2016 Jury

Erick Oh (KR) is a Korean filmmaker / painter based in California, USA. His work has been introduced and nominated at Annecy Animation Festival, Hiroshima Animation Festival, Student Academy Awards, Zagreb Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Anima Mundi, Ars Electronica and numerous other international film festivals and galleries world wide. After receiving his BFA from Fine Art Department at Seoul National University and his MFA from UCLA’s film program, Erick joined Pixar Animation Studios as an animator in 2010. Erick’s most recent independent animated film, ‘The Dam Keeper’ was nominated for the Academy Awards this year.

Victoria Vesna (US), Ph.D., is an Artist and Professor at the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts and Director of the Art|Sci center at the School of the Arts and California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI). With her installations she investigates how communication technologies affect collective behavior and perceptions of identity shift in relation to scientific innovation (PhD, University of Wales, 2000). Her work involves long-term collaborations with composers, nano-scientists, neuroscientists, evolutionary biologists and she brings this experience to students. She is the North American editor of AI & Society and in 2007 published an edited volume – Database Aesthetics: Art in the Age of Information Overflow and another in 2011 – Context Providers: Conditions of Meaning in Media Arts.

Ian Banerjee (IN/AT) is lecturer and research fellow at the Centre for Sociology (ISRA) at Vienna University of Technology. Since 15 years he has been investigating global issues around urbanization with a special focus on urban innovation. Since six years he has developed a keen interest in studying the inter-linkages between urbanism and emerging educational practices. In 2015 he edited an e-book with Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber on ‘Digital Communities 2004-2014: Selected Projects from Prix ARS Electronica”.

Yamina Aouina (DE/CH): For more than 10 years Yamina Aouina has been involved with innovation and luxury; first as an advisor for big Swiss watch making companies, then Innovation Director at Cartier and now Head of Technology Intelligence at Richemont the Luxury Group. Through the different missions her experience had one common focus: aligning tradition, history and outstanding craftsmanship with breakthrough technologies for the creation of fascinating products and experiences. As a member of Go-Beyond’s business angle network she had a deep immersion in the start-up’s world helping young entrepreneurs with their business development and financing and had organized the first European Summit for sustainable investing which was a very enriching experience.

Alexander Mankowsky (DE), born in Berlin 1957, studied Social Science, Philosophy and Psychology at the ‘Freie Universität Berlin’. In 1989 he started working in the research institute of Daimler in Berlin. The multidisciplinary approach in the institute integrated a wide array of disciplines, from social sciences to artificial intelligence. His current working topics are Futures Studies, focussed on the ever changing culture of mobility, the interdependency of social and technological innovation and other aspects of envisioning paths into the future.

Chiaki Hayashi (JP) is the co-founder and is currently the Representative Director of Loftwork Inc. Loftwork succeeds to annually produce over 600 projects. She manages the operation of the company’s creative platform Loftwork.com which has 25,000 creators registered, FabCafe which is a cafe with digital fabrication tools, and a material-centered co-working office MTRL. She is currently Japan Liaison to the Director at the MIT Media Lab. She has recently founded “Hidakuma” which aims to rebuild nature and local creativity.

Lynn Scarff (IE) is the Director of Science Gallery Dublin. She has over twelve years experience in developing and leading public engagement projects in science, arts and education fields. Lynn comes from a background of work in the environmental and not for profit sectors and has developed a series of programmes, exhibitions, events, books, TV and radio for these areas. Beginning her role in Science Gallery as the Education and Outreach Manager, Lynn has been involved since its inception. She is passionate about science and arts and the potential of spaces like Science Gallery to be facilitators of transformation in people’s lives.

Hiroo Iwata (JP) has been conducting research projects on virtual reality. His research interests include haptic interface, locomotion interface and spatially immersive display. He exhibited his work at the Emerging Technologies venue of the SIGGRAPH every year from 1994 to 2007. He also got honorary mentions at Prix Ars Electronica 96 and 2001. He launched Device Art project in 2004. He has been leading PhD. Program in Empowerment Informatics at the University of Tsukuba since 2013.

Simona Maschi (IT/DK) is a co-founder and director of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. Leading the overall organisation at CIID she heads a team that encompasses a world-renowned education, a cutting edge research group, an award-winning consultancy, and a very ambitious incubator platform. Simona is an expert in service design, scenario design and design methods and is passionate about using design to create real positive impact in people’s lives.

Anne Balsamo (US) has recently taken the position as the inaugural Dean of the School of Arts, Technology and Emerging Communication at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously she served as the Dean of the School of Media Studies at The New School in New York. Previously she was a Full Professor at the University of Southern California where she held joint appointments in the Annenberg School of Communication and the Interactive Media Division of the School of Cinematic Arts. In 1998, she joined RED, a research-design group at Xerox PARC that created experimental reading devices and new media genres. Her recent book, Designing Culture: The Technological Imagination at Work (Duke, 2011) examines the relationship between culture and technological innovation, with a particular focus on the role of the humanities in cultural innovation.

Thomas Schildhauer (DE) is computer scientist, marketing expert and internet researcher. In 1999 he founded the Institute of Electronic Business – the first affiliated institute of the Berlin University of Arts, of which he is the Managing Director. In his capacity as Professor at the Berlin University of the Arts, he holds the chair for Marketing with focus on Electronic Business, as well as conducting the Berlin-based Career College and teaching in various master programmes. As executive director of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society gGmbH, he is responsible for the research area Internet-enabled innovation. Since October 2012, he has held the position of Academic Director of iDeers Consulting, a digital consultancy founded by the Institute of Electronic Business and the Hirschen Group. Besides, he has been Chairman of the Council of Internet Sages, a scientific advisory board of the IEB, since 2013.

