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European Commission STARTS Prize for Technology and Artistic Practice (Austria)

STARTS is an initiative of the European Commission to foster alliances of technology and artistic practice. As part of this initiative, the STARTS Prize awards the most pioneering collaborations and results in the field of creativity and innovation at the crossings of science and technology with the arts. The STARTS Prize of the European Commission is launched by Ars Electronica and the consortium partners BOZAR, Waag, INOVA+, T6 Ecosystems, French Tech Grande Provence and Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Science, Technology and Arts (STARTS) form a nexus with an extraordinarily high potential for creative innovation. And such innovation is considered to be precisely what’s needed if we’re to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe will be facing in the near future. The role of artists thus is no longer seen to be just about propagating scientific and technological knowledge and skills among the general public but much more as a kind of catalyst that can inspire and trigger innovative processes. The artistic practice of creative exploration and experimental appropriation of new technologies has a wide reaching potential to contribute to the development of new products and new economic, social and business models. Accordingly, the STARTS Prize focuses on artistic works that influence or change the way we look at technology, and on innovative forms of collaboration between the ICT sector and the world of art and culture.

There are two prizes, each with €20,000 prize money:

Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration: Awarded for artistic exploration and artworks where appropriation by the arts has a strong potential to influence or alter the use, deployment or perception of technology.
Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration: Awarded for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts that opens new pathways for innovation.

STARTS is not restricted to a particular genre, such as media art and digital art, and is rather open to all forms of artistic work and practice with a strong link to innovation in technology, business and/or society. However, it is aimed at ground-breaking collaborations and projects driven by both technology and the arts. Purely artistic or technologically driven projects are not the focus of the competition.

The award is open to artists / creative professionals or researchers / companies from throughout the world. STARTS is not limited to citizens of EU member states. Among other possibilities, applications might come from the areas of new media applications, human computer interaction, machine learning, biotechnology, art & science, green technologies, material research, smart cities and citizen empowerment, robotics, quantum technology, and more.

The winning projects will be presented at the Ars Electronica Festival in September 2020 in Linz, Austria and at various exhibitions and events that Ars Electronica, BOZAR and Waag stage at partner institutions worldwide.

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