ARS ELECTRONICA LINZ @ THE OCC
This is the first comprehensive exhibition that Ars Electronica Linz has ever staged to showcase artistic positions on this very timely topic. Hybrids, designed in collaboration with the Onassis Cultural Centre-Athens, features 16 extraordinary manifestations of artistic considerations, positions and processes, artifacts and works, workshops and presentations— hybrids one and all. Hybrid also applies to the exhibition setting, an attempt to create a space that facilitates experiencing precisely these phenomena, one that effectively displays works, enables working processes and permits participation, and thereby fosters a joint endeavor to gain a better understanding of our world. In Hybrids, the accent is on merging different media and genres into new forms of artistic expression, on crossing the boundaries between art and research, on social and political commitment and activism, as well as on reconnoitering pop cultural realms. So, what does it mean if art enters into a liaison with other disciplines? When artists with no qualms about dealing with non-artists do things like scrutinize scientific experiments, delve into other markets, or even instructively run a faux con game on the home turf of the business world’s profiteers? What are the contents of our understanding of artistic "works" and their spaces? What does collaboration mean in this context and what influence does it have on authorship? Don’t these new approaches also necessitate new definitions and taxonomies, or even a new language, and ultimately a new way of looking at our world?
More profound consideration of the works reveals three categories:
HYBRID REALITIES
In the Hybrid Realities category, we question what the word "real" means now, scrutinize the world of data, and consider its immense influence on our reality—one that can change with astonishing speed amidst a network that connects us up with such a diverse array of associates, human beings and bots alike. We also look into social media and online platforms, computer-controlled algorithms in general that make decisions for us and, since these systems are already capable of independent learning, attempt to steer us onto the route we ought to take into the future (Social Soul by Lauren McCarthy and Kyle McDonald). Data, their value and their immanent transparency occupy the focal point of efforts by Paolo Cirio in his work Loophole for All. Cirio sheds light on the covert machinations in offshore financial havens like the Cayman Islands, and the artist offers listed firms for sale to all comers. Third Quarterly Report by Manu Luksch investigates what sorts of social capital can flow back into society when the so-called Internet of Things promises a “smart city' but what’s actually behind it is a huge corporation presiding as a sort of global mayor. And did you ever consider whether it will even be possible to get lost in the smart environments we’ll inhabit someday (A Ship Adrift by James Bridle)?
Coming to terms with these new hybrid constellations requires, above all, openness and courage.