Ars Electronica has officially announced its 2025 theme: "PANIC – yes/no." Scheduled to take place in Linz, Austria, from September 3 to 7, 2025, this year’s festival invites artists, technologists, researchers, and audiences to confront the visceral realities and transformative potential of panic in today’s world.
Decoding "PANIC – yes/no"
We’re living in a time of system shocks—climate emergencies, AI disruption, political polarization. Panic is no longer a glitch; it’s the default. But does panic paralyze us, or push us into action? The binary in the theme title—yes/no—is a provocation. Ars Electronica wants to know: Do we surrender to the overwhelm, or do we rewrite the script?
Since its founding in 1979, Ars Electronica has been a global pulse-check on art, science, and society. The 2024 theme, “HOPE,” explored optimism as a tool for change. “PANIC – yes/no” builds on that inquiry, this time dissecting urgency, uncertainty, and the emotional mechanics of transformation.
Highlights of the 2025 Festival: Panic, Power, and Possibility
This September, Ars Electronica turns Linz into a hyper-charged lab of future-shaping ideas. The 2025 edition—PANIC – yes/no—isn’t just another media arts festival; it’s a five-day interrogation of our collective nervous system, fusing art, technology, science, and activism into one sprawling, citywide experience.
POSTCITY returns as the festival’s beating heart—an abandoned logistics hub reimagined as a data-saturated dreamscape. Inside, visitors will encounter immersive installations, interactive media, and provocations that map the anatomy of panic across digital and physical domains. From algorithmic anxiety to climate dread, this is art as alert system.
Image Credit: Ars Electronica
The prestigious Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition lands at Lentos Kunstmuseum, spotlighting cutting-edge projects in Artificial Intelligence & Life Art, Interactive Art +, and Digital Communities. This year’s winners confront the panic button head-on, whether through generative media, speculative biotech, or collective storytelling platforms.
On September 5, POSTCITY’s cavernous train hall becomes the stage for The Emperor of Atlantis or The Disobedience of Death—Viktor Ullmann’s dystopian opera composed inside a Nazi concentration camp. It’s a chilling, timely meditation on authoritarianism, rebellion, and the cost of human silence—performed where steel, code, and history collide.
Critical discourse takes center stage in a series of high-impact talks and panels. The STARTS Day investigates the role of tech-driven art in shaping Europe’s digital sovereignty, while the European Platform for Digital Humanism confronts the social architectures of fear—what builds them, and what breaks them.
Kick things off early on September 2 with the Pre-Opening Walk—a guided journey through installations and interventions scattered across Linz. Expect kinetic sculptures, pop-up performances, and a few surprises embedded into the city’s everyday rhythm.
Ars Electronica 2025 isn’t here to soothe. It’s here to signal. This is where the world’s artists, coders, researchers, and cultural disruptors gather to ask the only question that matters right now: If panic is the signal—what’s the response?
Save the Date
Mark your calendars for September 3 to 7, 2025. For updates and detailed program information, visit the official Ars Electronica website.
In a world teetering between chaos and order, Ars Electronica 2025's theme, "PANIC – yes/no," serves as a timely exploration of our collective psyche and the choices that define what comes next.
