2024 Jury

2024 S+T+ARTS Prize Jury

All submissions are judged by a jury to decide on the two prize-winning projects and up to ten honorary mentions.

2024 S+T+ARTS Prize Advisors

The advisors are renowned international consultants with expertise in this field. They recommend projects and encourage a wide range of potential participants to submit proposals. In addition, they ensure a balance in terms of gender and geographical origin of the participants.

Infrastructures of Power and Care

Statement of the STARTS Prize’24 Jury
Francesca Bria, Fumi Hirota, Manuela Naveau, Katja Schechtner, Miha Turšič

We are writing this jury statement at a very special time, as important elections and political challenges are coming up in the next few months, at both European and global level. These are uncertain times, heated up with dystopian visions of the future of a polycrisis and aggressive promises of salvation through the elimination of constructed enemy images. Political participation is becoming more than emotionalized and the space for the formation and promotion of participation mechanisms, democratic attitudes, and discourse for the purpose of open knowledge is dwindling. Europe is struggling and the number of critical voices is diminishing at the same time as political opinion-forming and expression are being taken over and cemented by artificially intelligent social media platforms.

A look at this year’s submissions for the STARTS Prize showed many voices and actions that stand out and strive to create counter-images and counter-reactions, engaging with ideas in order to bring about change. In addition to socio-politically motivated artistic/scientific debates such as How will we learn in the future?, How will we work or love in the coming decades? and How will we cure ourselves and how will we take care of and live with other living beings?, this year’s focus was once again on the examination of technology in the sense of big tech and internet giants, and above all related to the debate on the exploitation of our planet, questions on extractivism, and embodied situated knowledge. How important is locally anchored knowledge?  How does AI reinforce the power structures inherent in technology and what impact does this have on a constantly changing and evolving knowledge environment? Who shapes technology in Europe and who offers space for reflection and co-design? And how can technological progress and innovation be reconciled with taking care of all forms of living organisms?

All these questions that we as a jury have been confronted with culminated in reflections on existing technical and social infrastructures and on infrastructures needed in order to achieve transnational size and visibility on the one hand and to enable co-design and discourse on the other. Topics such as ‘alternative infrastructures’, ‘real-world’ infrastructures, or infrastructures that enable an ecosystem of experimentation and research were discussed. The many approaches in the Honorary Mentions and Nominations show that there is a living tradition of alternative infrastructures in Europe that must continue to be promoted and supported. The fact that we need more best practice examples of large-scale European infrastructures of sci-tech brings us directly to the Grand Prizes and our selection.

Perhaps never before has a jury been as unanimous as this year, as it was quickly decided that the Grand Prize for Innovative Collaboration would go to Arts at CERN, the art program of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research Laboratory in Geneva. The program, which has been involved in Art/Science debates and developments for 12 years now, deserves the prize, which not only goes to the organization, but also to the people behind the organization: the scientists, artists, creative technologists and cultural managers in an extraordinary interplay and long-lived inter- and transdisciplinarity. Above all, this program is an example of how science, technology, and art can interact as equals. Methods from research meet methods from the arts and cross-fertilize each other cyclically. It goes without saying that an infrastructure like CERN conducts research in the field of physics, such as the structure of matter and the movement of light or sound waves. But the research findings are also reflected in very topical issues e.g. relating to climate change, and Arts at CERN creates and showcases common space for critical thinking by researchers from physics and the arts.

The Grand Prize for Artistic Exploration goes to Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Power and Technology, 1500-2025 by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler. The artists spent four years working on this large-scale research project, which is presented in the form of a map room. It is a visual manifesto on technology and power relations throughout the last five centuries and contains an overwhelming amount of information that was translated and localized as graphics in an extremely appealing way. The starting point of Joler and Crawford’s research is the 1500s, when empires started to use technology to centralize and consolidate their power—a phenomenon that persists to the present day—and to ask: What kind of world do we want to live in?  As a jury we continue to ask: How can an infrastructure in Europe be created that allows society to influence technological developments, i.e. technology for the sake of society and the environment we live in? Infrastructures of power and care?

It was interesting to observe that critical cartographies, the mapping of power structures in technology or finance or the graphic recording of changes in landscapes and bodies were reflected in some of the works submitted. But topics such as memory and contested history, critical tech and feminist tech, female bodies and the questions of care, multispecies care and power, as well as the topics of low carbon food and community activities were also discussed and ended up in the ten Honorary Mentions and eighteen Nominations. We looked at visually stunning installations, sound experiences, (lecture) performances, games, VR/AR settings, brain computing works, and smart and alternative robotic manufacturing tools, but the final selection underlines the possibility of scalability, which we recognized as an important parameter for the future.

