TAKEOVER
who's doing
the art of tomorrow
Ars Electronica 2001
Linz, 1. – 6. September
Press-Information
Linz, September 1, 2001
Which constellations, what factors are determining the art of tomorrow, where it will happen, who will be doing it and with whom? These questions are at the focal point of Ars Electronica 2001: Let's take a look at the thing formerly known as art!
As events on international financial markets have shown, the digital revolution is going through its first real crisis. What are the implications for art, and particularly media art that owes its development and the public attention it has garnered essentially to the same dynamics that have shaped the course of the New Economy? Can media art, understood as an overarching term encompassing artistic encounters with the technological reality of our world, maintain its innovative dynamism? Will it, in keeping with an avant-gardist definition, continue to contribute to overall social development, or will its power, its glamour and its attractiveness fade in a world in which media are increasingly ordinary features of everyday life.
Few recognize that quality does not prove itself in the transferal of the old into the new system, but rather in the invention and development of forms and methods that fit the new situation. And the contours of the new are already taking shape. The Digital Revolution has long since given rise to totally new forms and manifestations of art that have situated themselves for the most part beyond the realm of the art establishment and have largely gone unnoticed by or failed to gain acceptance from that establishment. This is a phenomenon characterized by an explosive eruption and breakout of creativity, by the innovative, inspired and often quite unexpected use of digital information technology.
New Sites and Scenes Beyond the Confines of the Art Establishment
These can be found in the world of science, in subcultures and pop culture,
and in a newly emerging creative economy, as well as in what are rather
exotic regions for media art such as Malaysia, China, Korea and Taiwan,
countries that have undergone a massive technological build-up recently
and now are investing with comparable enthusiasm in the creation of brain-ware
and, in doing so, are paying attention not just to engineering but to
design as well. This sets in motion a dynamism that also exerts a growing
influence on these countries' artistic potential.
The development of computer games is-in addition to other considerations-always
a matter of creating fictions, fantasy worlds and experiences, and these
are aims that are in very close proximity to art. The computer games industry
already has the same economic dimensions as the entire film sector, a
fact that is not without cultural consequences. And even if computer games
are not necessarily artistic products, this industry, as a result of its
commercial potential, offers a new field of gainful employment for a wide
range of artists and creative types. What emerges thereby is in numerous
respects a highly fruitful and creative biotope. In light of the fact
that the vast majority of artists has never been able to live off actual
artistic work, this constitutes a considerably superior alternative to
a job as a waiter or substitute teacher.
New Reference Systems
Digital information technologies are more than just advanced means of production and distribution. The Internet constitutes a fast, efficient and, in its own way, new reference system in which ideas, talents and capabilities emerge and are enhanced, refined and perfected through the inspiring interplay of cooperation and competition. The Internet accelerates not only production processes but also the acquisition of qualifications, talents and abilities. These new reference systems can be set up quickly and employed productively, and provide stiff competition to traditional artistic training systems and rituals of access.
Expanded Areas of Impact
It is no longer the technological possibilities but rather the socio-cultural structures of the Information Society that are decisive in the context of an art of tomorrow. The Internet as a cultural and commercial sphere is the basis and breeding ground of innovative, inspired modes of doing artistic work, which have an impact over an enormously expanded area due to the network linkage that is immanent in the medium. Flexible community membership is a key concept that manifests itself in concrete terms in the sudden and successful shuttling of persons or projects among art, design, science and commerce, or in productive parallel existences in (these) dissimilar domains. An upshot of this is a fundamentally altered conception of self prevalent among this young generation of artists.
Ars Electronica 2001 - Conferences
The encounter with the Festival theme will be presented in a new format
this year. A symposium, conferences, panels on virtual realty, and the
Prix Ars Electronica Forum make up a full calendar of events, an overarching
theory-network spanning the entire festival week.
