6.9.  10:30 – 12:30

The important thing is getting the ball rolling—recognizing problems, defining them, and seeking solutions and alternatives which, after all, one can find almost anywhere.

• 10:30 Frithjof Bergmann (US)
  Professor Emeritus of philosophy at the University of Michigan. Founder of the New-Work-Movement.
• 11:30 Strom-Boje
  Fritz Mondl (AT), Associate of the Aqua Libre Energieentwicklungs GmbH. The Strom-Boje is a small swimming hydroelectric power plant which only uses kinetic energy of free floating streams or the sea current.
• 11:50 In.fondo.al.mar
  David Boardman (IT), Designer & Researcher at the MIT Design Laboratory.
  In.fondo.al.mar is a mapping project by David Boardman (IT) and Paolo Gerbaudo (IT), charting the sinking and dumping of toxic and radioactive waste in the Mediterranean Sea. A documentation can be seen in Bau 2 OG 4.
• 12:10 Haiti-House
  Peter Wehr (AT), representative of the CONSIDO AG Austria.
• 12:30 Q&A

Moderation: Derrick de Kerckhove (CA)

Britta Riley (US)
02.09.-07.09.

The Windowfarms Project is a fast-growing web platform that helps city dwellers grow food in their apartments year-round and channels their innovations into an open research framework for the future of urban agriculture.

Over 14,000 participants are building these compact vertical hydroponic gardens in windows around the world, proposing and testing design modifications, and experimenting with different vegetables and nutrients.

http://www.windowfarms.org

Supported by the municipal gardens of Linz.

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger (CH)
02.09.-07.09.

Since 1968, scientist-artist Cornelia Hesse-Honegger has been painting pictures of flies and other bugs that have mutated as a result of environmental contamination and atomic radiation. Since the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, she has collected more than 16,000 insects in the fallout zones of Chernobyl and nuclear facilities in Europe and the US. Her studies show that these plants severely harm the environment. The highest rate of contamination is 22% in the area of La Hague, France; the expected value should be approximately 1%.

It’s forbidden to take pictures inside the exhibition.

http://www.wissenskunst.ch

Running the Numbers II: Portraits of global mass culture
Chris Jordan (US), 2009
02.09.-07.09.

Chris Jordan looks critically at the dark side of our global mass production and consumption society. It is hard to communicate the environmental impact our way of life has on the planet, because most phenomena are invisible and spread across the earth in millions of separate places. There is no Mount Everest of waste that we can make a pilgrimage to and behold the sobering aggregate of our discarded stuff, seeing and feeling it viscerally with our senses. His work “Gyre” depicts 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world’s oceans every hour. All of the plastic in his image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

http://www.chrisjordan.com

2.9.-7.9.

The plastic bag as cultural monument. The Municipal Archive of Passau, Germany has collected thousands of plastic bags that document the transition of the culture and the Zeitgeist since the 1950s. Now, in more than 20 countries, the use of plastic bags is subject to strict regulations and even fines. Three films impressively demonstrate why this is so. A wind tunnel in which a vast assortment of plastic bags elegantly and nimbly make their final rounds before the recycling process resurrects their lifecycle.

Ramin Bahrani (US), 2009
2.9. – 7.9.

In a not too distant future, a Plastic Bag goes on an epic journey in search of its lost maker, wondering if there is any point to life without her. The bag encounters strange creatures, brief love in the sky, a colony of prophetic torn bags on a fence and the unknown. In the end, the plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into 500 nautical miles of spinning garbage known as the Pacific Ocean Trash Vortex – a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away.

Credits:
Music by Kjartan Sveinsson of the band Sigur Rós
Voice by film director Werner Herzog

Werner Boote (AT), 2009

2.9. – 7.9.

“Plastic Planet – Once you have seen this film, you will never again drink from a plastic bottle.”

Plastic is cheap and practical. We are children of the Plastic Age. Plastics in the soil or water take up to 500 years to break down. The exotic additives they contain damage our endocrine system. Were you aware of the fact that you have plastic in your blood? Director Werner Boote’s investigative documentary film shows that plastic has become a global threat. He raises issues that every one of us has to confront: Why don’t we change our behavior as consumers? Why doesn’t the private sector react to the dangers? Who is responsible for the mountains of garbage in the world’s deserts and seas? Who are the winners here? And who are the losers?

