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S+T+ARTS 2025 Winners: Sarah Ciston won the Grand Prize for Artistic Exploration

Mathieu Gayet

S+T+ARTS is announcing the 2025 prize winners. Sarah Ciston is awarded with the Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration for the work ‘AI War Cloud Database’, 2025. ‘Sensing Quantum’ by Light Art Space Foundation wins the S+T+ARTS Prize 2025 – Grand Prize of the European Commission, honoring Innovation in Technology, Industry and Society stimulated by the Arts 2025.

The projects were selected amongst 1 657 submissions from 90 countries, received from the open call launched in January 2025. The jury for the prize consisted of Francesca Bria (IT); Veronica D’Souza (DK); Thomas Gegenhuber (AT); Irini Papadimitriou (UK); Asako Tomura (JP). For more information about the Jury and the S+T+ARTS Prize Advisors, please visit.

Sarah Ciston 📸 Paige Zangoglia

The Prize competition is part of S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology and the Arts), an initiative funded by the European Commission since 2016. STARTS focuses on projects that strive to master the social, ecological and economic challenges that Europe is facing or will be facing in the near future. STARTS is driven by the conviction that, combined with an artistic viewpoint, science and technology open valuable perspectives for research and business in the field of ICT innovation, through a holistic and human-centred approach. From 2016 to 2024, this remarkable initiative has funded 381 residency projects with more than 19 Mio Euro and honored 274 projects S+T+ARTS Prize projects. Organized by Ars Electronica, the prize competition received 17 243 submissions from 102 different nations between 2016 and 2024.

In the midst of a political turn that looks to blow up the world order and democracy, while disinformation campaigns undermine civic trust and cause dismay when reasoning is needed the most, in this year’s submissions the jury has found critical work and voices that can make a much needed difference, bring clarity and a spark of light in the darkness. In this context, we deem it necessary to highlight extraordinary critical and collaborative approaches that challenge and reframe our relationship to technology, society, culture, and nature; projects that not only address the urgent need to continue to act and build on space for resistance, diverse voices, and critical ideas, but work and initiatives that can actually open paths to environmental and community-driven innovation, social justice narratives, and care-based infrastructures.

From the Jury Statement: A Spark of Light in the Darkness Francesca Bria, Veronica D’Souza, Thomas Gegenhuber, Irini Papadimitriou, Asako Tomura

Two prizes are awarded annually, each endowed with 20,000 euros, in two categories. The Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration honours artistic research and works that have the potential to influence or change the way technology is used, applied or perceived. The Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration is awarded to projects that combine industry or technology and the arts, with the goal of opening new paths for innovation. In addition, 10 more projects receive an Honorary Mention and 18 a Nomination. The winning projects will be featured at Ars Electronica Festival in September 2025 and other events organised by the consortium partners Ars Electronica (AT), INOVA+ (PT), La French Tech Grande Provence (FR), Media Solution Center Baden-Württemberg (DE), the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (DE), Salzburg Festival (AT), Sónar (ES), T6 Ecosystems (IT), TUD Dresden University of Technology (DE).

From the Jury Statement:

GRAND PRIZE – ARTISTIC EXPLORATION

Awarded for artistic exploration and art works where appropriation by the arts has a strong potential to influence or alter the use, deployment, or perception of technology.

AI War Cloud Database
Sarah Ciston

By tracing the links between commercial AI and military infrastructure, Ciston exposes a hidden feedback loop – where tools of convenience become tools of control. At a time of growing geopolitical tensions, AI arms races, and rearmament efforts across Europe and globally, this work underscores the need for democratic oversight, ethical governance, and civic awareness in shaping our technological future. // In the spirit of the STARTS Prize, this work exemplifies the power of art and research to illuminate complex systems—and to invite us all to take part in shaping them.

GRAND PRIZE – INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION

Awarded for the innovative collaboration between industry or technology and the arts (and the cultural and creative sectors in general) that opens new pathways for innovation.

