2 Ars Electronica New World

STARTS Prize Forum: Olga Kisseleva
Olga Kisseleva (RU)

Olga Kisseleva (RU), winner of this year’s Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration, and Andrea Ling (CA), winner of the Grand Prize for Artistic Exploration, give insight into their practice.
Art Thinking Forum: Humanizing Technology
Mara Balestrini (IT), Olga Kisseleva (RU), Alexander Mankowsky (DE), Hideaki Ogawa (JP/AT)

Art Thinking is a platform for discussing the role of art in the future, in the context of industry, society, and ecology. The forum is supported by the innovative communication design company Hakuhodo. In tandem with Ars Electronica's interest in emerging technologies and their effect on society, their forward-thinking creative approach strongly complements the topic of the panel: future arts, and how cutting-edge and creative artistic examples can be used to humanize technology and improve society.
Art Thinking as Catalyst
Jurij Krpan (SI), Alejandro Martín (ES), Camille Baker (UK), Veronika Liebl (AT)

The Science+Technology+Arts = STARTS Initiative is a program of the European Commission to encourage synergies between the arts and technology that support the innovation industry and society. STARTS promotes the inclusion of artists in research and innovation activities thoughout Europe.
DIRTY LIVES BETTER
Barbara Ungepflegt (AT), Elsbeth Wallnöfer (IT)

Since December 2017 Barbara Ungepflegt has been Minister for Homelandtrash and International Affairs. Ungepflegt considers urgent measures to preserve the constantly disappearing homeland dirt until it is too late for Team Austria, animals and dumplings. In cooperation with Elsbeth Wallnöfer, chairwoman in the home country, the Minister will present in detail the program of DIRTY LIVES BETTER at the 2020 Ars Electronica Festival.
COVID-19 Crisis: How could/can society change?
Walter Ötsch, Renata Schmidtkunz, Antonia Birnbaum, Evelyn Bodenmeier, Leonhard Dobusch, Sighard Neckel

Walter Ötsch develops two scenarios for the future of society: a positive and a negative one. He will give an overview of the possible ideas for the future, both positive and negative, that were considered in the workshop. Together, obstacles and options for the future are discussed.
FEM
Women in Art, Science and Technology

Techniques for the automatic generation of music – which have long been focused on systems ruling the score – are now being deployed at all levels of sound representation: signal, gesture, symbol, form. Sound synthesis using deep networks constitutes a radical break with conventional modelling approaches. How do composers handle these emerging possibilities?
AI x Music Festival: Bot Bop Musical creation and innovation with AI
Andrew Claes (BE) and Dago Sondervan (NL)

Musical phrases are fed in real-time to a live coded machine learning model. The emerging virtual agent reacts and is again reacted to, creating an organic feedback loop. Utilising improvisational, instant composing and algorithmic musical techniques, listen to the duo becoming a trio during the course of this performance.
Art and Nanotechnology by Marcel Weber
gnration (PT) and INL – International Iberian Nanotechnology Institute (PT / EU)

For its Ars Electronica Garden, gnration will present a virtual tour of The Invention of Sense, by German artist Marcel Weber.
On a Journey with Alma
Giulia Tomasello (IT)

Alma is a wearable biosensor designed to monitor vaginal fluids. We strive to support and educate women about their intimate health through technology. Giulia Tomasello, designer and co-founder of Alma, will guide you through the research and prototype development at the Fraunhofer IZM TexLab in Berlin.
Live Panel: On Roots and Fruits

This panel is a collection of talks from some of the founding members of FEMeeting regarding the impact of the conferences and other community activities, as well as their perspective on the future development of women in art, science and technology.
The future crashes into the present
Karen Palmer (UK)

As the Storyteller from the Future, Karen Palmer takes the viewers on a journey through a series of broadcasts beamed back from the future, warning us of what’s to come through her immersive film experiences.
AI / VI
Aleksandar Bulajić (RS), Ana Popović (RS), Isidora Pejović Blagojević (RS), Maja Maksimović (RS) and Sunčica Pasuljević Kandić (RS)

Walk through Belgrade with the authors of the pervasive game problematizing different aspects of AI. AI / VI is a pervasive game using a smartphone. A specially designed application with an AI ​​function that acts as a guide through the game, occasionally uniting the player and AI into a symbiotic metaorganism. The game has no pre-set routes or endings; the path that opens is gradually shaped by the players. The mapped points of the game open spaces between different institutions in Belgrade and problematize the role of AI in private and public life. The goal of the game is to put the players in a position to re-examine the current human and algorithmic ways of decision-making and their consequences in the near future. 
Fashion. Technology. Responsibility.

On Sept 9th 2020, STARTS Lighthouse pilot Re-FREAM kicks off this session with a keynote questioning our attitude to the clothes we wear and how we can rethink the systems and conditions of their production. The keynote is followed by three artist teams presenting the outcomes and prototypes realised within their residencies in the context of Re-FREAM.
AI x MUSIC: Artificial Creativity or Enhanced Humanity
The Grid (US/EU), Christine Payne (US), Monica Dinculescu (US), Ali Nikrang (AT), Clara Blume (AT/US)

The music industry was transformed drastically over the past couple of decades. For better or worse, these developments are tied to technological advancements and a rapidly adapting consumer behavior. Tech companies are invested in a future where AI forms an indispensable part of the creative process. Recent breakthroughs are already paving the way for music that is entirely created and performed by algorithms. But does that make AI an artist?
Talk: Frontiers of Music and Artificial Intelligence
IRCAM (FR)

Artificial intelligence plays an increasingly prominent role in music composition, performance, and production. How does this benefit or undermine musicians? Where are such developments taking us? Two young protagonists at the leading edge of AIxMusic will debate the limits and future directions of AIxMusic, tackling topics ranging from classic questions of AI takeover to therapeutic and gaming applications to discussions of lightweight deep AI, of uncertainty and unknown models and dimensions.
Talk: Musical Generativities (Facilitated by H.Vinet)
IRCAM (FR)

Techniques for the automatic generation of music – which have long been focused on systems ruling the score – are now being deployed at all levels of sound representation: signal, gesture, symbol, form. Sound synthesis using deep networks constitutes a radical break with conventional modelling approaches. How do composers handle these emerging possibilities?
The Traveling Plant Video Tour
Annick Bureaud (FR); Tatiana Kourochkina (ES/RU); Marta de Menezes (PT); Claudia Schnugg (AT); Robertina Šebjanič (SI), Michael Marder (ES)

In a short video, the Seeds organizations, curators and artists, joined by special guests, present the project, with its different routes and hopes, to the public and the imaginary plant itself, through a tour of an Italian garden, an underwater garden, a hydroponic greenhouse, and more.
In the eyes of the algorithm we are all plants
Špela Petrič (SI)

In conversation with Agnieszka Wolodzko, a philosopher and author who also runs a biolab at the art academy in Enschede, NL, Špela Petrič shares fragments of insights and dilemmas that have arisen from the interdisciplinary Plant-Machine Project.
Garlic Med.Eat.Ation
Jennifer Katanyoutanant (US/TH), Grace Cong Xin Wong - Art Farm (US/HK), Zden Brungot Svíteková (SK)

The first chapter in our continuing Remote Intimacy series, Garlic Med. Eat. Ation creates sensory solidarity by exploring how intimacy can be shared remotely/virtually through touch and taste. Please bring a clove of garlic to experience the exhibit.
Art in Flux Live: Autonomy @ Ars Electronica Channel

The Art in Flux founders introduce the ethos of the organisation and their own practices through live video tours.