This year's 'Digital Musics' jury of Prix Ars Electronica was made up of people with a wide variety of musical experience, and the submissions reflected a similar variety in ways of making digital music.
The Jury members - Ned Bouhalassa, Reinhold Friedl, Tony Herrington, Naut Humon and Kaffe Matthews - had to judge 373 entries. There were many works sent by artists working outside of the institutional network, proving that the call to non-academic artists has been heard. As in the case of the last few competitions, there were a number of engaging minimalist works inspired by visual and conceptual approaches; irreverent pieces that used a variety of digital processes to abstract ready-to-wear beats and recognizable pop samples; and virtuostic works that were clearly improvised on the latest portable technology (laptops, analog/digital synths, samplers). Although there were also a large number of electroacoustic works, many of the established composers did not send pieces. This could be in response to the 2000 jury statement that was quite critical of the electroacoustic composers' reaction to the broadening of the Digital Music category. This year's jury wishes to send the message that both academic and non-academic artists are welcomed to submit pieces. Overall, the jury was disappointed in the variety, number and range of musical works submitted, knowing something of the vast array of quality work and processes happening out there. We therefore send the message that this competition is something that anyone making electronic music should strongly be encouraged to enter and suggest that a campaign of music specific advertising be pursued for the 2002 event.
Die Mitglieder der diesjährigen 'Digital Musics'-Jury kamen aus den unterschiedlichsten Bereichen. Eine ähnliche Vielfalt in der Produktion von Digital Music zeigte sich auch in den eingereichten Arbeiten.
