Ars Electronica 98
Festival for Art, Technology and Society
Organization
Ars Electronica Center Linz und ORF Landesstudio Oberösterreich
Co-organizers
Brucknerhaus Linz, O.K - Centrum für Gegenwartskunst, Posthof Linz

Press Release:
September 1998

INFOWAR - information. macht. krieg

As one of the most prominent international festivals at the interface of art, technology, and society, Ars Electronica is dedicated to critical reflection on the social transformations engendered by digital technologies. The festival has been providing commentary on and analysis of the digital revolution and its sociocultural consequences from an artistic as well as scientific-theoretical perspective continually since 1979. The focus of these considerations is not upon the latest computer technologies, but rather on their results in a world shaped increasingly by information and networks. The commitment to examining important social and political issues is continued by this year's theme "INFOWAR - information.macht.krieg".

INFOWAR sheds light on the strategies and possibilities of computer-supported conflict ranging from the Gulf War to the activities of cyberguerillas, as well as assessing the internal logic of the Information Society in connection with war as the "father of all things". A full schedule of events and performances, installations and network projects are clustered around this complex of topics. The Ars Electronica Symposium and the Prix Ars Electronica constitute the core of the festival.

Pressrelease on the book accompanying Ars Electronica 98 InfoWar

Symposium
September 8 - 9, 1998, Brucknerhaus Linz
"Information as a strategic weapon" occupies the focal point of considerations during this two-day symposium. Participants will deal with the power of the media as well as political power, with electronic surveillance, hacker myths, and cryptography, with national security and civil resistance, with new areas of potential conflict and with prevailing images of the adversaries of an Information Society characterized by global economic and financial markets. But, above all, this symposium is concerned with the role and responsibility of artists and their work in providing ways to confront these issues and achieve insight into them.

Speeches and discussions featuring highly distinguished experts will bring a number of extremely controversial views to bear on this complex of issues.

Peter Arnett/USA
One of the most internationally renowned war correspondents, the American Peter Arnett, currently CNN News Channel correspondent in Washington, has spent more than 35 years in war zones including Vietnam, Baghdad and Bosnia.

Michael Wilson/GB
IWAR (infrastructural warfare) and, particularly, information warfare, economic espionage and counterterrorist measures are the fields of expertise of Michael Wilson. He and his agency, 7Pillars Partners, are highly-paid consultants to major corporations and governments.

Lucky Green/USA
With Lucky Green, the world of hackers and cypherpunks is represented. He focuses his attention on cryptography (encoding Internet communications) employed to ensure the individualÕs sphere of privacy and as a safeguard against the intrusive influence of centralized, authoritarian power structures.

Friedrich Kittler/D
One of the leading exponents of German media theory, Friedrich Kittler, is an expert on media history and the history of warfare, and scholarly advisor to Ars Electronica 98.

Paul Virilio/F
The French intellectual and media theorist Paul Virilio, author of works including "Pure War,Ó "Speed and Politics,Ó and "Desert Screen,Ó will participate in the symposium via video conferencing.

Kunda Dixit/Nepal, Shen Weiguang/RCH, Igor N. Panarin/RU
This year's festival will be tremendously enriched by several participants whose contributions go beyond western-dominated theoretical approaches. They include Nepalese journalist Kunda Dixit, futurologist Shen Weiguang, currently a member of the Finance Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, as well as the Russian military officer and political scientist Igor Panarin, professor at the Department of National Security of the Russian Academy of Government Service.

Additional lectures and discussions will feature:
George J. Stein/USA - director of "International Security Studies Core" at the Air War College, Maxwell, Alabama
J. Doyne Farmer/USA - pioneer in chaos research and founder of the Prediction Company
Ute Bernhardt/D - author and activist with “Forum InformatikerInnen für Frieden und gesellschaftliche Verantwortung e.V."
Birgit Richard/D - Professor for New Media at the Goethe University in Frankfurt Michael Geyer/USA - historian, University of Chicago
Ingo Günther/D/USA - Media artist and activist, Refugee Republic
Joichi Ito/J - developer and producer in the areas of virtual reality and multi-media
RTMark/USA - Artists' Collective for "Intra-industrial Consumption"
Douglas Rushkoff/USA - author of numerous books including "Cyberia"
Georg Schöfbänker/A - armaments expert
Tim Druckrey/USA - author and critic
Manuel De Landa/MEX/USA - The Ars Electronica Symposium will be moderated by Manuel De Landa, media expert and author of the book "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines".

