[spectre] UNESCO PRIZES HAVE BEEN AWARDED

[Jose-Carlos Mariategui]

 UNESCO PRIZES HAVE BEEN AWARDED
 August 21st, 2004


 Indian Sarai Media Lab is the prize winner of UNESCO Digital Arts Award
2004. The prize ceremony was held at Kiasma theatre in Helsinki, Finland on
Friday 20th August in the presence of the President of Finland, Mrs Tarja
Halonen and the President of the International Jury Committee  for the
Award, Ms Yukiko Shikata, who was representing UNESCO. Sarai Media Lab will
receive 7000 US dollars for their award-winning project "Network of No Des"
and a three-month artistic residency in association with the Helsinki
International Artist-in-residence Programme, HIAP and the Finnish new media
culture centre, m-cult. The prize money for the second and third positions
were shared amongst three projects; Slovenian Makrolab, Thai Path of
illusion and Radio Astronomy from New Zealand each received 1000 US dollars.
According to the International Jury Committee, the awarded projects all
demonstrated a balance of artistic imagination, innovative  research, social
and cultural criticism, social interaction and a connection to the public
space. 

 The International Jury committee was appointed by UNESCO and the members of
the five-strong committee were Mr Eugenio Tisselli Vélez, a researcher and
developer in physical interface design and multimedia  software development
from Mexico, Mr Roger Malina, an executive editor of the Journal Leonardo
and chairman of the Board of the International Society for the Arts,
Sciences and Technology from the United States of America, Ms Samia A.
Halaby, a visual artist working with electronic media from Palestine and Mr
Marcus Neustetter, a media artist and joint director of The Trinity Session
from  South Africa. Ms Yukiko Shikata, an independent media art curator and
critic from Japan acted as  the President of the Jury.

 UNESCO Digital Arts Award aims to promote digital art as an innovative and
artistic reflection on the information society. It forms a special category
of the UNESCO Prize for the Promotion of the Arts, rewarding young emerging
artists for outstanding creative achievements. The first prize winner of the
UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003 was Zambian artist Mwanya Chanda. The UNESCO
Digital Arts Award  2004 was organised in association with the 12th
International Symposium of Electronic Arts, ISEA 2004. The winners were
chosen out of 300 artistic projects that were presented at the ISEA2004
symposium.