Ars Electronica inspired festival to unlock Wollongong's future
In its simplest form, this week’s announcement that Wollongong is welcoming a new arts and technology festival is a ground-breaking result for the city. The 3 Festival – so named for its exploration of arts, technology and society – is inspired by Ars Electronica, a cultural, educational and scientific institute responsible for one of the largest and longest running technology festivals in the world. Not a bad result for the City of Innovation.
If we get it right, this event should become synonymous with the region. International symposiums, cutting edge installations, cross-media integration, experimental music, entrepreneurial programs, media art and leading industry awards are all possibilities. But this opportunity is so much more than a four-day festival.
It’s a chance to engage with a global leader at the forefront of technology and art thinking 365 days a year. Industry collaboration, trade initiatives, the influencing of education programs, acad
emic and research partnerships, infrastructure planning and re-purposing should all be on the radar.
Ars Electronica began in Linz in 1979, in response to a softening industrial market and the need to reimagine the future of the city. From basic beginnings, it has grown exponentially to encompass six major components, including a Futurelab that is now the pre-imminent research and development hub of Europe. On the back of Ars Electronica, Linz is now recognised as a UNESCO Media Arts City.
A key element of the festival is how it engages and interacts with its residents, challenging people to think about their environment and future. This was born out several years ago when, in a survey addressing perceptions of the future in similar sized cities throughout Europe, Linz’s residents were the only respondents to record a positive outlook.
FUTURE FESTIVAL: Event director Adam Zammit speaking at The 3 Festival launch during the week. Picture: Adam McLean.
Being a traditional industrial town, Linz has a large amount of redundant and underutilised industrial infrastructure. The 2010 festival, titled “Repair”, saw a former tobacco processing plant transformed into a vibrant event site. That sparked the imagination of industry and community, to the point it is now a creative sector incubator and events hub that, when completed, will be the largest development of its kind in Europe.
That is the ethos of Ars Electronica – providing future sketches of how to tackle the future, not necessarily defining solutions, but asking the questions few others have thought of.
The ARS Electronica relationship also brings with it partnerships, at the highest level. They don’t sprout it, but Ars’s client base is a top-shelf list of the leading automotive, logistics, technology and entertainment entities in the world.
Two days before the start of the 2015 ARS Electronica Festival, aptly named “Post City”, the research vehicle “Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion” made a stop on the main square of Linz for its European premiere. Why does a car need a premiere? It was the first car to do laps of a European city – without a driver. Mercedes was looking for a frank and interactive conversation with society to test their view of the future, and they found the best level of engagement to be via Ars Electronica.
That is the ethos of Ars Electronica – providing future sketches of how to tackle the future, not necessarily defining solutions, but asking the questions few others have thought of.
In its purest form, they want to be proactive change agents from within, not reactionary protestors from the outside. They challenge the community to come up with answers of how they want to live in the future, instead of telling them how they should. They challenge us to create a future we can own.
A major part of the festival will focus on our youth – the under 19s and their opportunity to create their world. They are the young minds and voices who will be living in the tomorrow that we are creating today, so it’s vital they are central to that discussion.
In closing, we need to say a big thank you to Gareth Ward and the NSW State Liberal Government, Wollongong City Council and University of Wollongong for joining us in this exciting new partnership.
Event director, Adam Zammit, who has demonstrated the commercial acumen to deliver large scale major events, sees the opportunity to create a social discourse to change the way we use events to influence society. This, be assured, is no cookie-cutter event model.
And last but not least, our gratitude to our new friends at Ars Electronica, including Futurelab director Horst Hortner and his Australian-based colleagues Kristefan Minski and Lubi Thomas, who have entrusted us to do justice to their vision.
The City of Innovation won’t let you down.
Mark Sleigh is the general manager of Destination Wollongong