Sensing Quantum
LAS Art Foundation

In a time of mega-infrastructures-from data centres to quantum sensing networks – Europe must ensure that these systems serve the public good, are ethically grounded, and open to democratic participation. ‘Sensing Quantum’ makes this vision tangible. It invites artists, scientists, and citizens to explore new ways of thinking about our technological future, not as passive users, but as active co-creators. The jury celebrates ‘Sensing Quantum’ as a bold model of cultural-scientific collaboration. It reflects a Europe that leads in innovation, while staying rooted in democratic values and planetary care. This programme ensures that public understanding and aesthetic experimentation evolve in tandem. It is not enough to sense the quantum, we must also sense the political, emotional, and planetary implications of what we are building. This work allows us to do both.

The Grand Prize – Artistic Exploration is awarded to AI War Cloud Database, 2025, by Sarah Ciston (US)

What responsibilities do we have in choosing AI tools, when their development also leads to deadly outcomes at massive scales? The ‘AI War Cloud Database’ catalogues and maps connections across AI systems used to make deadly decisions in warfare and how those same systems are used in commercially popular devices.

We use AI every day – on our phones, in online searches, and on social media – yet we rarely consider how the same technologies are used in other, more troubling ways. The ‘AI War Cloud Database’ exposes these overlaps, cataloguing AI systems used to automate decisions in warfare and mapping where similar technologies appear in everyday tools. By making these hidden connections visible, the project shows how the same machine learning systems drive both commercial applications and military operations.

The project builds a continuously updated online platform that presents a taxonomy of AI decision-making systems, tracing their development across sectors and borders. By clicking on a product or company users explore connections between corporations, governments, and technologies and trace direct lines between them. For example, generative AI trained by low-
wage workers in the global south, is powering both Google searches and military decision making that decides where drones are deployed, and who lives and dies.

‘AI War Cloud Database’ makes visible the infrastructures and actors behind AI development. By doing so, it challenges the power of private companies and the lack of transparency in how AI is developed and used. For Europe, this is urgent: building digital sovereignty is important, but how we build and manage these systems matters. If we invest in technology without clear values, we risk creating the same problems and dependencies we are trying to avoid. The project forces us to think where we want to go next and what choices we make as users, developers, and investors of AI systems.

The Grand Prize – Innovative Collaboration is awarded to Sensing Quantum, 2025, by Light Art Space Art Foundation (DE)

Light Art Space Foundation‘s ‘Sensing Quantum’ programme explores the implications and possibilities of quantum technologies through new commissions with artists and musicians, a symposium, a publication and an ongoing learning programme. Together, these efforts bring together artists, scientists, thinkers and the public to engage with this evolving field.

2025 is named the International Year of Quantum, marking the growing impact of quantum technologies on society. It highlights the transformative potential of quantum science and its role in shaping a more inclusive and connected world. These systems are beginning to radically transform computing, communication, and our very understanding of reality, yet for most people, they remain difficult to grasp. Without better education, public discussion, and cultural interpretation, this knowledge will stay in the hands of a few experts. This risks creating even bigger gaps in who understands and benefits from these powerful tools.

To bridge the gaps between the invisible, the speculative, and the evolving role of quantum technologies in our lives, ‘Sensing Quantum’, a long-term artistic research initiative by LAS Art Foundation, brings together artists, scientists, and thinkers to create critical and artistic languages around these emerging technologies.

The initiative includes new commissions, a symposium, a publication, and an ongoing educational program. One example is Laure Prouvost’s multi-sensory installation ‘WE FELT A STAR DYING’. It weaves direct experimentation with a quantum computer into a wider reflection on what it means to open oneself to the quantum realm. The artist asks: “What might it feel like to sense reality from a quantum perspective?”. As quantum technologies become part of everyday life, it is important that more people, not just scientists, can understand and shape how they are used. LAS Art Foundation shows how early engagement through art and culture can make these complex topics more relatable, while also helping society think about their ethical and social impact.

WE FELT A STAR DYING, by Laure Prouvost

S+T+ARTS 2025 – Honorary Mentions

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Mathieu Gayet

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