Ars Electronica’s A New Digital Deal 2021 Festival brought together Thoughtworks Arts director Ellen Pearlman, CounterPulse director Julie Phelps, and Zero1 director Shamsher Virk for Co-creation Containers - a dynamic round-table discussion on building community by digital infrastructure.

Ars Electronica is the largest and most time-honored new media arts festival in the world, going back more than thirty years. It was designed to take the Digital Revolution’s emergence as an opportunity to examine potential futures and to focus investigations at the intersection of art, technology, and society.

Co-creation Containers took place on Thursday, September 9th, as part of the festival’s online programming focused on digital humanity. Pearlman, Phelps, and Virk discussed how the climate crisis, international pandemic, and political polarization have challenged the limits of place, mobility, and infrastructure. All three panelists presented projects that show ways in which we can continue to create when borders are closed.

The discussion progressed into sharing ideas on how we can build creative connections across distance and difference, via creative, collaborative, and innovative platforms. Questions and insights from the public via a live discussion and question link provided framing for what the next chapter in the digital community may look like, with deep diving questions about who all will have access.

Ars Electronica’s The New Digital Deal Festival was an opportunity to come together and consider the advantages and failings we’ve developed with the digital world. It encouraged participants to think about how to shape our relationship to technology and propagate ways to meet new challenges. They also shared ideas on building creative connections across distance and difference via creative, collaborative, and innovative platforms.