Conferences / Lectures / Talks
Key Note: Lynn Hershman Leeson
Lynn Hershman Leeson (US)
For over fifty years, Hershman Leeson’s practice mines the intersections of technology and the self. She is known for her groundbreaking contributions to media art from Artificial Intelligence to DNA programming, often anticipating the impact of technological developments in society.
Key Notes
Ars Electronica (AT)
In this edition of Key Notes, the focus will be on extraordinary female visionaries that are forming the very world we are inhabiting now and for generations to come. Thought leaders in the digital ethics of AI and bridge-builders with business will give insights on current research, artistic projects, and experiments.
Key Note: Joanna Bryson
Joanna Bryson
Joanna Bryson is Prof. of Ethics and Technology at the Hertie School. Her research focuses on the impact of technology on human cooperation, and AI/ICT governance. From 2002-2019 she was on the Computer Science faculty at the University of Bath. She has also been affiliated with the Dpt. of Psychology at Harvard University, the Dpt. of Anthropology at the University of Oxford, the School of Social Sciences at the University of Mannheim, and the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy
Creative Question Challenge: Radical change by working together
Kat Austen (UK/DE), Indrė Žliobaitė (FI), Laurence Gill (IE), Andrew Newman (AT/AU)
'Let us finish what we started'. This is how the UN introduces its first Sustainable Development Goal - to end poverty in all forms and dimensions by 2030. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and their 169 targets have been described as a sprawling, misconceived mess of grandiose intentions. The title of the development agenda itself - 'Transforming our World' - oozes utopian ambition. It was adopted by 193 nations in 2015. Five years later and with ten years left, how do you think our world will transform?
STUDIOTOPIA
STUDIOTOPIA is a European initiative that seeks to activate the collaborative and interdisciplinary expertise required to face these future challenges by implementing an inverse art and science residency model. Scientists from diverse disciplines responded to an open call to work alongside and learn from leading European artists. In Creative Question Challenges at this year’s Ars Electronica, future problems will be explored and future solutions hypothesized with the broadcast beginnings of a 17-month conversation between artists and scientists.
Gustav Klimt's "Kiss" as Gigapixel - On the Cooperation between Google Arts & Culture and the Belvedere in Vienna
Belvedere, Franz Smola (AT)
At the presentation initiated by ARS Electronica, experts from Google Arts & Culture will explain the technology of the Art Camera and its application in cooperation with museums worldwide in a vivid way. Belvedere curator Franz Smola, responsible for the scientific expertise and supervision of the project, will also explain the art historical aspects of Klimt's painting "The Kiss".
Jury Members talking about Computer Animation
Peter Burr (US) and Mathilde Lavenne (FR) talk about the jury process, trends and the Golden Nica winner of the Computer Animation category.
Jury Members talking about Interactive Art +
Sabine Himmelsbach (DE/CH) and Haytham Nawar (EG) talk about the jury process, trends and the Golden Nica winner of the Interactive Art + category.
2020 - Finally Digital?!
Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt (US), Renger van Den Heuvel (NL), Sabine Himmelsbach (DE/CH), Nanne Dekking (US/DE), Alain Servais (BE), Paul Frey (AT), Alfred Weidinger (AT), Casey Reas (US), Kate Hollenbach (US), JiaJia Fei (US), Raina Mehler (US), Magda Sawon (US), Sharon De Mattia (US) and Thomas Kohler (DE)
2020 started with a bang that made the art industry pivot away from its established codes of conduct almost overnight for sheer survival. From the exchange of courtesies to remote work structures, old customs required immediate redesign in response to the crisis. As a result, the online space gained even more significance as the only platform for business and commercial transactions, affecting even the art industry and its age-old reliance on in-person interaction.
Jury Members talking about Digital Communities
Here, Irini Papadimitriou (GR/UK) and Dietmar Offenhuber (AT/US) talk about the jury process, trends and the Golden Nica winner of the Digital Communities category.
Breaking up the gameplay – a talk about feminism and experiencing the abolished private
Rebecca Merlic (HR)
Artist Talk about the feminist aspects of The City as a House, an interactive visual novel, an experiment of a white European 30-year-old heterosexual human, living in Tokyo without inhabiting a private apartment over a period of time.
Prix Forum Visionary Pioneer of Feminist Media Art
The director of the VALIE EXPORT Center Linz, Dr. Sabine Folie, gives a talk about the achievements of VALIE EXPORT, which is followed by a talk of VALIE EXPORT herself.
The City as a House – A speculative exploration of the possibilities of abolishing known forms of habitation
Rebecca Merlic (HR)
Vast amounts of pictures, sounds, videos and 3D scans are organized as environments in Rebecca Merlic’s The City as a House, in form of an interactive visual novel. A work about the experiment of a white European 30-year-old heterosexual human living in Tokyo without inhabiting a private apartment over a period of time. A speculative exploration of the possibilities of abolishing known forms of habitation.
Networked Archives
Oliver Grau (DE), Dagmar Schink (AT), Christiane Paul (DE/US), Mariano Sardón (AR), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (MX/CA), Manuela Naveau (AT)
Panel - In a world in which we increasingly rely on online content, media art archives and platforms are no exception. The Networked Archives panel addresses their role in making media art accessible online, and highlights various approaches to the field. As archives and metadata are central issues and the base for the digital content sector they are evolving into important online value chains. How can archives be monetized, contribute to the developments in the media art markets and form base for online platforms?
Award Ceremony Computer Animation
The Golden Nica and the Awards of Distinction winners of the Computer Animation category are introducing their projects and receive their certificates in the virtual space.
Award Ceremony Digital Communities
The Golden Nica and the Award of Distinctions winners of the Digital Communities category are introducing their projects and receive their certificates in the virtual space.
Award Ceremony Interactive Art +
The Golden Nica and the Awards of Distinction winners of the Interactive Art + category are introducing their projects and receive their certificates in the virtual space.
Best Practices for the Conservation of Media Art from an Artist's Perspective
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (MX/CA)
Talk - For the past five years, media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer has been developing a system of procedures to help his studio deal with the maintenance of hundreds of computerized artworks that are in collections around the world. In this talk, Rafael will go over the main methods to accomplish this, in the hope that other artists will adopt them and create realistic expectations for potential collectors.
Prix Forum Digital Communities
What is a community for you and how do you try to leverage communities to drive social change?
The Prix Forum is a platform for sharing cutting-edge art forms and their role in society through talks and discussions by this year's Prix Ars Electronica winning artists and the jury.
Prix Forum Computer Animation
What is Animation? How do you Animate the work?
The Prix Forum is a platform for sharing cutting-edge art forms and their role in society through talks and discussions by this year's Prix Ars Electronica winning artists and the jury.
