Ab 19. Februar können Besucher eine Woche lang Ausstellungen, Panel-Diskussionen und Live-Konzerte virtuell besuchen.
Der Besuch eines Festivals ist immer auch mit zufälligen Treffen, Wiedersehen und gemeinsamen Feiern verbunden. In der Pandemie ist das zwar im traditionellen Sinne nicht möglich, doch die Veranstalterinnen des CIVA-Festivals für Medienkunst wollen diese Momente unter dem Motto „Social Distancing, virtual Bonding“ neu interpretieren.
„Der Begriff ‚Social Distancing‘ triggert uns alle und ist schon negativ konnotiert. Wir wollen kritisch hinterfragen, was das mit uns und der Gesellschaft macht. Aber es geht nicht darum, zu sudern, sondern ‚Virtual Bonding‘ als mögliche Lösung anzubieten“, erklärt Festivalleiterin Eva Fischer das Konzept im Gespräch mit der futurezone.
Wien bekommt mit dem CIVA Festival ein neues Medienkunstfestival, das ab 19. Februar 2021 neun Tage lang zum Eintauchen in virtuelle Kunstinstallationen und neuartige Konzertformate einlädt. Auch FM4 ist mit zwei Spezial-Formaten im Spielekammerl und bei Davidecks beteiligt.
CIVA, Vienna’s new media art festival, aims to show the potential of contemporary artistic approaches at the interface of society, science, and technology.
Under the title »Social Distancing – Virtual Bonding«, CIVA explores how current technologies enable us to remain connected to each other on a virtual level in times of physical distance, or even build new international networks and communities. For this purpose, CIVA – in view of the current situation of a worldwide pandemic – in 2021 particularly claims space in the virtual.
During the nine-day festival, various artistic and discursive formats will examine current media and recent technologies to see how they serve or harm and how they shape our society. At the heart of the festival is a desire to build a strong network and become a platform for a growing international community.
CIVA stands for Contemporary Immersive Virtual Art. The first edition of the festival will take place from February 19 to 27, 2021 and will happen primarily online and virtual. CIVA is organized by sound:frame.
The detailed program of the festival will be announced on February 11, 10 a.m.
FESTIVAL
Join us!
The heart of the CIVA festival is community work – we will be there for you during the whole festival. Chat with us via Discord and join our CIVA Ambassador Groups or follow our exhibition and festival tours.
Don’t be shy of the digital!
Just take your time to try things out and click your way through the online and virtual realm. And always keep in mind: There is virtually nothing you can do wrong. So, if there is anything we can help you with, please let us know at any time. Because: Everyone starts as a rookie – we did too.
Social
Discord + Mozilla Hubs + Social Media
Striving to create a proper festival feeling, we invite you to join us via Discord and Mozilla Hubs.
We use Discord as a chat platform that brings together people: Throughout the whole festival, various artists, experts, and protagonists from our community – called the CIVA Ambassadors – will guide you through selected program venues, share their experiences, and invite you to exchange thoughts and impressions.
You are always welcome to hang out in our Mozilla Hubs spaces. Be sure to accept our code of conduct via Discord first. In doing so, you may enter our Mozilla Hubs space at all times.
Mozilla Hubs spaces designed by Martina Menegon and Enrico Zago CIVA Ambassadors network tba.
An all-virtual exhibition invites you to dive in via the CIVA website and immerse yourself in digital art, net art, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence as well as net activist approaches.
Curated by Eva Fischer and Martina Menegon Designed by Maximilian Prag
Discourse
Conference + Workshops + Tours + Podcast
Live and pre-recorded formats invite you to discuss, watch, read, listen, learn, and participate.
Curated and hosted by Tonica Hunter, Marijn Bril, Ayo Aloba, Janine Scheer-Erb, and Eva Fischer
Tours hosted by Laura Welzenbach, Marijn Bril, Martina Menegon, and Eva Fischer
Live
Music + Film
Performances, live sessions, and a film program as literally unique events to enjoy, to watch together with friends, and to get to know artists from a very special side. Don’t miss – there’s only one date for each event.
Music/AV program curated by Dalia Ahmed and Angie Pohl
Film program curated by Marija Milovanovic
Team
Eva Fischer – Artistic Director, Curator: exhibition Angie Shahira Pohl – Vice Director, Curator: music program Martina Menegon – Head of Extended Reality & Curator: exhibition, VR/3D Tonica Hunter – Curator: discourse & performance Dalia Ahmed – Curator: music program Laura Welzenbach – Curator & festival tour guide Ayo Aloba – Curator: discourse & CIVA Features / CIVA Activism Marija Milovanovic – Curator: film program Marijn Bril – Curator: discourse Matthias K. Heschl – Head of press department Kathi Wiesler – Website editor Maximilian Prag – 3D Design & development Marlene Kager – Graphic Design Enrico Zago – 3D development Ella Guggenbichler – Design and Social Media Alicia Panholzer (on maternity leave) – Head of production Julia Reichmayr – Head of productio Michael Perl – IT developer, discord Paolo Schmidt – IT developer, Website Janine Scheer-Erb – Communications discord & awareness Bildwerk (Benjamin Pokropek, Leonhard Pokropek, Christoph Kirmaier, Jürgen Haghofer) – Technical production & content streaming PICKS (Tom Hochleitner & Team) – Video team & content production Florian Palmsteiner – Finances Kai Erenli – Consultant for immersive applications Robert Pucher – Helping hand – production Mena Huber – Registration, twitch Moderation Steve Wilder – English Proofread
Im Rahmen der Ars Electronica verlagern wir gemeinsam mit Sound:Frame Dalia’s Late Night Lemonade Studio am Samstag in die Area for Virtual Art.
