SCIENCE AWARD PRESENTED TO OLIVER GRAU Prof. Dr. habil. Dr. hc. Oliver Grau, MAE was awarded the appreciation prize of Lower Austria 2019 for the development of Image Sciences and the field of Media Art research. The science gala on October 9, 2019 in Grafenegg provided the framework for the award ceremony with the governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner.
Laudatio for the Jury: Mag.a Dr.in Ingrid MATSCHINEGG, Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit FH-Prof. Priv.-Doz. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Wolfgang AIGNER, MSc Fachhochschule St. Pölten; Mag. Dr. Gerhard BAUMGARTNER, Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes; FH-Prof.in D r.in Barbara ENTLER, IMC Fachhochschule Krems Prof. Carl-Philipp HEISENBERG, PhD, IST Austria Klosterneuburg; Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Rudolf KRSKA, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien; Priv.-Doz.in DIin Dr.in Angela SESSITSCH, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology “In the age of digitization the preservation of media art is an important component of digital art history. The creation of the largest international online archive of digital art, which is located in Lower Austria, is a notable success. Lower Austria has received worldwide visibility in the area of innovative humanities due to Grau.” Oliver Grau is being awarded with the appreciation prize of the province of Lower Austria for his outstanding scientific achievements in the field of image science which deals with the knowledge of the emergence, function, and effect of images. The award winner grew up in Erlangen, studied art history at the Universities of Hamburg and Berlin; at the latter he defended his dissertation in 1999 about immersive art and with his publication in 2003 „Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion“ he presented the internationally most quoted book in the field of art history/image sciences over the last two decades. In 2004 he qualified as a university lecturer in media studies at the University of Linz (Habilitation) and since 2005 he has been the first chair for image science at the Danube University Krems (DUK) where he has since been living with his family. At the DUK he leads the renowned Department for Image Science (DBW) and the graphic collection of Göttweig Abbey. Since his appointment in Krems he has developed the research center into an internationally unique transdisciplinary center where basic science is conducted and also postgraduate courses take place on, among other issues, digital media art, cross-media design, and digital collection management. Grau thus contributes significantly to the development, professionalization, and international networking of the still young field of image science. In our current digital media society, which to a large part constitutes itself through images, the acquisition of image competence is one of the greatest societal and scientific challenges. Since the beginning of his activities at the DUK, Oliver Grau has continually sought to expand the study programs at the DBW and was able to broaden the educational opportunities with highly successful third-party funding activities; most recently for the Joint-Master’s degree program “Media Arts Cultures” attracting funding to the tune of over a million Euro from the Erasmus+ Excellence Program of the European Commission. An important focus of his research is on the documentation and study of media art using innovative digital humanities tools. For example, it was possible to develop the worldwide online archive of digital art [www.digitalartarchive.at] which has been located in Lower Austria for 14 years. The collaborative and web-based recording of the complex digital works of art in collaboration between scientists and living artists in the “Archive of Digital Art" for the documentation of media art is pioneering. Building on the project "Interactive Archives and Meta-Thesaurus for Media Art Research” the Digital Humanities Lab at the Danube University under the leadership of Grau is pursuing the aim of integrating media art into the field of art history where it remains under-represented. The implementation of numerous research projects is carried out with the support of competitive project funds raised from international and national research funding programs and agencies. Through these projects Lower Austria has received global visibility in the area of innovative digital humanities which has been reinforced by the organization of international conferences, most recently the conference “Re:Trace" as part of the conference series “Media-ArtHistories” in Göttweig and at the Danube University Krems with participants from 50 countries. Oliver Grau is considered to be one of the most cited researchers in the field of image and art sciences. He is the author and editor of nine books, has published over 80 contributions in scientific publications, and has curated numerous exhibits. The awardee has held over 350 lectures and 90 keynote speeches at international conferences at universities and museums around the world. For his extensive scientific accomplishments he has already received numerous awards as well as an honorary doctorate. In 2015 he was appointed member of the scientific society „Academia Europaea“ with its headquarters in London. https://klausranger.smugmug.com/Events/Wissenschaftsgala/Wissenschaftsgala-N%C3%96-2019/ http://www.noe.gv.at/noe/Wissenschaft-Forschung/NOE_Wissenschaftspreis19_Preistraeger.pdf ______________________________________________ SPECTRE list for media culture in Deep Europe Info, archive and help: http://post.in-mind.de/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/spectre