For this salon, we were honored to host Laura Welzenbach, Head of Ars Electronica Export, who shared insights into the organizational development and growth of the festival. Laura walked us through the history and the ecosystem of Ars Electronica—from its Festival and Prix Ars Electronica to the Ars Electronica Center, “create your world”, and FUTURELAB. Founded in Linz in 1979, Ars Electronica is an Austrian cultural, educational, and scientific organization active in the field of new media art. The annual Ars Electronica festival is a dynamic convergence of art, technology, and innovation where visitors are immersed in large scale interactive installations, avant-garde performances, and thought-provoking exhibitions by some of the world’s most cutting-edge artists.

Following Laura’s presentation, Asher Remy-Toledo talked about Hyphen Hub’s ongoing collaboration with the annual Festival Internacional de la Imágen, which is held each year in Manizales, Colombia. For its 23^rd edition (May 2024), Asher spoke about the Hyphen Hub artists who would be participating including: multimedia artists Alfredo Salazar-Caro (MX) and Kevin Peter Hē (US) from New York-based Onassis/ONX Foundation; curator and writer Barbara London (US); artistic duo Only Slime (NO); electronic music group Neko3 (DK); Jason Barnes (US), the world’s first bionic drummer who incorporates A.I. into his performances; and XR artist and performer, Claudix Vanesix (PE) who combines immersive media with machine learning and performance art.

The salon was opened by Barbara London who introduced the speakers and spoke with about her own experience with both festivals.