"For the Tonga people like me, there is something deeply biblical about the word MULONGA, yet it is a modern story too. One of massive but unshared technology. One of plentiful water but perpetual drought."
Dominic Muntanga
The Tonga.Online project - an offspring of the cultural exchange between Austria and Zimbabwe - received an Award of Distinction from the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica 2004, in the category "Digital Communities". The award was handed over by Austrian State Secretary for the Arts and Media Franz Morak in New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion on 23 June 2004 in conjunction with the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit.
Tonga.Online project will be present at Ars Electronica Festival in Linz not only via Klangbrücke / soundbridge. Having won an Award of Distinction in the new Digital Communities category at this year´s Prix Ars Electronica (see newsletter #38) the project will be presented at the E-lobby at Brucknerhaus and at the digital art exhibition at OK Centrum for contemporary art in Linz also.
Tonga.Online "smart X tension" receives Ars Electronica Award of Distinction at the UN Global Compact Summit in New York City
press release of Ars Electronica:
”3341 submissions from 69 countries, two new categories and a record 130,000 euros in prize money are the gratifying bottom-line numbers from the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. The winning works in seven categories once again confirm the competition’s role as the barometer of current trends in an increasingly diversified world of media art.
The prestigious Prix Ars Electronica 2004 – the world wide recognised International Competition of CyberArts which is based in Linz / Austria - is offering a new prize category of relevance to African readers. The category "Digital Communities" of Prix Ars Electronica focusing on the political potential of network systems will award two first prizes (10,000 EUR each) to community projects of great socio-political relevance and for innovative social software.