To this end, the NICE Award creates visibility and know-how transfer throughout Europe for innovations that have been overlooked until now. It kicks off debates and sparks ideas in industry, culture and government, and motivates cultural and creative makers to be innovative and more experimental.
The NICE Award is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the cities of Bochum, Dortmund, Essen and Gelsenkirchen.
3D Printing Sustainable Buildings, IAAC, Spain
The Fair Grounds, DROPSTUFF MEDIA, Netherlands
DAOWO, Furtherfield, UK
In the 2-year international project State Machines, we have further developed DAOWO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation With Others) with the Goethe-Institut London. International artists, musicians, technologists and theorists join forces to understand how blockchains might enable a critical, sustainable and empowered culture. Using playful workshop formats incorporating participatory role-play methods, diverse participants explore how blockchains might transcend the emerging hazards and limitations of pure market speculation of cryptoeconomics. They share knowledge about the current impact of blockchain technologies, develop new insight arising from interdisciplinary, transnational collaborations; establish emerging fields and priorities; and build content, networks and scope for a global view.
100 Masters encourages the public to nominate people who are great at what they do from all walks of life; from arts to engineering, medicine to business. Through artist commissions and informal learning tools, 100 Masters creatively profiles local skills and artisan talent through film, photography and print. Online metrics analysis demonstrates how wide reaching 100 Masters’ influence is. Our digital content has garnered in excess of 9,000,000 views and most of our 70,000 followers come from outside of the UK. We are exploring how the 100 Masters model can be tailored to meet international challenges. In May 2018 we trialled a successful campaign in Indonesia in partnership with the British Council. We are building contacts in Europe and Asia so we can continue to grow a worldwide network.
Cultural Adaptations will encourage and equip artists and the cultural sector to transform society’s work on adaptation to the impacts of climate change, using the unique skills and practices that artists can bring to this inherently borderless issue. Through collaborative pilot projects in four countries it will develop, in adaptation to organisations and artists, awareness of the potential of the cultural sector and artists to contribute to this work. Cultural organisations in the four city-regions will be helped to develop their own climate change adaptation strategies. The resulting openly available Toolkit and Digital Resource will enable cultural actors worldwide to prepare themselves and apply these skills and practices to the most challenging issue of our time.
ePublisher aims to contribute towards audience development by promoting innovative ways of publishing poems by professional and amateur poets, helping them to reach new audiences and improving overall access to poetry. Project partners from Lithuania, Finland, Poland and Portugal used two distinctive methodologies to achieve these goals: the first, multimedia and online tools used as an innovative way of writing and promoting poetry, and the second, through presenting poems in a traditional way to the general public. The partnership developed an eportal www.epublisher-platform.eu. Anyone from any country in the world, writing poetry, can join the ePublisher community. Events to promote poetry and international poetry festivals were organised in all project partner countries.
MyData 2018 is Europe’s leading international conference on human-centric personal data. It is the third annual conference of MyData movement and MyData Global network, held in Helsinki, Finland. The core idea of MyData is that we, you and I should have an easy way to see where data about us goes, specify who can use it, and alter these decisions over time. Only ethically sound approaches to personal data can bring value and wellbeing to citizens, businesses, governments, and civil society. MyData 2018 conference facilitates dialogue and collective action across the whole spectrum of expertise (business, legal, technical and societal) to implement our vision of a fair digital society.
For six months, 10 design studios and 10 material researchers at the forefront of their fields embarked upon an extraordinary collaboration. Combining insights and technology from the cutting edge of material science with the curiosity and creative vision of design, each partnership has set out to translate often complex research into visually engaging forms, and to explore the potential of new, non-commercialised materials to solve the design challenges of tomorrow. From game-changing innovations in bioplastics to new applications for naturally abundant materials, the latest leaps in artificial intelligence to the ancient processes at work in living systems, each of these 10 projects presents an intriguing – and often beautiful – vision of what our material future might look like.
The project descriptions are from the project teams and correspond to the submitted application texts.
Participating representatives:
Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, inkubatorstarter, Freilicht AG, Stadt Bochum Kulturbüro, Flächenentwicklung Mark 51 7, Zwergriese, Landesinitiative StadtBauKultur NRW 2020, Mosaik Management, Musikbüro Bochum/Lalla:Labor, 3D Druckzentrum Ruhr, Stadt Dinslaken, SPD Schwerte, Wirtschaftsförderungsgesellschaft Herne mbH, Go Between, CVANO projects in europe, Kulturbetriebe Dortmund, Stadtmarketing Bochum
About the NICE Award
FIRST PRIZE (8.000 €): „Urbanatix“ by Dacapo Kultur Offensiv! Bochum, Germany
Jury: “Their project is all about empowerment and about developing an educational programme from an event. “Each one teach one” as an opportunity to activate the inner heroes of a hidden young generation and let their superpowers show.”
SECOND PRIZE (5.000 €): „Makeright“ by Central Saint Martins / University of the Arts London | United Kingdom
Jury: “They reframe risk as an opportunity, transforming criminals into entrepreneurs, not only for the time being but also in the long run: Creativity is being employed so as to break barriers and as a life skill.”
THRID PRIZE (4.000 €): „Empower Parents" by Hablar en Arte | Madrid, Spain
Jury: “Their efforts are directed to a social group in state of vulnerability, which is often invisible. Thus, it is a truly bottom-up initiative which starts from an urgency and addresses real needs.”
SPECIAL PRIZE for responsibility (3.000 €): “Next Generation: Tales of Neto” by TUMO | Yerevan, Armenia
Jury: “Their task looks impossible: To approach a delicate political issue in a way that is not just educational, but entertaining for a young audience. They succeed by guiding young people to come up with their own solutions in this project.”
