[iDC] Ars Electronica

[John Hopkins]

Hei Trebor

>Ars Electronica sent us  (the iDC list) an invitation to apply for their
>*Digital Communities* Prix Ars Electronica (see below). What do you
>think? Should we follow their invitation? I have a bit of an issue with
>such awards. They have the potential to be quite divisive.  How do you
>*measure/evaluate* a community? What would the  few hundred of us do
>with the price money? There are not really any costs attached to this
>list except all of our volunteer labor. So far, The Thing kindly hosts
>this list for free.  Are Fibreculture or Crumb *better* communities if
>they receive it (which they should!)?

In the end, it means a free return flight to Linz, a hotel room for a 
week, lots of appetizers, a VIP pass to the festival and the ORF 
studio for the awards broadcast, and a line on your CV (and everybody 
else's who might be remotely related to iDC).   Unless there is some 
political backing, I doubt  iDC would be in the money-making trio at 
the top.  If, on the outside chance, iDC would come into cash, then 
give it to a decent charity and use it as a tax write-off.  Nobody 
HAS to take prize money.  Especially a network.  ("Where any view of 
Money exists, Art cannot be carried on, but War only." -- Blake).

It's a pity that the Open-X part of Ars didn't last -- it was an 
interesting venue back in '97 & '98 for distributed network projects. 
It worked pretty well IMHO...

I'm thinking it would be an interesting idea, parallel to the 
application, that a relatively brief text -- an overview/history of 
the project be generated on the list...  so that everyone has an 
understanding on what exactly it is that Ars is attempting to reify 
with an award...

Cheers
john
-- 
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indeterminacy: four works
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