Christl BAUR is the Head of the Ars Electronica Festival, where she leads as an interdisciplinary researcher specializing in the convergence of art and science. She has curated and co-produced a wide range of exhibitions and performances, notably including the exhibition “40 Years of Humanizing Technology – Art, Technology, and Society” in collaboration with CAFA and the Design Society in Shenzhen, China. Baur’s expertise extends to various fields, including video art, new media technologies, computer art, biotechnology, and interactive art and she teaches at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.
Baur’s contributions are not limited to practical endeavors but also extend to academic publications. She has authored thought-provoking texts such as “Art with a Lifespan: Digital Technologies and the Preservation of Bio Art” and “Intersections of Media Art & the Art Market,” which have been featured in the Journal of Visual Art Practice. Furthermore, Baur’s expertise has made her a highly sought-after speaker, gracing prestigious conferences such as ISEA, TTT2020 Vienna, Montreal Digital Week, and Vienna Art Week with her insights. In addition, her contributions to the field of media art have been acknowledged through her participation in renowned international juries, including the NTU Global Digital Art Prize in Singapore, the Global Creative Technology Design Award, and she serves on the jury of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
SABINE HIMMELSBACH
Director, HEK (House of Electronic Arts)
Since 2012, Sabine HIMMELSBACH has been the director of HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel. After studying art history in Munich, she worked for galleries in Munich and Vienna from 1993–1996 and later became project manager for exhibitions and conferences for the Steirischer Herbst Festival in Graz, Austria. In 1999 she became exhibition director at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. From 2005–2011 she was the artistic director of the Edith-Russ-House for Media Art in Oldenburg, Germany. In 2011 she curated “gateways: Art and Networked Culture” for the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn as part of the European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011 program.
Her exhibitions at HEK in Basel include “Ryoji Ikeda”(2014), “Poetics and Politics of Data”(2015), “Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Preabsence”(2016), “unREAL”(2017), “Lynn Hershman Leeson: Anti-Bodies”, “Eco-Visionaries”(2018), “Entangled Realities. Living with Artificial Intelligence”(2019), “Making FASHION Sense” and “Real Feelings. Emotion and Technology”(2020), “Anne Dukhee Jordan”(2023), Collective Worldbuilding: Art in the Metaverse”(2023), “Exploring the Decentralized Web: Art on the Blockchain”(2023) and “Libby Heaney: Quantum Soup”(2024).
In 2021 she realized the online exhibition and conference “Hybrid by Nature: Human.Machine.Interaction” in collaboration with Goethe-Instituts of East Asia. In 2022 she curated “Earthbound – In Dialoge” with Nature for the European Capital of Culture Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg.
As a writer and lecturer, she is dedicated to topics related to media art and digital culture.
MARTIN HONZIK
CEO, Festival X
Martin HONZIK is an independent artist and since 2024 CCO from Festival X, Dubai(UAE), a young interdisciplinary Festival with a focus on Media Arts, Digital Culture and Digital Humanism. He has worked from 2001 to 2024 for Ars Electronica Linz in multiple Positions and Responsibilities. He joined Ars Electronica in 2001 as a Researcher and Artist at the Ars Electronica Futurelab with a focus on exhibition design, art in architecture, interface design, event design and project management. Since 2006, Martin HONZIK has been Managing Director of the Ars Electronica Festival, the Prix Ars Electronica, the Exhibitions in the Ars Electronica Center and Ars Electronica Export. He has been curating, co-curating and producing a considerable number of international Exhibitions in the context of Art, Science and Technology. Since 2021 he became CCO(Chief-Curatorial-Officer) of Ars Electronica Linz. Parallel to his Position as CEO at Festival X, he is Ars Electronica Ambassador. He studied visual experimental design at Linz Art University(graduated in 2001) and completed the master’s program in culture & media management at the University of Linz and ICCM Salzburg(graduated in 2003).
LEE SOOK-KYUNG
Director, The Whitworth, University of Manchester
Prof LEE Sook-Kyung is Director of the Whitworth at The University of Manchester. She was previously Senior Curator, International Art at Tate Modern, working in exhibitions, collection displays and acquisitions. She curated “Nam June Paik” at Tate Modern in 2019 with Rudolf FRIELING, which was on tour to Stedelijk Art Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, and National Gallery Singapore until early 2022. She has also curated several collection exhibitions and displays at Tate Modern, including “A Year in Art: Australia 1992″(2021-2023), “CAMP: From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf”(2019-2020) and “Xiao Lu and Niki de Saint Phalle”(2018-2019). She headed a major multi-year research initiative Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational at Tate Modern, overseeing its strategic vision and associated programming in relation to exhibitions and acquisitions.
Lee has been actively curating international art exhibitions beyond Tate. She was Artistic Director of the 14th Gwangju Biennale in 2023, titled soft and weak like water, which explored themes of resistance, indigeneity, decoloniality and ecology. She also served as the Commissioner and Curator of the Korea Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, representing MOON Kyungwon and JEON Joonho. She worked with the artist Yuko MOHRI as Curator of the Japan Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.
RODERICK SCHROCK
Curator, Executive Director of Eyebeam
Roderick SCHROCK is an arts organizer and curator. As a non-profit leader, he specializes in building institutional capacity and conceives and implements programs that elevate artists’ works in society. As the executive director of Eyebeam, he guides its focus to realign societal relationships with emergent technologies. Additionally, he is the host of Informer, a podcast featuring conversations with artists, technologists, and thinkers.
He has been an active practitioner in the arts, living and working in Japan and continuing studies in the Netherlands. He has written extensively for anthologies, periodicals, and other publications. As a digital and sound artist, Schrock has been commissioned by Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, The Netherlands America Foundation, and Ostrava New Music Days, among others. He received an MFA from Mills College in Oakland.
He currently teaches in the Curatorial Practice MA Program at the School of Visual Arts and has taught at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music(STEIM), California College of the Arts, and New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. He sits on the Netherlands America Foundation Cultural Committee, and was a founding board member of Art+Feminism. He regularly juries and nominates for national and international art awards.
