SIMPLICITY - the art of complexity - ARS ELECTRONICA 2006 - Festival für Kunst, Technologie und Gesellschaft - Linz, Do 31. August – Di 5. September

Lara Srivastava is ITU New Initiatives Programme Director with the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva (Switzerland).
Ms. Srivastava has over 10 years of experience in the telecommunication industry. She is currently responsible for monitoring and analyzing trends in information and communication technology, policy, and market structure. She organizes and advises on workshops and symposia programmes, covering topics of interest to policy-makers, regulators and industry. In this context, she acts as Programme Director for ITU’s New Initiatives Programme (www.itu.int/ni), and contributes to programme development for the global ITU TELECOM Forum.

Yukiko Shikata is an independent media art curator & critic based in Tokyo, actively engaging in media art projects especially with social and public aspects including the "MobLab" as an initiator. She works as a curator of NTT InterCommunication Center, and specially-assigned professor at Tokyo Zokei University, guest professor at Tama Art University, Kyoto University of Art and Design, lecturer at Osaka Seikei University.
Her works include projects at Canon ARTLAB (co-curator, 1990-2001), Mori Art Museum (Associate Curator, 2002-04) Mischa Kuball "Power of Codes - Space for Speech" (Tokyo National Museum, 1999), "Kingdom of Piracy" (online, co-curated, 2001-), Rafael Lozano-Hemmer "Amodal Suspension" (Opening project of YCAM, 2003), "SonarSound Extra" (sonarsound Tokyo, 2004), "EnigmaAnagma the evening of Yukiko Shikata" (DEAF, 2004). She is a curatorial advisory board member of Transmediale (Berlin).

From: www.transmediale.de

Wilhelm Burger is the director of Media Technology and Design at Hagenberg Polytechnic University. He studied computer science at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, the University of Utah and the University of California at Riverside.
Before his appointment, he worked as a developer of visualization software for ultrasound equipment, and as a researcher and developer of vision-based navigation for autonomous land vehicles and as a university assistant in the field of image processing.

Dietmar Offenhuber graduated in architecture at the TU vienna. After first steps in digital media art with the group RELAIS (1995 with Schilcher, Palmetshofer), he considers having received his main education while working at the ars electronica futurelab, where he was a core team member from 1995 until 2004.
After graduation in 2002 Dietmar worked as a key researcher for interactive space at the lab, responsible for the development of exhibitions, interfaces and curatorial concepts.

In 2004 he received a Fellowship from the Japan Foundation for the IAMAS institute in the dept. of prof. Christa Sommerer. From 2004 to 2006 Dietmar Offenhuber served as professor for animation and interactive media at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg.

(Since Fall 2006 he is researcher at the MIT medialab in the sociable media group of prof. Judith Donath.)

One of his main interests is investigating the spaces of the everyday by means of interactive mapping techniques. These endeavors result in videos, interactive installations and mapping projects. A recent collaboration in this area with composers Sam Auinger and Hannes Strobl has been established under the name “stadtmusik”.

Awards include a nomiations for the ZKM’s interantional media art award and for the FEIDAD award, honorable mentions at transmediale and ars electronica.

Rob Young is Editor-at-Large of The Wire magazine, and a writer and broadcaster who contributes to The Guardian, Uncut, Frieze and Resonance FM. He is the Editor of Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring Of Modern Music (Continuum Books 2002) and is currently working on an illustrated 'biography' of Warp Records.

Stephan Pirker was born in 1971 in Innsbruck and studied sculpture at the Linz University of Art. He has shown his installations and short films at exhibitions in Innsbruck, Bozen, Graz and Linz. Pirker’s "The Singing Skeleton Pilot SSP04" was featured at the 2005 Ars Electronica Festival. His works have been singled out for recognition with numerous prizes (e.g. Haller Kurzfilmtagen). Pirker is a member of the artists group "bu'nostik."

After working behind the wheels of steel and being member of the rap posse "flavour force" Markus Seidl moved over to several attempts to interweave "real" public space with virtual public space, working mainly with the Stadtwerkstatt/Linz and the Kunstradio/Vienna. Since 1996 he has been working on fundamental radio with his long term collaborateur August Black.
Together with Elisabeth Schimana he realized the project "a village does nothing" where they persuaded a village to do nothing for a week while substitute personnel did the work. his permanent occupation is to watch the world through a camera’s eye and take a snap every now and then.

Since 1998, Gerlinde Lang has moderated "connected", "update" and "homebase," magazine/feature-type programming on the youth/cultural radio station FM4. She also writes the "glamorous" fashion report and is the editor in charge of FM4’s afternoon "IT news" program. Plus, she’s an author and stylist for school magazines "chalk" and "intro."

Eva Wohlgemuth (*1955), based in Vienna (A), realized several landart and concept projects before she profiled as a media and web-artist. She is now producing in the field of reactive visual systems: installation (sculpture, draw, paint) and media. E.W received several prizes and took part in selected exhibitions, amongst them the Documenta X (Web Section)

Daniela Pühringer is working in the communication department of the VOEST-Alpine. Her emphasis is on the organization of the VOESTIVAL, which is a major cultural event in Upper Austria.

AGF aka antye greie is a musician, producer, author and artist living in Berlin. Born and raised in East Germany, AGF has been active as a musician since 1990, playing in the German band Laub, as well as performing solo. On her 2001 release Head Slash Bauch (Orthlorng Musork), AGF translated fragments of HTML script and software manuals into a choppy deconstructed pop format. AGF was an artist in residence at Podewil, at the Berlin contemporary center (2001) and composed the sound installation Berlin Klang at the Berlin exhibition at the Sonar Festival in 2000.

