***  Haus der Kulturen der Welt: Forum1 Archive  ***
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
   [Date]: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 10:10:22 +0200
   [From]: Pat Binder <pat@uinic.de>
     [To]: Cultural Exchange via Internet <forum1@hkw.kbx.de>
[Subject]: Re: ars electronica goes mainstream

Hello everybody

In early June we were discussing the Prix Ars Electronica in category
.net beeing awarded to Linus Torwald for his Linux Programming Code

For the members, who joined our Forum recently, I was among those who
strongly critized this decision.
"Even though the jury justifies this by saying that the programming code
could be regarded as a *art*, this really tells the capitulation to
technology and the dismissing of *content*, intention, and all those
mysterious elements that make up the *aura* of an art work, even on the
screen." (04 Jun 1999).

Although I didn't like what the jury decided, I would like to correct an
information. The message that got around the arts community lately,
forwarded to our list by Hans Braumueller, about the corporate
influences to reach the "linux" decision, is a fake, a "hoax" (to use
the web jargon).  

I read this in an article by Armin Medosch (who also wrote one of the
introductory statements to our forum):
"E-mail forger plays a nasty trick on Ars Electronica" 

http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/sa/3424/1.html
(unfortunately only available in German)

The email was sent (faked) via the account of Marleen Stikker, director
of the "Society for Old and New Media", Centrum de Waag , Amsterdam.
Medosch writes that even though for many the interconnection between
sponsors and "result" would sound plausible, some spelling and syntax
mistakes in the message seemed suspicious. Two telephone calles proofed,
that it was in fact just a "hoax".


best regards

pat binder

http://pat-binder.de