From April 20th to 22nd 2012, the jury of Prix Ars Electronica 2012 will meet in Linz to decide on the winners of the Golden Nicas 2012. The weekend will be interesting, fascinating, but also tiring. Hundreds of projects want to be evaluated and rated, a daunting task. To give you a look behind the scenes, jurors of Prix 2012 will introduce their work during the next couple of weeks on this blog. Liu Yan, juror from China and a member of the jury for the third time, will make the start.
My own background is predominantly in Arts Management with a breadth in cultural and creative entrepreneurial practices. Ever since I started to work as the advisor at V2 for their Dutch Electronica Art Festival (DEAF), I was fascinated and began deeply involved interdisciplinary projects that focuses on art, technology and society. Currently running China’s largest co-working community of more than 6000 members and one of the leading creative centers in Shanghai, my work is all about promoting and facilitating openness, creativity, sharing and collaboration among different disciplines. I got connected with Prix during my work at V2. I also helped to nominate some projects before I joined the jury committee in 2010. The prize of Prix is an important milestone on the path for social entrepreneur and community organizer who are adapting creative technology to create social impact. It provides inspiration and courage for many others.
The Jury weekend is going to be very exciting and exhausting at the same time based on my experience from last year. There have been significant numbers of applications in Digital Community category last year. In many situation it was impossible to compare one with another because of their contexts and impacts, yet as the jury we were obliged to come up with the “winner”. It was a tough decision to make, one day we thought we were done, the second day we came back with dark circle under our eyes and decided we should give another round of discussion. I would expect the same thing with this year’s jury weekend. I am hoping to see more applicants and projects from developing countries because the social needs there are usually greater and more urgent than other countries. The most important criteria for me is the measurable and scalable social impact of the project regardless of the origin and discipline.
Liu Yan is an advocate of cross-culture and cross discipline exchange, a social entrepreneur and a community organizer. Working primarily as the CEO and cofounder of Xindanwei, China’s largest co-working community of 6000 members and one of the leading creative centers in Shanghai which promotes and facilitates openness, creativity, sharing and collaboration, Liu Yan is the author of , the first publication and apps in Chinese to introduce coworking concept and teach people how to set up a coworking center.
Liu Yan serves as an advisor, lecturer and mentor to students, entrepreneurs and startups on strategy, social responsibility,social innovation and social entrepreneurship. She speaks regularly at international conferences such as Skoll World Forum, Coworking Europe Conference, TEDx on social entrepreneurship, social innovation and social media. Liu Yan is a BMW foundation Young Global Leader and is awarded by Girl 2.0 as “top female innovator”. She serves as the jury member of Prix Ars Electronica 2011-2012, the most premium international award for digital art and community project.
Liu Yan’s educational background is predominantly in Arts Management and Marketing with a breadth in cultural and creative entrepreneurial study and practices. As an independent consultant and lecturer in the Netherlands from 2003-2007 prior to her return to China, she served as advisory board member on cultural entrepreneurship for the city municipal of Utrecht, and worked as the advisor of the China program of Dutch Electronic Arts Festival(DEAF), an international and interdisciplinary biennial that focuses on art, technology and society, and has curated and organized the Creative Cross China & Europe conference for Picnic, Amsterdam’s leading annual international event, highlighting creativity and innovation.