First Prix Ars Electronica Collide at CERN laureate announced Geneva 6 December 2011. The first Prix1 Ars Electronica2 Collide@CERN3 was today awarded to the 28-year-old German artist, Julius Von Bismarck for the quality of his ideas and his ability to make playful creative collisions between the arts and science.

With a growing international reputation for his diverse and experimental artistic practice, Von Bismarck was given the award by the jury for “his proposal and work which manipulates and criticises our notions of reality in unpredictable ways, often with inventive use of video, objects and public interventions”.

His works are also characterised by his fascination with complex philosophical and scientific ideas. “We’re very much looking forward to welcoming Julius Von Bismarck as our first artist in residence to CERN next year”, said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “This is an important step forward in our growing engagement with the arts.”

“The large international participation as well as the artistic quality and inspirational power of many of the submissions are encouraging indicators that this residency program is perfectly meeting the growing interest and excitement about sciences,” said Ars Electronica Director, Gerfried Stocker. The award was made following the jury meeting to assess 395 entries from over 40 countries around the world, after the 7 week open call was announced at the Ars Electronica Festival September 2011.

The high quality of ideas and range of disciplines shows the strength of interest and focus on the importance of science and technology in our world as a source of inspiration across the art forms.

The artistic fields ranged from experimental sound work and music, architecture and new design, sculpture, generative art and film to social media projects and new design that explore how people relate science and technology. In recognition of the high level of interest and participation in the competition, as well as the quality and range of ideas shown by the international artists, the jury decided to create an additional category of Honorary Mentions.

The Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN Honorary Mentions are awarded to the new media artist Natasa Teofilovic (Serbia); the interdisciplinary music theatre collaboration between composer Arnoud Noordegraaf (Netherlands) and writer Adrian Hornsby (UK); and the generative artist Eno Henze (Germany).

Both CERN and the Ars Electronica Futurelab transdisciplinary team are looking forward to working with Julius Von Bismarck who is eager to explore new territories to create artistic expressions inspired by his engagement with CERN. As Von Bismarck said: “The root reason as to why I am an artist is the same as it would be for being a scientist: finding out what there is out in the world and how I can contribute to our understanding of it.

In fact, I didn’t know if I would study physics or art, but in the end decided to study art, reading about physics and research in my spare time. I am interested in responding to the science in my work in a sense-able way – through the body and its senses. I am very excited by this opportunity and can’t wait to start.“

Von Bismarck will visit CERN with his mentor from the Ars Electronica Futurelab in January 2012 for an initial one-week visit, when he will choose his CERN science inspiration partner.

He is expected to start his two-month residency at CERN March 2012, following it with a one-month residency with the transdisciplinary team at Futurelab at Ars Electronica, Linz.

The work and experience of this joint collaborative residency will be showcased at the next Ars Electronica Festival in 2012. Von Bismarck recently studied with the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in Berlin and won the Golden Nica of the Prix Ars Electronica in 2008.