Award of Distinction for Tonga.Online "smart X tension"

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Created: Thursday, 10 June 2004 00:00

Prix Ars Electronica 2004: Award of Distinction for Tonga.Online "smart X tension" at the UN Global Compact Summit in New York City 

In June 2004  the Tonga.Online project received an Award of Distinction from the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica 2004, in the category "Digital Communities". The award was handed over by Austrian State Secretary for the Arts and Media Franz Morak in New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion in conjunction with the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit. The project was represented in New York by Peter Kuthan (Austria), Dominic Muntanga and Penny Yon (Zimbabwe).

Jury Statement / Digital Communities category

“The Tonga people of Zimbabwe, threatened by forced migration and separation across the political and geographic boundaries, have been using their unique musical heritage to preserve their culture. Austrian musicians and Tonga musicians have been using a battery-powered digital musical keyboard/recorder to weave the physically separated members of the culture. Music itself is perhaps the oldest community technology, bringing people together around collective art-making that continues to hold a uniquely powerful emotional appeal that is capable of bridging geographic and cultural boundaries ...”

more: http://www.aec.at/en/archives/prix_archive/prix_projekt.asp?iProjectID=12884&iCategoryID=12420