The Futurelab, Ars Electronica’s R&D division, peers far into the future. How will robots impact our society? What effects will the increasing proliferation of technology have on all aspects of life?

VJ Joint Broadcasting Event presented by Orange

HELLO EUROPE: Live Coding Performance
3.9. 21:00-22:00, Hof

Gábor Papp, Ágoston Nagy (Kitchen Budapest, HU), David Stolarsky (US) (Ars Electronica Futurelab), Stefan Tiedje (Public Art Lab Berlin – Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, DE), Slub (FACT, Liverpool, GB), presented by Orange.

AGF (DE)  und Sebastian Neitsch, Woeishi Lean (AT) (Visuals)
3.9. 22:00 – 23:00, Hof

The performance of the German musician AGF is transferred from the courtyard of the tobacco factory in Linz to various cities in Europe via live video stream and can be experienced as sound and vision on the media facades of these cities.  Meanwhile in Linz,  the Austrian artists and VJs Sebastian Neitsch and Woeishi Lean immerse the historic façades of Linz tobacco factory with a mix of light and image signals from European media facades.

Orange Kunden haben am 3.9. kostenlos Zutritt auf das Areal der Tabakfabrik Linz, zu sämtlichen Ausstellungen und Performances untertags und der Nightline bis spät in die Nacht – jeweils mit einer Begleitung. Als Orange Kunde einfach das Handy mit der „Orange“ Betreiber Anzeige beim Eintritt vorweisen.

4. 9. 10:00 – 10:30

Horst Hörtner (AT)
Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab

4. 9. 10:30 – 15:45

Ars Electronica Futurelab and Honda R&D are currently conducting collaborative research into the next generation-relationship between humans and robots. From industrial robots supporting the production process to humanoid robots, many researchers have explored the range of possibilities for robots. Recently, these robot technologies are integrated mostly with information technology, and we see the robotization of physical space emerging. Therefore the applied research contains important questions, such as how will we integrate technologies like the “Humanoid Robot ASIMO” into our daily life, and how we can influence human acceptance and coexistence.

Panel 1: Human Robot Interaction Design
4. 9 10:30 – 12:30

In the Human-Robot Interaction Design session, we will discuss how we can apply methodologies from the fields of art, motion, communication, and interaction to the problem of finding ways in which human robot interactions become natural and intuitive.

Schedule

• 10:30 Introduction by Christopher Lindinger (AT)
  Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 10:40 Matthew Gardiner (AU)
  Artist in Residence at the Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 11:05 Anthony Dunne (UK)
  Professor and Head of the Design Interactions Department at the Royal College of Art
• 11:30 Golan Levin (US)
  Director Studio for Creative Inquiry and Professor of Electronic Art, Design and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University
• 11:55 Satoshi Shigemi (JP)
  Project Leader of the ASIMO Development
• 12:15 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Christopher Lindinger (AT), Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab

Panel 2: Human-Robot Harmony
4.9. 13:30 – 15:45

What is essential in creating harmony in a society living together with robots? We will take a close look at the key elements in considering the balance – not the border – between humans and robots.

Schedule

• 13:30 Introduction by Christopher Lindinger (AT)
  Christopher Lindinger (AT), Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 13:40 Noel Sharkey (UK)
  Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Professor of Public Engagement at the University of Sheffield
• 14:00 Alan Shapiro (US/DE)
  Technologist and Futurist
• 14:20 Bernad Batinic (DE/AT)
  Professor and Head of the Psychology and Pedagogic Department at the University Linz
• 14:40 Hideaki Ogawa (JP/AT)
  Artist & Creator in the Research and Innovation Group of the Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 15:00 Satoshi Shigemi (JP)
  Project Leader of the ASIMO Development
• 15:20 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Christopher Lindinger (AT) Director of Research and Innovation Ars Electronica Futurelab

4. 9 16:00 – 17:45

Real experiences and emotions play an important role for the immersive embedding of users in interactive entertainment & media formats that display great future promise. Here, the boundary between reality and virtuality becomes increasingly blurred. Interaction is considered the crux of modern digital media; it enables a global and mobile society to engage in new forms of exchange and encounter. Within the scope of this research, we are endeavoring to identify possibilities of how to playfully combine technology and entertainment, and what could serve as the basis of this fusion.

Schedule

• 16:00 Introduction by Roland Haring (AT)
  Senior Research Lead, Research and Innovation Group, Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 16:20 Robert Praxmarer (AT)
  Researcher, multimedia artist and developer. Head of Department at the Augmented Reality & Games at the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg.
• 16:40 Gordon Calleja, (MT)
  Head of the Center for Computer Games Research at the IT University of Copenhagen.
• 17:00 Frank Rose (US)
  Contributing editor Wired magazine, writes about media, advertising and entertainment. His next book will be The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories, forthcoming in 2011 from W.W. Norton.
• 17:20 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Roland Haring (AT), Senior Research Lead, Research and Innovation Group, Ars Electronica Futurelab

05.09. 10:00 – 12:45

The possibilities of integrating media design in architecture are vast and we have just begun to explore what we can do beyond putting big screens on façades. By converting the walls into a membrane for the dialog between the city and the citizens, we can construct attractive experiences that communicate the story of a building – be it commercial, as in retail environments, or educational, as in museums. We can respond to the need to find our way through endless corridors with the opportunity to create challenging artistic works.

