The S+T+ARTS yearly competition is back to award two innovative projects at the nexus of science, technology and the arts that have what it takes to make a significant impact on economic and social innovation. Two prizes, each with €20,000 prize money, are offered to honor innovative projects at the intersection of science, technology and the arts: The emphasis of both prizes lies on the creative appropriation and employment of technologies as well as the search for unique constellations of collaboration from the STARTS fields.

Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration

Honors innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the artistic (and creative) sectors that open up new avenues for innovation.

Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration

Honors artistic research and works whose adoption by the arts has great potential to influence or change technology's use, application, or perception. Winners will be prominently featured at Ars Electronica and other events of the consortium partners BOZAR, Waag, INOVA+, T6 Ecosystems, French Tech Grande Provence and Frankfurter Buchmesse.

S+T+ARTS Prize 2023 Priorities

In its new edition, the prestigious prize has an expanded consortium and a thematic focus. The current spotlight lies on cross-sectoral projects investigating the disruptive powers of creative data and media innovation, as well as on works exploring hybrid formats, groundbreaking technologies or storytelling initiatives in next-generation media. While all outstanding examples of innovative collaborations and artistic explorations in S+T+ARTS are highly encouraged to submit their works, the 2023 priorities lie on innovative projects:

• that show a novel artistic approach to data,

• that play with immersive technology, interactive media, and related technological developments

• that display democratization in the use and application of data and content development and creation in the media landscape,

• that are involved in user-generated content or metadata, crowdsourcing & co-creation or citizen involvement

• that reveal the potentials as well as risks of the organization of contemporary data systems and media interfaces,

• those manifest innovative ways in the unique creation, access and distribution of media content & platforms, as well as personalized and non-linear storytelling

• that exhibit new, qualitative approaches as a result of disrupting traditional media