Interface Cultures | Home

About
Courses
Exhibitions
Lab
Research
Community

Partners
Press
Media
Calendar

One of the hallmarks of Interface Cultures is its combination of people and approaches from various backgrounds and disciplines encompassing both the arts and the sciences. Naturally, the department has and actively continues to engage in research. Here, we present some of the current and past research endeavors.

Critical Data Research Group

The relationship between artists/creators and the digital world is of great value for the study, critical mediation and use of data, data processing systems and related knowledge. Not only can they make visible how systems of digitalisation work, but also how they do not. By analysing artistic works at the intersection of digital art, big/small/thick/thin data and machine learning alongside ethics, philosophy and political/social commitments, we critically investigate the place society and its environment can take in relation to the latest technological developments. More broadly, the Critical Data Research Group questions the handling of technology and explores artistic worlds in the digital cosmos operating between promise, manipulation and conspiracy.

Events
Feminist AI Lectures: Infopage, watch online on mediaspace

Critical Data On Tour: Infopage

Critical Data Research Group + Guest Talk by SKKU, Fernando Velázquez, and Julia Kloiber: Infopage

Publications
Naveau, M., Wöran, A. 2024. “Feminist AI at Interface Cultures Linz. Wenn Digitale Kunst hegemoniale, cisgender Weltansichten dekonstruiert“. In: Journal Netzwerk Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung NRW, Vol. 2024, Issue 55, pp. 53–60). doi.org

Naveau, M., Wöran, A. (forthcoming). “Sounding out AI”. In: AIREA. Arts and Interdisciplinary Research, University of Edinburgh

Joler, V., Naveau, M., et al. (2024). Critical Data On Tour. Research posters and artistic intervention in public space by PhD students and in collaboration with WIP Festical, Cyens Centre Cyprus. Nicosia, Cyprus. 
Online at: www.kunstuni-linz.at/wip-arts-technology-festival-2024

PhD-Research

Candidates 
César Escudero Andaluz
Marta Beauchamp
Qingyi Ren
Alexia Achilleos
Gordan Savicic
Juliane Götz
Yann Patrick Martins
Charleen Elberskirch
Hess Jeon

Further Projects and Collaborations

Infrastructures for Digital Arts Teaching and Research in Higher Education (2020-2024)

Project Team: Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Tiago Martens
Funded by: Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung (BMBWF), Digitale und soziale Transformation in der Hochschulbildung
Project Lead: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christa Sommerer and Uni. Prof. Dr. Laurent Mignonneau
Project Partners: University for Continuing Education (Department of Image Sciences), 
dieAngewandte (fulldome lab)
Period of Funding: March 2020 – February 2024
Project Partners: Univ.-Prof. Dr. habil. Oliver Grau, MAE, Department of Image Sciences, University for Continuing Education Krems (project lead)
Univ.-Prof. Mag Ruth Schnell, University of Applied Arts, Vienna 

Led by the Department of Image Sciences of the University for Continuing Education Krems the starting point of the project “Infrastructures for Digital Arts Teaching and Research in Higher Education” was the constantly and rapidly changing environment of the digital arts. On the one hand, they continue to reflect on the technological advances of digitalisation, yet, on the other hand, the digital arts are themselves increasingly confronted with the phenomenon of transience when it comes to archiving, documenting, and exhibiting older works. The main focus of the project was the expansion and exploration of innovative infrastructure for education and research in the realm of digital art. As part of the project, possibilities of virtual accessibility and immersive experience spaces of digital archives were developed. One such approach is explored in “AR[t]chive – an immersive augmented reality (AR) experience for interacting with archive contents”. By means of a Hololens 2 headset, archive contents are presented as interactive virtual elements arranged in real space. Users can manipulate images, keywords and other elements directly using their hands to reveal connections and create compositions in space. Collections can be expanded into three-dimensional swirls of media and word-clouds. A pin tool allows users to create connections between media. AR[t]chive was designed as an exploratory research tool but is also suitable to be experienced in an exhibition context. It was shown as part of the traveling exhibition “The Artwork as a Living System”, with a focus on the works of C. Sommerer and L. Mignonneau.

Exhibitions 
“AR[t]chive” has been exhibited within the traveling exhibition “The Artwork as a Living System” in the following locations:

2022 – ZKM Karlsruhe, Deutschland
2023 – OK Linz, Österreich
2023 Ars Electronica Campus 2023, Linz, Österreich
2023 – iMAL Brüssel, Belgien
2024 – Azkuna Zentroa Bilbao, Spain

Publications
Martins, T., Sommerer, C. and Mignonneau, L. 2022. “AR[t]chive – Augmented Reality Experience for a Digital Art Archive”. ISEA 2022, Barcelona, Spanien.

Martins, T., Sommerer, C. and Mignonneau, L. 2024. “Exploring a digital art archive in mixed reality”. Virtual Creativity, vol. 13, no. 2 doi.org

Martins, T., Romão, T. 2025. “Insights Into the Usability of a Digital Art Archive in Mixed Reality”. CHI EA ’25: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan; doi.org