Prix Ars Electronica 2025: Robotics and AI in the Spotlight of Media Art
The renowned Prix Ars Electronica has announced its winning projects for 2025, with robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) playing a particularly prominent role. From nearly 4,000 submissions from 98 countries, four Golden Nicas and numerous other awards were presented, underscoring the diversity and innovative power of the media art scene worldwide.
Ars Electronica is an annual festival and media art competition held in Linz, Austria. The festival showcases innovative projects at the intersection of art, technology, and society. / Picture: © Wikimedia Commons / Walter Isack(Isiwal) / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
At a press conference in Linz, Gerfried Stocker, CEO of Ars Electronica, and Managing Director Veronika Liebl attributed the significant increase in submissions—particularly in the youth category, which saw a 43 percent increase—to the increased participation of countries from Africa, Latin America, and China. Thematically, Stocker emphasized the strong “connection between the digital and physical worlds, with the physicality of the world we live in,” while Liebl also identified “war and democracy, new protest cultures, but also proactive measures to strengthen democracy” as central themes.
Award-winning projects: From dystopian messages to robot llamas
In the “New Animation Art” category, Frode Oldereid and Thomas Kvam from Norway impressed with “Requiem for an Exit.” Their installation shows a robot arm projecting an aged face onto a cardboard head, reflecting dystopian messages about humanity's self-destruction and genocide. The duo has been working at the “interface between humans and machines” since 1994.
The prize in “Digital Musics & Sound Art” went to Navid Navab (Iran/Canada) and Garnet Willis (Canada) for “Organism.” They use a robotically modified pipe organ from 1910, whose sound is controlled by a robotically guided triple pendulum to create “uncontrollable chaos.” The installation can be seen in St. Mary's Cathedral, and Navab will give three concerts during the Ars Electronica Festival in September.
Paula Gaetano Adi, an artist from Argentina, received the Golden Nica in the “Artificial Life & Intelligence” category for “Guanaquerx.” Her project involves a robot in the shape of a llama, accompanied by numerous people, traversing a historic escape route from Argentina to Chile across the Andes. This project, which commemorates Latin America's liberation from Spanish colonial rule in 1817, aims to create an alternative vision to technological imperialism.
In the “u19-create your world” category for young talent, Aleksa Jovic and Nico Pflügler (Gilbert Gnos Productions) from Upper Austria won with their experimental short film “Das Ziegenkäsemachen aus der Sicht der Ziege” (Goat cheese making from the goat's perspective). The film, which is also their final project at the HBLA for artistic design in Linz, questions the consumability of art and cinema. The jury praised it as “a film that knows what TikTok is – and yet remains cinema.”
Special prizes and their significance
The Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity was awarded to “Synthetic Memories” by the Spanish Domestic Data Streamers. This project uses generative AI to reconstruct personal memories that were not recorded or have been lost, relying on guided interviews that are translated into AI-generated images.
The Isao Tomita Special Prize went to Japan's evala for his “highly aesthetic, soothing sound installation” entitled “ebb tide.”
Mayor Dietmar Prammer (SPÖ) honored the award winners and emphasized, as reported by ORF, that they “overcome their own limitations and operate at the intersection of art, technology, and society.” City Councilor for Culture Doris Lang-Mayerhofer (ÖVP) said that the projects inspire “courage and hope for the future” and was particularly pleased that the Golden Nica in the U19 category went to Linz once again.
The Prix Ars Electronica, the world's most traditional media art competition, serves as an important trend barometer and offers an inspiring insight into the future of art, technology, and society. The award-winning works will be prominently presented at the renowned Ars Electronica Festival from September 3 to 7, 2025, in Linz, Austria, with winners receiving cash prizes of up to €10,000 per category in addition to the Golden Nica.