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The gatehouses guarding the fortresses of science have fallen, the bars on the windows are gone, and the secrets revealed. There are no more hiding places, no top-secret R&D projects; transparent humans do research in transparent cubes and share their findings with each other worldwide. Breakthrough discoveries are no longer dependent on funding that exceeds the annual budget of a small country; the necessary equipment is strictly home-brew; when know-how is needed, those who can supply it are quickly recruited; and the researchers learn from the users (and vice versa).

Actually, we’re not that far yet. There are still scientific facilities that resemble maximum security prisons, and there’s still a lot of secretiveness, confusion and ivory-tower thinking, but the world of research and discovery is moving on the right track.

At this year’s Pixelspaces Conference, the Ars Electronica Futurelab will present answers to the question of what direction classical science is heading in, what impact DIY researchers are having on it, what sorts of interaction are taking place between “pros” and “amateurs,” as well as the influence that art is having on research (and vice versa).

Kicking things off on September 3 is an exhibition showcasing outstanding projects submitted in 2011 to [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant—one, for example, deals with internet access and how easy it is to cut people off from it; another is a “perpetual engine” for the production of a foodstuff. Concluding the first day will be a talk by Ulrike Felt, a scholar who studies science and the sociology of technology, on how ideas and developments brought forth by the DIY R&D community are making an impact on the world of science.

On Sunday, September 4, the focus will be on art and its connection to science, a relationship that, in Austria and many other countries, has undergone a significant change due to the Bologna curriculum architecture that transformed what used to be academies of art into universities. People are working more closely together, there’s more mutually fruitful collaboration that also includes viable business ventures, not least of all due to the availability of funding from sources that are putting their money on both disciplines, which, after all, are both essentially ways of achieving innovation.

For a detailed overview of the projects, click on this link. Then, all you need to do make your way to the AEC’s Skyloft. And by all means don’t forget to bring your imagination with you!