Winner 2006
For the third award of the SWITCH Innovation Prize, the jury opted for MISSION ETERNITY submitted by etoy.CORPORATION. der Medienkunstgruppe etoy.CORPORATION.
The etoy.CORPORATION crew presented their project MISSION ETERNITY at the Museum of Communication iin Berne and won the sum of 15,000.- Swiss Francs.
Dr. A. Dudler, President of the SWITCH foundation and etoy group with award stamp and certificate
Mr. Sepp Keiser (83) of the city of Zug is MISSION ETERNITY's first test pilot
See photos for further pictures.
The jury honoured the winner's project with the following words:
Mission Eternity deals with existential topics, such as the conservation and loss of memory, the future, the present and the past, and life and death. These subjects are transferred to the age of digital communication and information technologies with a provocative brazenness.
The project, which is both ambitious and innovative, offers a comprehensive range of different mechanisms for saving memories of people and keeping them accessible after their death: pictures, voice messages, sound documents and texts, etc., are kept in digital capsules for future generations. The Mission Eternity Angels (the living people involved in the project) accompany the Mission Eternity Pilots (the deceased participants) on their journey through space, time and eternity.
The jury rates the project as avant-garde, shocking and fascinating – as highly unusual in artistic, technological and social terms. The politely anarchic undertone is appreciated, as is the bold way in which the project does not heed established forms of discourse and methods – yet still has a deeply moving impact on the emotional plane.
