Please forward to interested colleagues and lists:

John Lansdown Award for Interactive Digital Art 2006

All those working in interactive digital art are invited to submit for
this international prize, awarded annually by the Eurographics Association.

The first prize has a cash value of 750 Euros and there is 250 Euros for
the runner-up. The closing date for submission is 28 April 2006. The
submission process and full details of the prize and the submission
process are available at the EG 2006 web site:

   http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/events/EG06/JohnLansdown.php

The criteria for the Award centre on the creative use of the digital medium
for interactive art, in any form.

The Eurographics 2006 conference also has animation and multimedia
programmes; full details of these categories are available at:

   http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/events/EG06/animations.php


Background

Eurographics presented the John Lansdown Prize for Multimedia for the first
time at the Eurographics 2000 conference. This year the prize is renamed
the Prize for Interactive Digital Art, to better describe the kind of entry
that the judges are looking for.

The prize is dedicated to the memory of Professor John Lansdown, who died
in February 1999. In his varied career, John Lansdown was involved in many
creative activities, from his first discipline of architecture, through
computer graphics to computer-mediated artwork of many forms, culminating
in multimedia production. Creativity is an overworked word, but it can be
justly applied to John Lansdown's approach to everything he explored, so
the criteria for the award centre on the creative use of computers to
generate interactive art.

The results of the competition will be announced at Eurographics 2006 in
Vienna in September 2006. A certificate will accompany the cheque.

The judges look forward to receiving a stimulating set of submissions and
wish all submitters good luck with their research and development work.


Judging Criteria

The submission awarded first prize will demonstrate innovation in the use
of interaction with images, sound and animation. The judges will take into
account whether the work looks and sounds 'good' and behaves 'well', the
strength of the underlying ideas and the degree to which the system 'works'
both conceptually and mechanically, in other words the fitness for purpose
of the submission. A successful work will show a significant understanding
of the needs, motivations, conceptions and actions of the user.

Fundamental characteristics that the judges will expect to find in a
successful submission include:

* Innovation    * Coherence    * Selectivity or appropriateness
* Usability    * Usefulness    * Fertility for development
* Degree of finish            * Meeting declared aims
* Awareness of 'state of the art'
* Technical ingenuity

The judges reserve the right to make no award or to award only a second
prize if, in their opinion, the standard of work submitted does not reach
the high standards of creativity associated with John Lansdown. The judges'
decision is final. They may, at their discretion, give private advice or
comments to submitters of work on future development, but will not openly
discuss their decisions nor respond to direct questioning on the reasons
for decisions after the award ceremony.