This film can be purchased from September 2010 on.

http://www.plastic-planet.at

Credits
Drehkonzept: Werner Boote
Regie: Werner Boote
Kamera: Thomas Kirschner, Dominik Spritzendorfer
Schnitt: Ilana Goldschmidt, Cordula Werner, Tom Pohanka
Ton: Jens Ludwig, Erik Hoeman, Ekkehart Baumung
Musik: The Orb
Produzent: Thomas Bogner, Daniel Zuta
Produktionsleitung: Florian Brandt
Förderung: Filminstitut, Deutscher Filmförderfonds , Investitionsbank Hessen
Fernsehbeteiligung: ORF (Film/Fernseh-Abkommen)
Verleih: ThimFilm

2.9. – 7.9.

Film, 85min Documentary

For better and for worse, no ecosystem or segment of human activity has escaped the shrink-wrapped grasp of plastic. For more than 15 years, award-winning filmmaker Ian Connacher has been documenting solutions to environmental issues. His latest documentary is a global journey to investigate what we really know about the material of a thousand uses and why there’s so darn much of it. On the way we discover a toxic legacy, and the men and women dedicated to cleaning it up.

Credits:

Produced and Directed by Ian Connacher (CA)

Pictures – Cryptic Moth Productions Inc.

Music – Oliver Johnson – The Hive

Edited By Martyn Iannece, Gad Reichman, Kevin Rollins

2. 9. – 7. 9. Exhibition
3. 9. – 6. 9. 13:00, 15:00, 17:00 Performance

Japanese experimental artist Ei Wada breathes new life into old TV picture tubes. He utilizes their electromagnetic properties to transform light into sound and back again. When he touches the screens, this triggers a fascinating audio & video performance in which his hands and his whole body serve as pseudo-antennas. The old-fashioned picture tube TVs and a video recorder become percussion instruments, light synthesizer and VJ/DJ equipment all rolled into one. Thus, devices that have lost their original function can be used in a new way.

2.9. – 7.9.

Four internal combustion engines hang from the ceiling, awaiting their resuscitation. They’ll be fired up only once during the festival and join their voices in a droning, exhaust-belching song of lamentation. A reminiscence of “108 EB – Chamber Music for Four Motors and Service Personnel,” the legendary project with which Hubert Lepka and Lawine Torren created a sensation in 1989.

2. 9. – 7. 9.

The meditative glowing of the incandescent wire, pulsating, weak and reddish, before it reaches its maximum output giving off blazing bright light, uncertain as to whether it means the beginning or the end.

2.9.

10:00 Press Conference
12:00 Opening Campus Exhibitions
13:45 Opening ROBOT-ISM/ Japan Media Arts Festival
14:30 Worldpremiere of Ralf Schmerbergs new movie
16:00 Opening CyberArts 2010 Exhibition
17:30 Opening Sound Space
19:00 Repair Choir Main Square

2.9. 20:30

That music and architecture have much in common was recognized by the great German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and philosophers Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, who called architecture silent, solidified or frozen music. “Frozen Music” is the title of the event that kicks off this year’s Ars Electronica Festival and also marks the official reopening of Linz’s Tabakfabrik. This venue, a former tobacco processing plant that’s been closed since September 2009, is one of Austria’s most significant industrial landmarks. Artistic interventions, performances and sound & light shows staged in the facility’s inner courtyard will throw open imaginary doors and windows, and transport audience members deeper and deeper inside—into a world in which productivity is seemingly paralyzed but can still be perceived with all the senses.

Concerts & Performances

• Dorian Concept (Affine Record / AT)
  Dorian Concept is interested in exploring the interface between digital and analogue music, composition, musical performance, and improvisation. His musical interests and compositions range from experimental electronic music to hip-hop, funk, and jazz.
• Tim Exile (Warp / UK)
  Als Zeremonienmeister der Improvisation frickelt Tim Exile via Joystick die gegensätzlichsten Soundfragmente zusammen. Sein Kabarett aus Breakcore-Gewitter und Gabba-Ausflügen zieht durchaus unterschiedliche Gemüter an – ein Herz für Spontanität und Freigeist vorausgesetzt.

