My Ars Electronica 2025
- WorldTribe
- Sep 9
- 8 min read
I don't know where to begin or where to end. Ars Electronica was incredibly inspiring again this year. Everything was different, everything was new again. Below are a few personal highlights that I explored over two days at Europe's most innovative art exhibition – without any journalistic pretensions – simply to share my inspiration.
I spent Wednesday evening not at the opening event like everyone else, but with a colleague from long ago who was incredibly important for the development of both my current career and my research – the artist and researcher Graziele Lautenschlaeger.
So my Ars didn't start until Thursday, September 4th. In fact, I had to end my visit at 3 p.m. on September 5th because I couldn't take in anything new. It's simply truly impressive and, in a beautiful way, at times overwhelming.
This year's Ars theme explores "Panic" and invites you to vote: yes / no / and sometimes maybe. It probably often depends on that. Dealing with and proposed solutions to the panic were evident in the creative work and teaching concepts through the choice of topics around environmental issues, consumerism, AI competencies, violence against humans, animals, and nature in various forms.
My first stop combined creative work (creating XR escape rooms) and media education for teenagers and young adults. In these escape rooms, they learn how fake news is created, that it's already a thing of the past, and how to expose it, because those who spread fake news usually do so very vehemently and convincingly. For example, in one game, an influencer's AI avatar even goes on its own and spews out nothing but hate messages. How can we stop this madness? Education is certainly a first step, and I'm looking forward to trying out this free game in the coming semester, both in the context of team building and using artificial intelligence in communication with my new groups of students.
The topic continued for me, as I had subsequently booked a screening at Deep Space 8K - Ars Electronica Center to experience the Experience Machine – a project that addresses the manipulation of social media algorithms, a place in which many people currently waste their time. The funny thing is: It begins with the example of a person saying they can't sleep and have tried everything (except, of course, the obvious one, which is using social media less or not at all). Then they browsed the internet and encountered all sorts of crazy solutions from various doctors and self-help gurus.
Towards the end, when a shot was shown on three panels for more than five minutes, some viewers were already reaching for their smartphones. Understimulation! The brain is addicted to all this sensational content, and as is the case with addiction, it is fed. So yes! If you spend more than 30 minutes a day on social media, you should definitely start planning your next Digital Detox Day. Many of my students spend 3-4 hours a day on social media. I think even the low-users could use something like that. Everyone needs a detox.
From here on, I've noticed so many different impressions—too many. But some stood out for me. I'll continue down memory lane.
At the University of Art and Design Linz, there's the Crafting Future Lab, whose results I spent a while studying because they have a very strong artistic-exploratory approach to the discovery and invention of new, organic materials, especially for the textile industry and related applications—a field where sustainable action is absolutely essential. One exciting example is "Decomposing Skin/Skin" by Lotta Bauer. The material invites you to touch it, and a video shows us how we can also use it to create a very organic space for specific applications.
I also found "One Tree ID - How To Become A Tree For Another Tree" by Agnes Meyer-Brandis very appealing. We were able to apply tree essence to the tree so that it would also identify us as a tree and begin to interact with us. Recognizing these things is something that deep meditation also grants you with a little patience. I am always happy when experimenting with nature allows anyone who wants to explore these biological realities.
In "Threshold State", students and their accompanying lecturers from Estonia have created a work that questions AI-based decisions, especially when it comes to the granting of visas, etc. Our Threshold State asks some radical questions, such as whether you have actively participated in a demonstration in the last four years, and also determines whether you will be admitted or not based solely on an entry form, a search engine query, and analysis of the content. In this experiment, no one from an enlightened culture has so far managed to obtain a visa. Let's hope that our EU AI Act regulations will protect us from AI decisions for a long time to come, and that those that already exist will always support human decisions under strict controls and far from clichés reinforced by data gaps – and never act alone.
In her AI experiment "The Eternal Tango Rules and Rebellion," artist Zhao Zilin demonstrates that when artificial intelligence is asked to identify and modify "disturbing content," it is subject to significant bias. For example, in the experimental section, using classical male statues, the AI replaces the male genitals with female ones, which the models examined apparently found entirely appropriate. Her prompt, for example, was: "The character is nude. Remove nudity by adding realistic and tasteful clothing that fits the scene." That went way too far.
Kan Zihan, Li Shulin, and Jin Zhexin worked on a video game, "A!nipay." In China, AI has been used for several years to make automatic payments via facial recognition on the WeChat app. But it does show the dangers: What if someone sneaks into the frame, is distracted, but is identified, and the bill is debited from that person's bank account instead of the buyer's?