The aim of the theoretical reflections undertaken in conjunction with TAKEOVER is to sound the depths of the constellations and framework conditions of the art of tomorrow and to initiate and further an open discourse. Ars Electronica 2001 will focus on the protagonists and projects of this new creative burst of artistic activity that is increasingly being played out beyond the confines of the conventional art establishment. Prototypical advocates having their say in this debate, aside from theoreticians and scholars, will be, above all, artists and creative individuals themselves.
TAKEOVER Symposium
Three symposium sessions (Parts I, II, III) address the paradigm shift
of TAKEOVER, new role definitions and working models, new technologies,
tools and concepts in the area of content development and skin design
for the broadband future.
Sunday afternoon (Part II) is devoted to "Digital Culture & Lifestyle
in Action." In a relaxed setting, prominent young next-generation
creatives and electrolobby residents provide insight into how they go
about their work, their references, and the textures of their lives. This
symposium will also elaborate on and analyze new currents in the areas
of interface design, screen design and film/video (with emphasis on Internetfilm
and Web-TV).
Creators of Life: An essential challenge that art already faces today
and one that will assume even greater proportions over the coming years
is how to deal with developments in modern molecular biology and genetic
engineering. The positions, experiences and outlooks of artists who are
taking up this challenge will be the highlights of Part IV of the symposium
on Monday afternoon.
TAKEOVER Symposium Part I
September 2, 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM, Brucknerhaus
About the paradigm shift, new role definitions, working models and the
creativity burst.
With:
Jon Ippolito/USA, Dietmar Bruckmayr/A, Ahmad Rafi Mohamed Eshaq/MAL,
Wolfgang Maass/A, Tobias O. Meissner/D, Gerfried Stocker/A
TAKEOVER Symposium Part II
September 2, 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Brucknerhaus
Digital Culture & Lifestyle in Action.
With:
Kerb, Moccu, Team cHmAn, Everything und alle anderen electrolobby Residents.
Moderation: TNC Network's Sabine Wahrmann
Konzept: Tina Cassani, Bruno Beusch/F (TNC Network)
TAKEOVER Symposium Part III
September 3, 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM, Brucknerhaus
Content development and skin design for the broadband future.
With:
Ruedi Bauer/F/CH, Tanja Diezmann/D, Tasuya Matsui/J, Ole Lütjens
und Nico Palermo/D/USA, Nora Barry/USA, Jérôme Rota (DivX)/F/USA,
Stuart Maschwitz/USA
TAKEOVER Symposium Part IV
September 3, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM, Brucknerhaus
Creators of Life: The methods and processes of biotechnology and bio-informatics
as artistic tools.
With:
Eduardo Kac/USA, SymbioticA Resaerch Group/AUS, Stuart Bunt/AUS,
Natalie Jeremijenko/USA, Hiroaki Kitano/J, Joe Davies/USA
TAKEOVER Symposium Lecture
September 4, 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM, Kunstuniversität Linz
Creativity versus Marketing
Oliviero Toscani/I
In conjunction with the TAKEOVER Symposium, Oliviero Toscani, who has
achieved fame with taboo-breaking ad campaigns and photographs that have
established a new standard in the field, will speak on the subject of
creativity versus marketing.
Conferences: Who's got it right, what will remain, who will survive?
TAKEOVER is a confrontation with the "makers of the art of tomorrow."
That includes not only the people who generate and create artistic processes
and products, but also those who manage, administer and make money off
them. Ars Electronica 2001 dedicates three conferences to this emerging
area of tension and interplay.
Engineers of Experience - Who's got it right?
September 4, 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Brucknerhaus
The discussion will focus on new strategies to integrate interactive media
into exhibitions and museums, as well as new concepts for their design,
staging and architecture in light of the ongoing boom in edutainment and
infotainment.
Mit:
Michael Shamiyeh/A, Peter Higgins/UK, Hiroshi Ishii/USA, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer/MEX/CDN,
Gustav Pomberger/A, Horst Hörtner/A, Joachim Sauter/D,
Joe Paradiso/USA
From Document to Event - What will remain?
September 5, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Brucknerhaus
From Document to Event deals with questions having to do with "preserving"
digital art.
