CultTech Summit | NODE Media Lab Panel Discussion

Communities of Communities: Austria’s Art–Tech Ecosystem Remix
23 October 2025 / Main Stage, Haus der Wissenschaften, Vienna
Moderated by NODE Media Lab

Speakers:

Patricia J. Reis — Mz* Baltazar’s Laboratory

HC Hasselmann — das LOT

Litto / Daniela Weiss — SystemKollektiv & Artificial Museum

Tamer Aslan — City Games Vienna

How do communities shape the intersections of art, technology, and culture? At CultTech Summit 2025, NODE Media Lab brought together a group of Austria-based collectives for Communities of Communities: Austria’s Art–Tech Ecosystem Remix, a panel discussion exploring how community-driven practices contribute to the evolving cultural landscape in Vienna and beyond.

Bringing together perspectives from immersive storytelling, urban gaming, and experimental cultural practices, the discussion examined how diverse and interconnected communities generate new forms of collaboration, exchange, and collective creation. Moving beyond the idea of isolated organisations or individual initiatives, the panel considered how creative ecosystems emerge through relationships between practitioners, spaces, disciplines, and communities.

At the centre of the conversation was collaboration as a form of cultural infrastructure. Through shared knowledge, mutual support, and collective authorship, independent cultural initiatives create networks that enable experimentation, sustain creative practices, and open up new possibilities at the intersection of art and technology. 

The panel also addressed the role of community agency in shaping more resilient, inclusive, and innovative ecosystems. From artistic research and experimental cultural spaces to interactive urban experiences, the participating initiatives demonstrate how local communities can create alternative frameworks for participation, learning, and exchange. Their practices highlight the importance of building connections across disciplines and expanding the ways in which culture is produced, experienced, and shared.

NODE Media Lab positioned the art–tech ecosystem as a dynamic network shaped not only by technological innovation, but also by the people, relationships, and shared values that sustain it. Communities of Communities invited a reflection on how interconnected creative communities can strengthen Austria’s cultural landscape and contribute to more collaborative, open, and sustainable futures for art and technology.