Ars Electronica X .art Domains - the Digital Launch You Don't Want to Miss

Always at the forefront of the discussion about innovation and technology, it is not surprising that Ars Electronica partnered with. art Domains to launch this inspiring collaboration infused with art and technology. In doing so, the largest and most important festival of its kind is extending its reach globally. Creating a solution that has a strong focus on human centric experience, .art Domains became a partner of choice as both organisations have commons goals; fostering communities, thinking globally, and supporting artists. Art connects and empowers, and by hosting art on an .art Domain artists make their choice and their commitment even brighter. Brining each partner’s innovation together on this unique journey, Ars Electronica is evolving in its questioning, which is ever guided by the question of what new technologies mean in our lives, focusing on orienting the artistic research on ourselves, our needs, our desires, and feelings.  

The “new normal” is changing the world as we speak. Right now, .art Domains’ mission of bringing art, finance and tech together translates into providing tools that prevent geographical barriers and current circumstances from standing in the way of showcasing talent. The Ars Electronica X .art Domains partnership aims not just to set a precedent of such an event, but to set a stable and sustainable trend for creating similar initiatives globally.  

– Ulvi Kasimov, .art Domains Founder

The partnership takes form in Ars Electronica .ART Gallery, an online space to explore works of art. The gallery invites its visitors to enter two sections: Ars Electronica .ART Global Gallery and Ars Electronica .ART Pavilions. The Global Gallery section features a selection of international digital artists, who have submitted their work through the Open Call launched in August. The second component is Ars Electronica .ART Pavilions, a curated experience featuring special projects by Ars Electronica’s curators together with a Pavilion curated by Steven Sacks and a new project cosmos.art from Marina Simakova, Arseny Zhilyaev, and Anton Vidokle.  

The first pavilion is curated by Emilie Trice and is devoted to LAST/RESORT Club, which is an artist collective based in the beautiful Rocky Mountains that specializes in emergent digital practices and speculative & sustainable design for the Anthropocene. The work they propose in the framework of Ars Electronica look at myth, technology, borders, autonomy and how we need to reinvent the meaning behind those words and take a closer look at the connection that we have with each other, but also the land, our share past and our collective future.  

Liquid Avatar by Miranda Mengyuan Jin

Postmasters Gallery presents the second Pavillion of Ars Electronica, it is curated by Paulina Bebecka. Postmasters interest reside in new forms of creative expression that are both representative of our time as well as relevant. The works curated in this pavilion explore the central importance of humanity in a world in which most of our experience are done thought technology. It showcases the work of Donato Piccolo, Kristin Lucas as well as Nicola Verlato.  

Presenting for the first time in the virtual realm, sound:frame virtual – Area for Virtual Art is curated by Eva Fisher in collaboration with Pausanio, a Cologne-based agency for digital cultural communication. The pavilion acts as a host for exhibitions, discourse formats, social events and highlights contemporary digital artistic approaches sur as XR, interactive or AI (art)works. Within the framework the chaotic intensity of the cyberspace they aim at creating a space where people can see and show art, gain insights, creates connections and critically reflect.  

Falling Up is presented by re.riddle, an itinerant gallery that curates socially engaging and multidisciplinary exhibition of contemporary art. re.riddle act as a promoting agent for art as a trigger for curiosity, promoting an awareness of its profound impact on our daily surroundings and live. It is therefore not a surprising that Falling up, the work they introduced us at Ars Electronica, has emerged from the condition of the current situation and explore the notion of artifices, its nature and how it behaves. As they describe it “Instead of defining artifice as merely inauthentic or “fake”, this exhibition considers the poeticism to its fiction and how it might go so far as to rescue today’s reality.”  

When she has been offered to curate a pavilion for Ars Electronica, Liusa Wang decided to dedicate the space to a solo work titled bot. by Chinese artist aaajiao. The work introduces the viewer to a new way of perceiving memory, setting it apart – a little more dystopian – from the present conception of it. Borrowing the aesthetic of several role-playing action games like Undertale or Adventureland, the video presents a portrait of memory built on a machine’s assumptions of how people would think a machine interprets the mind built.

