Source: Emiko Ogawa

The Opening Event of the 2009 Ars Electronica Festival

Thu3.9.

beginning at 10 AM on Hauptplatz

beginning at 7 PM on the Maindeck of the Ars Electronica Center

Since June 17, 2009, Linz’s Main Square has served as the Base Camp of “80+1 A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD,” a project sponsored jointly by Ars Electronica, voestalpine and Linz09. Ars Electronica 2009—“Human Nature”—and 80+1 will encounter one another for the first time on September 3, 2009 at the opening of this year’s 30th anniversary festival in what promises to be a very fortuitous convergence!

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All the target-group-specific offerings that make up this year’s program designed to mediate visitors encounters with festival content having to do with the “Human Nature” theme focus on a concept invented by Paul Crutzen: the Anthropocene Age, a time in which we human beings exert ever-greater influence on our planet, assume what is tantamount to control over it, and thus have more and more influence on society and our natural environment. Achievements in genetic engineering and biotechnology emerge from the depths of the laboratory and are changing our everyday life as well as the entire spectrum of forms of artistic expression. Many questions remain open and some problems still haven’t been cleared up, but cloning and experimentation goes on, boldly and unabated. Plus, to mark the 30th anniversary of the Ars Electronica Festival, we’ll also be taking a few retrospective looks at comparable projects, ideas, exhibitions and personalities of the past. And doing so while we continue to peer far into the future. The key issue: What will this new human-engendered nature look like and what undreamt-of possibilities and niches exist for us human beings within it?

See all events of we guide you 2009

Sat 5.9.

3:00 PM Hauptplatz – Die Prophezeiung

9:00 PM Donaupark Linz – Die Arche

Fabulous creatures traverse the city and transform it into a biotope full of wonders—all of them betokening impending catastrophe and rescue.
Linz is being flooded in 2009. The Klangwolke (Cloud of Sound) follows the river all the way back to humankind’s most ancient narratives. Watery deluges, floods of information, waves of human beings. During the hours leading up to the climax, the sights and sounds of warning are unmistakable. Would it behoove Linz, the city astride the Danube, to cleanse itself? Serious and absurd prophesies collide head on. Over the course of the day, wondrous creatures stream through the cityscape; animals and mythical beings pull the public in their wake. At nightfall, the scenery in front of the Brucknerhaus will be the site of a drama at the nexus of demise and salvation.

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Foto: Agnes Miesenberger

We 2.9. –  Tue 8.9. 2009
6.00 – 10.00 PM

Grand Hotel Cafe zum Rothen Krebsen, Obere Donaulände 11, 4020 Linz

fabriqueee / Institut für erweiterte Kunst
http://www.roterkrebs.net/

Loudly and with high-impact visuals, the arrival of a new age is proclaimed and future worlds spoken of with a certainty as if the good old art of fortune-telling had been revived and declared to be a genuine science. Nostradamus and the whole host of sibyls seem to have risen again, just to make sure nothing is left up to free interpretation. Outfitted with diplomas, the latest technology and plenty of cash, they paint a picture of the past, present and future of mankind. Our successes, our setbacks, our bodies, our environment – all depending on the prevailing taste and the client. Fascinated and strangely fatalistic, we stand by and watch our destiny unfolding before us.

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80+1 Basecamp, Hauptplatz

80+1 idea & concept: Ars Electronica Linz, voestalpine AG, Linz09
Ein Projekt für Linz 2009 Kulturhauptstadt Europas
www.80plus1.org

Inspired by Jules Verne’s world-famous classic, “80+1” takes you along on a virtual ‘round-the world journey via satellite hook-up and fiber optic cable. The itinerary includes 20 destinations, places where the future is being invented, mastered or, perhaps, thwarted. Thus, 20 issues of key importance to our future are up for discussion; the contributions to it take artistic, scientific and journalistic approaches to these issues. But beyond this wideranging confrontation with global themes, “80+1” will also delve into our own personal takes on and relations to the future, our hopes and our fears.

See all projects of 80+1

Quelle: Blast Theory

Fri 4.9. – Mon 7.9.

Deutsch & English

Starting point & tickets: 80+1-Basecamp, Hauptplatz

START: every 15 minutes between 7 pm and 10 pm

from 16 years on

The number of participants is limited

A production by Blast Theory, coproduced by the Mixed Reality Lab. Presented by Linz09 in cooperation with Ars Electronica. Funded by the British Council Austria.

http://www.blasttheory.co.uk

“Rider Spoke” is a work for cyclists combining theatre with game play and state of the art technology. It invites the audience to cycle through the streets of the city, equipped with a handheld computer. Using wi-fi technology, they search for a hiding place and record a short message there. And then they search for the hiding places of others. The audience can take part either on their own bike or borrow one supplied by Blast Theory.

“Rider Spoke” continues Blast Theory’s fascination with how games and new communication technologies are creating new social spaces. It poses further questions about where theatre may be sited and what form it may take. It invites the public to be co-authors of the piece and a visible manifestation of it as they cycle through the city. It locates the venue precisely in its local context and invites the audience to explore that context for its emotional and intellectual resonances.

Sa 5.9.
10:00 – 00:00

Hauptplatz

The Japan Media Arts Festival has been an annual event in Tokyo since 1997 and awards prizes for creative works in the fields of art, entertainment, animation and manga.

“JAPAN GAME” focuses on the entertainment aspect of Japanese media arts by showcasing selected game-related works honored by the 2009 Japan Media Arts Festival. All the games in the areas of sports, music, adventure, etc. are playable. Every evening, game tournaments will be held on a large-format screen. We hope audiences will enjoy these forms of artistic expression and, at the same time, recognize the games’ similarities to media art.

The Japan Media Arts Festival has two aims. One is to designate new cultural frameworks and values in accordance with the changes occurring nowadays that make it imperative to avoid persistently clinging to existing cultural hierarchies. Accordingly, we appreciate not only media art but also animation, manga and entertaining works such as games.

Secondly, we are helping new forms of expression and culture to take root and grown along with the progress of digital communications techniques and technology. Some observers might maintain that new culture is disconnected from traditional culture, but the Japan Media Arts Festival has tried to bridge the gap. We think that this activity helps to nurture originality in a new field of culture.

See all projects of Japan Media Art Festival