• MRO: Maintenance, Repair and Operations
  GRIDUO: Alican Aktürk and Refik Anadol (TR) + NEITSCH: Sebastian Neitsch (DE)
  Visual Support: Efe Mert Kaya (TR)
  Sound Design: Tryek: Kerim Karaoglu (TR) and Johannes Schmidt (DE)
  Working in the fields of live video/audio performance and architectural photography, the duo is particularly interested in the relationship between architecture and media.

  http://www.griduo.com
  http://www.sebastianneitsch.de/
  http://tryek.de/

• MRO: Maintenance, Repair and Operations LIVE feat. Tryek
  GRIDUO: Alican Aktürk and Refik Anadol (TR) + NEITSCH: Sebastian Neitsch (DE)
  Visual Support: Efe Mert Kaya (TR)
  3D-Animation: .AGA. Andreas Jalsovec (AT)
  Sound Design: Tryek: Kerim Karaoglu (TR) and Johannes Schmidt (DE)

  http://www.griduo.com
  http://www.sebastianneitsch.de/
  http://tryek.de/
  http://www.jalsovec.com/

• Quantum
  Jemapur (JP) + Genki Ito (JP)
  Genki Ito’s visuals and Jemapur’s music take the audience on a tour through a microcosm of light and sound. Objects get broken down to their basic elements, the atoms smash into each other, fuse, and start to emit a dazzling light.
• PULSE
  Marco Palewicz (AT)
  Mit akustischen, mechanischen und elektronischen Klängen verfrachtet Marco Palewicz Raum und Zeit in eine neue und einzigartige Dimension. Erleben Sie die Geburt, das Leben und die Vergänglichkeit eines Raumes, der Weite und der Sehnsucht.
• fade out
  Daito Manabe (JP) + Motoi Ishibashi (JP)
• As an artist, I need to rest
  Sonia Cillari (IT)
• Braun Tube Jazz Band
  Ei Wada (JP)
• Reparatur-Chor / Repair Choir
• crowd2cloud.org – Experiments in Crowd Gaming
  Chris Bregler, Sally Rosenthal, Kirill Smolskiy
  Ian Spiro, Graham Taylor, George Williams (US)
• System Jaquelinde
  Two girls, Hanna Priemetzhofer and Franziska Thurner, a lot of ideas and lively restlessness mixed together with a portion of talent in visual art. Instead of simply projecting pretty videowallpapers, they develop visuals corresponding with the live-shows, stage design and personality of the musicians by adding unique contents and styles. (Backlab Collective, AT)

If it’s “too late to be a pessimist” (Yann Arthus-Bertrand), then how can we remain optimistic and sustain the urge to bring forth a future worth living? We’re currently experiencing numerous major miscarriages—environmental catastrophes, financial crises, seeming endless border disputes. At this symposium, experts in a wide array of fields will elaborate on and illustrate how to acknowledge errors and to use them as a source of motivation to implement change. The ambitious goal here is to mobilize oneself and others in order to courageously assume responsibility for a better future.

Updates can be found at: http://www.artcircolo.de/zeitraeume_/linz2010

Program:

4.9. 18:00-21:00
Location: Sky Loft, 3^rd floor, Ars Electronica Center, Ars-Electronica-Straße-1, A-4040 Linz

• 18:00  Symposium/Workshop Opening
• Welcome
  • Prof. Arnold Picot (Münchner Kreis)
  • Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann (overtures-ZeitRäume)
  • Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica)
• Lectures
  • Evolutionary Heritage: Decision processes, self repair of systems in uncertain environments, aspects of brain research
    Prof. Ernst Pöppel, psychologist and neuroscientist, LMU Munich
  • The Ignorance Society
    Prof. Daniel Innerarity, Professor of political and social philosophy at the University of the Basque Country, San Sebastian
• 21:00  Conversation Dinner
  Each table will receive a subject concerning sustainability, admitting failure and change in our society and is asked to propose an implementation scenario. The results will be summarized and discussed next day.