Elizabeth Markevitch (FR/DE) is an art professional and founder of ikonoTV, an international platform for visual arts broadcasting. She began her career restoring icons, after which she worked at Vogue Hommes Paris; since the ’80s she has held numerous important positions in the international art establishment (Artemis Art Fund, Schröder Bank, Sotheby’s). In 1998, she co-founded the first online art gallery eyestorm.com. This year, Markevitch Media is also launching ikonospace, a revolutionary new 3D software for gallery curators, art fairs, collectors, and museum exhibition designers. This professional tool makes it easy for the user to create virtual exhibitions in real-world or user-created spaces. ikonospace also brings new interactive tools to the art world, such as virtual reality and interactive guides.

Marleen Stikker (NL) is founder of De Digitale Stad (The Digital City) in 1994, the first virtual community introducing free public access to the internet. She is founder of Waag, a social enterprise that consists of Waag Society, a research Institute for creative technologies and social innovation and Waag Products, that launched companies like 7scenes, a mobile learning and gaming platfor m and Fairphone, the first fair smartphone in the world. Stikker is also member of the supervisory board of WPG Publishers, an independent publishing group. Marleen Stikker strongly adheres to the Maker’s Bill of Rights motto “If You Can’t Open It, You Don’t Own It”. Waag Society is actively involved in the Open Design and Creative Commons movement and believes that society needs open technologies that meet societal challenges.

Jana Adamcová (CZ) is founder and chair of the Institute for Digital Economy. She has master degree from Philosophy and German philology. She has a 14-years experience both from public and private sectors in the area of national level strategic management. Her expertise is R’n’D and industrial policy, public diplomacy and emerging industries such as cultural and creative industries and digital economy.

Peter Higgins (UK) trained as an architect and has worked for BBC TV. In 1992 he formed Land Design Studio who create exhibitions and visitor experiences including work for The British Museum, V&A, The Natural History Museum, Singapore Gardens By The Bay, and the UAE pavilion Milan Expo. He helped develop the MA Narrative Environments course at Central St Martins where he is visiting professor. In 2009 he was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry.

Maholo Uchida (JP) is a curator and exhibition development devision manager of Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Technology) in Tokyo, Japan. She started her career as a curator of new media art and design producing several national and international exhibitions. She has developed a new style of science museum, where activities and exhibitions strongly orientated towards art, design, game, manga and other popular culture. She is a director of ”Tsunagari Project” which is symbol exhibition of Miraikan includes Geo-Cosmos – 6 meter sphere interactive globe display.

Daito Manabe (JP) is a Tokyo-Based Media Artist, DJ, Programmer. He founded Rhizomatiks in 2006, and since 2015 he has worked with Motoi Ishibashi on Rhizomatiks Research, which conducts projects for the purpose of R&D to a large extent. Also he carries out collaborative projects with artists in various genres making the most use of programming and interactive design. Manabe was acclaimed internationally as one of the eleven key persons, including John Maeda and Hans Zimmer, selected for a special website to celebrate 30 years of Mac by Apple Inc.

Filip Visnjic (UK) is a lecturer, curator and a media technologist born in Belgrade now living in London. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CreativeApplications.Net. The site tirelessly beat reports innovation across the field and catalogues projects, tools and platforms relevant to the intersection of art, media, and technology. In 2012, Filip co-founded Resonate, new educational platform and a festival located in Belgrade, Serbia. Same year, he co-launched HOLO, magazine about art, science and technology and is currently ‘director of platform’ at FRM, working on a new canvas for digital art. He lectures at a number of universities in the UK.

Yamina Aouina (DE/CH): For more than 10 years Yamina Aouina has been involved with innovation and luxury; first as an advisor for big Swiss watch making companies, then Innovation Director at Cartier and now Head of Technology Intelligence at Richemont the Luxury Group. Through the different missions her experience had one common focus: aligning tradition, history and outstanding craftsmanship with breakthrough technologies for the creation of fascinating products and experiences. As a member of Go-Beyond’s business angle network she had a deep immersion in the start-up’s world helping young entrepreneurs with their business development and financing and had organized the first European Summit for sustainable investing which was a very enriching experience.

Alexander Mankowsky (DE), born in Berlin 1957, studied Social Science, Philosophy and Psychology at the ‘Freie Universität Berlin’. In 1989 he started working in the research institute of Daimler in Berlin. The multidisciplinary approach in the institute integrated a wide array of disciplines, from social sciences to artificial intelligence. His current working topics are Futures Studies, focussed on the ever changing culture of mobility, the interdependency of social and technological innovation and other aspects of envisioning paths into the future.

Luis Miguel Girão (PT), founder of Artshare, is a transdisciplinary artist and Researcher. As a researcher he is generating support for EU and Transatlantic policy making in the field of the crossings of art, science and technology. Luis Miguel is developing applications of technology as tools for artistic expression focusing at the moment on electromagnetism. He is a member of the Planetary Collegium and of the Centre for Sociology and Music Studies of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities of the New University of Lisbon, Portugal. In 2007, he was awarded the Bolsa Ernesto de Sousa prize. He collaborated with several artists and scientists and his work has been presented worldwide. He was coordinator of ICT ART CONNECT 2013 and of ICTARTCONECT study for the European Commission.

Filip Visnjic (UK) is a lecturer, curator and a media technologist born in Belgrade now living in London. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CreativeApplications.Net. The site tirelessly beat reports innovation across the field and catalogues projects, tools and platforms relevant to the intersection of art, media, and technology. In 2012, Filip co-founded Resonate, new educational platform and a festival located in Belgrade, Serbia. Same year, he co-launched HOLO, magazine about art, science and technology and is currently ‘director of platform’ at FRM, working on a new canvas for digital art. He lectures at a number of universities in the UK.