The electrolobby in the Brucknerhaus is the site of a series of workshops curated by David Cuartielles, the results of which will be presented in the electrolobby and then go on exhibit. Here, the spotlight will be on Arduino, open-source hardware that enables computer and cell phone users to control independent objects in the real world.

The Make-it-Simple-workshops will highlight this year’s e-lobby kitchen. Concepts and results that emerge from the workshops will be presented and thrashed out.
Special thanks to Ö1

A simple life. Mankind’s constant search for simplicity is unavoidably connected with the boredom that rears its ugly head as soon as this wish is fulfilled and complexity once again begins flaunting its charms. This dialectic of simplicity and complexity has harried human beings in all areas of life. Thus, in order to even be able to deal with the world of the computer, we have to just accept a degree of complexity that we are unable to definitively grasp.
A stellar lineup of speakers will elaborate on the many different aspects of simplicity—and complexity no doubt as well. How do we live? How will we be living? What do we fear? What do we yearn for? Together, we’ll organize, reduce and synthesize a catalog of knowledge upon this podium of trust, and hope that, as a result, everyone taking part will be able to make his/her own choice of a path to simplicity or complexity.
This fall, John Maeda will be publishing a book that deals with “The Laws of Simplicity.” For two years in Maeda’s simplicity blog (http://weblogs.media. mit.edu/SIMPLICITY), the contents of this publication have been at the focal point of a public discussion that will now flow into the Simplicity Symposium, whereby one area of particular emphasis will no doubt be the issue of appropriate design strategies to allow simplicity and complexity to converge.

10:30 - 11:30: Generative Animation
A program of current artistic examples of processual, program-controlled image design curated by artists Lia (A) and Miguel Carvalhais (PT).

12:00 - 13:00: Prix Selection: Music Videos:
With the revival of analog trick techniques, the retro look has become totally hot in the music video production field. Rarely in the past has this genre included as much animation as it has in the last two years.

Awards ceremony and presentation of the winning projects as well as the recipients of the Awards of Distinction and Honorary Mentions in the u19 - freestyle computing category. This year's Golden Nica prizewinners are between 13 and 15 years old, and thus the youngest winners in the history of u19. Out of 691 submissions in which a total of 1,230 young people were involved, the jury selected the following winners.

13:30 - 14:30: Prix Selection: Small World Machines:
The world as a fantastic machine whose mechanism does not always obey laws we are capable of grasping. The inhabitants of it are sometimes grains of sand and sometimes tiny gears. A mix of poetic, absurd and occasionally furious miniatures.

16:00 - 17:30: u19 - freestyle animation
Participants in the Prix Ars Electronica’s annual competition for young people show how it’s done. The choice of tools and media is open—ya know, freestyle computing, just like it sez. And the stuff these talented young animators and up-and-coming directors have come up with is really cool. This 2006 “best of” lineup was curated by Sirikit Aman.

18:30 - 20:00: Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters:
The world of computer animation is inhabited by many different species of monsters—friendly ones and menacing ones too, those that are mechanical, animalistic and human. The computer becomes a genetics lab in which the engineers’ inventiveness knows no limits.

21:00 - 22:30: Japanese Animation:
Visual imaginativeness and unconventional narrative forms characterize animation made in Japan. This program curated by the Japan Media Arts Festival showcases a cross-section of artistic productions from recent years.

23:00 - 24:00: Prix Selection: Late Night:
A program for night people with a dark sense of humor: offbeat situations, stirring flashes of inspiration and trashy aesthetics assure a thoroughly tolerable chill-out.

SIMPLICITY is a complex issue to which there is no single, simple answer. We live in an increasingly complex technological world in which nothing functions the way it actually should and which, at the end of the day, fills us all with longing for a certain simplicity. Nevertheless, isn’t it ironic that when we’re faced with the choice between more or less, we’re practically genetically programmed to want more. “Do you prefer the bigger cookie or the smaller one?” or “Would you rather have the computer with 10 processors or with just one?” The answer is really simple, isn’t it?
At SIMPLICITY, Ars Electronica’s theme symposium, we want to jointly reflect about the meaning of simplicity (and thus of complexity too) in politics, life, art and technology. Expect more than you’ve ever imagined, and even less.

Cyclists will convene on Linz’s Main Square where they’ll hook up their bikes to one of the many generators set up there waiting for them to provide the muscle power needed to charge a giant battery. Each revolution of every set of pedals moves the battery charge indicator a little closer to full. After sundown, the cyclists’ output will be switched directly to the
balloon; the harder they pedal, the brighter the artificial moon glows in the night sky. The humming of the muscle-powered generators will spread out a blanket of sound across the square. The battery that was charged up during the day discharges through the night and lets the moon gently set over Linz.

