Taking inspiration from the central panel of Hieronymus Bosch painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights” and the Ars Electronica 2020 meta-topics of ecology, democracy, uncertainty, humanity, reality, and autonomy. The UK Garden will act as a unifying community celebration of amazing art-tech/art-science collaborations showcased from north to south, with the START Prize winners, runners-up, nominees and other STARTS projects (residencies, Lighthouse projects) at the heart of the program.
Garden of Earthly Delights
The inspiration for this project comes from the central panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights”, which has been the subject of great study and many different interpretations. Perhaps these are apt for our time: has too much earthly indulgence led to this moment?
Inspired by the Ars Electronica 2020 meta-topics of ecology, democracy, uncertainty, humanity, reality and autonomy, the UK garden will combine them with Bosch’s vision of the range of human experience to interrogate our time: humanity facing the possibility of a long term pandemic which is creating an instant global recession and mass unemployment, continued climate crisis, prolonged inequality and the spread of fascism, as well as the looming impact of Brexit on the UK and across Europe.
In the case of this year’s Ars Electronica UK garden The Garden of Earthly Delights is an inclusive concept for many different simultaneous activities over the five days, which can take place from one online entry point, allowing each organization to create their own sub-program within the one ‘garden’ for the duration of the festival.
The Garden of Earthly Delights will act as a unifying community celebration of high-quality art-tech/art-science collaborations, showcased from north to south, with START Prize winners, runners-up and nominees at the heart of the program.
Program
Project Credits / Acknowledgements
Organizers and Curators
Dr Camille Baker - UCA, Farnham / STARTS Ecosystem project
Dr Birgitta Hosea - UCA, Farnham / ARS E Expanded Animation programming
Irini Papadimitriou - FutureEverything, Manchester, Creative Director/ ARS E Jury
Dr Denise Doyle - Wolverhampton University, Wolverhampton & Birmingham / STARTS Prize methodologies research project
Kay Watson –The Serpentine Gallery, London / Digital Curator and Ben Vickers, CTO/Curator
Lucy Bunnell - UCA, Farnham /STARTS Ecosystem
Maria Almena – Art in Flux, London, Curator / Creative Director at Kimatica Studio.
Dr Oliver M Gingrich – Art in Flux, London / Curator
Aphra Shemza - Art in Flux, London / Curator
Donna Holford-Lovell – NeoN Digital Arts, Dundee, Scotland / Director
This project is co-funded by the European Commission´s DG CONNECT, in the framework of the Horizon 2020 programme of the European Union under the S+T+ARTS programme´s Regional STARTS Centers.