Audiovisual Environment inspired by the myth of Orpheus, his descent into the underworld and the attempted rescue of his wife Eurydice. Collaged from material of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Claudio Monteverdi, Daniel Matej, Gregor Göttfert, Igor Strawinsky, Ingeborg Bachmann, Jacques Offenbach, Jean Cocteau, Joseph Haydn, Julian Finnur Karlsson, Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer.

Whether as a result of e-mails, photos, videos, documents, shopping carts or search engine queries, regardless of what forms digital data take—the cloud in the Web with its growing number of incessantly running servers sucks it all up like a sponge that is inviolable and has unlimited capacity. Buttoned up and well cooled, thousands of servers assembled in highsecurity zones worldwide do their job 24/7. But like other material objects, these things as well can be physically destroyed. This installation by Stefan Tiefengraber carries on a long tradition of self-destroying machines, and turns over control of the demolition to installation visitors. In response to each click on the www.ugsd.net website (that happens to be located on precisely this server), two of the six hammers mounted atop the server’s housing deliver a vigorous blow to it—and keep it up until the server is out of commission.

Hand-crafted technological artifacts focus on social interaction and the engagement of the public with DIY (Do It Yourself) and DIT (Do It Together) practices, and learning by doing techniques. The creation of these unique artifacts can permit the users to interact with their bodies and their surroundings through a playful exploration of art, tradition and technology and provide a subtle but fertile field of experimentation towards social change.

Hands-on practice

This workshop aims to reflect on the use of electronics and computation on textiles and wearables as means for the development of hand-crafted aesthetics. The subject is approched through discussion and hands-on practice and focuses on a single electronic component, the electromagnetic coil.

Three e-textile applications

The participants create handmade spiral copper coils on fabric and explore three different e-textile applications, using the coil as a audio speaker, as an electromagnetic field detector antenna and as a vibration motor. This way they engage in hand-stiching techniques, digital electronics, creative coding and reflect on prototypes that could incorporate an electromagnetic coil. The workshop is open to everybody. No background in coding or sewing is required.

Please register by emailing futureinnovators@aec.at

Sensarium Dome is an intelligent recliner that can interact with its user via various sensors, and adapt its fulldome program to his/her behavior and biofeedback. The showcase at the 2014 Ars Electronica Festival invites festivalgoers to get acquainted with it, and to submit creations to the Sphere of Light competition staged to acknowledge and reward innovative content for the fulldome space that increases the user’s mental and emotional wellbeing.

You feel like you’re being watched, don’t you? The artificial eye appears to be nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. It rests ensconced in a little black box. But upon closer inspection, you discover why you suddenly have the feeling of being under surveillance. Like a living creature with a mind of its own, Frank the Eye peers back at you—the actual observer, now also the one being observed—and follows your every move. Is this reciprocated gaze what it takes to get us to acknowledge an object as a life form? Is it even somehow human? And what actually happens with the picture files capturing visitors’ facial features that the eye’s face-tracking software uses to recognize people and stalk them?

Now that lots of people are going hightech, it’s high time for plants to do so too. Brazilian artist Ivan Henriques’ interactive “Biomachine” explores new channels of communication among human beings, living organisms and machines. It transforms a tropical plant into a sensor. When an installation visitor touches the leaves of this Homalomena, a flowering plant of the Araceae (Arum) family, the entire plant registers this stimulus and transmits an electrical signal to an attached machine that proceeds to go into motion.

“Kazamidori“ is a weathervane for the Internet age. “Kaza“ (wind) “mi“ (watch) “dori“ (bird) is a Japanese expression for a weathervane. People of former days observed the natural behaviour of birds, which have a habit of looking towards the direction of wind, and this behaviour was incorporated in the design of weathervane. “Kazamidori“ is a device to indicate the social wind of interests on the Internet. It works by using the social energy of web accesses to Ars Electronica. When somebody visits the Ars Electronica website, “Kazamidori“ turns to point in the direction of the visitor. For example, if somebody visits from Tokyo, “Kazamidori“ will point east.)

For about two decades, printers have offered computer users a convenient way to print texts and photos. But for a while now, special devices allow to make three-dimensional objects made of plastic, metal, gypsum and even concrete with a printer. First, you use special 3D software to design a digital object on the computer. Then all you have to do is print it!

The Japanese artist Iori Tomita creates fntastic-alien preparations out of marine animals. The muscle tissue of animals is thereby made translucent by dissolving natural proteins. The precise forms of nature are exposed by human dissection technique and then inked. The firmer and the softer tissues (cartilage) are treated differently. The process to produce a preparation lasts up to six months, depending on the size of the animal.

Manoi PF01 is a Japanese robot that combines design artistry with leading-edge technology. Several details of the construction aim to counteract the cliché of robots as mere high-tech musclemen: big eyes and a broad forehead convey openness; the expansive chest radiates self-assurance.