Juried International
Networked Art Competition
Winners Announced

MIXED REALITIES was an international juried competition that resulted in the commissioning of 5 networked art works to be exhibited/performed in 2008 at Turbulence.org; Huret & Spector Gallery; and Ars Virtua, a gallery in the online 3D rendered environment, Second Life. Each commission is $5,000 (US).

MIXED REALITIES calls for proposals that challenge our preconceptions of what constitutes "reality." It asks producers to create environments that invite participants to act/perform in multiple spaces.

Information and telecommunications technologies allow us to be continuously connected via the Internet or mobile networks. We engage one another via e-mail, chat, the interlinked pages of the World Wide Web, and SMS. We create identities, and forge relationships and communities. Boundaries between real space and virtual space blur; near and far reverse themselves. Passive consumption of art is replaced by the performative--art that requires (inter)action, and involves time and space.

mixed reality: the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments, where physical and digital objects can co-exist and interact in real-time. (Wikipedia)

network: (1) a system or group of interconnected elements; (2) a set of nodes, points, or locations connected by means of data, voice, and video communications for the purpose of exchange.

net art: art projects for which the (Internet) is both a sufficient and necessary condition of viewing/expressing/participating. (Steve Dietz)

networked art: (1) works in which nodes, objects, and people connect via computer networks, including the Internet, Local Area Networks, and mobile networks; (2) works that invite (inter)action and/or participation.

simulation: any representation or imitation of reality.

virtual reality: the presence of not only reality itself but also the simulation of reality. (Frank Popper)

MIXED REALITIES (1) a competition and series of simultaneous exhibitions that engage users in three discrete environments: the Internet (Turbulence), an online 3-D rendered environment (Ars Virtua), and physical space (TBA); (2) works that evaluate the concepts "virtual," "simulation", and "real"; (3) a series of experiences in which participants connect with one another and contribute to the creation of the work.

AVENUES OF INVESTIGATION: we are looking for works that (1) bridge multiple realities while maintaining autonomy; (2) engage the user as a participant; (3) include the dynamics of both one-to-one and one-to-many communication within the work; (4) require collaboration between artists, programmers, scientists, and others; and, (5) encourage dialogue.

CRITERIA: (1) ability to conceive the project for three spaces-a synthetic, 3-D rendered environment, the Internet, and physical space; (2) intellectual and artistic merit; (3) degree of programming skill and technological innovation; and (4) extent of collaborative and interdisciplinary activity.

Yasmine Abbas is a French DPLG architect who holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS 2001) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Doctor of Design (DDes 2006) from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 1995, while pursuing an internship at the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO), she realized the importance of education and technology for a culture of peace. Since then, the notions of cultural encounters and mobilities have driven her designs and critical inquiries. At MIT, her interactions with the Design Inquiry and Intelligent Kinetic System groups led her to research the figure of "supermodernity", the neo-nomad. At Harvard she focused on how digitally geared people on the move reclaim a sense of belonging to places in the age of multiple mobilities and digital technologies. In 2005 she founded neo-nomad, a digital platform dedicated to design and mobility in the digital world. Abbas teaches at Northeastern University and Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston. Visit her blog.

Michael Frumin was the R&D Technical Director of the Eyebeam OpenLab, where he guided and developed creative technology projects in the public domain. He began his career in original and creative technology-based research while working on advanced networking protocols as an undergraduate at Stanford University. After school, he was a founding member of a team of hackers using their quantitative skills to find proprietary, novel real-time sources of qualitative information for hedge fund managers. Eager to develop projects in the public domain and for the arts community, Michael accepted the prototype Research Fellowship at Eyebeam where he has been the primary developer of FundRace.org, the reBlog (also an open source software project: reBlog.org), ForwardTrack, VGMap (Vectorized Google Maps), OGLE (OpenGLExtractor), Pizza Party, and other works, some still in development. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, very close to where he grew up. A good email interview with Michael about his work at Eyebeam can be found here.

James Morgan: Born in the postindustrial wasteland of North East Ohio James spent time in the abandoned factories that littered the landscape. This eventually led to a predictable tour at the Myers School of Art where he studied photography. At some point however James encountered computers outside of a design context. He took to dealing with the computer as a networked entity and dealing with systems to represent knowledge. After a brief period of soul searching in St. Louis James found himself at the CADRE Laboratory for New Media in San Jose. There, he awakened to the beauty of theory, conceptual art and interview. While struggling with deadlines he managed to finish the MFA program and produced a conceptual video on the Special Theory of Relativity. James has shown work in Europe, the US and most recently at ISEA. He is currently investigating the depth of simulation in synthetic worlds with the Ars Virtua Foundation, Gallery and New Media Center. James currently teaches new media at the CADRE Laboratory for New Media in San Jose.

Trebor Scholz grew up in East Berlin and is currently based in New York where he works both collaboratively and individually as an artist, media theorist, activist, and organizer. His interests focus on media theory, art and education. In 2004 Scholz founded the Institute for Distributed Creativity which is an independent research network that concentrates on (online) collaboration. In 2005 the Institute organized "Share, Share Widely," the first large conference about Media Art Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. In April 2004, together with Geert Lovink, he organized the conference Free Cooperation on the art of (online) collaboration, held at SUNY Buffalo. In 2000 he facilitated the only large scale program immediately responding to the Kosovo War, Kosov@: Carnival in the Eye of the Storm. Scholz' work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial, the Sao Paulo Biennial, FILE and many other venues. He has lectured internationally and is currently professor and researcher in the Department of Media Study at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Helen Thorington is the Co-Director of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore), and the founder and producer of New American Radio (1987-1998), and Turbulence.org (1996). She is a writer, sound composer, and radio producer, whose radio documentary, dramatic work, and sound/music compositions have been aired nationally and internationally for the past twenty-three years. Thorington has created compositions for film and installation that have been premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, the Whitney Biennial, and in the Whitney Museum's annual Performance series. She has produced three narrative works for the web including Solitaire, which combines game and storytelling; and she played a principal artistic role in the cutting-edge performance work, Adrift, last presented as a performance and installation at the New Museum in New York City, October 19-December 21, 2001. Thorington has also composed for dance and recently performed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company at Jacob's Pillow, MA in 2002, and at The Kitchen, New York City in 2003. She won two radio awards in 2003: Honourable Recognition, Prix Bohemia Radio Festival, Czechoslovakia; and Winner, Aether Festival, KUNM-FM, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Thorington has served as a lecturer, panelist and juror internationally. Her articles on networked musical performances are published in the December 2005 and February/April 2006 issues of Contemporary Music Review.