[spectre] ars & the next billion

[Geert Lovink]

http://ahtisaari.typepad.com/moia/2006/04/on_the_jury_of_.html

On the Jury of Prix Ars Electronica 2006
By Marko Ahtisaari

I've been in Linz for three intensive days for the jury deliberations 
of the Prix Ars Electronica 2006. I am a juror for the "Net Vision" 
category together with Yukiko Shikata, Eva Wohlgemuth and Markus Seidl.

According to the Prix Ars Electronica organization the Net Vision 
category singles out for recognition artistic projects in the Internet 
that display brilliance in how they have been engineered, designed 
and-especially-conceived, works that are outstanding with respect to 
innovation, interface design and the originality of their content. The 
way in which a work of net-based art deals with the online medium is 
essential in this category. The jury looks forward to milestones, 
next-level experiments and smart hacks that set fresh signals.

Needless to say, the Net Vision category is a hard one to judge due to 
breadth and scope of entries. The deliberations have now come to an end 
and the winners will be announced later in May. I was truly impressed 
with my fellow jurors and the professional organization of the jury 
deliberations by Iris Mayr and her team. Gerfried Stocker was an 
inspiring host. The theme of the Ars Electronica 2006 Festival this 
September will be Simplicity - the art of complexity.

My sense is that in the near future the positioning of the Net Vision 
category will have to change, and the prize overall will see a rise in 
entries from countries where the next billion people will be connected 
to the Net including Brazil, Russia, India and China. What I hope this 
evolution will bring is more projects bridging physical and virtual, 
and more mobile social multimedia including hacks of the communications 
mix.