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The Prix Ars Electronica 2003 Award Winners
Detailed information on the winning projects
AWARD WINNERS Computer Animation / Visual Effects
Golden Nica Computer Animation / Visual Effects
Romain Segaud, Cristel Pougeoise / Supinfocom / One Plus One (Frankreich): "Tim Tom"
What will happen if two spiral-bound writing pads come to life and turn into two jolly young fellows who crave to meet each other? Many unexpected things, since their creator does everything to thwart their plans. Tim and Tom have to use all their cunning... The resulting animation is a wonderful homage to the Tex-Avery style fantasy world of cartoons. A logical and self-contained story full of fun and wit in flawless animation won the two young artist-graduates from Supinfocom — France's computer animation elite forge — this year's Golden Nica in Computer Animation as well as 10,000 Euro in prize money.
Distinction Computer Animation / Visual Effects
Koji Yamamura / Yamamura Animation, Inc. (Japan): "Atama Yama (Mt. Head)"
The story: a somewhat portly miser is eating a plate of cherries including the nuts, when suddenly a cherry tree starts growing atop his head — and an extraordinary tale starts taking its course.
The short film "Mt. Head" is a modern interpretation of the traditional Japanes Rakugo story "Atama Yama". This narrative genre dates back to the Edo period (1603—1867) and is described as being absurd and packed with black humor.
Koji Yamamura's animation was a nominee for the 2003 Academy Award in the Animated Short category.
Distinction Computer Animation / Visual Effects
Carlos Saldanha / Blue Sky Studios, 20th Century Fox (USA): "Gone Nutty - Ice Age"
One of the highlights of the 3D animation movies produced over the past years is the feature film "Ice Age" produced by Blue Sky Studios (20th Century Fox). Set — as the title indicates — in the ice age, the movie is a masterwork of character animation. With the advent of the DVD, a new adventure by Scrat the Sabertooth Squirrel was presented: Scrat reveals his private stash of nuts. One stubborn nut causes Scrat to lose his temper, which in turn triggers an avalanche of fun.
"Gone Nutty" by director Carlos Saldanha is a firework of both fun and imagery, and a perfect example of what character animation is about.
AWARD WINNERS Digital Musics
"The young and wild" would well sum up the Prix Ars Electronica 2003 results in the Digital Musics Category. None of the award winners is older than thirty, and all of them are distinguished by a tendency not to go out of the way of any musical experiment in order to push the world of digital music to its limits. Another remarkable and unparalleled fact is that the jurors selected two women for the awards. By the way, 27 year old Ami Yoshida from Japan is the youngest female musician to win a Golden Nica in the history of the Prix Ars Electronica. On the other hand, the only male among the top three can look back upon a remarkable Prix Ars Electronica career: Florian Hecker was first on the panel of jurors for the u19 category, last year he joined the jury in the Musics section, finally this year he entered as an artist — and managed to win a Distinction.
Golden Nica Digital Musics
Ami Yoshida, Sachiko M, Utah Kawasaki / F.M.N. Sound Factory (Japan): "Astro Twin / Cosmos"
White noise, tuning pitches and a voice more reminiscent of a howl than of singing: these are the ingredients from which the Astro Twins Ami Yoshida and Utah Kawasaki mix their shrill performances — disturbing at first hearing, but fascinating as one becomes accustomed. Ami Yoshida, however, is not only one half of the Astro Twins; under the name of "Cosmos" she also appears on the musical stage together with Sachiko M. With her daring performances and her highly individual style, Ami Yoshida wins the Golden Nica for the “Astro Twins” and “Cosmos” double album.
Distinction Digital Musics
Florian Hecker / Mego (Germany/Austria): "Sun Pandämonium"
Florian Hecker is a core member of the "mego" label that won a Distinction in 1999. Since 1996, he has left his mark on the style of this much-talked-about artists' group. He focuses on live performances and on the development of artistic uses for new production formats like MP3. His CD "Sun Pandämonium" shows the enormous bandwidth of what is summed up under the "noise" heading in digital jargon.
