smARTplaces: Alain Bieber | The museum as a digital ideas factory

From March 1st to 2nd, 2018, the conference »smARTplaces | INNOVATION in Culture« took place at the ZKM | Karlsruhe as part of the EU project »smARTplaces«.

Not only is digitization now in art’s DNA, cultural institutions are beginning to embark on disruptive paths in order to facilitate and support innovative processes. The »smARTplaces | INNOVATION in Culture« conference analyzes possibilities, and also necessities, of digital renewal within culture and spotlights audience development.

The NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is an international exhibition venue for photography, pop and digital culture – a lively ideas factory for the whole family. In group and individual exhibitions, festivals, lectures, workshops, film screenings and other new formats, we deal with current, social themes and translate them into energetic, dialogical formats. The interdisciplinary program stands out due to the highest artistic quality, and cultural relevance – and is still accessible and entertaining. The NRW forum Germany is an agora of contemporary culture, a social location, a space for experiments and dialogue - in real and virtual space.

In the lecture, Alain Bieber, the Artistic Director, reports on the first virtual reality exhibition, programming courses as a teaching program and audience development with artificial intelligence. 

Alain Bieber has been the Director of the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf since April 2015. Since 2004, Bieber has curated individual and group exhibitions all over Europe, on topics such as street art, post internet art, net and media art, political art, gaming and photography. In addition, he has founded numerous cultural projects: Including the web log »rebel:art« in 2004, the International Stickeraward in 2005, the video magazine »OH!« in 2007, the magazine club and virtual kiosk »Gute Seiten« in 2009, and the exhibition project »Parasites – illegal exhibitions, art exhibitions in unauthorized locations« in 2010.

Bieber studied rhetoric, literary sciences, sociology, and communications and political sciences from 1999 to 2005, in Tübingen and Paris. Until his appointment, Bieber worked in the cultural department of the European broadcaster ARTE in Straßburg, and managed the creative laboratory ARTE Creative there. Before that, he was the editor of the art magazine ART in Hamburg, and taught as a lecturer at several universities in Germany and France.

Videodocumentary:

ZKM | Videostudio

Camera: Andy Koch
Live-Editing: Christina Zartmann
Editing: Andy Koch