[Podcast] Postdigital Design Strategies for Media Art
6 January, 2025
Keywords: sustainable development, ArtTech Fusion, digital technology, digital art, ATF24.
In the context of the rapidly developing digital technology world, media art and digital design are facing new challenges and opportunities. Within the framework of the ArtTech Fusion 2024 held at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH), Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner had an interesting presentation on the topic “Postdigital Design Strategies for Media Art”. In his speech, he provided insights into the role of technology in art and pointed out new approaches that help artists create interactive, innovative and sustainable artworks.

With the theme “Postdigital Design Strategies for Media Art” – Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner’s presentation opened up promising directions in combining advanced technologies like AI, VR, AR with tangible user interfaces to enhance artistic value and user experience.

Figure 1. Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner presenting the topic “Postdigital Design Strategies for Media Art”
Digital technology: Challenges and opportunities for artists
In the context of digital technology becoming increasingly popular and saturated, artists and designers face a major challenge of how to create artworks that are both creative and attractive among diverse digital art products. Professor Kaltenbrunner pointed out that digital technology become so popular that using technology alone to create works is no longer attractive enough. This requires artists to find new, more creative ways to overcome the limitations of current technology and bring in works of high artistic value.

Figure 2. Professor Martin Kaltenbrunner’s presentation
According to him, the development of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (Vr), Augmented Reality (AR) and tangible user interfaces has opened up limitless creative opportunities for artists. These technologies are tools to support the creation of artworks and directly interact with the audience to create new and deeper artistic experiences.
For example, AI is not only a tool to help create images, sounds or videos but also has the ability to analyze the behavior and feedback of viewers to change or refresh the artwork over time. This creates a huge amount of flexibility, allowing artists to create works that can change and evolve with the viewer’s participation.
The Importance of AI in Digital Art
Professor Kaltenbrunner emphasized that AI can become an indispensable part of artistic creation. AI assists artists in creating images, and “understands” and “responds” to elements from the audience. This opens up a new world for artists in their creativity and helps them create highly interactive artworks, allowing viewers to feel the work more deeply.
One of the examples that Professor Kaltenbrunner took was art projects in which AI was used to create works that could change over time or according to the viewer’s interaction. This helps create richer and more diverse experiences while encouraging viewers to participate in the creative process.
Reactable: Music Interaction Through Technology
Introducing Reactable, an innovative music tool, Professor Kaltenbrunner shared that this is one of the typical examples of the combination of technology and music. Reactable is a music tool that can turn visual signals into sound. Developed by researchers at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Reactable was first used by rock star Björk on her Volta tour in 2007. With Reactable, players can create music by moving icons on the screen without the need for buttons or controls like conventional electronic instruments. This creates a different and engaging musical experience where music becomes an interactive creative process between players and technology.
Reactable is a typical example of how artists can use tangible user interfaces to create interactive artworks. With Reactable, music is not just a supplement to the artwork; actually, the music itself is the element that creates a rich and profound experience for the participant.

Figure 3. Reactable
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality: Interactive Art Spaces
Professor Kaltenbrunner continued to talk about the role of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in modern media art. Both technologies offer unique opportunities in building interactive art spaces, where the audience is not only a viewer but can also directly participate in creating the work.
Virtual Reality (VR) allows participants to enter a virtual space, where they can interact with elements in that virtual environment to create rich and new artistic experiences. Meanwhile, Augmented Reality (AR) combines the real world with virtual elements to help participants perceive the artwork more vividly and intuitively.
Tangible User Interfaces (TUI): Connecting the Physical and Virtual Worlds
A prominent trend in post-digital design that Professor Kaltenbrunner mentioned is Tangible User Interfaces (TUI). TUI is a concept in user interface design where users can interact with data through physical objects. This is a development in post-digital design, creating a connection between the physical and virtual worlds.
Tangible user interfaces provide more intuitive and vivid experiences than traditional interfaces, allowing users to manipulate and interact more naturally. This is especially important in the design of interactive artworks, where users are not only observing but also directly participating in the creative process.
Metamusic – Alien Productions: Music Art and Technology
One of the notable projects introduced by Professor Kaltenbrunner is Metamusic – Alien Productions, a music initiative that combines advanced technology. This project brings new musical concepts and explores “alien” methods in creating music and digital art. Metamusic is a great example of how art and technology can combine to create products that go beyond the traditional boundaries of music and art.

Figure 4. Metamusic – Alien Productions
Embodied Gestures: Body Gestures in Art
An important concept that Professor Kaltenbrunner mentioned is Embodied Gestures, in which the movements and gestures of the user’s body become the main means of communication and conveying messages in artworks. This is an important field in user interface design and interactive art when participants not only observe but also directly use their bodies to impact the work.

Figure 5. Embodied Gestures
Continuous Creativity in Post-Digital Design
Finally, Professor Kaltenbrunner encourages artists and designers to constantly innovate and experiment with new ways of combining art with technology. He believes that in a digital world, art will never stop, it will always develop and adapt to changes in technology. The application of post-digital design strategies will create unique artworks and contribute to enriching the audience experience in the digital age.
Speakers, students, designers and young artists will have the opportunity to learn from new technologies and contribute to the development of art and design in the future. With vision and continuous creativity, we can believe that media art will continue to thrive and to open up richer and more diverse art spaces in the upcoming years.
ATF24 – A platform shaping the future for the young creative generation towards sustainability
In line with the development trend of the field of ArtTech, the international ArtTech Fusion (ATF) series is organized annually by ArtTech Hub (ATH), a unit under UEH College of Technology and Design (CTD), University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) in coordination with domestic and foreign units with different themes each year. 2024 is the third time the international ArtTech Fusion series is organized with the theme “New ArtTech for Future Generations” to arouse and to promote creative thinking and innovative actions of the future generation, contributing to building a sustainable society. Throughout the 3-day ATF24 journey (October 22-24, 2024), there were be more than 30 academic and practical activities including 05 Keynote Speeches, 10 Special Sessions, 05 Parallel sessions, 05 Workshops, 01 Book Chapter, 09 Exhibitions, 01 Heritage Connection Trip, 01 Tangible Performance. |
Author group: Dr. Hoang Viet Linh, Truong Duc Tho – University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City.
This article is part of the series spreading research and applied knowledge from UEH with the message “Research Contribution For All”, UEH respectfully invites readers to read the next UEH Research Insights newsletter.
News, photos: The Authors, UEH Department of Communications and Partnerships

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