Digital Shadows

Digital Shadows / René Mayrhofer, Philipp Hofer, Laura Poulbot, Airan Berg, Andrea Hummer, Ilona Roth, Linda Huber, Gisela Klammsteiner, Sara Koniarek, Simon Sharkey, Valerio Iurato, Doris Roth, Alina Lugovskaya, Selina Nowak, JeanClaude Grieco, Florian Böttcher, Ethem Saygieder-Fischer - Photo: Gisela Klammsteiner, generated with Sora AI

LIT—Linz Institute of Technology Exhibition

Exhibit

Digital Shadows

What happens when your digital shadow takes shape: tangible, interrogative, observant?

René Mayrhofer (AT), Philipp Hofer (AT), Laura Poulbot (FR), Airan Berg (AT), Andrea Hummer (AT), Ilona Roth (DE/AT), Linda Huber (AT), Gisela Klammsteiner (AT), Sara Koniarek (AT), Simon Sharkey (GB), Valerio Iurato (IT), Doris Roth (DE), Alina Lugovskaya (UA/RU), Selina Nowak (AT), JeanClaude Grieco (AR/AT), Florian Böttcher (AT), Ethem Saygieder-Fischer (AT)

Digital Shadows invites the participants to experience questions of digital and physical identity, data security, and control. In immersive zones woven with choreographic elements, visitors encounter themselves—mirrored, copied, measured—and simultaneously lose themselves in a system that knows more about them than they intend to reveal. Between play and analysis, concealment and transparency, a reflection emerges on identity in the age of facial recognition, deepfakes, and algorithmic profiling. How does one fool a camera? How visible do I want to be? Who owns what I leave behind, and who profits from it?
This experiment is a collaborative endeavor between science and art, making power, visibility, and self-determination in digital space tangible. Through an exploration of digital materiality and algorithmic intelligence, a sometimes absurd, always immediate reflection unfolds—on our role in data-driven worlds until we face our digital dilemma, and the choice is still ours to make.

POSTCITY, First Floor, JKU Square - LIT Exhibition

  • Activities at the Main Station of “Digital Shadows”

    Institute of Networks and Security, JKU Linz (AT)

    Discover how biometrics work—and how to outsmart it. Build your data cloud, make key choices, and join an interactive experience that challenges the future of data, privacy, and control.

  • The Data Devourers

    Digital Shadows Performing Artists Team (IT/AT/DE/RU/UA/GB)

    Performers with giant heads as data powerholders play hide-and-seek, while you try to win back control by getting data release forms—raising questions about who really owns your personal data.

  • My Data Is Bigger Than Yours

    Ilona Roth (AT/DE), Alina Lugovskaya (UA/RU), Selina Nowak (AT), A!KO Tanz Fest (KR/AT), Digital Shadows (AT)

    Curious about who owns your data? Join a thrilling wrestling match and dance battle where rivals fight for control—a playful yet sharp take on the public debate around data ownership.

  • Flood the Uncanny Valley

    Digital Shadows Performing Artists Team (IT/AT/DE/RU/UA/GB)

    Dancers and Actors will inhabit the “uncanny valley” near the main exhibition of Digital Shadows, interacting with visitors around the question: “Who owns your data?”

Credits

Institute of Networks and Security (JKU), Christian Doppler Laboratory for Private Digital Authentication in the Physical World (CDL Digidow), Zirkus des Wissens (JKU). Cooperations: Transitheart Productions, RedSapata Kulturinitiative, A!KO Tanz Fest. This project is supported by the State of Upper Austria. Digital Shadows will be presented in an adapted theatrical version at the Circus of Knowledge in November 2025.

Please note: The program for the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is still in progress.
We are currently preparing all the information for the website and plan to put the full program online in the coming days – stay tuned!