Ars Electronica

Panic, yes or no? Shouldn’t we be in absolute panic mode by now? Why aren’t we? The reasons for panic seem countless. Or is it all just a scare tactic? How long will hope hold out, and what comes after that?   From September 3 to 7, 2025, Linz will once again become a hotspot for the international media art scene. Exhibitions, performances, concerts and conferences will be held at festival locations throughout the city, most of them at POSTCITY, the festival’s central venue. For more information about the Ars Electronica Festival 2025 visit https://lnkd.in/dfmDUjmh #arselectronica25 #panicyesno

The u19 – create your world category of the Prix Ars Electronica offers young talents a platform to showcase their creative ideas and projects. These works focus on themes that are particularly relevant to the younger generation and shape their everyday lives. This year Nico Pflügler and Aleksa Jović were awarded the Golden Nica for their work „Das Ziegenkäsemachen aus der Sicht der Ziege“. The project critically explores digital overstimulation and the influence of algorithms on consciousness. A film about goat cheese making from the goat’s perspective sounds unusual – yet it reflects the absurdities and superficialities that flood social media daily. We spoke to 19-year-old director and Golden Nica winner Nico Pflügler to find out more about his thought-provoking film. Read more about the award winning project here: https://lnkd.in/dpx_Wbit Credit: Das Ziegenkäsemachen aus der Sicht der Ziege / Aleksa Jović, Nico Pflügler (Gilbert Gnos Productions) #arselectronica25

What if the first robot to cross the Andes wasn’t built for conquest—but for liberation? Guanaquerx, created by Argentinian artist and theorist Paula Gaetano Adi, reimagines robotics as a collective, poetic, and insurgent act—far from Silicon Valley’s narratives of optimization and control. Modeled after the guanaco and inspired by Andean cosmotechnics, accompanied by an army of artists, engineers, local muleteers, and 58 mules and horses, guided by local knowledge and ancestral memory. Part science fiction, part pilgrimage, and part political gesture, Guanaquerx does not seek autonomy in the usual sense. It is moved by people, animals, and histories that modern technology often forgets—or erases. At the heart of the project lies a radical question: What does it mean to liberate a robot—and what would a truly emancipatory technology look like? Read more about the winning project in the "Artificial Life & Intelligence" category here: https://lnkd.in/d_3wtBUP Credit: Guanaquerx / Paula Gaetano Adi (AR), photo: Pavel Romaniko. Guanaquerx | Paula Gaetano Adi #arselectronica25

Ars Electronica is excited to be part of the development of NEB Junction — a new European platform that aims to accelerate sustainable transformation across cities and communities, with the help of creative changemakers. NEB Junction will be a space for sharing real-world solutions and practical tools to create more beautiful, inclusive, and sustainable environments and drive the just and green transition Europe urgently needs. Together with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Climate KIC, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, ERRIN, Dowel innovation, ICLEI and the Democratic Society, NEB Junction is built to empower anyone working for change in their community. For more information visit http://www.nebjunction.eu/ #NEBJunction #NewEuropeanBauhaus #Sustainability #FutureIsNow #UrbanInnovation #EUProjects #HorizonEurope

Requiem for an Exit features a four-meter robotic figure—rigid, restrained, and eerily lifelike. It speaks not through movement or action, but through a calm, relentless voice and hyper-realistic face. Unlike prophets or demagogues, its only weapon is language. It offers no prophecy, only a reckoning—tracing violence from prehistory to the age of algorithms. Created by Norwegian artists Frode Oldereid and Thomas Kvam, the work culminates decades of exploring ideology, memory, and machine expression. Part of a series dating back to the 1990s, these robots—built from salvaged parts and political fragments—speak in fractured, haunting tongues. In 2025, Requiem for an Exit received the Golden Nica in New Animation Art from Prix Ars Electronica. It will be shown at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, offering a chilling encounter with a machine that remembers what we try to forget. Read more about the project here: https://lnkd.in/dTMxZeA8 Credit: Requiem for an Exit / Frode Oldereid (NO), Thomas Kvam (NO), photo: Oldereid & Kvam #arselectronica25

