Deadline: 7 March 2014
Open to: artists worldwide
Prize: different cash prizes of EUR 10,000; EUR 7,500; and EUR 5,000
Description
Since 1979, Ars Electronica has sought out interlinkages and congruities, causes and effects. The ideas circulating here are innovative, radical, eccentric in the best sense of that term. They influence our everyday life—our lifestyle, our way of life, every single day. The Festival as proving ground, the Prix as competition honoring excellence, the Center as a year-‘round setting for presentation & interaction, and the Futurelab as in-house R&D facility extend their feelers throughout the realms of science and research, art and technology. Ars Electronica’s four divisions inspire one another and put futuristic visions to the test in a unique, creative feedback loop. It’s an integrated organism continuously reinventing itself.
The Prix Ars Electronica is staged jointly by Ars Electronica Linz GmbH and the ORF – Austrian Broadcasting Company’s Upper Austria Regional Studio in cooperation with the OK Center for Contemporary Art and Brucknerhaus Linz. The Golden Nica statuettes are presented to each year’s winners at the Ars Electronica Festival in early September. The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the world’s premier awards honoring creativity and innovativeness in the use of digital media.
In 2013, the number of submissions to the Prix Ars Electronica’s seven categories surpassed 4,000 for the first time. To put this in historical perspective: When this competition premiered in 1987, three categories attracted a total of 700 submissions. The Prix Ars Electronica has constantly grown and developed over the years, and made quite a name for itself in the process. It’s the world’s oldest and most renowned competition in media art. And a key reason for this success is the high quality of the judging. In each category, a five-person jury of international experts evaluates, critiques and discusses each entry and finally selects the best for honors. Due to the tremendous number of contestants—among other factors—this procedure now takes five whole days. So, to make a long story short, the Prix Ars Electronica has now arrived at its capacity limits.
The 2014 Prix Ars Electronica will honor excellence in these categories:
- Computer Animation / Film / VFX
- Interactive Art
- Digital Communities
- u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD
- [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant
- A newly-created category will recognize the Visionary Pioneers of Media Art
Eligibility
- Entrants are requested not to submit irreplaceable originals since submitted materials cannot be returned.
- A work may be entered in only one category. An artist may submit more than one work.
- In addition to the general entry details and rules, special entry rules apply to each individual category.
- Employees of the organizers, sponsors and patrons of the Prix Ars Electronica, staff members of organizations that have established and endowed an individual category, as well as the competition’s jurors are ineligible to participate.
Prizes
Each winner of a Golden Nica grand prize will receive €10,000 in cash; the sole exception is the u19 – CREATE YOUR WORLD category that’s endowed with €5,000. There are also two Awards of Distinction and 12 Honorary Mentions in these categories.
The recipient of [the next idea] voestalpine Art and Technology Grant gets a€7,500 cash prize and a residency at the Ars Electronica Futurelab. Plus, all prizewinners are invited to the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, where they receive their prizes at a gala awards ceremony in the Brucknerhaus, and present their projects at the Prix Forums or exhibit them in the CyberArts show in the OK.
Application
Works can be submitted for prize consideration until 7 March 2014.
The submitter of a project does not have to be the artist; another person (e.g. artists representatives, representatives of a community, project coordinators, etc.) can submit a project as well. Furthermore, a submitter is allowed to submit several projects and/or submit projects in the name of several participants by clicking HERE.
It is also possible to nominate online. Nominations are recommendations; thus, nominated projects are not automatically entered in the competition. The nominated artists will be contacted by the organizer before the jury convenes. Then, projects must be formally submitted by the artists themselves prior to the entry deadline and in accordance with all competition criteria in order to be entered in the competition.
For further information, please visit the official website.