Schedule

• 10:00 Introduction by Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth-Fohringer (AT)
  Director Media and Architecture, Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 10:15 Eckehart Loidolt (AT)
  Architect and Director, Schneider+Schumacher/Wien
• 10:45 Tim Edler (DE),
  Managing Director, Realitis: United
• 11:15 Break
• 11:30 Chriss Bosse (DE)
  Architect, L.A.V.A (Skype conference)
• 12:00 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth-Fohringer (AT), Director Media and Architecture, Ars Electronica Futurelab

5. 9. 14:00 – 17:00

If labs want to continue to lodge a claim to design excellence that they have rightfully earned, we’ll have to deal with the world around us. Incessantly progressing global warming, he widening of the so-called digital gap between urban areas and regions with lower-grade infrastructure and between industrialized and developing countries are just a few of the scenarios on which labs are expected to take a stand. The labs of the future will (have to) deploy their entire creative potential in order to utilize technology as a means of bringing about advances in other sectors (like social welfare and education) that have a major impact on culture.

Schedule

• 14:00 Introduction by Horst Hörtner (AT)
  Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab, AT
• 14:30 Angela Plohman (CA)
  Director of BALTAN Laboratories in Eindhoven (NL). Has worked for the last twelve years in the field of art and technology.
• 15:00 Masa Inakage (JP)
  Dean and professor at Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University. Internationally-reknowned digital artist, director, and producer, one of Japan‘s leading authorities on emerging technologies and digital entertainment content production.
• 15:30 Zachary Lieberman (US)
  Artist and co-creator of openFrameworks, an open source C++ toolkit for creative coding. He teaches at Parsons School of Design.
• 16:00 Gary McDarby (UK)
  Expert in Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience, based in the Complex Adaptive Systems Laboratory in University College Dublin.
• 16:30 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Horst Hörtner (AT), Laboratory Director, Ars Electronica Futurelab, AT

3.9 10:00 – 12:00

The Future Factory is a heterogeneous, dynamic configuration populated by representative of a wide variety of approaches and diverse disciplines. The participants elaborate on their motivations and what results from them on the basis of works on display in conjunction with the Future Factory.

• 10:00 Introduction by Pascal Maresch (AT)
  Director Media Performance, Ars Electronica Futurelab
• 10:05 Knowledge from Outer Space – A.R.T.
  Michael Badics (AT), Geschäftsführer Memetics GmbH
  Attempt. Risk. Trouble. Artistic creation, new modes of cooperations, Green Economy strategies, lateral thinking of technologies as important inputs for approaches and solutions to the necessary change process taking part in society as a whole: experiences with the concept „Energy Gazer“.
• 10:30 Sense the invisible
  Hide Ogawa (JP), Artist
  Hide Ogawa talks about the h.o solo exhibition 2010 – Sense the invisible, which is currently displayed in the Ars Electronica Center
• 11:00 Oribotics: The Future Unfolds
  Matthew Gardiner (AUS), Artist/Oriboticist
  Oribotics is a field of research that thrives on the aesthetic, biomechanic, and morphological connections between nature, origami and robotics.
• 11:30 Embodiment
  Horoshi Ishiguro (JP), Professor of Osaka University
  Mr. Ishiguro will talk about the concept of the Embodiment exhibition and his new work on “minimal design of human.”
• 12:00 AmbiKraf
  Mili John Tharakan (IN), Research Associate Keio-NUS CUTE Center
  Textile Artist-Researcher. Her work explores ways to democratize technology and find a new language for the textile craft communities of Asia to engage with digital technology and smart materials.

Moderation: Pascal Maresch (AT), Director Media Performance, Ars Electronica Futurelab

6. 9. 10:00 – 17:00

The Ars Electronica Futurelab invited media façades pioneers, who provide sustainable infrastructures and new communication platforms for modern active citizens. The main topic will be the possibilities that emerge between the virtual and real public space based on new cooperation models between socio-political, cultural, architecturally aesthetic and economic interests.

