Preface


'Karl Gerbel Karl Gerbel

The Ars Electronica 94 deals with the changes to our environment which stem from the computer. The previously familiar "natural" environment is becoming increasingly "artificial" and is falling under the control of electronic media. Telephone, television, video and computer games, email, Internet and pop concerts, as well as architecture and urban planning: Everyday life can no longer be imagined without the computer.

Tracking down the interfaces of this development and thereby helping to shape the world with the help of art, and possibly even understanding it better, is the goal of the Ars Electronica.
The Ars Electronica 94 has given these tendencies the name "Intelligent Ambiences" and made them the theme of the festival.

The Ars Electronica 94 also represents 15 years of the Ars Electronica in Linz. In 1979, this festival for art, technology and society was founded and jointly organized by the LIVA/Brucknerhaus and the ORF provincial studio in Upper Austria. This was the birth of a new kind of festival, and its integration of electronic art, computer art, media art, performances, electronic festival culture and philosophical/societal perspectives continues to serve as an example.