5 - 13 December 2009

Fortezza da Basso - Florence

With High Patronage

of the President of the Italian Republic

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With its specific orientation and the long-standing continuity it has displayed since 1979, Ars Electronica is an internationally unique platform for digital art and media culture consisting of the following four divisions:

• Ars Electronica – Festival for Art, Technology and Society
• Prix Ars Electronica – International Competition for CyberArts
• Ars Electronica Center – Museum of the Future
• Ars Electronica Futurelab – Laboratory for Future Innovations

When Ars Electronica was founded in 1979 it was already considered to be a festival that would concentrate its focus on the intersection between art, technology and society, a festival dedicated to media art. So the Latin word ARS which was used by the old Greek at the same time for science, art, skill, craft was just perfect not only to describe the very special approach of this Festival but as well one of the funtamental characteristics of digital media art which is the transdisciplinarity between art and science.

Ars Electronica has always been tracking and nurturing the digital revolution, analyzing the social and cultural effects of digital media and communications technologies from critical as well as utopian, artistic and scientific perspectives, thinking them through and inferring potential developments. During almost three decades, Ars Electronica has also served as a logbook recording the development of new art forms and new artistic practices as well as the accompanying transcendence of boundaries to science and technology. The enormous archive that has taken shape as a result constitutes powerful testimony to the manifold currents and trends to which the interplay and friction between art and technology have given rise, and also documents Ars Electronica’s unique breadth as a staging ground for confrontation and dialogue, for provocation and bridge-building. The Prix Ars Electronica, the Ars Electronica Center and the Ars Electronica Futurelab are the consistent extensions with which the radius of activities has been continually expanded. Ars Electronica has also become a significant source of inspiration in the process of cultural and economic change that has been underway in this city. As a result, Linz has come to epitomize the model municipality whose orientation on the future is not just a question of commerce and industry, but rather one that is envisioned primarily as a cultural undertaking. The success story of Ars Electronica demonstrates the social relevance of artistic work and also serves as a prototype for urban renewal and cultural policy development options that go beyond traditionalism and tourism.

Ars Electronica Festival

The essence of the Ars Electronica Festival is interdisciplinarity and an open encounter of international experts from the arts and sciences with an audience of highly diverse backgrounds and interests. Annually since 1979, the Festival has featured a lineup of symposia, exhibitions and events designed to further an artistic and scientific-theoretical confrontation with the social phenomena that are accompanying techno-cultural change.

Prix Ars Electronica

As the world’s premier cyberarts competition, the Prix Ars Electronica has been showcasing the state-of-the-art and leading edge innovations since 1987. It is the trend barometer in an ever-expanding and increasingly diversified world of media art. Due to its regularly recurring nature, its long continuity and the incredible variety of the works submitted for prize consideration, the enormous Prix Ars Electronica Archive provides a detailed look at the entire spectrum of media art and a feel for its openness and the creative experimentation that has marked its way.

Ars Electronica Center

The AEC was opened in 1996 as a prototype of a “Museum of the Future.” Its mission is to utilize innovative, contemporary forms of mediation to facilitate the general public’s encounter with media art, new technologies and social developments. Beyond this, the Ars Electronica Center is the permanent base and thus the organizational foundation of Ars Electronica’s regional and international activities.

Ars Electronica Futurelab

The Futurelab is a model of a new kind of media art laboratory in which artistic and technological innovations engender reciprocal inspiration. The lab’s teams bring together a wide variety of specialized skills; their approach to an assignment is characterized by interdisciplinarity and international networking. The Futurelab’s wide-ranging activities include designing and engineering exhibitions, creating artistic installations, as well as pursuing collaborative research with universities and joint ventures with private sector associates.