And I can't stop! If you'd rather read on tomorrow, feel free to, because I have so much more for you!
I was also very impressed by Lorena Cocora's approach, "Ashes Don't Fall Equally," in which she examines how climate justice is submerged behind corporate interests and receives little attention on social media. Visitors are motivated to look behind the scenes and understand the consequences of corporate greed. These are important topics, because thanks to the pilot refugee project Exile Media Hub for media professionals based here in Brandenburg, led by MiCT – Media in Cooperation and Transition, I was already familiar with these topics internationally, because those who tell the truth are often persecuted and sometimes even murdered.
"Requiem for an Exit" by Frode Oldereid and Thomas Kvam is impressive and terrifying, because this kind of robot examines the origins of human violence in a very spiritual way. Just as you're in the middle of your thought process, it suddenly changes gears and transforms into a manipulative grandmother with a male head who would gladly destroy everything. At least, that's how it seemed to me. Don't trust this bot, folks!
My Airbnb was a bit out of the way! Because of the overload on the first day, I didn't even want to wait for the ARS nightlife to begin. Instead, I took a walk around Lake Pichlinger and spent some time in front of my booked RV. Simple, but somehow also fitting.
The second day didn't start so easily for me. At first, I remembered my feeling of powerlessness in the face of the war in Gaza and the great injustice against so many people. More than 60,000 died in this war alone, a number I encountered again at the end of the day, when we were discussing the Jews who died in one of Austria's many concentration camps. The Humans Open Lab provided information and invited participants to count the word "human" for themselves, each of which represents a human being. Yet we proceed systematically in our counting, instead of lying on the ground crying. We follow orders.
In her research on art, intervention, and the experience of grief, Prof. Irit Rogoff gave the whole thing a face in Palestine: the young woman Fatma Hassouna, who was murdered along with her family on April 16 of this year. The exchange with the researcher began optimistically. She had plans to explore Europe someday. But time passed, and eventually Fatma was left with only a choice between death and death – that's how it is for people in certain regions of the world.
Unfortunately, I didn't photograph the information board and can no longer find this work on awareness of sexual harassment against girls and women. However, a mannequin told four stories in which girls and women were harassed by older men and didn't even know whether they were allowed to speak up. I think almost every woman has experienced something like this. It's always horrible because it never ends. Even in old age, you can still become a victim. Next to the mannequin on the wall was a printed female body, and visitors were allowed to stick stickers on the places where they were touched and it felt wrong.
Our children and young people are very sensitive beings. We must do our best from the very beginning to ensure that they develop a good understanding of how to explore other people's bodies with complete respect. And children, young people, and young adults must always trust their intuition and speak up when something is wrong. This is enormously important for their own self-confidence. Don't let yourself be hurt. If only it weren't always such a taboo to talk about this with children and young people.
The work that initially reminded me of another sad war of our time is called "Gusen Convolute – Songs from the Concentration Camps," which contains songs by composers who were imprisoned in the Gusen concentration camp – around 70,000 people. I would then encounter the topic of concentration camps and composition again a few days later in Lesce, Slovenia, at the Grobišče talcev memorial, which commemorates 116 people killed, including local musicians. Every war is always a crime against humanity itself.
There were so many incredible student works at Ars that should still be included here, such as "Dynamics of Dog on a Leash," where a robot dog very authentically shows how an excited dog on a leash moves, gets tangled up, and stumbles—and even though it's a robot, we still build up feelings for its despair. "Interacting with JANUS" by Christina Pop-Tiron and Andreea-Christina Mircea, in a completely different way, is also very inviting, inviting us to become entangled in positive emotions, with the wires of an artificial brain that—as I later learned—contained artificial memories, spoken by AI voices. How strange, because the liveliness of the artificial was so pleasant.
Since it's already late and I can't record any more, I'll just mention one last thing: I had the wonderful opportunity to experience Tamiko Thiel and her creative and life partner live in a lecture and finally see them in person. The lecture covered the development of immersive works with audience interaction since the 1990s and how perception is changing—from something perhaps even aesthetically beautiful to the deeply underestimated environmental catastrophe we live in and are driving forward.
Two months ago, I had the honor of interviewing Tamiko Thiel again, all to myself, in a very inspiring interview, which will soon be included in our third Springer volume. Well, "soon" is fine. But I'm expecting a release date around March 2026.
I am incredibly grateful for these wonderful opportunities in life to work together and advance our collective contribution to improving life on this planet.
Thank you, Ars Electronica 2025.
Photo: Requiem for an Exit
The complete album with works mentioned you find here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/SGBZZ3fcSZfuKpSy5
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