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Ars Electronica 2003: CODE Symposium
The seven panels of CODE Symposium being presented from September 7th to September 11th will provide detailed discussions on varied aspects of the festival theme CODE - The Language of Our Time.

Sunday, September 7th
10:30 - 13:30 The Meaning of CODE
The first panel at this year's symposium is dedicated to an attempt at defining the term CODE in a way that encompasses its artistic, legislative and biological facets. At the same time, this will shed light on historical aspects of CODE ranging from the book to the computer, from the codex to the regulatory efforts of modern governments, and from classic, script-based computer programs to evolutionary algorithms-dynamic systems that are capable of coming up with solutions to their own problems. What do artists, scientists and legal scholars understand CODE to be? Is it even possible to establish a generally applicable definition of this term? This kickoff of the CODE symposia will feature an elemental confrontation with terminological problems and issues raised by this year's Festival.
Moderation: Gerfried Stocker
Participants: Gerfried Stocker, Friedrich Kittler, Cindy Cohn, Erkki Huhtamo, Peter J. Bentley

Sunday, September 7
15:00 – 18:00: The Art of Code
What effects is digitization having on art? What special characteristics are displayed by code-based art? And how does this inherent, uniquely self-determined expressive vocabulary of digital art manifest itself? In which direction is artists' work with new instruments like algorithms and dynamic systems transforming the process of artistic creativity? Or is the concentration on CODE, this focus on the immediate basis of the technological transformation of art, proceeding along the wrong path, and should the confrontation with media art concentrate on social approaches-collaborative, social modes of action, the potential of connective interfaces-without which there can be no productive and uniquely self-determined human activity?

Moderation: Roy Ascott
Participants: Giaco Schiesser, Richard Kriesche, John Maeda, Roman Verostko, Casey Reas

Monday, September 8th
10:30 - 13:30 Social Code
Social activity is characterized by codes-individuals make themselves understood via language and communicate with human faces as their "interfaces." If the new codes that have been designed and developed for interaction with technical interfaces change our social and collective actions or even contribute to the development of new types of social intercourse, then how will this process be played out? Which structures are influencing this social transformation? And to what extent does the design of electronic devices play a role in this connection-are users of the new technology becoming passive consumers or mature, responsible critics of their equipment? The most far-reaching question undoubtedly arises in connection with the current overall social situation-are network linkages and mobility enhancing collective action or being applied to construct an instrument of state control and social engineering?
Moderation: Mark Federman
Participants: Howard Rheingold, Leo Findeisen, Fiona Raby, Hans Peter Schwarz

Monday, September 8
15:00 – 18:00: Collective Creativity
Language-the code of human understanding-enabled humanity to take a quantum leap of collective intelligence. How do the new possibilities of communication influence the exchange of ideas within and among societies? How does software determine our collective creativity? Do computer programs influence the way we see the world and how we think? Can there be a language of collective intelligence? And-getting down to details-what effects will the new Open Source and Open Standards approaches have on the further development and progress of collective creativity?
Moderation: Mark Federman
Participants: Pierre Lévy, Florian Cramer, John Warnock, Marc Canter, James McCartney

Tuesday, September 9th
10:30 - 13:30 Tangible Code
Interaction cannot be equated per se with the process of programming, though this holds true only in connection with the current practice of interaction that, in most cases, only represents a more of less complex process of selection. But what will future interaction look like-a form of interaction that goes beyond the process of selecting one option from among several? And, accordingly, how will the process of programming be defined in the future? The essence of programming could then be more than a linear, predetermined approach; it could well become more of an interactive, real-time process! Will such a new conceptualization create a code that is both realizable and at the same time accessible for the purpose of manipulation and reconfiguration-a sort of real-time compiling?
Moderation: Hiroshi Ishii
Participants: Hiroshi Ishii, Joachim Sauter, Oliver Fritz, Scott DeLahunta, Jonathan Norton

Wednesday, September 10th
10:30 - 13:30 Software && Art I
This session is dedicated to artists' relation to software. The discussion will investigate some of the preconditions upon which artistic work with software-and even software itself-are based. What motivates artists to work with software; when and for what purposes do they utilize computer programs in their work? What outstanding characteristics are displayed by software as an instrument of artistic creativity; what makes this material unique and in what respect is its makeup similar or identical to that of other materials? Based on how things look today, what are the prospects (new areas of utilization) for the artistic use of code in the future?
Moderation: Casey Reas
Participants: Lia, Laurent Mignonneau Golan Levin / Zachary Lieberman, Alex Galloway, Ben Fry, Christa Sommerer, James McCartney, Sebastian Oschatz

Thursday, September 11th
10:30 – 13:30: Software && Art II
The consideration of software as an art form evidently raises a number of questions: can any software be considered art and, if not, where do we draw the line between software as art and software as a 'mere' commercial product? In how far is the identity of so-called 'new media art' or digital art defined by its nature as art based on code? What are the aesthetics of software art and how can they be assessed by traditional art-immanent criteria (or should they be at all?).
Moderation: Christiane Paul
Participants: Christiane Paul, Alexei Shulgin, Olga Goriunova, Christian Hübler, Andreas Broeckmann, Alex McLean, Amy Alexander
28.7.2003
Wolfgang Bednarzek
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