January 2, 2009. 11 AM. 35 hours into Linz’s Capital of Culture year, the doors of the new Ars Electronica Center swing open and launch OpenDays (January 2-4).

Official Opening / January 2, 2009 /
11 AM to 2 PM

The festivities get underway at 11 AM with the grand opening of the new Ars Electronica Center. Speakers include City Councilman Johann Mayr, Deputy Mayor Erich Watzl and Governor Josef Pühringer. The official dedication honor goes to Mayor Franz Dobusch. Immediately after the ceremony, invited guests will have an opportunity to get their first look at the new facility.

Open House / January 2 / 2-5 PM

The open house kicks off at 2 PM; admission is free. Quickie journeys of discovery and lots of amazing performances offer tastes of the worlds of experience encompassed by the new Ars Electronica Center. The open house will continue on January 3rd & 4th, 10 AM to 6 PM both days.

Evening Session / January 2 / 8 PM

“Lights on” are the watchwords of American media artist Zachary Lieberman, who is transforming the Ars Electronica Center’s façade studded with 40,000 light-emitting diodes into a fabulously colorful work of art. This invitation to the evening session will be visible far and wide.

The Opening Program in Detail

January 2, 2009

2-5 PM / Open House
Guided tours take in New Views of Humankind in the Main Gallery, celebrate the Poetry of Movement with Eric Dyer, Arthur Ganson and Co., join art+com for a retrospective look at 20 years of new media, and immerse participants into the depths of space and time in DEEP SPACE.

8-8:10 PM / FAÇADE
Lights On! Zachary Lieberman (US) utilizes the Ars Electronica Center’s LED façade as the canvas for light paintings that will illuminate the Linz cityscape.

8:30-10 PM / DEEP SPACE
The Sancho Plan (UK) sets off on a very different sort of audiovisual excursion. Animated figures—in response to artistry performed on electronic drum pads—come to life and dance across the high-resolution 16x9-meter displays of DEEP SPACE.

9 PM / SKY MEDIA LOFT
Converting sounds into electrical impulses is one thing; transferring these impulses via diodes to a person’s facial muscles is quite another. Japanese media artist Daito Manabe presents a performance that places demands upon his own facial muscles as well as the abdominal muscles of his audience.

9:30-11 PM / 2nd Upper Level
QUARTET – Volume I promises a treat for the ears and the eyes in the tradition of old-fashioned nickelodeons. Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska’s QUARTET consists of three robotic musical instruments and an installation visitor. The division of labor is simple: the user inputs a musical motif, software composes a work, and the robot orchestra delivers the performance (though one that turns out to be a highly complex affair). The five-centimeter-wide bars of a marimba are bombarded with balls fired from several meters away, robot fingers dexterously draw melodies out of a wine-glass organ, and an unconventional percussion section provides the rhythm.

10-11 PM / DEEP SPACE
How many points does a line contain? What’s the number of all numbers? And how coincidental is randomness, actually? data.tron [8K expanded version] plumbs the infinite domain between 0 and 1, a data universe in which the position of each individual pixel has been mathematically calculated. The wall and floor of DEEP SPACE get flooded with data. Commissioned especially for the opening of the Ars Electronica Center, the latest work by Japanese electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda conveys those partaking in it to poetic-abstract worlds of imagery. A world premiere.

11 PM-12 Midnight / SKY MEDIA LOFT
DJ Daito will orchestrate the musical culmination of the first day’s festivities.

January 3, 2009

10 AM-6 PM / Open House
Museum tours provide access to processes of human perception, cross bizarre landscapes of the microcosm, and follow the movements of kinetic works of art.

8-8:10 PM / FAÇADE
Lights On! is the brilliant prelude to this evening’s session. The Ars Electronica Center’s LED-studded façade will be the medium for Zachary Lieberman’s (US) luminous artistry.

8:30-10 PM / DEEP SPACE
Everything seems to be in perfect order on Papyrate’s Island, a tiny dot of land amidst a vast ocean. But appearances are deceptive! The evil Pyrat is hatching a plot to severely disrupt this tropical idyll, so it’s a good thing that artists like you and I are there to take crayons and paper in hand and foil these dastardly deeds! Papyrate’s Island is a creation of the Ars Electronica Futurelab.

9-9:30 PM /SKY MEDIA LOFT
Tomotaka Takahashi, one of Japan’s most prominent robot designers, will stage a world-class Robo-Fashion Show.

9:30-11 PM / 2nd Upper Level
QUARTET – Volume II is the continuation of the previous evening’s performance. Once again, balls fly through the air and strike marimba bars with pinpoint accuracy, robot fingers massage melodies out of wine glasses and pound out exuberant percussive sounds.

10-11 PM / DEEP SPACE
How many points does a line contain? What’s the number of all numbers? And how coincidental is randomness, actually? data.tron [8K expanded version] descends into the data universe of the infinite domain between 0 and 1. A universe in which the position of each individual pixel has been mathematically calculated. The wall and floor of DEEP SPACE are flooded with data, and those present lose themselves amidst a poetic-abstract world of imagery …

11 PM-12 Midnight / SKY MEDIA LOFT
Late at night, SKY MEDIA LOFT morphs into a Soundstage above the rooftops of Linz.

January 4, 2009

10 AM-6 PM / Open House
Guided tours take in New Views of Humankind in the Main Gallery, celebrate the Poetry of Movement with Eric Dyer, Arthur Ganson and Co., join art+com on a retrospective look at 20 years of new media, and immerse participants into the depths of space and time in DEEP SPACE.

11 AM-3 PM / BrainBrunch / DEEP SPACE & Seminar Room & SKY MEDIA LOFT & CUBUS
Art historical insights into da Vinci’s Last Supper, the astounding findings about the Fauna and Flora of Linz and vicinity, the perfection of today’s robots and tomorrow’s prosthetics—the BrainBrunch illustrates just how interesting and entertaining the process of imparting knowledge can be. High-performance athletes meet neurologists, robot designers meet prosthetic experts—within the framework of these interdisciplinary encounters, the Ars Electronica Center and Cubus will be serving up tasty nourishment for mind and body.

Credits

Lights On
Visuals (yes yes no), Sound Design (Daito Manabe, JP)

QUARTET
Jeff Lieberman and Dan Paluska

Papyrate’s Island
Ars Electronica Futurelab
Music: Herwig Burghard
Sound Design: www.tonburg.at

The Last Supper
Haltadefinizione.com

Linz – From a Somewhat Different Angle
Pröll Film Production GmbH © 2009

Ryoji Ikeda - data.tron [8K enhanced version]
Commissioned by Ars Electronica Center for the inauguration of their Deep Space venue; produced by Forma
Concept, composition: Ryoji Ikeda
Programming: Tomonaga Tokuyama

Otto Bock Healthcare Products GmbH
www.ottobock.at

Robo Fashion Show
Tomotaka Takahashi / sytek akazawa / fuRo

Jungle Imperator
The Sancho Plan
Music: Tosca
Co-production: Ars Electronica Futurelab

art+com
www.artcom.de