Ars Electronica Center
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The Ars Electronica Center (AEC) is a center for electronic arts run by Ars Electronica situated in Linz, Austria, at the northern side of the Danube opposite the city hall of Linz. It has been built on the right side of the Nibelungenbrücke.
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[edit] Museum
The building is also known as the "Museum of the Future" and is one of the most important sights in Linz. The most modern techniques from the technology sector are presented to the museum's many visitors. The museum has six floors filled with creative work from hi-tech laboratories all over the world.
[edit] Museum exhibits
The top of the AEC is called the "Sky Media Loft", which is mainly used as a coffee house or bar of the museum. It can also be rented out for meetings or events. The bar has occasionally been used as the studio for the Newscast of the local TV branch of the Austrian national TV organization ORF. The speciality of the "Sky Media Loft" is the marvellous view over the Nibelungenbrücke and the main place of Linz at the other side of the Danube which functions as background of the Newscasts.
The second floor is also the floor where people can "Get in Touch" with the exhibits. There are Musicbottles filled with different sorts of music or Pingpongplus which is a Ping-Pong game on a desk with virtual Water on its surface waiting for the visitor to be explored. The first floor offers the world that had been hidden from our eyes. In the "Hidden Worlds" various machines are translating our voice and our words into virtual symbols or colours and everyday life articles can be moved on a screen if they are touched.
The little room between the first and the ground floor one of the main attractions is offered. The flight simulator "Humphrey" allows to dive into a world only made up by bits and bytes. The virtual reality goggle gives the user the right view of the flight and the person taking the trip is connected to the computer by cables fixed all over the body. It is possible to fly everywhere and to see the movements of the hands, feet and the landscape if the visitor raises the head or looks down.
The entrance or the so called "Login Gateway" of the museum is on the ground floor and leads the newcomer directly to the Telegarden where a robot is looking after a flower patch. Every ticket is provided with a bar code that gives information about the time the visitor stepped into the museum. After the visit the ticket can be put into a computer near the Exit and it gives statistic information about the things that happened in the world during the span of the stay in the AEC. The List that is printed out gives information about how many people died or were born during that time or how many accidents have been caused by drunken drivers.
The last floor is called "Virtual Reality" and it can be found in the basement of the building. The CAVE is another very interesting attraction of the museum. The cube with 3 meters side length is used as a screen to project the virtual world. There are always groups of about 10 that dive into a world were no physically laws do not have any meaning. Additionally, the 3D eyeglasses give the impression of a bodyful environment.
[edit] Guides, fees and more information
For those who are frightened to be faced with a world too complex and confusing, there are "Infotrainers" to help visitors through the exhibits. The "Infotrainers" are not machines, but humans who can answer questions immediately and show visitors around the 2000 square meters of creative objects.
The entrance fee, as of 2006, is 6 Euros for adults and half price for children and others with reduction rights. More information is available from the external links below.
[edit] FutureLab
The same building holds the Ars Electronica FutureLab, a place for researching and trying out new cyberarts technologies. See also the Prix Ars Electronica, a yearly award ceremony given out by Ars Electronica at their cyberarts festival. Since 2004, one of the awards at the Prix Ars Electronica brings a young innovator or team of innovators to the FutureLab for a summer to develop a budding idea or technology in electronic media.
