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The Golden Nica Award of Prix Ars Electronica 91 for Computer Animation goes to the American Karl Sims for "Panspermia".

This work is one of the rare cases in which conception, visual aesthetics, and the use of technical means, create an excellent symbiosis. "Panspermia" is the synergy of aesthetics and the creative process. With his professional command of the technical means, Karl Sims conducts fascinating and convincing imagery as well as new aesthetics, not of a formal, but a contextual kind. And although he uses a new media method with technical brilliance, he still remains conscious of the culture that, after all, is the basis of the computer; electronic arts. The jury judged -"Panspermia" to be an outstanding example of computer art and unanimously awarded this work the Golden Nica 91 for Computer Animation.

Distinctions from Prix Ars Electronica 91 for Computer Animation go to the Japanese Yoichiro Kawaguchi and to the American, James Duesing. "Eggy" by Yoichiro Kawaguchi is another example by this artist demonstrating the evolution of a new visual language on computer The observer is entranced by a stream of organic flowing imagery. Kawaguchi satisfies our desire for previously unseen images and shapes, made possible only by the use of this technology.

In comparison, James Duesing's "Maxwell's Demon" is a fantasy of text and image with relatively simple technology. The aesthetics of this film could be considered "Punk Aesthetics" but what is destinctive, is the film's political, social,and moral commitment; factors that are very rarely to be found in computer animation In its wit, its caricature-like narrative, in the strong political-moral commitment, the charm and the substance of this film are to be found. Altogether, the three prize winning computer animations represent very different, yet important tendencies in today's computer art.

 
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