
Prix Ars Electronica
Photo: Ars Electronica / Martin Hieslmair
Winners 2023
With 3,176 projects submitted from 98 countries, the 2023 Prix Ars Electronica once again presents itself as a central hub in the global network of media art. The prizewinners will receive 10,000 euros each for the “Golden Nicas” that have been awarded annually since 1987 by an international jury and a prominent appearance at the Ars Electronica Festival. Congratulations to the award winners!
New Animation Art
Digital Musics & Sound Art
AI & Life Art
u19 – create your world
Isao Tomita Special Prize
Ars Electronica Award for Digital Humanity
The 2023 Jury
2023 Jury Statements
All winners since 1987
New Animation Art

Golden Nica
Delivery Dancer’s Sphere
Ayoung Kim (KR)
“It is a speculative fiction set in the delirious world that emerges between the everyday normal reality pre-pandemic and the new digitally intermediated pandemic reality. (…) The jury found that Ayoung Kim’s combination of philosophy, topology, and classical physics with excellent visual storytelling creates a highly successful portrayal of the emerging multi-layered and uncontrollable world we inhabit.”
Photo: Ayoung Kim

Award of Distinction
IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS
Bassam Issa (IE)
“(…) a world of subtle storytelling filled with hyper-synthetic visuals. In this world, journeys seemingly never end, and preconceived narratives and habitual perceptions of masculinity are pushed and challenged. Operating in the gap between the fantasy and reality, Al Sabah draws us into their seductive journey of metamorphosis and fluidity, queer possibility, destruction and decay, set against scenes of resilience and rebirth.”

Award of Distinction
Oneroom-Babel
SANGHEE (KR)
“(…) The jury appreciated the direct nature of the work through the very appropriate, simple yet convincing use of the medium to produce a truly embodied and immersive experience of grim life situations that are often portrayed too abstractly. The jury commands the work’s simplicity and efficiency, which successfully frames a set of interviews portraying the lived experience of Korean youth inhabiting the spaces on display, that can resonate with all viewers.”

Honorary Mention
Distant Distraction, Foul Breach, Separate Sensation
Lark Spartin (CA)
“(…) The jury very much applauds the work’s playful elicitation of the disembodiment that the social media use of AR platforms entails, while remaining confident that all will—eventually—take a selfie. Resistance is futile.”

Honorary Mention
Dzata: The Institute of Technological Consciousness
Russel Hlongwane – Substance Point (ZA), Francois Knoetze and Amy Louise Wilson – Lo-Def Film Factory (ZA)
“(…) Made with Dala AI, found footage and an assembly of costumed characters, Dzata: The Institute of Technological Consciousness aims to shift the image of “African data” in the technological imagination and decolonize ideas around technology and innovation.”

Honorary Mention
FuneralPlay
Ruini Shi (CN)
“(…) By using a digital platform to offer online “rituals of healing” through gameplay, Funeral Play by Ruini Shi uses technology to create tender, new social structures. This speculative artwork embodies an emerging narrative of future possibilities that inspire discussions about the applications and potential trajectories of technological development.”

Honorary Mention
GLITCHBODIES
Rebecca Merlic (HR)
“(…) Liberated from the confines of binary structures, hierarchical systems, and fixed notions of gender, GLITCHBODIES roots itself in concepts of gender fluidity where the body becomes a vehicle for new world building and collective consciousness.”

Honorary Mention
huě iànn
Yu-Han Chen (TW), Ching-Wen Hsu (TW), Ruei-Sin Jhang (TW), Li-Hua Zhan (TW), Tung-En Chien (TW), Pei-Chi Wu (TW)
“(…) It suggests that the perception and use of freedom of speech have changed over time and that nowadays, freedom of speech is often invoked as a protective measure. The faded blue aesthetics and the clever soundscape of this artwork evokes a feeling of poignant loss in what is essentially a subtle, political work.”

Honorary Mention
I Took a Lethal Dose of Herbs
Yvette Granata (US)
“(…) Set against the white picket bigotry of Post-Trump’s America, this critical fabulation highlights oppressive policies based on faith not fact. Dangerously experimenting on yourself because you are unable or unwilling to bear a child? Witches were burnt for less than this. This sad tale is as old as time.”

