Is the computer language going to become the lingua franca of the global information society? Under its heading Code - The Language of Our Time, this year's Ars Electronica - the annual festival for art, technology, and society in Linz - will be exploring software and digital codes. Code has become a central notion in our modern, informed society: it stands for the dominant role of information technology, for the transfer of our knowledge and communication to digital databanks and nets, and has become synonymous with control and programmability. The significance of code as a codex and set of rules, as well as a system of signs, also circumscribes the position of software in art and society: code is both the tool for and the expression of artistic work. Code as a set of commands, as a computer program, and as a language of global digital communication systems defines the rules and principles of our time. This book is a documentation of the symposia, exhibitions, performances, and interventions in public space with which artistic, scientific, and sociopolitical contributions explore this topic at the Ars Electronica 2003. Exhibition Schedule: Festival Ars Electronica, Linz September 6 - September 11, 2003