From September 6 to 10, 2023, Linz will once again host a “Festival for Art, Technology and Society” where participants from science, business, the creative and art scenes from the local region and around the world will contribute their perspectives.
S+T+ARTS projects & partners will be there to welcome you with various activities planned throughout the week!
16:00 – 17:30
Making sense of the subjective experiences of psychosis and other “labels”
Research conducted at Queensland University estimates that one in thirteen people will experience an episode of psychosis before the age of 75. Despite its prevalence, most people do not know what it entails. As a consequence, it is often not recognized in time. Labyrinth Psychotica by Jennifer Kanary (S+T+ARTS Prize 2023 Honorary Mention), has studied the subjective experiences of psychosis for over 15 years. This workshop takes a deep dive into these experiences. MORE INFO
Workshop also on Saturday, 9 September at 16:00.
16:00 – 17:30
The ALMA Toolkit Workshop, an empowering event aimed at addressing crucial knowledge gaps in vaginal health and promoting self-management of intimate health.
ALMA Toolkit is a set of educational materials and tools designed to democratize and destigmatize intimate health learning. It encourages self-awareness, self-exploration and self-management of the body. The toolkit consists of four pillars. Card Game, a gamified self-awareness tool that creates a safe space for sharing intimate health experiences; Speculum and Anatomical Models, educational tools to facilitate self-performing gynecological examinations; Mini Bio Lab, protocols and materials for experimenting and learning about vaginal bacteria; and Online Community Platform, a platform for sharing self-exploration experiences and connecting with others. MORE INFO
11:00–17:00 | POSTCITY, Conference Stage
Co-hosted with EUMETA–EUROPEAN SCHOOL OF METAVERSE
This year’s S+T+ARTS Conference explores the conflicting ethics, values and priorities that arise as a result of accelerating technological and societal development. In partnership with EUMETA, CultTech and the EIT Culture & Creativity, the conference program brings together leaders from academia, industry, policy, journalism, business and law to grapple with the possibility of a paradigm shift—and to envision a responsible digital innovation infrastructure for Europe and the world.
*S+T+ARTS in the City* has received funding from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology under grant agreement No. LC-01984766.
Conference Programme
| 11:00–11:15 Opening comments Stage Host: Frederike Kaltheuner (DE) | Frederike Kaltheuner works at the intersection of emerging technology, policy and rights. She is the editor of *Fake AI*, a book about AI pseudoscience, snake oil and hype. In her previous roles she was the Director for Technology and Rights at Human Rights Watch, the Director of the European AI and Society Fund and a Special Advisor to the European Commission. |
| 11:15–11:45 Keynote Speaker: Karen Hao (US) | AI and the Very Old World Order While European colonialism was characterized by the violent capture of land, extraction of resources and exploitation of people for the economic enrichment of the conquering country, the AI industry is now using more insidious means to capture our behaviors, extract our data and exploit our labor for enriching the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the poor. Karen Hao is an award-winning journalist covering the impacts of artificial intelligence on society. She is a contributing writer at *The Atlantic* and was formerly a foreign correspondent covering China tech for *The Wall Street Journal* and a senior editor for AI at *MIT Technology Review*. |
| 11:55– 12:40 Panel discussion Chair: Frederike Kaltheuner (DE) Panelists: Günter Klammbauer (AT), Nuria Oliver (ES) | European Digital Sovereignty: The status quo and where to go As the EU looks to become a leader in AI, special committees have convened and passed acts laying out an infrastructure for European digital sovereignty in the AI world, raising critical questions about how the EU can ensure that regulations will encode ethical, humane practice into AI development without restricting innovation. Günter Klammbauer holds a tenure-track professorship for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Design at the LIT AI Lab and the Institute for Machine Learning of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. His current research focuses on the development of Deep Learning and AI methods for use in Life Sciences. |
| 12:45–13:30 Presentation Presenters: Christoph Schuhmann (DE), Giada Pistilli (IT), Ndapewa Onyothi (NA), Chelsea John, OpenGPTX José Eduardo Cejudo Grano de Oro, AI4Europeana | The Path Forward: Best practices for an AI-powered Europe This session features five of the most successful efforts in building AI data models, tools and datasets with a strong commitment to transparency and data sovereignty. |
