Call for entries: VIDA 13.2 Art and Artificial Life International Awards – deadline 27 July 2011

Until July 27th 2011

Fundacion Telefonica has made a commitment to technological innovation related to art as the central focus of its activities, showing special interest in support to forums around art, science and technology. This is the background to VIDA, the international competition which, since 1999, has recognized art and Artificial life projects

The hybrid forms of the artistic proposals recently submitted to VIDA, and the transformation of the discipline of artificial life itself, have prompted us to consider new issues, such as the rising importance of simulation in both social life and the life sciences. VIDA has been broadening its reach by remaining interested in A-life inspired projects and also expanding: VIDA seeks artistic projects engaged with any dynamic living process that has been affected by simulation.

The outcomes of areas of research that synthesize computational methods with life sciences and living systems are increasingly present in daily experiences: the foods we consume, the pets we take care of, the environments we occupy, the virtual spaces we meet in, the medicines we take, or the materials we use to build the computers with which we work – all of these are subject to a volatile conception of what constitutes our surroundings. We also increasingly live in a data world where dynamic visualizations map the real and virtual onto each other, and entangle bodies, environments and networks. In the projects VIDA is soliciting, artists’ engagement with these themes and their choice of media are very open: the approach can be computational, physical, social, metaphorical, or any combination of those. Projects must be artistically well-resolved and realized with appropriate technological sophistication. VIDA welcomes proposals that advance or challenge discourses and artistic modes, tropes and formal systems, and that show both aesthetic and social relevance.

There are two categories to the competition:
CATEGORY FINALIZED PROJECTS:

In this category VIDA 13.2 will award prizes to artistic three projects working in art and artificial life developed after 2008. The sum of 40,000 € will be shared between three projects selected by the jury:

1st prize: 18,000 €

2nd prize:14,000 €

3rd prize: 8,000 €

In addition seven honorable mentions will be awarded.

CATEGORY INCENTIVES FOR PRODUCTION

In this category VIDA 13.2 helps to fund artistic projects working in art and artificial life that have not yet been produced. This is aimed at citizens or residents of countries comprising Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The sum of 40,000 € will be shared between several selected projects.

You can access the submission form and competition guidelines at www.fundacion.telefonica.com/vida