The exhibition is a foray into a speculative approach to current issues, giving the public the opportunity to explore developments, solutions or hijacks through the eyes of young artists. Speculative thinking is an embodiment of ‘as if’, it envisions a scenario about the future or something imagined that does not yet exist, and responds to real questions and problems with solutions that combine creativity, imagination with technology and science.

The five works include different approaches specific to contemporary art, such as: new media, performance, interactive installation, video art, etc.; two of the works being directly inspired by situations or locations in Timișoara, and the other three works focusing on specific issues of the present such as the relationship between man and nature, pollution or colonization of space.

The Ars Electronica Festival 2024 will take place in Linz from September 4 to 8 and will be dedicated to the title “HOPE – who will turn the tide”. Like never before, the Linz festival for art, technology and society will focus on artists, researchers, developers, activists and entrepreneurs from all over the world. The main venue will once again be POSTCITY, which is due to be demolished and will become for the seventh time a hotspot for the international media art scene. https://ars.electronica.art/hope/en/

PROJECT TEAM

Project coordinator: Nicoleta Stoica (Nita Mocanu)
Curator: Marius Stoica

Asistent curator: Cosmin Moldovan
Management: Teodora Vieru

ARTISTS

Sânziana Gheorghe, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of West Timișoara, Romania;
Andrada Băleanu, Simona-Diana Chiru, Lorena Cocora, Radu Condrache, Caty Șamata, Interactive technologies for performing arts and media (ITPMA) UNATC Bucharest, Romania;
Flavius Coman, Digital Interactive Arts, Faculty of Theater and Film, Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ana Farîma, Faculty of Design, Aurel Vlaicu University Arad, Romania; AR app: DARV Collective/ Florian Weinrich; Co-producer: FURNA art & culture/ Mihaela Kavdanska
PR: Denisa Ruzsa

PARTNERS

Faculty of Design, UAV Arad, Fashion-Design Department
Faculty of Theater and Film, UBB Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca Digital Interactive Arts department National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts “I.L. Caragiale” National University of Theatrical and Cinematographic Arts “I.L. Caragiale” of Bucharest (UNATC), International Center for Research and Education in Innovative Creative Technologies (CINETic)
Faculty of Arts and Design of U.V.T., Timișoara
Association FURNA art & culture, Linz, Austria
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH Austria

ARTWORKS

Fragrancy-Forged Memoryscapes
interactive installation

Simona-Diana Chiru
Caty Alexandra Șamata

Step into the world of advanced mental health research with our facility, which explores transformative advances in mental health methods propelled by technological innovations that amplify therapeutic outcomes in the year 2055.
The work is a speculative approach to the idea of a memory testing laboratory for mental health. The visitor can follow a ritual in which test strips impregnated with different scents will trigger discrete video mappings of locations in Timisoara.

Banned in Banat
interactive installation

Andrada Băleanu
Lorena Cocora
Radu Condrache

“It’s the year 3000. Several musical styles have long been banned. The audience is put in the position of a space explorer who discovers a portal that allows him to reconstruct the first of these lost musical genres: maneaua.”
The work refers indirectly to a relatively recent event in the collective memory of the people of Timișoara, namely the “prohibition” or “banning”, in internet jargon, of manele by a former mayor.
The work is constructed in the form of a booth in which a sound puzzle must be deciphered in order to rediscover the manea.

O2 Touch
interactive installation

Flavius Coman

This work proposes a technology-mediated sensory interaction between the two great kingdoms of life: animal and plant. The tactile exchange is transformed by the Arduino controller into visual stimuli and sounds. We invite participants to this exhibition to reflect on the impact that the human species has on the natural world and to become aware of the sensitive balance that makes life possible, with plants being the main producers of food and O2.

Robots on Mars
video game

Sânziana Gheorghe

The project is a video game in which the user controls a robot on Mars able to interact with boulders and express his thoughts in sentences. After 3 minutes of play, the robot breaks down and the game starts again. The project proposes a correlation with two philosophical works: The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus and the writings of Ray Brassier on the absurdity of life in the context of the colonization of Mars by humanoid robots, a plausible but still technologically unfeasible context.

Is somebody there?
AR installation, costume, video

Ana Farîma

The Forest Mother (Muma Păduri) is a character from Romanian folk tales. She is an ugly witch dressed in plants who lives deep in the forest and scares people. The AR work portrays this character as a positive one who smiles at first, but her expression will turn to sadness and grimace of disbelief when she sees people, as a reaction to the destruction of the environment. Now she is wearing clothes polluted with plastic, appearing in Lunca Mures Natural Park which is part of Arad.