About this place
Standing on the northern bank of the Danube in the Urfahr district, the Ars Electronica Center is the physical home of a cultural institution that has made Linz a world capital of media art. The Ars Electronica idea was born here in 1979, when a small festival dared to ask what art might look like in a digital age, and it grew into the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica and a globally respected research lab. The Center itself opened in 1996 as a prototype 'Museum of the Future', then was rebuilt and dramatically enlarged for Linz's year as European Capital of Culture in 2009. Today its exhibitions invite you to experiment with robotics, biotechnology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence, while its jewel, the Deep Space 8K, wraps visitors in floor-to-wall projections at breathtaking resolution. By night the building becomes Linz's most famous landmark, a crystal of light answering the baroque towers across the river.
Key facts
- 38500 LEDs — Programmable lights fill the glass shell, turning the whole facade into a colour-changing screen
- 1979 year — The very first Ars Electronica festival launched in Linz, long before digital art went mainstream
- 16 meters — The Deep Space 8K wall projection stretches this wide, matched by an equally large image on the floor
📍 AEC-Platz, 4040, Linz