2018 STARTS Exhibition

At the Ars Electronica Festival, Ars Electronica presents a selection of the prizewinning and nominated works of STARTS Prize 2018 together with new results and prototypes coming out of the STARTS initiative.

STARTS Day 2018

STARTS Day emphasize the potential of evolving future innovators and show extraordinary samples of innovation on the nexus of art, science and technology. The day concentrates on the STARTS program and will lead visitors through several different formats of discussion, presentation of outstanding projects as well as theoretical reviews of the role of STARTS collaborations.

The first 3-D printed steel bridge

By building the world’s first 3-D printed metal bridge, MX3D and the Joris Laarman Lab have provided proof that the MX3D process they have jointly developed makes it possible to create metal objects and structures of any size that are aesthetically pleasing as well as intelligent. They were awarded the STARTS Prize of the European Commission. Gijs van der Velden explains in an interview how this was achieved.

I’m Humanity: Music for Eternity

Her idea for a way to make music live on beyond humankind’s eventual extinction and to use DNA as the medium to transport this information for eternity garnered Japanese musician Etsuko Yakushimaru the 2017 STARTS Prize. In this interview, she explains her concept of “post-humanity music” and gives her take on mutations that randomly occur when genetic information is passed on from generation to generation.

Imparting a Direction to the Future: The 2018 STARTS Prize Jury

The jury made up of international experts charged with selecting the recipients of the 2018 STARTS Prizes awarded by the European Commission recently convened for an entire weekend at the Ars Electronica Center. Their mission: to recognize outstanding work at the interface of science, technology and art. The outcome is still confidential; nevertheless, jurors Francesca Bria and Seiichi Saito briefed us on a few trends in this interview.

STARTS Prize 2018: Meet the Jurors!

The prominent international experts who make up the 2018 STARTS Prize jury will gather at the Ars Electronica Center on April 23rd. Their task is to select this year’s recipients on behalf of the European Commission. Read thumbnail bios of the individual jurors here.

Humanising Autonomy: A Language for Self-Driving Cars

How do we as pedestrians want to communicate with the autonomous autos that will soon be driving around our cities? Now is the best time to give some thought to this question, according to the staff of Humanising Autonomy, a project that was honored with a 2017 STARTS Prize and is now collaborating with, among other partners, Daimler Mercedes Benz.

STARTS Talks Kick Off in Berlin and Eindhoven

How can science, technology and art become more tightly intermeshed, and how do they benefit from these linkages? Outstanding best-practice examples and insightful speeches lead off the STARTS Talks series in Berlin and Eindhoven.

Rock Print: Building with Cable and Pebbles

The idea seems so simple—Rock Print, a STARTS Prize honoree, demonstrates how to build a large structure out of only gravel and wire. But behind the seeming simplicity is the difficulty of implementing the concept in real life. In this interview, Matthias Kohler and Fabio Gramazio of ETH–Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich tell why the joint project with the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT was such a surprise to both the construction industry and the STARTS Prize jury.

European Cooperative Projects: Innovation through Diversity

Taking advantage of this continent’s diversity—that’s what Ars Electronica has been doing in a broad spectrum of collaborative projects clear across Europe. In this interview, Festival Director Martin Honzik and Producer Veronika Liebl told us about them and what role they’ll play at the Ars Electronica Festival September 7-11, 2017.