Main Focal Points of the Discourse
Modern information and communications technology is intimately connected with warfare the "father of all things." What consequences have the military origins of the computer and the internet had on their civilian use? Which forms of warfare does the Information Society bring with it what are its potential spheres of conflict and where are the fronts? Will the global information infrastructure be the "battlefield of the future"? The Ars Electronica Symposium will provide a forum for the theoretical assessment of issues ranging from computer-aided warfare, wars in and for the WorldWideWeb, to possible war scenarios for the 21st century.

Computeraided Warfare

The fundamental objective of information warfare¬waging war with the support of information technology as this was initially attempted to a certain extent in a Beta-version primarily during the 1991 Gulf War is the "enhancement of the combat effectiveness" of conventional methods of warfare through the deployment of modern information and computer technology.

The War to Win the Net

At the next level of cyberwar, the information infrastructure itself becomes the strategic target of warlike aggression. Destroying an enemy's information centers and communications systems could bring about the collapse of his entire armed force. Like saboteurs of old, viruses are now designed to be fed into an adversary's communications infrastructure and to completely paralyze it. In precisely this way, a nation's entire economic foundation can be dealt a severe blow by means of the pinpoint destruction of data banks and research centers serving the government as well as banks, insurance companies, telecommunications providers, etc.

The War Within the Net

Anonymous hackers, cyberterrorists and network guerrillas elicit tremendous dread. They have become the partisans of the Internet, striking fear into the hearts of multinational firms and national governments alike. Is the open and decentralized structure of the Internet developed by the US military and conceived as a means of safeguarding its own channels of communication against hostile strikes now proving to be a high-tech, network-linked state's most vulnerable point of attack, or has the myth of the Internet's inscrutability and purported uncontrollability been placed into circulation possibly even intentionally in order to, on one hand, justify measures of control and regimentation, and, on the other, to secure funding for this new defense industry?

Warfare in the Next Millennium

Ars Electronica 98 also examines the future of weapons technologies and military strategies, addresses the issue of where new conflicts could potentially flare up, and raises the question of who are the perpetrators and victims the winners and losers of these cyberwars. Did anyone ever really entertain the illusion that the wars of the future would not be bloody ones because they would be virtual? The shift of the potential points of conflict from the external borders of nation-states to the interior of society extending all the way to social, ethnic and religious fronts can be regarded as a central challenge to the Information Society. An equally important issue is the increasing power of multi-national economic conglomerates as well as that of capital markets interlinked by digital networks; this will be assessed in light of the Malaysian currency speculation crisis and the ongoing conflicts surrounding the monopolistic positions of firms such as Microsoft and Intel.

Ars Electronica Publications
The release of InfoWar (the German title is Information.Macht.Krieg) ¬ the first European publication to take into account the full range of this issue's complexityÑwill coincide with the kick-off of the Ars Electronica Festival. This anthology includes all addresses delivered at the Ars Electronica 98 Symposium plus nine additional papers. Aside from a comprehensive appraisal by the theoreticians and critics of this military revolution which had its origins in the US, this book also encompasses the perspectives of well-known thinkers on phenomenologically-related issues beyond the realm of military planning as this is conventionally understood. In particular, this work reflects the global dimensions of these developments by presenting the perspectives of experts from a wide array of cultures and nations including Europe, the US, China, Russia, and Nepal, as well as featuring those active in the civilian sphere such as hackers, cypherpunks, economic experts and representatives of the art scene and the world of science. The Ars Electronica 98 Festival Catalog and "Cyberarts 98", a work on the Prix Ars Electronica, are also being published.

Ars Electronica Art & Events
The theoretical focal point of the festival will be accompanied and complemented by a rich and diverse artistic program. Along with a wide variety of installations and events, two key program elements are the Prix Ars Electronica exhibition Cyberarts 98 and its counterpoint openX, an experimental arrangement facilitating the encounter with network art.

Events & Performances
Scheduled events and performances, including works commissioned especially for Ars Electronica, guarantee a exciting confrontation with both the festival theme and contemporary forms of artistic presentation. Global Hockets is a virtuoso fusion of the rhythmic energy of the New Zealand music group From Scratch with German artist Michael Saup's (Supreme Particles) innovative world of computer graphics a New Media performance featuring novel forms of presentation.