With:
Benjamin Weil/USA, Masaki Fujihata/J, Johannes Deutsch/A, Elmar Schmidinger/A,
Alain Dépocas/CDN
The Undertakings of Art - Who will survive?
September 6, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM, Brucknerhaus
In The Undertaking of Arts, representatives of a variety of institutions
confront the question of how they have prepared for the future, for the
globalization of the art market, for the new digital forms of distribution,
and, above all, for the demands of artists.
With:
Andreas Hirsch/A, Birgit Richard/D, Peter Noever/A, Rüdiger Wischenbart/A,
Karel Dudesek/A
Pixel Spaces
Is a takeover underway in the virtual reality scene too? Under the headings
CAVE versus Game Engines, Behind the Scenes and CAVE goes PC, Pixelspaces
presents and discusses new ideas and potential application to save conventional
VR systems from the fate of the dinosaurs. How does the future of VR look
as far as its use in exhibitions and museums is concerned? How and in
what form are the game industry's VR systems becoming available for application
development?
Science from the Garage
September 2, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Ars Electronica Center
With: David Nahon/F, Paul Rajlich/USA, Dietmar Offenhuber/A, Dan Sandin/USA
Behind the Scenes
September 3, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Ars Electronica Center
With: Dan Sandin/USA, Maurice Benayoun/F, Michael Shamiyeh/A
Open Lab - FutureLab Production Space
September 5, 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Ars Electronica FutureLab
electrolobby 2001
Interface for Digital Art, Cyberculture and Internet-inspired Lifestyle
http://electrolobby.aec.at
September 2 - 6, 10:30 AM - 7:00 PM, Brucknerhaus
Ars Electronica commissioned the Paris new media label TNC Network to develop the electrolobby concept in order to live up to the expectations and satisfy the needs of the digital generation, and also as a means of testing new festival formats and suitable presentation strategies. The aim of electrolobby is to identify surges of Internet-related creativity and innovation at an early stage of their development, and to present them in an exciting and entertaining festival setting
In a stimulating environment that's a blend of dayclubbing, informal
media conference and networked showroom, electrolobby stages the electrifying
subdigital climate in which today's most exciting smart hacks, milestones,
and next-level experiments are being spawned and spun off. electrolobby
residents are professional gamers, next-generation creatives, game developers,
guerilla designers, renegade programmers and open-law attorneys. What
they have in common is a set of influences, values and conceptions-a new
field of reference for which the term "net-inspired digital culture
& lifestyle" has been coined. This year, electrolobby will especially
focus on games.
Game Jam/F/FI/UK/D/A/DK/USA
Feat: Team cHmAn, Sulake Labs, Kerb, Moccu, Lippe, Kaliber 10000, and
others; a coproduction of: TNC Network and Vectorlounge
Everything/USA - www.everything2.org
Feat: Nathan Oostendorp & the Everything-Noders
Habbo Hotel/FI/UK - www.habbo.com
Feat: Sampo Karjalainen, Aapo Kyrölä & the Habbo-Guests
From Bedroom Programmers to Media Gods/USA
Feat: Simon Carless aka Hollywood
E-Sport: Gaming Goes Pro/D/KR
Feat: Kambiz Hashemian, Ana Vranes, Dominik Kofert. In collaboration with
Progaming.de
Keitai Zone/J
Feat: Andrea Hoffmann
micromusic.net/CH - www.micromusic.net
Feat: Paco Manzanares aka wanga, Mike Burkhardt aka superB, Gino Esposto
aka carl
Kerb/UK - www.kerb.co.uk
Feat: Jim McNiven, Pete Barr-Watson, Sermad Buni, Dylan Van Loggerenberg
Open Law Project/USA - www.openlaw.org
Feat: Wendy Seltzer
Team cHmAn/F - www.teamcHmAn.com
Feat: Sébastien Kochman, Olivier Janin, Damien Giard, Sébastien
Jacob, Stéphane Logier, Alexandre Guesnerot, Gaël Cecchin,
Denis Bonnetier, Rodolphe Bonvoisin, Gauthier Havet, Gunther Welker
Moccu/D - www.moccu.com
Feat: Jens Schmidt, Björn Zaske
Kaliber 10000/DK/USA/UK - www.k10k.net
Feat: Toke Nygaard, Michael Schmidt and Per Jørgensen
404Zone/A
Feat: Simon Scheiber
Lens Flare 98-01/UK
Compiled by Onedotzero, London. With examples from Wipe Out (featuring
graphics by Designers Republic), Tekken, Final Fantasy, Tomb Raider and
many more.
