ars electronica 2009 – human nature – the end2 min read

and then a strange beast...

72.500 visitors – 800 Artists and Scientists from 31 Countries With more than 300 individual events, this year’s festival lineup was the most jam-packed in Ars Electronica’s history. This was made possible by 800 artists, scientists and scholars from 31 countries.
565 Media Outlet Representatives from 38 Countries 565 accredited journalists and bloggers from a total of 38 countries paid a visit to the 2009 festival. The figures by country are as follows: Austria (220), Germany (80), Italy (30), Slovenia (29), Japan (23), Poland (22), Slovakia (14), Spain (14), France (12), Denmark (12), the USA (12), England (9), Australia (6), Taiwan (6), Canada (4), the Philippines (3), South Korea (3), Chile (2) et al.
“We’re absolutely thrilled about the positive feedback this very special festival has gotten,” stated Ars Electronica Artistic Director Gerfried Stocker. “And ultimately, that’s the best 30th-anniversary present we could have received!”

mkay. good good. i am happy for you.

sadly i can’t say i agree. for me this was the worst ars electronica festival of the ten that i attended. maybe there was almost too much going on? it might just be me, but i did not meet as many people as in other years, the festival felt much more dispersed than in other years, it felt like it was all over the place, no real center, the topic of the festival, human nature, did not get treated in as serious a way as they usually do. most of all, i am not happy about the change the symposium went through. it was no longer a stand-alone symposium, but was turned into an extended version of the prix ars artist presentations; well, in two categories, hybrid art and interactive art. i hope this change will not persist.

after 10 visits in 10 years it is probably a good idea to take a break now. i will miss my yearly visits to this shitty (no offense) little city at the danube river. but before things get too sappy here, let me just break off with a quick: servus. twas great! kkthxbai.

One Reply to “ars electronica 2009 – human nature – the end2 min read

  1. funny how you wrote earlier that so many people were blogging or twittering the festival but yours is the only report i’ve read of it. thanks for sharing your impression of ars this year. it was a fun read, a bit painful too cuz something tells me i might have agreed on almost everything you’ve written

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