[NetBehaviour] Call for projects: VIDA 14.0 Art and Artificial Life International Awards

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*VIDA, the Art and Artificial Life International Awards*begun in 1999 by 
Fundación Telefónica, was created with the mission of supporting 
creative endeavours in this singular field by rewarding the pioneering 
efforts of artists. We are now pleased to announce the launch of the 
*VIDA 14.0*, which for the last 14 years have been rewarding artistic 
projects developed with technological media that offer innovative 
insights into the study of artificial life.

At a time when the concept of life finds itself once again in uncharted 
territory, a wide range of artistic initiatives attempt to illustrate 
and explore this phenomenon, examining its impact on our collective 
consciousness and how it affects the cultural, technological and social 
mindset.

Over the past decade, VIDA has welcomed a variety of interdisciplinary 
projects that respond to this situation and brought them together in a 
single forum. Using formal strategies that push the boundaries between 
existing practices, these projects offer new perspectives that force us 
to reconsider our pre-existing notions of life and artificial life.

*What types of projects receive a VIDA 14.0? *

The VIDA Award is granted to artistic creations developed using 
artificial life technology. Among the projects submitted to VIDA, the 
artists’ ties to this theme and their choice of media are very diverse. 
Throughout its history, the competition has welcomed proposals that 
challenge the boundary between living and non-living, between natural 
and synthetic, either by juxtaposing both realities or by creating 
overlapping spaces for reflection.

The winning projects include robotic systems, immersive installations, 
online video games, autonomous self-organising devices and evolutionary 
indicators. Another common characteristic of past winners is the use of 
interactive and immersive installations—a response to today’s 
environment of technological entities—which attempt to communicate with 
visitors by making them part of the system. Chimerical devices that 
combine natural and artificial elements, telepresence systems, network 
structures that operate as artificial intelligences, invasive dynamics 
of increasing complexity and acumen—these are just some of the themes 
addressed by the artists who participate in VIDA. From the very first 
edition to the present day, we have rewarded artists who have applied 
traditional artificial life technologies to their work, such as cellular 
automata, autonomous agents, neural networks, robotics, interactive 
systems, virtual ecologies and evolving software. What all of these 
projects have in common is that they involve emergent behaviours which 
grow more sophisticated over time, react with their environment and seem 
to show signs of autonomous life.

In recent years we have observed an increasing hybridisation of media 
and formats among the projects submitted to VIDA, which has led us to 
advocate the category’s expansion in order to trace the evolution of 
this field. The competition has gradually extended its scope, 
maintaining its interest in projects that involve conventional 
artificial life research while also venturing into new, cutting-edge 
territories such as life sciences and environmental sciences. In short, 
we could say that VIDA rewards artistic projects that are related to any 
dynamic life process affected by simulation.


*As in previous years, contestants are invited to submit proposals in 
one of two categories:*

CATEGORY “FINALISED PROJECTS”

In this category, Vida 14.0 rewards artistic artificial life projects 
developed after the year 2010. A total of *40,000 euros*will be divided 
among the three winning projects chosen by the jury: *First Prize: 
18,000 euros; Second Prize: 14,000 euros; Third Prize: 8,000 euros*. 
Seven honorary mentions will also be awarded to projects chosen by the 
jury from among the finalists.
*CATEGORY “INCENTIVES FOR PRODUCTION"*
In this category, Vida 14.0 helps to finance artistic artificial life 
projects that have not yet been produced.It is reserved for artists who 
are citizens or residents of any country in *Latin America, Spain or 
Portugal*. This category is also endowed with *40,000 euros*to be 
divided among the selected projects.
IMPORTANT DATES

Project submissions will be accepted from *23*^*rd* *April to 30*^*th* 
*July 2012*.

All projects must be submitted before midnight (Central European Time) 
on 30th July 2012.


JURY
Submitted projects will be reviewed by an international jury consisting 
of *Mónica Bello*(Spain), *Jens Hauser*(France),*Martin Kaltenbrunner 
*(Austria), *Karla Jasso*(Mexico), *Sally Jane Norman*(New 
Zealand/France), *Nell Tenhaaf*(Canada) and *Francisco Serrano*, 
Executive Director of Fundación Telefónica.
INFORMATION AND QUERIES
You can find the competition guidelines and the participation form at 
http://www.fundacion.telefonica.com/vida
If you have any questions about the competition, please refer to the FAQ 
section. You may also contact us by sending an email to 
vida at telefonica.es <mailto:vida at telefonica.es>

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