(Spet. 18, 2014)Visionary Pioneers of Media Art is the Prix Ars Electronica’s new category debuting in 2014. It’s designed to honor individuals responsible for momentous, groundbreaking achievements—men and women whose artistic creativity and experimentation have not only laid the groundwork for media art as we know it today but also made key contributions to our current social reality with all of its specific forms of communication and cultural techniques. The first VISIONARY PIONEER OF MEDIA ART to be singled out for recognition with a Golden Nica is Roy Ascott.

The British artist, theoretician and visionary thinker has been active since the 1960s, and his numerous publications and works have exerted a major influence on the global digital art community. Ascott has exhibited his works at such venues as the Venice Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, the Milan Triennale, the Ars Electronica Festival, the Plymouth Arts Centre and the Incheon International Arts Festival in South Korea. In 1980 and thus even before the birth of the internet, Ascott presented one of the world’s first online art projects on the ARPANET for universities. In 1983 in the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, Ascott exhibited “MuLa Plissure du Texte” (A Planetary Fairy Tale), a telematic project with artists in Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Bristol, Sydney, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Toronto, San Francisco, Honolulu and Alma. In 1989, Roy Ascott appeared at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, where he presented “Aspects of Gaia: digital pathways across the whole earth,” a computer network project in the form of an interactive installation. The core of this work was interaction among artists, musicians and scientists from different cultures and locations around the world. Roy Ascott is celebrating his 80th birthday this year, which makes it a perfect occasion to honor him with the Golden Nica as Visionary Pioneer of Media Art.

Source: http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmovies/article/Prix-Ars-Electronica-Prize-Winners-to-be-Recognized-at-Ars-Electronica-Gala-September-5-20140602    http://www.aec.at/prix/en/gewinner/

Golden Nica

Roy Ascott (UK)

“Roy Ascott is a pioneer of telematic art and a visionary thinker.”

Background
Prix Ars Electronica

Photo Credit to ARS ELECTRONICA

The Prix Ars Electronica is one of the most important yearly prizes in the field of electronic and interactive art, computer animation, digital culture and music. It has been awarded since 1987 by Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria).

In 2005, the Golden Nica, the highest prize, was awarded in six categories: “Computer Animation/Visual Effects,” “Digital Musics,” “Interactive Art,” “Net Vision,” “Digital Communities” and the “u19″ award for “freestyle computing.” Each Golden Nica came with a prize of €10,000, apart from the u19 category, where the prize was €5,000. In each category, there are also Awards of Distinction and Honorary Mentions.

VISIONARY PIONEERS OF MEDIA ART 

Visionary Pioneers of Media Art is the Prix Ars Electronica’s new category debuting in 2014. It’s designed to honor individuals responsible for momentous, groundbreaking achievements—men and women whose artistic creativity and experimentation have not only laid the groundwork for media art as we know it today but also made key contributions to our current social reality with all of its specific forms of communication and cultural techniques. The job of nominating the candidates and selecting each year’s honoree will be entrusted to a very special jury made up of artists who have themselves been honored with a Golden Nica since 1987. Thus, every grand prize winner in Prix Ars Electronica’s history is entitled to be a juror; so is every future prizewinner. They alone will determine who is singled out for recognition with the Golden Nica for Visionary Pioneers of Media Art.