Tonga.Online @ Ars Electronica 2004

In 2004 the Tonga.Online project received an Award of Distinction from the prestigious Prix Ars Electronica 2004, in the category "Digital Communities". The award was handed over by Austrian Secretary of State for the Arts and Media Franz Morak in New York City’s Metropolitan Pavilion on 23 June 2004 in conjunction with the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit.

During the Ars Electronica Festival itself in September, an ambitious "sound bridge" provided for a connection between the festivals in remote Zimbabwe and in Linz / Austria. Recordings made by Karl Ritter at Mulonga.net Festival were taken to Bulawayo by Gary Brooking next morning and uploaded there to Austria via Internet. In Linz, accordionist Otto Lechner, another Windhund musician, responded to these sound files and loops with his own reflections in the evening at the „sound park“ along the river Danube in Linz. This performance was again livestreamed to the world via Internet radio station emap.fm in Austria.