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Conferences, Lectures, Workshops

The subject of AI—and especially the perspective evoked by this year’s subtitle “The Other I”—deter- mines the core of the program. Symposia staged throughout the festival’s run will shed light on the social and cultural aspects of the development of and discussion about artificial intelligence. The lineup of symposia and lectures is being enhanced with workshops and tutorial sessions that will deal primarily with the artistic possibilities of machine learning. The opening symposium on Thursday asks How Cultures Shape Technology. The cultural and social aspects of artificial intelligence R&D will dominate these proceedings on Friday; technical aspects occupy the spotlight on Sunday.

AI—The other I Symposium

The “AI—The other I” symposium considers theoretical implications of the increasing integration of neural networks and machine learning in advanced as well as everyday technology. Art and science are heavily influenced by the impact of new exploration methods that these recent technologies provide.

Opening Panel „How Cultures Shape Technology“

We usually focus our considerations on the impact that the introduction of new technologies makes on culture and society. But technology has always been a central part of culture, and not only in its applications. How different cultures form technological developments and applications is the question at this opening symposium.

Future in a Nutshell – Future for All

“Future in a Nutshell – Future for All” stands for an intensive examination of the most important technological developments that are imminent over the course of the coming decade. Internationally renowned experts from various fields present highly relevant topics in concise keynotes. They highlight the most important technical research areas that are about to change our lives, our economy and our society far beyond the reach of past technological trends.

GLUON SESSION

The Gluon Foundation fosters collaboration among artists and scientists. At Ars Electronica, they will present a new model for cooperation among artists, scientists and art collectors. This entails placing scientists-in-residence as staff members in the ateliers of top-name artists.

Prix Forum I – Computer Animation/Film/VFX

One of the absolute highlights of every Ars Electronica is the opportunity to meet Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners. Chaired by Prix Ars Electronica jurors, these discussions provide fascinating insights into the individual categories.

Prix Forum II – Digital Musics & Sound Art

One of the absolute highlights of every Ars Electronica is the opportunity to meet Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners. Chaired by Prix Ars Electronica jurors, these discussions provide fascinating insights into the individual categories.

Prix Forum III – Hybrid Art

One of the absolute highlights of every Ars Electronica is the opportunity to meet Prix Ars Electronica prizewinners. Chaired by Prix Ars Electronica jurors, these discussions provide fascinating insights into the individual categories.

Future Innovators Summit

Future Innovators from different cultures and backgrounds and from different fields such as artists, designers, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, social activists and philosophers will gather in September in Linz to explore new ways of collective brainstorming and creative prototyping on the crucial questions of the future.

Expanded Animation – Hybrid Technologies in Animation

The discussion will focus on hybrid technologies and their impact on animation production. Several panels will discuss the developments from the various perspectives of animation filmmakers, media artists, game designers and scientists. One of the Prix forums will host a discussion of current trends by winners in the Prix Ars Electronica’s Computer Animation/Film/VFX category.

Art Science: From Vision to Practice

In the first panel “Art Science: From Vision to Practice” Prof. Hiroshi Ishii from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group will lead the discussion about the transdisciplinary nature of creative work that crosses art, design, science and technology.

European Digital Art and Science Network

Recent experiences and insights are presented from the European Digital Art and Science Network, which between 2015 and 2017 brought artists to residencies at leading research institutions—CERN, ESO, ESA, and Fraunhofer MEVIS—as well as at Ars Electronica Futurelab.

Spaxels Research Initiative

The Spaxels Research Initiative (SRI) is a loose association of partners in industry and research whose shared interest in swarms has brought them together. Each one—NTT, Audi, Autodesk, Tangible Bits, et al.—pursues this project in accordance with its own particular aims.

Feminist Climate Change: Beyond the Binary Panel

When it comes to equal opportunities for women, things don’t seem to have improved too much in new media and technologies of late, and that holds true for the media-art genre as well. What initiatives are in place to remedy this situation and what can/should institutions contribute to a solution?

Third Conference for People Providing Aid to Refugees

ZusammenHelfen in Oberösterreich, the contact point for involvement with Gemeinsam für geflüchtete Menschen (Together for Refugees) will stage the third HelferInnenkonferenz on September 9, 2017. This conference will offer committed individuals in Upper Austria as well as an extended community of participants a highly diversified lineup of presentations including new prospects, current developments, challenges and projects to do with the subject of working together to aid refugees.

Media Art and the Art Market II Symposium

The Media Art and the Art Market Symposium faces the challenge of collecting media art—especially the conservation of media art—and presents innovative methods and formats for the management, preservation and exhibition of media art.

Theater and Digital Media – A Platform Event

In collaboration with the European Theatre Convention, Ars Electronica is hosting a special program to deepen the reciprocal exchange of practical experience about the work on the intersection of digital media and theater.

STARTS Prize Forum

Attention is not only focused on the prize-winning projects of the STARTS Prize 2017; Ars Electronica’s spotlight also shines on the people who produced them.
At the STARTS Prize Forum 2017 they will have an opportunity to elaborate on their approach and point of view, their methodology and the results they have achieved with it.

Women in Media Arts

Women in Media Arts is one of the most comprehensive databases dedicated to women working in these genres. It was started with information about women who have made a mark on the 36-year history of Ars Electronica and was opened to the public last year.

