We are delighted that two students of the interdisciplinary, research-oriented master's program Design and Computation between the Technical University of Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts have been awarded the Grand Prize of the Ars Electronica Campus Award 2024 for their project Algorithmic Cultural Vandalism.

ACV - Algorithmic Cultural Vandalism by Alessandro Mac-Nelly and Pietro Lugaro is an innovative form of collaboration between AI-controlled robots and humans.

In the work, the relationship between creativity and technology, human and non-human, is addressed through joint drawing with a brush on paper in which symbolic language in its most diagrammatic aspects is used as a tool for constructing an algorithm.

The Prize was the first given to a Campus in 45 years of Ars Electronica Festival.

The international jury of the Campus Awards particularly appreciates the way in which artificial intelligence is integrated into the creative human drawing process and its implementation allows us to look to the future with hope for what positive collaboration can look like. (Kamya Ramachandran, Marjan Colletti, Yasuaki Kakeh)

"I enjoyed the deliberate nature with which the robotic arm painted along with me; it was a thoughtful slow machine, and it gave me a moment of hope in how humans and machines can interact as we move into the future." - Kamya Ramachandran

“From a technical point of view, thanks to a very natural implemented system, they can deliver their concept to the audience without being stressfull” - Yasuaki Kakeh

“This project also leaves us with a question: How can we engage in a much more poetic kind of interaction between us and machines, art and philosophy, the past and the future.” - Marjan Colletti

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In addition to the prize money of €2,000, the Campus Award has also brought new important partners for this artistic research project in the form of collaborations, workshops and exhibitions.

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