Theresa Reiwer wins top award at Lumen Prize for AI-focused installation

Spotlight on digital art innovation: The 13th annual Lumen Prize, the world’s leading award for technology-created art, showcased groundbreaking works across nine categories, highlighting the intersection of art, technology, and societal issues.

• German artist Theresa Reiwer won the top Gold Award for her immersive AI-focused installation “Decoding Bias,” which explores ethics in artificial intelligence.
• The awards ceremony, held in London, featured winners selected from nearly 2,000 entries from 62 countries, emphasizing the global reach of digital art.
• This year’s event introduced the Carla Rapoport Award, honoring the prize’s founder and recognizing work that explores underrepresented perspectives.

Diverse artistic expressions: The winning entries spanned a wide range of mediums and concepts, demonstrating the versatility and innovation within the digital art sphere.

• Diego Trujillo Pisanty’s “Blind Camera” won the Still Image Award for its unique approach to creating images from sound rather than light.
• The Moving Image Award went to Chia Amisola’s “We Are Only Moving Towards Each Other,” a hypertext experience exploring love and intimacy in online and offline contexts.
• Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser’s “Parallels” claimed the Interactive Immersive Award for its responsive machine-learning installation that transforms surroundings into AI-generated visuals.

Addressing societal challenges: Many of the winning works tackled important social, environmental, and technological issues, reflecting the power of digital art to engage with contemporary concerns.

• The Futures Award went to Parsons & Charlesworth’s “Catalog for the Post-Human,” a satirical installation commenting on workplace technologies and AI’s impact on human practices.
• Lukas Truniger’s “Undergrown” won the Impact Award for repurposing obsolete crypto-mining hardware for volunteer science projects, addressing e-waste concerns.
• The Nordic Award recipient, Maren Dagny Juell’s “Human Resource The Musical,” offered a critique of corporate language through an AI-generated avatar performance.

Emerging talents and diverse perspectives: The Lumen Prize also recognized student innovations and works exploring underrepresented viewpoints, showcasing the next generation of digital artists.

• The Student Award, sponsored by Zora, went to “Reverie of Awakening,” a virtual reality game designed to address pandemic-related depression.
• UchanSun’s “AI Nüshu” won the Carla Rapoport Award for its exploration of a script developed by women in Hunan, China, after being forbidden to read and write traditional Chinese.

Industry impact and future prospects: The Lumen Prize continues to play a significant role in shaping the landscape of technology-based arts and fostering connections within the industry.

• Over the past 12 years, the prize has honored more than 140 leaders in technology-based arts, including notable figures like Refik Anadol and Mario Klingemann.
• Next year’s awards will be supported by a Sotheby’s online auction featuring works from previous Lumen Prize winners, indicating growing market interest in digital art.
• The international range of entries and discussions around historic digital art hubs like Los Angeles and London highlight the evolving global nature of the digital art scene.

Broader implications: As digital art continues to gain recognition and influence, the Lumen Prize serves as a barometer for emerging trends and technologies in the field, while also raising important questions about the role of AI, ethics, and societal issues in artistic expression.