The second day of the 2016 Ars Electronica Festival was dominated by the annual symposia. But the Friday of each Ars Electronica Festival is also traditionally the day of the awards ceremonies of the Prix Ars Electronica. While the kids of the category u19 - Create Your World received their prizes already at noon, the adults became their Golden Nicas in the evening at a festive gala. What else has been going on on Day 2 of the 2016 Ars Electronica Festival, you can read in this blog post.
Following an amazing Grand Opening show yesterday evening, the 2016 Ars Electronica Festival moved on to Day 2 when, as always, symposia top the agenda. Leading off was “Radical Atoms: From Vision to Practice” starring Professor Hiroshi Ishii of the MIT Media Lab and a host of other fascinating speakers.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
After lunch, the symposium series continued with “The Alchemists of Our Time.” The lineup included Joe Davis’ elaborations on the art of astro-biological gardening.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
And speaking of gardening—an incredible floral assortment was dispersed among the speakers and audience members gathered in the conference hall. The 36,000 flowers are a tribute to the many refugees who found safety and shelter in this former postal service logistics facility since last September.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
“The Alchemists of Our Time” is the title of this year’s theme exhibition in POSTCITY. This exhibition at this year’s Ars Electronica Festival spotlights a new generation of artists and researchers.
Dragan Ilić (RS/US) and his project Roboaction(s) A1 K1 (Credit: Florian Voggeneder)
Over the course of the past year, several artists have conceived and executed works of art in conjunction with a residency at a partner institution and at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. These works are now premiering at the Ars Electronica Festival—for example, creations by well-known fashion-tech designer Anouk Wipprecht.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
Young people could choose from among lots of fun activities at u19 – Create Your World. In the FabricationLab, up-and-coming do-it-yourselfers designed their own figures and then generated them on a 3-D printer.
Credit: Tom Mesic
And at Quadcopter Flight School, students learned that piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle is child’splay.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
Awards were bestowed on all the prizewinners in the 2016 Prix Ars Electronica’s category for young people at the u19 Ceremony.
This year’s u19-winner Jonas Bodingbauer (AT) and Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria Christian Kern (Credit: Tom Mesic)
In addition to POSTCITY, there was a lot doing at the Ars Electronica Center today. The “RADICAL ATOMS” exhibition is all about amalgamating the digital and physical worlds.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
“Cooperative Aesthetics” in Deep Space 8K was about hands-on, do-it-yourself art …
Credit: Magdalena Sick-Leitner
… and about dreaming
Credit: Magdalena Sick-Leitner
The highpoint of the day was the Ars Electronica Gala. Whereas the young artists received their prizes in the Prix Ars Electronica u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD category in the afternoon, the outstanding artists singled out for recognition in the Prix’s other categories were honored in the evening. In the Main Hall of the Brucknerhaus, the Golden Nica statuettes were handed over to the Prix Ars Electronica’s grand prize winners.
Credit: Florian Voggeneder
The prizewinners of Prix Ars Electronica 2016 (Credit: Tom Mesic)
Here again the whole day in fast forward:
Day 3 kicks off with the Helpers Conference in POSTCITY, a gathering of volunteers and officials who’ve been providing aid to refugees in Upper Austria (09:30 – 18:30). An organic farmers’ market will also be running throughout the day (10:00 – 17:00). In the afternoon, the Future Innovators Summit will convene in POSTCITY to explore new strategies for brainstorming and creative prototyping (10:00 – 18:00). This year’s Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners will deliver speeches and do Q&A at the Prix Forums in the OK Center for Contemporary Art beginning at 13:00.
Come evening, 100,000 spectators will storm Linz’s riverfront Donaupark between the LENTOS Art Museum and the Brucknerhaus to behold Linz’s annual alfresco extravaganza, the Visualisierte Klangwolke [visualized cloud of sound]. In honor of the University of Linz’s 50th anniversary, this year’s theme is “River of Knowledge.” And leading off the festivities is DRONE 100, a demonstration of aerial artistry by the world’s largest swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles (19:45).