The Ars Electronica Festival 2024 has officially come to a close, marking a monumental success for SHARESPACE and its collaborative real-world art scenario. This year, SHARESPACE proudly presented three interactive artworks at the Deep Space 8K, showcasing the power of embodied collaboration in immersive environments.
Two of the featured artworks were developed internally by artists, designers, and developers from the Ars Electronica Futurelab. The first, *falcon heavy, offered a stereoscopic audiovisual experience where participants synchronized with one another, creating a shared collective journey through stunning visual and auditory landscapes. The second piece, Converge, challenged groups of participants with social puzzles, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and collaboration to achieve a common goal. Both works exemplified the core concepts of SHARESPACE: synchronization, remote collaboration, and social connectedness.
One of the festival’s standout highlights was State of Play: شهر بازی , an external collaboration with talented artists Tara Habibzadeh, Mati Bratkowski, and Harriet Davey. This unique performance invited participants into a deconstructed video game boss fight inspired by Persian mythology, where the audience became players, collaborating to shape the unfolding story. We are honored to have worked with such inspiring external artists, and we look forward to continuing this exciting partnership into future stages of the SHARESPACE project.
During the Deep Space 8K performances, festival visitors actively engaged with the works, becoming players in each interactive experience, further enhancing the collaborative nature of SHARESPACE’s mission. The presence of members from our artistic user advisory board and other SHARESPACE partners during the presentations added to the event’s significance.
Additionally, SHARESPACE hosted a compelling panel discussion, where all artists involved in the project reflected on their creative processes, artistic concepts, and the enriching experience of collaborating within the SHARESPACE framework.
The festival also featured a keynote talk, Good Enough Ethics, delivered by Kathleen Richardson and Kathleen Bryson from SHARESPACE partner De Montfort University. This keynote explored the Ethics by Design framework, which was developed through the project’s ongoing research, and provided thought-provoking insights into how ethics can be integrated into the creative process.
As we wrap up another successful year at Ars Electronica, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to all of the artists, collaborators, and partners who made SHARESPACE’s presence such a triumph. We look forward to continuing these collaborations and pushing the boundaries of art and technology in shared hybrid spaces.
Stay tuned for more exciting developments from SHARESPACE as we move forward with new projects and innovations!
