[spectre] Prix Ars Electronica 2005: The Results

[Andreas Broeckmann]

http://www.aec.at/en/prix/winners2005.asp

Golden Nica

Computer Animation / Visual Effects: Tomek Baginski - Fallen Art
Digital Musics: Maryanne Amacher - TEO!
Interactive Art: Esther Polak, Ieva Auzina/RIXC - */MILKproject
Net Vision: Benjamin Fry and Casey Reas - Processing
Digital Communities: Akshaya
u19: Markus Sucher - frozen time/Rennacs Studies



PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA 2005: The Results


Creative artists from 71 countries submitted 2,975 works for Prix Ars 
Electronica prize consideration this year. Computer Animation and 
Interactive Art are the areas that showed strongest growth in the 
number of entries. Prize money totaling EUR 110,000 will be awarded 
to the winners in six categories.


>>>> 

This text, pictures and information about today`s Press conference 
with Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica Center) and Christine Schoepf 
(Austrian Broadcasting Company - Upper Austrian Regional Studio on 
<http://www.aec.at/presskit> www.aec.at/presskit
>>>>>



Ever since its inception, the competition's focus has been on 
state-ofthe- art creativity in the key fields of digital media: 
Computer Animation / Visual Effects, Digital Musics, Interactive Art 
and Net Vision.With the inauguration of the Digital Communities 
category in 2004, the Prix Ars Electronica has devoted increasing 
attention to the impact art and technology are having on social 
developments. The "u19 - freestyle computing" category for young 
people and [the next idea] art and technology grant offer Austria's 
computerized younger generation and up-andcoming young artists a 
creative platform and prominent showcase for their encounters with 
new media.



The astounding number of countries from which entries were submitted 
this year powerfully underscores the international significance of 
the Prix Ars Electronica. The competition's activities have resonated 
not only in the major Western industrial nations but also in small 
states-the Solomon Islands, for instance-located in distant regions 
of the globe. Entries from Iran, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the 
Congo are impressive testimony to the Prix Ars Electronica's 
intercultural impact. The winners of this year's Golden Nicas are 
from Poland, India, Latvia, the US, Canada and Austria. A host of 
internationally prominent experts convened April 21-24 in Linz. Over 
the course of intensive deliberations, they evaluated the projects 
that were submitted for Prix Ars Electronica prize consideration this 
year and reached their final decisions on April 24. From a total of 
2,975 entries, the seven juries selected the winners of six Golden 
Nicas, 12 Awards of Distinction and 73 Honorary !
  Mentions as well as the recipients of [the next idea] art and 
technology grant and several merchandise prizes.



The juries also named the winners of two special awards.  Once again 
this year, the winning projects confirm the competition's role as a 
barometer of international trends in the world of media art.


>>  Using technology as an artistic implement is now something taken 
>>completely for granted



Asked to sum up the general trends that have emerged from the 2005 
Prix Ars Electronica competition, Ars Electronica Artistic Director 
Gerfried Stocker concluded that technology as an object of artistic 
consideration has now clearly been relegated to a position of 
secondary importance as compared to Prix Ars Electronica competitions 
in previous years, when the technology itself consistently occupied 
the focal point of attention."New media are now taken completely for 
granted as artistic instruments that can be used to express a broad 
spectrum of ideas, concepts and narratives," Gerfried Stocker said.



"Accordingly, investigations analyzing the discourses inherent in 
social and political circumstances have assumed an increasingly 
prominent position in contemporary media art, as have art-immanent 
manifestations and elaborations, as well as reflections of the formal 
syntax of the early days of media art," Christine Schˆpf added.



"More and more museums and festivals are making space available to 
display media art, which is providing artists not only with a 
material basis for their professional existence but also with a more 
professional way to go about doing their art. This state of affairs 
has manifested itself at the Prix Ars Electronica as a continually 
rising standard of quality being exhibited by the works submitted," 
Gerfried Stocker went on to note.



Both Gerfried Stocker and Christine Schˆpf have ascertained that 
there is wide-ranging acceptance of media art in many different 
circles throughout the art scene.


>>  Trend Barometer of the Media ArtWorld



Once again in 2005, the winners of the six Golden Nica statuettes 
underscore the Prix Ars Electronica's preeminent position as 
seismograph signaling the emergence of new developments in global 
media culture.



Like every year, the prizewinning works in the "classic" categories 
of digital media art impressed the jurors by successfully combining a 
highly professional approach with extremely innovative ideas.



A very sarcastic sense of humor is the outstanding feature displayed 
by Tomek Baginski in his film "Fallen Art" the winner of the Golden 
Nica in the Computer Animation / Visual Effects category. An 
impressive work of animation that, within a few minutes time, tells a 
very unusual story full of unexpected plot twists and turns,"Fallen 
Art" nevertheless succeeds on its own terms as a superb and fully 
realized work of filmmaking.



