Troy, N.Y. — Yael Kanarek, master of fine arts (MFA) graduate student in the electronic arts program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has received a media arts fellowship from National Video Resources. She will receive an award package in the amount of $35,000, as part of $715,000 the organization is awarding to 22 film, video, and new media artists. Kanarek will use the award to produce “Object of Desire,” a Web-based fictional narrative in English, Hebrew, and Arabic that explores the connections between languages and the geography of culture on the Internet. The work is the third installment of her seven-chapter online media project “World of Awe.”

National Video Resources is a not-for-profit organization established in 1990 by the Rockefeller Foundation. Organization officials said Kanarek, a new media artist, was selected for the honor based on the innovation and creativity of her multidisciplinary, digital media project “World of Awe.” (To view the project, go to www.worldofawe.net)

According to Kanarek, the focus of the overall project is the Traveler’s Journal — an original story about a search for lost treasure. Using the ancient genre of the traveler’s tale, the project draws connections between storytelling, travel, memory, and technology.

“I first started this project through a series of paintings that I was working on around 1995. I got the idea to associate the fictional world I created with the metaphorical space of the Internet,” said Kanarek. “I am thrilled to have received this fellowship because the funding will help to alleviate production costs, and assist in further development of the project in other art forms. This project is a long-term commitment for me, and it will take me another 10-15 years to complete the seven chapters. I see ’World of Awe’ as a lifelong endeavor.”

For more than 10 years, Kanarek has been developing “World of Awe” with a growing body of works and collaborations in net art, photography, sculpture, literature, music, and dance. She was selected for the 2002 Whitney Biennale and is the recipient of several national and international arts fellowships and prizes, and has participated in a number of festivals and exhibitions in the United States, Brazil, Canada, England, France, Germany, Israel, Korea, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Kanarek is the founder of “The Upgrade!,” an international network of meetings for new media artists and curators and the producer of the New York meetings hosted at Eyebeam.

“The students in the program are immersed in a technologically rich environment that includes digital audio, and video mediums, computer imaging, animation, virtual reality, Web design, multimedia installation, electronic music composition, performances, and instruction in traditional arts _ theater, western and world music, jazz, drawing, painting, and sculpture,” said Kathy High, chair of the arts department and associate professor of video and new media. “The multidisciplinary approach seen in the work of Yael Kanarek is an example of the innovative approach that our students are taking to integrate art, technology, and science into the body of their work.”

About National Video Resources
Since its establishment by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1988, the annual fellowship program has awarded nearly $9.5 million to more than 270 media artists working in the United States. The goal of the organization is to increase public awareness of and access to independently produced media — film, video, and motion media delivered through new digital technologies. The Program for Media Artists includes a range of activities designed to provide financial and technical assistance to media makers and to encourage the production, distribution, and exhibition of independent media in all forms.

Contact: Jessica Otitigbe
Phone: (518) 276-6050
E-mail: otitij@rpi.edu