5.9. 10:00-13:00
Location: Bau 2 EG

• 10:00  Opening
  • Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica)
  • Introduction of overtures-ZeitRäume and the art projects
    Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann
  • How to Finance our Future
    Opening Prof. Arnold Picot
• 10:15 Central Banks as Pushers of the Financial Crisis.
  Prof. Dr. Gunnar Heinsohn, sociologist and economist, University of Bremen
• 11:00 Towards a Language for the economics of Economy.
  Dr. Viktor Winschel, Universität Mannheim, VWL Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen
• 11:30 Evolutionary Heritage: Decision processes, self repair of systems in uncertain environments, aspects of brain research
  Prof. Ernst Pöppel, psychologist and neuroscientist, LMU Munich
• 12:00 Software Engineering: How to deal with failure.
  Prof. Dr. Bernd Brügge, computer scientist, TUM
• 12:30 Guided acoustic Tour
  by sound artist Kalle Laar
  Engagement to our Future
  Dr. Christian Schoen and Dr. Serafine Lindemann, curators, Germany.
  Combine transdisciplinary experiences and art processes to gain knowledge. – Courage for active change and future through artists

5.9. 14:30-17:30
Location: Bau 1 OG 3

• 14:30 Meeting point at „Never Ever“, project by Benjamin Bergmann
• 15:00 Metro Crowd Financing for SMEs in underdeveloped metropolitan areas
  Stefan Doeblin, Network Economy AG
• 15.20 Applications: How to Admit Failure!
  Prof. Dr. Han Brezet, Technical University Delft, Sustainable Design Program
• 15:50 Manufactured Demand: What it means to grow a multi-billion Dollar industry around bottled water.
  Dr. Martin Richartz, computer scientist, Vodafone R&D Germany, Dr. Serafine Lindemann, curator, artcircolo
• 16.10 Panel: Desire for Future, Change and how to admit Failure
  Benjamin Bergmann, Kalle Laar, Prof. Dr. Arnold Picot, Dr. Christian Schoen, Gerfried Stocker,Dr. Bernd Wiemann
  Video Including presentation of the results of the conversation dinner
• 16:50 Science without error bars
  Dr. Wolf von Reden, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft HHI

The tuition for attending the entire symposium is 100€ (50€ for students, artists and seniors). This fee to cover production costs entitles you to admission to the workshop on Saturday (including dinner) as well as admission and participation on Sunday. Free admission for Festival Pass holders applies only to the panels on Sunday.

A project of Münchner Kreis, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München and the Technischen Universität München in cooperation with the Ars Electronica in line with the overtures-ZeitRäume series, a artcircolo pilotraum 01 project.

Kalle Laar (DE)
4. 9. 16:00 – 17:00

Defective, sick, obsolete, irreparable, remarkable, lost, off-the-charts and misplaced sounds; on vinyl, of course; saved by the dj. Kalle Laars performance with the Temporary Soundmuseum’s collection invites visitors to engage in conscious hearing with open ears.

www.klangmuseum.de

djkl & The Temporary Soundmuseum

2.9. – 7.9.

Access to healthy drinking water is a basic right, but also a technical and social challenge. Accordingly, experts in technology, biology, medicine, art and design collaborated on the development of the Quelle 01 (Spring 01) drinking water purification system. It takes local tap water, physically and chemically purifies it, and delivers water as if from a natural spring. The assignment was to achieve consummate drinking water quality, and to use local sources of water worldwide in order to avoid unnecessary transportation, cleaning and recycling of bottles. The outcome is to bring technology, nature and life into harmony in a way that has great future promise. Three of these devices will be exhibited at Ars Electronica.

http://www.quellsysteme.de

2.9. – 7.9. Bau 1 OG 5 Abteilungsleiterraum

In his second installation, Kalle Laar deals with the festival theme, REPAIR, since, the way he sees it, kaput technology has the right to live on in dignity. Instead of disposing of his loudspeakers—that can no longer meet the standards demanded by a sound artist—they become members of his ensemble, contributing their own inimitable qualities to the interpretation of “defective” classic and electronic sounds.

http://www.klangmuseum.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

2.9. – 7.9.

Sound artist Kalle Laar investigates the ambient noises that surround us and that we consciously or unconsciously perceive. His “research work” focuses on the individual emotional connections evoked by sounds—and unaffected by visual elements.

