“HYPERMEDIA” – a week with a focus on technology and multimedia art at acatech

Munich, 31 July 2025

HYPERMEDIA – this is the title of the annual exhibition by students of LMU Munich in the degree programme “Art and Multimedia.” Twenty final projects were made accessible to the public by graduates of the programme at the acatech Forum at Karolinenplatz. As part of the Kunstareal-Fest and at the invitation of acatech, digital media entered into an exciting dialogue with analogue artistic forms of expression. The exhibition was framed by an opening night and a closing event that provided space and time for lectures and discussions on the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and the possibilities of multimedia art.

The exhibition: digital and analogue forms of artistic expression in dialogue

The HYPERMEDIA exhibition brings together techniques such as animation, video, and interactive media with traditional forms like painting, drawing, and sculpture. The thematic diversity ranges from the environmental impacts of modern technologies to personal identity and societal questions. The students experiment with the interplay of different media, their overlaps and transformations. This creates a dynamic space for creative exploration that makes the connection between digital innovation and traditional craftsmanship visible. In particular, when it comes to the topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and multimedia, acatech identified overlaps with the academy’s focus areas and offered to host the exhibition at the academy’s premises during the Kunstareal-Fest.

Vernissage: How much is technology becoming our new nature?

After welcoming addresses from Wolfgang Siegel (Administrative Managing Director, acatech) and Anja Mohr (Professor at the Institute for Art Education, LMU Munich), Karin Wimmer, who oversees the Arts and Multimedia degree programme at LMU Munich, gave an introduction and offered insights into the exhibition.

As a starting point, a provocative quote from Simone de Beauvoir from 1968 was used: “Soon technology will seem to us like nature itself, and we will live in a wholly dehumanized world.” Indeed, according to Karin Wimmer’s considerations, technology seems to have become our new nature. It is omnipresent, taken for granted, and almost vital, raising further questions about whether technology already seems “natural” to us, as a life without smartphones, the internet, or algorithms is hardly imaginable anymore. Will we have to renegotiate the human aspect in this technologized world?

Karin Wimmer gave an insight into how many ideas, how much planning, and teamwork the exhibition required – an intense collaboration over a total of three semesters, which culminated in the curation of the exhibition in the acatech premises at Karolinenplatz. A special role was played by one of the conference rooms there, furnished only with a large table and blue chairs: ‘When I saw this table with the chairs for the first time during a tour of the premises, as an art historian I, had to think of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper. The Last Supper interpreted contemporarily – nothing but this table and the blue chairs, in a white cube, so to speak.’ The table remained and was integrated into the exhibition.

Opening of the acatech Forum for the Kunstareal-Fest.

For two days, visitors of the Kunstareal-Fest could choose between looking at the Old Masters in the Pinakothek, “chilling” at FLUX, and engaging in multimedia art at acatech. About 300 art and technology enthusiasts made their way to the “HYPERMEDIA Exhibition” at acatech and got into conversations with the artists.

Finissage: in harmony with societal values

As part of the event series “acatech am Dienstag”, the finissage concluded the exhibition, allowed a final look at the exhibits, and invited discussion on digital humanism, ethics in the age of AI, and the possibilities of multimedia art:

Andrea Martin (Head of the IBM Watson Center Munich and acatech senator) spoke about “Ethics in the Age of AI.” She called on companies and developers to establish an AI ethics framework that ensures transparency, security, and data protection. Because, as Andrea Martin says, human beings are at the centre: AI systems should therefore be designed to support, not replace, human decisions. A functional AI governance is crucial for the future of technology in Europe. Only when AI is used responsibly and in harmony with societal values can it realize its full potential and gain the trust of people. In her opinion this topic is also a central point of the exhibition.

Karin Wimmer once again presented the concept of the exhibition to the guests. Subsequently, the author and film scholar Nathalie Weidenfeld lectured on “Ethics and Art in the Digital Age”: Starting from representations of robots painting pictures in film, she examined what implicit art theory Hollywood itself develops. Building on that, she discussed the aspects of originality, creativity, and reception in the digital age. She advocated for a ‘Digital Humanism’ in relation to AI and directly linked her thoughts to the remarks of Andrea Martin.

Advancing the dialogue on art and technology

acatech has presented new perspectives on the relationship between technology and society through this artistic cooperation. It will continue to leverage the numerous connections with partner organizations in the Kunstareal quarter to attract new target groups to the Academy’s dialogue formats.