not surprisingly also this year the ars electronica .net award goes to a celebrity: neil stephenson will receive the "golden nica" because "the online art award might not exist if people had not read stephenson's books and been inspired to create digital work" (hey! i am serious, heheh).

or: because of "a lack of originality in this year's .net category entries".

or: because of "just a lust for celebrity, rather than a desire to help nurture the electronic art field, which could certainly use it".

that the net is actually playing a big role in political terms (even in golden nica country) is certainly not worth to mention, let alone some provincial plastic sculpture.