Located astride the Danube between Austria’s cultural giants of Salzburg and Vienna, Linz is becoming one of the world’s most dynamic and experiential cities. ‘In Linz beginnts’ (it all begins in Linz) is a famous Austrian saying which reflects the city’s newfound identity and confidence.
Not so long ago Linz had a reputation, as ‘Linz stinks!’ – literally and metaphorically, firstly for its heavy industry and secondly for its 1930s connections with the Third Reich, when Linz was the Nazi’s cultural centre and a patronage city of Adolf Hitler who planned to retire there.
Post-war division
Post-war Linz was a divided city for 10 years, with a demarcation between the Soviet-occupied northern zone and the US-occupied zone to the south of the Danube. Extensive bombing during the war necessitated bold new plans and a strong investment in culture and education, as Linz remained heavily industrialised, with none of the tourist appeal of other Austrian cities.
It has no high mountains, few historic buildings and no snow sports; but from 1986, as war-time factories were turned to civilian use, it became a city with exceptional things to do and see – including the Voestalpine Steelworks visitor centre and the Mural Harbour outdoor graffiti gallery.
Also noteworthy is the wonderful Höhenrausch hybrid rooftop sculpture park-cum-observation tower- cum-theatre – a network of wooden bridges, walkways and frequently-changing immersive art installations that sits high above a school and shops, passing through a church tower in the city centre, unmissable and exhilarating in its boldness, simplicity and innovativeness.
Today, the charm of Linz rests in the juxtaposition of the old city with new technology and architecture; with its dark past and brave vision for the future. It’s a city of open conversations, a desire to experiment and a collective will to do things that are good for the community.
“This city was so unattractive it was free to reinvent itself and it is now impossible to stop the revolution”, says Manfred Grubauer, chair of Linz Tourism.
Among the catalysts for the transformation of Linz have been its role as European Capital of Culture in 2009 and UNESCO City of New Media in 2017 and today, Linz is synonymous with progress, vitality and vision founded on culture, new media, sustainable urban development and highly creative tourist experiences. Few post-industrial cities have transformed themselves as radically and successfully and it’s recently been voted as the city with the best work-life balance in Austria.
Ars Electronica – a catalyst for change
At the heart of this metamorphosis is the remarkable Ars Electronica Linz GmbH – a hybrid cultural, scientific, and educational institute dedicated to facing the future head-on.
Since 1970, this not-for-profit has explored relationships between art, science and technology and their impacts on society. The organisation’s four interrelated divisions work to create a self-fuelling ecosystem which finds applications for innovative, radical and eccentric ideas.
The creation of the Ars Electronica Institute began with a festival in 1979 when it was realised that a culture-led transformative initiative was required to change Linz from an industrialised, heavily-polluted city burdened with an unenviable history, to a city based on innovation and people.
As a result, four inspirational locals: journalist Hannes Leopoldseder; musician Hubert Bognermayr; physicist Herbert Franke and music producer Ulrich Rutzel conceived and delivered the first festival exploring the confluence of art, technology and society.
Since then the Ars Electronica Festival has been a proving ground for innovation and research, becoming a global phenomenon and a pillar of the renaissance of the city.
Every year, in September, the festival turns Linz into an experimental setting, inviting artists, scientists and researchers from all over the world to confront a specific, interdisciplinary theme through speeches, workshops, exhibitions and symposia.
A creative feedback loop
Each festival is dedicated to a different issue and the formats are the very opposite of sacrosanct. The festival is accompanied by Prix Ars Electronica – a competition and international trend barometer run by a team constantly on the lookout for what’s new, exciting, radically different and making an impact right now.
A showcase of technology and arts excellence, the prix attracts entrants ranging from Oscar winners such as John Lasseter of Pixar fame and global musicians such as Peter Gabriel to emerging young talent.
In 2019 the Ars Electronica Festival attracted over 110,000 people to the city, from global innovators, grandparents and nursery school children to the world’s leading scientists delivering mind-bending innovations.
In addition to the festival and the awards, other initiatives from the institute include Ars Electronica Futurelab, Ars Electronica Solutions and the Ars Electronica Center (AEC) – organisations that extend their feelers into the realms of science and research, art and technology.
These various divisions of the Ars Electronica Institute inspire one another and put futuristic visions to the test in a unique, creative feedback loop. It’s an integrated organism, continuously reinventing itself, with ‘for profit’ activities funding ‘not-for-profit’ undertakings.
Ars Technica Center
AEC is the most visible initiative – a permanent visitor attraction that first opened in 1996 to bring a year-round dimension to the work of the institute.
The centre – affectionately known as the Museum of the Future – is the architectural expression of everything Ars Electronica does – a place of inquiry, discovery and exploration and the year-round setting for presentations and interactions with the public. It also acts as a test bed for the in-house R&D work of Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ars Electronica Solutions.
The four-storey crystalline glass cube links to an open-air terraced amphitheatre and viewing platform, with the bold landmark building a contemporary counterpoint to neighbouring historic churches, completing a triptych of modern, bold cultural buildings – the other two being the Brucknerhaus Concert Hall and the Lentos Kunstmuseum, a contemporary arts museum.
Unpretentious by day and shimmering by night, what goes on in this building is awe inspiring and extraordinary, combining art and science in ground-breaking ways to arrive at new perspectives and approaches to the challenges facing society.
The transparent glass surfaces of the AEC can be illuminated from behind as a projection screen, creating a night-time light sculpture that can be populated with LED and LCD screens, allowing light shows and interactive, viewer-generated content.
This interaction with people is driven by Bluetooth-connected pads along the banks of the Danube which link to mobile phones, creating a unique light show that’s visible across the city.
The exhibitions on art, technology and society segue into laboratories and these segue into exhibitions throughout the centre, purposefully appealing to many different audiences, from cruise ship passengers to local schoolchildren.
What’s inside?
The highlight of the Ars Electronica Center is the unique ‘Deep Space – the Theatre of the Future’: an extraordinary VR experience which opened in 2009 to celebrate European Capital of Culture. Other current exhibitions include: Understanding AI; Me and the machine; Machine learning studio; Global shift; Kids’ research laboratory; AI x music; The open soundstudios and the Deep Space 8K.
Also on show are four open labs which consist of interactive stations, works of art, research projects and large-scale projection laboratories. Personal highlights include ‘There is No Plan B’ which explores where energy comes from; and Neuro Bionics, an exhibition that explores the brain and how all our conscious and unconscious functions are controlled, how we feel and perceive, think and decide.
AEC is also showing a large exhibition called ‘In transfer – a new condition’ which is an outreach project from the European Capital of Culture of Esch in Luxemburg.
A city reborn
But the AEC is more than an architectural icon, it’s the symbol of the ‘new’ Linz, offering the antidote to what the city was 40 years ago when it was all about steel, chemicals, tobacco, pollution and traffic.
Linz is not trying to stop being an industrial city, but instead trying to become an industrial city of the 21st century. Companies based there are developing new technologies – Voestalpine, for example, is working on producing green steel – and an institution such as Ars Electronica reflects what this trend means for us as a society.
Linz is an exemplar of a post-industrial city which has successfully transformed itself and placed tourism, visitor attractions and culture at the heart of this transformational process. Importantly, the process continues – the concept of ‘Linz Changes’ has to be ongoing by its very definition.
