Ars Electronica Center

The Ars Electronica Center stands on the banks of the Danube in Linz, a glass-walled cube wrapped in 1,100 LED panels that turn the whole building into a giant screen. The original 1996 structure was enlarged in 2009 by Treusch architecture to 3,000 square metres of exhibition space, with a twin-tower, main gallery and Futurelab wing. Funding comes from the city, province and federal government plus private partners, and the organisation is led by artistic director Gerfried Stocker and financial director Diethard Schwarzmair. It is worth the journey because it links art, technology and society in ways no other museum does. The annual festival attracts up to 85,000 visitors and the Prix Ars Electronica, running since 1987, has become a benchmark for cyberarts innovation. The Futurelab itself hosts summer residencies for young innovators who develop new ideas with electronic media. Visitors find interactive exhibits on every floor. The Sky Media Loft on the top offers coffee and a view across the Nibelungen Bridge to Linz’s main square. The second floor has Musicbottles and Pingpongplus, while the first floor’s Hidden Worlds turns voices into colours and touch into screen motion. Between floors, the Humphrey flight simulator drops users into virtual landscapes wired to their bodies. In the basement, the CAVE cube projects weightless worlds for groups of ten. The Main Gallery’s four labs explore the brain, biotech, 3D printing and robotics, and the Deep Space room fills two walls with high-resolution journeys from the Solar System to the edge of the universe.