It’s been 10 years since Christa Sommerer (AT) and Laurent Mignonneau (FR) established the Interface Cultures program at Linz Art University. Interactive art and innovative interface design at the nexus of art, design and research are the core elements of this course of study in theory and practice.

10 Years, 150 Projects

Over the past decade, students have completed approximately 150 projects and written 30 master’s theses. Many of these works have been on display in “Interface Cultures,” an exhibition that has come to be an Ars Electronica Festival fixture. And so it is this year as well.

Schauplatz Raumschiff

This year’s exhibition venue is Raumschiff [Spaceship], a former retail space right on Linz’s Main Square. Launched in early 2014 by Linz Art University undergrads and alumni, Raumschiff contains spaces for events, exhibitions and workshops, a shop selling art & design products, and a café. It’s conceived as a setting for interdisciplinary exchange among young artists and their interaction with the general public.

Anniversary Celebration

The curators are marking the program’s 10th anniversary by augmenting the annual exhibition of works by students with network talks, an alumni meeting, Live Performances and a meet & greet event entitled Bring Your Own Art. This year’s Campus Exhibition is especially extensive—it features 17 works by 40 students from 13 countries.

Arbeiten

Senseparation

Collaborative project by students at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (DE) and Linz Art University (AT) in cooperation with the Leibnitz Supercomputing Centre of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (DE)

Virtual-Reality-Project

Ursuppe

Davide Bevilacqua, Alberto Boem (IT)

Sound performance that involves jelly made out of the seaweed agar and analogue oscillators.

A Tangible Score

Enrique Tomas (ES)

Tactile interface for musical expression that interprets a score on the basis of its physical shape, surface structure and spatial configuration.

Mattresspipe

Ivan Petkov (BG)

A double airbed which is transformed into a collaborative musical instrument, based on the traditional Bulgarian bagpipe Kaba Gaida.

Data Auditorio

Daichi Misawa (JP)

An interactive sound device in a defined space that enables audiences to participate in the game of performance play.

Tapebook

Cesar Escudero Andaluz (ES)

An exercise in media archaeology, consisting of text sonifications of data that are extracted from social networks and recorded on cassettes.

Memory Wheel

Davide Bevilacqua (IT)

A mnemonic device (memory storage) which is used to store and manipulate data by means of a magical kinetic process. So bring your own USB stick and you will be amazed to see what happens!

Kurzschluss

Veronika Krenn (AT)

An electronic decision-making circuit is constructed in the shape of a labyrinth.

Trāṭaka

Alessio Chierico (IT)

An interactive installation based on a brain-computer interface. When a visitor totally relaxes, the candle he is holding is extinguished.

Hacking Meditation—when stillness interacts

Mihaela Kavdanska (BG)

Visitors are invited to sit on a meditation cushion in front of a screen. The interaction with the video is based on the still presence of the viewer.

Greetings from Eastern Europe

Ioan-Ovidiu Cernei (RO), Tiina Sööt (EE)

A multi-part installation about their personal situation and experience that attempts to share these with the participant. As Eastern Europeans living in Central Europe, they are often confronted with lingering connections to their countries of origin.

Root Node

Nathan Guo (CN)

An interactive installation that involves stacked layers of disassembled remote controllers, strung together by conductive rods and planted in the ground.

60 flavours

Ulrich Lantzberg (AT)

A reflexion of the world’s corruption in a tasty way. Data is transformed into taste, altering the flavour of the chocolates.

Money Never Sleeps

Martin Nadal (ES)

A tangible interface for buying and selling equities on the London, New York, Tokyo and Frankfurt stock markets. The visitors make their purchases in an unconventional manner—by inhaling a line of “cocaine” (i. e. pure sugar).

That Way

İdil Kızoğl (TR)

Web mapping applications gather information on the infrastructure of cities and add a virtual layer by making recommendations. İdil Kızoğl deals with the idea of strictly following given routes and questions whether applications that encourage us to do so affect the way we experience cities.

