POSTCITY

Dreama

Anya Wang (CN)

This project does not attempt to control dreams but instead to bring this invisible machine to the physical world. It offers the audience an opportunity to think about a new way to describe dreams and the human obsession with control.

Material Poetry: #2 ArcHIVE

Alexander Wöran (AT)

#2 ArcHIVE is part of a series that revolves around the materiality of language and its “gap”; and we are the ones shaping it, for better or worse. Beneath the sculpture made of beeswax is a heating element linked to a motion sensor, which at a certain threshold of passers-by starts heating up and re-shaping it. Like language, it constantly fluctuates between a fluid and solidified state.

Experiencing a future design process

Fachhochschule Vorarlberg/Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences (AT) InterMedia MA – Masters’s Degree Program Design

Experiencing a future design process addresses the possible effects of artificial intelligence on the communication design profession. Which tasks can be solved with the help of algorithms? For which requirements will human services be indispensable in the future? With the help of an interactive game, design processes can be played through and the possible role of technological support can be experienced.

LAN: Live Agent Nest

Amay Kataria (IN)

LAN (Live Agent Nest) is a colony of synthetic agents constantly in a state of action. The protocols driving them manifest in behaviors like attraction, repulsion, and forming connections. Their contact with other agents leads to emergent behaviors depending on the agent’s capabilities. After forming connections with other bodies, a network of dialog starts transpiring in these super agents.

Making Monsters

Anqi Wang (CN)

This project aims to explore and discuss the combination of CCTV surveillance and machine learning. It invites audiences to consider this new paradigm in surveillance techniques by using cameras to detect and capture faces and process them in a deep learning Generative Adversarial Network.

self-contained III

Doug Rosman (US)

A neural network trained to see the world as variations of the artist’s body enacts a process of algorithmic interpretation that contends with a body as a subject of multiplicity. The neural network, with its photographic understanding of the artist, creates a pseudo-autonomous figure unconstrained by physics, biology and time, that is simultaneously one and many.

A reactive poetry machine

Fabian Frei (CH)

*A reactive poetry machine* is an experiment that examines the outcomes of trying to teach a machine poetry. Will it forever produce poetry in different variations of the same kind or will it succeed in crossing the threshold and creating something new? The interactive installation invites visitors to the Ars Electronica Festival to spend a moment away from the hustle and bustle of the festival to reflect on AI, poetry and their relationship.

Orbita

João Batista (PT), Noel Martins (PT), Pedro Gonçalves (PT), Hugo Rocha (PT)

Orbita is an open-world, virtual reality game developed to represent a futuristic point of view in which science and spirituality coexist. It uses puzzles to stimulate the player into exploring its environments. Confronting players with a futuristic possibility that does not rank science above spirituality (or vice versa), this game gives them a chance to understand the metaphors that underpin the main character’s journey.

OXO

Yulin Li (CN)

This dollhouse is a visual representation of a sustainable community, and aims to generate new insights into the future. It transforms the idea of green living from a small scale to a large scale that allows neighbors to negotiate and share resources. By inviting the audience to act as the coordinator of this system, it offers them the opportunity to explore the effective use of resources and avoidance of waste.

Expert Workshop on AIxCulture

Ars Electronica (AT)

Looking at the cultural, societal and philosophical aspects of Artificial Intelligence, the workshop focuses on the implications of AI for education, media, ethics and transparency. The expert participants will discuss impacts, benefits and threats of AI through the lens of concrete, artistic examples.