Just got this in an email. Sounds very exciting indeed! The Johannesburg theme is: ‘Neighborhood and co-existence’.

‘Join Ars Electronica, voestalpine and Linz09 on an expedition around the world and into our future.

From June 18 to September 6, 2009

In 1872, author Jules Verne dispatched Phileas Fogg, a gentleman who liked nothing more than an interesting wager, on a trip “Around the World in 80 Days.” In 2009, Ars Electronica, voestalpine and Linz09 will be sending the City of Linz on such a journey. This won’t entail any physical travel though.

The mode of conveyance will be the fiber optic cables and satellite hookups of our globalized Information Society. “80+1” will be visiting 20 locations across the face of this planet at which our future is being invented and mastered or thwarted and destroyed. Each of these places is linked to a particular theme: migration, climate change, energy, resources…

Join us on this journey into the future! Send us your idea for a project: LIVE BITS – art exploring real time connectedness.

The deadline: October 31, 2008.

The aim: facilitating fruitful interaction among people at widely separated locations and analyzing it while it’s happening. All the details, topics and background info are online at www.80plus1.org.’