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.

Theo Jansen first studied physics. Since 1990, he’s been working with yellow plastic tubing, which he uses to construct skeleton-like creatures that lumber along the beach. Jansen considers himself the creator of a new life form that’s nourished solely by the wind and constantly undergoes a sort of evolution. These Strandbeester move with the wind, recognize obstacles with their feelers, and dig into the sand when a storm threatens. Theo Jansen has made it his mission in life to endow his creatures with resistance to diverse forces of nature so they’ll someday be able to survive without him and lumber independently along the world’s beaches.

(In)Sights interlinks real objects and digital information in a way that’s fun to use. It enhances the use of the object by adding an interactive level. Coded postcards enable installation visitors to access multimedia content that appears as texts, images or films on adjacent screens.

Leading an environmentally friendly lifestyle can be so simple. If you’re going to leave a room for more than three minutes in the evening, it pays to turn off the light. Or: regularly checking your tire pressure increases driving safety and saves gas. These are only two of the 40 solutions in the areas of mobility, energy, everyday habits and retail consumption that are easy to put into practice immediately, 40 suggestions that you can playfully explore on a Touch Table. Users can also ascertain their own CO₂ footprint. The original version of this installation is part of an exhibition entitled L’Oracle du Papillon in Fribourg, Switzerland.

ZeitRaum [TimeSpace] is an interactive art installation Ars Electronica Futurelab developed for Vienna International Airport’s new Skylink terminal. It interprets arriving and departing flights in real time. ZeitRaum consists of several individual stations that accompany passengers on the way to their gate. Ars Electronica Solutions recently added From Austria to the World and Drei – Es geht auch anders—gigapixel images of New York alternating with textscapes and visuals that react to passengers’ presence. The Airport Wall on display in Future Playground not only links the respective presentation spaces of the Futurelab and Solutions; it also symbolizes Ars Electronica’s successful competence network.

This exhibit developed in cooperation with the MED-EL company stages a virtual journey through the human ear. Installation visitors produce a sound that they can then follow in a virtual 3-D depiction as it makes its way from the ear to the brain. The original version of this exhibit is on display at the Audioversum in Innsbruck, Austria.