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ORF Oberösterreich

Statement of the Interactive Art Jury

For the Golden Nica, the Jury chose "Global Interior Project" by Masaki Fujihata, a networked sculptural work which builds a relationship between virtual and physical spaces and objects. For the second prize, we chose "Motion Phone" by Scott Sona Snibbe, a soft-ware work for two participants which offers a new medium for intimate conversation in a nonverbal form; and ''Scavengers" by Louis-Philippe Demers and Bill Vorn, a robotic work which poses provocative questions about our relationship to our newly autonomous creations.

Among the winners and honorable mentions were a number of works with an Internet or network component ("Global Interior Project", "Dialog with the Knowbotic South", "sense: less", "where i can see my house ...", "Parallel Mesmerization..." and "Eye to Eye"). We were also attracted to works that opened channels between two ("Motion Phone", "Eye to Eye", "Cross-active System" and "Inter Dis-communi-cation Machine") or more participants ("Global Interior Project", "where I can see my house..." and "Three Men three legs").

Many of the works emphasized physical installation ("Global Interior Project", "Scavengers", "Resident", "Parallel Mesmerization", "where I can see my house...", "sense:less" and "Dialog with the Knowbotic South"), often investigating the relation of the installation to virtual or networked space. There were works that represented varying kinds of immersion ("sense: less", "Dialog with the Knowbotic South", "Inter Dis-communication Machine", "Cross-Active System" and "In Corpus").

Many works, including the immersive works just mentioned, fell into the categories of virtual reality and telepresence ("Global Interior Project", "where I can see my house..." and "Virtual Wheelchair"). Works dealing with robotics ("Scavengers", "where I can see my house..." and "Parallel Mesmerization..." and "Three men three legs") and artificial life forms and agents ("Resident", "sense:less" and "Dialog with the Knowbotic South") were well represented. There were also a number of works with unusual or innovative interfaces ("Virtual Wheelchair", "Eye to Eye" and others already mentioned). These works also dealt with issues of the body and notions of the "normal" (as did "Rehearsal of Memory").

More generally, a number of these works treat interactivity on many levels, often including critical and conceptual approaches. We can also see a high degree of humor (and some irony) in a many of them. And most importantly, all of these works take an open, expansive approach to the interaction and participation of their users and audiences.

 
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