From the spread of misinformation and the erosion of trust in digital environments to geopolitical tensions and the accelerating transformations driven by climate change, the installations offered critical and often poetic responses to global issues. The works spanned a wide range of media and research approaches – from speculative design and visual taxonomies to performative installations – alongside projects that integrated custom electronics, sound, and interactive lighting. Many of the exhibited pieces questioned how we understand time, data, and human agency, drawing the audience into a sensory dialogue with systems that are at once deeply personal and planetary in scope.  

Zsófia Kérdy and László Majsai’s Don’t Look Up! explored the collective experience of sensing climate change through data-driven methods, while Windows of Time by Lili Tóth looked at how our perception of time is changing.  Gergő Gábor Péri’s light installation Turn the Lights Off! reflected on the intertwining of global systems, and the interactive prototype Attentive Tangible Interface by Viki Pere and Brigitta Burkus introduced an innovative approach to the tactile dimensions of digital interfaces. Dóra Lilla Illés’s immersive installation Thetos – The Island of Tranquility focused on the blurred lines between personal experience and algorithmic interpretation, questioning the authenticity of machine-generated narratives.  

Coordinated by the University of Arts Linz, the 2025 Ars Electronica Campus Exhibition featured projects from 37 universities, placing MOME alongside institutions such as the Royal College of Art and other leading European art schools. The Campus format showcases the latest research-based experiments in higher education and encourages collective reflection on contemporary crises and possible directions for the future.  

At this year’s Ars Electronica Festival, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME) will present a selection of works by students from across its programmes, reflecting the university’s strong interdisciplinary spirit. The projects grew out of a shared sense of urgency to address the complex, interconnected crises shaping contemporary life. Together, the installations formed a collective narrative that was both reflective and forward-looking. Rather than offering solutions, they opened up new perspectives and encouraged viewers to pause, think, and reconsider their relationship with a rapidly changing world. MOME’s presence at this year’s festival highlights the power of art and design education in not only interpreting the present but also in shaping prototypes for the future.  

Students and faculty’s travel to Linz was funded under the Tempus Public Foundation’s Pannonia Scholarship Programme.