S+T+ARTS 2025.
Art and Innovation Come Together
S+T+ARTS Day at Ars Electronica Festival
Link to newsroom S+T+ARTS Prize 2025
Press Information July 17, 2025.
What are the societal implications of AI infrastructures? These questions, particularly regarding war technologies, take centre stage as art and innovation come together at Ars Electronica Festival. Projects from this year’s STARTS Prize and STARTS Prize Africa are featured in exhibitions and the conference ‘From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech’, including ‘AI War Cloud Database’ and ‘Sensing Quantum’, as well as the STARTS Prize Africa Winner ‘The Wild Future Lab’. Apart from AI, quantum technologies are prominent topics both in the exhibition and in the conference programme that invites important voices as keynote speakers. The Prize competition is part of STARTS, Science, Technology and the Arts, an initiative funded by the European Commission. The Ars Electronica Festival takes place in Linz (AT) September 3-7, 2025. (Header image: Domestic Data Streamers, Synthetic Memories, 2023. Photo credit: Photo: ©Domestic Data Streamers.)
Press images.
Download press images and credits below. Please note that the images are free to use strictly when writing about the STARTS Prize Winners and STARTS Day Conference and Exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival 2025.
The Wild Future Lab / Kairos Futura (KE). Photo credit: The Wild Future Lab, Ajax Axe
Domestic Data Streamers, Synthetic Memories, 2023. Photo credit: Photo: ©Domestic Data Streamers.
Sarah Ciston. Artist bio photo. Photo credit:@PaigeZangoglia
AIWarCloud@SarahCiston: Graph detail, Big tech, Ukraine. ©SarahCiston
Sands Of Time@Noah Okwudini | Credits: Noah Okwudini
WE FELT A STAR DYING 2025. Installation view at Kraftwerk Berlin. Commissioned by LAS Art Foundation and co-commissioned by OGR Torino. © 2025 Laure Prouvost. Photo: Milena Wagner
Sands Of Time: Walls We Can Walk Through Ala Praxis (NG).Photo Credits: Philip Fagbeyiro
Gigantic Oribotic Spiral @ Open Futurelab / Ars Electronica Futurelab (AT), Kanata Warisaya (JP), Luca Zimmerman (CH), Structural Origami Group. Photo: Bettina Gangl
The Wild Future Lab / Kairos Futura (KE).Photo Credit: The Wild Future Lab, Ajax Axe
Art and Innovation Come Together S+T+ARTS Day at Ars Electronica Festival
What role can art play when it comes to innovation that addresses the societal challenges that Europe faces? In particular, the STARTS Day conference takes a close look at AI infrastructures and their societal implications, in relation to war technologies. After announcing the STARTS Prize and STARTS Prize Africa winners, on June 4 and 11 respectively, the next step for STARTS is presenting the prize winners and select projects at Ars Electronica Festival, Linz (AT), in the exhibition ‘Navigating Uncertainty’ and the conference ‘From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech’ co-organised by Archipelago of Possible Futures for STARTS Day on September 4, 2025.
STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of science, technology, and the arts, that effectively implement a European approach to technological innovation centred on human needs and values.
The Ars Electronica festival takes place September 3 - 7, in Linz in Austria under the theme ‘PANIC – yes/no’. The festival will yet again become the hotspot of the international media art scene while addressing some of our most urgent topics.
‘How do we avoid getting stuck in the fear of uncertainty and forgetting that we can only move forward through constant change? By insisting on the status quo, we rob ourselves of the power of imagination and the courage to see the future as a viable prospect that we must shape.’
Gerfried Stocker, Artistic Director Ars Electronica
As Europe faces major social, ecological and economic challenges, creative and reflective innovation powered by science, technology and the arts is called for to implement a European approach to technological innovation centred on human needs and values.
Gigantic Oribotic Spiral @ Open Futurelab / Ars Electronica Futurelab (AT), Kanata Warisaya (JP), Luca Zimmerman (CH), Structural Origami Group.
Ars Electronica Festival 2024. Photo: Bettina Gangl
S+T+ARTS Day Conference
Archipelago of Possible Futures - From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech
With: Sarah Ciston, Marina Otero Verzier, Domestic Data Streamers, Barcelona Supercomputing Center et al.
STARTS Day at Ars Electronica Festival provides a forum for protagonists from industry, art, and technology to discuss the digital sovereignty and future of Europe featuring key projects.
‘From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech’ takes place on September 4 and will address AI infrastructures and their societal implications, particularly regarding war technologies. Among the keynote speakers is the STARTS Prize winning artist Sarah Ciston, and participants also include Marina Otero Verzier and Domestic Data Streamers.
The conference will also bring up the EuroStack Report 2025, a call to empower Europe to reclaim control of its digital future. Discussions will center around the role of artists in reflecting on and fostering new infrastructures, as well as the participation of infrastructure providers like the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.
