radical collectives

Kunstuni Campus at Ars Electronica Festival 2023

The University of Arts Linz is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a special theme that runs through the entire anniversary year and that is also the starting point for reflections on the Kunstuni Campus 2023: radical collectives–a gesture that puts the spotlight on collectives and, above all, tests out their activist potential, but also, a possible answer to the question of who owns the truth. The collective: a response as a metaphor that focuses primarily on the diversity found in a collection of people, their renegotiated content, and the process of negotiation itself, while individuals take a backseat role within the collective. Social media and technologically enhanced platform processes celebrate individuals and their opinions, yet tend to inhibit the potential of negotiating and arguing in the greatest possible candor and diversity of approaches. This makes the search for collectives and the form of their radicality of particular significance. However, radical collectives do not exclusively mean that all participants must share the same convictions and demonstrate as much in activist actions. Rather, they encourage the questioning of one’s own privileges and responsibilities, bolstered by dialogue, with the goal of making social transformation possible. In the arts, collectives differ greatly from other forms of communities, seeing themselves rather as an organization for thrashing out and testing the collective stance, for challenging pooled individual opinions. The individual’s interests are (usually) given less priority for the sake of the common good. What Dada, Fluxus, the Wiener Gruppe or Guerilla Girls (to name just a few influential, perhaps stereotypical, art collectives as examples) represent for the art world has already been elaborated upon and displayed in museums. However, it is in the nature of collectives in the art world to question the very institutions and art market themselves, making them difficult to plan or direct by the latter. In order to free oneself from historical images and stereotypical notions and attributions of collectives, a pluralistic approach is needed. Further, the challenges of our time can only be understood in their diversity and multiplicity; they can only be tackled employing a collective approach to resources, knowledge and skills. The Kunstuni Campus at the Ars Electronica Festival is thus looking for new forms of collectives and evidence of their import. To what extent can collectives exist only briefly? Who can be part of collectives? Only humans or other sources of thinking and ideas? To what extent is conversation and discourse between people and systems a hindrance or a benefit to content and its realization in the collective? How would the structure in a collective with humans differ from that containing non-humans? And what can art and activism contribute in terms of demonstrating ideas? The Kunstuni Campus aims to explore a plurality of collectives and promote an understanding of radicality, one that is not built on ruthlessness but aims to dismantle hierarchies and create participatory and inclusive spaces in the spirit of collectivity based on equality.

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Time-Based and Interactive Media Arts

Deep Space 8K Projects

Time-Based and Interactive Media Arts

Films

Time-Based and Interactive Media Arts

Performances

Time-Based and Interactive Media Arts

Time-Based Media

Time-Based and Interactive Media Arts

Visual Communication: All Sorts of Things… a design fiction investigating talking objects, (dis)obedient and dreaming of intelligent machines

Post-humanist design enables a world in which humans and non-humans (things) take center stage. It criticizes the exploitation of non-human species and materials. But what role do digital technologies play in this interaction? How will we communicate with our digital and intelligent things in the future? This design fiction show imagines future things and our options for action. We present different scenarios with intelligent objects that provide a glimpse into everyday situations in our near-future life: spiritual technologies provide mind changing personal experiences with immersive jewelry, AI psychotherapy sessions invite to talk to intelligent machines with pushback, narrative space archives for media activists tell stories of freedom and resistance and sensorium kits offer a mutual understanding with plants for a more symbiotic relationship and cohabitation. 

Concept and exhibition development: Barbara von Rechbach, Marianne Lechner

Fashion & Technology

Fashion & Technology Department

Unusual materials open up new possibilities. The Material Intervention Lab of the degree program explores new textile territory: instead of conventionally producing and processing fabrics, experimentation, cooking and petri-dish cultivation take place here. New materials bring unusual properties to fashion, such as flexibility, brittleness or moisture. They have scents and flavors and enable local production methods of the future. Bacteria and plants offer new potentials for gently and sustainably dyeing textiles.

Facade Projections

ONB-Labs

ONB-Labs is the digital platform of the ONB (Österreichische Nationalbibliothek / Austrian National Library) for scientific and creative use of digital collections. Within the framework of the EU-co-funded project Open Digital Libraries, the ONB Labs invited students of the University of Arts Linz and University of Applied Arts Vienna to participate in a Web Residency in 2022 and an Art Program in 2023. The project was initiated by Sophie Hammer and Martin Krickl from ONB Labs and is supervised by Irene Posch and Manuela Naveau, both professors at University of Arts Linz. The observations resulted in a collaborative paper with the topic “Archiving the In-Between“.

Interface Cultures

Interface Cultures at Ars Electronica 2023—Resonating Selves

In an era in which truth is increasingly elusive and subjective, the latest Interface Cultures student exhibition Resonating Selves presents a captivating exploration of how our identities resonate and interact with the world around us. The fusion of technology and artistic expression enables a deeper understanding of the interplay between the digital and physical realms. Through the lens of media art, these artists probe the complexities of truth ownership and its influence on our sense of self.

The convergence of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), plays a pivotal role in this context. AI, with its capacity to analyze and generate information, becomes a powerful tool for questioning truth and exposing the multifaceted layers of our identities. Resonating Selves, within the context of the Ars Electronica Festival 2023, amplifies the festival’s overarching theme of “Who Owns the Truth?”

The exhibition acts as a catalyst for introspection, fostering dialogue on the intricacies of truth in our increasingly mediated and interconnected world. Each of the projects presented in this exhibition push the boundaries of our perception, inviting viewers to critically examine the dynamic relationship between human subjectivity and the objective reality we seek to comprehend. From interactive installations to immersive experiences, each artwork engages visitors in a profound exploration of personal truths and collective narratives.

As visitors engage with the artworks, they become active participants in an ongoing dialogue about truth ownership and the construction of selfhood. By navigating these immersive experiences, audiences are encouraged to question their own preconceptions, biases and societal influences.

Join us on this captivating journey as we navigate the enigmatic territory of truth, technology and the resonance of our multifaceted selves. Explore the boundless possibilities of media art and experience the profound impact of AI as it shapes our perceptions of truth, identity and the complex narratives that intertwine them.

Faculty: Manuela Naveau, Laurent Mignonneau, Fabricio Lamoncha, Michaela Ortner, Gertrude Hörlesberger

Credits

Manuela Naveau
Initiator and Curator of Kunstuni Campus@Ars Electronica Festival, Professor of Critical Data at the Interface Cultures Department of the University of Arts Linz

Marlies Hajnal, Simon Hochleitner
Project Management of Kunstuni Campus@Ars Electronica Festival