The yearly Ars Electronica Festival is conceived as a joint creative platform for artists and scientists from various disciplines in the field of digital media design. The Prix Ars Electronica awarded at the festival was installed by the ORF regional broadcasting station Upper Austria in 1987; since then, more than 10,000 artists from over 60 countries have participated in the contest. The Prix Ars Electronica represents an internationally noted state-of-the-art trend barometer in media art, impressively illustrating both the artistic and cultural as well as the social implications of the digital media. The list of winners serves as a Who's Who of Cyber Art: Peter Gabriel, John Lasseter, Linus Torvalds and many other renowned artists have been among the recipients of the coveted trophy, the "Golden Nica", for their outstanding works. The winners in the five categories "Computer Animation/Visual Effects", "Digital Musics", "Interactive Art", ".net" and, since 1988, also "Cybergeneration - u19 freestyle computing" (a special category for Austrian youths) - are chosen by five juries of international experts. In addition to the book publication featuring the award-winning works, a DVD presents the winners in the "Computer Animation/Visual Effects" category and a compact disc of the prize-winning entries for "Digital Music" is available. The award-winning submissions in the "Computer Animations/Visual Effects" category are also available on DVD: ISBN 3-7757-1209-7 Additionally, an audio compact disc featuring the winners in the "Digital Musics" category was released: ISBN 3-7757-1210-0