The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar is participating in this year’s Campus Exhibition at Ars Electronica 2025 in Linz with several contributions. In keeping with the festival motto »Panic«, students and faculty from the departments of Art and Design as well as Architecture and Urbanism are presenting artistic works that critically examine digital technologies, ecological contexts, and social issues.
As part of the Ars Electronica Campus Exhibition, the Media Art & Design programme of the Faculty of Art and Design is showcasing five artistic projects under the title of »Cybernetic Subjects«: The Pond, Ymr.x, Latent Heat Generation, She’s So Centsible, Sonic Ecologies, and Humans. The exhibition revisits cybernetics – the science of control, regulation and communication in systems – and critically examines the links to artificial intelligence (AI) and ecological practices. While cybernetic systems are modelled on nature, today’s technologies seldom aim to truly understand nature and the environment. This is precisely what the central project »The Pond« addresses.
For several semesters now, students and teaching staff have been using a combination of technical sensors (e.g. temperature sensors, microphones, cameras) and biological indicators to monitor a pond specially created on campus. Daphnia (water fleas) and Chlamydomonas algae count among the »natural sensors«. The research process can now be experienced in the multimedia installation forming part of the exhibition. The data received from the sensors is translated into sound or visual impulses, for example, to enable new sensory approaches to the environment. The reaction of the Daphnia to changes in water quality is also discernible. The project invites us to question the prevailing notions of AI, environmental control and technical measurability and to understand nature not merely as something for us to measure, but as a complex, living system.
About the festival
This year’s Ars Electronica is entitled »PANIC – yes/no« and is dedicated to the widespread uncertainty prompted by numerous crises, exploring how art can help to overcome this. Ars Electronica is one of the most important festivals for art, technology and society in the world. This year, it is taking place between 3 and 7 September 2025. The Campus Exhibition brings together contributions from over 30 international universities, opening up new perspectives at the interface between design, research and technology.
Ars Electronica Festival
3–7 September 2025, POSTCITY Linz
Festival website: ars.electronica.art/panic
Information on »Cybernetic Subjects«:https://ars.electronica.art/panic/de/view/cybernetic-subjects-21338ddb450c817ab718ce48a0a628f5
Information on »Beyond the Screens, City Digital Skin Art Festival«: https://ars.electronica.art/panic/de/view/beyond-the-screens-city-digital-skin-art-festival-cdsa-20038ddb450c8121b4e9e78f2f1bf4b7/
The exhibition »Cybernetic Subjects« was curated by Professor Ursula Damm (Professorship for Media Environments), Mindaugas Gapševičius (Artistic Associate, Professorship for Media Environments) and Junior Professor Kerstin Ergenzinger (Professorship for Acoustic Ecologies and Sound Studies). It brings together projects from research and teaching within the Media Art & Design programme: Jacob Elias Aran, Isabella Lee Arturo, Passion Asasu, Nina Bendix Igleses, Kerstin Ergenzinger, Negin Ehtesabian, Klaus Fritze, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Maximilian Götz, Diana Karle, Ting-Chun Liu, Mahla Mosah, Martin Müller, Parisa Salimi, Cosmo Schüppel, Jasper Seibert, Karlotta Sperling, Outi Wahlroos, Robin Max Wieber, Lisa Zwinscher
In case of questions, please contact Romy Weinhold, Press & Public Relations Officer of the Faculty of Art and Design, by telephone (+49 / 36 43 / 58 11 86) or via email (romy.weinhold[at]uni-weimar.de) or Gabriela Oroz, Communications Officer of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, by telephone (+49 / 36 43 / 58 31 15) or via email (gabriela.oroz[at]uni-weimar.de).