LINZ.- Ecology of Techno Mind presents a selection of works by Slovenian artists who are deploying technology and science as a means of delving into social realty today. Among the projects' themes are new media, biotechnology, space exploration and the use of computers in the medical field.
"In trying to find an appropriate title for the presentation of such diverse and, occasionally, artistically diverging projects, I could not find a term that would be more general whilst at the same time consistent in summing up the common traces of the authors than ecology in association with the unusual phrase techno mind. I realise the ideological pitfalls of this term, its safety and widespread abuse, yet the sense of measure that the selected projects evoke is the least contaminated in value terms by the expression ecology and all of its semantic dimensions. This sense of measure is neither total fascination with science and technology nor Luddite resignation, neither the fetishism of interfaces nor a romantic jumble of wires, neither hermetic art nor instrumentalised technology - but ecology as a stance that questions every extreme.
The selected projects are deliberately unconfined by traditional and modernist object-based perception of a work of art: in too many other "techno" projects the focus is on an aesthetically formed interface or construction, an artefact that addresses only the visual intelligence. The projects we are interested in are open and unwhole, their process nature forming a cognitive and empirical apparatus that is constantly evolving. These are not projects one would pinpoint as an artistic object, they are projects that evoke a variety of mental patterns and speculative and emotional suppositions that are tested in contemporary exploratory processes. These projects do not address the notional gallery visitor in the sense of traditional consumption of art, they place him in a similar situation than a visitor to the theatre or a concert, where the entire artistic event is performed on location and the artistic object cannot be bought or taken home.
We are as consistent as possible in being serious about artistic exploration, for we perceive contemporary exploratory art as a privileged, non-linear and multisensory production of meanings that, along with theoretical and philosophical practice, makes an essential contribution to understanding the world of change.
Jurij Krpan, Curator
Ars Electronica will be featuring works by the following artists and artistic groups: Iztok Amon, Marko Batista, BridA (Tom Kersevan, Jurij Pavlica, Sendi Mango), Miha Ciglar & Nika Autor, Patricia Ando Cvetkovic, Luka Dekleva & Luka Princic, Stefan Doepner (f18institut), Tomaz Grom, Janez Jansa, Andrej Kamnik in collaboration with Marko Pihlar, Sasa J. Mächtig, Octex, Marko Peljhan, Borut Savski, Saso Sedlacek, Irena Tomazin, Polona Tratnik, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, Dunja Zupancic & Miha Tursic & Dragan Zivadinov, Amelia Biewald, Tadej Fius, Paul Granjon, Vasja Kokelj, Ivan Marusic Klif, Srdan Prodanovic, Philip Ross, Jonathan Schipper, Ive Tabar, Zoran Todorovic, Jennifer Willet.
