Launched on Monday July 21st, 2014, the University of Western Australia (UWA)’s Transcending Borders brought together their 7th MachinimUWA and their 5th UWA Grand Art Challenge into one event, with a combined prize pool in excess of L$ 1.03 million.

Transcending Borders challenged entrants to interpret the title of the competition in any fashion they deem applicable, and produce a 3D artwork (in no more than 150 prims) or short film based on their interpretation, be it on transcending borders of space and time, love and loss, nationally or culture or language, or the real and the virtual, and so on. The result was a glittering array of 67 artworks and 38 machinima, representing a broad diversity of interpretations of the theme, with the winners celebrated at a special awards ceremony held on Sunday, December 14th, 2014, which I was honoured to attend as a member of judging panel, and which I reported on here and here.

On Saturday, January 24th, the UWA announced that a special catalogue of the challenge has now been produced. At 212 pages in length and lavishly illustrated, the book covers both the art and machinima challenges, with individuals photographic spreads covering each of the art entries, complete with the artists’ statements on their work, and the machinima entries presented by individual stills from each of the films entered.

The book, Transcending Borders has been produced as a part of the UWA Studies in Virtual Arts e-journals (SiVA) series, and can be viewed on-line. Printed copies can also be obtained from the UWA and shipped to you. Those interested in owning a copy as a commemoration of the challenge and of both art and machinima in virtual worlds, should contact Jayjay Zifanwe in-world.

As someone fortunate to have a copy of the last title in the series, Project Freedom, I cannot stress enough how beautifully produced the books in the SiVA series are. Edited by the UWA’s curator, FreeWee Ling, books in the series are compiled and produced with a huge amount of care, and the photographs of the artwork always capture the essence and beauty of each piece.

In the meantime, and if you haven’t done so already, you can see all of the art pieces on display for the time being at the UWA Challenge Gallery, while a list of machinima entries, with links to each film is also available.

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