The theme of Ars Electronica in 2023, this year formulated as a question, aims directly at key disputed topics of our time: truth and ownership, interpretive authority and sovereignty. Can truth be owned? Is there a right to truth and if it does belong to someone, what control and responsibility are associated with it?<\/p>\n
How do we ask ourselves such questions in this age of global interconnectedness and the rapidly developing performance of so-called Artificial Intelligence?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In an age, moreover, in which a small number of people, in neo-feudalistic fashion, have usurped the management of collective knowledge, and in which we also have good reason to doubt whether the vision of technology represents the solution to our problems.<\/p>\n
Behind this lies the central question as to how we can make the fantastic achievements of science and technology accessible for ALL people \u2013 and usable. It is not enough just to think about how we can prevent AI systems from harming someone (even though that is vitally important). A tool that is so much based on the globally collective \u201craw material\u201d of knowledge, creativity etc., must be harnessed to the benefit of all, too.<\/p>\n
In recent years, we have thought a great deal about \u201cDigital Humanism\u201d; it is time now to think about a form of \u201cDigital Socialism\u201d, meaning a \u201ccommonwealth\u201d, a \u201csocial contract\u201d with which we can overcome the profound, wide-ranging changes of the digital age, and even more, the globally collective consequences of climate change.<\/p>\n
Admittedly, this is a nearly insurmountable challenge, yet it is just for such a vision that a festival like Ars Electronica should and can stand. A festival that is extraordinary in every respect, at which for more than 40 years under the heading \u201cart, technology and society\u201d thought has been given not only to how technology alters our society, but also to revealing how art and society can themselves shape technology.<\/p>\n
Ars Electronica 2023 \u2013 what\u2019s it about?<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s about truth as a manifesto of interpretive authority and sovereignty, about dealing with the loss of the claim to \u201cthe\u201d truth and thus, that we have to get used to thinking of truth as plural.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about truthfulness as the basis of the values of the \u201cauthentic\u201d and \u201coriginal\u201d as we perceive them, and how these terms have already been transformed in the digital realm.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the collective synchronization of perception as a strategy for fake information and conspiracies in the social media and the machinations of the lobbies and large-scale industry, from influencing the scientific bases of man-made climate change to the deceptions of the diesel scandal.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about freedom of speech and opinion, about how we deal with obvious liars, right up the very highest offices of state, and how we deal with people who publish unpalatable truths, such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange, for example.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about whether the truth is acceptable to people and about the significance of scientific insight and evidence.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about the concept of ownership and the right to profits from intellectual work and performance in the transition from the automation of machines to the autonomisation of knowledge and content generation \u2013 from digital copy and paste to cultural appropriation in a globally networked world.<\/p>\n
Intellectual Property and Copyright, as the central pillars to date of the content and creative industry, are already no longer able to reflect adequately the changes in digital networking \u2013 never mind all that is coming our way with the systems of OpenAI, etc.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s also about the concept of ownership as it relates to nature, going beyond the centuries-old philosophical and legal debate; it\u2019s about the factual reality of the exploitation and destruction of nature as an unremitting burden being transferred to following generations.<\/p>\n
And, of course, it\u2019s about all that we believe, fear or hope will change in the wake of so-called Artificial Intelligence.<\/p>\n
But in its essence, it\u2019s about demonstrating how artists from all over the world, through collaboration as well as confrontation with technology and society, are working on this topic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In association with the prize-winners of the Prix Ars Electronica, the projects arising from the many local, European and international cooperations and networks, the curated theme-based exhibition and newly commissioned works, concerts and performances, symposia and workshops.<\/p>\n