Ars Electronica 2020 with its 120 international hubs becomes an exciting experimental laboratory and prototype for a next-level networking that will focus primarily on new forms and possibilities of fusion and coexistence of analogue and digital, real and virtual, physical and telematic proximity.

The first ever Ars Electronica Garden Aotearoa New Zealand offers a portal to visit the creative and emerging technology scene of the South Pacific. It assembles selected projects from New Zealand’s technologists, artists, and researchers. Curated by the Digital Research Hub and developed by the arc/sec Lab headed by Associate Professor Uwe Rieger at the University of Auckland, the Garden welcomes local and international visitors to a three-dimensional online gallery.

To celebrate the launch of Ars Electronica in New Zealand, we invite you to tune in for a virtual opening night with Associate Professor Uwe Rieger and a panel discussion featuring some of the incredible artists and project owners participating in the first Ars Electronica Garden Aotearoa New Zealand.

Following a mihi whakatau by performer and choreographer Charles Koroneho (NZ) the keynote speakers will include:

Uwe Rieger (DE/NZ), Director of Digital Research Hub and Head of arc/sec Lab - Uwe Rieger is an architect and researcher whose work on Reactive Architecture aims to connect the intangible digital world with multi-sensory qualities of physical constructions and spaces.

Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel (DE/NZ) - Professor Marc Aurel Schnabel is the Dean of the Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, Chair Professor Architectural Technology at the Wellington School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington. He publishes extensively internationally about novel perspectives in digital architecture and urban design. He curated three digital architectural exhibitions and chaired several international conferences.

Gibson / Martelli (UK) - Examining ideas of player, performer and visitor, European art duo Gibson / Martelli playfully address the position of the self – intertwining tropes of videogames and traditions of figure & landscape. Working with live simulation, performance capture, installation and video, the artists create immersive virtual realities.

Attendees can also witness the launch of Kōrero Paki presented by digital artist Yinan Liu (NZ) and producer and director Jermaine Leef (NZ). Kōrero Paki is an app for mobile devices that takes five key moments from Maori mythology and translates them into holographic carvings. Through a simplified motion capture process, the three-dimensional drawings were transformed by a live performer into animated narratives. Viewed with simple red/cyan cardboard glasses, the sculptures are perceived as hovering above the surface of a smartphone and appear to be dancing in the viewer’s hand. Kōrero Paki was funded by Creative New Zealand.

Please join us and help us spread the word by sharing the event with your network.

We look forward to having you there.

Further to being part of the virtual Ars Electronica Garden Aotearoa New Zealand programme, Hoki Mai Ki Ahau (Return To Me) will be available to experience physically in Aotea Square from 14-20 September 2020. The installation creates an oasis of digital calm and a healing soundscape in the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau.