DIGI-ARTS: Prizewinner announcement for the "Digital Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003"

+ + +

Dear friend,
The DIGI-ARTS team has pleasure in announcing the Prizewinner of the
Digital
Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003.
The jury committee meeting was held at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced
Media
Arts and Sciences, Japan) in Ogaki, Gifu Japan on 17, 18 July 2003 with
the
presence of the following jury members: Elaine Ng (President of Jury
committee, Independent curator in contemporary and new media art,
China),
Ibrahima Ndiaye (Professor, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar,
Senegal),
Diana Domingues (Professor, University of Caxias do Sul, Brazil),
Gerfried
Stocker (Director, Ars Electronica, Austria), Azza El-Hassan
(Independent
filmmaker, Palestine), Itsuo Sakane (President Emeritus, IAMAS), Hiroshi
Yoshioka (Professor, IAMAS), Kae Hirai* (Member of the Board of
Directors,
National Federation of UNESCO Associations in Japan), Christa Sommerer
(Associate Professor, IAMAS), and Tereza Wagner (Deputy team leader,
Digi-Arts Project, UNESCO Headquarters).

***

Out of the 122 high quality applications from 49 countries all over the
world that we have received, the first prize goes to:
Mwanya Chanda, a 25 year old artist from Zambia. Mr. Chanda will receive
US$5000 plus a six months artist-in-residency at IAMAS, during which he
will
complete his proposed project. His proposal centers around the use of
internet-based technologies as communication tools, much as the African
drum
once allowed subtle long-distance communication between distant village
communities. His "Caught in the Web" proposal is an ideal example of
digital
pluralism, starting from his ideas about communication within his
country
but being extended to multicultural level.

The second prize of US$3000 has been awarded to URTICA, an art and media
research group from Serbia and Montenegro for their project entitled
"Mouse
Says: click! and Human Says: eek!", a rather playful computer-based
lexicon
of what is described as "primal communication".

The third prizewinner of US$2000 is Ms. Cobi Van Tonder from South
Africa
for "Ephemeral Gumboots", which uses sensor-equipped rubber boots to
illustrate digital variations in global music and dancing.

The jury has also decided to present eight honorary mentions to the
following artists:
Ms. Andrea Polli (USA), Mr. Markku Reunanen (Finland), Mr. Hung Shek
Ngan
(Canada/Hong Kong), Mr. Jiro Ishihara (Japan), Ms. Kristi Trinier
(Canada),
Ms. Margaret Tan (Singapore), Mr. John Gerrard (Ireland) + Mr. Robert
Praxmarer (Austria), and Mr. Padipark Mesomboonpoonsuk (United Arab
Emirates).

***
Lastly, we would like to express our appreciation to all the applicants
and
the jury members who have contributed to making the UNESCO Digital Arts
Award 2003 fruitful. We would also like to ask for future support for
the
following UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2004, to be held within the
framework of
ISEA 2004 in Stockholm, Tallinn, Helsinki on 14-22 August 2004.
(http://www.isea2004.net/ <http://www.isea2004.net/> ).
***

Thank you for your attention and with kind regards,
DIGIARTS Team
00.33.1.45.68.47.02
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
http://portal.unesco.org/digiarts <http://portal.unesco.org/digiarts>
***