Maria Pfeifer & Peter Holzkorn
Key researchers @ Ars Electronica Futurelab
Maria Pfeifer (AT) is Key Researcher for Future Narratives, where she investigates the question, how stories about the futures can change the here and now. Other thematic interests lie in Art Thinking, art-inspired innovation, Data Art and Science and the collaboration between art and science. She studied art, comparative literature and cultural studies in Vienna and has been working for the Ars Electronica Festival and Futurelab on and off since 2011, and since 2016 as a steay member of the Futurelab’s interdisciplinary team.
She is particularly interested in the potential social impact of future technologies-such as artificial intelligence, big and small data, automated driving, virtual reality-beyond their direct fields of application. Research projects she has been involved in include topics such as Work of the Future, Ethical AI, Automated Environments, Future Skills, Speculative Design & Artistic Strategies in Futures Research.
Since 2022, she is also a member of the Future Panel Oberösterreich, the interdisciplinary advisory board of the Oö. Zukunftsakademie.
Peter Holzkorn (AT) is Key Researcher & Artist for “Data Sentience” at the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, Austria. His research investigates the changing relationship between society and data through artistic explorations.
He joined the Futurelab in 2011 and has worked – as artist, developer and systems architect – on data art pieces, large-scale media art installations and a multitude of other projects connecting real-time sound and graphics, sensor networks and generative content. Project partners include SAP, Vienna Airport, Queensland University of Technology, and Carinthia State Museum.
For several years, he was technical lead for the Futurelab’s swarm robotics performance projects, advancing development of swarmOS, the technology behind the Spaxels (pioneering drone light shows) and the Fluxels, a robot swarm performance that most prominently appeared at the Olympic Torch Relay in 2021.
He also coordinates activity for the Ars Electronica Futurelab Academy, a framework for knowledge transfer with universities and organizations in related fields, and was centrally involved in the IT:U FOUNDING LAB, an experimental semester at Linz’ new university, envisioning teaching and learning in the future.