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Ars Electronica 2004: Timeshift – The World in 25 Years
The 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Festival of Art, Technology and Society
Timeshift is the title of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival, an encounter with the past and the future. A look back at a quarter century of digital media culture in the context of art, technology and society, as well as a look forward in anticipation of the next 25 years of artistic transformation and cultural change will highlight Ars Electronica 2004.
“TIMESHIFT – The World in 25 Years” is the title of the 2004 festival; transformation, upheaval and the future are its programmatic concepts. The point of departure is reflection upon the past 25 years; the aim is to identify the developments that promise to be the driving forces in art, technology and society over the next quarter century. The younger generation of media artists and theoreticians will meet Ars Electronica’s founding generation and, together with an audience of wide-ranging backgrounds and diverse interests, confront the past and the future of phenomena at the interface of art, technology and society.
Will key technologies lead to another technological revolution that will change our lives as fundamentally as digital media have done? Will nanotechnology be the driving force behind industrial and economic progress? What areas of social confrontation can we anticipate? Does the way we deal with new technologies change in light of our ever-increasing experience or do we still lapse into the same automatic reaction mechanisms of enthusiasm for or hostility towards innovation?
What conclusions can be drawn from the past and utilized in addressing these emerging issues? Ars Electronica has 25 years of development and experience behind it, and has amassed an enormous archive documenting its unique breadth as a discussion forum. On the basis of the experience thus gained and in keeping with its mission as an instrument of social analysis, Ars Electronica 2004 will also be dedicated to the question of whether ongoing social development—in the sense of a learning curve derived from the past and applied to the future—is possible.
Ars Electronica 2004: A New Format
Ars Electronica has gotten a bit of a makeover this year. From now on, the festival will begin on Thursday and run until Tuesday; this makes it possible to intensively utilize an entire weekend, which is now positioned right in the middle of the line-up of events. The Prix Ars Electronica Gala will move from the ORF’s studio to the impressive ambience of the Brucknerhaus’ Main Concert Hall. And Ars Electronica is adding a new venue—the Lentos Museum of Art, where the “Digital Avant-Garde” anniversary exhibition will be on display.
Timeshift will manifest itself in various formats and an array of venues: at symposia and talks with artists, in discussion forums and workshops, at exhibitions, installations and interventions in urban spaces, as well as at performances and concerts. Special events and guest presentations will significantly expand this year’s festival program.
Related Material for download in the left box.
With queries please contact:
Wolfgang A. Bednarzek
Ars Electronica Center Linz
Hauptstraße 2, 4040 Linz, Austria
tel ++43.732.7272-38
fax ++43.732.7272-638
wolfgang.bednarzek@aec.at
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