INFINITI CURATES THE FIRST WORLD OPEN DIGITAL ART COMPETITION

07.05.2011

,ROLLE, Switzerland

INFINITI CURATES THE FIRST WORLD OPEN DIGITAL ART COMPETITION

  • In a partnership with the designboom online art magazine, Infiniti Digital Art Competition winners work will be shown in an international exhibition: a museum-without-walls.
  • Infiniti inspires a search for new talent and starts a creative conversation with global customers.
  • Distinctions between art, technology, media, commerce and culture are creatively blurred as interactivity becomes reality.
  • Adrian Newey, Chief Technical Officer of Red Bull Racing and a judge of the Competition, says of design in general: The limits are not yet established.

What is art? This is a question which never changes, but the answer to it does. Voltaire said it is the business of art to improve on nature and Infiniti, the luxury performance automotive brand from Japan, believes it is the business of art to test limits, exploiting technology to the full. New mechanical technologies changed completely the value and meaning of images and newer digital technologies, and the promise to change and enhance the value and meaning even more. In essence, art is about things seen and remembered, and about things imagined and interpreted. Even more so with digital art.

Digital technology has transformed old art forms and is creating new digital art ones including music, holograms, 3-D mapping, interactive installations, and virtual reality. But the rules of digital art have not yet been written and as soon as they are written, they will be broken and re-defined. Digital art is therefore developing a life and indiscipline of its own and as the art collector Charles Saatchi said, if he knew what he was looking for, it would not be worth the search. The four judges of the Infiniti Digital Art Competition agree.

THE INFINITI PROPOSITION
Infiniti takes its role as curator of digital art very seriously. Traditional Japanese culture attributes special value to abstract ideas and to aesthetic sophistication. At the same time, contemporary luxury products must acknowledge the demanding customers appetite for ever more extreme experiences of quality. For Infiniti, curating a Digital Art Competition is a research project designed to test the limits of creative possibility: re-defining art and re-defining luxury are creative expeditions which cover the same ground. The Italian designer Ettore Sottsass, Jnr. once dismissed the sponsorship of opera, ballet and theatre when he stated: Industry does not need to buy culture, because industry is culture. Luxury brands have often been slow to realise digital possibilities..until now. As an Infiniti Digital Art Competition judge, Adrian Newey, says: Successful design must include the maximum amount of development potential. That is what Digital Art offers Infiniti, an exciting journey where the destination cannot yet be imagined.

INTERACTIVITY BECOMES REALITY
The Infiniti Digital Art Competition will both create new audiences and strengthen existing relationships with well-informed taste-makers. Infiniti believes that its bargain with customers should not be a passive one, but a continuing exchange of ideas. The Digital Art Competition helps realise this by giving ideas the space, time and air they need to develop all over the world. Now, a new definition of art becomes a new definition of corporate communications.

Yeoh Guan Yong of Shanghais Super Nature Design, one of the Infiniti Digital Art Competition judges, says: Art is about finding individual voices and searching ones own heart and soul. It is also about unique self expression. It is so great that Infiniti is discovering new talents in the digital art field. Infinitis partnership with designboom is ideal to search for hidden flair. It is important for artists to explore innovative dimensions in art and express very imaginative ideas. I am looking forward to seeing the creativity of artists which encompasses fantastic stories within their digital art. I hope Nature can be part of the inspiration for artists to explore and be inspired.

Advanced technology: Where will it end? As Adrian Newey says: The limits are not yet established.

To enter the competition and to view terms and conditions, visit www.designboom.com/infiniti or www.infiniti.eu.

About Infiniti
Infiniti comes from Japan. Its line-up of performance sedans, coups, convertibles, SUVs and crossovers is now being launched across the globe through a dedicated network of Infiniti Centres or dealerships which share a commitment to individualised and exceptional customer service. For more information, see Infiniti.com

Press information, Photographs and videos are available from www.infinitipress.eu. No password is required.

Amel Boubaaya, Lifestyle
M: +41 79 399 83 19
E: a.boubaaya@infiniti.ch

Wayne Bruce, Communications Director – Europe
M: +44 7768 802176
E: wayne.bruce@infiniti.eu

Simon Wittenberg, Infiniti Lifestyle Communications Agency
T: +44 207 491 9934
E: simon@sidhuandsimon.com


About Designboom
The world’s first web-based art, architecture and design magazine, designboom publishes key contemporary issues and critiques of all aspects of art, architecture and design through the organisation of design exhibitions and collaboration with leading companies on the sponsorship of international design competitions. Designboom encourages a continuing dialogue between creative professionals, industry and society.

PR contact:
Jenny Filippetti
E: jenny@designboom.com

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