These considerations ultimately led us into a phase of critical S+T+ARTS reflection: What infrastructures will we need in Europe in the future, and how can we use them? How can we maintain the authentic speed of do-it-yourself while at the same time making the work scalable? What is missing in this ecosystem—e.g. the role of mediators, facilitators, or catalysts—and what can be done to change this? How can large but also smaller companies and policy makers benefit from working with artists, and how can S+T+ARTS mediate better between its disciplines? We urgently hope that S+T+ARTS will continue to recognize projects that demonstrate a successful integration of science, technology, and art and even evolve into a platform for further discourse, support, and networking, which is of great importance in times when technological developments go hand in hand with social and economic innovation.

Grand Prize: Innovative Collaboration

Awarded for innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts (and the cultural and creative sectors in general) that opens new pathways for innovation.

Arts at CERN

Arts at CERN is a pioneering cultural initiative, reflecting CERN’s exceptional openness and experimental spirit. Established in 2009, the program has evolved into a comprehensive arts residency scheme with significant international influence, under the leadership of Director-General Rolf Dieter Heuer, initiator, former Founding Director, and curator of Arts at CERN Ariane Koek, and current Head of Arts at CERN Mónica Bello. The program includes several key components, such as the Collide Residency, a three-month program offering both international and Swiss awards, fostering networks between art and fundamental science worldwide; the Accelerate Residency, a one-month research residency with two annual awards, funded by different countries; and a Guest Artists Program, engaging artists across disciplines such as design, and digital arts, film, dance, visual arts, music, theater, literature, and architecture. What makes Arts at CERN exceptional is the unique space. Located just outside Geneva, CERN is home to the world’s largest particle physics laboratory and the Large Hadron Collider, a 27-km machine that recreates conditions from the universe’s inception 13.7 billion years ago. With approximately 12,000 scientists, technologists, and engineers from 680 institutions in 120 countries, CERN is a hub of imagination and inspiration. Arts at CERN has inspired numerous exhibitions, performances, and events, showcasing the mutual benefits of collaboration between artists and scientists. Artists gain new perspectives on their work, while scientists explore different approaches to their research, considering the broader implications for humanity, society, and nature. Since its full implementation in 2012, the Collide Residency program has partnered with cities like Linz, Liverpool, Barcelona, and Copenhagen to support artistic research and exploration. This collaboration between CERN and major cultural institutions has established a model for integrating arts, science, and technology. Arts at CERN has set a global benchmark for arts-science initiatives, influencing programs in Europe, South Korea, and Australia. It has inspired major initiatives such as the European Commission’s STARTS program and the Joint Research Centre’s sci-art program. In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, including advancements in AI, quantum computing, and chip technology, the integration of arts, science, and technology is crucial. Arts at CERN exemplifies how leveraging key scientific and technological infrastructures, multidisciplinary talent, and capacity in Europe can drive innovation and foster a collaborative innovation that truly serve the public interest.

Grand Prize: Artistic Exploration

Awarded for artistic exploration and art works where appropriation by the arts has a strong potential to influence or alter the use, deployment, or perception of technology.

Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Power and Technology, 1500-2025

Kate Crawford (AU), Vladan Joler (RS)

How can we understand the entanglement between technology and power today? The technological systems, from AI chatbots to international border controls, are increasingly automated and opaque. If the world is to address the current challenges of the climate crisis, hallucinating AI systems, and war, we need to understand how these processes are interwoven.

Calculating Empires charts the technological present by depicting how power and technology have been intertwined since 1500. It is a codex of technology and power that shows how echoes of empires past resonate in today’s technology companies. With thousands of individual drawings and texts, Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler visualize these major shifts in an intricate visual manifesto about the way empires have used technology to centralize and consolidate their power. The vast diagrammatic diptych draws audiences into a dark passage to study on one wall the histories of communication and computation, while the opposite wall addresses systems of classification and control. Read together, these maps illuminate technical and social structures that co-evolved over centuries. By seeing how past powers have calculated, we can begin to calculate the costs of contemporary empires. Calculating Empires thus gives audiences a detailed visual narrative about the relationship between humans, ecologies, and technologies. It traces the ways that technology and power have been entwined over five centuries, through industrialization, imperialism, and automation. It shows how practices of colonialism, militarization, and enclosure operate today and how they might be unwound. It establishes itself as a necessary corrective to the current short-termism in technology criticism and art, which is frequently focused on the most recent spectacles and devices, at the expense of deeper historical and political shifts. Calculating Empires challenges us to redefine our relationship with current socio-technical structures. By asking how we got where we are today, we can (re-)consider where we might be going.