Global Hockets - Supreme Particles, From Scratch - 8. 9. Brucknerhaus Linz, 20.00

With Solar, the artistic collective Projekt Atol, Rastermusic/Noton transports the visitor into the acoustic-magic universe of telecommunications and news dissemination. Video and audio signals from satellites and HF radio, intensified into rhythmic patterns of sound and noise, produce a highly stimulating atmosphere and an exciting experiential space during an open-air event lasting from sunset to dawn.
Solar - 9. 9. Hafen/Modellflughafen, 19.40

Granular Synthesis (Kurt Hentschläger & Ulf Langheinrich/A) transport the visitor in their latest performance POL into an increasingly distressing, even threatening, sphere of sensory and rational experience, in which attacking graphics and hypnotic patterns can be experienced ambivalently, and nevertheless encourage the visitor to prolong his sojourn.

POL - Granular Synthesis - 10. 9. Posthof Linz, 20.00

Super Collider - a sound accelerator has been conceived by Rupert Huber/A as a musical particle accelerator. This freely-accessible evening program of Ars Electronica 98 features DJing, concerts and light shows with Kruder&Dorfmeister/A, Sam Auinger/A, Lukas Ligeti/USA, Rachel de Boer/NL, Scanner/GB and others.

Super Collider 7.-11.9. Stadtwerkstatt, 23.30 - open end
9. 9. Ars Electronica Quarter, 21.00
10. 9. Ars Electronica Center Sky, 21.30

Sound of Music from the Amsterdam industrial music label Staalplaat celebrates the "interrelation of analog and digital media in the hypercompetitive age" ¬ a performance climaxing the experimental series "Safe Harbours/Closing the Loop" initiated by Time's Up. Staalplaat Sound of Music - 11.-12. 9. Posthof, 22.30

openX - eine Versuchsanordnung
An experimental arrangement facilitating the encounter with network art

3.-10. 9. Brucknerhaus Linz

Ars Electronica is dedicated to critical reflection on the sociocultural transformations being driven forward by digital technologies. At the focal point of these considerations is a totally new conception of art that breaks out of circuitous self-referentiality and displays social relevance beyond formal and aesthetic concerns, and which can be conceptually subsumed by the term "network art." openX, an experimental arrangement facilitating the encounter with network art, whose trial run began last year, will be carried on at Ars Electronica 98. openX is dedicated to art whose area of activity lies primarily in the immaterial communications sphere of digital networks and which defies conventional forms of presentation. It is meant to test new strategies for the encounter with artistic works and artistic forms of action beyond objects and events. Among the aprox. 40 international "networkers" who will already be launching their projects on-site during the week prior to the beginning of the festival are Xchange, ORF Kunstradio, and TNC Network.

In connection with openX, Ars Electronica 98 is hosting an international hacker meeting. THE HEART: Hackers Electronic ART has been conceived as a platform for discussion and interaction among hackers and festivalgoers.

Installations
Installations including those by Robin Bargar/GB, Marko Peljhan/SLO, Cãlin Dan/RO, Paul Garrin/US and David Rokeby/CDN will be set up in the Ars Electronica Center, the Brucknerhaus and the O.K Centrum für Gegenwartskunst. The Ars Electronica Center, the interdisciplinary middle point of Ars Electronica activities since 1996, presents an exciting cross-section of artistic works representing confrontations with specific topics and paths to insight into them. The CAVE-Virtual-Reality-Installation World Skin by Maurice Benayoun and Jean-Baptiste Barrière/F, awarded the 1998 Golden Nica for Interactive Art, enables visitors equipped with cameras to take an armed journey through war scenarios. The artists group Knowbotic Research/D/A confronts visitors with the complexities and interrelationships of urban planning in the network project I0_DENCIES (Golden Nica 1998 in the category .net).

Prix Ars Electronica
The highlight of the Ars Electronica Festival is the awarding of the Prix Ars Electronica, organized annually since 1987 by the ORF Upper Austrian Regional Studio. This year, 1,690 artists, scientists and experts from the entertainment industry have submitted their work to competitive judging in the categories of Computermusic, Interactive Art, Computer Animation/Visual Effects and .net.

