musical expression. Looking to the power of sound as catalyst and shapeshifter, it proposes…
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entangled homes
Catrin Manoli, Sule Suarez, Sofia Talanti, Kristina Tica, Mobina Vatandoost, Anna Kraher
The exhibition entangled homes explores themes of home, identity and belonging intertwined with power dynamics. It blends analog and digital spaces, featuring diverse artworks including comics, GIFs, and memes. Selected works will be displayed at WHA Gallery, University of Arts Linz.
Credits
Manuela Naveau
Initiator and Curator of Kunstuni Campus@Ars Electronica Festival,
Professor of Critical Data at the Interface Cultures Department
of the University of Arts Linz
Viktoria Angyal, Barbara Jazbec, Sylvia Leitner, Reinhard Reisenzahn, Alexander Wöran
Project Management of Kunstuni
Campus@Ars Electronica Festival
Paul Eis, Maximilian Meindl
Architects of Tower Hauptplatz
MOOI Design
Design
Translation of the excerpts from Faust II by Albert G. Latham (Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von: Goethe’s Faust: parts I and II, London 1912)