A commissioned work by Ars Electronica. Supported by the Arts Division of the Federal Chancellery, Austria. Special thanks to Donau Touristik Ges.m.b.H, E-Tech Linz, International Cycle Connection B.V. and Meinhart Kabel Gmbh. In collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab (Robert Abt und Stefan Mittelböck)

Cecily is the world’s first electric grandmother. At the Phoenix Theater, you can experience how a family’s life changes when their electric grandmother moves in!

A coproduction of Theater Phönix and Ars Electronica Futurelab. Virtual Scenography: Ars Electronica Futurelab / Christine Pilsl, Michael Lankes, Christopher Lindinger, Andreas Jalsovec, Stefan Schilcher. Actors: Randolf Destaller, Gabriele Deutsch, Thomas Pohl, Christian Scharrer, Waltraud Starck. Special thanks to Nana Susanne Thurner (u19 – freestyle computing).

Grand Cafe zum Rothen Krebsen & the Institute for Expanded Art in cooperation with the Media Lab Helsinki
www.roterkrebs.net, simplecity@gmx.at

In conjunction with the 2006 Ars Electronica’s Campus exhibition, the “Grand Cafe zum Rothen Krebsen,” the Institute for Expanded Art’s event space, will provide an ideal setting for sound- and performance-based Concerts and installations. In addition to projects from Media Lab Helsinki, the Institute for Expanded Art will also showcase regional artists active at the interface of performance and music, as well as works that have emerged from the Arduino Project. Rounding things out will be an all-evening Finnish-Austrian DJ set, simulations of the northern lights, and live acts.

An evening totally dedicated to the artists themselves. The 2006 Ars Electronica gala featuring the presentation of the Golden Nicas to the Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners is one of the Festival’s highlights. The evening’s program will feature the artistry of Emanuel Jauk (AT), Takashi Kawashima (JP) and others.

Cyclists will convene on Linz’s Main Square where they’ll hook up their bikes to one of the many generators set up there waiting for them to provide the muscle power needed to charge a giant battery. Each revolution of every set of pedals moves the battery charge indicator a little closer to full. After sundown, the cyclists’ output will be switched directly to the
balloon; the harder they pedal, the brighter the artificial moon glows in the night sky. The humming of the muscle-powered generators will spread out a blanket of sound across the square. The battery that was charged up during the day discharges through the night and lets the moon gently set over Linz.

A commissioned work by Ars Electronica. Supported by the Arts Division of the Federal Chancellery, Austria. Special thanks to Donau Touristik Ges.m.b.H, E-Tech Linz, International Cycle Connection B.V. and Meinhart Kabel Gmbh. In collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab (Robert Abt und Stefan Mittelböck)

At day’s end, there’s nothing like Quarter Nightline in the Stadtwerkstatt to wind things up on a high note.

The electrolobby in the Brucknerhaus is the site of a series of workshops curated by David Cuartielles, the results of which will be presented in the electrolobby and then go on exhibit. Here, the spotlight will be on Arduino, open-source hardware that enables computer and cell phone users to control independent objects in the real world.

The Make-it-Simple-workshops will highlight this year’s e-lobby kitchen. Concepts and results that emerge from the workshops will be presented and thrashed out.
Special thanks to Ö1

Awards ceremony and presentation of the winning projects as well as the recipients of the Awards of Distinction and Honorary Mentions in the u19 - freestyle computing category. This year's Golden Nica prizewinners are between 13 and 15 years old, and thus the youngest winners in the history of u19. Out of 691 submissions in which a total of 1,230 young people were involved, the jury selected the following winners.

13:30 - 14:30: Prix Selection: Small World Machines:
The world as a fantastic machine whose mechanism does not always obey laws we are capable of grasping. The inhabitants of it are sometimes grains of sand and sometimes tiny gears. A mix of poetic, absurd and occasionally furious miniatures.

16:00 - 17:30: u19 - freestyle animation
Participants in the Prix Ars Electronica’s annual competition for young people show how it’s done. The choice of tools and media is open—ya know, freestyle computing, just like it sez. And the stuff these talented young animators and up-and-coming directors have come up with is really cool. This 2006 “best of” lineup was curated by Sirikit Aman.

18:30 - 20:00: Prix Selection: Exquisite Monsters:
The world of computer animation is inhabited by many different species of monsters—friendly ones and menacing ones too, those that are mechanical, animalistic and human. The computer becomes a genetics lab in which the engineers’ inventiveness knows no limits.

