Research Institute for Arts and Technology


The Research Institute for Arts and Technology (RIAT) is an independent Austrian research institute established in 2015 and located in Neubau, Vienna. The aim of the institute is to investigate how technology and art can relate and inform each other in areas that include: open hardware, publishing, epistemic culture, cryptocurrencies and the blockchain.[1] In 2017 RIAT was recognized by the European Commission and Ars Electronica for innovation at the interface of science, technology and art with a STARTS Prize Honorary Mention.[2]

Research Institute
for Arts and Technology
AbbreviationRIAT
Predecessor5uper.net
Formation2015 (2015)
Merger ofArtistic Bokeh
Artistic Technology Lab
TypeNon-profit organization
Legal statusActive
Location
FieldsOpen Hardware
Publishing
Cryptocurrencies
Media art
Websiteriat.at

History

The institute was formed in 2015 after artists Bernhard Cella and Matthias Tarasiewicz made a decision to depart the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Since 2012 Cella and Tarasiewicz had both been leading research projects supported by the Austrian Science Fund[3][4] at the Center of Art and Knowledge Transfer within the University of Applied Arts Vienna.[5][6][7] Alongside the projects that were relocated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the other Viennese art initiatives Coded Cultures, 5uper.net and Artistic Bokeh were also integrated into the institute.[8]

In July 2018, RIAT researcher Andrew Newman announced at the Gray Area Festival that the institute now refers to itself as the RIAT Institute for Future Cryptoeconomics[9][10] although it is still legally named Research Institute for Arts and Technology[11]. Since then the institute has predominantly focused on blockchain and cryptocurrency research, joining a consortium of Austrian research institutions to establish the Austrian Blockchain Center[12][13]. In November 2018 the Austrian Blockchain Center received €20 million in funding from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency[14] and is described as the world's largest blockchain competence center[15]. RIAT leads the research area Data Science Methods for Blockchain Analytics & Predictions in partnership with the Austrian Institute of Technology[12].

Artist-in-Residence Program

RIAT runs an artist-in-residence program with the MuseumsQuartier in Vienna that focuses on research practices at the intersection of arts and technology.[16] The residency program started in 2005 through 5uper.net[17] and continued in 2012 with Artistic Bokeh[18]. In 2016 the residency program was expanded through a new partnership between the Research Institute for Arts and Technology and the Museumsquartier.[16] In 2017, RIAT shifted the focus of the residency program to inviting artists, researchers and developers working in cryptoeconomics.[19][20]

gollark: Where it shines is in performing random useful tasks which there isn't dedicated hardware available for, linking together disparate systems (much more practically than redstone), working as a "microcontroller" to control something based on a bunch of input data, and entertainment-/decorative-type things (displaying stuff on monitors and whatnot, and music with Computronics).
gollark: For example, quarrying. CC has turtles. They can dig things. They can move. You can make a quarry out of this, and people have. But in practice, they're not hugely fast or efficient, and it's hard to make it work well in the face of stuff like server restarts, while a dedicated quarrying device from a mod will handle this fine and probably go faster if you can power it somehow.
gollark: I honestly don't think CC is particularly overpowered even with turtles. While it can technically do basically anything, most bigger packs will have special-purpose devices which are more expensive but do it way better, while CC is very annoying to have work.
gollark: Out of all the available APIs in _G the only ones I can see which allow I/O of some sort directly and don't just make some task you can technically already do more convenient are `fs`, `os`, `redstone`, `http`, and `term`. You can, at most, probably disable `http` and `redstone` without breaking everything horribly, and it would still be annoying.
gollark: What other stuff would you disable, anyway? I don't think there's much which isn't just a utility API of some sort which you can disable without more problems.

References
  1. "Openism: Conversations on Open Hardware". University of Applied Arts Vienna.
  2. "2017 Winners". STARTS Prize. May 9, 2017. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
  3. Tarasiewicz, Matthias. "Researching critical new media arts & artistic technology" (PDF). FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds. Austrian Science Fund. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  4. Cella, Bernhard. "behind NO-ISBN" (PDF). FWF Der Wissenschaftsfonds. Austrian Science Fund. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  5. "Focus Artistic Research | Artistic Technology Research". University of Applied Arts Vienna. 16 April 2017. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  6. "Focus Artistic Research | NoISBN". University of Applied Arts Vienna. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  7. "Drei PEEK-Projekte gehen an die Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien". Austrian Press Agency (in German). 12 December 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
  8. "Das Coded Cultures Festival in Wien. Medienkunst Matters". The Gap (in German). 2016-05-19. Retrieved 2017-09-13.
  9. "The Gray Area Festival". San Francisco: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 26 July 2018. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  10. Newman, Andrew (28 July 2018). "Andrew Newman | Gray Area Festival 2018". YouTube. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. Retrieved 13 February 2020. Alt URL
  11. "RIAT - Research Institute for Arts and Technology". Austrian Research Promotion Agency. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  12. "ABC - Austrian Blockchain Center". Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  13. Pohselt, Daniel (27 April 2018). "Wie Österreichs Blockchain-Forscher ihre Kräfte bündeln wollen" [How Austria's blockchain researchers want to join forces]. Industrie Magazin. Archived from the original on 12 October 2018. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  14. Jilch, Nikolaus (29 November 2018). "20 Mio. Euro für Blockchain-Hub" [20 Million Euro for Blockchain-Hub]. Die Presse. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  15. "World's Largest Blockchain Competence Center approved in Vienna". Vienna University of Economics and Business. 29 November 2018. Archived from the original on 13 February 2020. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
  16. "Q21 eröffnet neues Artist-in-Residence Studio in Kooperation mit dem Research Institute for Arts and Technology im MuseumsQuartier Wien". OTS.at. Retrieved 2017-08-31.
  17. "Artist-in-residence - Toby Heys aka Battery Operated". Q21. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  18. "Artist-in-residence - Mirko Tobias Schaefer". Q21. Archived from the original on September 28, 2017. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  19. "eSeL.at | 23.08.2017 Crypto-Economics: Infrastructures & Artefacts | Hallenbad Alpbach, 6236 Alpbach". esel.at (in German). Retrieved 2017-09-18.
  20. "Program". www.q21.at. Retrieved 2017-09-18.
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