Telestreet, the Italian network of the street televisions, and NGVision, an online video archive and distribuition project, won the prestigious "Prix Ars Electronica". The two networks from Italy, partners of the D-A-S-H workshop in Rome in 2003, achieved the Award of Distinction within the Digital Communities category of the Prix Ars Electronica 2005 in Linz.

The Prix Ars Electronica, currently addressed towards its nineteenth edition, is the most accredited international competition concerning arts, technologies, and digital media-based social practices. The Digital Communities category rewards the innovative projects concerning e-democracy, digital cities and citizens participation. Evaluations will honor visionary and forward-looking projects; those that display consummate social and technological innovativeness and that have been successfully set up and established. Digital Communities projects should enable human beings to enjoy the widest possible access to technology networks, and the Digital Commons (Prixs call for works).

In a press release NewGlobalVision says: "The international prize represents an acknowledgment for the Telestreet and NewGlobalVision network activity in reclaiming the right of free open access of the means of communications within a country, as Italy, where the right of expression seems loosing value. The movement of antennas toward people aims at enabling citizens to freely use the communication channel of television not only to receive information but especially to produce it. By so doing, it places individuals in the position of closely interacting and sharing as much as of producing information. Dont watch TV, just do it! is the slogan of the street televisions."

The jury of "Prix Ars Electronica 2005" writes: "NewGlobalVision and Telestreet are initiatives that are taking concerted public action against the monopoly position of the major TV stations. Citizens can create their own TV shows. Through reciprocal linkups and cooperative efforts, the two projects have jointly achieved an optimal mix of television-based and Internet-based media technologies.

Telestreet has come up with a way to establish so-called “street TV stations” on a relatively limited budget. In Italy, 250 mini-stations have already been set up in this way, each of which is operated by a staff of 10-15 persons. With the help of antennas mounted on private homes, each station can broadcast to a transmission area with a radius of about 300 meters. If several antennas are linked up into a network, the transmission area expands accordingly.

Telestreet is the first such initiative to provide easy access to the medium of television. Anyone can create, produce and broadcast program content; a video camera and a PC are the only equipment necessary.

NewGlobalVision is Italy’s first freely accessible archive to make available independent video material beyond the realm of the giant TV stations and media conglomerates. It was created by a community of artists, Web designers, video artists, technicians and hackers who contributed their expertise and experience to this joint venture. The project was organized immediately after the events in Genoa in 2001. A large amount of video material about the demonstrators was available, but most of it was ignored by the mass media, and many independent political groups felt themselves to be victims of censorship. Thus, there was a growing need for a platform from which to make independent video material available to the general public. NewGlobalVision now offers amateur filmmakers the opportunity to quickly get their material seen by large audiences."

Links:
http://www.ngvision.org
http://www.telestreet.it
http://www.aec.at/en/prix/awards2005.asp