Prix Ars Electronica

The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), one of the world's major centers for art and technology.

In 2005, the Golden Nica, the highest prize, was awarded in six categories: "Computer Animation/Visual Effects," "Digital Musics," "Interactive Art," "Net Vision," "Digital Communities" and the "u19" award for "freestyle computing." Each Golden Nica came with a prize of €10,000, apart from the u19 category, where the prize was €5,000. In each category, there are also Awards of Distinction and Honorary Mentions.The Golden Nica is gold plated replica of the Greek Nike of Samothrace.

Golden Nica winners

Computer animation / film / vfx

The "Computer Graphics" category (1987–1994) was open to different kinds of computer images. The "Computer Animation" (1987–1997) was replaced by the current "Computer Animation/Visual Effects" category in 1998.New York artist and musician John Fekner received honorary awards for "Concrete People" and "The Last Days of Good and Evil" in 1987 and 1988.

Computer Graphics

*1987 "Figur10" by Brian Reffin Smith, UK
*1988
*1989
*1990 "P-411-A" by Manfred Mohr, Germany
*1991
*1992
*1993
*1994

Computer Animation

Computer Animation/Visual Effects

*2004 "Ryan" by Chris Landreth, US.
**Distinction: "Parenthèse" from Francois Blondeau, Thibault Deloof, Jérémie Droulers, Christophe Stampe, France
**Distinction: "Birthday Boy" from Sejong Park, Australia
*2005 "Fallen Art" by Tomek Paginski, Poland.
**Distinction: The Incredibles from Pixar
**Distinction: City Paradise by Gaëlle Denis (UK), Passion Pictures (France)
*2006 "458nm" by Jan Bitzer, Ilija Brunck, Tom Weber, Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
**Distinction: "Kein platz Für Gerold" by Daniel Nocke / Studio Film Bilder, Germany
**Distinction: "Negadon, the monster from Mars", by Jun Awazu, Japan
*2007 " [http://codehunters.tv/swfs/main.htm Codehunters] " by Ben Hibon, UK
*2008 " [http://www.nfb.ca/madametutliputli Madame Tutli-Putli] " by Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski. (Directors), Jason Walker (Special Visual Effects), National Film Board of Canada

Digital Music

This category is for those making electronic music and sound art through digital means. From 1987 to 1998 the category was known as "Computer music." Two Golden Nicas were awarded in 1987, and none in 1990. There was no Computer Music category in 1991.

*1987 - Peter Gabriel and Jean-Claude Risset
*1988 - Denis Smalley
*1989 - Kaija Saariaho
*1990 - None
*1991 - Category omitted
*1992 - Alejandro Viñao
*1993 - Bernard Parmegiani
*1994 - Ludger Brümmer
*1995 - Trevor Wishart
*1996 - Robert Normandeau
*1997 - Matt Heckert
*1998 - Peter Bosch and Simone Simons (joint award)
*1999 - Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) and Chris Cunningham (joint award)
*2000 - Carsten Nicolai
*2001 - Ryoji Ikeda
*2002 - Yasunao Tone
*2003 - Ami Yoshida, Sachiko M and Utah Kawasaki (joint award)
*2004 - Thomas Köner
*2005 - Maryanne Amacher
*2006 - Eliane Radigue
*2007 - Mashiro Miwa
*2008 - Reactable by Sergi Jordà (ES), Martin Kaltenbrunner (AT), Günter Geiger (AT) and Marcos Alonso (ES)

Hybrid art

*2007 - SymbioticA
*2008 - [http://www.nuagevert.org Pollstream - Nuage Vert] by Helen Evans (FR/UK) and Heiko Hansen (FR/DE) HeHe

Interactive Art

Prizes in the category of interactive art have been awarded since 1990. This category applies to many categories of works, including installations and performances, characterized by audience participation, virtual reality, multimedia and telecommunication.

*1990 - "Videoplace," installation by Myron Krueger
*1991 - "Think About the People Now," project by Paul Sermon
*1992 - "Home of the Brain," installation by Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss
*1993 - "Simulationsraum-Mosaik mobiler Datenklänge (smdk)," installation by Knowbotic Research
*1994 - "A-Volve," environment by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonneau
*1995 - the concept of Hypertext, attributed to Tim Berners-Lee
*1996 - "Global Interior Project," installation by Masaki Fujihata
*1997 - "Music Plays Images X Images Play Music," concert by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Toshio Iwai
*1998 - "World Skin," installation by Jean-Baptiste Barrière and Maurice Benayoun
*1999 - "Difference Engine #3" by construct and Lynn Hershman
*2000 - "Vectorial Elevation, Relational Architecture #4," installation by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer
*2001 - "polar," installation by Carsten Nicolai and Marko Peljhan
*2002 - "n-cha(n)t," installation by David Rokeby
*2003 - "Can You See Me Now?," participatory game by Blast Theory and Mixed Reality Lab
*2004 - "Listening Post", installation by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen
*2005 - "MILKproject", installation and project by Esther Polak, Ieva Auzina and RIXC - Riga Center for New Media Culture
*2006 - "The Messenger" - installation by Paul DeMarinis
*2007 - "Park View Hotel" - installation by Ashok Sukumaran
*2008 - [http://www.juliusvonbismarck.com/fulgurator Image Fulgurator] - by Julius von Bismarck (DE)

Internet-related categories

In the categories "World Wide Web" (1995 – 96) and ".net" (1997 – 2000), interesting web-based projects were awarded, based on criteria like web-specificity, community-orientation, identity and interactivity. In 2001, the category became broader under the new name "Net Vision / Net Excellence", with rewards for innovation in the online medium.

World Wide Web

*1995 - "Idea Futures" by Robin Hanson
*1996 - "Digital Hijack" by etoy
** Second prizes: "HyGrid" by SITO and "Journey as an exile"

.net

*1997 - "Sensorium" by Taos Project
*1998 - "IO_Dencies Questioning Urbanity" by Knowbotic Research
*1999 - Linux by Linus Torvalds
*2000 - "In the Beginning...was the Command Line" (excerpts) by Neal Stephenson

Net Vision / Net Excellence

*2001 - "Banja" by Team cHmAn and " [http://www.praystation.com/ PrayStation] " by Joshua Davis
*2002 - " [http://www.rhizome.org/carnivore/ Carnivore] " by Radical Software Group and " [http://www.theyrule.net/ They Rule] " by Josh On and Futurefarmers
*2003 - Habbo Hotel and "Noderunner" by Yury Gitman and Carlos J. Gomez de Llarena
*2004 - Creative Commons
*2005 - "Processing" by Benjamin Fry, Casey Reas and the Processing community
*2006 - "The Road Movie" by exonemo

Digital Communities

A category begun in 2004 with support from SAP (and a separate ceremony in New York City two months before the main Ars Electronica ceremony) to celebrate the 25th birthday of Ars Electronica. Two Golden Nicas were awarded.

*2004 - Wikipedia and "The World Starts With Me"
*2005 - "Akshaya", an information technology development program in India
**Distinction: Free Software Foundation (USA) and Telestreet - NewGlobalVision (Italy)
*2006 - [http://www.zexe.net/BARCELONA/ canal*ACCESSIBLE]
*2007 - [http://www.overmundo.com.br Overmundo]
*2008 - [http://www.1KG.org/ 1kg more]
**Distinction: PatientsLikeMe and Global Voices Online

External links

* [http://www.aec.at/en/prix/ Prix Ars Electronica]
* [http://www.aec.at/en/archives/prix_einstieg.asp Past winners]