The Research Institute for Arts and Technology (RIAT) is an independent and international

research institute A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often i ...

established in 2012 in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

and operating internationally. The aim of the institute is to investigate how technology and art can relate and inform each other in areas that include:

open hardware Open-source hardware (OSH) consists of physical artifact (software development), artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this ope ...

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, epistemic culture,

cryptocurrencies A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank A bank is a financial i ...

and the

blockchain A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...

. In 2017 RIAT was recognized by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

and

Ars Electronica Ars Electronica Linz GmbH is an Austrian cultural, educational and scientific institute active in the field of new media art, founded in Linz in 1979. It is based at the Ars Electronica Center (AEC), which houses the Museum of the Future, in the ...

for innovation at the interface of science, technology and art with a STARTS Prize Honorary Mention.

History

The organisation began as Artistic Bokeh in 2012. It established itself as the Research Institute for Arts and Technology in 2015 after artists

Bernhard Cella Bernhard Cella (born 1969 in Salzburg) is an Austrian artist and curator. Academic career Cella studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Erich Wonder, the University of Arts and Industrial Design Linz with Herbert Lachmayer and the Hoch ...

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 The Austrian Science Fund (german: Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF) is the most important Austrian funding organization for basic research. The FWF supports research in science, engineering, and the humanities through a ...

at the Center of Art and Knowledge Transfer within the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Alongside the projects that were relocated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the other Viennese art initiatives

Coded Cultures Coded Cultures is a conference and festival series developed by the Austrian artist collective 5uper.net and since 2016 is included in the Research Institute for Arts and Technology. The first ''Coded Cultures'' focused on the theme 'Decoding Digi ...

, 5uper.net and Artistic Bokeh were also integrated into the institute. In July 2018, RIAT researcher Andrew Newman announced at the

Gray Area Festival Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization supporting art and technology for social good in San Francisco, California. Gray Area hosts exhibitions and music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab, ...

that the institute now refers to itself as the RIAT Institute for Future Cryptoeconomics although it is still legally named Research Institute for Arts and Technology. 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 Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

. In November 2018 the Austrian Blockchain Center received €20 million in funding from the

Austrian Research Promotion Agency The Austrian Research Promotion Agency (german: links=no, Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft or FFG) is an organization for the promotion of research and innovation in the field of applied and industrial research in Austria and i ...

and is described as the world's largest blockchain competence center. RIAT leads the research area Data Science Methods for Blockchain Analytics & Predictions in partnership with the Austrian Institute of Technology.

Artist-in-Residence Program

RIAT runs an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

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

External links

Research Institute for Arts and Technology

Coded Cultures

Journal for Research Cultures

Salon für Kunstbuch

References

{{Authority control Research institutes in Austria Scientific organisations based in Austria Research institutes established in 2015