NEGOTIATING HUMANITY – Ars Electronica 2026

From Europe’s technological sovereignty to water as a global resource, the diverse topics of the conferences at the 2026 Ars Electronica Festival are united by a common question: Who shapes the future?

The Ars Electronica Festival has always been a venue for open discourse on the issues of our time. This year’s conference program therefore once again focuses on current social issues: for example, the ability of democratic societies to remain capable of taking action and engaging in dialogue in the face of technological upheavals and geopolitical conflicts, or access to artificial intelligence (AI).

Standing Up to Escalation in the Digital Realm

The first conference, titled “Negotiating Reality – Conflict Culture, AI, and Democracy in the Digital Public Sphere,” on Wednesday, September 9, will examine the forces shaping the digital public sphere—from algorithms and disinformation to psychological mechanisms. Political scientist Ivan Krastev (BG) will open the day with reflections on democracy in the age of digital polarization. Political analyst Isabel Linzer (US), social psychologist Jon Roozenbeek (UK), and communication scholar Alexander Sängerlaub (DE) will discuss how digital platforms and content creators influence political debates. Political scientist Gustav Gressel (AT) and investigative journalist Jessikka Aro (FI) will address disinformation as a political tool of power. Christina Schwaha (AT) and Stefan Rathmanner (AT) from the Austria Press Agency will provide insight into their work as fact-checkers. The concluding discussion will focus on possible solutions for shaping digital public spaces that support discourse and constructive debate.

Von Europas technologischer Souveränität bis zu Wasser als globale Ressource verbindet die vielfältigen Themen der Konferenzen am Ars Electronica Festival 2026 eine gemeinsame Frage: Wer gestaltet die Zukunft?

Das Ars Electronica Festival ist immer auch ein Ort des offenen Diskurses zu Fragen unserer Zeit. Das diesjährige Konferenzprogramm widmet sich daher erneut aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Themen: etwa der Fähigkeit von demokratischen Gesellschaften, angesichts technologischer Umbrüche und geopolitischer Konflikte, handlungs- und dialogfähig zu bleiben oder dem Zugang zu Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI).

Der Eskalation im digitalen Raum trotzen

Die erste Konferenz mit dem Titel „Negotiating Reality – Conflict Culture, AI and Democracy in the Digital Public Sphere“ am Mittwoch, 9. September, untersucht jene Kräfte, die den digitalen öffentlichen Raum prägen – von Algorithmen und Desinformation bis zu psychologischen Mechanismen. Politologe Ivan Krastev (BG) eröffnet den Tag mit Überlegungen zur Demokratie im Zeitalter digitaler Polarisierung. Politikanalytikerin Isabel Linzer (US), Sozialpsychologe Jon Roozenbeek (UK) und Kommunikationswissenschaftler Alexander Sängerlaub (DE) thematisieren, wie digitale Plattformen und Content-Creators politische Debatten beeinflussen. Um Desinformation als politisches Machtinstrument geht es bei Politikwissenschaftler Gustav Gressel (AT) und Investigativjournalistin Jessikka Aro (FI). Und Christina Schwaha (AT) und Stefan Rathmanner (AT) von der Austria Presse Agentur geben Einblick in ihre Arbeit als Fact-Checker. Die abschließende Diskussion richtet den Blick in Richtung möglicher Lösungen für die Gestaltung digitaler öffentlicher Räume, die Diskurs und konstruktiven Widerspruch unterstützen.

Negotiating Reality – Conflict Culture,  AI and Democracy in the Digital Public Sphere

Democracy has always depended on places where different perspectives can meet, disagreement can be negotiated and shared futures can be imagined. Today, many of these encounters take place online, in digital spaces shaped by the logics of attention, amplification and emotional engagement. Here, disagreement can easily turn into polarization and fragmentation, while disinformation is increasingly used to deepen social divides, undermine trust and advance geopolitical interests.
This conference takes Negotiating Humanity as its starting point to explore how democratic discourse can be strengthened in increasingly complex digital information ecosystems.
The programme looks at the forces transforming the digital public sphere—from platform architectures and algorithmic amplification to information manipulation and the psychological dynamics behind polarization. Through current examples, it examines how conflicts are intensified, how disinformation and AI-generated content are changing the information landscape and what these developments reveal about the changing conditions of democratic life.
But the conference does not stop at diagnosis. The second part turns towards the possibilities ahead. If digital spaces have become an important part of our public life, how might we shape them to better support democratic participation and constructive disagreement? What new forms of digital inclusion, deliberation and civic participation could emerge? And how might AI contribute to these processes—not only as a technology that needs to be governed, but as a tool for building new democratic infrastructures?
Together, we will look at the digital spaces of the future and consider how to make them places where democracy can not only survive, but evolve.