A courtyard, a tree, a fountain and lots of pens and paper: this is the setting in which we are reflecting, together with invited partners. We sit around a tree and think, we sketch out ideas, scribble futures and write, together, on a critical image of our time. Topics such as Infinite Nows (Zurich University of the Arts), Critical Data (Interface Cultures, CYENS Centre of Excellence Cyprus, Technical University of Vienna), and Hybrid Futures (Interface Cultures in collaboration with Leonardo Laser Talks) will be addressed via talks, discussions and open workshops. Dedicated sound interventions and performances in the Academy of Thought will round off the programme and provide space for an inspiring, inner-city festival hotspot setting.

ON INTERACTION

Around 2000, several interaction design programs were launched around the world. Among London, New York and Ivrea, Zürich University of the Arts has launched its educational and research activities in this emerging field. We begun motivated to humanise digital technologies and make them more inclusive and accessible. Two decades later, pressing environmental, social and political challenges demand that we adapt and expand our focus to encompass worlds and interests other than only those of humans. Through lectures and panels, we share our speculative and experimental practices with digital, chemical and biological technologies, which are increasingly interwoven with complex ecological thinking. We invite you to join us in reflecting on the critical and investigative role of interaction design in our society, today and over the past decades.

CRITICAL DATA

is the name of a course at Interface Cultures taught by Manuela Naveau since last October 2020. Over the past two semesters and during the pandemic, we have explored the use of digital data, data processing systems, and related knowledge. By analyzing artistic works at the intersection of digital art, Big Data and machine learning, as well as ethics, philosophy, and political/social engagement, we have critically examined the place society and its environment can take in relation to the latest technological developments. In the context of ACADEMY OF THOUGHT, we ask ourselves what critical data might be and mean in the context of an art university? In business and computer science, it is defined that critical data must be identified in order to improve sales and product quality. If we leave the idea of economic success behind and focus on society and ecology, how can we understand critical data in an arts setting?

LEONARDO LASER LINZ
Die Gartenlaube / Garden Gazebo

Linz is joining the Leonardo Art & Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) network with an international program hosted by Interface Cultures at Ars Electronica 2021. Artists, scientists, scholars and the general public are invited to join conversations about sustainable ways of living, environmental protection, and artistic and scientific developments for a “climate-modern” future. In a modernized “Gartenlaube”, Climate-Care, Climate-Digital and Climate-Social – proposed by Christoph Thun-Hohenstein – will be debated and discussed through the focus on Interspecies Collaboration, The Mind of Plants, Herbal Pedagogy, Biodynamic Farming, also supported by the exploration and celebration of artistic and folk wisdom, to bring everyone together for a “Gartenlaube Waltz”.