Artists in the Technosphere

Manuela Naveau


Technology’s progressive saturation of our world and our life is increasingly coming under the scrutiny of artists. Ars Electronica produced an exhibition in 2015 in Linz, Austria that elaborated on the connections between art and technology. The show entitled technē focused attention on an Ancient Greek concept that has had a formative influence on Western philosophers’ understanding of art, science and technology to this day. Technē, which can be rendered as skill, craftsmanship and technique, indicates just how inseparably connected art and technology were in Antiquity. The fact that an increasing number of artists nowadays have more technical skills at their disposal—as do people in general, of course—raises the question: Do artists’ conception of self change as a result? In other words: What influence do artistic engineers or technically savvy artists have on our understanding of our world? They make us aware that we still have not come up with an explanatory model for the highly complex interrelationships of our world and our environment. They demonstrate that our thinking cannot be understood as the movement of a clockwork since cause and effect have gotten blurry. In the wake of technique and technology, we have ended up in the technosphere in which simultaneity, pervasive networks and space are the operative concepts. What does this mean for our thinking and our language? What does it mean for our bodies? What does it mean for our environment? Six outstanding works by young artists in Linz have been selected to be shown at Digital Design Weekend in London. These creative individuals take highly dissimilar approaches to presenting their various takes on issues having to do with the technosphere. Linda Kronman (FI) and Andreas Zingerle (AT) of KairUs Kollektiv came up with a mode of reflecting on knock-offs and the power of the imaginary: assembling a collection of fake firms and merging them into a family of brands charmingly dubbed Megacorp. Stefan Tiefengraber’s work “your unerasable text” also purports to be something it is not. Data are seemingly transmitted only to be immediately deleted. But why do we believe that the data really were erased? The works by Verena Mayrhofer and Yen Tzu Chang are accounts of everyday household objects and their linkages to a virtual environment: Verena Mayrhofer rummaged around in the past to create “Draw:er,” a sound installation disguised as a traditional spice rack, while Yen Tzu Chang plays futuristic music on his “Retro Product-Vacuum Cleaner Instrument.” Dawid Liftinger creates a space for acoustic and visual experience triggered by the brilliant bursts of electronic flash units. “Blitzlichtinstallation #1” seems to be controlled by algorithms and chance—an apparent discrepancy? Same goes for the works by Jochen Zeirzer, whose machines are programmed so as to repeatedly conduct the user to the boundary s/he shares with the machine, and if the machine doesn’t want to be shut off, then you basically just have to resign yourself to that fact. Unless you pull the plug or cut the flow of power in some other way. What importance is attributable to the human being who disrupts the machine? Art, technology, society. Since 1979, Ars Electronica has been investigating how they’re interrelated and where they interface, identifying primary causes and effects. The ideas that emerge here are innovative, radical, and offbeat in the best sense of the word. They influence our everyday lives, our lifestyles and ways of life every day. The Ars Electronica Festival as test environment, the Prix Ars Electronica as competition of the best and brightest, the Center as year-round presentation & interaction platform, and das Futurelab as R&D facility have branched out into all directions of science and research, art and technology. Ars Electronica’s four divisions inspire one another. They form a unique cycle of creativity designed to put visions to the test, an integrated organism constantly reinventing itself. The works featured at Digital Design Weekend are by students in the Time-based and Interactive Media and the Interface Culture programs at Linz Art University. Part of Ars Electronica Linz’s mission is to nurture young local artists and to exhibit their work internationally. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Irini Papadimitriou of the V&A for the invitation, and to the Austrian Cultural Forum in London for the support provided to the participating artists. http://www.aec.at/export Six outstanding works by young artists in Linz have been selected to be shown at Digital Design Weekend in London. These creative individuals take highly dissimilar approaches to presenting their various takes on issues having to do with the technosphere. Linda Kronman (FI) and Andreas Zingerle (AT) of KairUs Kollektiv came up with a mode of reflecting on knock-offs and the power of the imaginary: assembling a collection of fake firms and merging them into a family of brands charmingly dubbed Megacorp. Stefan Tiefengraber’s work “your unerasable text” also purports to be something it is not. Data are seemingly transmitted only to be immediately deleted. But why do we believe that the data really were erased? The works by Verena Mayrhofer and Yen Tzu Chang are accounts of everyday household objects and their linkages to a virtual environment: Verena Mayrhofer rummaged around in the past to create “Draw:er,” a sound installation disguised as a traditional spice rack, while Yen Tzu Chang plays futuristic music on his “Retro Product-Vacuum Cleaner Instrument.” Dawid Liftinger creates a space for acoustic and visual experience triggered by the brilliant bursts of electronic flash units. “Blitzlichtinstallation #1” seems to be controlled by algorithms and chance—an apparent discrepancy? Same goes for the works by Jochen Zeirzer, whose machines are programmed so as to repeatedly conduct the user to the boundary s/he shares with the machine, and if the machine doesn’t want to be shut off, then you basically just have to resign yourself to that fact. Unless you pull the plug or cut the flow of power in some other way. What importance is attributable to the human being who disrupts the machine? Art, technology, society. Since 1979, Ars Electronica has been investigating how they’re interrelated and where they interface, identifying primary causes and effects. The ideas that emerge here are innovative, radical, and offbeat in the best sense of the word. They influence our everyday lives, our lifestyles and ways of life every day. The Ars Electronica Festival as test environment, the Prix Ars Electronica as competition of the best and brightest, the Center as year-round presentation & interaction platform, and das Futurelab as R&D facility have branched out into all directions of science and research, art and technology. Ars Electronica’s four divisions inspire one another. They form a unique cycle of creativity designed to put visions to the test, an integrated organism constantly reinventing itself. The works featured at Digital Design Weekend are by students in the Time-based and Interactive Media and the Interface Culture programs at Linz Art University. Part of Ars Electronica Linz’s mission is to nurture young local artists and to exhibit their work internationally. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Irini Papadimitriou of the V&A for the invitation, and to the Austrian Cultural Forum in London for the support provided to the participating artists. www.aec.at/export