exhibition – C… what it takes to change

Dom Exhibit

Martin Hieslmair — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 10:01:26 +0000

THU September 4, 2014, 9 AM-5:30 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
FRI September 5, 2014, 9 AM-5 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
SAT September 6, 2014, 9 AM-4 PM, 7 PM-11 PM
SUN September 7, 2014, 1 PM-3:30 PM
MON September 8, 2014, 11:30 AM-5:30 PM
Mariendom

For two years now, the Mariendom is the scene of acoustic installations and performances that will be presented during the festival: It was Sam Auinger in 2012 and Rupert Huber in 2013 who brought the dome to sound. This year the Diocese of Linz and the Ars Electronica go one step further and transform the Mariendom to an unique exhibition scene throughout the festival. A number of artistic installations can be experienced in the nave, the crypt and Rudiger hall.

5 robots named Paul
In a scene reminiscent of a drawing class, a human is sketched by 5 robots named Paul. Their bodies are old school desks on which the drawing paper is pinned. Their left arms, bolted on the desks, holding black biros, are only able to draw. The robots, stylised minimal obsessive artists, look alike except for their eyes, either obsolete digital cameras, or webcams. The sounds produced by the robot’s motors create an improvised soundtrack.

Flying Records
This is the third time that Japanese musician and artist Ei Wada is exhibiting one of his fascinating mobile installations at Ars Electronica. Once again, it’s a work at the interface of music and the visual arts and, once again, Ei Wada has recourse to the technology that is his passion: the classical recording & playback device of the analog era.

Momentrium
The Japanese group h.o launched their Momentrium series to collect moments with the help of illuminated arrows.

Netykavka
In comparison to Archifon III, the major installation he produced with his artistic partner Tomáš Dvořák, Dan Gregor’s second spatial-optical encounter with the Mariendom comes across like a whimsical art historical footnote.

Saccade Based Display
Saccade is a technical term used by opticians and ophthalmologists to describe a certain type of eye movement: so-called visual target movements that include both spontaneous and deliberate eye movements. They’re among the fastest motions the human body makes, and are the basis of a display developed by Junji Watanabe (whereby the term display is somewhat misleading here, since this array doesn’t contain a monitor in a conventional sense).

tour en l’air
In “tour en l’air,” Berlin-based artist Ursula Neugebauer evokes an unforgettable childhood experience: the thrill she felt when she got her first long skirt and the wonderful new feeling of twirling while wearing it. This was her introduction to a new form of stability amidst rotation.

Long Live
Video installation. With despair, ennui and the absence of prospects, urban youth abandon themselves to silent, murky nights.

Three States of the World
Aboriginal artist I-Ming’s three spherical wooden sculptures symbolize the three states of the contemporary world: paradise, fascism and chaos.

Symphony No.3: Of Sexual Songs (2014)
Video installation of Michael Nymans Symphony No.3: Of Sexual Songs (2014)

Read more about this on our Ars Electronica Blog!

Change Gallery

Martin Hieslmair — Sat, 23 Aug 2014 09:09:49 +0000

THU September 4-MON September 8, 2014, 9:30 AM-7 PM
Arkade, Herrenstraße, Spittelwiese

How can humankind arrive at an eminently livable future? Which pioneers are already blazing trails in that direction and can make it accessible to all? These questions are being posed by the 2014 Ars Electronica Festival, and there’ll be no shortage of potential answers to them either!

Delivering Energy

Thus, the C in the festival theme also stands for catalysts, the agents necessary to provide energy and trigger a reaction that gets change underway—not only in chemistry experiments; in processes of social renewal too. Since time immemorial, art has been a superb catalyst. It can impart energy to an idea without exhausting itself.

Making the World a Better Place

Artists as catalysts of change: the 2014 Ars Electronica Festival will address this fascinating concept as well. How art can be applied will be showcased in the Change Gallery arrayed in and around the Arkade shopping center. These best-practice examples of how technical and social innovations can make life better have been designed to impart the courage to get started with some much-needed change. The mix also includes an interesting assortment of media art from around the world.

atOms and MoLECULE
Dance with the air: atOms and MoLECULE are two—actually invisible—kinetic installations. The fact that they actually consist of unstable, moving layers of air is made apparent by the small white balls kept hovering in midair by several fans.

