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!

As soon as the sun dips below the horizon, the illumination of the cityscape will get switched down a notch or two in line with the watchwords “Lights Out. Starlight.” In cooperation with the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company’s Upper Austria Regional Studio, we’re calling upon Linzers to turn off the lights in their homes from 10 PM to 12 Midnight, and come and do some stargazing on Hauptplatz. Amateur astronomers will make their telescopes and their knowledge of the heavens available to visitors.
A great lineup of music and performances will kick off at 7 PM on the Maindeck of the Ars Electronica Center.

Program:

Beginning at 10 AM Hauptplatz
Bring us a star bearing your own personal wish for the future!
An essential element of the “80+1 A JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD” project is peering into the future. In conjunction with “Starry Starry Night,” we’ll be collecting your fondest hopes and desires on a “wish tree” at www.80plus1.org and sending them out into the world.

Beginning at 10 AM Hauptplatz
Exhibition of the Rolling Stars and Planets

10 AM-3 PM Hauptplatz
Austrian Space Forum (ÖWF) Workshops for Young People
ÖWF experts will show you how to build model rockets that can then be launched from the banks of the Danube.

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
Astronaut Trainer from the Children & Youth Service

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
ÖWF Workshops for Young People
Take a test drive in the Dignity Rover, a vehicle used in the space program. Youngsters can try on space suits and experience what it’s like to be an astronaut.

10 AM-6 PM Hauptplatz
COSMOS – An Advanced Scientific Repository for Science Teaching and Learning
Would you like to find out more about the COSMOS website www.cosmos-project.eu? Then pay a visit to the project’s information stand, where staffers will be on hand to answer your questions one-on-one.

12 Noon-6 PM 80+1 Base Camp
Global Window Live
Get linked up LIVE to the whole wide world! Plus: incredible films, links and info about astronomy, space exploration, stars and the cosmos.

3-4 PM Hauptplatz
Trip through the Solar System
Join the ÖWF’s Gernot Grömer on a journey through our solar system and then come along on an Austro-Mars expedition.

4-5 PM Hauptplatz
LIVE remote hookup to Franz Kerschbaum of the University of Vienna’s Department of Astronomy
Franz Kerschbaum provides insights into, among other subjects, the history of astronomy, the birth and death of stars, and the future of our Sun in conversation with ÖWF’s Dietmar Hager and Gernot Grömer.

5-5:45 PM Hauptplatz
LIVE remote hookup to the ESO
We establish contact with the ESO’s Yuri Beletsky.

6:30-7 PM Hauptplatz
Light Pollution
Astronomy expert Dietmar Hager provides interesting information and insights about light pollution and astrophotography.

7-8 PM Hauptplatz
Future Talk alfresco
on the subject of exploration with Franz Viehböck, Austria’s first astronaut, geneticist Josef Penninger and American mathematician John L. Casti; moderated by AEC artistic director Gerfried Stocker

7-9 PM Kirche Urfahr
Klanghimmel and Speeds of Time

8-9 PM Maindeck
Futuristic Sound-Performance – Felix Kubin
The artist Felix Kubin works against the gravitation: Electroacoustic Pop – Noise and rhythm.

8-9 PM Hauptplatz
Stellar Music: Nordwest featuring Louis Nostitz, Ali Andress and Flo Muigg
World premiere of Thomas Nordwest’s “Sternenmusik” featuring Louis Nostitz, Ali Andress and Flo Muigg.

9 -10 PM Hauptplatz
Sternenstunde: Astrology with Gerda Rogers
What does the zodiac portend for Linzers’ future?

10-11 PM Maindeck
InterSidera – TeZ
World premiere of “InterSidera,” a sound performance composed especially for this event by media artist TeZ.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
“Lights Out – Starlight” / A Battery of Telescopes for Stargazing
A one-of-a-kind experience awaits stargazers—amateur astronomers will make available their telescopes and also provide expert explanations of the constellations and the cosmos. Special highlight: the new telescope of the Petrinum parochial high school’s observatory.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
Performance of Rolling Stars & Planets
The Ladies First Ladies modern dance group from BiondekBühne Baden and the SlowForward performance group present “Breath of the Universe” and “The Birth of the World,” thereby conjuring up the stars and constellations on the Nibelungen Bridge.

10 PM-12 Midnight Hauptplatz
Stellar Myths
Stirring accounts of the fairytale creatures that populate the night sky, the heroic sagas of Andromeda, Perseus & Co. and the mythical beasts of the heavens.

12 Midnight Stadtwerkstatt, Café Strom
Ars Electronica Nightline
Numorai live, Sonic Death Monkey, DJ Malvin Elektronik

www.80plus1.org

Important Traffic & Public Transportation Information
9 PM to 1 AM: Hauptplatz closed to all traffic

80+1, Ars Electronica, voesalpine, Linz09, ORF OÖ, LinzAG , Österreichisches Weltraum Forum (ÖWF), Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft (LAG), Stadt Linz.

Special thanks to voestalpine, Linz09, ORF OÖ, LinzAG, Magistrat der Stadt Linz, Österreichisches Weltraum Forum (ÖWF), Linzer Astronomische Gemeinschaft (LAG), Bischöfliches Gymnasium Petrinum, Teleskop-Sternwartenzentrum Linz, Stargazer-Observatory, Teleskop-Service Ransburg GmbH, Dietmar Hager, Lajos Santos, Gerda Rogers, Franz Viehböck, Elisabeth Ledersberger-Lehoczky, „Ladies First Ladies” Modern-Dance-Gruppe von der BiondekBühne Baden und „SlowForward” Performace-Gruppe, Wiener Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Astronomie, Astrofreunde Oberes Mühlviertel, sowie allen Teilnehmer beim Teleskopwald, Cosmos – An Advanced Scientific Repository for Science Teaching and Learning, Österreichische Versuchsender Verband (ÖVSV), Kinder- und Jugendservice der Stadt Linz, Werner Prödl, City Ring, Wirtschaftskammer Linz, Jindrak, Stadtgärten Linz, Anrainer und Gewerbetreibenden des Hauptplatzes.