In search of truth in the digital revolution

Shortly after unlocking at ten o’clock, the Postcity is bustling with activity. The centerpiece of this year’s Ars Electronica festival, which is dedicated to the question “Who owns the truth?” until Sunday, is located in the former mail distribution center. A long line has already formed at the cash register, and German can hardly be heard here.
To the right of the information point, a garden several meters high has been set up in a berth. Potted plants hang on the frame, a robot with five feet crawls back and forth to water the greens. “Sensors measure light, temperature and dryness and thus provide the plants with everything they need,” says Simon Gmajner, who implemented the project with colleagues. It is intended to show how people, technology and nature interact for the mutual benefit.

Around 60 artists from all over the world deal with aspects of the relationship between people and technology in 35 projects in the themed exhibition. The title “(Co)Owning More-Than-Truth” is about how modern technology is changing objective and individual truths. In German, the term “to own” has an egocentric meaning, while the English “to own” involves more responsibility for ownership, says festival director Christl Baur. Therefore, the term “(co)owning” was chosen for the title: “As a society, we have to invent new terms in order to reorient ourselves.” In recent years, society has focused very much on the individual. “Now it’s about truths that go beyond the individual.”

Like Michel Winterberg, for example. He constructed a device that produces ice crystals, projects them onto a screen and melts them again. The nine-minute process repeats itself over and over again. The Swiss is thus pointing to climate change: “By the year 2100, 80 percent of our glaciers will have melted,” says the artist.
Asking questions – that’s what Agnes Meyer-Brandis wants too. It has collected questions from scientists, written them down and sent them on tiny chips through tiny channels, where – like an oracle – they are answered with yes or no. The further path of the droplets depends on the answer. “A system that is uncontrollable,” says the German. And maybe that’s why it’s true.

The Ars Electronica festival runs until Sunday. The program includes exhibitions, workshops and concerts in the Postcity, the Kunstuni and the Lentos, among others. Info and tickets: ars.electronica.art