More-than-Planet @ Ars Electronica 2023

6.9.2023 – 10.9.2023
Ars Electronica website

Table of contents:

Conference

(Un)Earthing the Truth: Ownership and Narratives about the Planet. Friday Sept 8th, 11:00 - 18:00

Information: Ars Electronica website
On Friday it’s More-than-Planet day, on which the central question is ‘Who owns the planet?’ in (Un)Earthing the Truth: Ownership and Narratives about the Planet we delve into the notion of ownership in relation to the planet, questioning their complicated relationship. The day will also be dedicated to discussion and talks on topics addressing environmental concerns, planetary imaginaries, and related environing technologies. In debates and keynotes traversing the deep seas and the stratospheric skies, we reshape our understanding of ownership, recontextualizing the dominant economic systems and power hierarchies that have allowed us to establish proprietary relationships with our planet. Guests from a wide array of disciplines, encompassing artists, scientists, scholars, and economists, will discuss to challenge the narratives that mold our comprehension of ecological concerns.

Workshops

Registration Required (follow the links)
Meeting Point: POSTCITY, We Guide You Meeting Point (First Floor)
Location: POSTCITY, More-than-Planet Lab
Information: Ars Electronica website

1 - Planetary Public Stack

Wednesday Sept 6th, 14:00 – 16:00
led by Miha Turšič, Waag Futurelab (SI/NL)
Information: Ars Electronica website

This project builds on an earlier project, the Public Stack, which is based on the idea that all these technological layers should be developed from public values and takes a critical look at our use of technology. It builds from conceptual foundations of the comparative planetary imaginaries (matterings, concepts, cosmologies) toward required capacities (technologies, tools, data, skills) and the development of concrete new cases of public imaginaries. The participants will work on the technologies and skills to develop collaborative and art-driven innovation approaches with critical and creative tools for addressing today’s environmental troubles.

2 - Systemic Change in the Times of Polycrisis

Thursday Sept 7th, 14:00 – 15:30
led by Antti Tenetz (FI), Tero Toivanen (FI)
Information: Ars Electronica website

The workshop ‘Systemic Change in Times of Polycrisis’ explores how we can broaden our horizons and find sustainable solutions to the polycrisis caused by ecological emergency. It focuses on radical change in industrial societies. The perspectives of polycrisis will be linked to local examples that will be explored through the work of artists, researchers and activists. The discussion shifts from the global to the national/regional and back to the planetary level and is linked to selected art projects in the exhibition and to More than Planet art and science activities in Pyhäsalmi, the deepest metal mine in Europe and the Oulanka Research Station located in the middle
of the Northern Boreal Forest, the world’s largest terrestrial biome.

3 - Planetary mattering

Saturday Sept 9th, 14:00 – 15:30
led by Miha Turšič, Waag Futurelab (SI/NL)
Information: Ars Electronica website

It matters which planet we portray, and which one we do not. In this workshop, participants will learn about ways of mattering. With this term, we refer to the images, interests and facts that shape our image of the planet, and, in turn, how the solidification of these imaginaries determines the way we talk about the Earth and the decisions we make. Mattering looks at both the matter itself and its significance. In short, we research the drivers behind how we see our environment.

Experts Tours

Registration Required (follow the links)

3 tours in the themed exhibition focusing each time on specific artworks
Information: Ars Electronica website

1 - Mattering by Miha Turšič (SI)

Wednesday Sept 6th, 10:30 – 12:00
Meeting Point: POSTCITY, We Guide You Meeting Point (First Floor)
Location: POSTCITY, More-than-Planet Lab
Information: Ars Electronica website

‘Matter’ can be understood as both a noun and a verb: it is about material and about caring. Mattering is the inseparable interplay between creating facts and values, and the cultural and societal structures that emerge from this dynamic relationship. The way in which we imagine our planet influences our direct environment and therefore matters greatly. What matters to us depends on a multiplicity of different things: locality, ethics, morals, values. Understanding the diversity of drivers behind environmental concepts will contribute to better accessibility of environmental knowledge. This tour will guide you through a varied selection of different artworks that will reflect on matters-of-fact, matters-of-concern, matters-of-care, and matters-
of-hope.

2 - Terraforming Earth - Decolonizing Space by Annick Bureaud (FR)

Thursday Sept 7th, 12:00 – 13:30
Meeting Point: POSTCITY, We Guide You Meeting Point (First Floor)
Location: POSTCITY, More-than-Planet Lab
Information: Ars Electronica website

Terraformation is used to describe the process by which we would like to transform other planets to make them habitable for us. Colonisation has become the synonym to appropriation and exploitation. We’ll consider those two notions to discuss how they could be useful in looking back at Earth and our endeavours in Space today through a selection of three artworks from the exhibition.

