International Jury of the 27th International New Media Art Festival Videomedeja in 2023 with the following members: Christl Baur from Austria, Marc Lee from Switzerland and Filip Markovinović from Serbia, have made the following decisions:
Videomedeja Grand Prize
Monetary prize of 1000€ for the best work, for creativity, innovation and artistic value
Peter Kutin & Patrik Lechner, ROTOЯ [SONIC BODY], live performance, 45:00 min, Austria, 2023
The international jury of 27th Videomedeja 2023 gives the Videomedeja Grand Prize to Peter Kutin & Patrik Lechner for ROTOЯ [SONIC BODY]
A live performance which brings Video art, performance and sculptures to another level. Dizzying light and sound effects fill the space and create in us a feeling of fragility and uncontrollability. A rotating sculpture, a hologram and at the same time a sound body which is awakened to an ecstatic life, using live generated images and sounds. We congratulate Peter Kutin, Patrik Lechner and Mathias Lenz for this forceful, formally convincing and complex work!
Special Mention:
Sarah Lasley, Welcome to the Enclave, 12:00 min, Color, United States, 2022
The international jury of 26th Videomedeja 2022 gives a Special Mention to Sarah Lasley for Welcome to the Enclave.
“Welcome to the Enclave” by Sarah Lasley is a thought-provoking and satirical exploration of the digital landscape and its impact on our perceptions of community, identity, and the pursuit of an idealized life. This experimental animation presents an absurdist crowdfunding campaign within a virtual neighborhood for ‘like-minded women.’ The video cleverly highlights the fragility and contradictions of digital utopias as it delves into the chaos and harassment that can infiltrate online spaces. Through glitches and design flaws, it challenges the pursuit of an idealized suburban existence, inviting viewers to question the authenticity of virtual realms. Sarah Lasley’s background in filmmaking and art shines through in the video’s composition and storytelling. Her ability to dissect the suburban metaverse, examining the intersections of race, gender, and the histories of Indigenous subjugation, makes this work a thought-provoking commentary on the complexities of identity and community in the digital age.
Special Mention:
Vladimir Todorović, Algodreams, 10:33 min, Color, Australia, 2023
The international jury of 27th Videomedeja 2023 gives a Special Mention to Vladimir Todorović for Algodreams.
Do androids dream of electric sheep? For Vladimir Todorović’s work “Algodreams” we could said that is related on this well-known and famous question. The work is entirely composed of fragments created by AI, which is first assigned to write a scenario, more precisely to “dream” about topics related to the future of humanity. The results show machines’ ability to mimic, synthesize, surprise, and retell stories that humans already dreamt and wrote. While these machines are turning into wonderful storytellers, animators or actors, humans are slaying their way to produce new forms of machine creativity and intelligence. In the segment of the video works that use artificial intelligence tools, Vladimir Todorović’s work has gone the farthest because it does not stop only at the fascination with new technical possibilities, nor with the possible dystopian implications of the influence of artificial intelligence in our lives, but strives to take a step further, giving AI a human dimension and putting it in a position to try to imagine what it’s like to be a human.
Selection committee of the 27th International New Media Art Festival Videomedeja in 2023 with the following members: Ivana Sremčević Matijević, Srđan Radaković I Željko Mandić, gives a Bogdanka Poznanović Prize to Miljana Niković for Minutiae: One Film, Two Cuts.
Bogdanka Poznanović Prize:
For the best work produced in Serbia
Miljana Niković, Minutiae: One Film, Two Cuts, 06:06 min, Color, Serbia, 2022
The foundation of this piece lies in found footage, combined with the rhythmic repetition of words that mark our banal yet horrifying daily existence, primarily aimed at evoking a deja-vu effect. The duplication of segments from 1950s TV commercials, coupled with their intersection with diverse word associations, straightforwardly challenges the viewer to confront the issue of memory in a culture where reality is created and controlled by the media.