In this installation, a seemingly empty room is occupied by sounds, tone by tone. These sounds are often on the very threshold of audibility, so that the visitor doesn’t always know whether he/she actually heard something and, if so, what and where. Nature intrudes. The sounds of everyday life. In relation to the installation space’s dimensions, they remain in miniature format, little tonal objects to be discovered, audible phenomena that, in their own way, surreptitiously take possession of this place.

http://www.klangmuseum.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

The works of Benjamin Bergmann make bold assertions, conduct thought experiments and sensitively play with ideas in which the absurd often takes center stage. Their basic nature is sculptural, and they display an essentially performative character. “For me, the beautiful thing about absurdity is the sustainability of the confusion. At some point, you find yourself toying with the idea that a totally absurd world would perhaps be more beautiful.”

Accordingly, when Bergmann installs a basketball hoop at dizzying heights, what he’s setting up thereby is a metaphorical and de facto experiment that sets its goal so high that there’s a higher likelihood of failure than success.

http://www.benjaminbergmann.de

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

2.9. – 7.9.

In a water-filled basin, Icelandic artist Pétursson creates interference at 7.8 hertz. The sound, which can be heard and felt, becomes visible in the form of waves on the surface of the water. This 7.8 hertz frequency corresponds to a physical phenomenon named the Schumann Resonance that describes the resonation of the Earth’s electromagnetic field. For Pétursson, this is the frequency of our home planet’s pulse.

http://www.finnbogi.com

A project from artcircolo in cooperation with pilotraum01
Curators: Serafine Lindemann (DE) and Christian Schoen (DE)

2. 9. – 7. 9.

Six years have passed since [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grants was first awarded, so this would be a fitting occasion for Ars Electronica and voestalpine to devote an exhibition to these efforts. The mission has been to discover people who are taking original, innovative approaches to confronting the  facts & circumstance of this world, and are developing concepts that have what it takes to really make a difference.The exhibition spotlights work being done at the nexus of art, technology, design and science, and elaborate on the projects’ inherent assumptions as well as the social consequences they entail. It’s precisely this mixture of very creative people with wide-ranging skills and highly diverse backgrounds that promises to foster fascinating, inspiring encounters with topics and issues of great importance to our future, so to assure that these successful networking efforts don’t just loosen and completely unravel following the end of the Festival, Ars Electronica is launching a blog that will present the projects on exhibit as well as new and very promising approaches.

Click here to see details about the [the next idea] exhibition.

3. 9 13:00 – 17:10

At this year‘s symposium, attendees will get an opportunity to hear about the individual works as well as to hear from a few of the people behind the concepts. They’ll go into detail about their individual approaches and discuss them with audience members. Here, the accent is on a lively process of exchange among participants.

Schedule

• 13:00 Introduction by Bernhard Böhm (AT)
  Project coordinator [the next idea]
• 13:10 Frederik de Wilde (BE) – Hostage
  Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant 2010
  Studied fine arts (MA), audio-visual arts(MA) & followed a pre-education in architecture, concluded his studies with a post-graduate degree in new media, arts & design at TRANSMEDIA.
• 14:10 Jonas Burki (CH) – Sun_D
  Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant 2007
  Dipl. Interaktionsleiter FH. Founded hiscompany SUN-D GmbH in 2008. Won the W.A. de Vigier Award in 2009.
• 15:10 Niels Peter Flint (DK) – WonderWorldCompostdo
  Working in the field of design, art, architecture and sustainable development. His big passion is developing visions and projects for a prosperous sustainable future.
• 16:10 Adam Zaretsky (NL) – Studiolab & Huub de Groot (NL)
  [the next idea] honorary mention 2010
  Adam Zaretsky is one of the founders of the newly developing vivoart movement. Pop-art artist and assemblagist, works with lost and found objects for sculpting. Huub de Groot works as scientist at the university of Leiden researching in the “Towards Biosolar Cells” program.

