\\ international\media\art\award 2004

[anna balint]

http://www.swr.de/medienkunstpreis/en/index.html


\\ international\media\art\award 2004

The \\international\media\art\award is intended to provide a forum on the 
television and in the general public for artistic videos as well as other 
media and interactive arts projects. The competition for the \\international
\media\art\award 2004 is being organised jointly by Südwestrundfunk Baden-
Baden (SWR) and ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in co-operation with 
the Swiss television station SF DRS and ARTE. This award is the successor to 
the International Video Art Award, awarded for the first time in 1992. 
Sponsor is the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).


\\ theme

inVISIBLE \\ art_science



With the announcement of this year’s competition theme, the \\international
\media\art \award is attempting for the first time to explore and draw 
attention to a long overdue paradigm shift – namely, that in this age of 
apparatus-driven perception and the machine and media supported production of 
images, the monopoly on images no longer belongs to the world of art. Highly 
interesting and relevant imaging processes have also been developed by the 
world of science. This is the essence of what W.J.T. Mitchell terms the 
“pictorial turn“: the sciences have now also become creators of images.


That which man can see and hear with his natural sensory organs does not 
represent the limits of visibility and audibility. From the microscope to the 
telescope, from radio to television – there are many examples of the 
employment of technical devices to extend human perception far beyond its 
natural limits.
The technical imaging processes of such devices as X-ray cameras or STMs 
(scanning tunneling microscopes) create “a world of technical images“ (Vilém 
Flusser) which is undergoing an exponentially increasing rate of expansion. 
Apparatus-driven perception is providing us with ever more images of a world 
never before seen by the human eye. Science in particular, from medicine to 
astronomy, has become the domain of technical imaging processes. When 
structures, surfaces, balances of power and light effects are made visible, 
and this in dimensions of one-millionth of a millimeter, it makes for 
fascinating images. But has not the evoking of aesthetic pleasure over the 
centuries been primarily the role of the arts?

“New visual access to the previously invisible world of atoms and molecules 
is the prerequisite for controlling material in atomic production processes. 
The Age of Nanoscience has begun.“
Wolfgang M. Heckl, nano scientist

There is a world, in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm, which is 
rendered visible by scientists. It is they, in fact, who are carrying on the 
mission of art as described by Paul Klee in 1920: “Art does not reproduce 
what is visible, but renders things visible.“ Oswald Wiener’s definition of 
the function of aesthetics applies here as well: “The aesthetic experience 
does not stand in contrast to recognition: it encompasses recognition, it is 
recognition.“
In this sense, it is high time to stop dividing the images created by the 
modern media into the categories of scientific images and artistic images; 
many research scientists bring their discoveries to life through the artistic 
use of form and colour in their depictions of atoms or biological processes.

The international\media\art\award would like to present evidence that, in the 
age of apparatus-driven perception, art and science are in fact, their 
divergent methods notwithstanding, converging cultural technologies with a 
common alphanumerical code.

Can you see the sparkling glitter in the gurgling spasms
Of the cells, in their fibre, in the juic eof their plasms?
Can you hear the quanta coughing, in rods that are sizzling,
In the ions‘ target zone? A squeak like chopped-up quivering!
Listen! Drinks from the Invisible Bar – fluorescently luminous!
Look! Cocktails from the Inaudible Bar –how they magnetize us!

Timo Brunke \ Performance Poet



\\ terms of competition

subject

The competition theme for 2004 is “inVISIBLE \\ art_science“.
Prizes will be awarded for artistic merit, independent image and sound 
expression, originality and creativity in the media specific handling and 
processing of the subject.

submission

Each entrant may submit up to two entries. Video entries should not be longer 
than 15 minutes each. Works already nominated in a previous video art award 
or media art award competition are excluded. There must be no advertising or 
promotional content in any entry. Entries will not be accepted from employees 
of the organizers. Entrance is free of charge. VHS tapes may be submitted to 
be viewed by the pre- selection jury. In the case of Internet projects, a 
precise technical specification is required. Video documentation must be 
submitted for projects involving installations.

jury

A preliminary jury established by the organisers will nominate a maximum of 
50 entries for the \\international\media\art\award 2004. These entries will 
be broadcast, included in a catalogue and published on the Internet. An 
independent specialist jury will then award prizes to three of the nominated 
entries. The jury will take decisions by a majority vote. The jury's 
decisions will be final and recourse to the courts is excluded.

transfer of rights

All nominated entries will be broadcast on the third channels of ARD, on 
Swiss television SF DRS and on ARTE in excerpts in 3sat and EINS festival. 
All entrants will be required to transfer all the relevant rights to their 
entries (transmission, distribution and archiving rights as well as the right 
to use excerpts for news, preliminary reporting and promotion purposes and on 
digital media and services such as the Internet, CDROM, DVD etc.) and will be 
required to indemnify SWR and ZKM from any claims made by third parties in 
connection with such use. A lump sum fee of 1200 EUR will be paid for rights 
to nominated entries. All entries will be broadcast solely in connection with 
the competition and any additional use will be subject to special agreement. 
In the case of winning entries, the organisers will acquire the right to 
broadcast the entries concerned again and to repeat them on ARD, Swiss 
television SF DRS, ARTE as well as on and 3sat and on ARD Digital by awarding 
the prizes. Entrants will be deemed to have transferred the relevant rights 
to the organisers upon submitting their entries.

presentation \ archiving

Nominated entries may be presented by the organisers at non-profit- making 
events such as festivals. Awardwinning entries will also be included in the 
ZKM Mediathek. The organisers will be deemed to have acquired the relevant 
rights by awarding the prizes.

signature

By submitting an entry for the \\international\media\art \award 2004, 
entrants will be deemed to have accepted the conditions of entry.

deadline for entry \\ 01.04.2004

date as postmark