Prix Ars Electronica 2001
The Prix Ars Electronica was
conceived in 1987 as an open platform for a broad spectrum of disciplines
in the area of digital media design at the interface of art, technology,
science and society, and has been continually updated over the years in
accordance with this concept in order to remain on the cutting edge of
rapid developments in the field of information technology. For the 15th
edition of the Prix Ars Electronica, the Internet category has been redefined
and considerably expanded. This year for the first time, six cash prizes
will be awarded in the Internet category-two Golden Nicas and four Honorable
Mentions in the Net Vision and Net Excellence subcategories.
A total of 2,200 entries submitted from 65 countries will be competing
for a share of the €100,000 ($89,700) prize money donated by jet2web
Internet. And the u19-freestyle computing competition for young people
sponsored by the Postsparkasse (P.S.K.) has scored another smash hit,
attracting 900 submissions from the cybergeneration in Austria.
Prix Ars Electronica Gala 2001
September 3, 2001, 9:00 PM
ORF Upper Austria Regional Studio
During the course of this gala evening, the secret will finally be revealed:
Which of the nominees will receive the Golden Nica in each of the competition's
categories?
Nominations
Computeranimation/Visual Effects
Ralph Eggleston - Pixar Animation Studios/USA
Laetitia Gabrielli, Pierre Marteel,
Mathieu Renoux, Max Tourret - Supinfocom/F
Xavier de l’Hermuziere, Philippe
Grammaticopoulos - Supinfocom/F
Digital Musics
Markus Popp - oval/DRyoji Ikeda - David Metcalfe Associates/GB
Blectum from Blechdom - Haus de Snaus and Tigerbeat 6/USA
Interactive Art
association.creation/A
Carsten Nicolai, Marco Peljhan - Canon Artlab/D/SLO/J
Haruki Nishijima - IAMAS/J
Net Vision
Sebastien Kochman - team cHmAn/F
Yuki Naja - Sonic Team/USA
Neeraj Jhanji - ImaHima Inc./J
Chris McGrail - Kleber/GB
Joshua Davis - maruto/USA
Brian McGrath
- The Skyscraper Museum/USA
cybergeneration - u19 freestyle computing
Martin Leonhartsberger/A
Johannes Schiehsl, Conrad Tambour, Peter Strobl/A
Markus Triska/A
Cyberarts 2001
September 1-6, 10:00 AM - Midnight
O.K Center for Contemporary Art
The presentation of prize-winning works from all categories of Prix Ars
Electronica 2001 provides a condensed view of the current state of the
digital arts. A separate exhibition space is devoted to cybergeneration
- u19 freestyle computing.
Prix Ars Electronica Forum
The Prix Ars Electronica Forum offers a unique chance to get a glimpse
behind the scenes of digital art today. This artists' round-table provides
direct access to and highly concentrated information about this year's
prizewinners, their ideas and projects, and how they go about their work.
Running Pixels & Computer Animation / Visual Effects 2001
September 4, 2:30 PM - 6:15 PM
Digital Musics, Interactive Art 2001
September 5, 2:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Net Vision / Net Excellence 2001 & electrolobby Wrap-up
September 6, 2:30 PM - 6:30 PM
ORF Upper Austria Regional Studio
Art & Events - Art as a Test-Drive of the Future
From its very inception, Ars Electronica has defined art as an interface,
a motivating force and a catalyst of social transformation, and dedicated
itself to the goal of enabling art in its full intensity and dynamism
to have an impact. In doing so, Ars Electronica continuously looks to
the future-there where innovation is taking shape. What this necessitates
in the context of TAKEOVER is expanding the festival to include forms
of presenting working processes as well as production situations in which
teamwork and concept-oriented communication projects occupy the spotlight.
