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Prix

The Prix Ars Electronica Archive is a collection enabling search and viewing of all the submissions since 1987. The award-winning projects are documented with catalogue texts and audio-visual media. All other submissions can be searched by title/artist and displayed with year, category in list form. Please cite the credits (artwork name, artist and photographer) and only use the materials if your article is related to Ars Electronica. 

Artificial Intelligence & Life Art Auszeichnung - Award of Distinction 2023

Shadows from the Walls of Death

Adam Brown
Shadows from the Walls of Death is a long term artwork that investigates the historical, chemical, and material agency of Paris Green, one of the most toxic pigments ever produced. This series explores the industrial overuse of heavy metals that resulted in the contamination of human and non-human ecologies. Paris Green, a copper arsenic pigment, revolutionized the field of art and industry with its luminosity and longevity. However, its popularity led to hundreds of thousands of people being exposed to highly toxic arsenic, causing severe symptoms and even death. The performance series draws inspiration from Dr. Robert Kedzie, who wrote a book in 1874 to raise public awareness about the dangers of arsenic-pigmented wallpaper. The performances recreate the synthesis, production, and use of Paris Green, highlighting the ways in which nature already had a remedy for this poisonous attempt to mimic her. The performances also raise important questions about the countless pieces of art that continue to hang on museum walls made with the now-toxic Paris Green pigment. The series explores the inherent irony that art often tries to mimic nature but in doing so by artificial means, mediates our connections to nature in harmful ways that then need remediation. The final irony is that this remediation leads to new forms of art, such as that represented by Shadows from the Walls of Death, taking advantage of the mediation of natural processes themselves for that remediation.

Links: http://adamwbrown.net/projects-2/shadows-from-the-walls-of-death/
Rebekah Blesing 

Robert Root-Bernstein 

With support from: Michigan State University College of Arts and Letters Fellowship
Adam Brown (US) is an Intermedia artist, scholar, and researcher. His work incorporates art and science hybrids including living and biological systems, robotics, molecular chemistry, and emerging technologies that take the form of installations, interactive objects, video, performance and photography. Brown is a Full Professor at Michigan State University where he created a new area of study called Electronic Art & Intermedia and directs the Bridge Artist in Residency Program. Brown has exhibited widely in international venues in North and South America as well as in Europe and Asia.