Distinction Digital Musics
Maja Ratkje, Jazzkammer: John Hegre, Lasse Marhaug (Norway): "voice"
The Norwegian experimental artist Maja Ratkje operates exclusively with her voice — no wonder that "voice" is the title of her first solo album. Improvised and composed parts are fused into an entity that may be confusing for the listener. The vocalist who has been awarded several prizes in her home country tackles the task of fathoming the human voice in combination with electronic media by taking them to the absolute limits of feasibility and sometimes endurance. "Not a CD for the heart, but remarkable in any case," is what one critic wrote of "voice."
AWARD WINNERS Interactive Art
Golden Nica Interactive Art
Blast Theory (United Kingdom): "Can You See Me Now?"
"Can you see me now?" by the British artists collective Blast Theory plays with the omnipresence of humans on the basis of various portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, GPS, wireless LANs, digital cameras, etc., as well as with overlaying real and virtual spaces. In that respect, "Can you see me now?" is part of a series of works that investigate digital mobility from a cultural point of view.
The playground in "Can you see me now?" is a defined part of a city, both as a city map on the virtual level and in reality. The teams playing against each other are the online computer players on one side, and four "runners" equipped with the above set of devices on the other. All participants are represented by avatars. The runners' task is to find the online players who hide within the virtual space. If the online player is "seen", i.e. the hiding-place is reached by a runner, then it's "Game over!"
Distinction Interactive Art
Maywa Denki / Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd. (Japan): "Tsukuba series"
Maywa Denki is a Japanese artists' collective and simultaneously an electronic gesamtkunstwerk in its own right. Engineering skills, wit, a wealth of ideas and musicality combined with a unique performance style are the characteristics of Maywa Denki.
The products from their workshop — a huge variety of custom created musical instruments — demonstrate both the group's playfulness and its know-how. With their performances, the Tosa Brothers have conquered the concert halls in Japan and abroad.
Distinction Interactive Art
Margarete Jahrmann, Max Moswitzer (Austria): "Nybble-Engine-Toolz"
"Nybble-Engine-Toolz" is a peer-to-peer server network. The installation's software converts network processes into three-dimensional abstract movies and projects them in a cinema-like fashion onto a semicircular surround screen. Additionally, real-time generated surround sounds are played. This setup closes the loop of the installation: participants sit on a central "surfer sofa" as if they were in their own living-room. They use game-pads to enter a shooter game environment where "bullets" from data objects, action bots and other players whiz around. Every hit on an object triggers network processes; at every shot an anti-war mail is created and sent.
www.climax.at
AWARD WINNERS Net Vision/Net Excellence
Net Vision
Golden Nica Net Vision
Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena, Yury Gitman (Venezuela/USA): "Node Runner" www.noderunner.com
"Noderunner" is in itself an exemplar of an emerging culture — a culture where smart and wireless environments are as much an object of play as is an open grass field or an open lake. Two teams running against time must log into as many nodes as they can and submit photographic proof to a weblog which acts as a document of their score. As individuals and businesses put WiFi, or IEEE 802.11, networks into their homes and offices, excess wireless signal spills over onto the street. "Noderunner" turns this distributed wireless spill-over into a playing field.
The first "Noderunner" game was played in New York City the summer of 2002 in conjunction with Eyebeam and NYCwireless, as seen on Tech TV. Yury Gitman and Carlos Gomez have since been awarded artist residencies at Eyebeam to continue the development of "Noderunner". They will redesign the "Noderunner" site to act as an international scoreboard and resource site to promote the playing of "Noderunner" in any city. Additionally they will organize seasonal (winter, fall, summer) New York City "Noderunner" games as well as help interested parties in other cities, like San Diego and Dublin, play.
Distinction Net Vision
David Crawford (Sweden): "Stop Motion Studies" www.lightofspeed.com
It is said that 90% of human communication is non-verbal. In the photographs of "stop motion studies", the body language of the subjects becomes the basic syntax for a series of Web-based animations exploring movement, gesture, and algorithmic montage. Many sequences document a person’s reaction to being photographed by a stranger. Some smile, others snarl, still others perform. Some pretend not to notice. Underneath all of this are assumptions and unknowns unique to each situation.