Projects
September 1-6, 10:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Brucknerhaus
TAKEOVER presents projects and modes of working by artists who are facing considerable risk in opening up new territories in which their scope of action has not yet been defined, and in which the existential framework conditions (art subsidies or the art market) have not yet been established-whether in scientific, artistic and/or commercial contexts.
Fish & Chips has "semi-living artists" as its aim: a research project that is simultaneously a work of art and science, and that brings together designers, biologists, artists, and computer specialists into what is not your everyday team-the SybioticA Research Group (AUS).
The Green project by Reinhard Nestelbacher/A takes an everyday scientific phenomenon and exports it beyond the confines of the lab: green-glowing mice, fish, bacteria, and a new species of artificial organisms.
Projects by Ben Fry/USA, ESCAPE*spHERE/A, Digi-Sta-Lab/J, singlecell.org, Nora Barry/USA, Johannes Deutsch and Elmar Schmidinger/A will also be presented.
T.O.C. Takeover Campus
September 1-6, 10:30 AM - 7:00 PM
Kunstuniversität Linz
The T.O.C. Campus, an attractive new venue for Ars Electronica 2001 set up in cooperation with the Linz University of Art, is the site of a dynamic scene grouped in ad hoc fashion and representing highly diverse approaches to TAKEOVER.
The Opening Party, an "invasion of the professional amateurs," will launch TAKEOVER in acoustically and visually intensive fashion (September 1, Kunstuniversität, 22.30). Groups like Stadtwerkstadt with meat.space Linz, the listener festival takeover systems, connect systems by Radio FRO and radioqualia, and the Female Takeover - ff discussion series by KunstRaum Goethestrasse promise unexpected and, above all, target-group-oriented, open modes of dealing with the festival theme.
Under the label lab-ac.at, students of visual media design at the University of Applied Art in Vienna transfer parts of the university's research lab to Linz: a hybrid mix of programming workshop, Web agency, sound studio, hang-out/lounge, laboratory for 3-D animation & media critique, game development center and party space. Participants will be working on process-oriented projects as well as generating and discussing new ideas about the future needs of education specifically tailored to media art.
TGardenÔ, a prototypical example of ways in which artists work today and the problems they now face, acts as a transducer between a multiplicity of social worlds: institutionally-based knowledge creation, techno-scientific research, art and performance.
T.O.C. Takeover Campus will also present Masaki Fujihata's Field Work, a project that gives rise to a hyperreal information sphere. Video images of real environments are combined with exact GPS data to produce a linkage of topography and the subjective perceptive of space. OnScreen Ars Electronica Gallery for Digital Video, Art & Videodesign is a presentation series featuring young as well as established artists and designers who work with video in digital form.
Concerts, Events & Performances
A full program of concerts, events and performances makes for TAKEOVER
evenings full of variety. Among the highlights is Golan Levin's Dialtones:
A Telesymphony, the first concert to by played out exclusively via the
ringing of the audience's cell phones (September 2, Brucknerhaus, 9:00
PM).
Ryoji Ikeda's concert performance, with its expressive power of minimalistically
penetrating tonal strata and precise visual elements, produces a sensitive,
intensely stimulating ambience. (September 4, Brucknerhaus, 9:00 PM).
In Container Park, an industrial district serves as a performance space
where, among other artists, Senor Coconut Y Su Conjunto, in an eccentric
fusion of Kraftwerk and Latin American music, will offer a dance course
as free-form variation on the theme "El Baile Aleman." (September
5, Container Terminal Linz AG, 9:00 PM).
