2021 06 14 • Apotome awarded Isao Tomita Special Prize at Ars Electronica

Counterpoint and I are humbled and honoured to share that Apotome has been awarded the inaugural Isao Tomita Special Prize as part of Prix Ars Electronica.

We would like to thank the jury, Ars Electronica and the Isao Tomita family for their recognition of our work, alongside Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Midlands4Cities, CTM Festival and DAAD Artists-In-Berlin programme for their support, and the wonderful artists Wahono, Deena Abdelwahed, Slikback, Faten Kanaan, Lucy Railton, Tot Onyx, Nene H, Enyang Ha and Tyler Friedman for making the launch so beautiful with all their creative contributions.

Statement from the Ars Electronica Isao Tomita Special Prize Jury:

“Apotome is a generative music system focused on transcultural tunings and their subsets (scales and modes), and its sister application Leimma, which allows for the exploration and creation of such tunings. It is so far the most successful and freely available tool that allows one to explore and compose non-Western (electronic) music. It has a clear web-based interface that allows the user to experiment with a pre-selection of ten tuning systems, themselves subdivided into classic or experimental systems according to the options one chooses. In addition, Leimma allows you to create your own tuning system and export it (or play it through the browser, like Apotome). The project has a fairly strong and anti-colonial approach. Not only is it freely accessible to anyone with a computer and internet connection but it allows any user to compose, record, and publish commercially or not the sounds or music created with Apotome. It is a strong project that brings so-called traditional and/or classical knowledge together with digital technology and extend one’s possibilities—a project that tries to be as comprehensive as possible, that invites the composers to explore the music world outside of the western box but also to push them to break the boundaries and be inventive. Due to its online accessibility, it may easily trigger international collaborations and exchanges between artists and lead to more sonic exchanges based on rhyzomatic knowledge rather than pyramidal relationships between the knowledgeable and the disciple.”