David Crawford is an internationally recognized designer and teacher. He has held posts at some of the most preeminent organizations in the world, including WGBH Boston where he is currently working on projects funded by Annenberg/CPB and the National Science Foundation.
Distinction Net Vision
Golan Levin / Tmema (USA): "The Secret Lives of Numbers" www.turbulence.org/Works/nums/
The authors conducted an exhaustive empirical study, with the aid of custom software, public search engines and powerful statistical techniques, in order to determine the relative popularity of every integer between zero and one million. The resulting information exhibits an extraordinary variety of patterns which reflect and refract our culture, our minds, and our bodies.
The authors surmise that their data set is a numeric snapshot of the collective consciousness. Herein they return their analyses to the public in the form of an interactive visualization, whose aim is to provoke awareness of one's own numeric manifestations.
Net Excellence
Golden Nica Net Excellence
Sulake Labs Oy (Finland): "Habbo Hotel" www.habbohotel.com
“Habbo Hotel” is a virtual hotel where you can hang out and make new friends. It is designed for 14 to 20 year olds in the UK, but everyone is welcome. Launched in January 2001, the site already has a community of nearly three million members.
Members create a customized animated character, known as a Habbo who can walk, dance, eat, drink and chat in the cafes, restaurants, swimming pools and games rooms. Guest rooms are free to own and can be furnished with a wide range of purchasable virtual items.
The Habbo youth brand primarily targets the teen community, but is enhanced by interactions between members of different ages and cultures. “Habbo Hotel” is the ideal vehicle for third party brands to reach the highly desired 12-18 year-old market in a cost-effective and creative manner. The site is moderated 24 hours a day, and is backed up by unique safety software to protect members from inappropriate or abusive behavior.
Auszeichnung Net Excellence
James Tindall (Großbritannien): "Boards of Canada" www.boardsofcanada.com
James Tindall has designed the official site for the Boards of Canada. The site presents really fresh interactive 3D work featuring Boards of Canada music.
For each song from Board of Canada's latest album, a microcosm of its own has been created on the internet. "Boards cf Canada" offers the users the opportunity of creating their own remixes or sound images from the sounds, loops, and samples provided, taking users on a new exploration trip at every visit.
Auszeichnung Net Excellence
lia (Österreich): "re-move.org" www.re-move.org
Black and white Shockwave projects allow the visitor to create images as well as view previous images. lia's pieces in the re-move series have been refining much of her earlier outputs in more focused pieces at turux.
The pieces provide the tools and the framework for elaborating the compositions but simultaneously do not allow for a full control of the output, as their dynamic nature makes them evolve and mutate and their presentation is void of operating instructions of any sort, leading the user to hands-on experimentation.
AWARD WINNERS cybergeneration – u19 freestyle computing
With 1,042 works entered for this year's "cybergeneration – u19 freestyle computing" category, the story of success of Prix Ars Electronica's youth category is continued.
The competition, sponsored by P.S.K. and supported by ÖKS, saw its sixth edition in 2003 and offers young people the opportunity to test and showcase their knowledge, cunning, and creativity in the use of computers.
Golden Nica u19 freestyle computing
Georg Sochurek (St. Pölten): "Rubberduck"
"Rubberduck" tells a tale of woe about a little rubber duck's life in the guise of a modern fable. 18-year old Georg Sochurek wants to encourage viewers to think about topics like being different, malevolence, suffering and sudden changes of fate. In pursuing his motivation with the present animation, he shows a considerable level of proficiency.
Distinction u19 freestyle computing
Armin Ronacher, Nikolaus Mischofsky (Hermagor): "be a bee "
"be a bee" was developed by 14-year old students Armin Ronacher and Nikolaus Mischofsky. The main goal of this game is to market one's own honey in a profitable way. Surveying the bees and catering for their training and food are just a few of the duties awaiting the player, while an extraneous beehive adds to the difficulty of these tasks.
