Update_6

Entry forms and guidelines are available at www.ntaa.be or www.newtechnologicalartaward.be.
 

In 2016, the Liedts-Meesen Foundation organizes update_6. The professional jury is composed of:
Head of the jury Martin Honzik (Head of Department Prix/Festival Ars Electronica) together with Peter Weibel (Director, ZKM Karlsruhe), Jean-Marie Dallet (artist, research professor at the Université Paris 8), Isolde De Buck (Art Historian, Liedts-Meesen Foundation), Stef Van Bellingen (Consultant for Zebrastraat – Artistic leader VZW Warp), Paul Dujardin (Artistic Director, Bozar), Nick Ervinck (Artist, winner of the Update II public award), Julien Maire (artist, winner of the Update II jury award), Alain Thibault (Artistic Director of Elektra), Edwin Carels (Curator, New Media exhibitions), Karen Helmerson (Program Director for Electronic Media, Film & Visual Art at the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)) and Ralph Dum (scientific officer and senior expert of the European Commission).

The mission of the Update biennial events
Update’s mission is to expand the scope of contemporary artistic creations and traditional media with works using contemporary and new technologies in an original and intelligent way: treatment of sounds and light, use of new media, application of innovative evolutions in communications, telecommunications and broadcasting, centered on the world of information, communication, and computers and interaction. These descriptions are in no way restrictive and should be interpreted in the broadest way possible.

General guidelines for entry in the NTAA competition
The aim of the competition is to present works in accordance with Update’s mission. The submitted work may have been exhibited previously, but the jury reserves the right to exclude creations that turn out to be not realizable within the limits of the practical possibilities of the Liedts-Meesen Foundation, keeping in mind that the works will be displayed during the exhibition. The basic equipment is available and at the disposal of the selected artists; specific and special equipment must be provided for and lent by the artists for the duration of the exhibition.

There will be a publication of the Update_6 exhibition.

Calendar and conditions of the competition
The choice of the projects selected by the jury will be rendered public at the website in June 2016.

Eligibility and submission details
This international competition is open to all age groups and to all nationalities. English is the working language.

Prize
A cash award of 5,000 euro will be allocated to a work and to its creator. Moreover, the jury reserves the right to award an honorable mention to an artist. The Liedts-Meesen Foundation and the jury reserve the right to not award the prize and to transfer it to the next edition. There will possibly also be a prize of the European Commission. The winners will be announced at the final day of the exhibition.

Exhibition: Lee Lee Nam
During the same period Zebrastraat shows work of the South-Korean artist Lee Lee Nam. His works are located at the intersection of tradition and modernity, humanity and nature, East and West, analog and digital, originality and duplication and of neoliberalism and digital technology. Often referring to art history, he creates a dialogue between different traditional and modern media technologies and their cultural history. He lifts the barrier between diverse cultures and periods of time and questions the habits of perception and handling with art.
 

Partnership Zebrastraat – Ars Electronica

Zebrastraat
During the last few years, Zebrastraat Ghent has developed into a stimulating knowledge centre with a strong interest in art. Every two years we organize a Biennial called Update, linked with the New Technological Art Award (NTAA) contest, which tries to fill in a gap in the mainstream art world, by paying attention to the technological developments that drive our global culture.

NTAA selects and presents creations in which the culture-forming role of technology occupies a central place. Low or high tech, intuitive or experimental, the creations always draw our attention to actual innovative trends. The exhibition of achievements of the selected winners is a compass that orients you to the relevant temporal and resilient use of technology in the artistic sector.

Ars Electronica
With its specific orientation and the long-term continuity it has displayed since its inception in 1979, Ars Electronica is an internationally unique platform for digital art and media culture. It consists of four divisions: an avant-garde festival, a competition honoring outstanding work being done throughout this field, a museum carrying out an educational mission, and a media art lab that makes artistic competence available for R&D and industrial applications. Ars Electronica pursues a course that goes beyond purely technical and industrial interest, one whose essence is a holistic consideration of art, technology, and society. Attention is focused less on the technology itself than on the social and cultural phenomena it engenders. Here, the reciprocal inspiration of artistic, technical, and scholarly skills and knowledge opens up surprising new perspectives and highly innovative forms of collaboration.


For more information, contact Art Consultant Annelies Geenen (annelies@zebrastraat.be).