The Ars Electronica Festival is one of the world's leading events for art, technology and society. Every year, it brings together artists, scientists, activists, entrepreneurs and curious minds from all over the world to explore the latest developments and challenges in the digital age.

This year, the festival theme is "Who Owns The Truth?" It invites us to reflect on the role of truth in our society, especially in the context of information overload, fake news, deepfakes, propaganda and censorship. How can we distinguish between facts and opinions, between evidence and manipulation, between reality and fiction? How can we foster a culture of critical thinking, transparency and accountability? How can we use art and technology to create new forms of truth-telling and truth-seeking?

The festival will feature a variety of exhibitions, performances, concerts, workshops, talks and panels that showcase the best works of media art, as well as other projects that address the theme of truth from different perspectives.

Some of the highlights include:

  • The CyberArts exhibition, which presents the winners of the Prix Ars Electronica 2023, the world's most prestigious media art competition. The exhibition showcases innovative works that use artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, animation and sound to explore new forms of expression and communication.
  • The STARTS Prize exhibition, which honors projects that demonstrate the successful collaboration between science, technology and art. The exhibition features works that address social and ecological challenges, such as climate change, health care, education or democracy.
  • The Campus exhibition, which presents the results of educational programs from international universities that combine art and technology. The exhibition showcases works by students and researchers that reflect on current issues and propose innovative solutions.

The artistic director is Gerfried Stocker, the managing director of Ars Electronica since 1995. As Stocker remarked:

"Technology has always been a powerful tool for shaping our perception of reality. Today, we are facing unprecedented challenges in terms of information overload, manipulation and distortion. We need to develop new skills and strategies to cope with these challenges and to reclaim our agency over our own reality. Art can help us to do that by offering us new ways of seeing, hearing and feeling; by exposing us to different realities or inviting us to create our own; by inspiring us to imagine new possibilities or empowering us to act on them."

The festival will take place in various locations in Linz, Austria, from September 6 to 10, 2023. Tickets will be available online starting in July 2023.

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