In search of new inspiration, our team visited the Ars Electronica Festival 2019 that takes place in Linz. Every year, thousands of visitors come from different countries to see art installations, exhibitions and to gain insights in the new tech developments. The event focuses on current trends as well as possible future scenarios, in context of a possible impact on our lives. Ars Electronica is spread throughout the entire city inviting its visitors to learn more about art, digital solutions, innovation, technology, social impact and way more.
The Festival hub is Post City, a former post distribution center. Ranging from the „Under 19“ section and the main exhibition space to the underground „Bunker“ and a rooftop terrace, there is a lot to see and experience.
The theme of this year’s festival was “Out of the Box – the Midlife Crisis of the Digital Revolution” and below we listed some of our highlights.
Bunker (Post City):
The Bunker contains different Gallery Spaces connected with corridors that bring a diverse mix of private galleries from across the world together. The unifying theme is the changing conditions of creating and marketing art under the impact of digitalization. In the Bunker, we found a special exhibition on „Limited Humanity“, which was only open for the Ars Electronica Festival itself.
Our most resounding impression goes to „Granular Synthesis“, an installation which questions our access to digital data and a possible relation to our digital clones by creating an impression of a cyborg-like hybrid through displaying a human face, which is subject to drastic time-based interventions.
Ground Floor (Post City):
On the ground floor, we found lots of practical future-oriented solutions inspired by various societal and tech trends. One of them is the „DNA for food packaging“ project, which displayed specially prepared food containers, for example for ice cream or yoghurt. The containers were enhanced with a digital mark that embodied the so-called DNA of the packaging – the materials this packaging consisted of. After consumption and disposal, the container can be scanned at a waste management facility in order to ensure appropriate waste disposal.
„Under 19“ (Post City):
It holds lots of interesting and aspiring projects created by teenagers, ranging from tech-enhanced board games encouraging physical movement to prevent obesity, to open source 3D files for printing your own drone or LaserTag mission games. Protruding was a Japanese company, which developed a new type of concrete that contains amino acid that nourishes the creatures in the ocean.
Ars Electronica is really worth visiting and we hope to see you there next year!
Written by Aleksandra Kirpenko & Olga Bratsun
