The ARS Electronica Festival – Europe’s largest event for art & technology – offered interactive first-person tours with the HMT-1 for the first time.
From September 8-12, more than 30,000 visits took place at Ars Electronica 2021 in Linz, Austria. This year’s festival was composed of diverse events, conferences and lectures, exhibitions and projects, concerts and performances, animations and award ceremonies, guided tours and workshops. 86 festival gardens were laid out as part of Ars Electronica 2021-all continents were represented, and more than 186 artists* and scientists* from 47 countries presented their works for five days.
A total of 750 artists* from 34 countries once again devoted themselves to linking art and technology. For the first time, Ars Electronica also presented itself as an independent online festival.
466 individual program offerings were made available here, 3,948 contributions were posted in various chats and 3,068 contacts were exchanged, plus more than 100 closed meetings on Zoom. The community effect was definitely enhanced and the numerous streams offered free of charge recorded more than 25,000 hits
For the first time, tours with RealWear’s Head Mounted Tablet were also held in conjunction with Zoom.
This meant that visitors could not only watch guided tours from around the world, but also experience the installations live. Interactions with the tour guides were also possible and desired – so you could customize and experience your tour.
The tours were offered with their own ticket. When purchasing the ticket, visitors received an individual zoom link that was only valid for this tour. One could thus participate via smartphone, tablet or simply via desktop browser from anywhere in the world.
Detailed insights into the use of the HMT-1 can be found here:
(for the stressed ones: skip to 13:02, there it goes into media res 😉)
Ars Electronica Linz GmbH & Co KG: 300 employees* were entrusted with the planning, organization and implementation of the festival. Also indispensable to the festival’s success was the involvement of some 150 cooperation/project partners, sponsors and funding agencies, including universities and research institutes, companies, museums, initiatives, associations and institutions from Linz and around the world.
In addition, 206 media representatives from 21 countries were accredited for this year’s Ars Electronica and reported from Linz.
You’ll find lots of information about the Ars Electronica Festival and its program, photos and videos here:Â https://ars.electronica.art/newdigitaldeal/en/