21:00 - 22:30: Japanese Animation:
Visual imaginativeness and unconventional narrative forms characterize animation made in Japan. This program curated by the Japan Media Arts Festival showcases a cross-section of artistic productions from recent years.

23:00 - 24:00: Prix Selection: Late Night:
A program for night people with a dark sense of humor: offbeat situations, stirring flashes of inspiration and trashy aesthetics assure a thoroughly tolerable chill-out.

SIMPLICITY is a complex issue to which there is no single, simple answer. We live in an increasingly complex technological world in which nothing functions the way it actually should and which, at the end of the day, fills us all with longing for a certain simplicity. Nevertheless, isn’t it ironic that when we’re faced with the choice between more or less, we’re practically genetically programmed to want more. “Do you prefer the bigger cookie or the smaller one?” or “Would you rather have the computer with 10 processors or with just one?” The answer is really simple, isn’t it?
At SIMPLICITY, Ars Electronica’s theme symposium, we want to jointly reflect about the meaning of simplicity (and thus of complexity too) in politics, life, art and technology. Expect more than you’ve ever imagined, and even less.

Cyclists will convene on Linz’s Main Square where they’ll hook up their bikes to one of the many generators set up there waiting for them to provide the muscle power needed to charge a giant battery. Each revolution of every set of pedals moves the battery charge indicator a little closer to full. After sundown, the cyclists’ output will be switched directly to the
balloon; the harder they pedal, the brighter the artificial moon glows in the night sky. The humming of the muscle-powered generators will spread out a blanket of sound across the square. The battery that was charged up during the day discharges through the night and lets the moon gently set over Linz.

A commissioned work by Ars Electronica. Supported by the Arts Division of the Federal Chancellery, Austria. Special thanks to Donau Touristik Ges.m.b.H, E-Tech Linz, International Cycle Connection B.V. and Meinhart Kabel Gmbh. In collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab (Robert Abt und Stefan Mittelböck)

Cecily is the world’s first electric grandmother. At the Phoenix Theater, you can experience how a family’s life changes when their electric grandmother moves in!

A coproduction of Theater Phönix and Ars Electronica Futurelab. Virtual Scenography: Ars Electronica Futurelab / Christine Pilsl, Michael Lankes, Christopher Lindinger, Andreas Jalsovec, Stefan Schilcher. Actors: Randolf Destaller, Gabriele Deutsch, Thomas Pohl, Christian Scharrer, Waltraud Starck. Special thanks to Nana Susanne Thurner (u19 – freestyle computing).

Grand Cafe zum Rothen Krebsen & the Institute for Expanded Art in cooperation with the Media Lab Helsinki
www.roterkrebs.net, simplecity@gmx.at

In conjunction with the 2006 Ars Electronica’s Campus exhibition, the “Grand Cafe zum Rothen Krebsen,” the Institute for Expanded Art’s event space, will provide an ideal setting for sound- and performance-based Concerts and installations. In addition to projects from Media Lab Helsinki, the Institute for Expanded Art will also showcase regional artists active at the interface of performance and music, as well as works that have emerged from the Arduino Project. Rounding things out will be an all-evening Finnish-Austrian DJ set, simulations of the northern lights, and live acts.

An evening totally dedicated to the artists themselves. The 2006 Ars Electronica gala featuring the presentation of the Golden Nicas to the Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners is one of the Festival’s highlights. The evening’s program will feature the artistry of Emanuel Jauk (AT), Takashi Kawashima (JP) and others.

Cyclists will convene on Linz’s Main Square where they’ll hook up their bikes to one of the many generators set up there waiting for them to provide the muscle power needed to charge a giant battery. Each revolution of every set of pedals moves the battery charge indicator a little closer to full. After sundown, the cyclists’ output will be switched directly to the
balloon; the harder they pedal, the brighter the artificial moon glows in the night sky. The humming of the muscle-powered generators will spread out a blanket of sound across the square. The battery that was charged up during the day discharges through the night and lets the moon gently set over Linz.

A commissioned work by Ars Electronica. Supported by the Arts Division of the Federal Chancellery, Austria. Special thanks to Donau Touristik Ges.m.b.H, E-Tech Linz, International Cycle Connection B.V. and Meinhart Kabel Gmbh. In collaboration with Ars Electronica Futurelab (Robert Abt und Stefan Mittelböck)

At day’s end, there’s nothing like Quarter Nightline in the Stadtwerkstatt to wind things up on a high note.