The Golden Nica in the Digital Musics category goes to acoustic 
pioneer Maryanne Amacher for her installation "TEO!," a sonic 
sculpture conceived as a sound installation for the Esplanade des 
Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.



The linkup of individual biographies and the existential spheres 
inhabited by human beings whose lives are interconnected via 
international trade is the centerpiece of */MILKproject, the winning 
work in the Interactive Art category. In this installation by the 
RIXC-Riga Center for New Media Culture, visitors experience the 
incredible diversity of cultures and realms of life in a Europe that 
is in the process of growing together. The plot structure in this 
narrative is provided by the international trade in milk-one of 
mankind's most basic and most important foodstuffs -between Latvia 
and the Netherlands.



Processing opens up new possibilities for artistic work in the 
graphics field. This software-a programming language and a 
development environment for working with graphics-was created 
collaboratively by a large community. Benjamin Fry and Casey Reas 
initiated the project; for their efforts, they've been named the 
recipients of the Golden Nica in the Net Vision category.



Akshaya, the winning project in the socio-politically oriented 
Digital Communities category, comes from India. This is the most 
ambitious development program that has ever been launched to take 
advantage of information and communication technologies.Within a 
period of three years, Akshaya has established 6,000 Internet centers 
in the Indian State of Kerala, set up infrastructure for the local 
population and, in doing so, simultaneously created 50,000 new jobs.



The winning projects in the two competitions for young people are 
efforts that take two highly contrasting approaches to 
creativity.With his method of scanning entire film sequences from the 
monitor screen and utilizing this material to create images-"frozen 
time" as it were-Klagenfurt native Markus Sucher has come up with 
what amounts to a completely new artform, which he refers to as 
Rennacs Studies.



A completely different approach is being taken by the designer of the 
project that has been singled out for recognition with [the next 
idea] art and technology grant for up-and-coming young artists under 
age 27."USED Clothing" as conceptualized by Linz native Martin 
Mairinger shows how secondhand clothes can be transformed into a 
communications medium.



The "USED Clothing" project will be brought to fruition over the 
coming months at the Ars Electronica Futurelab and will make its 
public debut in September for the men and women of Linz to try out in 
actual practice. And another Linz native came up with one of the 
concepts that garnered an Honorary Mention in [the next idea] art and 
technology grant competition: The Machine_Man project functions by 
means of the electrical stimulation of muscles to transform human 
beings into industrial robots on an assembly line.


>>  Prix Ars Electronica at the 2005 Ars Electronica Festival



The Prix Ars Electronica awards ceremony will be staged by the Ars 
Electronica Center and the Austrian Broadcasting Company's Upper 
Austria Regional Studio in conjunction with the Ars Electronica 
Festival on September 2, 2005 in the Brucknerhaus in Linz. The 
"Cyberarts 2005" exhibition in the O.K Center for Contemporary Art 
will showcase the prizewinning works and thus offer visitors an 
impressive glimpse of state-of-the-art excellence in the digital 
arts. The Prix Artists' Forum is a multi-day event at which 
prizewinning artists will discuss their work.



As part of this year's Festival, Ars Electronica will be opening a 
special "u19 - freestyle computing" exhibition, which will run until 
March 2006 in the Museum of the Future.



A documentation of the competition is being released by the Hatje 
Cantz Verlag publishing house to coincide with the 2005 Ars 
Electronica Festival. This media package entitled "CyberArts 2005" 
will consist of a detailed and comprehensive catalog as well as a DVD 
and a CD.



The Austrian Broadcasting Company's Upper Austria Regional Studio is 
producing a documentary film about the Festival and the Prix Ars 
Electronica, which will be aired on September 4, 2005 on ORF 2 and on 
September 5, 2005 on 3sat.



Prize Benefactors and Sponsors



The Ars Electronica Festival and the Prix Ars Electronica are 
conducted by the Ars Electronica Center in cooperation with the 
Austrian Broadcasting Company's Upper Austria Regional Studio, the 
Brucknerhaus Linz and the O.K Center for Contemporary Art. 
Cooperating institutions are the Linz University of Art and 
Industrial Design, Linz's Lentos Museum

of Art, the Architecture Forum Upper Austria and Posthof Linz.



The Ars Electronica and Prix Ars Electronica are subsidized by the 
City of Linz, the Province of Upper Austria, the Office of the 
Chancellor of the Republic of Austria / Art Department, Telekom 
Austria and voestalpine; Siemens, FESTO, Microsoft, Sony DADC, Casino 
Linz and Quelle.



Additional Support: 3com, Lexmark, Pˆstlingbergschlˆˆül, 
KulturKontakt Austria, Spring und Linz AG.


>>>> 

This text, pictures and information about today`s Press conference 
with Gerfried Stocker (Ars Electronica Center) and Christine Schoepf 
(Austrian Broadcasting Company - Upper Austrian Regional Studio on 
<http://www.aec.at/presskit> www.aec.at/presskit
>>>>>


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