‘‘From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech’' addresses the rise of authoritarian infrastructures, forges Europe's democratic alternatives, and ventures into visions and speculations for future technologies. Inspired by the STARTS Prize 2025 winners—’AI War Cloud Database’ by Sarah Ciston and ‘Sensing Quantum’ by LAS Art Foundation—this forum invites artists, scientists, policy-makers, critical technologists, and cultural workers to ask crucial questions.
The conference is co-organised by Francesca Bria and José Luis de Vicente from Archipelago for Possible Futures, a growing platform connecting Europe’s cultural, scientific, and tech institutions. In response to today’s urgent ecological and digital transitions, it offers a space for collective imagination, experimentation, and collaboration. The conference is a collaboration between Archipelago for Possible Futures, STARTS Prize 2025, EIT Culture & Creativity, and Ars Electronica.
AI War Cloud Database. Video @SarahCiston 2025
S+T+ARTS Exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival
Navigating Uncertainty
Exhibitions form a central part of the Ars Electronica Festival. The thematic exhibition and the Ars Electronica Features exhibition will take place in the POSTCITY, bringing together artistic projects from partner institutions from the international network of Ars Electronica including STARTS.
We are living through a time defined by shifting ground: ecological limits are being breached, political and social systems are in flux, and technologies are evolving faster than we can meaningfully grasp their implications. The idea of a stable, predictable world no longer holds. Uncertainty is often described as a lack of clarity, or an absence of information, but it is more than that. It is a structural feature of the systems we have built and the crises we now face. This exhibition brings together artistic and research-based practices that question the systems we live within and offer new frameworks for understanding, feeling, and navigating the unknown. ‘Navigating Uncertainty’ unfolds in three chapters; Climate Uncertainty, Techno-Social Uncertainty and Fundamental Uncertainty.
As quantum technologies move from theoretical physics into applied computing, they present a new layer of uncertainty — one that questions the very frameworks through which we understand reality. Uncertainty is not a problem to be solved, but a condition to be understood. It shapes the way we relate to our environment, to technology, and to each other. The works in this exhibition do not offer fixed solutions. Instead, they act as tools — ways to see more clearly, to feel more deeply, and to imagine more expansively.
AI in Creativity and Critique — A fireside chat with Hito Steyerl (DE), AC Coppens (FR). ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 2024, Photo showing: Hito Steyerl (on Screen). Photo credit: flap
The exhibition ‘Navigating Uncertainty’ features a selection of the STARTS Prize and STARTS Prize Africa winners, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme of the European Union and DG CNECT in the framework of the STARTS Ec(h)o and STARTS Afropean Intelligence projects.
Prize Winners:
Sarah Ciston, ‘AI War Cloud Database’
Light Art Space Art Foundation, ‘Sensing Quantum’
Honorary Mention:
Domestic Data Streamers, ‘Synthetic Memories’
Emergence Delft, ‘Coexist’
Marina Otero Verzier, ‘Computational Compost’
Nomination
Lucy Li, Leo Mühlfeld, Alan Schiegl, ‘Large Language Writer’
STARTS Prize Africa:
Kairos Futura, ‘The Wild Future Lab’
Ala Praxis, ‘The Sands of Time’
Sarah Ciston (US) was awarded the Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration for ‘AI War Cloud Database’, 2025, a project that brings up an urgent question: What responsibilities do we have in choosing AI tools, when their development also leads to deadly outcomes at massive scales?
Could art bridge the gaps between the invisible, the speculative, and the evolving role of quantum technologies in our world?
The Berlin-based Light Art Space Foundationʼs ‘Sensing Quantum’ programme was awarded the Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration. It is a long-term artistic research initiative that explores the intersections of quantum science, technology, philosophy and contemporary art. The programme fosters interdisciplinary collaborations between artists and scientists, aiming to translate complex quantum principles into immersive and thought-provoking experiences.
STARTS Prize Africa Winner ‘The Wild Future Lab’ (Kairos Futura). Photo credit: The Wild Future Lab, Ajax Axe
Sarah Ciston. Artist bio photo. Photo credit:@PaigeZangoglia
Gigantic Oribotic Spiral @ Open Futurelab / Ars Electronica Futurelab (AT), Kanata Warisaya (JP), Luca Zimmerman (CH), Structural Origami Group. Photo: Bettina Gangl
AIWarCloud@SarahCiston: Graph detail, Big tech, Ukraine. ©SarahCiston
Light Art Space Foundation| Laure Prouvost, WE FELT A STAR DYING, 2025, Photo credit: Laure Prouvost
Light Art Space Foundation| Laure Prouvost, WE FELT A STAR DYING, 2025, Photo credit: Laure Prouvost
The Wild Future Lab / Kairos Futura (KE). Photo credit: The Wild Future Lab, Ajax Axe
The Wild Future Lab / Kairos Futura (KE).Photo Credit: The Wild Future Lab, Ajax Axe
Sands Of Time@Noah Okwudini | Credits: Noah Okwudini
Sands Of Time: Walls We Can Walk Through Ala Praxis (NG).Photo Credits: Philip Fagbeyiro
S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 Honorary Mention 'Synthetic Memories' Domestic Data Streamers (ES). Photo: Domestic Data Streamers
S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 Honorary Mention 'Synthetic Memories' Domestic Data Streamers (ES). Photo: Domestic Data Streamers
Marina Otero Verzier , Computational Compost. Photo: Mikel Blasco.
