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Digital Pluralism
UNESCO IAMAS
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Jury Statement

Dear participants of the "Digital Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003 at IAMAS",

Thank you very much for submitting your art work proposal to the "Digital Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003 at IAMAS".

We have received 122 high quality applications from 49 countries all over the world.


JURY STATEMENT

18 July 2003

The "Digital Pluralism - UNESCO Digital Arts Award 2003 at IAMAS" jury committee held its jury meeting at IAMAS in Ogaki, Gifu Japan on July 17 & 18, 2003.

It has voted to award its first prize to Mr. Mwanya Chanda, a 25 years old artist from Zambia. Mr. Chanda will receive US$5000 plus a six months artist-in-residency at IAMAS, during which he will complete his proposed project.  His proposal centers around the use of internet-based technologies as communication tools, much as the African drum once allowed subtle long-distance communication between distant village communities.  It seemed to the jury that such a proposal was an ideal example of digital pluralism, and that by offering Mr.Chanda the opportunity to create "Caught in the Web", we will be offering him the opportunity to make considerable use of technologies currently unavailable both to him and to most people in his country.  His ideas about communication, while relevant within his country, are also important on an international level -  in this case, facilitating communication between cultures in south-central Africa and Japan, hitherto quite unfamiliar to one another.

The second prize of US$3000 has been awarded to URTICA, an art and media research group from Serbia and Montenegro for their project entitled "Mouse Says: click! and Human Says: eek!", a rather playful computer-based lexicon of what is described as "primal communication".

The third prize of US$2000 has been awarded to Ms. Cobi Van Tonder from Johannesburg, South Africa for "Ephemeral Gumboots", which uses sensor-equipped rubber boots to illustrate digitally variations in global music and dancing.

These three awards were selected from a total of 122 submissions from some 49 countries.

The jury also awarded eight honorary mentions to the following artists:

Ms. Andrea Polli (USA), Mr. Markku Reunanen (Finland), Mr. Hung Shek Ngan (Canada/Hong Kong), Mr. Jiro Ishihara (Japan), Ms. Kristi Trinier (Canada), Ms. Margaret Tan (Singapore), Mr. John Gerrard (Ireland) + Mr. Robert Praxmarer (Austria), and Mr. Padipark Mesomboonpoonsuk (United Arab Emirates).

The Jury:
Africa:
Ibrahima Ndiaye [Multimedia critic, Professor of Universite Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal]
Asia/Pacific:
Elaine Ng [Independent curator specialized in contemporary and new media art, China]
Latin America/Caribbean:
Diana Domingues [Professor and Researcher at the University of Caxias do Sul/ CNPq, Brazil]
Europe/North America:
Gerfried Stocker [Director of Ars Electronica, Austria]
Arab States:
Azza El-Hassan [Independent filmmaker, Palestine]
IAMAS:
Itsuo Sakane [President Emeritus of IAMAS]
Hiroshi Yoshioka [Professor of IAMAS]
NFUAJ:
Kae Hirai [A member of the Board of Directors, UNESCO Associations in Japan]
UNESCO:
Tereza Wagner [Deputy team leader for the Digi-Arts Project, Paris Headquarters]
External supervisor of the jury:
Christa Sommerer [Associate Professor of IAMAS]

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