Distinction u19 freestyle computing
Sigrun Fugger, Martin Leonhartsberger (Leonding and Gramastetten): "Listheseanalysegerät"
Sigrun Fugger (16) and Martin Leonhartsberger (19) have developed a medical analysis device capable of measuring the amount of slide (in professional terms: listhesis) between two vertebrae. Their goal was to provide doctors and therapists with a visually interesting and easy to understand graphical display of the analysis results. A prototype of the device is being tested at the Wagner Jauregg State Hospital in Linz.
A Summary of the Honorary Mentions of Prix Ars Electronica 2003
The following works were awarded an Honorary Mention of Prix Ars Electronica 2003 in the form of a Certificate of Honor:
Computeranimation/Visual Effects
Siri Melchior / Passion Pictures (United Kingdom): THE DOG WHO WAS A CAT INSIDE
Wayne Lytle / ANIMUSIC (United States): Pipe Dream
Thorsten Fleisch (Germany): Gestalt
Eric Armstrong / Sony Pictures Imageworks (United States): The ChubbChubbs
Jordi Moragues / Kunsthochschule für Medien (Germany): MANTIS
Tippett Studio (USA): Tippett Studio 3D Character Animation for Blockbuster Entertainment
Jérome Decock, Cécile Detez de la Dreve, Olivier Laneres, Mélina Milcent / SUPINFOCOM (France): At the end of the thread
Christoph Ammann / Vancouver Film school(Canada): Untitled
Luc Froehlicher / LA MAISON (France): GDF Dolce Vita
Pete Docter, Roger Gould / Pixar Animation Studio (USA): Mike´s New Car
Satoshi Tomioka / Kanaban Graphics (Japan): Justice Runners
Ludovic Houplain / H5 (France): RÖYKSOPP (Remind me)
Digital Musics
Oren Ambarchi (Australia): TRISTE
Gert-Jan Prins (Netherlands): risk
Mark Wastell, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Taku Sugimoto / confront (United Kingdom): foldings
Whitehouse / Susan Lawly (United Kingdom): Bird Seed
Phill Niblock / Extreme Records (Australia): The Movement of People Working
Kevin Drumm (United States): Sheer Hellish Miasma
Rechenzentrum (Germany): Director's Cut
Toshiya Tsunoda / Lucky Kitchen (Japan): pieces of air
Yuko Nexus6 / Sonore Records (Japan): Journal de Tokyo
Rudolf Eb.er (Japan): HUMPA.ZERKÖRPERT
Noriko Tsujiko (France): Hard ni sasete (make me hard)
venetian snares (Canada): nymphomatriarch
Interactive Art
Ross Cooper, Jussi Ängeslevä / c/o biganimal (United Kingdom): Last
Marie Sester (United States): ACCESS
George Legrady / University of California, Santa Barbara (United States): Pockets Full of Memories
Marcel.lí Antúnez Roca / PANSPERMIA S.L. (Spain): POL
Scott Snibbe (United States): Deep Walls
Henry Newton-Dunn, Hiroaki Nakano, James Gibson / Sony CSL, Interaction LAB & Sony Design Center Tokyo (Japan): BlockJam
Mark Goulthorpe / dECOi Architects (France): Aegis Hyposurface
Iori Nakai / NHK - Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japan): Streetscape
Haruo Ishii / Aichi Prefectural Art University (Japan): Hyperscratch ver.12
Sibylle Hauert, Daniel Reichmuth / any affair (Switzerland): instant city - ein elektronischer musik bau spiel automat
Agnes Meyer-Brandis / KHM Köln (Germany): earth core laboratory and elf-scan
Justin Manor / MIT Media Lab (United States): CINEMA FABRIQUÉ
Net Vision / Net Excellence
Christophe Bruno (France): The Google Adwords Happening - http://www.iterature.com/adwords
ubermorgen.com (Austria): INJUNCTION GENERATOR - http://www.ipnic.org
Agathe Jacquillat,Tomi Vollauschek (Großbritannien): FL@33 presents >>> bzzzpeek.com -http://www.bzzzpeek.com
LAN (Switzerland): SuPerVillainizer - Conspiracy Client - http://www.supervillainizer.ch
