<nettime-ann> [ann] VIDA 8.0 - Jury Statement

["Jose-Carlos Mariategui" <jcm@ata.org.pe>]

Art & Artificial Life International Competition
VIDA 8.0, 2005
http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/at/vida/english/index.html
(spanish version follows)

The jury for the art and artificial life competition Vida 8.0 - Sally
Jane
Norman (FR), Chris Csikszentmihalyi (USA), Daniel GarcEDa AndFAjar
(Spain),
Daniel Canogar (Spain), JosE9 Carlos MariE1tegui (Peru) y Fiona Raby 
(GB) AD
reviewed 69 projects from 23 countries using A-Life concepts and
technologies. The TelefF3nica Foundation in Spain, organizer of the
competition for the last seven yeards, will award the folllowing
projects:



FIRST PRIZE (10.000 euros):
AP0201
Martin Howse, Jonathan Kemp
U.K.


The desert of Southern California is a surreal wasteland of military
bombing
ranges and toxic waste, beautiful vistas and endangered species, and now
three peculiar artificial life entities. UK Artists Martin Howse and
Jonathan Kemp built these stark, semi-official looking devices at a
research station run by the Center for Land Use Interpretation. In this
arid landscape, Howse and Kemp hacked out what might be confused for
remote meteorological stations, but are actually far more ambiguous
devices. They harvest and store solar power, communicate with each other
through wireless, listen to military jets, birds, and the wind, and
constantly modify their own code. Their small computer displays tells us
nothing -- we have no way of entering their processing or conversation.
They are functionally inscrutable, while nonetheless communicating a sort
of technical authority. While their location is available as GPS
coordinates it's hard to imagine what one would gain by visiting them,
and knowing the American Southwest they would probably be peppered with
bullet holes anyway. Quixotic as they appear, they nonetheless present a
challenge to our self-importance, as oblivious to our curiosity as are
the desert tortoises or cacti that share their space.


SECOND PRIZE (7.000 euros):
LIVEFORM:TELEKINETICS (LF:TK)
Michelle Teran & Jeff Mann
Germany / Canada

Corkscrews whirl and spin, toasters with arms made from knives and forks
wave rhythmically in the air, tea-strainers open and close their mouths
in harmonic accompaniment. A joyful gathering of everyday kitchen
equipment, appear to dance together to the beat of the music. But on the
surface what looks like just "too much" happiness and fun becomes
sobering. It is disturbing to realise how easily a whole value system
which promotes functionality, seamless productivity and efficiency, from
the world of business communications machinery has been absorbed and
accepted as the "normal" tools, behaviours and etiquette for network
communications within our personal and social lives.

LiveForm:Telekinetics clearly shows us how our communications with the
people we care for and love are being limited by the tools we have
uncritically accepted. The enchanted objects celebrate through the social
mediums of music and play, new communication languages, new networked
social experiences, and the creative social processes in the production
of the objects themselves, reminding us what it is we have been missing
all this time.

THIRD PRIZE (3.000 euros):
Divine Methods / Hidde
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