| 13:30–14:00 Keynote Speaker: Deb Roy (US) | Designing Digital Spaces for Constructive Communication The power of digital networks and generative AI can be harnessed to foster constructive communication at scale. This talk presents the conceptual framing, research and deployment of a human-technology system that amplifies and enhances ancient wisdoms of dialogue and listening to build trust and bridge divides. Deb Roy is Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT where he directs the MIT Center for Constructive Communication, and co-founder and CEO of Cortico, a social technology nonprofit that develops and operates a conversation platform designed to surface underheard voices both within communities and across divides. |
| 14:00–14:30 | Lunch break |
| 14:35–15:05 Keynote Speaker: Hito Steyerl (DE) | Who Owns the World? Hito Steyerl is a German filmmaker and writer who lives in Berlin. Steyerl’s prolific filmmaking and writing occupies a highly discursive position between the fields of art, philosophy and politics, constituting a deep exploration of late capitalism’s social, cultural and financial imaginaries. |
| 15:05–15:10 Introduction Speaker: Geraint Wiggins (GB) | AI for Culture: Overcoming fear with understanding Geraint Wiggins is Professor of Computational Creativity at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Queen Mary University of London. He has studied artificial creative intelligence since 1987. He co-founded the field of Computational Creativity, and chaired the international Association for Computational Creativity from 2008 to 2014. |
| 15:10–15:30 Presentation Speaker: Bernd Fesel (DE) | Artificial meets Artistic Intelligence (AIxAI): Opportunities for the Future of the Arts, Culture and Creative Economy This talk presents EIT Culture & Creativity, an initiative designed to strengthen and transform Europe’s Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries (CCSI) by connecting creatives and organisations to Europe’s largest innovation network. Bernd Fesel has over 30 year experience dedicated to Cultural and Creative Sectors and Industries and is the CEO of EIT Culture & Creativity. He is a serial entrepreneur with a long track record of startup creation, creating and supporting public organisations, bringing to life programs and policies for CCSI. |
| 15:30–15:45 Impulse talk Speakers Samanta Peña (ES) Michael Mayboeck (AT) | Key impulse talk on business issues around AI for culture Co-hosted by Culttech—a movement focused on advancing innovation at the intersection of culture and technology with the mission of making culture more accessible and financially sustainable—this talk explores the different initiatives in the cultural startup space. Michael Mayboeck is the Co-Founder and General Partner of the newly launched early-stage VC-Fund New Renaissance Ventures, investing in tech companies in the cultural and creative industries. Samanta Peña is the current Head of Accelerator at CultTech Accelerator, a global community with a vision to make culture more financially independent and accessible to all. |
| 15:45–16:00 Impulse talk Speaker Christiane Stuetzle (DE) | Key Impulse talk on legal issues around AI for culture |
| 16:00–16:55 Panel discussion Geraint Wiggins (GB) – moderator Susan Bischoff (DE) Héloïse Fontanel (FR), panelist Rachel Armstrong (IE), Panelist | AI for culture. What’s the missing link? |
| 16:55–17:00 Closing comments , Frederike Kaltheuner |
Photos: Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, PollinatorPathmaker, Image Website Late Spring
Broken Spectre, still Multispectral GIS aerial
| 13:50–14:20 Richard Mosse (IE) Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (UK) | S+T+ARTS Presentations S+T+ARTS yield an extraordinarily high potential for innovation—and innovation is precisely what is called for if we are to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that we will be facing in the near future. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Richard Mosse won the 2023 Grand Prize for Artistic Exploration and for Innovative Collaboration respectively. The artists will guide us through their works. Richard Mosse (based in New York) has consistently documented historically significant subjects using photographic media that foreground elements of these narratives. Mosse seeks to heighten and extend the language of documentary photography to draw attention to overlooked yet urgent conflicts, often with a critical emphasis on the limitations of photojournalism, an activist’s sense of purpose, and a belief in the power of aesthetics to communicate, creating immersive and groundbreaking new forms in documentary photography and the moving image. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (GB) is a multidisciplinary artist examining our fraught relationships with nature and technology. Her work investigates the human impulse to “better” the world, exploring artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, conservation, biodiversity, and evolution. Ginsberg won the London Design Medal for Emerging Talent (2012), the Dezeen Changemaker Award (2019) and Prix Ars Electronica Honorary Mention, Interactive Art for Machine Auguries (2020). She has exhibited internationally, including at MoMA New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, the Centre Pompidou, the Royal Academy and the Toledo Museum of Art. In 2022, Ginsberg launched her climate-positive artwork *Pollinator Pathmaker*, with commissions at the Eden Project (Cornwall) and Serpentine (London). In 2023, Ginsberg is launching the first international Edition with LAS Art Foundation (Berlin). |
