But if they make too many mistakes Deltu might just get upset and decide to ignore them. Frustrated, Deltu will leave the game and take some selfies to post on Instagram.

Credits

Supported by ECAL, École cantonale d’art de Lausanne

Ben-Ary had a biopsy taken from his arm; then he cultivated his skin cells and, using iPS technology, he transformed the skin cells into stem cells, which were then differentiated into neural networks grown over a multi-electrode-array (MEA) dish to become “Guy’s external brain.” The MEA dishes consist of a grid of 8 x 8 electrodes. These can record the electric signals the neurons produce and send stimulations back to the neurons—a read-and-write interface to the “brain”. Human musicians are invited to play with cellF. The human-made music is fed to the neurons as stimulation, and the neurons respond by controlling the synthesizers. Together they perform live, reflexive and improvised sound pieces that are not entirely human. The sound is spatialized into sixteen speakers. The spatialized reflects the pockets of activity within the MEA dish. Walking around the space offers the sensation of walking through Guy’s external brain.

cellF was initiated and spearheaded by the artist Guy Ben-Ary. It is also the result of a collaborative work involving Ben-Ary as well as the designer and new media artist Nathan Thompson, electrical engineer and synthesizer builder Dr. Andrew Fitch, musician Dr. Darren Moore, neuroscientist Dr. Stuart Hodgetts, stem-cell scientist Dr. Michael Edel and neuro-engineer Dr. Douglas Bakkum. Each contributor played an important role in shaping the final outcome.

Credits

The project is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and the Department of Culture and the Arts WA.

The project is hosted by SymbioticA @ the University of Western Australia.

The enthusiasm that accompanied the dawn of this new high-tech age in the 1980s and 90s is back, with the technology deployed in today’s data glasses (head-mounted displays) finally seeming to be able to live up to the visions that preceded it. VR, AR and MR have become a playground of multifarious pursuits: the gaming sector and film industry, applications in the educational field and tourism market, works of art and architecture, the creative economy, performance and the theater.

The VRLab in the Ars Electronica Center’s Main Gallery showcases the latest VR, AR and MR technologies. In addition to applications by filmmakers and animators as well as artistic approaches, the VRLab relates the history of virtual and augmented reality’s development. What did eighteenth-century spatial illusions look like, how did we progress from the stereoscope to the Oculus Rift, and in which directions will VR and AR be advancing in days to come? The VRLab provides insights into these questions.

g.tec medical engineering GmbH (AT)

The BR41N.IO Hackathon brings together engineers, programmers, physicians, designers, artists and fashionistas to collaborate intensively as an interdisciplinary team. They plan and produce their own fully functional EEG-based brain-computer interface headpiece to control a drone, a Sphero or e-puck robot or an orthosis with motor imagery.

FRI Sept. 8, 2017

SAT Sept. 9, 2017

Whenever they think of a right-arm movement, their device performs a defined action. The programmers create an interface which allows them to control robots and other devices with their thoughts alone. The artists among the hackers make artistic paintings or post and tweet a status update. And hackers who are enthusiasts in tailoring or 3D printing give their BCI headpiece an artistic and unique design. And finally, kids create their very own ideas of an interactive head accessory inspired by animals, mythical creatures or their fantasy.

Inspired by the unique Agent Unicorn headpiece from fashion-technology artist Anouk Wipprecht, the BR41N.IO Brain-Computer Interface Designers Hackathon challenges young geeks to design and build a unique, playful and wearable brain-computer interface (BCI) headpiece. The BCI measures brain activity and enable users to control a robot or smart device, to communicate or paint using just their thoughts.

Twenty years ago, brain-computer interfaces could only move computer cursors. Today, machine learning is one component of BCIs that will be used in many different fields of neuroscience, such as motor rehabilitation of stroke patients, assessment of and communication with coma patients, control of devices for disabled people, cognitive training or neuromarketing. BR41N.IO shows these current and future developments and the unlimited possibilities of brain-computer interfaces in creative or scientific fields, and how artificial intelligence, life science, art and technology become a unity to evolve innovative and exceptional BCI headpieces.

