This roundtable will be interactive and enable discussion on media art trajectories from the eighties to today—from the euphoria and idealistic expectations of the early days to the now uber-corporate landscape and the seamless digital life we have become accustomed to. Guided by five provocation statements, we will explore the question of whether New Media Art, as an experimental practice, is still needed or relevant—especially in a time when digital media threaten political stability, spread ever more misinformation, and fuel societal polarization.
HAZE Expressa, at Ars Electronica, 1999 / Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau - Photo: Christa Sommerer & Laurent Mignonneau
Networking Event
New Media Art Trajectories
Christa Sommerer (AT), Laurent Mignonneau (FR/AT), Claudia Hart (US), Jill Scott (AU/CH), Kurt Hentschläger (AT/US), Olga Kisseleva (FR), Paul Thomas (AU), Victoria Vesna (US)
POSTCITY, First Floor, Education Stage
Sat 6. Sep 2025
17:30
–
19:00
Language //
EN
Max. Participants //
100
-
Laurent Mignonneau
Christa Sommerer
Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau are internationally renowned media artists, researchers, and pioneers of interactive art. In 2004, they established the Interface Cultures department at the University of Arts Linz, Austria. Sommerer has held visiting professorships at CAFA (Central Academy of Fine Arts) in Beijing, Tsukuba University in Japan and Aalborg University in Denmark. Together, they have created around 50 interactive artworks, exhibited in approximately 350 international exhibitions.
-
Claudia Hart
Claudia Hart uses simulation technologies to create installations using 3D animation, VR, AR, and objects produced by computer-driven production machines. A professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she developed Experimental 3D, the first curriculum dedicated solely to teaching simulations in an art-school context. Her work has been widely exhibited and collected by museums and private galleries.
-
Marille Hahne
Jill Scott
Jill Scott is a media artist based in Switzerland. She is Professor Emerita at the Institute for Cultural Studies, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and founded their Artists-in-Labs Program in 2000. Her own artwork spans 44 years of production about the human body, body politics, neuroscience, and ecology. She also curates LASERZURICH for the Leonardo Society USA and writes books on art and science.
-
Kurt Hentschläger
New York-based Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger creates visceral media installations and performances for both physical and virtual spaces. Between 1992 and 2003, he collaborated in the duo Granular=Synthesis. Selected presentations include: Venice Biennial, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, PS1 New York, MAC, MAK – Museum of Applied Arts Vienna, ZKM – Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, MONA Hobart, Sharjah Art, UAE, and Power Station of Art, Shanghai.
-
Laurent Mignonneau
Laurent Mignonneau
Laurent Mignonneau and Christa Sommerer are internationally renowned media artists, researchers, and pioneers of interactive art. They have worked at the IAMAS Academy in Gifu, Japan; the ATR Research Labs in Kyoto, Japan; the MIT CAVS in Cambridge, US; and the NCSA in Champaign Urbana, IL, US. Mignonneau was Chaire Internationale at Paris 8 University. They have created around 50 interactive artworks shown in approximately 350 international exhibitions.
-
Christina Newberry
Paul Thomas
Paul Thomas, Honorary Professor of Art and Design at UNSW, Australia, is an artist, writer, and curator based in Sydney. His recent publications include Nanoart: The Immateriality of Art (2013) and Quantum Art and Uncertainty (October 2018). His current digital and material artworks, which explore quantum phenomena and their synergies with being human, have been exhibited nationally and internationally.
-
Photo: Richard Ross
Victoria Vesna
Victoria Vesna, Ph.D., founder and director of the UCLA Art|Sci Center, is an artist whose installations span micro to macro scales, exploring how scientific innovations shape perception and identity. Exhibited internationally in major museums and festivals, she collaborates with scientists and composers and brings this experience to her students. She redefined STEAM as Science, Technology, Ecology, Arts, and Mindfulness and is at work on her upcoming book Vibrations Matter (Routledge, 2026).
-
Olga Kisseleva
Olga Kisseleva is an international artist with a research science background, working interdisciplinary at the science-art intersection. She is interested in critical social practice and the role of science in art for an age marked by technological progress and an ecological crisis. Founder of the Art&Science Laboratory at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Olga Kisseleva plays a pioneering role in the field of contemporary creation, research, and reflection on emerging and progressive forms of creation. She has had major exhibitions in KIASMA (Helsinki), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Museum of 21st Century Arts – MAXXI (Rome), Fondation Cartier (Paris), in the Venice, Istanbul, Berlin and Moscow Biennials...Her works are present in many of the world’s most important museum collections, including, the Centre Pompidou, Louis Vuitton Foundation, ZKM, and the NY MoMA. In 2020 for her EDEN (Ethics - Durability - Ecology - Nature) project focused on plants’ intelligence Olga Kisseleva awarded the S+T+ARTS Grand Prize for innovative collaboration between technology and art that opens new pathways for innovation.