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Award of Distinction na Prix Ars Electronica 2026 Interactive Art + for the project Echoes of Abyss
https://archive.aec.at/prix/317080
JURY STATEMENT
Echoes of the Abyss is a powerful and deeply researched body of work by Robertina Šebjanič that investigates the ecological and political consequences of underwater military debris and abandoned ordnance. Through sound, marine research, speculative storytelling, and immersive installation, Šebjanič reveals how the residues of war continue to shape aquatic ecosystems long after conflicts disappear from public consciousness.
The work emerges from Šebjanič’s longstanding engagement with the “Aquatocene” and “aquaforming,” concepts she developed to examine humanity’s impact on aquatic environments and the fragile balance between technological systems, marine life, and planetary ecologies. Echoes of the Abyss makes visible forms of “slow violence” that persist in water, sediment, and living organisms.
At a moment marked by escalating military conflicts across the globe, the jury was particularly compelled by the work’s ability to connect scientific inquiry, poetic sensibility, and geopolitical critique. The sea emerges here not as empty space, but as a living witness and repository of war and its unresolved ecological consequences.
S+T+ARTS2026 nomination the project Fossilized Futures
https://falling-walls.com/breaking-wall-demilitarisation-ocean-floor
S+T+ARTS PRIZE 2024 – Honorary Mention
The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing by Robertina Šebjanič
https://ars.electronica.art/starts-prize/en/echinoidea-future/
Jury Statement:
While the majority of Europeans have no direct experience with the oceans and seas, ocean life knows far more about us than we do about it. According to scientific studies, there is an understanding that humans are having an extremely negative impact on the oceans, from direct sound and chemical pollution to indirect influence through climate change. While some of these insights stem from the use of organisms such as sea urchins as pollution indicators, they primarily manifest as scientific data too abstract for the general public. The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing project was developed even further in the STARTS4Water collaboration between the artist, ecologists, cultural organizations, and sea urchins—not as bioindicators but as actual commentators. Such collaboration overcame anthropocentric and domain-based research practices and brings the agency of an organism that inhabits a human-impacted environment directly to the public. Artwork, therefore, provides not only a medium for sea urchins to tell their story, but is an actual catalyst for our environmental empathy, which is an essential element of future environmental literacy.
Falling Walls 2024 (finalist)
https://falling-walls.com/science-summit/finalists
Re:Humanism 2023 (top 10 projects)
https://www.re-humanism.com/artprize/sparks-and-frictions/
Falling Walls 2021 – winner of Falling Walls in the Art and Science category
https://falling-walls.com/shortlist-science-breakthroughs-year-2021 video
Honorary Mention @Prix Ars Electronica 2016,
Aurelia 1+Hz / proto viva sonification by Robertina Šebjanič
https://webarchive.ars.electronica.art/festival/2016/radicalatoms/en/index.html%3Fp=3048.html
S+T+ARTS2020 nomination the project aqua_forensic (collaboration with Gjino Šuić)
S+T+ARTS2016 nomination for project Time Displacement / Chemobrionic Garden (collaboration with Ida Hiršenfelder and Aleš Hieng Zergon)
nomination for the White // Aphroid award for the project Aquatocene / Subaquatic quest for serenity
Robertina Šebjanič was SHAPE platform artist 2017 (Sonica festival)
NAGRADE IN PRIZNANJA
Prix Ars Electronica 2026 – Award of Distinction
Interactive Art +
za projekt Echoes of the Abyss
https://archive.aec.at/prix/317080
Utemeljitev žirije
Echoes of the Abyss je izjemno in poglobljeno raziskovalno delo Robertine Šebjanič, ki obravnava ekološke in politične posledice podvodnih vojaških ostankov ter zapuščenih eksplozivnih sredstev. S pomočjo zvoka, morskih raziskav, špekulativnega pripovedovanja in potopitvenih instalacij Šebjanič razkriva, kako ostanki vojn še dolgo po tem, ko konflikti izginejo iz javne zavesti, oblikujejo vodne ekosisteme.
Delo izhaja iz njenega dolgoletnega raziskovanja konceptov Aquatocene in aquaforming, ki ju je razvila za preučevanje človekovega vpliva na vodna okolja ter krhkega ravnovesja med tehnološkimi sistemi, morskim življenjem in planetarnimi ekosistemi. Echoes of the Abyss razkriva oblike »počasnega nasilja«, ki vztrajajo v vodi, sedimentih in živih organizmih.
V času naraščajočih vojaških konfliktov po svetu je žirijo posebej prepričala sposobnost dela, da povezuje znanstveno raziskovanje, poetično občutljivost in geopolitično kritiko. Morje se v projektu ne pojavlja kot prazen prostor, temveč kot živa priča vojn in hranilec njihovih še vedno nerazrešenih ekoloških posledic.
S+T+ARTS Prize 2026 – nominacija
za projekt Fossilized Futures
Falling Walls 2025 – finalistka
https://falling-walls.com/breaking-wall-demilitarisation-ocean-floor
S+T+ARTS Prize 2024 – častna omemba
za projekt The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing
Utemeljitev žirije
Čeprav večina Evropejcev nima neposrednega stika z oceani in morji, morsko življenje ve o nas bistveno več, kot mi vemo o njem. Znanstvene raziskave kažejo, da imajo ljudje izjemno negativen vpliv na oceane – od neposrednega zvočnega in kemičnega onesnaževanja do posrednih učinkov podnebnih sprememb. Čeprav številna od teh spoznanj izhajajo iz uporabe organizmov, kot so morski ježki, kot bioindikatorjev onesnaženja, ostajajo večinoma predstavljena v obliki znanstvenih podatkov, ki so za širšo javnost pogosto preveč abstraktni.
Projekt The Echinoidea Future – Adriatic Sensing je bil v okviru sodelovanja STARTS4Water razvit skupaj z umetnico, ekologi, kulturnimi organizacijami in morskimi ježki – ne kot bioindikatorji, temveč kot dejanski komentatorji. Takšno sodelovanje presega antropocentrične in disciplinarno omejene raziskovalne prakse ter neposredno predstavlja delovanje organizma, ki živi v okolju, močno zaznamovanem s človekovim vplivom.
Umetniško delo tako ne predstavlja zgolj medija, skozi katerega morski ježki pripovedujejo svojo zgodbo, temveč postane dejanski katalizator okoljske empatije, ki je ključni element prihodnje okoljske pismenosti.
Falling Walls 2024 – finalistka
https://falling-walls.com/science-summit/finalists
Re:Humanism Art Prize 2023 – med desetimi najboljšimi projekti
https://www.re-humanism.com/artprize/sparks-and-frictions
Falling Walls 2021 – zmagovalka
v kategoriji Art & Science
https://falling-walls.com/shortlist-science-breakthroughs-year-2021
Prix Ars Electronica 2016 – častna omemba
za projekt Aurelia 1+Hz / proto viva sonification
https://webarchive.ars.electronica.art/festival/2016/radicalatoms/en/index.html%3Fp=3048.html
S+T+ARTS Prize 2020 – nominacija
za projekt aqua_forensic
(v sodelovanju z Gjinom Šutićem)
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