Robotics and AI

Ars Electronica: People and Machines

Joseph Herscher’s “Chain Reaction Machine”—his YouTube channel, Joseph’s Machines, is a huge hit—will be on display at the JKU Med Campus. The Morning Routine Machine lifts a person out of bed, transports them via a conveyor belt, dresses them, and feeds them.(Bild: Joseph Herscher)

From September 9 to 13, the Ars Electronica media festival will transform Linz into a stage for exploring the big questions of the future. The projects, which can be experienced in three festival districts in the city center, revolve around current conflicts and challenges facing humanity. The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday, September 9, at the Mariendom.

What does it mean to be human in an age when artificial intelligence, geopolitical crises, and technological upheavals are reshaping our world?

According to Ars Electronica Director Gerfried Stocker, this question will be explored at this year’s Ars Electronica Festival under the theme “Future Begins: Negotiating Humanity.” The projects by media artists from around the world deliberately focus on provocation and experimentation.

The festival addresses relevant issues and conflicts of our time. We reflect on how the world is changing as a result of new technologies.

Gerfried Stocker

For example, “A Cartography of Genocide” by the London-based team Forensic Architecture—which won the Golden Nica in the Interactive Art category—is the subject of intense debate. It documents the Gaza War since October 2023. But the project “SummitShare & Shared Histories (Digital Humanity)” also touches a raw nerve, as it deals with colonial cultural heritage, cultural looting, proofs of origin, and digital infrastructures.

Thematic Focus Centers on Power and Powerlessness
Other projects address the looting of cultural property and decolonization, climate change, and the diverse transformations that artificial intelligence is triggering in society. The power of large AI corporations is also critically examined.

Digital installations at Ars Electronica combine art, technology, and current issues into interactive experiences.(Bild: Jasper Meiners)

A Festival Walk in the City Center for the First Time
After three festivals in Postcity and guest appearances on the Linz university campus, the festival returns to the city center this year. Numerous venues will host events over the course of five days.

Where Is Humanity?
OK Platz forms the heart of the festival. Here, visitors can get information and tickets, and this is also where the new Festival Walk begins, featuring eight stops. The Ars Electronica Center (AEC), the Lentos Art Museum, and the University of Art together form the “Danube Triangle.”

Among other things, the Golden Nica-winning works will be on display at Lentos. Since the AEC is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, two new exhibitions will be presented there. The Med Campus forms the third festival district. Here, everything revolves around the symbiosis of art, science, and research. The guiding principle is: “Humans must not disappear in the midst of technological progress.”

Going Shopping with a Robot
With exhibitions, performances, concerts, workshops, and international voices from the worlds of art, science, and society, this year’s festival will serve as a laboratory for the future of coexistence. Robotics also plays an important role. Visitors can look forward to seeing robots in public spaces—including in the shops along the Cityring—according to the Ars Electronica team.

The opening will take place on Wednesday, September 9, starting at 7 p.m. at Domplatz and in the Mariendom. In cooperation with the Musiktheater, the program will include an excerpt from a dance production. Markus Poschner and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz will also perform the prelude to Richard Wagner’s “Parsifal.”

Tickets for Ars Electronica are available online and, starting September 9, at OK Platz and the Ars Electronica Center. By the way: For the first time, the Festival Planner app is available, allowing you to put together your very own schedule.