Ars Electronica Futurelab
We look at the social aspects of technological development and work with various cooperation partners from the fields of business, culture, research and education to develop tangible artistic visions of the future for the public.
The Ars Electronica Futurelab is a unique artistic R&D laboratory that connects society with art, science and technology. The mission of the Ars Electronica Futurelab is to create visions of the future which enable people to better understand technology and its impact on society, open a broad dialogue and positively shape the future.
The lab is a social experimental space where diverse experts and artists intersect daily with art, science and cutting-edge technology.
The Ars Electronica Futurelab is embedded in the Ars Electronica ecosystem.
The lab collaborates with a broad range of partners, such as startups, multinational corporations, academia and education. Over the last 25 years, the lab developed several unique projects: The Spaxels project by Futurelab pioneered the field of drone art; the Deep Space at the Ars Electronica Center, revolutionized the use of virtual reality for group experiences and the Future Ink project brought not only living ink, but also a groundbreaking visualization of human creativity in real time. The lab’s research on AI has led to various results, from the musical composition software Ricercar to designing exhibitions that explain creative AI to the public. The lab members are also experts on big data visualization, ranging from unique installations to virtual reality applications like “Dataspace”.
Artists and experts at Futurelab share their knowledge through an array of conferences and lead multiple university courses and education programs. Part of disseminating their research involves designing exhibitions and installations for the Ars Electronica Center as well as many other museums and company partners. They also present their work at the Ars Electronica Festival where the public can discover their latest projects through tours and workshops.
Research Areas:
Artistic research on artificial intelligence, bioengineering, robotics, drones, swarm intelligence, big data, green innovation, interactive technologies, Art Thinking, new aesthetic forms of expression and media architecture, as well as virtual, mixed and extended reality.
Main Photo by: Ars Electronica Futurelab / Birgit Cakir