3 - Mikro Makro by Marko Peljhan and Uros Veber (SI)

Saturday Sept 9th, 11:00 – 12:30
Meeting Point: POSTCITY, We Guide You Meeting Point (First Floor)
Location: POSTCITY, More-than-Planet Lab
Information: Ars Electronica website

MIKRO-MAKRO, from observation to orientation, led by Marko Peljhan (SI) and Uroš Veber (SI) will be focused on the works that could be understood as systems observatories and will attempt to synthesize certain common topical vectors present in all of them.

Theme Exhibition

(Co)Owning More-than-Truth

Information: Ars Electronica website

Developed within the framework of the More-than-Planet-project, this year’s theme exhibition, (Co)Owning More-than-Truth, calls for a complete shift in our worldviews, relationships, language, consciousness, and narratives across the planet. (Co)Owning More-than-Truth views truth as a pharmacon to navigate current topologies of the knowledge structure, to map them out as dynamic and multifaceted entities and to accommodate the truths that are drifting and shifting. On display are artworks gliding from truths unearthed from the landscapes, ecosystems and cycle of life in and out of Earth to ground truths of collecting data and processing information to challenge existing regimes of knowledge. Deviating from the quandary of what the truth is and to whom we delegate the right to the truth, (Co)Owning More-than-Truth offers a space where interdisciplinary practices, approaches, and narratives are pluralized to unearth
a more profound and inclusive understanding of being together, forging a path towards a consensus of collective efforts for the crises we face as a whole.

Artists: Agnes Meyer-Brandis (DE); Gregor Krpič (SI), Simon Gmajner (SI), Dr. Jan Babič (SI), Dr. Marko Jamšek (SI), Gal Sajko (Jožef Stefan Institute) (SI); Cecilia Vilca (PE); David Shongo (CD); Felipe Castelblanco (CO), Lydia Zimmermann (CH); Karen Palmer (GB); PЯОТO-ALIEИ PЯOJECT (CO/JP); Anne Duk Hee Jordan (DE/KR), Pauline Doutreluingne (BE); Barnaby Francis (GB), Robert ‘3D’ Del Naja (GB), Dale Vince (GB); Spektr Z (SI); Sebastian Schmieg (DE); Noor Stenfert Kroese (NL), Amir Bastan (IR)

DEEP SPACE 8K

Ars Electronica More-than-Planet Commission: Connected – how the world is more than the sum of its parts
by Jörg Menche (DE), Sebastian Pirch (AT), Norbert Unfug (AT), Felix Müller (DE),
Christiane V. R. Hütter (AT)
Wednesday, Sep. 6 th , 18:30 – 19:00
Location: Ars Electronica Center/DEEP SPACE 8K
Information: Ars Electronica website

The project Connected–how the world is more than the sum of its parts unveils the multifaceted nature of the Earth’s systems, unraveling a system’s underlying structural
principles, from natural phenomena to human creations.
Through a transformative journey, visitors are invited in a captivating exploration of the Earth’s diverse biomes, guided by the perspective of three avatars: a fox exploring solid land, a turtle diving through open water and a bird discovering the seemingly endless sky.
Through the avatar’s eyes, visitors experience macro to micro systems, from animal swarms, networks of flora, sprawling infrastructures, to the vast expanse of the world wide web and the human organism itself as a complex network of biomolecular
interactions.
In a synergistic fusion of scientific inquiry and artistic expression, Connected invites the audience to embrace the beauty of Earth’s interconnected fabric, aiming to foster understanding of the intricacies that govern our world.

More-than-Planet Lab

Location: POSTCITY Bunker
Information: Ars Electronica website
More-than-Planet website

Located at the heart of the theme exhibition in the POSTCITY bunker, the More-than-Planet Lab is not only hosting the workshops but also proposing a whole range of documentation from the partners activities in the project and more. We offer an experimental space teeming with living traces, narratives and imageries to carve a new lens into how we perceive the planet. Through exploring ongoing projects and participating in workshops, we aspire to deepen our understanding of the planet and raise collective awareness of urgent planetary issues.

More-than-Planet

The More-than-Planet project seeks to redefine our understanding and representation of the environment on the level of the planet as a conceptual whole. With 75% of the planet’s land surface experiencing measurable human pressure, the way people envision the planet significantly impacts the environment itself. Such environmental imaginaries are shaped by underlying concepts, value systems, visual cultures and technologies, which are not neutral or inclusive of society. Through collaboration with artists, critical thinkers, and experts from cultural, environmental, and outer space institutions, the project aims to address the crisis surrounding our planetary imaginary and foster a more inclusive and accurate portrayal of the planet.