Emerging Media Artists 2014

The Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art presents the second award winners of the annual Edith-Russ-Haus Award for Emerging Media Artists of the Sparda Bank, which has existed since 2013. The international jury presented the award in 2014 to the artist duo Adam Basanta and Julian Stein for their space and sound installation Invisible Lines and to Axel Straschnoy for his film Kilpisjärvellä. With this prize, the work of young media artists are honored by the prize itself, the prize money and the exhibition in an important institution of contemporary art.

The work Invisible Lines of Canadian based artists Adam Basanta and Julian Stein allows the viewer to experience an acoustic phenomenon: the art potential of controlled feedback. Visitors experience the invisible paths of soundwaves with increasing and decreasing temporary structures. The static mount of the installation consists of six iconic microphones on stands, which are facing and plugged into six loudspeakers.The close relationship between the single microphone-amplifier-pairings becomes audible through custom software and oscillates between states of stability and instability.

In his work Kilpisjärvellä, Finland based Axel Straschnoy is immersively playing with perception. His movie is displayed within a dome, which needs to be physically entered in order to experience the installation. The viewer sees two camera men roaming deep into the tundra in order to capture the Aurora Borealis - the polar light - and acquire distance to all manmade lightsources. All physical experiences, the perception of their environment, making camp under the sky and the following lighting phenomenons in the upper atmosphere, are transferred onto the viewer in the dome.

Also on display are the Honorable Mentions: Borja Rodríguez Alonso, Why, 2013; Anaisa Franco, Devenir: An Interface of Gender Fluctuation, 2013; Carolin Liebl + Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler, Vincent und Emily, 2013; Lukas Marxt, Reign of Silence, 2013.