Ars Electronica 2002: Unplugged and the Art of Global Conflict

The 2002 Ars Electronica festival in Linz, held from September 7 to 12, focused on the theme "unplugged" (Art as the Scene of Global Conflicts), with a symposium highlighting Africa's disconnection from the global network—described as a "prevention of connection" due to international politics and capitalism. The festival's logo featured Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion map, emphasizing cartography as political and cultural. Artistic projects included Peter Fend's Ocean Earth, centered on saltwater basins, and Thomas Feuerstein's Internet-Metrik::Biophily* Warp Map, which linked servers in Los Angeles, Windhoek, Dar es Salaam, Mumbai, and Bishkek via ping signals to distort map distances. Data visualization emerged as a major trend, exemplified by Schoenerwissen's Minitasking, which used the Gnutella protocol to dynamically display network activity. Gaming was another key trend, with critical works like ./logicaland, hybrid reality games like BotFighters by It's Alive, and Rez by T. Mizugushi, which explored hypnosis and sound. The Ars Electronica Future Lab presented Golan Levin's Hidden Worlds of Noise and Voice, visualizing conversation as a 3D virtual sculpture. Johannes Deutsch's Gesichtsraum was a notable virtual reality piece for the Cave system. The festival underscored the intersection of art, technology, and society.