Research Institute for Arts and Technology

Production in the 21st century works with distributed authorship and identities-artists present their processes “coded” in the fragmentations of global networks. Contemporary artistic output is developed out of collective inquiries, research processes are results of distributed agency between humans, machines, and programs.

Crowd-Sourced Intelligence Agency (CSIA)

The “CSIA” is a creative research project that partially replicates an open-source intelligence (OSINT) system, including an interface that allows users to experience how intelligence agents surveil social media posts and two machine-learning classifiers for predictive policing.

STARTS Prize Talks I

At the STARTS Prize Talks the STARTS Prize – Honorary Mentions and Nominations winners will have an opportunity to elaborate on their approach and point of view, their methodology and the results they’ve achieved with it.

Teaching City

Teaching City is an experiential learning framework highlighting urban issues through playful interactions. It offers an antidote to the industrial-age pedagogy of the classroom, subverting the preconceptions of citizens through “knowledge interventions” embedded in urban spaces—the city is the teacher.

Workshop Space

The Workshop Space is located in a room with a big triangular table with room for speakers, artists and visitors alike. Visitors can join the discussions and presentations or just sit at the table and listen.

Lecture Stage

Being the smaller sister of the big Conference Stage so to speak, the Lecture Stage will also be a hot spot for attending high-level panel discussions with top-class lecturers.

AI Tutorial Sessions

Tutorials by artists for artists—and, of course, for anyone else interested in this field. How hard is it to work with machine learning software, and what creative possibilities do these skills open up? Experienced users present projects that illustrate what you need to know.

Cybathlon

Cybathlon is a project by ETH Zurich to promote an exchange between people with disabilities, technology providers and the public in order to raise awareness of the challenges faced by people with disabilities. The goal of the Cybathlon is to promote the development of assistive technologies that are useful for everyday life.

Symposiumsreihe Perspektiven Politischer Bildung

„Ich mach’ mir die Welt, widiwidiwie sie mir gefällt …“ sang Pippi Langstrumpf in der legendären TV-Kinderserie der 60er- und 70er-Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts. Wie geht es Kindern, Jugendlichen, aber auch Erwachsenen heute, die in einer globalisierten und digitalisierten Welt aufwach(s)en?

Ethics in Art and Science Panel

Discussion about the significance of ethics for disciplines whose research seems to approximate limits of moral principles. Bold experiments in artistic as well as scientific exploration are under examination from a religious and an ethical point of view.

Sonic Saturday Symposium

This year Ö1 Radiokunst–Kunstradio together with the Anton Bruckner Private University and the Ars Electronica Festival is organizing the Sonic Saturday symposium Different Places: From broadcasting to transmitting to processing.

Small Cities Forum at Ars Electronica 2017

The Small Cities Forum is an initiative by Pordenone Design Week and Ars Electronica Linz to promote the power of small cities and to provide a place for the exchange of experiences and best-practice models.

Creative Europe Brunch

Start off your Festival Saturday at the gemütlich Creative Europe Brunch and take advantage of this opportunity to gain insights into various cooperative projects at interdisciplinary interfaces in the field of media art from throughout Europe.

Media Art and the Art Market II Round Table

On Friday, the Round Table discusses whether there is an existing market for media art. On Saturday, the participants talk about new technologies for presenting, collecting and storing media art.

Gene.coop

Recent decades have brought human genetics from laboratory studies to mainstream commercial products. Today’s genetic research is a multi-billion industry based on the indisputable value of scientific output for the pharmaceutical industry.

Myth of Theuth

When he came to the alphabet, Theuth said: “This art, O king, will make the Egyptians wiser and richer in memory.” This is the myth of the invention of writing according to Plato’s Phaidros, which Myth of Theuth takes as base for a playful examination of media theories.

STARTS Roundtable und Get-together

Here, you will have the opportunity to discuss future developments of STARTS, to nurture cooperation among industry, science and the arts and to engage with people working in this field.

STARTS Prize Talks II

At the STARTS Prize Talks the STARTS Prize – Honorary Mentions and Nominations winners will have an opportunity to elaborate on their approach and point of view, their methodology and the results they’ve achieved with it.

Talk: Shift Register / Chemical Park

A discussion with Jamie Allen (CA) and Merle Ibach (DE) about the Shift Register project, specifically focusing on experimental outputs and publications being generated through artistic research work undertaken.

Future Models for Transdisciplinary Education

QUT Vice Chancellor and honorary guest, Professor Peter Coaldrake, presents his view about the current state and future of tertiary education in Australia and also in reference to QUT’s established partnership with Ars Electronica since 2013.

Symposium Breaking The Wall

The FWF-funded art-based research project “Breaking The Wall“ explores how to use technology to involve the audience in live music performances. The symposium will combine talks about technology-mediated audience participation and a showcase of technologies for audience participation with a panel discussing the recent Breaking The Wall live music event with artists and researchers.

Ars Electronica Tokyo Initiative

This panel discussion aims to talk about the role of art and industry and moreover the potential of the city as a laboratory for innovation.

Crowd and Art

Book launch by Manuela Naveau (AT). In conversation with UBERMORGEN