BROWSERDAY IN THE NEWS

Read the Wired News article from the Kickoff Meeting October 10  Read the Pre-Show Press Release

BROWSERDAY HISTORY

Browserday was conceived by a group of Dutch designers who were dissatisfied with the gray buttons of existing browsers. Mieke Gerritzen, founder of NL.Design and Geert Lovink, a media-theorist, were leading a student workshop at the Amsterdam Art Academy on the background and meaning of browsers and browser design. One intent Gerritzen and Lovink had for the workshop was to spark a discussion between software developers and designers on the topic of how to make technology work for its users. As a result, young design students were challenged to come up with alternatives for the existing browsers. This challenge, organized by NL.Design, Rietveld Academy and the Society for Old and New Media in Amsterdam, in 1998, became the First International Browserday.  Previous Browserdays

BROWSERDAY INFORMATION

THE COMPETITION: International Browserday is a chance to redraw the face of the future from a design and user-centric perspective. The jury is looking for breakthrough concepts, new ways of seeing, and using the Internet in the undefined context of 21st century design and communications. We are looking for artists (designers, programmers, architects, composers, actors, filmmakers) to challenge existing standards and assumptions. Last year's competition included over 1,000 submissions, which were narrowed down to 40 finalists and one grand prize winner. On March 29, 2001, students from all over the world will be invited to present their bold views, daring designs and innovative ideas for the ultimate interface (Internet and beyond) onstage at Cooper Union's Great Hall in New York City. Ideas will be presented in the "Three4All" format: finalists will have exactly three minutes (180 seconds, that's all) to creatively show and tell their design, using any media (from design to drama, high- to low-tech). THE CHALLENGE: Imagine the unthinkable. We are calling young artists to create the New Internet based on unique and individual design perspectives. The role of designers (in the broadest sense of the term) must go beyond crafting tiny GIF images. We don't just want a piece of the cake, we want to design the whole damn bakery! This is the challenge the organizers of the Fourth International Browserday in New York have put on the table. Forget the constraints of commerce, code, applications and operating systems. Why passively follow the nerd? Realize your fantasy, blast the standards of today, take down the portal regime. Ignore the dot-technology and today's corporate constraints for a moment and let your digital imagination roar. Put design back in the driver's seat and show the world it is possible to dream up radically different ways to navigate information. Goodbye copy-paste, close files and folders. Welcome creative innovations in the new Media. Here we start designing the future of communications and the New Internet. SUBMISSION INFORMATION: For a complete description of submission guidelines, view the call for entries. QUESTIONS: For further information, contact Shira Szego by email: shira@internationalbrowserday.com, or call 866.BROWZER (9am-5pm, M-F, EST).