Ars Electronica 2010

Just sitting in Linz airport returning from Ars Electronica. I am experiencing quite a mixed response to to the festival. My general feeling is that this festival has lost it relevance, it was always quite insular and novelty obsessed. It felt that in order to address this issue an external relevance has been super imposed, this year a familiar exploration of the axis of environmental concern explored through technology . This well worn path, in the hands of the Ars machine, has manifested as 'Repair', which showcased technological and cultural reworkings that actively address environmental issues. Having said that a good majority of the works, and most of those taking part in the Prix Ars Electronica, had very tenuous links to the theme of the festival. In the main the works which engaged me had very little to do with the theme.










For example: the work by Ei Wada - Braun Tube Jazz Band - used old tv as as interface, making use of their electromagnetic properties to perform stonking noisey electronic music. This performance, in the use of the old tv's underlines the point, the use of old tech isn't what this work is about for me, the aural performance is everything, the use of cathode ray tubes to do this, whilst providing some nice cinematic images, a la Cronenberg's VideoDrome, feels inconsequential to the work.

My particular interest in going to Ars was to check out the Digital Communities section. I was disappointed without ever really getting involved, which is a failing on both sides.

ARS Electronica Festival 2010: Richard Sennet - The Craftsman (english) from Ars Electronica on Vimeo.

I am the first to hold my hand up to a point made by Richard Sennet in his excellent lecture 'The Craftsman' that technologies have made us very poor at social collaboration, I can easily hide behind some tech rather than actually talk to someone. Sennet cited the example of Googles Wave service, which was set up to host social interactions that engender change online, however as Sennet claims, because of Waves linear structure the quality of the discussion, in particular its discursive nature was lost, with just the main trajectory held in focus, leading to what Sennet has termed a 'Brutal Simplification'.










I think this is what I might have experienced in the Digital Communities area. Set up as an ad hoc internet cafe, speakers corner, international tuck shop come lounge, the lack of an accessible structure, whilst sounding great on the text description, left a lot of people bewildered and intimidated. What digital communities don't seem to lack are more white boy-men, sat behind laptops deep in concentration and listening to hip hop and South Parks alternately. Everyone is obviously welcome, but come on, this surely needs to be looked at. At first I really thought it was a pastiche of some self referential hacker fest, which might have been more promising, but no, this was for real. I sat for an hour thinking that some self organising node would come along and animate the space, I even tried myself, but then south parks finished and I decided to look elsewhere.

Digital Communities, to me this might be thought about as communities who have engaged or have been engaged via digital means, for Ars obviously it means existing communities online communities who need to communicate in a public space, not sure I think that is true.

What i did find in the Future Factory section was some serious thinking about how technology can be rethought to engage specific communities of interest, rather than the other way round. Ken Banks software project Frontline SMS allows a mobile phone to be used as a one to many communication hub, in situations where web acess is limited. He cites it's use in regions of Africa where mobile phone ownership is high. I am thinking of uses in some of the environments I am asked to make work in the UK would benefit from a direct communication channel.

As with the previous Ars I have been to, there is much to criticise about this event, it felt more like a trade show this year, with its centrally located galleries at the Tobacco Factory, there were corporate sponsors stands all over the place, yet it still shows some interesting work. Honestly though I think it could be much tighter, in terms of aesthetic, intellectual and conceptual rigor, that this might result in a smaller show might be for the good of Ars, which does now have the atmosphere of a big chill music festival, as much about aspirational lifestyle as art works.