The Campus section of Ars Electronica was established in 2002 and aims to showcase work by artists that are ‘associated with an international higher-education institution whose curriculum takes an innovative approach to teaching media art and media culture’ 1. This year, 57 such institutions were involved 2 from all over the world. Some work in this exhibition focused on digital privacy issues, neural networks and AI. However, there were also examples works that more directly questioned the society/nature relationship.
This selection of Campus exhibits discussed below provides some insight into the relevant work being conducted through academic institutions. There was a sense of criticality around environmental issues. For example, the In 100 Years project was part of a representation by the University of Arts and Design in Linz titled Time Capsule – Narrations for a Future. This collection of work addressed alternative energy, data preservation and end of life, and communicating through pictograms during the effects of climate change. Thus, while various institutions focused on varying aspects of the human/technology relationship, there appeared to be more variety in themes, and a larger representation of environmental themes in this exhibition.
Explore these selected works from the Campus exhibition:
In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner
Noise Eater by Bill (BiCheng) Zhou
Reset the Forest by Clara Molinicos
In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner
In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner was an installation that consisted of a room into which a single audience member enters. The room is dark and functions as a form of portrait studio. The abstract of the work notes that the camera inside ‘has an exposure time of 100 years’, and offers the audience member that ‘you can be part of the exposition for a last picture from our world’. It poignantly asks ‘do you accept being one of the last inhabitants on planet Earth? 3.
Upon entering the room, the user stands on a marked spot, near which there is a trigger to allow a photo to be taken. Upon pressing the trigger, the room lights up, and various facts and questions about environmental destruction are made visible. One such typed message exhorts the viewer ‘Don’t blow it! Good planets are hard to find’. It gives the amount of plastic in the ocean, along with the amount of plastic in the room. It also gives statistics on forestry destruction, made particularly poignant at the time by the Amazon fires.
This work was considered effective at sending a stark message to the audience about the urgency of action on the environment. It asks the viewer to be complicit in a future image when the environment will potentially be very different on earth. However, the image will be available long after the viewer has also passed this world, thus sending a message for potential others. However, it also questions if the species will have survived by then, and asks for reflection on the environmental conditions that may prove fatal to the human race. In a final gesture towards this future possibility, the exhibit invites the viewer to scan a QR code and register their email address. The result of this process tells the viewer ‘Thank you! You will receive your print in 100 years and 5 working days’.
Camera apparatus from In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner
Statistic on ocean plastic from In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner
Response to QR code from In 100 years by Cristoph Breiner
Noise Eater by Bill (BiCheng) Zhou
A second piece that engaged with the theme of the nature/society relationship was the project Noise Eater by Bill (BiCheng) Zhou. This work is a kinetic art sculpture that ‘allows the participants as well as the art piece itself to consume noise, generate noise and provide an aesthetic experience’ 4. In this regard, the project claims to explore ‘concepts of humanity and nature’. The piece itself consists of some organic material and sound sensors which in formation provide a sort of feedback loop.
The key point of this project is do make users aware both of their own noise print, knowing that their sonic presence may influence the biomes in the installation, and also to create awareness that the biomes themselves can create noise. In this way, it is ‘sonifying’ the relationship between nature and society, while including the audience in on the work. It is therefore, while somewhat abstract, of salience to the theme of this project.
Noise Eater by Bill (BiCheng) Zhou
Flora by Pim Boreel
A further salient example of bioart that broadly addresses the themes of salience to this report is Flora by Pim Boreel. This work is a ‘living installation that researches the symbiotic or parasitic relationship between nature and human technology’5. It consists of a perspex box in a darkened room, which at times is illuminated by lights inside the box. Within the box is a moss ecosystem that exists completely isolated from the outside environment. Thus, it requires autonomous growth, and assistance from sensors to provide it with the nourishment needed for survival. To this end, when the moss produces condensation, sensors cause the illumination to ‘trigger the artificial sun placed within her system’ 6. Furthermore, when the illumination is activated, sound is also activated, providing ‘a voice for Flora’ 7.
This piece is of relevance to this project in that it provokes the audience to consider the human/nature relationship, particularly with respect to technology. In this example, the moss is completely dependent on technology – the sensors that provide the artificial light needed for the survival of the moss. However, the pink light distorts the visual perception of the moss-scape, turning it a sickly, unnatural colour. The visibility of the condensation further evokes a mild revulsion in the viewer, reminding them that this is not a natural environment. Thus, the piece serves to critique techno-optimism around ‘green technology’ solutions for environmental issues, and thus communicates the salient issues around the technology/environment relationship to good effect.
Flora by Pim Boreel
Reset the Forest by Clara Molinicos
A further salient example of how to communicate environmental issues to publics in novel ways is the Reset the Forest project by Clara Molinicos. This project uses map data of forest fires, and kinetic art to allow the viewer to position a device somewhere on the map, where a real seed is sown on a substrate that is fertile and will allow it to grow 8. The objective of this project is clear: it is ‘developed from an ecomedia perspective’ 9, making it of salience to this discussion. Furthermore, the main objective of the project ‘is to promote awareness of forest fires’ 10. I suggest that this provides a clear way of both visibilising environmental destruction through the use of a map. However, furthermore, it allows the audience to participate in some small act of agency around forest recovery, thus engaging the audience in the piece, and environmental restoration.
Reset the Forest by Clara Molinicos
- Reference: Ars Electronica 2019. Out of the box: the midlife crisis of the digital revolution, Exhibition catalogue, September 5-9 2019, Linz, Austria. Berlin: Hatje Cantz. p.242
- Reference: Ars Electronica 2019. Out of the box: the midlife crisis of the digital revolution, Exhibition catalogue, September 5-9 2019, Linz, Austria. Berlin: Hatje Cantz. p.243
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: Ars Electronica 2019. Out of the box: the midlife crisis of the digital revolution, Exhibition catalogue, September 5-9 2019, Linz, Austria. Berlin: Hatje Cantz. p.307
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: on-site abstract
- Reference: on-site abstract