The Share topic of Smart Mistakes reflects an emergent world generated by social networks, synchronicities, strange disasters and happy accidents. Only Share Festival would bring Torino a musical DJ set performed by a living bed of ants.

Fragility, entropy and the junk aesthetic reflects a global lifestyle of breakdowns and make-dos, embodied by the Electrical Theater, which is made of repurposed household objects and zombie machinery.

Web cinema shows its unique strengths with a crowd-sourced digital remake of Djiga Vertov’s classic “Man with a movie camera”. Every shot of this seminal silent film is to be re-shot and displayed by Internet volunteers — especially the Turinese, whose Cinema Museum has become a world center for studies in cinema.

A gentler, more personal kind of interaction is represented by a responsive, towering ripple of misty light in the ambient architectural spaces of Torino’s Museum of Natural Science.

Amid the airless vitrines of stuffed animals is a glowing, whirling, breath-propelled installation of digital particles, with the breathing artist herself performing in darkness.

Our sixth fortunate mistake is a shambling, anonymous performer who will roam Turin while remaining unseen by video surveillance. The power of network society manifests itself through complex effects, devoid of obvious causality.

These six artworks are haunted rather than intentional, generative as well as expressive. By making “Smart Mistakes,” artists can break walls, break windows, and break new ground, achieving unforeseeable effects impossible without asserting the universal right of both humans and machines to fail in the best way possible.

From the six finalist (Ernesto Klar, Kuai Auson, Perry Bard, Sonia Cillari, Knowbotic Research and Teatrino Elettrico) the judges selected Ernesto Klar winner of Share Prize. His interactive, audiovisual installation Relational Lights uses light, sound, haze and a custom software system to create fluid, gradual transformation, a three-dimensional light-space that the audience can interact with actively, manipulating it with their presence and movement.

Honorary mention was given to Kuai Auson for the work Oh!M1gas, based on the activity of an ant colony under video and audio surveillance, transforming the ants into DJs and creating a sound-reactive space which reveals the connection between scratching, as an aesthetic expression created by human culture, and the ‘calls’ produced by the ants as a means of communication.

Jury Statement

On behalf of the judges, Bruce Sterling explained the decision saying:

The winner of the Share Prize 2010 is Ernesto Klar for his installation Relational Lights. In this work, a huge algorithmic complex is hidden behind a simple, elegant interface. This work of interactive art is a fantastic, world class work – congratulations Ernesto.

Our special commendation goes to Kuai Auson for the installation Oh!M1gas (pronounced “hormigas”). In this unique, ingenious work from Cologne, ants – social networkers par excellence – become techno musicians. An intelligent industrial design acts as back-up to the musical ants, which after touring several countries are now performing here in Italy too – good luck with your career Kuai.

The Jury

• Jurij Krpan, artistic director “Kapelica Gallery”, Ljubjana – chairman
• Andy Cameron, Interactive Creative Director “Wieden + Kennedy”, London
• Bruce Sterling, writer and journalist, Austin
• Fulvio Gianaria, president “Fondazione Arte CRT”, Turin