The transmediale Award is dedicated to current positions in digital arts and media. It is an open competition, into which artists are invited to enter their current work. The jury of this year's award competition consisted of Annick Bureaud (Paris), Bronac Ferran (London), Juha Huuskonen (Helsinki), Pooja Sood (New Delhi) and Christoph Tannert (Berlin).
We, the members of the jury, made up a diverse group – from five different countries. We saw a great quantity of works that represented a broad spectrum of practice. Rich discussions and intensive critique led to certain re-evaluations of our individual critical perspectives (and subjectivities) and resulted in a nomination list which we hope will offer a certain element of surprise whilst also reflecting the range of contemporary media practices. Almost inevitably, our different views became an integral part of the decision process. In the end, a slow and creative 'process of distillation' brought us to a list that we felt reflected both the spectrum of jury opinion and the heterogeneity of the work.
The final list emerged from an in-depth critique of around 60 works pre-selected from over 1000 submitted projects. Our work involved establishing points of congruity and an ultimate consensus from a process of dialogue and, at times, lively debate. The festival theme is clearly apparent within several pieces on the list. However, we refused to over-prioritise this at the expense of other important considerations, such as the quality of the work, the concept, our intuition about how the work would function in the context of transmediale.09 and a desire to see the list reflect a mix of emerging and better-known artists.
Our foremost concern in the decision process was to balance a respect for artistic vision and imagination with a high quality of execution. We also agreed to respect the integrity of the works under consideration, as opposed to focussing on technique, media or genre. We felt it did not matter if the final list would be seen as 'high tech,' 'low-tech' or 'no-tech' as long as the work would be stimulating and remain memorable beyond the festival. A key word for us was 'experience.' By this we mean the experience of viewers, audiences, users and participants.
We sought to achieve a list that would appear topical – reflecting a multiplicity of perspectives on a complex and divergent world. The list combines levity with seriousness, analogue with digital and individual and group approaches to media. It also reflects a concern for the past and the future and for the combined use of new and old media to communicate contemporary ideas. It is worth noting that during the week of our selection meetings in October 2008 the world financial system appeared as close to collapse as it ever has during the past eighty years, and at times we sensed the cold draught of change coming through the open jury doors.
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