Winners of VIDA 14.0

VIDA awards were created by Fundacion Telefonica in 1999 to promote artistic creation based on new technologies and artificial life. Over thirteen years, the contest has become a worldwide benchmark on this matter.

On Thursday December 13, Fundacion Telefonica announced the winning works of VIDA 14.0, which were handpicked by an internationally acclaimed jury, made up of the director of VIDA Monica Bello Bugall (Spain), Jens Hauser (France), Karla Jasso (Mexico), Martin Kaltenbrunner ( Austria), Sallly Jane Norman (New Zealand/France) and Nelll Tenhaaf (Canada). All in all, 225 projects were put on the table, created by artists from 36 countries, such as Spain with 52, Mexico with 25, Germany with 23, Argentina with 15 and United States with 14 pieces.

The winning proposals merge some of the classic perspectives of the discipline based on computer simulation and systems, along with new trends that explore the potential of biotechnologies and environmental sciences, thus reaffirming the multi-disciplinary character as one of the main elements of the contest. The first award, Belgian artist Tuur Van Balen’sPigeond´Or, builds an experimental design that uses the urban ecosystem as context to provoke a meeting among the different organisms that inhabit it: pigeons, men and a group of catalytic microorganisms. Irrational Computing,by German Ralf Baecker, who received the second award, is an installation made up of five electronic modules that expose the hidden qualities of semiconductor crystals of silicon and quartz that are usually used in computer technology; while May the horse live in me, by French artists Marion Laval-Jenatet and Benoit Mangin (Art Orienté Objet), obtained the third position. Seven honorable mentions were also delivered.

For further information visit http://espacio.fundaciontelefonica.com/las-palomas-urbanas-del-artista-belga-tuur-van-balen-ganadoras-del-premio-vida-14-0/

Source: Press release