Moderation: Bernhard Böhm (AT), Project coordinator [the next idea]

Projektleitung Future Factory: Roland Haring (AT), Bernhard Böhm (AT)
Ausstellungsgestaltung: Gerald Priewasser (AT)

Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant 2010

The medium of painting has a long tradition, and many critical reflections upon the contemporary relevance of the medium have been written. The percentage for renewal is rather small. Very small. Ironically, nanotechnology deals with the very “small” and it is within this fairly new scientific field that inspiration may lie for the arts, ready to be unfold and researched. The creation of the darkest nano engineered painting in the world, created in collaboration with the Rice University and Prof. Pulickel, entitled “Hostage” will serve as a case study to explore the possible paradigm shift it can generate in the arts in general and more specific in the medium of painting. In order to pursue this sublime ideal and go beyond the luminal, the artist researched and used anti-sublime strategies, using scientific tools, methodologies and introduced them into his artistic praxis.

http://www.frederik-de-wilde.com

Thanks to: Nanomaterials Laboratory at Rice University, Houston (USA), SMARTbe, Flemish Ministry of Culture and the University Hasselt

Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant 2007

SUN_D takes a radical new approach—one that doesn’t regard daylight as a problem but instead sees its tremendous potential. Jonas Burki considers sunlight and ambient light as a resource that’s natural, free and abundantly available, and builds sun monitors that adapt to natural lighting conditions.

http://www.sun-d.ch

Winner of the [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant 2009

“Open_Sailing” is a pioneering open-source architecture designing and building the first International Ocean Station. The diverse community of experts, from a wide range of disciplines, develop the technologies required to enable a human floating symbiotic life with the ocean. Current research projects include “Energy_Animal”, a floating sustainable electrical generator that creates power from waves, wind and sun; “Life_Cable”, a unified cable for any inhabited structure needs; and a fleet of oil collecting robots to aid the cleaning of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The “Open_Sailing” project aims to provide a stable infrastructure for ocean research, developing technologies that will impact our lives on land as well as the ocean.

http://www.opensailing.net

A number of scientists are researching the prospect of growing meat in vitro as a potential solution to environmental and health concerns related to current global meat consumption. However, they have yet to discover a way to scale up the process to an industrial level. Hence, now is an opportune time in this emerging technology’s development to imagine how such a process could be structured in an alternative mode of production, independant of the industrial food system. The Community Meat Lab utilises existing knowledge of how meat can be grown in vitro to propose a scenario where the consumer makes a social and emotional investment in the production of their food rather than a monetary one.

http://www.callmecat.com

FrontlineSMS is a free software that turns a computer and a mobile phone or a modem into a two-way group messaging hub. Since it works at any place with mobile reception, it doesn’t need the Internet, which is a major advantage for many grassroots NGOs. Once the software is running on your computer, you can send messages to wide groups of people, and collect responses to any questions or surveys you might want to run, all via text message.

http://www.frontlinesms.com

The basic idea behind WonderWorld are multimedia and multi-functional projects melting together various disciplines in order to create new expressions and types of projects which addresses issues extremely relevant to the challenges humanity is facing. The WonderWorld projects in general are showing new ways to do a lot more with a lot less in ways that let everyone participate. The projects try to come up with positive solutions to the challenges Homo Sapiens are facing on Planet Earth today. WonderWorldCompostdo (WWCdo) in particular takes up a tabooed topic centered around human waste. The main goal with the WWCdo project is to create awareness around how energy can be created for everyone on the planet if the technologies are used appropriately.

http://www.npflint.com

In response to two strong global developments: the rise of pervasive Information technologies and the privatization of the public sphere, Marc Böhlen and Hans Frei propose hybrid architectural programs called Micro Public Places (MMPs). MPPs are small but many, decentralized but connected worldwide.  They combine insights from ambient intelligence, human computing, architecture, social engineering and urbanism to initiate ways to re- animate public life in contemporary societies. They offer access to things that are or should be available to all: air, water, medicine, books, etc.. Last but not least they combine information technologies with subjective human intuition to make the public space a contested space again.

http://www.realtechsupport.org/new_works/mpp.html

Each of your senses (touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing) sends information to the brain at a different frequency. The brain determines where the sensorial information it receives comes from by the frequency at which it resonates, so it can process it in the appropriate way. Arrays of resonators positioned on the surface of an Eye Candy transmit information from the tongue to the brain at the frequency that the eyes usually send visual information to the brain. A pleasant sensation of soda bubbles can be felt on the tongue as the mind decodes this sensorial information as vivid pictures.

