Giga-Hertz Award 2016

About the Special Prizes

The Giga-Hertz Award comprises a total of two special awards for electronic and acousmatic music. Their goal is to initiate and support new projects. Candidates are judged on the basis of a composition not more than five years old and a proposal for a projected work. The focus of the Special Prizes is to honor a work, and not a person. The competition is advertised publicly each year and is open to composers of all ages.

The works submitted can be of diverse combinations and types of style. There are no aesthetic constraints, only functional criteria that relate to content. This years focus is on interactive music taking advantage of sensoric systems.

Thus, all compositions submitted should meet at least one of the following criteria:

Composition for fixed media.
Compositions using live electronics with or without instruments using sensors.
One of the former categories accompaignied by a video (only the music will be considered by the jury).

The Special Prize of 5.000€ consists of a project realization grant with which the award winners realize their submitted exposé either at the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics (IMA) in Karlsruhe or at the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR in Freiburg. This includes technical support and guidance by the studio.
 
The realization grant covers the costs for travel to and from the location of realisation, plus board and accommodation while working there. The scholarship is used to realize a work with electronics in a studio selected by the jury. The decision about where the work will be realized is taken by the jury on the basis of the aesthetic orientation of the composer and the specific details of the submitted project. The working stay should not be less than two months at the ZKM | IMA or two to four weeks at the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR respectively. It is envisaged that the new work will be premiered at the award ceremony of the Giga-Hertz-Award the following year and also broadcast on the radio. However, recipients of the special prizes have no legal entitlement to specific services from the ZKM or the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR or to the performance or radio broadcast of their prize-winning works or the new works resulting from the realization grants. 

Entry Details

Beginning of the online applications: March 2, 2016
Application deadline: June 10, 2016 (The receipt stamp of ZKM is relevant, not the postmark!)

Please read the following information carefully before you enter. Registration is via online application: You enter all the necessary information on an online form, which you then print out and sign.
Send it together with your complete application documents and material before June 10, 2016 to the following address:
 
ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Institute for Music and Acoustics
 
Giga-Hertz Award
Lorenzstraße 19
76135 Karlsruhe
Germany

The following are required for your application

For the online-upload (formats: doc, pdf, rtf, tiff, jpg, txt):

http://zkm.de/en/awards/giga-hertz-award/online-application

biography with details of artistic career
portrait photograph of the artist
description of the submitted work (work should not be more than five years old), technical information on this work, and optional, the score and image files of the work
project proposal for a new work to be realised at the ZKM | IMA or the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR, and technical information on this work.

For the postal application:

signed copy of the online form.
the work being submitted on CD, DVD/CD-ROM, DVD video, DVD audio, DV video 
also a stereo version of the piece
optional, the score and image files of the work
other accompanying material

Please note:

The deadline for sending in the complete application is June 10, 2016.
The work should not be more than five years old; it should not have already received any awards, or been previously submitted for the Giga-Hertz-Award competition.
Employees of the organisers, sponsors, prizegivers, and patrons of the Giga-Hertz-Award as well as the members of the jury are excluded from participation.  
Please apply with only one piece regardless of the category!
Please do not send in any originals. Material that is submitted cannot be returned!
Incomplete applications will not be accepted.  
As soon as we have received all necessary documents, entrants will receive an email confirming their participation.
In the interest of all participants, the entrant (or a representative chosen by the entrant) should be reachable at the address stated on the application form.
The prize winners guarantee that they will be present to receive their awards in person. 
If a work wins a prize, the material that was submitted will be used in the catalog, on DVD, CD, and/or the Giga-Hertz-Award website. Therefore, we request participants to take great care in preparing the sound, image, and text material. 
The registered work should clearly make use of electronic/technical means. At least the use of electronic means should be documented.
The awardees obligate themselves to realize the works produced within the framework of the award during a residency at the ZKM | IMA or at the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR respectively. The duration of the residency should not fall short of eight weeks at the ZKM or two to four weeks at the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR respectively.
The project proposal can be modified to match the production resources available at the ZKM | IMA or the EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO of the SWR.

Works that do not comply with the above requirements will be removed from the competition and not presented to the jury!