Schedule Part I: Reality and Vision

• 10:00 Welcome Address by Stefan Mittlböck-Jungwirth-Fohringer (AT)
  Director Media and Architecture, Ars Electronica Futurelab and Susa Pop, Managing Director, Public Art Lab
• 10:15 Introduction by Miram Strupek (DE)
  Urban Media Researcher
• 10:45 Oliver Ebert (DE)
  Architect, MA, ag4
• 11:15 Gernot Tscherteu (AT)
  Media and Interaction Designer
• 12:00 Panel Discussion: Media Facades and Urban Screens
  Nerea Calvillo (SP) (Media Lab Prado Madrid), Heather Corcoran (UK) (Fact Liverpool), Jan Edler (DE) (Realitis:United) Minna Tarkka (FI) (m-cult Helsinki), Marie-Laure Delaby (BE) (iMA L)
• 12:45 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Susa Pop (DE), Managing Director Public Art Lab

Schedule Part II: The aesthetic of light / Light Pollution

• 14:00 Dietmar Hager (AT)
  Astrophotograph and Medical Doktor AKH Linz
• 14:20 Thomas Posch (AT)
  Astronomer and Philosopher, University Vienna
  
• 14:40 Othmar Cosar (AT)
  Environmental criminologist, Kripo Linz
  
• 15:00 Andreas Böhlke (DE)
  Lighting desinger, Festival of Lights Berlin
• 15:20 Norbert Chmel (AT)
  LDE, Wien
• 16:00 Panel Discussion: The aesthetics of light
  Dietmar Hager (AT), Thomas Posch (AT), Othmar Cosar (AT), Oliver Ebert (DE), Norbert Chmel (AT)
• 16:45 Roundup and Discussion

Moderation: Eckehart Loidolt, schneider+schumacher/Wien

Also see: Facade Festival

2. 9. – 11. 9.

Ars Electronica is collaborating with the Media Facades Festival Europe 2010 to present a fascinating array of art projects on the façade of the Ars Electronica Center and on the Tabakfabrik grounds during this year’s festival. The accent is on fostering a process of exchange among a diversified group of cities and countries and initiating an intercultural dialog about the medium of urban screens and media façades as well as the utilization of new communications technologies. Connected Cities infrastructure enables participating artists to propagate their projects in public spaces and to present them to large European audiences in Joint Broadcasting Events. The media facades will be transformed into local stages and open a global window for cultural and societal processes to create a dialogue and connect the local public virtually with the other places throughout Europe.

Ars Electronica Center, Facade

• Fassaden Terminal
  Ars Electronica Futurelab (AT), daily 20:00-22:00
• Monster
  h.o (JP), daily 23:00-24:00
• The Colors of the Times: Linz Bunt Blitz
  Shervin Afshar (IR), daily 22:00-22:10
• City Sleep Light
  Antoine Schmitt (FR), daily 00:00-01:00
• Cerebra Electronica
  Onur Sönmez (TR), 4.9. 22:10, 7.9. 22:10
• iRiS – the immediate remote interaction system. Interact directly and in real time with the facade of the Ars Electronica Center.
  Magdalena Blöckner, Sebastian Boring, Sven Gehring, Johannes Schöning, Alexander Wiethoff (DE), 5.9. 22:10, 6.9. 22:10

Tabakfabrik, Facades of the inner courtyard

Though they’re separated by thousands of kilometers, they can collaboratively create with light and shadow, color and contrast as if they shared an atelier. They—four of Europe’s most interesting visual arts projects—will be working together with the Ars Electronica Futurelab in conjunction with the Media Facades Festival Europe 2010 to immerse the Tabakfabrik’s inner courtyard in a new light.

• HELLO EUROPE: Live Coding Performance
  Gábor Papp, Ágoston Nagy (Kitchen Budapest, HU), David Stolarsky (US) (Ars Electronica Futurelab), Stefan Tiedje (Public Art Lab Berlin – Collegium Hungaricum Berlin, DE), Slub (FACT, Liverpool, GB), presented by Orange. 3.9. 21:00-22:00.
• HELLO EUROPE: VJ Joint Broadcasting Event,
  agf (DE) und Sebastian Neitsch, Woeishi Lean (AT) (Visuals), 3.9. 22:00-23:00, presented by Orange
• LummoBlocks
  Carles Gutiérrez, Javier Lloret, Mar Canet und Jordi Puig (ES), 4.9. 23:00-24:00
• Action Flocking
  OiOi (FI), 5.9. 21:00-22:00
• Air Hunger
  Hanna Haaslathi (FI), 6.9. 23:00

www.mediafacades.eu

Also see: Media Facades Symposium

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.

Stand before the screen and flap your arms like a bird, and the silhouette projected on the screen flies up into the air. In this installation, what the participant feels is transferred to the small silhouette on the screen, resulting in a strange feeling of floating.

To fly on our own has been an eternal dream for humans. An action impossible in reality becomes a possibility within this limited space delineated by the tall and narrow screen in the installation. This work is sustained by self-awareness, that fundamental consciousness possessed by humans. The piece works based on the sensation that the small you in the image has turned into you. It is almost as though you have become the silhouette on the screen. In fact, we experience this kind of sensation of shamanistic possession in everyday life – for example, when you control a character in a computer game and feel like you have turned into that character, or when you feel like the curser on the screen has turned into our your fingertip.

Contemporary art has long become a world of hollow concepts and symbols that is separated from expression of consciousness itself. This work brings fundamental questions into relief, like what it means to be you, what can become yourself, and what new self human beings will obtain in the future. The artists want to return to the physical sensations of our own bodies, and from there embark on a thrilling challenge to find a new way of being for ourselves.

Tatsuya Saito, Tokyo University of the Arts

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