Corona-safe and sold out: Ars Electronica 2020 was a huge success

As far as the online presence of the first truly hybrid Ars Electronica is concerned, the interim results are also very positive. “We’ve streamed a continuous program on four YouTube channels over the past five days without any noteworthy technical problems. As expected, the first echo came from the social media and is very gratifying.

Streams, Hubs, Posts, Stories, Tweets -Ars Electronica on the Net"It sounds strange, but up to now Ars Electronica has been a fairly analog festival," says Gerfried Stocker. Well, startingthis year it's different. Corona and the constraints and restrictions it entails made it necessary to develop a hybrid festival concept that was enthusiastically received by artists, museums, universities, labs, galleries, companies and associations around the globe. "Our idea was as simple as it was convincing," says Martin Honzik. "If the world can't come to Ars Electronica in Linz, Ars Electronica is going out into the world. The fact that the Linz Platform for Art, Technology and Society has been living networking and cooperation for decadespaid off."We were able to get 160 network partners around the globe excited about participating in Ars Electronica 2020 and offering on-site programs for local audiences," says Veronika Liebl, Director of European Cooperation, looking back on weeks of intensive networking. "We've woven all of these program offerings into an online programthat's too vast for one person to comprehend. Over the past five days, we have streamed more than 994 videos in parallel on four channels," Martin Honzik continues. "Of course, we all hoped that this would happen without technical problems, but frankly we didn't expect it."So far, the videos streamed during the festival have been viewed more than 56,837 times.

emocracy and EcologyThroughout all the talks and presentations, two things became clear: Firstly, that for many, real change seems more than overdue. Secondly, that the vast majority of people -from youngsters to renowned artists and scientists -are particularly concerned about democracy, freedom and participation, as well as the ecological emergency. Festival 2020is over, let's think aboutFestival 2021"This year, we conducted one of the greatest experiments in the history of Ars Electronica, firstoutof necessity and then with great enthusiasm. Analyzing this in detail will keep us busy for the next few weeks," says Gerfried Stocker, Ars Electronica's Artistic Director. "But there's already no disputing that we've laid down a learning curve that's quite respectable."The first guest performance on campus already has people asking for more. "I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to the next Ars Electronica, which will take place from September 8 to 12, 2021, on the magnificent campus of the Johannes Kepler University Linz and also online. That much is certain."