To highlight one of the focal points of Ars Electronica this year – the theme of humanity – Nigeria based curator Kehinde “Kennii” Ekundayo presents Pandemic-Pandemonium! Contributions to the pavilion are made by various creative from all Nigeria and include photographs, video poetry and soundless video. Kennii describes Pandemic-Pandemonium! as “a two-part presentation centered on the collective response of Africans living in Africa vis-à-vis current prevalent issues that threaten humankind — racial discrimination, violence against women and the COVID-19 pandemic. Whilst one part makes a statement on the resilience of the human spirit in the face of the deadly coronavirus by examining the place of faith and protest, the other focuses on the valorization of melanin-rich skin amidst the fatal hostility that accompanies it.”  

Glitter Gal by Lisa Padilla

VENT gallery, based in Vienna, is taking over virtual Pavilion number 7 and is curated by Manuela Hillmann. They are presenting The City as a House by artist Rebecca Merlic’s – a work based of a vast number of pictures, sounds, videos, and 3D scans which are creating an interactive visual novel. This works is anchor in an experiment of the artist who describes herself as a white European 30-year-old heterosexual human in Tokyo, living a nomadic life and questioned the boundaries of spaces, private versus public, physical versus digital or virtual.    

Another important feature of this year edition – Pavillion number 8 at Ars Electronica – is the ongoing collective research project The Institute of Cosmos (cosmos.art). This ambitious project is a space for creative investigation of materiality of the cosmos. It uses the perspective of philosophy, anthropology, history of science as well as art. At its core it is using a technological platform created to investigate and disseminate knowledge that include a strong component, making it one of the most relevant participants for Ars Electronica and .art Domains.    

“The Institute of the Cosmos seeks to unlock the hidden potential of radical imaginaries across multiple fields and histories of knowledge. We have many urgent questions: How can our understanding of time and space be expanded? How can our life-span be extended? What are the horizons of organic and inorganic life? How to control time? How to understand the unity of all that exists? How does our post-secular society challenge contemporary science, and vice versa? What kind of sociality will a cosmist future bring? How can life on Earth and beyond be elaborated? What could extra-terrestrial art and literature be? Are plants conscious and should we eat them? How to live without killing any form of life?” 

– Marina Simakova, Arseny Zhilyaev and Anton Vidokle 

Still from cosmos.art

The Ars Electronica .ART Pavilions also features a space curated by Steven Sacks, bitforms gallery, which presents a range of works from their program. The gallery’s artists – emerging, mid-career and established artists – are all critically engaging in new technologies. Spanning the rich history of media art through its current developments, the gallery’s program offers an incisive perspective on the fields of digital, internet, time-based, and new media art forms since its early days in 2001.  

Softspot, a new online space for art expos and events, is a partner on bringing the works in the Gallery to life. Their new solution is rethinking how art related experiences such as auctions, exhibitions and art fairs are created online. It is the vehicle of choice for any customised digital solution focusing on art experience.  

“Softspot is a purpose-built online space for art exhibitions and events, so we feel privileged work alongside such pioneering organizations as .art Domains and Ars Electronica. Offline, under different constraints, organizations architect elaborate, expensive buildings to cultivate thick interaction between people and art. The Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria is a preeminent example of this. Given how much of life is mediated online these days, we strive to apply the same degree of craftsmanship and consideration to online space, and the Ars Electronica .ART Gallery is a playful example of some of those ideas.” 

– Matt Condon, Founder of SoftSpot.art

The .art Domains offered the participants of the Open Call to take advantage of one of their new online solutions called the .art Digital Twin. By Creating a .art Digital Twin, the artists are enabled to capture artwork information in quality and volume that would not be possible with a “traditional” offline certificate. The .art Digital Twin stores an unprecedented number of data and files about the artwork. This is another great way to put technology at the service of education and knowledge sharing. Together with Ars Electronica, the team behind. art Domains hopes to improve the current conditions for digital art certification.  

Some of the artists using the Digital Twin include the collective of W. Bartkowski, S. Pepliński, K. Jankiewicz, and K. Nowak. Their work Hello! I know you – I am you was registered under i-know-you.art. As they discuss the future of technology and machine learning, the online experience will give you some food for the thoughts. 

The collective is followed by multidisciplinary artist Santiago Carlomagno, who introduced the audience to his work ‘THIS MESSAGE WILL DELATED’ in the framework of the Ars Electronica Global Gallery. His Digital Twin link is: this-message-will-delated.art. The work focuses on ways of communication taking a new meaning in our current moment in history. It highlights how the limits becomes blurry in between technology and the body, one becoming a part of the other as its way of functioning.  

