Last Edition
This year saw the last presentation of the Media Art Award. This international competition has been jointly organised and presented by SWR (South West German Broadcasting Corporation) and the ZKM (Centre for Art and Media) since 1992. Over the years, SWR (formerly SWF) has broadcast more than 200 hours of video art on its airwaves – a groundbreaking accomplishment. All the more reason for SWR to regret that it is no longer able to maintain its support for this competition. Because this year’s increase in listener and viewer fees was considerably lower than that called for by an independent commission, SWR is no longer in a position to continue the patronage role it has held in the past. The financial framework for the coming years necessitates drastic spending cuts, and SWR has had to carefully reconsider its sponsorship of festivals. The long list of recipients has been reduced, and thus, regrettably, SWR will no longer be able to participate in the International Media Art Award.
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The winners of the International Media Award for Science and Art 2005
The first prize in the video category went to Johan Grimonprez, the first prize in the installation category went to Verena Friedrich and to the duo of Manfred Wolff-Plottegg and Wolfgang Maass. The special prize went to Lenara Verle. The winner of the audience award was Falk von Traubenberg, and honourable mention went to Oliver Pietsch.
Baden-Baden/Karlsruhe. The jury of the International Media Award for Science and Art 2005 has reached its decision. The first prize in the video category – 12.000 € – went to Belgian artist Johan Grimonprez for his work, Looking for Alfred. The shared first prize in the installation category – 6.000 € each – went to Frankfurt student Verena Friedrich for her work, Hole in One, and to the duo of Vienna architect Manfred Wolff-Plottegg and Graz computer scientist Wolfgang Maass for their work, Neural Architecture Generator. For her computer animation, Gridcosm 1000-0000, Brasilian artist Lenara Verle received the special prize, consisting of 5.000 € donated by the LBBW, as well as a television profile and a production bursary at the ZKM. Viewers voted online and by telephone to award the audience award to Falk von Traubenberg of Hamburg for his video, Kopfkunst (Head Art) – Mindstorm #01. Honourable mention went to Berlin media artist Oliver Pietsch for his found-footage work, Tuned.
In Looking for Alfred, we see Johan Grimonprez in search of a Hitchcock double. His film, which takes us on an excursion into the history of film and into his own memories, is studded with excerpts from well-known Hitchcock classics and features the easily recognizable style of pictorial composition and camera work that characterizes Hitchcock’s films. The installation, Neural Architecture Generator, converts neural impulses into architectural building blocks, while the installation, Hole in One, demonstrates that the thought process does not always follow a direct route. Gridcosm 1000-0000 could best be characterized as a dizzying ride through a pop art tunnel; an endless zoom draws the viewer into a frenzied flood of images. Tuned is a collage of excerpts from well-known Hollywood films, connected by the theme of drug highs. For the first time the nano special prize was awarded for the best scientific visualisation, it was won by Volker Springel from Max-Planck-Institute in Garching for a ride through time and space entitled Millennium Simulation.
The jury consisted of Prof. Olaf Breidbach (Director of the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus at the University of Jena), Prof. Sigrid Weigel (Centre for Literary Studies in Berlin), Prof. Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann (Director of the Computer Animation MiraLab in Geneva) and Prof. Thomas Metzinger (Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Mainz).
The awards ceremony took place on October 29th, 2005, in Baden-Baden’s E-Werk. The broadcast, which will was presented by science journalist Ingolf Baur, featured the international prizewinners as well as a panel consisting of neurobiologist Manfred Spitzer, philosopher Michael Pauen and psychoanalyst Annette Bitsch, who discussed the question of free will under the heading Am I Thinking or am I Being Thought? In addition, the duo of Raimund Ritz and Johannes Brunner (director of the film Oktoberfest) enhanced the evening with a number of performances. The awards ceremony was broadcast in the programme, VIDEO ONLY – The Winners, and aired on SÜDWEST television.
The International Media Art Award is jointly organized and presented by the South West German Broadcasting Corporation (Südwestrundfunk – SWR) and the Centre for Art and Media (Zentrum für Kunst- und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe – ZKM), in cooperation with Swiss Television (Schweizer Fernsehen – DRS) and ARTE. Sponsor of the competition is the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW).
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