An international team led by the Digital Worlds Institute at the University of Florida has received the first Peoria Prize for Creativity for producing the globally distributed project “Hands Across the Ocean: The Lost Chord.” The awards ceremony, keynoted by inventors Raymond Kurtzweil and Dean Kamen, was the first of its kind to specifically “…recognize and reward visionary and innovative creative projects that result from collaborations among individuals representing the arts and sciences.” The prize included a $10,000 cash award, and was presented by the Peoria Civic Federation, Peoria NEXT and ArtsPartners of Central Illinois.

The other national finalists were teams from the University of California at Irvine and the University of Illinois at Urbana/Stanford University. Fourteen judges in various creative fields chose the finalists.

“Hands Across the Ocean: The Lost Chord” was an unprecedented real-time global performing arts collaboration with Digital Worlds partners at the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (Australia), the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the New World School of the Arts (NWSA), the Digital Knowledge Exchange (England) and the University of Florida. Nearly seventy performers, dancers, actors, engineers and video artists from five musical cultures worked together to create a multidimensional perspective on world music that premiered over the high-speed research network Internet2 on February 17, 2005.

The award was presented Friday April 29 during “Discovery Forum 2005: A Celebration of the Art and Science of Life” at the Peoria Civic Center. The winning team was represented by James Oliverio, director of the Digital Worlds Institute.

“On behalf of our collaborating partners in Australia , Korea , England , Miami and Gainesville , we are thrilled that our work has been honored with the inaugural Peoria Prize for Creativity,” Oliverio said.  “The union of artists, scientists, designers, engineers, educators, ethnic musicians and digital media producers that created ‘Hands Across the Ocean’ formed a compelling example of the power of the arts and technology to create international harmony.”

For more information about "Hands Across the Ocean: The Lost Chord", please visit http://www.digitalworlds.ufl.edu/projects/HAO.

For more information, please visit the Digital Worlds web site at : http://www.digitalworlds.ufl.edu or contact James Oliverio at 1-352-294-2020.