VIDA

http://www.telefonica.es/vida/
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

The international competition on art & artificial life, a project set up 10 years ago by Fundación Telefónica, rewards works of art produced with and commenting on artificial life technologies.

The many projects which have received an award over the past ten years form an inestimable and unique collection documenting the evolution of electronic art in one of its most significant aspects. Previous winners include a robot that sweats, a walking table, robotic dogs suffering from the mad cow disease, solar-powered devices which modify their own instruction code in response to environmental changes, autonomous non-violent protest agents, a Universal Whistling Machine, etc.

The Head of Fundación Telefónica, Francisco Serrano, came with some good news at the press conference:

- next year they will double the amount of money granted to the artists,
- they will also create an award for a career,
- finally, FT will create a Virtual Gallery which will collect and exhibit the winning works of past and future editions.

The winning projects will be exhibited at the Fundación Telefónica stand in ARCO which takes place on February 13-18 in Madrid. Coinciding with the Madrid Contemporary Art Fair, a exhibition celebrating the tenth anniversary of VIDA will present a selection of the past award-winning works and an International Forum will gather experts from all over the world to discuss artificial life art.