798 at Ars Electronica 2026: Building New Connections Across Art and Technology

BEIJING, Sept. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2026 Ars Electronica Festival concluded on September 13. 798 Art District participated in the festival for the first time, joining this global platform for art, technology and society to present emerging practices from China while further expanding international collaboration and cross-disciplinary exchange.

As part of the festival's main exhibition program, 798 joined forces with pioneering new media artist Baoyang Chen and the internationally acclaimed TAO Dance Theater to present the special public performance Airy. Combining an industrial robotic arm, dancers, shimmering silk and digital imagery, the work explored how machine agency can be perceived through the body. Through moments of rhythmic misalignment, hesitation and renewed synchronization between human and machine, Airy created a dialogue between Eastern philosophies of music and body and contemporary technological systems.

On September 10, Baoyang Chen also participated in the "Birds of a Feather" session of the festival's Expanded Conference, where he introduced 798 Art District as a case study of China's rapidly evolving art-and-technology ecosystem. The discussion highlighted new forms of collaboration among artists, researchers, cultural institutions and technology communities in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics and embodied systems.

Building on the international connections established in Linz, 798 has also launched the 798 Multidisciplinary Residency Program in collaboration with BOUNDED SPACE. Under its inaugural theme, Pre / Sense, the program is now open to new media artists, electronic musicians and creative collectives worldwide.

Through residencies, academic exchange and industry collaboration, the program aims to foster deeper interaction across art, technology and music, while creating a platform where new ideas can emerge beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries.

From Linz back to Beijing, 798 seeks to transform one-time international encounters into a long-term framework for collaboration—allowing more future-oriented experiments to take shape within its historic industrial landscape.

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