Honorary Mention
Inter net
Zi Yin Chen (TW), Hsiang Feng Chuang (TW)
“(…) The work shows the still unexplored aesthetic potential of our digital footprints. Rather than visualizing all the records together or extracting important patterns, the artists arrange printouts in an overlapping manner, similar to a shingle roof, which protects us in a house from the outside world.”

Honorary Mention
Le Mal des Ardents (Ardent Other)
Alice Brygo (FR)
“(…) Reversing the angle of perspective onto the faces of the crowd, Alice Byrgo constructs an uncanny digital landscape that draws attention to our fascination with catastrophic events. Highlighting the behavior of the crowd, the disconcerting immersive experience lays bare the social tensions bathed in the light of hidden flames.”

Honorary Mention
Rhizomatiks x ELEVENPLAY “multiplex”
MIKIKO (JP), Daito Manabe (JP), Motoi Ishibashi (JP), Satoshi Horii (JP), Yuya Hanai (JP), ELEVENPLAY (JP), Rhizomatiks (JP)
“(…) Happening in two physical spaces and as an online work, the piece is a true feat of multi-media content, in which the technicalities eventually leave space for the poetry of audio-visual enchantment: the suspension of disbelief. Sometimes words are neither useful nor necessary.”

Honorary Mention
PLSTC
Laen Sanches (FR)
“(…) Through the fusion of AI-generated images, digital compositing, and sophisticated editing, the film encourages empathy and action, sparking a connection with the plight of marine life. It also shows the true potential of AI cinema, which can inform, delight, and inspire audiences to take action”
Digital Musics & Sound Art

Golden Nica
A Tale of Two Seeds: Sound and Silence in Latin America’s Andean Plains
Atractor Estudio (CO) + Semantica Productions (INT)
“(…) A Tale of Two Seeds uses data capture technologies, recordings and sonification to make a sound case study of Colombian agricultural soils (…) This work reflects the social engagement and activism that many artists, particularly those in countries with prevalent economic and social disparities, employ to force the business of agriculture to be more holistic and ecological in its practices.”
Photo: Installation Render, atractor + semántica

Award of Distinction
Harmonic Motion
Alba Triana (CO)
“(…) The piece departs from a premise: Nature is fundamentally active and interconnected. There is a vitality that inhabits everything, even in the inert. And that omnipresent vitality largely determines who we are, our interests, desires, issues, ideas, and everything that emerges from ourselves. (…) Hearing the unheard and seeing the unseen, visitors immerse themselves in a vibrational meditative environment that invites them to pause, become aware of their senses, and escape the cacophony of daily life.”

Award of Distinction
zwischenraum – interspace – acoustic cartography
Julia Jasmin Rommel (DE)
“zwischenraum – interspace – acoustic cartography is based on an artistic exploration of the acoustic measurement of space, dealing with the aspect of orientation, while reflecting on the phenomena of ubiquity and space. (…) The work represents a stunningly clear, minimalistic and beautiful realization of data sonification in an undeniably creative artistic way.”

Honorary Mention
30 Cycles of Flux
Richard Garet (US/UY)
“(…) The work addresses how imperceptible energy, which we encounter in daily life, goes unnoticed. It draws our attention to the fact that in this day and age, we need to be more in tune with our senses where we live. (…)”

Honorary Mention
زبانی که خاموش است / A TONGUE THAT IS TURNED OFF
Rogine Moradi (IR)
“(…) the work teaches us that linguistic comprehension is not required to understand the piece itself and empathy and solidarity is much more fathomable than we like to admit or than we can comprehend.”

Honorary Mention
A Natural History of Networks / Softmachine
Ralf Baecker (DE)
“The performance’s minimalist yet impressive approach relied on custom-built electrochemical apparatus to create highly organic, fluid movements in a black hue. (…) It shows beautifully the dynamic relationship between human creativity and the immutable laws of nature.”

Honorary Mention
Antenna
Floris Vanhoof (BE)
“Antenna is an impressive artwork that seamlessly combines different aspects of art and technology to raise the audience’s awareness of the frequencies that surround us. (…) makes it possible to create impressive sound compositions resulting from the frequencies of the environment.”

