The jury´s verdict is out! Thanks to Hugh Forrest, Karen Kocher and Cristina Sá for an excellent job.
These are the winners of the FUTUREPLACES Exhibition 2009. You can see the futureplaces 2009 exhibition at Maus Hábitos, until October 25.
FIRST PRIZE:
Outhouse
Installation
Brian Cohen. TRAX
First place is awarded to Outhouse, from Brian Cohen and his team from TRAX. Using an outhouse to serve as a semi-public video confessional booth, this project redefines society’s last bastion of privacy and intimacy. Equipped with four doors in but only one door out, this project is not just a humorous gimmick but it is a serious tool for enhancing the knowledge, development and preservation of community. Combining innovation, creativity, originality, and digital technology, Outhouse unites yesterday and today in a way that cuts to the heart of the ongoing mission of the Future Places Festival.
SECOND PRIZE:
Oporto-Brooklyn Bridge
Interactive Sound Installation
Naomi Kaly & Alyssa Casey
Second place goes to the Oporto-Brooklyn Bridge installation by Naomi Kaly and Alyssa Casey. Based on their observation that the Dom Luis I Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge roughly reflect one another across a horizontal access, their elegant project explores the thin line where two different linguistic and cultural territories can connect and engage in conversation. The engaging and very tactile project allows for user created conversation, as well as deep reflection on the metaphor of wire in today’s digital society.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Wonderland
Video
Hye Yeon Nam
The second honorable mention is Wonderland, created by Hye Yeon Nam from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Hye’s video of walking backwards throughout downtown Manhattan quickly creates a sense of unease and discomfort for even the most casual of viewers. Her simple and very understandable idea immediately captures her difficult experience in assimilating to a new culture.
HONORABLE MENTION:
Master and Margarita
AV Performance
Video Jack (André Carrilho and Nuno Correia)
The first honorable is Master and Margarita by André Carrilho and Nuno Correia of Video Jack. Their performance piece mixes music, video, and digital technology to give a fresh interpretation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic book about Stalinist Russia. This ever-evolving piece reinforces our understanding of how narratives change every time they are performed and every time they are re-visited.