Honorary Mentions

The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing

Robertina Šebjanič

While the majority of Europeans have no direct experience with the oceans and seas, ocean life knows far more about us than we do about it. According to scientific studies, there is an understanding that humans are having an extremely negative impact on the oceans, from direct sound and chemical pollution to indirect influence through climate change. While some of these insights stem from the use of organisms such as sea urchins as pollution indicators, they primarily manifest as scientific data too abstract for the general public. The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing project was developed even further in the STARTS4Water collaboration between the artist, ecologists, cultural organizations, and sea urchins—not as bioindicators but as actual commentators. Such collaboration overcame anthropocentric and domain-based research practices and brings the agency of an organism that inhabits a human-impacted environment directly to the public. Artwork, therefore, provides not only a medium for sea urchins to tell their story, but is an actual catalyst for our environmental empathy, which is an essential element of future environmental literacy.

How (not) to get hit by a self-driving car

Tomo Kihara (JP), Daniel Coppen (GB)

The ever-accelerating development of AI and the expansion of its services are making our lives more convenient. However, they also make the use of data and technology in our society and culture invisible to us. How (not) to get hit by a self-driving car makes the vision system in cars visible, and even reveals the way the vision system’s data is trained and generated. Designed as a game, it is accessible to small children and wheelchair users, and reveals how this AI model is not always able to differentiate between its players. It also offers a wide range of users the opportunity to teach the AI model as well. The exhibition of this project at various venues will offer opportunities for new collaborations between ‘citizens to improve their literacy where AI has become ubiquitous’ and ‘AI models to learn diversity in the world.’ And, in turn, this could be a catalyst that inspires citizens to propose and establish the rules of digital rights in AI for the future.

Korallysis

Gilberto Esparza (MX)

For millions of years coral reefs have adapted to and survived in their environments due to their autonomous systems, and they serve as important ecosystems for surrounding organisms. Humans, on the other hand, are known for putting these systems in danger. So what approach is needed for us to jump into the umwelt of coral reefs? Korallysis is a hybrid organism and technological device which, through electrolysis of the minerals in seawater, creates calcium carbonate that helps the growth of coral. This device is equipped with motion elements that generate electricity from the ocean’s currents and waves. Furthermore, Korallysis proposed an interdisciplinary space for oceanographers, biologists, material engineers, and biotechnologists, where they may create opportunities for local community-building and cultural events including artists, and citizen dialogues and engagement in the arts. This project itself serves as the infrastructure that encourages coexistence and mutually supportive relationships among coral reefs. Korallysis, as a hybrid organism, can be considered a new inhabitant of the coral umwelt that also invites humans to participate in their ecosystem.

Mapping Uncertain Landscape: The Satellite

Sofia Isupova (UA)

It matters what is mapped, how it is mapped, and why. While the majority of satellite and environmental data is today used for remote land use and governance, here the artist explores the opposite—placing herself into the unaccusable land devastated by war. Mapping Uncertain Landscape: The Satellite is critical cartographic work, directing its gaze to the land change caused by war, documenting changes in forests, fields, cities, and infrastructures in a way they matter to the artist as an affected individual. Such critical cartographic practice helps individuals as well as whole displaced communities to deal with ongoing trauma, while also remembering and healing their relation to the land. Satellite technologies here become an infrastructure of care, and not of power, demonstrating the societal relevance of earth observation science and technologies.

Maria CHOIR

Maria Arnal Dimas (ES)

Music has historically been an integral part of our societies, shaping one another in the most creative ways. As we are today confronted with one of the most ambiguous technologies, AI, music provides an opportunity to culturalize its influence on society. Maria CHOIR musical installation is an example of a human-AI built as a shared experience of 11,000 participants contributing their voice to one of the largest choirs performing at a single event. Such a process demonstrated an AI model-learning process as a public event, providing insight into otherwise mystifying processes, with researchers often claiming that even they don’t understand how AI learns and functions. Carrying out research and the development of new technologies in public enhances the societal relevance of these technologies. And though this project sets a new standard for innovative collaborations, it also spotlights the resources required, such as a supercomputing center, a creative coding collective, and a cultural platform.

METABOLICA

Thomas Feuerstein (AT)

With METABOLICA, the Austrian artist Thomas Feuerstein tells a story about life cycles that truly involve transdisciplinary processes in nature, economy, politics, art, and science. The core theme and artistic research is about metabolic processes, made from cultivated algae using bacteria and a 3D printer. Feuerstein, who describes himself as a theorizing media artist, generally uses the method of “conceptual narration” in his works, which combines art, architecture, philosophy, and literature with economics, politics, and technology. In five chapters, these complex installation settings tell a story of change from the industrial revolution to the present and future, from whaling and petromodernity to current and future scenarios of biochemistry and wastewater research. The metabolism of microorganisms is a central theme, as not only is a new material for sculptures produced and partially degraded, but new forms and aesthetics are created.