Honorary Mention
Bias II
Artemi-Maria Gioti (GR)
“(…) The system learns new aspects with each new pianist and each new performance and will generate a slightly modified version of the interaction. Through this interaction the piano seems to generate surprisingly new but fitting timbres and gestures beside the lively interaction between player and computer.”

Honorary Mention
klimaton ARCTIC≈2020
Adnan Softić and Nina Softić (feat. Thies Mynther & MOSAiC Expedition Team) (INT)
“(…) The instrument not only creates haunting sonic images, but also allows for interactive engagement with the data through the keyboard, enabling artists and researchers alike to experience the sonic representation of the Arctic’s ever-changing environment.”

Honorary Mention
MELENCOLIA
Brigitta Muntendorf (AT/DE)
“(…) A hugely complex project, Melencolia demonstrates the potential of modern technologies in a traditional, specific environment, such as the opera, and proves that new artistic formats can thrive in these spaces.”

Honorary Mention
OSZILOT
Luc Gut (CH), Rolf Hellat (CH), OSZILOT (CH)
“(…) Combining analogue objects and digitizing their sound through gyro sensors, this sonic interpretation is at once extremely satisfying to the ear whilst reanimating our imaginations by giving new meaning to objects which, as “adults,” we might erroneously write off as mundane. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Syphon
Wojciech Rusin (PL)
“(…) With references to Eastern European mythologies and Carpathian influences, Syphon celebrates the global tapestry of musical traditions in a unique, forward-looking manner, offering a refreshing perspective in a predominantly Western-centric music landscape.”
Artificial Intelligence & Life Art

Golden Nica
Unerasable Characters Series
Winnie Soon (HK/UK)
“(…) a three-part investigation of the scale of digital authoritarianism through the transformation of censored content by some of the very technology used to control it. Artist Winnie Soon (HK) uses machine learning techniques combined with DIY and open source approaches to complicate notions of control and power. (…) By transforming scraped, censored content into “new” experiences that avoid or circumvent surveillance, Soon ultimately questions whether the very same technology that aims to remove information can be hijacked to make the erased unerasable.”
Image courtesy: Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, Photo: Andrew Curtis

Award of Distinction
3SDC project (Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle)
Oron Catts (AU), Ionat Zurr (AU), Steve Berrick (AU)
“(…) As a weeks-long durational performative set-up involving a series of interconnected processes—controlled growth of plant and animal tissues, optimized environment agriculture, composting, and alkaline hydrolysis biocremation—Oron Catts, Ionat Zurr, and Steve Berrick point to the failure to acknowledge so-called ‘ecosystem services’ and biodiversity concerns in innovative and abstract agricultural ventures, often even in the name of sustainability. (…)”

Award of Distinction
Shadows from the Walls of Death
Adam Brown (US)
“Shadows from the Walls of Death is a complex and multi-layered intermedia and live art project that puts anthropocentric assertions to the test in an age of ubiquitous greenwashing. The project involves and combines chemical synthesis and field research into naturally detoxifying micro-organism and plants used in bio- and phytoremediation, and thus emphasizes eco-systemic intelligence to address trans-historical issues of inherent toxicity of human made media to represent ‘nature’ from an exclusive human-only point of view. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Biobot
Zoran Srdić Janežič (SI)
“(…) unique combination of the hardware, software, and wetware, where their interoperability intends to enable unexpected behavior and therefore emancipate the Biobot from human productivistic expectations.”

Honorary Mention
Codex Virtualis_Genesis
Interspecifics (MX)
“(…) The Codex, as a large-scale installation that gathers new lifeforms, asks us to consider the clear metaphorical parallels between life’s collaborative possibilities at bacterial levels, and art and AI’s collaborative potential.”

Honorary Mention
ERBSENZÄHLER Quality Sorter V2
Verena Friedrich (DE)
“(…) This automation reflects the growing trend of delegating complex decision-making to intelligent systems and Friedrich’s installation raises thought-provoking questions about this, and about the impact of mathematical-technical systems on our understanding of the world we live in.”

