Press – S+T+ARTS

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Contents of this page

S+T+ARTS – general information

S+T+ARTS Prize

  The project timeline
  The S+T+ARTS PRIZE competition is staged annually in two categories
  Who are the partners?

Success stories: Where Creativity Drives Change

S+T+ARTS – general information

Funded by the European Commission – DG Connect, S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology and the Arts) focuses on bringing digital technology closer to businesses, citizens and public administration, by limning a nexus at which insightful observers have identified extraordinarily high potential for innovation.

ICT Innovation for sustainability and across sectors, is precisely what is called for if we are to tackle the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe will be facing in the near future.

From 2016 to 2024, this remarkable initiative funded 189 residencies with 6 Mio € and honored 268 S+T+ARTS Prize projects.

S+T+ARTS Prize

Since 2016, the European Commission identifies projects and people that can make meaningful contributions to this collective effort through the S+T+ARTS Prize initiative.

The project timeline is marked by several key moments:

The Open Call for applications runs every year from January to March.
All nominations are judged by a jury to decide on the two prize-winning projects and up to ten honorary mentions.
The winners are announced early June at a press conference.
The two S+T+ARTS Prize winners each receive € 20,000 and are then prominently featured at Ars Electronica Festival in September.

The S+T+ARTS Prize competition is staged annually in two categories:

Grand Prize for INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION

is bestowed on innovative joint ventures involving industry/technology and the arts, alliances that blaze new trails for innovation.

Grand Prize for ARTISTIC EXPLORATION

honors artistic experiments and works of art that employ technology in ways that exhibit great potential to influence and change technology and how it is deployed, developed and perceived.

In addition, approximately twenty more projects receive a Nomination or an Honorary Mention every year.
Since 2016 more than 250 projects have been selected and more than 300,000€ in prize money has been distributed.

DISCOVER THE S+T+ARTS PRIZE WINNERS

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Who are the partners?

General project coordination
Ars Electronica, exploring since 1979 the impacts digitization and networking make on our world.
Contact: startsprize@ars.electronica.art

Partnership building and dissemination activities
INOVA+ (PT)
La French Tech Grande Provence (FR)
Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (DE)
Salzburg Festival (AT), Sonar (ES)
T6 Ecosystems (IT)
TUD Dresden University of Technology (DE)

Communication
French Tech Grande Provence, a unique ecosystem for startups, investors, decision makers & community builders.
Contact: mathilde.ghilozzi@lafrenchtech-grandeprovence.fr

Success stories: Where Creativity Drives Change

In the realm of S+T+ARTS, success stories illuminate the transformative power of artistic research. This dynamic convergence of art, science, and technology is a catalyst for addressing real-world challenges. Witness how creative exploration leads to tangible answers in our interconnected world. Art, as a driving force, is shaping industries and redefining possibilities across three distinct dimensions.

Visionaries Unveiled

Dare to question the status quo. Through cases like “Holly+”, “Pollinator Pathmaker”, and “Broken Spectre”, we traverse a visionary landscape. These thought-provoking concepts captivate general audiences while challenging conventional norms. Discover how art leverages tools to amplify information, sparking new vistas of understanding.

Pollinator Pathmaker

“Pollinator Pathmaker” by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg is 2023 winning project in the Artistic Exploration category of the STARTS Prize. A “living sculpture of plants,” Pollinator Pathmaker was designed to prioritize the needs of endangered pollinating insects over those of humans.

Broken Spectre

Richard Mosse, was awarded with the Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration with his work Broken Spectre in 2023. Created from 2018 to 2022, it is an immersive, 74-minute film which documents destruction, degradation and environmental crimes in the Amazon Basin and its related ecosystems.

Industrial Transformation

Witness art’s industrial metamorphosis. Enter the realm of “The Robot Cafe”, a testament to how art can revolutionize industries. This chapter speaks directly to the business world, illustrating how artistic applications drive tangible impact and technological progress.

Avatar Robot Cafe DAWN ver.β

Do robots and avatars have the potential to improve the lives of people with mobility impairments? Ory Lab created the Dawn Avatar Robot Café, S+T+ARTS Prize 2022 Honorary Mention, where users work and visit via robots. Users can seek employment via the company’s Avatar Guild staffing agency, thus remaining active in society.

New energy solutions are ready for innovative applications in public spaces and also more creative do-it-yourself solutions.

Geo-Llum

Geo-Llum, S+T+ARTS Prize 2023 Nomination by Samira Benini Allaouat aims to reimagine the role of public lighting in green urban areas with a symbiotic relationship between the artificial and the natural world, focusing on a deeper understanding of microorganism community such as fundamental collaborators in the city ecosystem.

Environmental and industrial worlds intertwine through topics of energy, waste and material research. Both industry and consumers aspire to alternatives to materials derived from fossils energy or animals, with the view to using technology in new ways to create a more efficient and sustainable organization and improve alignment between technology initiatives and business opportunities.

Remix el Barrio, Food Waste Biomaterial Makers

One of the most emerging developments in the field of industrial design, fashion and art, is the creation of biobased materials, biofabricated in laboratories from microorganisms, bacteria and biopolymers. Remix el Barrio Food Waste Biomaterial Makers, S+T+ARTS Prize 2021 winner by Fab Lab Barcelona: Designer have identified a recurrent local food waste case, investigated how to best collect and process it, and imagined future applications: from coffee husks, soap from used cooking oil, to furniture from olive pits and garments from orange peels.

Artistry Amplified

Unveil stories of artist empowerment. Delve into the lives of visionaries like “VFRAME”, “Futura Flora” and Giulia Foscari & UNLESS with “Antarctic Resolution”. These artists flourished through S+T+ARTS recognition, leaving an indelible mark on the artistic and general community alike. Their journeys underscore the profound influence of art on society.

Credits: Courtesy of UNLESS, Photo: Delfino Sisto Legnani

Antarctic Resolution

With the transnational and multidisciplinary collaborative project Antarctic Resolution, S+T+ARTS Prize 2022 winner by Giulia Foscari & UNLESS, a team of 150 leading Antarctic researchers set out to raise awareness on the cultural, environmental and scientific value of the continent.

Future Flora

Future Flora STARTS Prize 2018 winner by Giulia Tomasello, is a harvesting kit designed for persons with a vagina to treat and prevent vaginal infections. Since the award, she co-created with Isabel Farina the ALMA Toolkit, a project further providing support, resources, and knowledge to individuals with regard to vaginal health. By addressing their unique needs and challenges, the ALMA Toolkit project is breaking barriers and promoting inclusion, education, and overall wellbeing.

The ALMA toolkit as has taken part in the STARTS Cross-fertilization program, learn more here.

VFRAME: Visual Forensics and Advanced Metadata Extraction

VFRAME: Computer Vision for OSINT/OSI Research by Adam Harvey (US), Josh Evans (US), Jules LaPlace (US) aims to establish the monitoring of conflicts beyond the bias of industry and policy interests, VFRAME pioneers an artistic approach to 3D-photogrammetry, 3D-rendering, and 3D-printing, to generate synthetic data for training neural networks

From the awardee projects this year, is it possible to trace clear research lines and interests that continue and develop the focus of the previous year, providing new specificities and concerns. A central idea is a more complex understanding of health, as a way to include projects centered on human and more-than-human needs. As an understanding of the ecological as part of the elements that constitute and participate in the well-being of our species. Likewise, data is understood from different perspectives, including the importance of defending privacy, but also as a tool to defend the citizen’s rights and as a source of information to identify them.