Ars Electronica Festival 2006

Catalogue: SIMPLICITY - the art of complexity

SIMPLICITY—the pipedream of a society dominated by technical revolutions, global networks and inundations of information from mass media? The mantra of a new generation of user-centered information designers? Dogma of technophobic naysayers to progress? Or merely the—as yet unfulfilled—promise of IT companies? There has been hardly a concept of late that has been laid claim to in so many different quarters, and none that delivers such a trenchant reading of the vital signs of our times. So then: just how are we to cope with the increasing degree of complexity in the reality we inhabit? How can we tap and utilize the potential of global communication and realtime-access to information and ideas, to people and markets in an efficient as well as responsible way? How can we develop flexible, adaptable systems, devices and programs that are responsive to our strengths and intuitive capabilities, to support our activities in complex contexts? Which options and features could we possibly do without? And which would we be only too glad to dispense with? SIMPLICITY is not the opposite of complexity; rather, it is its complementary key, the formula that permits us to access and utilize the polyvalencies of virtual realities and global knowledge networks.

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		Ars Electronica 2006: SIMPLICITY - the art of complexity