Giga-Hertz Award 2017: Award Ceremony
Web banner Giga-Hertz Award 2017 at ZKM | Karlsruhe
Sat, November 25, 2017 8 pm CET, Award Ceremony
Media Theater

For the tenth consecutive year, the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustic together with the SWR Experimentalstudio has awarded the Giga-Hertz Award for Electronic Music.

This year's award winning artists and composers will participate in the award ceremony on Saturday, November 25, 2017. Main-award winner Laurie Anderson will be present, too, to accept the award. 

From approximately 80 international submissions, the jury, consisting of Elena Ungeheuer (Professor of Contemporary Music at the Institute of Musical Research, University of Würzburg), Björn Gottstein (musicologist and Artistic Director of the Donaueschingen Music Festival), Ludger Brümmer (Head of ZKM | Music and Acoustics Institute), Detlef Heusinger (Artistic Director of the SWR Experimantalstudio) and Peter Weibel (Executive of ZKM | Karlsruhe), nominated three outstanding pieces for this. The international Giga-Hertz Production Prizes, each awarded €4,000, focus on composers of electronic and acousmatic music and serve to initiate and promote new projects. 

Main Award Winner 2017 | Laurie Anderson (USA)

This year, the Giga-Hertz Prize for Electronic Music will be awarded to US media and performance artist Laurie Anderson. Laurie Anderson is best known for her politically motivated song »O Supeman«. However, the now 70-year-old has developed an incredibly diverse approach to art. Beyond music, Anderson works transdisciplinarily in every respect and sees herself as an artist with a universal sphere of influence. Already in 1977 she participated in documenta 6 and 1987 in documenta 8, presented her works in exhibitions such as »The Record of Time« in various international museums and worked with various artists such as John Cage, Peter Gabriel, William S. Burroughs and Michel Waisvisz. As a musician, artist and poet, she has continuously taken up positions on political issues, most recently in a telematic performance with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. She explores the possible uses of technological means in order to use them in her performances as surreal, chaotic and highly sensitive communication tools. Laurie Anderson has been awarded the Giga-Hertz Electronic Music Prize 2017 for her life's work for her poetic-metaphoric use and exploration of new technologies in music.

– Author: Ludger Brümmer

Laurie Anderson

The picture shows a portrait of Giga Hertz Award Winner Laurie Anderson

Production Prize Winners 2017

Maurilio Cacciatore
Maurilio Cacciatore (Italy)

for »Meccanica degli avatar« (2016), for ensemble and live electronics

Hans Tutschku
Hans Tutschku

for »pressure-divided« (2015), for violoncello and 8 channel live electronics

Astral Colonels
Astral Colones (Valerio Tricoli (Italy), Anthony Pateras (Australia))

for »Good Times in The End Times« (2016), for 1/4 inch tape, automated plug ins, close-miked prepared piano, pipe organ, digital reverb and the human voice

Jury

Ludger Brümmer (Composer, Head of ZKM | Hertz-Lab)
Björn Gottstein (SWR2 editor for New Music and artistic director of the Donaueschinger Musiktage)
Detlef Heusinger (Artistic Director of the SWR Experimental Studio)
Elena Ungeheuer (Professor of Contemporary Music at the Institute for Music Research at the University of Würzburg)
Peter Weibel (Artistic Director of ZKM | Karlsruhe)

Organization / Institution
ZKM | Center for Art and Media

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