Dark Sky Meter / Norbert Schmidt

For Citizen Scientists

Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria, September 6 – 10, 2023

Are you a Planetary Visionary, an Activist, a Transformation Advocate? Are you ready to engage in impactful research, exchange visionary ideas, and shape the trajectory of our world? Then join us at this year’s Ars Electronica, where we dare to confront uncomfortable truths, champion our convictions and start implementing the changes we aspire to see!

For the first time ever, Ars Electronica is awarding the European Union Prize for Citizen Science on behalf of the European Commission. The exhibition reveals the diversity and extraordinary creativity demonstrated by European Citizen Science initiatives.

Check out our Exhibitions at POSTCITY!

Get inspired by this year’s State of the ART(ist) Exhibition, a platform showcasing projects by artists who work under existential threat due to political circumstances or the climate crisis. Listen to the voices of the next generation at the create your world festival – a space where young experimentalists come together to explore, question, and exchange their perspectives. Or meander through the S+T+ARTS Prize Exhibition, where projects at the intersection of science, technology and art demonstrate the potential of artistic input in addressing current ecological, technological and socioeconomic issues.

  • !Habesi

    !Habesi

    Indigene Corefio |Huuke Harris (ZA), /Xam Sam Fortuin (ZA), Xopher Wallace (ZA), Dr Diana Ferrus (ZA), Sthando Masuku (ZA), Elder Nkosenathi Koela (ZA)

    !Habesi is a multi-disciplinary exhibition of fine art, poetry, photography, indigenous instrumentation and augmented reality intended to highlight the multiple genocides, epistemicides and acts of violence inflicted on indigenous communities everywhere. !Habesi is a creative exploration intended to highlight indigenous land rights in South Africa and the world. !Habesi venerates a living archive and consciousness…

  • AIxxNOSOGRAPHIES

    AIxxNOSOGRAPHIES

    Špela Petrič (SI), Studio Teratope (NL)

    AIxxNOSOGRAPHIES is a participatory art-research framework looking into medical AI with the intention of contextualizing critically the transition in healthcare we are currently undergoing. Through collective methodologies such as performative ethnographies, AI infrastructure mappings and video documentation, the project invites the wider audience to better understand the new body biopolitics.

  • AND IF WE OBSERVE THE PRESENT

    AND IF WE OBSERVE THE PRESENT

    Taiye Ojo (NG)

    Although widely referenced in popular culture as a victim of Big Oil, corruption and pollution, Ogoniland remains one of the most beautiful and biodiverse ecosystems in the world. However, chronic oil spillages and waste dumping is turning Ogoniland into a living hell for millions of its indigenes.

  • Inside the NYPD’s Surveillance Machine

    Inside the NYPD’s Surveillance Machine

    Amnesty International (INT), Superposition (NL)

    Inside the NYPD’s Surveillance Machine is an interactive data visualization revealing the shocking reach of facial recognition technology in New York. The experience allows users to plot a walking route through New York City and discover how much of this route might be exposed to surveillance through facial recognition.

  • Laboratory of Confidence

    Laboratory of Confidence

    Open Commons Linz (AT), IKT Linz GmbH (AT), Stadtbibliothek Linz (AT)

    Do you want to develop your talents and skills in the field of technology and media and shape your projects for a better future? Then the Laboratory of Confidence is the right place for you. With us, you can turn creative and put your ideas into practice. It does not matter if you already have…

  • Pollinator Pathmaker 

    Pollinator Pathmaker 

    Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (GB)

    Pollinator Pathmaker is an artwork for pollinators, planted and cared for by humans. Created in response to human-made ecological damage, the work is a one-of-a-kind experiment in interspecies art. Bees, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, and other pollinators are essential for many plants to reproduce and our ecosystems to flourish.

  • Space Messengers

    Space Messengers

    Agnes Chavez (US), STEMArts Lab (US), OMAI (AT), Space Messengers Collective

    Space Messengers is a participatory mixed reality installation that visualizes thought-provoking reflections on the universe, encouraging participants to contemplate their role within it. Space Messengers evolved from an interdisciplinary and international collaboration among artists, scientists, interdisciplinary experts and youth ambassadors.

  • VFRAME: Computer Vision for OSINT / OSI Research

    VFRAME: Computer Vision for OSINT / OSI Research

    Adam Harvey (US), Josh Evans (US), Jules LaPlace (US)

    VFRAME is a computer vision project that develops open source image processing software and neural network models for human rights related research and conflict zone monitoring.

  • Where is a place for me to sleep in peace?

    Where is a place for me to sleep in peace?

    Ma Ei (MM)

    The recent coup in our country has caused significant disruption to our democracy, leaving many citizens in distress. Our situation is dire and we cannot achieve a peaceful resolution alone. I do not dare to expect basic human rights and equality from the world where there is not a single place to sleep peacefully at…

From satellite images, CO2 data, sea level measurements to GPS data, technology has aided us in shaping our knowledge about the planet. Yet, what does it mean to own sets of data, information and precise imaginary of the planet we call home? At the More-than-Planet Lab we brew ideas, approaches and practices to reconstruct our concept of the planet and planetary imaginary.

  • Planetary Mattering

    Planetary Mattering

    Miha Turšič (SI/NL)

    It matters which planet we portray, and which one we do not. In this workshop, participants will learn about ways of mattering. With this term, we refer to the images, interests and facts that shape our image of the planet, and, in turn, how the solidification of these imaginaries determines the way we talk about…

  • Planetary Public Stack

    Planetary Public Stack

    Miha Turšič, Waag Futurelab (SI/NL)

    Strategic tools for researchers, creatives, artists and designers to better engage in socio-environmental transitions towards building heterogenous and inclusive understanding and expressions of shared planetary views, concerns, interests and heritage.

  • Systemic Change in the Times of Polycrisis

    Systemic Change in the Times of Polycrisis

    Antti Tenetz (FI), Tero Toivanen (FI)

    The workshop “Systemic Change in Times of Polycrisis” explores how we can broaden our horizons and find sustainable solutions to the polycrisis caused by ecological emergency. It focuses on radical change in industrial societies. The perspectives of polycrisis will be linked to local examples that will be explored through the work of artists, researchers and…