What is our digital humanity?

Technology has become the most pressing question of our time. Who creates it, who controls it, who has access to it, and who doesn’t are the new parameters that determine emerging power structures around the world. But technology will also be front and center as we tackle our global climate crisis and advocate for more justice, diversity and inclusion in our fight against poverty and inequality, and work to improve the health of billions of people around the world. The concept of digital humanism can be seen as a necessary evolution of Silicon Valley’s transhumanist vision for humanity. A marriage of transhumanists’ excitement about the immense potential of technology and a new humanism that aims to restore our dignity as human beings online and offline. A digital humanist understands technology as a tool that can be used for both good and bad. Digital humanists are realistic about its potential to elevate us and cause harm though a host of unintended consequences. The consequences of merging the off- and online world as we gradually turn into digital humans aren’t fully explored yet. In order to understand the many layers that constitute a digital human, policy makers, tech companies and technologists need to break out of their respective silos and start working together to assure that universal human rights are being protected regardless of their differences. Art and culture shape our common reality. Artists as cultural ambassadors are best equipped to identify the potential and pitfalls of our current digital transformation. They pose, explore and promulgate the question of what constitutes a human being in the digital world. What is our digital humanity? The Ars Electronica Garden Silicon Valley, hosted and curated by the Open Austria Art + Tech Lab, engages with artists, curators and cultural facilitators as well as technologists, tech executives, think tanks, diplomats, and policymakers to pose this question in a variety of settings through art panels, workshops, immersive experiences, and keynotes.

What is our digital humanity?, Open Austria Art + Tech Lab (US/AT), Credit: Open Austria Art + Tech Lab

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What is our digital humanity?, Open Austria Art + Tech Lab (US/AT), Credit: Philipp Blume

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What is our digital humanity?, Open Austria Art + Tech Lab (US/AT), Credit: Kat Mustatea

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Voidopolis

Kat Mustatea (US), Process Studio (AT)

Voidopolis is a digital performance about loss and memory presented as an AR book with a limited lifespan. A loose retelling of Dante’s Inferno informed by the grim experience of wandering through NYC during a pandemic, the book’s garbled pages can only be deciphered with an AR app which, after enough readings, decays the images and words just as memory would.

Schrödinger’s Rat

Philipp Blume (AT), Gregor Ladenhauf (AT)

Schrödinger’s Rat is an interactive art sculpture and immersive experience, inspired by the famous thought experiment of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger. As the first Austrian Burning Man artwork, it was honored with a Black Rock City Honoraria Grant by Burning Man Project in the context of the ”Multiverse” theme of 2020.

Co-creation Containers

Ellen Pearlman (US), Julie Phelps (US), Shamsher Virk (US)

As cultural producers who hold space for artist residencies, incubators, and exchanges, we are confronted with constraints of all kinds. Responding to the ever-changing conditions of the contemporary world, we must adapt to the limitations encountered and decipher the possible.

AI x Digital Humanism

$teven Ra$pa (US), Agnieszka Wykowska (IT), Rashin Fahandej (US), Agnieszka Pilat (US), Jillian York (US) , Martin Rauchbauer (AT)

As the driving factor of societal change, digitalization needs to be negotiated. However, in order for the “real work” to begin, a universal commitment to putting the social dimension at the core of technological development and digitalization is a key factor. Under the umbrella of Digital Humanism panelists come together to discuss how – through combining critical artistic engagement and collaboration across scientific disciplines – digital technologies can be shaped to serve as a means of strengthening and disseminating humanistic and social values.

Credits

Curatorial Director: Clara Blume, Head of Open Austria Art + Tech Lab