Artist Janet Choi’s Digital Twin is an focusing on her interactive installation titled Flow and that can be see here interactiveflow.art. Expanding on the psychological concept of losing its sense of time and space, it related to both loosing awareness of our surrounding when we are absorbed by what our senses are focusing on, no matter if it is a water flow or the flow of data on our mobile phone screen. This work questions the relationship involving nature, technology, and humans.  

Exploring the idea of eco-feminism and post truth, focusing on fertility with her three channels projection installation WhattoExpectWhenyou’reExpecting.art which she shows in the framework of Ars Electronica Global Gallery, artist Danielle Dominico is highlighting the perceived advancement that technology have help develop in this area. The projection installation is focusing on the current information communication breakdown and the spectator see at the same time 3 different video; a news media spectacle, the perspective of a woman in labor and a breach scene – all competing for attention and all sharing different information. 

Sève Favre introduce us to her interactive artwork  Disciplined-Nebula.art which aim to engage the public in the artistic process. Therefore, the viewer can become part of the experience and refine the way they are thinking about art and concepts. In her work, she combines a digital, virtual, focus and the physical, real, way to engage with the work, revealing a flow of modification, an artwork that will morph itself each time into something new, something multiple becoming virtual doubles or gifs.  

As for Nora Gibson, she registered aria-ng-v.art as her Digital Twin. Nora is an artist, who describes herself as a visualist using technology to expand the experience of the performing arts. The project she presents here, titled Aria, is an audio reactive piece generated by the data of the theme from Bach’s Goldberg Variations. 

With her digital twin  Fresh-Hot-Delicious.art,  Jessica Herrington introduce the audience of Ars Electronica global gallery to an augmented reality restaurant specialised in digital desserts. As she explains “Fresh, Hot, Delicious offers something that may be missing in this socially isolating time. Despite isolation and distance, this project helps people connect through sharing their digital food experiences.” 

Behind the Heyhexx project, three artists are collaborating and working between the physical and the digital world with their interactive social media responsive robot puppet theatre installation. Visit their Digital Twin can be seen heyhexx.art to learn more about how their project combines elements of puppet theatre, robotics, paper craft, real-time interaction, and data analytics.  

 Juregen Hoebarth has devoted his Digital Twin johnvanhartmann.art to bring us at the center of the exhibition ColorFountainExplosition, an art installation in decentralised metaverse of cryptovoxels by artists Johnvan Hartmann, a contemporary pop & digital mix media artist.   

Acting as a subculture of its own “Japanese Idol’’ by Atsuhi Imai range from originals to collaborations with Japanese anime. Describing himself as an illustrator and pencil artist, his Digital Twin can be seen at idol-character.art.  

Idol character No.3 by Imai Atsuhi

Artist Amy Karle comments, “I use technology as a mirror to the self, to who we are and to who we can become. My work questions and maps the new world of humans merging with technology, and what could be done to shape a more positive future. My Digital Twins that are featured in the Ars Electronica. ART Gallery are The Heart of Evolution?, the-heart-of-evolution.art 2019, Biofeedback Art, durationalperformance-biofeedback.art 2011, and The Body and Technology: A Conversational Metamorphosis (series),  the-body-and-technology.art 2017. The works examine material and spiritual aspects of life, opening visions of how technology could be utilized to support and enhance humanity. The projects probe how exponential technology and interventions could heal and enhance the body – and even alter the course of evolution.”   

She continues, “I’ve exhibited with Ars Electronica in person in the past and am delighted to exhibit in the new online arm this year. Ars Electronica has always been on the cutting edge of sharing new media art and this year’s online exhibition is no different. It’s not just about presenting representations of artwork online, a number of the works featured are best presented online as digital or online is the original medium.“ 

Many initiatives to show our gratitude to front line workers have popped over the past few months and it is exactly what the Kasimov family has done with their Digital Twin the-hope.art. An AR experience, which they created as part of the Ars Electronica .ART Global Gallery, and a continuation of the widely popular #FlowersForMedics initiative since March. The AR component to the piece enabled anyone with an iOS device to experience the work safely in the comfort of their home!  

Using technology to create her work, Siheun Kim introduces the viewers to enlivening-sequence.art, an interactive installation portraying dynamic, contingent, and blurring phenomenon between humans and machines. Entangled, the relationship between humans and machine are part of the today ecosystem. The utilisation of robotic approaches and computational programming, it generates a randomisation of the sensory experience and is inspire by the movement of sea snails that inhabit the rocks of the beach.  

