NEM, the Networked & Electronic Media European Technology Platform, is happy to invite organizations and individuals from Europe and the rest of the world to participate in its 2011 NEM art & design contest.

We expect from you innovative contents making the most of today’s available NEM technologies (at the crossroad of multimedia and networking technologies), illustrating how life and business benefit from these technologies, inspiring new applications for tomorrow, or just fresh and fun to discover!

Are you a technology geek, an artist, a pair of artists and technologists, a graphical designer, or just someone interested by 3D and virtual worlds, by the Internet and other communications networks, by music and images? This contest is for you!

Submit or illustrate your creation through a video, a flash illustrator or any other animated virtual/real content, a picture and text not later than May 15, 2011 to contest@nem-summit.eu (and contact us at this address should you have any questions or need any further information). Keep in mind that your work shall be easily made available on a website (through a video or any mean).

You will be informed before June 30, 2011 if the NEM jury accepts your creation. In this case, it will be highlighted on the NEM Initiative and NEM Summit websites and will be displayed in the exhibition area of the 2011 NEM Summit (to be held in Turin, Italy from September 27 to 29) to which you will be invited. We regret that we cannot cover travel and other expenses for the physical demos.

There, you’ll probably experience some stress during the NEM Summit closing session, just before the NEM jury unveils the NEM contest awards for 2011 (a prize of 5000€, to be shared by awarded candidates). The selected pieces (together with details about their authors) will be given a strong visibility on the NEM Initiative and NEM Summit websites for at least one year.

Rationale and objectives of the “NEM art and design” contest

In 2010, a “NEMart contest” has been organized in order to foster innovation in the NEM area through cooperation between artists and scientists. The initiative has been quite successful since many interesting proposals have been received, submitted by organizations and individuals from Europe and other regions of the world, following the release by NEM of an open Call for Art. Among received proposals, 17 ones have been invited to exhibit in a special area of the 2010 NEM Summit exhibition (and be involved in a “sandpit workshop”) and 5 have been selected by a jury and awarded during the 2010 NEM Summit closing session (sharing a prize of 5000 € granted by the two main event sponsors: BBC and Technicolor).

The NEMart contest has fully reached the objectives set to it:

• to contribute to the promotion of the NEM ETP and of its Summit,
• to open innovation frontiers in the area,
• to make it advanced applications using NEM technologies more tangible,
• to make the NEM web sites more attractive with the presentation of candidates and winners of this contest.

It has therefore been logically envisaged at the end of the 2010 NEM Summit that the initiative would be maintained over the years. However, it has also been considered that it could usefully be extended, since many proposals not originating from a co-creation between artists and technologists could also allow reaching the above-mentioned objectives.

This is why it is proposed to move from a (limited) “NEMart contest” to a more open “NEM art & design contest” for 2011 and beyond. Concerning the timing of this contest, it is proposed to align it with the overall NEM Summit timing, namely the one related to the Call for papers, with would give a more coherent image of the Summit and be more easily manageable.

Organisation and schedule of the 2011 NEM art & design contest

Time plan:

• Call launch date: February 11, 2011
• Application submission deadline: May 15, 2011
• Notification of acceptance: June 30, 2011

Accepted candidates will be invited to exhibit their work:

• on the NEM Initiative and NEM Summit websites prior to the 2011 NEM Summit
• in a dedicated area of the NEM exhibition area during the 2011 NEM Summit

A Committee co-chaired by Vali Lalioti (BBC), Pierre-Yves Danet (France Telecom), and Roger Torrenti (Sigma Orionis), involving NEM members and invited experts, is formed to manage the selection process and the on-site organization. A budget of 5000€ of the overall NEM Summit budget will be devoted to awards (to be unveiled during the closing session).