SPECIAL PRIZE for impact: „Europe by People“ by Pakhuis de Zwijger | Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jury: “Their project is impactful on many levels and able to address high politics as well as actual citizen issues. They can serve as an inspiration for other cities, using their creativity to make abstract concepts become tangible.”
The Minister of Economic Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Garrelt Duin, singled out three projects as models for addressing urgent social issues by honouring them with the NICE Award 2016. The jury under the chairmanship of the prestigious urban researcher Charles Landry reviewed 105 applications from 25 countries and selected twelve projects from France, Georgia, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain for the shortlist, which were presented at the Philharmonie Essen on 24 August 2016.
Two projects take the top spot this year.
"Makerversity" and "Refugee Open Cities" each received EUR 8,000 prize money. Based in London and Amsterdam, Makerversity is a platform for creative young entrepreneurs within the global maker movement. With the Maker Campus as its distinguishing feature participants benefit not only from the knowledge of others, but also pass on their own experience. The Berlin Refugee Open Cities project improves the quality of life in refugee camps through personal involvement. What makes it special: Refugees become designers of their own lives, using their creative talents to build a liveable community.
Jury Chairman Charles Landry: "Both address vital questions, but they are so different."
The second prize (EUR 4,000) went to the Dortmund based project "Public Residence: the Chance", in which the creative currency "Chances" has transformed citizens of Borsigplatz in Dortmund into innovative shapers of their neighbourhood. What makes it special: The residents themselves organise creative and artistic projects and therefore become beacons of hope for the revitalisation of Borsigplatz.
The jury honoured the London initiative "Julie’s Bicycle" with the "Achievement Award", a non-monetary prize. For ten years now, this initiative has been committed to encouraging cultural and creative industries to contribute more actively to fighting climate change.
Garrelt Duin, Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy and Industry of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia presented the N.I.C.E. Award in Essen to five international projects in the course of the Forum d’Avignon Ruhr. 213 applicants from 29 countries had submitted projects to this year's topic "Solving the World's Major Challenges – A Call for Innovations".
The project "The Machine to be Another" from Brazil receives the first prize (8000 euros). Using digital technology the installation makes it possible to immerse oneself in the body and thoughts of another person and to view oneself in the body of the other person.
Jury Chairman Charles Landry: "The project is impressive due to its unique combination of art and science and employs technology beyond known limits."
Further prizes go to "PlanEt" from Great Britain and the Netherlands (5000 euros), which evaluates data of plants in cities and is thus a component of future "Smart Cities". "WikiHouse" from Great Britain (3000 euros) revolutionises house building and enables citizens to co-design the city. Two further prizes went to "Home back Home" from Spain and "Creative Technologies in Classroom", from Sweden (2000 euros each).
The Minister for Economic Affairs of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Garrelt Duin: "The N.I.C.E. Award is about visibility. The potential and performance power of creative persons is all too often overlooked. The prize and its presentation within the very special setting of the Forum d'Avignon Ruhr make sure that a spotlight is switched on which illuminates the innovative strength of the sector."
Dieter Gorny, Managing Director of ecce: "The N.I.C.E. Award distinguishes the Ruhr area as a location for cultural innovation – entirely in the tradition of the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010.“Click here for all information on the NICE Award 2015
From 10 to 12 June, in the Creative.Quarter City Nord.Essen, about 200 cultural and creative artists, as well as representatives from politics, research and the economy from 21 countries met for the third time at the 3rd Forum d’Avignon Ruhr and the exhibition of the European Innovation Award for Culture, the NICE Award. In total, 108 projects from 22 countries applied for the NICE Award 2014.
The international jury headed by Charles Landry nominated 10 projects and invited them to the exhibition at City Messehalle in Essen, which was opened in parallel to the Forum d’Avignon Ruhr. Following one-on-one interviews with the nominees at the exhibition, the jury consisting of Charles Landry, Prof. Kurt Mehnert, Pia Areblad and Janjaap Ruijssenaars announced the following four award winners.
The winner of 5,000 € is the project "RLF Richtiges Leben im Falschen/The Real Life in the Wrong One" of Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries in Berlin, a transmedia art project in cooperation with ARTE, Suhrkamp and UFA.
It is a playful yet serious critique of capitalism. The jury honoured the multi-media campaign as a cultural innovation. Based on an open digital community, RLF systematically dissolves the thin line between reality and fiction. "A unique combination of media and non-media channels transforms RLF into a multi-dimensional weapon of revolution: it's a novel, an actual company, a game, a film that enters the real world in the shape of specific events and interventions," describes Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries the project. To experience and understand his statement, you just have to play it: www.rlf-propaganda.com
The second prize worth 2,000 € each goes to Unperfekthaus in Essen and the Spanish project Conexiones Improbables from Bilbao.
Conexiones Improbables is a Network which brings artists and companies together, the Unperfekthaus affords artists of every kind a place where they can express their creativity freely.
Another prize worth 1,000 € goes to URBANAUTS Street Lofts from Vienna, which was also invited by Creative Business Cup Denmark to attend the Creative Entrepreneur Week in November 2014. The invitation was sponsored by Rasmus Tscherning, Managing director of the Centre for Cultural and Experience Economy in Denmark.
The NICE Award 2014 was presented by NRW Minister for Economic Affairs Garrelt Duin on 12 June at the end of the Forum d’Avignon Ruhr. The NICE Award is funded by the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Cities of Bochum, Dortmund, Essen and Gelsenkirchen.Click here for all information on the NICE Award 2014
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