Last Sunday, September 10th 2023, some of our research partners came together at the Ars Electronica Festival 2023 to discuss the SHARESPACE project. The theme of the festival this year was ‘Who Ownts the Truth?’ and was held at the Post City in Linz. The Ars Electronica Festival is a festival for Arts, Technology, and Society and serves as the backdrop for the real-world art scenario within the SHARESPACE project.
The panel was moderated by Ars Electronica Futurelab member Cyntha Wieringa and the different participants all highlighted a different side of the project. Didier Stricker (DFKI) gave a general overview of the SHARESPACE goals, Cristina Becchio (UKE) explained how we can research social information encoded in our movements, Marta Bieńkiewicz (UM) continued to explain how synchronous movement have a strong connection with our emotions and why we utilize different levels of avatars in our Social Hybrid Spaces, Kathleen Bryson (DMU) elaborated on the Ethics by Design method that is handled within the SHARESPACE project, and finally Stéphane Donikian (Golaem) gave an insight on the rendering and animation of the avatars in the digital spaces.
The interactive discussion that followed between the panel members and the audience touched upon a wide variety of topics. The importance of art in large European research projects, the connection between art and technology, the importance of ethical consideration when it comes to interaction with autonomous agents, and how to improve the feeling of being represented properly in virtual spaces.
After the discussion the official announcement for the Open Call for Artists was made. SHARESPACE is currently looking for a (group of) media artist(s) to collaborate with. We want someone to create an artwork for the Deep Space 8K, located at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, utilizing the SHARESPACE technology. The presentation will be done at the Ars Electronica Festival 2024, and the artist will receive 15.000 EUR for the realization of the artwork. You can find all the information here.
One large thank you to the Ars Electronica Futurelab team for the organization of the panel!
