Egypt – Artificial Intelligence https://ars.electronica.art/ai/en Ars Electronica Festival 2017 Tue, 28 Jun 2022 13:43:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.6 Myth of Theuth https://ars.electronica.art/ai/en/myth-of-theuth/ Tue, 08 Aug 2017 06:41:22 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/ai/?p=1804

qujOchÖ (AT)

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.

While walking through ancient Athens, up to seven people gather different media and get in touch with media-philosophical celebrities from the ancient world to the present. Vilém Flusser drives aside the telematic society ad nauseam, Laura Mulvey takes a joyful look at our memory and Marshall McLuhan finally gets his well-deserved message. Smartphones, newspapers, Lego bricks, sleeping masks, stamps and other media are used through twelve unique stations. At the festival, Myth of Theuth is put on display for the first time in a unique performance with four well-known personalities from media art and media philosophy.

Credits

Studio: qujOchÖ

Direction: Davide Bevilacqua
Production: Eva Maria Dreisiebner
Script: Thomas Philipp
Design and Editing: Stefan Eibelwimmer
Support: Bundeskanzleramt Österreich Kunst und Kultur, Land Oberösterreich, Stadt Linz, Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH aws

]]> Hisn al-Bab https://ars.electronica.art/ai/en/hisn-al-bab/ Sun, 06 Aug 2017 13:41:32 +0000 https://ars.electronica.art/ai/?p=2059

Dr. Pamela Rose (UK)

This presentation invites the audience to experience the archaeological site Hisn al-Bab. It is little known but nevertheless played a significant role in Egyptian history, both with respect to its geography and its chronology. In historical terms, it was active at the very end of Roman rule and the Early Medieval Period, long after the pharaohs.

At this time the border region between Nubia and Egypt was a political hotspot. It comes as little surprise then that Hisn al-Bab, the site at the heart of our project, saw the building of several successive forts.

The ruin is as spectacular as its setting, opposite the Temple of Philae high up on the eastern shore of the river south of the low dam at Aswan, its walls preserved to a height of eight meters. In addition to the visual experience of a unique and, until recently, completely unstudied monument, we will present the results of several seasons of excavations. These help to understand the daily life of the inhabitants of the fort.

Modern technology gives us the opportunity to visit and present a site that is remote in location and also inaccessible to tourists. The exact three-dimensional documentation of the ruin is a prerequisite for conservation and protection, and also provides the means to introduce the site to a wider international public, thus ensuring its future survival.

Credits

The project is financed by the FWF Austrian Science Fund. The scanning was carried out by the Technical University, Vienna: Prof. M. Doering, T. Mitterecke, I. Mayer, G. Styhler-Adin.

Scan + Postprocessing: TU Wien, Fachgebiet Baugeschichte und Bauforschung (Prof. M. Döring), DI Irmengard Mayer
und DI Thomas Mitterecker. Read more on baugeschichte.tuwien.ac.at

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