Credits

BR41N.IO is organized by g.tec medical engineering GmbH | Schiedlberg | Austria

Dragan Ilić (RS/AU/US)

A3 K3 is a unique interactive experience. Artworks are created by machine technology and audience participation. Dragan Ilić uses an elaborate brain-computer interface (BCI) system where he controls a hi-tech robot with his brain via state-of-the-art technology.

Members of the audience are invited to try out the BCI technology. The artist and the audience draw and paint on a vertical and a horizontal canvas with the assistance of the robot. The robotic arm is fitted with DI drawing devices that clamp, hold and manipulate various artistic media. They can then create attractive, large-format artworks. Ilić thus provides a context in which people will be able to enhance and augment their abilities in making art. Thanks to the support of g.tec, Dragan Ilić will undertake further research with AI systems/human interaction in the process of making art.

Credits

This program is supported by g.tec and GV Art London.

Through this multi-sensory experience and provoked by an artistic counter-performance (Ruth Mateus-Berr, Julia Soto Delgado), the audience should be able to reflect on and question digital surveillance and technological authority as it may be part of technology-mediated audience participation. This kind of embodied and technological intervention creates an experimental situation where accepted customs, habits, and eeriness convene interchangingly.

Performers: Chris Bruckmayr, Didi Bruckmayr
Art direction: Fares Kayali, Oliver Hödl, Uli Kühn, Thomas Wagensommerer
Künstlerische Counter-Performance: Ruth Mateus-Berr, Julia Soto Delgado

Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien): Fares Kayali, Oliver Hödl, Peter Purgathofer, Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Alexander Filipp, Christoph Bartmann
University of Applied Arts Vienna (Die Angewandte): Ruth Mateus-Berr, Thomas Wagensommerer, Uli Kühn, Julia Soto Delgado, Anna Lerchbaumer
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW): Johannes Kretz, Hande Sağlam
The Open University: Simon Holland

Breaking The Wall wird gefördert von FWF PEEK.

http://www.piglab.org/breakingthewall

The sculpture performs a slow, meditative “dance” based on randomized algorithms, until a visitor steps to the control panel and gives (another) character to the piece. The artwork as a delicate example of engineering and robotics can form any shapes, and gives also an exceptional opportunity for the visitors for self-expression, getting into interaction with each other, or just meditating over the beautiful movements.

Who would I then like to be? For whom am I playing myself up? Virtual Office’s take on this year’s festival theme, “The Other I,” calls upon participants to find out who today’s young people want to be, which ideals they strive for, and who their role models are. Staged photographs are designed to enable participants and visitors to reinvent themselves.

Better, simpler and faster, above all, faster. This development has come to prevail in our society. It is already taken for granted that we do not particularly like waiting for answers and results. This might be due to the fact that we pay less and less attention to the process that leads to the solution. Often, we no longer even want to know why we achieve certain results. What’s important is: it has to proceed quickly and be correct.

This results in a curious reversal—speed in technologies was originally developed to make many things easier for us, to enable us to eliminate stress. But sometimes this speed is precisely what triggers extreme stress and unease in us.

Sometimes it’s good to wrestle with a question or an idea in a way that is as protracted and complicated as possible. This results in taking it slow and going into depth, and is conducive to relaxation, creativity and coming up with ideas.

Generating ideas and creativity are often associated with a sort of “recontextualization.” To do so, existing components that were developed for a particular application are employed in a totally different way. This results in sustainable projects, because a component can suddenly be used for two or more applications.

Without the pressure of speed and with an only seemingly senseless waste of time, and with many—actually very many—details, this year u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD is inviting festival visitors to build a machine out of as many different components as possible. The various sub-components can consist of digital or analog elements; together, they will become a machine that can carry out simple as well as complex tasks.