Great news from Prix Ars Electronica!
“Samsara” was awarded the jury’s Honorary Mention prize in the “Computer Animation” category! “Bodyless” won the same award in 2020, so this is our second time winning the award but with a different work. Special thanks to the Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) and the Kaohsiung Film Archive for their ongoing support of this work.
Acceptance speech: People say that VR is an empathy machine. I created “Samsara” so that people could move among different species and think from different perspectives. Viewers may find themselves as criminals who kill people for their own gain or the victims of such people. Now that the world is experiencing such upheaval, events like the Ukrainian-Russian have made me feel as if the story in “Samsara” could come true. It is my deepest hope that this story only happens in the world of VR.
When we experience the world from within different roles, it is possible for us to truly thank others, show empathy, and understand our existence in harmony with the world.
“Samsara” was created in 2021 when the world was entering the post-COVID-19 era and the social atmosphere was still unstable. Using “embodied cognition” as an underlying concept, the work is intended to make people feel the interaction between body and mind. During the story, the viewer transitions between different characters such as an infant, a refugee, a man in power, and a person being persecuted. As the context of time and space changes, the repeated identity transformation leads the audience to reflect on and explore the essence of life.
Prix Ars Electronica was founded in 1987 and is known as the Oscars of the electronic arts industry. It is an interdisciplinary platform for professionals to experiment with design and creation at artistic, technical and social levels using the medium of computers. This year’s theme is called “Welcome to Planet B” and explores these questions: If humanity overcomes the difficulties of the 21st century, what will our way of life or society look like? Where will the progress of politics, society, culture and technology take us, and how will we behave?”
The Ars Electronica Festival gathers top works from different countries, performance forms, styles, and thinking. Taiwan’s cross-disciplinary creative energy is on the path to play a pivotal role in creating a global metaverse along with more dialogue, excitement and possibilities.
Prix Ars Electronica official website:
https://ars.electronica.art/prix/en/
Ars Electronica Festival official website:
https://ars.electronica.art/planetb/en/