Honorary Mention
From Paradigm to Paradigm, into the Biomic Time
Nandita Kumar (IN)
“(…) In this work, media ecology binds with actual ecological issues, showing how vital policymaking on the environment is increasingly intertwined with the information that surrounds us.”

Honorary Mention
Interspecies Robot Sex
Miriam Simun (US)
“This video investigates the management of artificial life by robots eventually controlled by artificial intelligence. (…) The format of the video essay makes this documentary a compelling artwork reflecting on the meaning of artificial life.”

Honorary Mention
Masakhane – pioneering participatory approaches to building African language technologies, for Africans, by Africans
Masakhane (INT)
“(…) Through its combination of explicit community values and technical expertise, Masakhane emerges as a creative, generative movement of African technologists and linguists focused on representing local perspectives within the global context of AI.”

Honorary Mention
Monsters and Ghosts of the Far North
Lena Geerts Danau (BE), Andra Pop-Jurj (RO), alternaa (BE/UK)
“This artwork as a form of metaverse enables the exploration of the perplexities within the Arctic Circle. Storytelling combined with gamification can deliver scientific and socio-economical knowledge about a distant and inaccessible environment that is yet so central to our age. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Perhaps, art begins with the fireflies
Nelo Akamatsu (JP), Yuichi Oba (JP)
“Akamatsu and Oba beautifully fuse artistic practice, biotechnology research, and insect courtship in a moving exploration of the evolution of both creativity and animal and plant life existing 100 million years ago. (…)”

Honorary Mention
QT.bot – Sitting here with you in the future
Lucas LaRochelle (CA)
“(…) a narrative both rooted in and obfuscating the confessions and pronouncements of the global queer community that is both delightful and confusing, prompting us to consider how our machine learning tools can be queered to celebrate possibilities rather than limit them.”
u19 – create your world

Golden Nica – Young Professionals
Verblassende Stimmen
Sonja Höglinger, HBLA für künstlerische Gestaltung
“(…) its visual presence actually conveys everything succinctly. It speaks without speaking. Its tonality is tattooed into the fabric skin forever with needle and thread. The fabric itself already resembles the sound track of a composition that has not yet been played, or like the lines on a monitor when the heart no longer beats. (…) Verblassende Stimmen (Fading Voices) is an analog work that, despite everything, manages to capture the digital and intertwine the best of both worlds in a wonderful way.”
Photo: Sonja Höglinger

Award of Distinction
Young Professionals
Gan Eden
Anatol Grandits, Tomas Perkovic
“(…) It is a world from which humanity has eradicated itself and all other forms of life. The title alludes to the paradise from which we have expelled ourselves in favor of mass consumerism and materialism. The interactive experience of Gan Eden conveys a silent anger that holds up a mirror to the resigned attitude towards the climate catastrophe.”

Award of Distinction
Young Professionals
Meditações
Linda Michelitsch, Konstantin Redl, Emma Gruber
“Young people on a class trip. The paradise outside is merely external and illusory. Inside, a struggle takes place. A struggle against appearances, shallowness, and hypocrisy. The possibilities and temptations of Western civilization no longer function as tranquilizers. The reactions are anger, disturbance, and rebellion. It is the struggle of coming of age and awakening that we witness here. (…)”

