Important news: our student Gordan Saviciç (2nd year of the MA Media Design at WdKA's Piet Zwart Institute) won Third Prize at Transmediale.08, the famed 'International Festival for Art and Digital Culture' in Berlin. The festive Award Ceremony took place in Berlin's 'Haus der Kulturen der Welt' on Saturday February 2, 2008.
This is by no means a student's award (nor is it a students' festival), but an award for professional artists and media designers. The jury featured a number of international curators: Olga Goriunova (Rus), Nat Muller (NL), Wonil Rhee (SK) and Mihaela Vasile (Ro). Gordan Saviciç, from Vienna originally, was one of three PZI representatives at Transmediale.08.
Gordan Saviciç had been nominated for his project 'Constraint City � The pain of everyday life', a performance hardware design based on a modified Nintendo DS (with Linux) and a motorized straight jacket, controlled by Wi-Fi signals across the city � the stronger the signal, the tighter the jacket. The jury expressed great enthusiasm on this project: �Remixing activist and Nokia-style discussions, physical pain and a wondering engagement, the project evokes a wide range of emotional-intellectual answers.�
The complete version of the official jury report on the project can be found here. More information on the 'Constraint City' project can be found here.
Willem de Kooning Academy and the Piet Zwart Institute warmly congratulate Gordan Saviciç on this fine prize.