In die Area for Virtual Art wird am 12. September, 21 Uhr Dalia’s Late Night Lemonade übertragen. Eine Radioshow auf virtual Reality. Dazu wird es Live Auftritte der lokalen Musikerinnen Adaolisa und Farce geben. Radio- und Live Musik wird da also in die Area for Virtual Art gebeamed und zeitgleich hier auf fm4.orf.at gestreamed, im FM4 Twitch Channel der FM4 Spielekammerl Show übertragen und als Teil des Ars Electronica Streams gesendet.
Leiterin Eva Fischer will mit gesellschaftspolitischem Ansatz Publikum über die Szene hinaus erreichen und Fragen anstoßen Michael Wurmitzer
10. September 2020, 08:00
Es blinkt, es fiept, lauten Vorurteile gegen Medienkunst. Die umfasste einmal Video, dann auch den Computer, jünger ist die Virtual-Reality-Brille. Wohl auch wegen dieser Sperrigkeit fristete das letzte Medienkunstfestival in Wien eher ein Schattendasein. Nach zwei Jahren Pause hat Kulturstadträtin Veronica Kaup-Hasler (SPÖ) im Frühjahr aber seinen Neustart verkündet. Eine Leitung ist nun gefunden: Kuratorin Eva Fischer wird für zumindest die Ausgaben 2021 und 2022 verantwortlich sein. Und sie plant, mit gesellschaftspolitischem Ansatz die Reichweite zu erhöhen.
Die vergangenen Monate mit Corona bilden dabei gleich den Untersuchungsgegenstand für die erste Auflage zum Motto „Social Distancing und Virtual Bonding“. Zehn Stunden am Tag ist Fischer teils in Zoom-Konferenzen gesessen, um ihre Projekte voranzutreiben, sagt sie, dabei kam ihr die Frage: Was macht es mit unserer Kommunikation, wenn man sich während eines Gesprächs am Bildschirm sieht?
The Area for Virtual Artis a place where people get together from all over the world to experience art, immerse themselves in new worlds and let go. The Area hosts exhibitions, discourse formats and social events and presents current digital artistic approaches, such as XR, interactive and AI based (art)works. We see the internet in its hyperlinked nature as the perfect exhibition and communication environment.
Art is one of the driving forces of our society when it comes to designing and testing utopias. We want to make use of the potential that art has when it comes to bodily encounter. The opening exhibition of the Area for Virtual Art „A Virtual Utopia“ explores the question of how body-bound our communication is and how we can conquer the metaverse and use it for our needs as an artist community and as a society.
The strongest motivations to create the Area for Virtual Art were to acquire new spaces in order to give art visibility and reach an international audience again. To achieve self-efficacy in a time that has made it so difficult to cross borders.
The digital can be understood as a laboratory in which we can generate new experiences and experiment with our ideas of reality. The artistic and playful handling of space and of ourselves as avatars poses a challenge to our self-image, our own identity construction.
What happens when communication moves completely online? In which world will we meet? And how will we interact with others?
The Area for Virtual Art makes it possible to teleport from world to world and rediscover new places together with others. The avatar as an embodiment of the self is another important pillar of these virtual worlds, it draws us into the stories and allows us to experience the space subjectively. As abstract, gender-unclassifiable yet personalized AVAtars – the Area’s avatars – we move through these landscapes and cities, can physically experience artworks, installations and virtual architecture, and create collaborative experiences through the possibility of immediate communication.
LAUNCH 09–09–2020
As part of the Ars Electronica 2020 Festival „In Kepler’s Gardens“, the Area for Virtual Art is giving a first insight into the virtual exhibition spaces and invite the audience for an exclusive “site inspection”, including an exhibition tour to hear more from the artists and a virtual party and radio show streaming to meet others.
Warum neue Formate in Kunstausstellungen nicht als Bedrohung, sondern als Chance gesehen werden sollten
Katharina Rustler 15. Jänner 2020
In einem dunklen Raum, auf einem Sitzsack liegend, können Kunstwerke von Kandinsky, Monet oder da Vinci betrachtet werden: An den Wänden bewegen sie sich als dynamische Animationen und digitale Pixel. Vergangenes Jahr zeigten groß angelegte Multimedia-Ausstellungen in Berlin und Leipzig digitalisierte Versionen bekannter Kunstwerke verschiedenster Epochen – dabei befanden sich die Originale gar nicht am selben Ort. Aber müssen sie das?
