The Workers have been announced as the winner of a new award celebrating creative talent in the digital industries.
The group – a digital production company consisting of Tommaso Lanza, Ross Cairns and David Di Duca – will receive a prize of £10,000, plus a £60,000 production budget to realise their digital project After Dark.
The online experience will allow people all over the world to explore Tate Britain at night. Connecting to a website, users will be able to control robots situated in the galleries, steering them around as they gaze up-close at the art on display, and broadcasting their adventure and live commentary to the world.
The aim is to enhance people’s enjoyment of art and engage users with an aspect of the BP Walk through British Art collection displays. This work, along with presentations from the other shortlisted artists, will be showcased at Tate Britain later this year.
The Workers said: “Since we first heard of it, the IK Prize was clearly a very ambitious and open initiative. Being supported by one of the largest cultural institutions in the world, for us this is a dream project. We can’t wait to get started on realising the project and hope that people will enjoy it as much as we will.”
Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, said: “Tate encourages creativity and this has reverberations in the creative industries as well as the fine arts. The digital space is one of the most dynamic and fast-changing areas of contemporary life, a place where new and innovative ideas can be developed. We believe that this is the right moment to establish a prize which recognises outstanding, creative achievement in the digital field.”
This year’s jury included: Jemima Kiss, Head of technology editorial at the Guardian; Mark Leckey, Turner Prize winning artist; John Porter, The Porter Foundation; Marc Sands, Director of Audiences and Media, Tate; Tom Uglow, Creative Director, Google Creative Lab; Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia.
For more information visit the Tate IK prize webpage.