P2P

Eva & Franco Mattes (IT, US)

P2P redefines art by creating an artist-run server distributing artworks via Torrents through a peer-to-peer network. Housed in a sculpture resembling a data center, it highlights the physicality of the internet, often obscured by metaphors like „the cloud.“ This democratizes access to data and art by using the museum’s infrastructure to seed and download artworks, turning the exhibition space into a functional peer-to-peer network. Despite its minimalistic presence, the installation facilitates widespread access to art in the digital and AI-driven era. Inspired by the book Server Manifesto, edited by architecture critic Niklas Maak, and ideas from architect Rem Koolhaas and digital pioneer Francesca Bria, data centers are understood as democratic architectures and data as digital commons. It challenges the hidden nature of digital infrastructures, emphasizing their environmental impact and energy consumption. P2P invites people to join the network and experience a virtual exhibition featuring works from artists and collectives like Olia Lialina, Jon Rafman, and Do Not Research, exploring different models of online networking—artist-run, distributed, DIY. P2P highlights the potential of art to reflect on the need to democratize technology, experimenting with community owned infrastructures for artistic expression and collaborative digital production. P2P is a case study in alternative models of networking and in rethinking the current centralized and extractive internet.

SELF-CARE

Lyndsey Walsh (US)

As genetic testing and diagnosis is made readily available, what can we do to overcome the gaze and surveillance of medicine, and care for the fears and bonds that families experience in the face of bodily trauma? SELF-CARE is based on the artist’s personal experiences and physical exploration after learning of their mother’s breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent diagnosis of the hereditary BRCA1 gene. The wearable chest binder is specifically designed to house living BRCA1 cancer cell lines and allows the wearer to care and treat it before it turns malignant in the body. Consisting of this original device, developed with the aid of experimental biophysics, and conversations with the artist’s family, the work reexamines the politics surrounding the identity of the so-called “female body” under advanced medical surveillance. It could be said that SELF-CARE allows us to liberate our bodies from social, sexual, and reproductive expectations and, instead, encourages us to take care of our bodies.

The Waterworks of Money

Carlijn Kingma (NL)

Although money plays a key role in everyone’s lives, the inner workings of the monetary and financial system are a mystery to most. The Waterworks of Money visualizes the flow of money through society through metaphors, maps, and animations, and explores options for improving the money system in the digital age. Today, Europe is facing the challenge of inequality. Many Europeans are dealing with a cost of living crisis while financial instability remains an ongoing threat. At the same time, the European economy needs to become more sustainable and resilient. Meanwhile, the digitalization of our economy has created new opportunities to redesign the current money system. These challenges can, however, not be seen in isolation from the architecture of the monetary system. Designing this system—and the laws and institutions that govern it—is ultimately a democratic task. In practice, however, there is a major obstacle impeding the democratic process: financial illiteracy. By making the world of money understandable, The Waterworks of Money assists citizens in developing their own vocabulary to participate in the debate about the future of money.

VRJ Palestine

Nisreen Zahda (PS)

The VRJ Palestine (Virtual Reality Journey to pre-Nakba Palestine) project, initiated by Nisreen Zahda in 2020, represents a groundbreaking endeavor in the virtual reconstruction of Palestinian villages destroyed during the Nakba in 1948. This project employs advanced 3D modeling and real-time rendering software to recreate the spatial structures and memories of these villages, offering an engaging and immersive experience for the public. Among the notable works of VRJ Palestine are the „Nakba Timeline Map,“ a digital map that documents the systematic depopulation, ethnic cleansing, and destruction of cities and villages during the Nakba, and „A Virtual Return Journey to Destroyed Villages of Tantura, Hittin, and Zir’in.“ Through detailed photographic and archival research, these reconstructions bring new life to erased places. The fishing village of Zir’in and the historic village of Hittin, where Saladin famously defeated the Crusaders in 1187, are vividly recreated, preserving their rich histories. Additionally, VRJ Palestine pays homage to the victims of the Tantura massacre, a tragic event that the Israeli state continues to deny despite compelling evidence presented in the documentary Tantura by Israeli director Alon Schwartz. VRJ Palestine is a vital and innovative tool for documenting and presenting the Palestinian narrative. By virtually reconstructing over 400 destroyed or depopulated villages from the 1948 war, the project ensures that the memories and histories of these places are preserved and accessible. It allows people to engage with and become part of these reconstructed spaces, fostering a deeper understanding and connection to Palestinian heritage. The VRJ Palestine project presents a visionary approach and dedication to preserving Palestinian history through the powerful medium of virtual reality. Its contributions are invaluable in the ongoing effort to document and share the rich cultural heritage of Palestine with the world.