This year, Finnish electronic musician Vladislav Delay aka Luomo transforms
the Donaupark into the impressive acoustic environment of Klangpark 2001.
The musical finale promises to be another highlight: the world premier
of the laptop supergroup fLeetwood Macintosh, featuring all-live sets
by tigerbeat6's bLectum from bLechdom, Lesser and kid606 (September 6,
Posthof, 10:00 PM).
Ars Electronica Center - Museum of the Future
In the five years of its existence, the Ars Electronica Center has proved to be a successful realization of the idea of promoting the overlapping and interaction of artistic and technological work as a strategy for imparting the cultural significance of the so-called Digital Revolution.
One substantive feature is Get in Touch, which showcases a representative sample of works by Prof. Hiroshi Ishii's Tangible Media Group (MIT Media Lab) for the first time in Europe. In a lecture presentation in conjunction with the opening of the Ars Electronica Center exhibition, Hiroshi Ishii will elaborate on the scientific and artistic aspects of these works. (September 1, 2:30 PM).
Get in Touch
September 1-6, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Ars Electronica Center
Get in Touch is an exhibition at the nexus of man and machine. Communication
with and by means of digital technology as a design task. The centerpiece
is Tangible Bits by Hiroshi Ishii. Here, digital information is endowed
with physical forms, making it possible to directly manipulate and perceive
bits of it. The aim is to blur the boundaries between the physical and
the digital, and to create a seamless interface between human beings,
bits and atoms.
FutureOffice Project
September 1-6, 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Ars Electronica Center
A multi-phase research project at the Ars Electronica Center's FutureLab
is developing prototype components for telematic everyday life in the
office of the future. The primary objective here is to integrate existing
functional technologies into ergonomic and stylishly designed scenarios.
Custom-made objects and furniture make possible the evaluation of conventional
concepts and visions, and offer exhibition visitors a demonstration of
current possibilities.
A project of Ars Electronica FutureLab, Scott Ritter and Jakob Edelbacher.
The Ars Electronica Center will also present works by Ben Fry/USA, Joe
Paradiso/USA, Marek Walczack, Martin Wattenberg and Jonathan Feinberg/USA.
Touring the CAVE - EVL: Alive on the Grid
1. - 6. September, 10.00 - 19.00
Ars Electronica Center, CAVE
A persistent CAVE virtual-reality experience, comprised of many virtual
worlds: persistent environments do not end once the visitors leave the
CAVE. These worlds continue to accrue life from the participants who enter
them and from the Web. Participants in CAVEs around the world can join
this shared space, interact and talk with one other, as well as add to
and change the worlds they visit.
A cooperation of: Electronic Visualization Laboratory, University of Illinois
at Chicago (Dan Sandin) and Ars Electronica Center Linz.
Ars Electronica 2001
Veranstalter: Ars Electronica Center Linz und ORF Landesstudio
Oberösterreich
Mitveranstalter: Brucknerhaus Linz, O.K Centrum für Gegenwartskunst,
Universität für künstlerische und industrielle Gestaltung
Linz
Ars Electronica Center & Ars Electronica Festival are supported by:
Stadt Linz
Land Oberösterreich
Bundeskanzleramt/Kunstsektion
Compaq Österreich GesmbH
Gericom
42 virtual
Hewlett Packard
Microsoft Österreich
Österreichische Brauunion
Oracle GmbH
Quelle AG
SGI
jet2web Telekom Austria
jet2web Mobilkom Austria
Festo AG & Co
Prix Ars Electronica is supported by:
jet2web Internet
VOEST-ALPINE STAHL
jet2web Datakom
Österreichische Postsparkasse P.S.K.
Stadt Linz
Land Oberösterreich
Prix Ars Electronica Additional Support:
Austrian Airlines
Lufthansa
Casinos Austria
Courtyard by Marriott
Porsche Austria
Sony DADC
Österreichischer Kulturservice
Pöstlingberg Schlöss'l
Additional support for Ars Electronica and Prix Ars Electronica by Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa
Presse-Information