Ein Gespräch zwischen Eva Fischer, Kuratorin und Kennerin digitaler Kunst und Andreas Fraunberger, über Digitalisierung in Kunst und Kultur und darüber was das mit digitaler Unternehmenskultur zu tun hat. Eva verrät uns spannende Ansätze, wie Kunst und Unternehmertum v.a. in den Bereichen Innovation, Digitalisierung und Organisation voneinander lernen können. Wer sich schon gefragt hat, wie man Kreativität im Kontext der Digitalisierungs-Welle die wir seit Corona erleben organisieren kann, der/dem sei eine Lektüre des Gespräches empfohlen. Weitere Themen sind Formen von Kollaboration und Kooperation, Virtual Reality (VR), die Virtualisierung, das Post-Digitale, und natürlich: Hip Hop 🙂
Where do you want to go? Enter starting point. Enter destination. Get directions. Eine einfache Gleichung. Doch was, wenn man auf diese simplen Fragen keine Antwort weiß, weil die Parameter unbestimmt sind? Wo stehe ich eigentlich? Wo will ich hin?
Das Postdigitale verweigert sich dem linearen Denken. Es ist wild, vernetzt, assoziativ, sackgassenintensiv. Gleichzeitig ermöglicht es eine Neuauslotung von Kategorien und Prioritäten und schafft damit Raum. Gemeinsam mit Künstler*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen diskutieren wir, welche Erkenntnisse der interdisziplinäre Austausch von Kunst und Wissenschaft bringt, wenn es darum geht, mögliche Parameter für die Gestaltung unserer Gesellschaft zu finden.
Navigieren im Postdigitalen Wie Kunst und Wissenschaft unsere Zukunft gestalten
Artistic Research Konferenz Duos aus Kunst und Wissenschaft diskutieren über postdigitale Tendenzen, Machine Learning, Hybrid Art, das Wood Wide Web und mögliche Navigationsstrategien.
Katja Kwastek (Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art | Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) + Lucie Strecker(Artist and Researcher, Hybrid Art | Art & Science, dieAngewandte Vienna)
13:30 | Mittagspause
14:30 | Dialog (Deutsch) “Sound Art and Curating – Machine Learning and Limits of Control”
Thomas Grill (Sound Artist & Researcher, Machine Learning | ELAK) + Arthur Flexer (OFAI, Intelligent Music Processing and Machine Learning Group)
16:00 | Pause
16:15 | Dialog (Deutsch) “Ludic Art & Neurowissenschaften”
Margarete Jahrmann (Artist | Ludic-Society, Game Design ZHDK Zurich, Artistic Research dieAngewandte Vienna) + Stefan Glasauer(Computational Neuroscientist | BTU Cottbus, Bernstein Center Munich)
17:45 | Pause
18:00 | Dialogue (English) “How can art illuminate the hidden natural forces that surround us? And how can science contribute to and benifit from a collaboration with art?”
Barnaby Steel (Immersive Artist | Marshmallow Laser Feast London) + Bianka Hofmann (Science Communication, Project Development & Creative Production | Fraunhofer MEVIS Bremen)
Lab: “Storytelling & Experience Design in the Digital Age” Vienna Business Agency x sound:frame
Immersive media and the discussion of expansive space experiences or
virtual experiences enable new approaches to storytelling. Together with
sound:frame, the Vienna Business Agency
will be launching a departure Challenge on the topic of Storytelling
& Experience Design in the Digital Age. In the lab held on June 13
as part of the Creative Days Vienna at Reaktor, experts from various fields discussed and developed new possibilities of storytelling and experiences.
Oscillating between the keywords and concepts of “presence,”
“(spatial) experience design,” and “linear as well as all-new forms of
storytelling,” the round table participants from multiple creative
fields addressed questions such as: What can new media do that the old
ones cannot? How does classical film or theater function in terms of
content and structure, and where do virtual reality or other immersive
media come in? How can rooms, products, or events be newly staged and
what makes these new – often digital – media so exciting? Is it possible
to tell stories in a new and different way and how do I address my
audience?
As a central outcome of a highly multifaceted and lively discussion,
the participants unanimously uttered their need for stronger cooperation
– building on the network established in the lab on June 13, is thus
one of the most crucial goals to strive for more interdisciplinary
exchange on a regular basis in the future.
Lab participants: Sebastian Brauneis (Film director), Alexandra Brückner (VIENNA DESIGN WEEK), Robert Buchschwenter (witcraft), Marie Mayoly (Creative, strategic and multidisciplinary mediator), Vanessa Eder-Messutat (Stage designer), Andi Göltl (Media Apparat), Evy Jokhova (Media artist), Peter Kollreider (hoeragentur), Gregor Ladenhauf and Leonhard Lass (DEPART), Valerie Messini and Damjan Minovski (2MDV), Konstantin Mitgutsch (Playful Solutions), Philip Schütte (Artist, researcher, and creative director), Florian Wiencek (Fluxguide), Annina Zwettler (ARTE) Lab hosted by Eva Fischer (sound:frame) and Heinz Wolf (Vienna Business Agency)
Short interviews with selected experts may be watched here.
More photos can be found in our galleries on Instagram and Facebook (Day 1 / Day 2).
Eva Fischer 