Giga-Hertz-Preis 2018

ZKM and SWR EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO have been awarding the Giga Hertz Prize for electronic music since 2007. In 2018, the prizewinners will again be celebrated with concerts, performances and award ceremonies as part of a two-day festival.

The eleventh edition of the Giga-Hertz Award is characterized by two special features. With »The Hub«, an ensemble is honoured that stands out due to its rather extra-musical quality: it works with networks and was the first band to perform a telematic performance 31 years ago, in 1987. Furthermore, for the first time, we have chosen the theme ›Artificial Intelligence‹ as an optional theme for the submissions. Network and AI – the latter also represented by networks, more precisely by neural networks – also form the future research focal points of the Hertz Lab, which emerged from a merger of the Institute for Music and Acoustics with the Institute for Visual Media. This theme represents something typical for many contemporary themes in art: they are not linked to a specific genre. While harmony and color theory clearly aim at sounding or luminous perceptions, artificial intelligence can articulate itself both musically and visually. Networking can also be applied as a communication strategy to many areas of art, technology or society. Researching these meta-aspects of technologically active art, developing them further and applying them will not only be the task of the Hertz Lab, but will also flow into the thematic fields of the Giga Hertz Award.