INSERTSILENCE (Israel/USA): INSERTSILENCE - http://www.insertsilence.com
Acel Heide, onesandzeros, Philip Pocock, Gregor Strehle (Germany): UNMOVIE - http://www.unmovie.net
Antoni Abad (Spain): Z - http://zexe.net
Gil Kuno, Han Hoogerbrugge (USA/Netherlands): FLOW - http://www.unsound.com/flow/
Frederic Durieu, Kristine Malden / LeCielEstBleu (Belgium/USA): PuppetTool - http://www.lecielestbleu.com/puppettool
Martin Stiksel, Felix Miller, Michael Beidenbrucker, Thomas Willomitzer / last.fm ltd (Austria/Germany): Last.Fm/Flast.Fm - http://last.fm
LAN (Switzerland): tracenoizer - http://www.tracenoizer.org/
Jared Tarbell (USA): Levitated - http://www.levitated.net
OSDNOpen Source Development Network (USA): sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net
Shinya Yamamoto (Japan): SINPLEX SHOW - http://www.sinplex.com
cybergeneration - u19 freestyle computing
Dominik Dorn (17 J., Lustenau, Austria): lyrix.at - Web-Projekt, www.lyrix.at
Georg Gruber (19 J., Inzing, Austria): individual interface - inflex.org - Web-Projekt, www.inflex.org
Manuel Fallmann (17 J., Neulengbach, Austria): system interrupted - Animation
Franz Wengler und Christoph Haidinger (19 J., Mattighofen, Austria): Die akustische Lesehilfe für Sehbehinderte -Programm
David Hackl (7 J.,Linz, Austria): Die Fliege - Animation
Thomas Hainscho (16 J., Maria Saal, Austria): School's Out For Rosh Hodos Adar II - Spiel
Anna Obermeier, Alexandra Voglreiter und Katharina Krummel (13 J., Oeynhausen, Austria): i² - was ist eine tolle Seite? - Web-Projekt, u19.ahtak.de
Tobias Schererbauer, Mathäus König und Sebastian Schreiner (18 J., Schärding, Austria): Das Studio und die Greenbox - Animation
Schüler des Borg 3 Wien (16 J., Wien, Austria): Klangbilder - Web-Projekt,www.borg3.at/klangbilder
Schüler der HBLA für Kunst Linz (15 J., Linz, Austria): Bewegung - Animation
Schüler der HS Steinerkirchen (14 J., Steinerkirchen, Austria): Der Sprung ins Ungewisse - Animation
The Jurors of Ars Electronica 2003
Net Vision/Net Excellence
Ed Burton (GB - SodaCreative Ltd., Research & Development Director)
Joshua Davies (USA Interface Designer)
Casey Reas (USA/I - Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, Associate Professor)
Steve Rogers (GB - BBC Interactive, Director)
Yukiko Shikata (J - curator)
Computer Animation / Visual Effects
Loren Carpenter (USA - Pixar Studios, Cinematrix)
Olivier Cauwet (F - BUF Compagnie)
Hiroshi Chida (J - Polygon Pictures)
Bob Sabiston (USA - Flat Black Films)
Rita Street (USA - editor "Animation Magazine", journalist)
Digital Musics
Antye Greie (D - artist, composer, author)
Naut Humon (USA - artist, curator, producer)
Alain Mongeau (CDN - Director Mutek Festival)
Markus Schmickler (D - musician, composer)
David Toop (GB - composer, musician, journalist, curator)
Interactive Art
Scott Fisher (USA - media artist, producer, professor)
Tomoe Moriyama (J - curator Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography)
Joe Paradiso (USA - Professor MIT Media Lab)
Christiane Paul (USA - curator Whitney Museum New York)
Stahl Stenslie (N/D - Professor Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln)
u19 freestyle computing
Sirikit Amann (A - Österreichisches Kultur Service (öks)
Tina Auer (A - Times up, artist)
Horst Hörtner (A - Ars Electronica Center, technical director)
Manfred Nürnberger (A - hnconsult)
Martin Pieper (A - FM4)
Chairman of the overall jury: Dr. Hannes Leopoldseder
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