http://www.eyecandycan.com

[the next idea] 2010 Honorary mention

The Towards Biosolar Cells research program at Leiden University in the Netherlands combines natural and technological components to create solar collectors that supply fuel rather than electricity. Bioartists are collaborating in the development of these “artificial leaves”. Research begins with *Elysia chlorotica*, a wild species that is half plant, half snail. This sea slug eats chloroplasts from algae and becomes solar powered so it does not have to eat for long periods of time. Recently it was discovered that this snail has genetic information to repair the chloroplasts and keep them going; if the genes that allow the snail to maintain the functional integrity of the chloroplasts can be laterally transferred, it is possible the genes can be utilized for other organisms, ultimately for humans. This generates the possibility to produce solar-powered species for food and biofuel directly from the sun, reducing our ecological footprint.

http://www.waag.org/project/studiolab

BioArt artist Adam Zaretsky in collaboration with Prof. Huub de Groot (bio-solar cells) and Prof. Rob Zwijnenberg (Faculty of Humanities, Leiden)

[the next idea] 2010 Honorary mention

The purpose of this device is to provide a method and means for controlling the power usage of communication routers based on the electrical output of solar panels and batteries voltage\charge level. The two important pieces of this technology are the intelligent solar power control module and the software for power management and monitoring. These allow for smaller solar panels and battery sub-system, resulting in reduced cost, a smaller form factor and increased portability of communication routers. The aim is to create simple systems and to deploy them into developing regions, specific into schools.

http://www.green-wifi.org

Akiko Hino (JP)
2.9. – 7.9.

“Dancing Information” is a media art that shows its participants what they and their friends are interested in on a common context. It works as a mirror that provides opportunities to discover hints for extending ones interest.

When a participant inputs his/her Twitter ID, photos uploaded by the participant are fetched from the Web and collaged in the shape of human. Then it starts dancing. Keywords surrounding the photos in the original web pages are aggregated and a topic of the moment is decided. If there are friends who are interested in the topic, one of them is chosen and his/her human shaped collage appears. Friends are found based on social relationships on Twitter. Photos that consist of a human shaped collage are selected based on the topic of the moment.

Throughout the experience of watching ones human shaped collage of photos, a participant expected to rediscover what he/she thought in the past. Furthermore, he/she may find something new from friends. Since information shown to the participant is selected based on his/her personal context, it is more likely to be triggers to broaden ones interest. “Dancing Information” is an approach to realize this in a joyful way.

Akiko Hino (Kyoto University), Yoichiro Hino and Norihiro Otsuki proceed this project. Akiko, as a chief creator, built the concept of “Dancing Information” and wrote the code of the visualization part. Yoichiro implemented the server side program and Norihiro worked as an adviser for the design part.

Minoru Fujimoto (JP)
2. 9. – 5. 9. 14:00, 17:00

Lighting Choreographer is a system to expand the expressive capability of human body by lighting. It makes light effects on the user’s body synchronized with motion and sound, focusing on the viewing point that the produced effects recursively influence the choreographer.

Although there are many approaches to computer enhanced performances where audio and/or visuals are operated based on motion information of a performer, they are too simple to control the details at his/her will in the sense of expansion of body expression. Furthermore, they do not provide a way of body expressions to exceed the limit of the physical motions, such as moving their arms at a very high speed. Thus, Minoru Fujimoto came up with the idea to expand the body expressions by interactively changing the color and the size of body parts and combining kinematics and visual effects of lights by controlling LEDs with considering characteristics of the human body.

A performer represents various kinds of the feel of material, e.g. heaviness, lightness, sharpness, pop, violence, and soft, by dancing. By adding light illumination, performers obtains three factors for body representation; motion, sounds and lights. The projects aim is to redefine the relations between the body, sounds and lights, and to enhance human expressions.

Project partners are the Yukari Uto (Tokyo University of the Arts), Noriko Seki (Kobe University) and Satoko Ishina (Kobe University)

Hiroshi Ishiguro (JP)
Osaka University and ATR
2. 9. – 7. 9

Hiroshi Ishiguro exhibited a “geminoid” during the Ars Electronica Festival 2009 as a featured artist. The geminoid is a tele-operated android modeled after his creator. Once the operator talks with visitors by using the geminoid, both the operator and visitors can adapt to the android body. The operator recognizes the android body as his own body and the visitors recognize it as the operator.