HONORARY MENTION
Young Professionals
#Pictrees – Eine Grazer Umweltinitiative
Felix Zorn-Pauli, Neo Klinger, Sarah Windisch, Bianca Amberger, Enzo Gutschi, Paul Miklautz, Tobias Fischbach
“For an entire month, the students occupied the media facade of the Kunsthaus Graz with the Insta-theme “Nature in the Urban Landscape.” The more stories were tagged, the more trees the city of Graz was allowed to plant. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
Brave New World
Leo Bauer
“(…) In its apparent insignificance, it contains everything that troubles us as human beings and makes us human: our perverted relationship with nature, our godforsakenness, our lack of beauty. And at the same time, it radiates the opposite of all that. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
create [your] world, please
Ferdinand Preßmayr, Moritz Bjelič
“This VR loop convinces not only because of the confidently employed AI tools but also creates a compelling pull that raises questions, such as: How does artificial intelligence perceive itself? What images does it want to conform to? How do we engage in dialogue with it? (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
Ein halber Cent (oder die totale Destruktion des Ungewissen) für einen Blick auf das Chaos am Silver Screen
Marco Barthofer
“The short film beautifully combines associative snippets of thoughts that manage to trigger synapses and evoke memories in the viewer. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
Greenwashing
Paula Hanner, Lisa Hirth, Mia Moser, Selina Schwinger, Angelina Seng / BRG Traun
“This series of three video clips reflect on and explore societal and political aspects of greenwashing, environmental whitewashing, and their consequences in a thoughtful and sophisticated manner. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
HUE
Rebecca Heindl, Ronja Hoffert, Jasmin Korkmaz, Nathalie Zalewski
“(…) HUE employs a visual storytelling approach that expresses the spreading feeling of intrusion. Animated fluids, grinning faces, and groping hands transition from one situation to another. (…)”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
PiPi
Yannick Schneider, Pauli Zauner
“(…) you pour water into it from the top, and after an unpredictable period, the PiPi machine excretes the same water. This project is a subversive, even anarchistic comment on current media consumption.”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
Sýn (the Sight)
Samuel Klancnik
“(…) In an era of fake news, social bots, and increased polarization, this parable ascribes latent shortsightedness to the consumer and holds them responsible as constant creators of media content.”

Honorary Mention
Young Professionals
Tamina
Tobias Spinka
“(…) The shape of the object is based on the body measurements of 21 internationally renowned female celebrities who are often portrayed by the media as ideal images of female beauty. Only a few people can comfortably sit on the resulting chair. (…)”

u14 prize
Young Creatives
Der Klassensprechersong
Fabian Kranzl
“This rap entitled Class Representative Song not only satirizes any anonymous class representative but also targets those who like to take themselves too seriously and make themselves important without actually being important or doing anything significant. (…)”

u14 Honorary Mention
Young Creatives
MARIMBA
Pupils of BG / BRG Laa an der Thaya
“(…) Many things happen in this experimental animated film, but stylistically, everything comes together to create an exciting mood reminiscent of David Lynch with a healthy dose of humor.”

u12 Prize
Young Creatives
R2 D2 SERVICE-ROBOTER
Maximilian Posset
“This cult-worthy development of a cult figure is fun and entertaining without sacrificing depth. (…)”

u12 Award of Distinction
Young Creatives
Ein Besuch auf Schloss Finsterwald
Pupils of 2ab (School Year 2022/2023) Gries am Brenner
“Although the beginning of the story was given, the progression and content were rich, imaginative, and full of drama, resulting in a very successful radio play. (…)”

u12 Honorary Mention
Young Creatives
Robotheater
Sarah Hölzl
“(…) Robotheater tells an important truth: Only in our imagination can we travel to the future, but we can only change it in the present.”

u10 Honorary Mention
Young Creatives
Unterwasserwelt
Sara Wanzenböck
“The short film takes place in the realm of a fish king with colorful fish inhabitants and a very cool royal bodyguard. (…) Sara skillfully builds up drama in the fluid narrative, underscored by sound effects.”

Prix Ars Electronica 2023 Book
The extensively illustrated Prix Ars Electronica 2023 book presents the award-winning works of 2023 and includes texts by the artists as well as statements by the juries that selected the prizewinners.
The Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s most time-honored media arts competition. Winners are eligible for the coveted Golden Nica awards and monetary prizes of up to 10,000 euros in each category. They will also be featured at the Ars Electronica Festival from September 6 to 10, 2023, in Linz, Austria!
Who Owns the Truth?
Ars Electronica Festival
September 6 – 10, 2023
POSTCITY / Linz, Austria
Ars Electronica is one of the world’s top addresses for media art. At the festival, you’ll meet the Who’s Who of the international media art scene as well as young shooting stars who are just starting to make a name for themselves. First and foremost, we’d like to recommend one of the many exhibitions, the Prix Ars Electronica Exhibition, where you can see the best media art works of the year that have been honored by the international jury of the prestigious competition.