Goldene Nicas 98:
Computeranimation/Visual Effects: Liang-Yuan Wang/USA "The Sitter" Robert Legato/Digital Domain/USA "Titanic"
.net:Knowbotic Research/D/A "I0_DENCIES"
Interactive Art: Maurice Benayoun/Jean-Baptiste Barrìere/F "World Skin"
Computermusic: Peter Bosch/Simone Simons/NL “Krachtgever"
U19 Freestyle Computing: Florian Nehonsky/Michael Mossburger/Valerian Wurzer/A "Titanic - Der Film"

Cyberarts 98 - Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition
This year, prize-winning works of art from all competition categories will be presented together for the first time in O.K - Centrum für Gegenwartskunst. Cyberarts 98 provides an intense and impressive look at the state-of-the-art and the extraordinary diversity of digital media art. With the newly-redesigned O.K as its venue, the exhibition features installations of interactive art (including works by artists such as Christian Moeller/D, Peter Broadwell/US, Scott-Sona Snibbe/US), musical and tonal spaces, and screenings of selected works of computer animation and visual effects. The sound installation Krachtgever by Peter Bosch/Simone Simons/NL (Golden Nica for Computer Music) is an example of the great variety of works of art featured in the Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition 98 a variety reflected in both the competition categories as well as the aesthetics of the works presented.

The Cyberarts Nightline will open with Rupert Huber's Censoratorium, a "compositional/composed exhibition bout between music and language". Taking part in this sound-event conceived as the inversion of the principle of censorship, in that it makes a censored passage audible instead of repressing it are artists including Richard Dorfmeister/A, Isabella Bordoni/I, Mike Daliot/A and Anna Clementi/I.

Censoratorium - 8. 9. O.K, 22:30

Additional program features of Cyberarts Nightline are the multimedia performance Nerve Theory: Shades of Catatonia by Tom Sherman/CDN/US and Bernhard Loibner/A, as well as the Electronic Theatre, a presentation of the best works of Computer Animation and Visual Effects from the Prix Ars

Electronic Theatre - 9. 9. O.K, 21.00
Nerve Theory: Shades of Catatonia - 10.9. O.K, 22.30

A separate exhibition gallery has been dedicated to U19 Cybergeneration. Selected works from the U19 Freestyle Computing prize category inaugurated this year impressively demonstrate the creativity of Austrian cyberkids. Admission is free.

Service for Young Visitor
An innovative feature for young visitors to Ars Electronica 98 is the possibility of booking moderately-priced accommodations at the Don Bosco House in Linz directly through the festival office. This has been conceived primarily for the benefit of younger participants, such as the great many students visiting from Eastern Europe, in order to enable them to spend the entire week of Ars Electronica in Linz.

Ars Electronica 98 is a featured event of: Europäischer Kulturmonat Linz, September 1998.

Veranstalter, Organization:
Ars Electronica Center
ORF-Landesstudio Oberösterreich

Mitveranstalter/Co-organizers Ars Electronica 98:
Brucknerhaus Linz
O.K Centrum für Gegenwartskunst
Posthof

Ars Electronica Center & Ars Electronica Festival werden unterstützt
von / are supported by:
Stadt Linz
Land Oberösterreich
Bundeskanzleramt/Kunstsektion

CREDITANSTALT
DIGITAL EQUIPMENT ÖSTERREICH AG
ERICSSON AUSTRIA
GERICOM
HEWLETT-PACKARD
MICROSOFT AUSTRIA
BRAU UNION ÖSTERREICH AG
ÖSTERREICHISCHER RUNDFUNK
ORACLE GMBH
AG TELEKOM AUSTRIA
QUELLE VERSAND
SIEMENS NIXDORF
SILICON GRAPHICS AUSTRIA

Kapsch, Steigenberger Maxx Hotel Linz

Prix Ars Electronica wird unterstützt von / is supported by:
SIEMENS NIXDORF
ÖSTERREICHISCHE POSTSPARKASSE
VOEST-ALPINE STAHL
GERHARD ANDLINGER COMPANY
DATAKOM AUSTRIA

Stadt Linz
Land Oberösterreich
Ramada Hotel Linz
Casinos Austria AG
Mailfast
Silicon Graphics Austria
Lufthansa ist/is Official Carrier von/of Ars Electronica und/and Prix Ars
Electronica

Presseinformation:

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Ars Electronica Festival Hauptstraße 2 4040 Linz Austria Gabriele Hofer T: ++43.732.7272­780 F: ++43.732.7272­77 gabriele@aec.at

Ars Electronica Center Hauptstraße 2 4040 Linz Austria Maria Falkinger T: ++43.732.7272­16 F: ++43.732.7272­2 maria@aec.at