Fluid Dress
Fluid Dress is a futuristic designer garment that enables its wearer to spontaneously display brief messages or express moods.

In Search of Lost Time
The wall installation In Search of Lost Time consists of 42 flip-flap displays arranged in a square grid. Instead of alphanumeric text, the modules are reduced to colour and movement.

Delta-Figure
A Delta-Figure is a sculpture that employs complex and minute movements, placing it within the continuum between “robot” and “still sculpture.” The difference between a “still sculpture” and a “still human” is whether the subject is standing completely still or whether it moves in minute yet complex ways.

Sonic Robots
What’s still missing in electronic music? Moritz Simon Geist is convinced that it’s robots, and he created his MR-808 robot installation to begin closing this gap.

your unerasable text
The opposite of data storage is data destruction. How close these two are to one another is graphically and amusingly illustrated by your unerasable text. The processual chain commences when a festivalgoer sends an SMS to the installation’s cell phone, and it’s forwarded to a computer.

User Generated Server Destruction
This installation by Stefan Tiefengraber carries on a long tradition of self-destroying machines, and turns over control of the demolition to installation visitors.

Shadowgram
Shadowgram brings out visitors’ own creativity. Silhouette images reveal an entire world of thinking about current issues. With playful ease, opinions materialize into a real picture.

Aerosol
People transfer systems from the physical to virtual space. But what happens if this process is reversed? Aerosol is an experiment, which investigates exactly this by using a particle simulation. The fascinating thing about such a particle system is the emergent, unpredictable phenomena.

Learn to be a Machine | DistantObject #1
Learn to be a Machine | DistantObject #1 is an abstract system of obedience and manipulation. The video installation features a representation of the artist himself, who has provided a means for the audience to interact with the system. By scrolling a trackball, the audience can manipulate the direction of the artist’s eyes.

Strandbeest
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.

Manoi PF01
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.

Transparent Specimen
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.

3D printed structures
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!

Kazamidori
“Kazamidori“ is a weathervane for the Internet age. “Kaza“ (wind) “mi“ (watch) “dori“ (bird) is a Japanese expression for a weathervane.

Prototype for a New Biomachine
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.

An Eye Named Frank
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.

Smart Flower
smartflower energy technology GmbH is an Austrian company that has developed a mobile solar power plant for use by a typical household.

Featured Artists: Shinseungback Kimyonghun (KR)

Martin Hieslmair — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 08:07:17 +0000

Shinseungback Kimyonghun (KR)
THU September 4-MON September 8, 2014
Ars Electronica Center, Foyer, Out of Control Exhibition

Arkade, Barschneiderei

Akademisches Gymnasium, Neubau, Future Innovators Summit Exhibition

The featured artists at the 2014 Ars Electronica Festival are a duo from the Republic of Korea. Since 2012, computer specialist Shin Seung Back and artist Kim Yong Hun have been working together under the dual portmanteau Shinseungback Kimyonghun. 10 works representative of their oeuvre are on display at Ars Electronica.

Understanding Digital Life

The driving force behind their artistic-technological partnership is the wish to comprehend what digital life truly is. For these two, that presupposes grasping the essence of technology and humankind. Both men bring a wealth of experience to this task.

The Computer as Being …

Shin Seung Back’s previous work as a programmer of virtual network environments and interactive real-time systems for computer games and the consumer electronics industry enabled him to gain profound understanding of the computer. For him, it’s not merely a computational device but rather a creature whose traits are attributable above all to its relationship to its environment and to other computers.

… and as Seeing Machine

Kim Yong Hun considers the computer as, first and foremost, a seeing apparatus for humans, one that determines how people visualize the world. Just as the automobile has weaned humankind from walking, the computer will, sooner or later, get people to give up first seeing and then thinking, and leave both to the machine. Kim Yong Hun is absolutely convinced of this.

What Will Be Human?

His collaboration with Shin Seung Back has brought him face-to-face with a big question: What will humankind’s humanity consist of under these circumstances? Coming up with an answer is part of Shinseungback Kimyonghun’s mission.

Works

Cloud Face

Ars Electronica Center, Foyer

Face-detection algorithms sometimes find faces that are not. Cloud Face is a collection of cloud images that are recognized as human face by a face-detection algorithm. This work attempts to examine the relation between computer vision and human vision.

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