| 14:20–15:05 Panel discussion Chair: Marleen Stikker (NL) Panelists: Tero Toivanen (FI) Richard Mosse (IE) Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg (UK) | Bridging art, tech and the environment As part of the commons, the sea, the sky, the planet and beyond, are owned by each of us, which makes their preservation inherently problematic. When we all have access to a finite resource, we tend to exploit it for our benefit, destroying its value—this concept is known as the tragedy of the commons and widely discussed in economy, ecology and sociology. Marleen Stikker (NL) is founder and executive director of Waag Futurelab in Amsterdam. Waag Futurelab reinforces critical reflection on technology, develops technological and social design skills and encourages social innovation. Marleen leads the trans-disciplinary team of designers, artists and scientists, utilizing Public Research and Key Enabling Methodologies to empower people to participate in the collective design of open, fair and inclusive futures. Tero Toivanen (FI) , PhD, is a core fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki. His research interests concern the intertwined processes of capital, labor and ecology in concrete world-historical settings. His current research project (2021–2024) studies far-right attitudes towards nature, ecology and climate change. |
Creative Collision Talk @ Transformation Lounge invites two artistic activists to explore the source of creativity that actively transforms society.
11:30-12:15
Can the arts, data science, and democratic participation revive social, ecological, and economic equities in our urban spaces? With the winner of Diversity & Collaboration Award of European Union Prize for Citizen Science, Urban Belongong project, and the participant of the S+T+ARTS Prize cross-fertilisation program, 300.000 Km/s, we will discuss new ways of urban planning that considers what social sustainability looks like and whose experience and voices count.
12:45 – 13:30
How to address the social stigma concerning intimacy, and taboos related to the female body? With the Grand Prize winner of European Union Prize for Citizen Science, ISALA project, and the participant of the S+T+ARTS Prize cross-fertilisation program, that are developing ALMA Toolkit, we will discuss different approaches to address this topic and involve citizens to talk about women’s health.
This year‘s exhibition showcases two Grand Prize winners and a selection of honorary mentions and nominations that demonstrate the potential of artistic and creative input to create an impact by addressing current ecological, technological and socioeconomic issues.
S+T+ARTS Prize ’23 winners
Highlights of the S+T+ARTS Prize Winner Exhibition at POSTCITY include the outstanding cinematic work Broken Spectre (Richard Mosse), which brings to life the devastating consequences of the 4,000-kilometer Trans-Amazonian Highway, and Pollinator Pathmaker (Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg), a pollinator artwork created by an AI tool and planted and maintained by humans.
Discover other S+T+ARTS Prize ’23 selected projects:
+ ALL PLAYERS TOOL LAB. by Masatane Muto (JP), Dentsu Lab Tokyo (JP)
+ FANGØ a Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google Obfuscator by Martin Nadal (ES)
+ Future Materials
+ Geo-Llum by Samira Benini Allaouat (IT)
+ Inside the NYPD’s Surveillance Machine by Amnesty International (INT), Superposition (NL)
+ It Could Be You by HsienYu Cheng (TW)
+ Labyrinth Psychotica – The Anoiksis Experiment by Roomforthoughts by Jennifer Kanary (NL)
+ VFRAME: Computer Vision for OSINT / OSI Research by Adam Harvey (US), Josh Evans (US), Jules LaPlace (US)
13:30 – 15:00
Re-build Together: Digital, human and arts-driven innovation in Africa
Speakers: David Shongo (CG), Gideon Brefo (GH), Femi Johnson (NG), Chris Emezue (NG), Tânia Moreira (PT), Patrícia Carvalho (PT), Ana Solange Leal (PT).
More than 2,000 languages are spoken on the African continent, but they are hardly represented in machine translation and communication programs. This and other facts drive this panel, giving it the basis for a discussion that gathers personalities from different areas of expertise, different countries and with different experiences. Arts, culture, science, technology, business… Africa, Europe… MORE INFO.
