One day at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz

A few weeks ago, the students of the Masters travelled 155 kilometres away from Vienna, to visit one of the most unique research and cultural spaces of Austria: The Ars Electronica Center (AEC), a place where artificial intelligence, robotics and neurobionics collide to create fascinating and educational experiences for the visitors and the global future.

During the visit, the students had the opportunity to walk around the center, while guided by Laura Welzenbach, the Head of Exports at Ars Electronica. Her department focuses on sharing with the world the work that they do at the center through exhibitions, workshops, residencies, and performances, and giving or participating in conferences where questions about the future are addressed.

The arts in the new technologies (and vice versa)

At the beginning of the tour, Laura explained to the class what Ars Electronica was about and how their main goal is to help developing future viability for the society, while using artistic and technological approaches. Some examples that the students got to see, where the ones located in the section “Understanding Artificial Intelligence” and the human participation in the creation of them all.

The exhibition showed multiple forms of Artificial Intelligence through robots who acted like dogs, the creation of images after giving the computer just a few hints of what it needed to be done or giving movement to static pictures; and various samples of how biases are also part of technology and AI. Here, the message was mainly that our personal and collective experiences play an important role to understand the world, but also when teaching, programming and training new technologies for the present and the future.

For Anna Lusser, one of the masters’ students, it was a positive surprise to see how innovative and experimental the center was through art and new technologies. “I really loved how much focus was put on AI and how the audience was educated about how AI is trained and how dangerous that can be. For instance, there was a climate change map that had recommended solutions provided by AI that did not make any sense. This showed how critical one has to be with AI outputs”.

Another highlight of the exhibition for Anna, was the room where an artificial uterus -created with donated cells- was displayed. “It was super weird and it raises a lot of critical and ethical questions for me, however, exactly these uncomfortable feelings are what intrigues and fascinates me, because it touches the unconventional and opens up a whole new discussion, far beyond science and more into political and social realms”.

Art Inspires Transformation and Critical Thinking

After the walk guided by Laura, which ended up at the room where the artificial uterus was presented, the students had the opportunity to explore the Center on their own and visit the floors dedicated to music, cognitive science, deep space, among others. When their individual visits were over, it was the time to reunite again and have a lecture with Hideaki Ogawa, who was then the Director of the AEC and who is currently the Managing and Artistic Director of the Center.

Through the conversation, Hideaki explained how the uniqueness of the center makes it such a relevant space for the society, as it involves culture, civil pride, innovation, and economy, all at the same time. “From a Human Rights perspective, we are fostering education for future thinking, and here, at Ars Electronica, people has a place and a platform to create it too (the future). Work itself is a tangible manifest and it can cristalize the vision of the future. That is what we aim for at AEC: engage with the city and its citizens”, he said during his presentation for the masters’ students.

During his speech, Hideaki mentioned John Maeda, who back in 2009 wrote on Twitter -now X- “Design is a solution to a problem. Art is a question to a problem’’. For Hideaki, the statement that artists create questions implied that artists can reach critical thinking through art, while still creating meaning and dialogue among society and its peers. “It is a powerful tool; we can change perspectives through what we do, because arts inspire transformation. That is what we do here”, said the Artistic Director, while showing the other activities that the center does, like the ARS Electronica Festival that happens every September (from the 4th until the 8th in 2024), in Linz, or the various exhibitions that talk about environment, creativity, human development, social science, and neuro-bionics.

For Benjamin Omar Dehghan, the lecture by Ogawa was the highlight of the trip. “Through the elaboration on past projects, we were offered tangible examples of art questioning, subverting and recontextualizing emerging technologies, adding cultural depth to something which would otherwise only be considered on the basis of its economic or political utility”, he reflected on Ogawa’s words. According to Benjamin and his appreciations of the lecture, art in general -including artistic strategies- allows people to ask questions about how the new technologies can construct imaginaries regarding better futures for all.

“This lecture was therefore highly inspiring to me, as it showed how this kind of attitude creates an intersection between the fields of art, technology and human rights. Art does not solely hold a potential to present possible answers to pressing questions but is also capable of generating creative questions, which guide the processes of changemaking and imagining futures. I strongly believe that the artistic employment of emerging technologies continuously gives new impetus to human rights advocacy”, said Benjamin after the lecture.

The new narratives in the Digital Age

On the same note, and to wrapped up the inspiring day in Linz, the students went to the Interface Cultures Department at the Kunstuniversität Linz, where professor, researcher and artist Manuela Naveau, introduced them to the work that is currently done in the university, and how the new technologies are opening up spaces for future changes and challenges.

Some of the topics that Manuela talked about referred to critical data and interface cultures, and how technology affects our behaviours in common/public spaces. “We need to understand that is not the force of the networks… It is us! We need to start questioning common AI imaginaries and narratives to understand where we stand, but also to embrace conflicts and frictions that are and will keep happening on this field”, mentioned Manuela, ex curator and Head of Export at Ars Electronica for almost 17 years, and who’s research focuses on networks and knowledge in the context of computer based artistic practice.

Through the inspiring perceptions of the lecturers and guides, the students left Linz with a better understanding of our datafied society and the way that new developments, technologies and artistic approaches, can contribute and reshape human rights practices. This was also the main purpose of the cluster “Human Rights in the Digital Age”, curated and given by S()fia Braga and Onur Olaç, lecturers who accompanied the students during their second semester and who organised this trip to Linz as part of their course.