His newest project is a geminoid named “telenoid”. The unique appearance may be eery when we first see it. However, once we communicate with others by using the telenoid, we can adapt to it. If a friend speaks from the telenoid, we can imagine the friend’s face on the telenoid’s face. If we embrace it, we have the feeling, that we embrace the friend.

This work has been supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Scientific Research-S, Representation of human presence by using tele-operated androids.

2. 9. – 7. 9.

The artist in residence Matthew Gardiner chose Oribotics as his field of research, which thrives on the aesthetic, biomechanical and morphological connections between nature, origami and robotics. The design of the crease pattern, the precise arrangement of mountain and valley folds directly informs the mechanical design, so a key area of current research is discovering patterns that have complex expressions that can be repeatedly actuated.

Matthew Gardiners Oribotics have grown over 1,400 hours in the Fablab of the Ars Electronica Center. The 3D printer sits in close proximity to the Biolab, where plants are cloned using synthetic methods to educate visitors about gene technology. Symbolically, this highlights the connection to the many contexts where folding occurs in nature, the most significant being the folding of proteins, including DNA. This ‘origami of nature’ takes microseconds to complete thousands of folds, and a single folding error can profoundly affect the survival of the life form. Therefore, the newest generation has a polyester fabric membrane. Polyester is deformable by heat, and as such can be programmed with an oribotic pattern that will last for the life of the material, over millions of repeated interactions.

In an oribotic pattern, actuating a single fold causes every other fold to move; each fold is mechanically interconnected. The micro interactions occur with sensors, inside each bot a proximity sensor measures objects in front of its “mouth”. As an object approaches, the oribot blossom opens, causing 1,050 folds to actuate in the bot. Macro interactions occur via the network and software; each micro interaction is broadcast to every other oribot in the installation, causing the sympathetic movements of over 50,000 folds across the entire installation, creating a stunningly complex moving image.

Oribotics is the outcome of an artistic residency at the Ars Electronica Futurelab, produced in partnership with Novamedia and the Australia Council for the Arts. This project has been assisted by the City of Port Phillip through the Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship.

2.9. – 7.9.
Jitsuro Mase, Tom Nagae / DIRECTIONS Inc.

i3DG is a playful analog extension to an iPhone, converting its 2D display into a layered 3D view. Using the very old technique of placing a halfsilvered mirror at a 45-degree angle in front of an image, in a novel new context, the project serves as a timely critique of the popular memes of 3D displays and iPhones. As a gadget peripheral, i3DG can support a wide range of different applications, ranging from simple 3D videos and animations to accelerometerbased games.

2.9. – 7.9.
Ars Electronica Festival Exhibition by Keio-NUS CUTE Center

AmbiKraf is a non-emissive textile display that merges traditional techniques of printing and painting on textiles with novel interactive technology. Screen-printed patterns are subtly animated in response to the proximity of the viewer, drawing him or her to interact with the textile screen. We are exploring a new kind of product that stays true to its traditional roots as a craft but moves into becoming the craft of the Digital era, a NeoCraft. Ambikraf frees painting on textiles from its static form, rendering  it dynamic and interactive. With the animation of this piece, printed flowers bloom and wither depicting the cyclic system and temporality of nature as well as the passage of time itself.

2. 9. – 6. 9. Workshop: 10:00 – 13:00 & 14:00 – 19:00
2. 9. – 7. 9. Exhibition

“Discover a problem in the everyday life and infuse a new medium to solve it.” SWITCH is an edutainment kit designed to create subtle entertainment in our life by combining a sensor and content. This project is a collaborative research between Ars Electronica Futurelab and ELEKIT, a company known for their educational electronic kits. SWITCH wants to give people the opportunity to explore experience design and learn about the daily tasks of interaction designers. Visitors can create their own SWITCH at the ELEKIT workshop center and add their work to the exhibition.

www.elekit.co.jp

Ars Electronica Futurelab and EK Japan Co., LTD