Why Basel? The question deserves a serious answer.
A City of Parallel Evolution
For centuries, Basel has been a city where scientific research, advanced industry, and artistic practice evolve not in isolation but in parallel. The pharmaceutical industry, the art market, and the university research ecosystem have coexisted and cross-pollinated for generations.
The New Convergence
That historical continuity now meets autonomous systems. AI agents, smart contracts, and self-sustaining ecological technologies are not abstract concepts in Basel — they are being built, tested, and deployed by the people who live and work here.
Digital Art Summit as Framework
The Digital Art Summit is not a festival. It is a research framework. Seven acts across a single day, each examining a different dimension of autonomy through the lens of art, science, and technology.
The summit addresses the structural question: what happens when the tools become autonomous? When the boundary between artist and engineer collapses? When software no longer assists but generates, decides, and acts?
Basel is where these questions find their natural home.