My Haptic Diary

Jure Fingušt (SI)

Visitors form a piece of clay and place it on a sketchbook. The interaction is recorded and projected on the floor in the video mosaic

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Translation III / Strafsachen

Cristian Villavicencio (EC)

A re-contextualization of the exhibition space by describing its own surroundings in real time from the point of view of a continuously rotating or moving camera. The recording device is installed on the ceiling in a place inaccessible to the public and follows the movements of spectators through the exhibition space.

Interface Cultures: Christa Sommerer (AT), Laurent Mignonneau (AT), Martin Kaltenbrunner (AT), Michaela Ortner (AT), Reinhard Gupfinger (AT)

Read more about this on our Ars Electronica Blog!

ARTS² is an art academy in the city of Mons, Belgium, the 2015 European Capital of Culture. The school provides training in the visual arts, music and theater. Its multidisciplinary structure makes it the ideal place for collaborative projects by students in different majors. In Mons, particular emphasis is placed on access to the media industry, from which students obtain technical knowhow, master various forms of expression and acquire software skills. Learning to program is a key element of training at ARTS².

Self-Realization

High on the educational agenda is teaching students to use a wide variety of tools and encouraging them to go their own way. The Department of Electroacoustic Music is the only one of its kind in Europe. Among its offerings is a master’s program in acousmatic composition including courses on aesthetics, music culture and technology in the field of electro-acoustics.

Works

Anesidora
Cédric Lambot (Digital Arts Department)
Video and sound box

Arsène Lone (A. Lone)
Gaël Maistriau (Digital Arts Department)
Flash game

BioActivity
Cédric Dewez, Steve Van Essche (Digital Arts Department)
Game installation controlled by a tablet

Blended Harmony
Erwan Charlie Dodson (Electroacoustic Music Department), Gaël Maistriau, Laura Maugeri (Digital Arts Department)
The theme of this multiplayer game is the global eco-balance

Blind Path
Phoebe PenninckInteractive (Digital Arts Department)
A jacket for blind people

Confidences sur canapé
Gil Van Cayseele (Digital Arts Department)
Confessions of human passions

Daguerreotype
Jefta Hoekendijk, Julien Leroy & François Rocca (Numediart) (Digital Arts Department)
Installation and print on the subject of facial recognition

Data Po-easy
Gil Van Cayseele (Digital Arts Department)
Sound poetry

Data Snif Data 
Gil Van Cayseele (Digital Arts Department)
Data visualization

Delay Canvas 
Jefta Hoekendijk (Digital Arts Department)
Interactive video installation

Ephemeral
Delphine Van Laere (Digital Arts Department)
Installation

Faceless
Jefta Hoekendijk (Digital Arts Department)
Installation and print on the subject of facial recognition

Floating Island
Sophie Delafontaine (Electroacoustic Music Department), Allison Godry, Cédric Lambot (Digital Arts Department)
Installation

Hänsel & Gretel
Laura Maugeri (Digital Arts Department)
Flash game about Grimms’ fairy tales

Human Sculptures
Jefta Hoekendijk (Digital Arts Department)
Prints that show the body’s path through a programmed process

Obsolescence Factory
Gaël Maistriau (Digital Arts Department)
A game about the artificially reduced useful life of game industry products

Pixtray
Gaël Maistriau (Digital Arts Department)
Processing game with a 3-D structure

Teddy Fear
Allison Godry (Digital Arts Department)
A teddy bear in an interactive space

Umbra
Laura Maugeri (Digital Arts Department)
Animation starring a shy but imaginative little protagonist

Vampires
Laura Maugeri (Digital Arts Department)
Flash game featuring vampires battling zombies

WebSites
François Martin (Digital Arts Department)
Web design

Curators: Roald Baudoux, Michel Cleempoel, Drita Kotaji, Martin Waroux, François Zajéga

Read more about this on our Ars Electronica Blog!