This year’s Theme Symposium focuses on mitigation strategies for panic in challenging times. Threats of war and treats of climate emergency, strategies for digital sovereignty, the role of arts and culture in strengthening Europe’s resilience, the evolution of AI and its impact on societies and creation processes, as well as the development of medical and quantum technologies: All these are among the major topics to be discussed over five days in POSTCITY.
Photo: tom mesic
Symposium
Ars Electronica Theme Symposium
Sprache //
EN
Panic in a Global Context: Neuroscience, Culture, and Crisis
The conference will shed light on the cultural history of dystopian narratives, which have always served as a mirror of social insecurities, and discuss how current threats—from wars to political upheavals—are triggering new forms of panic and shaping our coexistence.
Archipelago of Possible Futures—Breaking Control, Building Democratic Imagination
Francesca Bria (IT/DE) & José Luis de Vicente (ES)
Archipelago of Possible Futures is a one-day forum that traverses from panic into possibility. The forum unfolds across three movements—Reckoning, Rebuilding, and Reimagining—as we confront the rise of authoritarian infrastructures, forge Europe’s democratic alternatives, and venture into visions and speculations for future democratic technologies.
Art and Culture in Times of Uncertainty: From Artistic Practice to Social Action
Art and Culture in Times of Uncertainty: From Artistic Practice to Social Action situates art and culture at the intersection of disciplinary paths—a site of collective and individual sense-making where complexities are translated across disciplinary narratives.
STAGED REALITIES
Technology has always been both at the core of stagecraft and fueling the imagination for playwrights. Today, AI enters the stage, bringing new possibilities. The conference brings to stage leading practitioners, technologists, and researchers of AI in theater and performative art.