Based on Malevich’s original 1915 Suprematism composition, Nick Koro highlights unrealized ideas about the new world through a series of digitally vandalised Suprematism installation for his digital twin ar-suprematist-composition-2.art which is taking advantage of the post celebration of the 100 years of the original work.  

Gisela Nunes, in collaboration with Paulo Almeida, present us her Digital Twin touch-the-heart.art, a Web-based interactive art. This ever changing piece, adapts itself to the cycle of night and day, of the spatial location provides a real time experience which reflects on how our experience changes our perceptions and perspectives on the world. 

@heyhexx by Patsaraporn Liewatanakorn, Sana Yamaguchi, Parvin Farahzadeh

For Ars Electronica Global Gallery, artist Ella Ordona takes her inspiration from a sentence her father said during his last day in the hospital. Her digital twin, terra-infirma.art., re-imagines what the experience of an hospital room could be by incorporating concepts of geo-physiological and ritual. Interactive, surreal and including organic touches and audio component, it explores the shortcomings of the current healthcare industry for immigrants and how the experience of being cared for and listen to far away from home could be modify to become more pleasant.   

Artist Director Kat Parker is a Digital Twin enthusiastic and she registered three; womaninblue.art, katparkerscroll.art, katparkerspin.art Working in tandem with cinematographer Caleb Gritsko, the three artworks are part of the Moving Paintings: (un)still life Series. The first one, Woman in Blue, explore the notion of auto portrait and is inspired by several pieces in the National Gallery in Washington. The second one Scroll, shows the action of scrolling down a social media feed to consume posts, images, and news, focusing on the action itself and not the means. Finally, Spin, shows the motion of a ceiling fan and like the entire series explores the hypnotic appeal of everyday objects and the frustration of uncompleted actions.

Registering novamrem.art as his Digital Twin, Fabin Rasheed explore how traditional modes of painting are translated to a digital alter-ego using Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. His project compels the viewer to question itself on traditional creations ways and the place of technology into creativity and future more of expression.   

Artists Park Syemin, Kim Seoyeon & Ahn Kihoon have created  re-re-re.art their Digital Twin which ask the question “Is this art or spam?”. The multimedia project further questions the mean of production and dissemination in the digital world after all “If digital artworks are endlessly copied, shared, and ultimately exposed without the viewer’s consent, is this not spam?” 

Visual artist Claudia Vásquez Gómez, with her Digital Twin object-2dpn42k9.art introduced us to Cada viaje es un viaje | every travel is a travel her 6100 km journey from St-Petersburg to Moscow to Omsk and back to Moscow on which she went on before the Covid 19 lockdown. The final work was edited in quarantine while in Santiago, Chile adding another layer of reflection on travelling and current limited travel conditions.  

With her Digital Twin, still-life-no-i-chrome-sphere-gravity-and-light.art, digital artist Pastel White explores the notion of reality, its vulnerability to manipulation, its ability to deceive and ultimately, the possibility of its transformation into an altogether new reality. 

At the cross section of archeology and contemporary art, Peirui Yang’s Digital Twins stratigraphic-variants-peirui–yang.art, showcases his research project which expresses digitally the variants of stratigraphy by extending the concept of stratigraphy. It records everything and is everchanging depending of its context whether it is the prehistoric era or the digital era. 

Hasaqui Yamanobe has registered is Digital Twin hasaqui.art, working toward a refreshing the notion of Laocoön as first introduced by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in the 18th century.  Yamanobe is currently working across the fields of art theory, criticism and machine learning, and is working on figuration and its consideration utilizing the Convolutional Neural Network.  

Finally, Jing Zhou, an artist whose work is at the intersection of visual design, interactive installation, data visualization, animation/video, and fine arts introduced us to through-the-aleph-a-glimpse-of-the-world-in-real-time.art. This time laps video draws the connections between individuals and the global environment, Earth and outer space, eternity and time, and art and science and is inspire by Jorge Luis Borges’ short story “The Aleph” (1945).   

While the unexpected event of 2020 will precipitate this journey to take place, we are pleased with these fruitful collaborations and how it contributes to our vision on the place of art and technology in the world. Once again, we are placing ourselves at the forefront of the discussions and we are paving the way for more innovation, ground breaking ideas, grand visions, innovative collaboration and inspiring art with the expanded reach of our festival. We are proud to invite you to visit digitally the festival, to embark on an art and technology infused experience that will lead you around the world, from the comfort of your home.   

Exhibition dates: 9th September – 23rd September 2020

As the exhibition is now closed, you can look into it with this video