Anyone who was in the POSTCITY bunker during last year’s Ars Electronica Festival may remember that moment. The humming in your chest, the rattling of the technology, the archaic sound creeping through the concrete. “Organism” by Navid Navab and Garnet Willis was no ordinary piece of music. It was an experience, raw, expansive, almost eerie. And above all: difficult to forget. No wonder, then, that the work has now been awarded the Golden Nica in the “Digital Musics & Sound Art” category. To learn more about the project visit https://lnkd.in/dsYc7Qx5 Credit: Organism + Excitable Chaos / Navid Navab (IR/CA), Garnet Willis (CA), Photo: vog.photo #arselectronica25

Exhibitions, performances, concerts, conferences, workshops, town halls and guided tours – this year’s Ars Electronica Festival once again offers you an incredible program. What should you definitely not miss? Here are the 2025 highlights: https://lnkd.in/dk5g-rjx #arselectronica25

In addition to the main categories of the Prix Ars Electronica, two additional pizes haven been selected! This year the Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity (10,000 euros), made possible by the Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten (MFA Austria), goes to DOMESTIC DATA STREAMER§ ♦ for Synthetic Memories. The project is dedicated to the preservation and reconstruction of personal memories and can be especially supportive for individuals affected by traumatic experiences or memory loss. Submissions in the category Digital Musics & Sound Art were also eligible for the Isao Tomita Special Prize, endowed by the TOMITA information Hub. The 5,000 euros prize goes to Japanese artist evala for the large-scale sound installation ebb tide, the latest work in his See by Your Ears project, which invites visitors to immerse themselves in a unique sonic space and explore the boundaries of their perception. See the full list of winners here: https://lnkd.in/eai4V5V #arselectronica25

The winners of the Prix Ars Electronica 2025 are here! 🏆 In 2025, the competition received 3,987 submissions from 98 countries across four categories. The four winners have now been selected and will be awarded the coveted Golden Nica as well as up to 10,000 euros in prize money. In New Animation Art, Frode Oldereid and Thomas Kvam present Requiem for an Exit — a four-meter-tall robot delivering a chilling monologue on genocide and personal responsibility. A powerful reminder of the role art can play in confronting historical trauma. In Digital Musics & Sound Art, Organism by Navid Navab and Garnet Willis transforms a traditional organ into a robotically augmented instrument. The result: a sonic entity that rejects rigid liturgy in favor of chaotic, living soundscapes. In Artificial Life & Intelligence, Paula Gaetano Adi is awarded for Guanaquerx, a robotic creature that physically retraces the path of Latin American liberation—crossing the Andes with the help of artists, engineers, and muleteers. It’s a poetic act of resistance and a reimagining of AI beyond systems of domination. And in u19 – create your world, the Golden Nica goes to Aleksa Jović and Nico Pflügler for Das Ziegenkäsemachen aus der Sicht der Ziege — an experimental short film told from the perspective of a goat. Surreal, humorous, and beautifully executed. For a ful list of all the winners visit https://lnkd.in/eai4V5V #arselectronica25

How do the everyday technologies we invite into our lives—smartphones, robot vacuums, voice assistants—relate to military decision-making systems capable of deadly force? This urgent question lies at the heart of the AI War Cloud Database by Sarah Ciston, an interactive research and visualization project that maps the shared infrastructures, logics, and corporate actors behind both consumer AI products and AI-enabled warfare. For this work, Ciston has been awarded the STARTS Prize 2025 in the category “Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration”. In this interview, we speak with the project’s creator about the deeply intertwined nature of power, technology, and accountability: https://lnkd.in/dJmVzGhp Credit: AI War Cloud Database / Sarah Ciston