S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 Honorary Mention, 'Coexist' , Emergence Delft (NL). Photo: Emergence Delft
S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 Nomination 'Large Language Writer'. Lucy Li (AT), Leo Mühlfeld (AT), Alan Schiegl (AT). Photo: Fritz Enzo Kargl
S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 Nomination 'Large Language Writer'. Lucy Li (AT), Leo Mühlfeld (AT), Alan Schiegl (AT). Photo: Fritz Enzo Kargl
Key Dates
STARTS Prize Africa Winner “The Sands Of Time” @Noah Okwudini Photo Credits: Noah Okwudini
September 3-7, 2025 - Ars Electronica Festival, Linz (AT)
September 4, 2025 - STARTS Day Conference: From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech, co-organised by Archipelago of Possible Futures
September 4, 2025 - Award ceremony STARTS Prize Africa
More information and programmes to be released late August 2025
Media Opportunities S+T+ARTS
September 3-7, 2025 - Ars Electronica, Linz (AT)
September 4, 2025 - STARTS Day Conference: From AI War Clouds to Dual Futures: Democratic Responses to Authoritarian Tech, co-organised by Archipelago of Possible Futures
September 4, 2025 - Award ceremony STARTS Prize Africa
Press Contact S+T+ARTS:
Sofia Bertilsson
sofia@artinsiderpr.com
Art Insider PR
pa@artinsiderpr.com
Institutions, partners and sponsors S+T+ARTS:
Current consortium: Ars Electronica (Coordinator, AT), INOVA+ (PT), La French Tech Grande Provence (FR), Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (DE), Salzburg Festival (AT), Sonar (ES), T6 Ecosystems (IT), TUD Dresden University of Technology (DE) HLRS High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (DE)
For editors:
Download press images and credits above. Please note that the images are free to use strictly when writing about the STARTS Prize Winners and STARTS Day Conference and Exhibition at Ars Electronica Festival 2025.
About S+T+ARTS
STARTS is about thinking out of the box and building bridges between Science, Technology and Arts.
STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of science, technology, and the arts, that effectively implement a European approach to technological innovation centred on human needs and values.
Science, Technology and Arts form a nexus with an extraordinarily high potential for creative and reflective innovation. And such innovation is considered to be precisely what is called for to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe is facing.
With disruptive methods of exploration and an accurate critical eye on the use of technology, artists decisively raise awareness of the societal challenges and global concerns we are tackling. The artistic practices are seen as innovative processes and have a wide-reaching potential to contribute to the development of new economic, social and business models.
ABOUT S+T+ARTS PRIZE
Grand Prize for INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION is bestowed on innovative joint ventures involving industry/technology and the arts, alliances that blaze new trails for innovation.
Grand Prize for ARTISTIC EXPLORATION honors artistic experiments and works of art that employ technology in ways that exhibit great potential to influence and change technology and how it is deployed, developed and perceived.
A yearly competition is held to single out for recognition innovative projects at the nexus of science, technology and the arts that have what it takes to make a significant impact on economic and social innovation.
The two STARTS Prize winners each receive €20,000 and are prominently featured at Ars Electronica and other events of the consortium partners INOVA+, French Tech Grand Provence, Media Solutions Center Baden-Württemberg, the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart, Salzburg Festival, Sonar, T6Ecosystems and Kustodie at TUD Dresden University of Technology.
About S+T+ARTS Prize Africa
With the STARTS Prize Africa, the European Union builds on the success of the renowned STARTS Prize, which has supported European innovation policy at the intersection of science, technology, and art since 2016. The STARTS Prize Africa is specifically aimed at artists and organizations that originate from, live in, or work in an African country. It honors interdisciplinary projects that address pressing challenges on the continent and offer new impulses for social, economic, or political change.
https://starts.eu/starts-prize-africa/
About Ars Electronica
The Ars Electronica Festival 2025 is funded by the City of Linz, the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport, the State of Upper Austria, as well as numerous sponsors and partner institutions. Historically closely tied together, the festival in 2025 will also be conducted in cooperation with ORF OÖ.
This year, too, the Ars Electronica Festival will be implemented as a Green Event—energy efficiency, careful waste management, circular use of material, as well as holistic sustainability are priorities. The festival thus contributes to reaching selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations
The project is funded by the European Union under the Grant Agreement No 101135691. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. The European Union cannot be held responsible for them.
