Prix Ars Electronica, the world's most time-honored media arts competition, announced the winners of this year's Golden Nicas. Taiwanese researcher and new media artist Hsu Jung (徐容)’s open project "Bi0film.net: Resist like bacteria" won the Golden Nica prize in the Interactive Art+ category. The project was co-created with media artist and designer Natalia Rivera, and Hsu is the first Taiwanese to win the prize.
Adopting one of the Hong Kong movement's icons, the yellow umbrella, "Bi0film.net" praises bacterial resistance in contrast to the reductionist discourse of war. Based on an open resource created by Andrew McNeil, it can be used as a parabolic WiFi antenna. This umbrella could act as an antenna for a mini server, a repeater, or a router while building a nomadic network that accompanies the demonstration in the streets. Activists can join the virtual Bi0film to chat, share and store files. The project's website indicates that they aim at facilitating the connection to alternative networks, and at the same time acknowledge the importance of seeking autonomy in our communication technologies, now when internet censorship is used as a tool of repression on the part of authoritarian regimes.
Currently based in Berlin, Hsu Jung is a Taiwanese researcher, new media artist, and a student at the Universität der Künste Berlin (Berlin University of the Arts). According to her website, she attempts to combine interdisciplinary knowledge with artistic research to create heterogeneous encounters. In the process of her education and life, she always tries to respond to the current social situation with multiple perspectives and uses metaphorical objects to create a speculative scenario.
Ars Electronica Festival is one of the biggest festivals in the field of new media art, and it has been focusing on connecting art, technology, and society. New media creators from all over the world compete for the highest prize "Golden Nica" at Prix Ars Electronica, and the award-winning work is considered the representative electronic art of the year.
(Photo Credit: Jung Hsu)