Peter Kuthan (AT), born in 1945, graduated in sociology at the University of Linz. He has been working in Zimbabwe as a journalist and consultant in development cooperation from 1989 until 1992. Since 1992 he has been working as freelance consultant for evaluation for the Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Austrian Development Agency in the field of development cooperation. He is chairman of the Austria Zimbabwe Friendship Association. In 2001 he has started the Tonga.Online project which is aiming to provide the Tonga minority along the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia with access to modern ICT tools for education and cultural self representation. He is currently lecturing in International Development Cooperation at the University of Vienna.

is an online strategist and public speaker focused on the use of the Internet in democracy, governance, and community. For the last decade he has worked to fundamentally improve democracy and citizen participation through the use of the Internet. One of world's leading experts on e-democracy, he is actively networking people around the world determined to make a difference with this new media.

Tereza Szente was born in 1958 in Rumania, and studied visual media design, graphic design and photography at the Linz University of Art. She teaches at various educational institutions (Linz University of Art, Hagenberg Technical College) where she specializes in visual communication and multimedia. At the Linz University of Art, Szente is also working on developing a Web-based online system for modular elementary training in digital media for designers, and holds continuing professional education seminars in media technology and didactics.

Yuko Nexus 6, born 1964, attended Kansai University in Osaka, Japan and holds a B.A. Degree in Sociology. She has frequently performed in Asia, Canada and the US. She has been a part-time lecturer at Chukyo University sinca 2001 and a part-time lecturer at Nagoya University of Arts and Sciences since 2002. Kitamura has been a member of Women’s Performance Art Osaka since 2001.

and Laurent Mignonneau (F) are internationally renowned media artist working in the field of interactive computer installation. They currently work as researcher and artistic directors at the ATR Media Integration and Communications Research Lab in Kyoto, Japan and as Associate Professors at the IAMAS International Academy of Media Arts and Sciences in Gifu, Japan. They also hold a position of Visiting Research Fellows at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies in Boston USA.
Mignonneau and Sommerer have collaborated since 1992, and their interactive artworks have been called "epoch making" (Toshiharu Itoh, NTT-ICC museum) for pioneering the use of natural interfaces to create a new language of interactivity based on artificial life and evolutionary image processes. Their collaboration has been influenced by the combination of their different fields of interest, including art, biology, modern installation, performance, music, computer graphics and communication.

Artist, Artistic Director / Head of Art & Technology program, The Interactive Institute. Professor in Fine Art

ART WORK Selected shows (with The Interactive Institute)

2005
Institute of Contemporary Art, ICA. London Design og Arkitekt Museum, DOGA. Oslo Beall Center. Los Angeles Mar’s Gallery of Contemporary Art. Moscow Moscow Biennale, Art Digital 2004. Moscow

2004
Ludwig museum of Contemporary Art. Budapest Avesta Verket. Avesta Wired NextFest. San Francisco

2003
Centre Pompidou. Paris Museu da Casa Brasileira, São Paol Skulpturens Hus. Stockholm

2002
Electrohype, Malmö Konsthall. MalmöStenersen Museum. Oslo

2001     Ars Electronica, OK Center. Linz Tomorrows world. London


Commission

2004     
Member of the Swedish Government Strategy-group on IT-policy; subgroup Culture & IT. Head of the Digital Art Group
Member of the concept team for planning a Swedish Design Centre

2005
Member of Board for ADRA - Art Driven Research Association
Member of reference group for the art and research initiative “The Material Point”
Member of reference group for the city planning initiative “Kista Art City”

Animaatiokone

Elisabeth Schimana was born in 1958 in Innsbruck and works as a no-singer, -performer, -composer, -radio artist and artistic process manager in an electronic environment. She studied at Vienna’s University of Music and the Performing Arts and at the Universities of Vienna, York and Keele. Schimana began working on the “Klangnetze” (sound networks) project in 1994 and has been its regional director in Lower Austria since 1998. That same year, she received the Province of Lower Austria's Award of Recognition for Music. Since 1997, Schimana has been working together with the Theremin Center in Moscow.

In 2000, Schimana was named a member of the board of directors of V:NM – Society for the Advancement of New Music. The following year, she was granted a postgraduate grant by the Province of Lower Austria/Art Section.

In 2002, Schimana spent a term as a trainee at the Moscow Cultural Forum, founded Salon Elise, served as guest composer at the Institute for Electronic Music in Graz and was guest artist at Werkstadt Graz.

In 2005, she was involved in setting up the Institute for Media Archeology, which she now heads.

Elisabeth Schimana

Specialist in conceiving and engineering cultural systems. Two decades of work for leading cultural organizations in the arts, theatre, music, film, literature and the media include conceptualizing and curating as well as developing and managing projects. He has created numerous media environments and online projects, among them the first Internet café in Vienna. His written contributions to print and online media—including service as editor-in-chief of Supervisor Magazine—deal with the social and cultural impact of digital technology and various aspects of cultural systems.

http://electrolyte.net/

Karin Ohlenschläger (ES)
co-director of the I. International Festival of Art, Science and Technology, Cibervisión 02, as well as of MediaLab Madrid (Conde Duque Cultural Centre, Madrid). Director of Chips: emergent circuits of digital culture, European Institute of Design, Madrid (2001). Director of Cibervisión 99, at the Madrid’s Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (1999); the International Festival of Infoarchitecture, Madrid (1997); as well as IN ART-International Cybernetic Art Festival, Teneriffe (1996), and the International Cideo Forum at the former Spanish Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid (1986-88).