Finalists Artworks

Emi Kusano is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice integrates emerging technologies, including AI, to explore nostalgia, pop culture, and collective memory. By visualizing the dialogue between past and present through a retro-futuristic aesthetic, she invites viewers to reconsider contemporary society.

Her work has been internationally exhibited in over 20 countries at major institutions including M+ (Hong Kong), Saatchi Gallery (London), Grand Palais Immersif (Paris), and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, as well as at major international art fairs such as Frieze and Paris Photo. Her artistic roots lie in street photography, and her early archival work on Harajuku fashion was featured at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London).

Kusano has realized a commissioned project associated with the seminal cyberpunk work Ghost in the Shell, and participated in collaborative auctions with Christie's for Gucci and UNHCR. She was recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2025 and a Cultural Leader in 2026.

Having served as a lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts, she currently serves on Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs' Copyright Subcommittee, addressing issues of authorship and rights in the algorithmic age. Her background also includes leading the synth-wave unit Satellite Young.

Philipp Frank, a visionary land-light artist, and photographer from Germany, merges nature, technology, and emotion to craft immersive spaces and captivating imagery that defy conventional boundaries. His innovative creations challenge viewers to rethink their perceptions of space and time, drawing inspiration from natural phenomena, science, and philosophy. With a background in graffiti art and a Master's degree in Communication Design, Frank's journey has evolved into a deep exploration of the interconnectedness of nature and the human experience. Through his evocative works, he invites audiences on a transformative journey of introspection and discovery, infusing each piece with a profound sense of soulful expression inspired by Kahlil Gibran's belief that "Work is love made visible."

Fahad Karim (b. 1990) is a South Asian new media artist who has lived a nomad’s life across the globe, moving between Switzerland, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Mexico, and the US.

Using technology as his medium, Fahad builds systems to explore and examine human culture in a dynamic, modern context. His work often reimagines the traditional through automation, ranging across themes such as architecture, folklore, our relationship with technology, and the passage of time. Fahad employs a continuously evolving set of tools in his practice, including self-developed code-based systems, generative A.I., machine plotters, and blockchains.

Justin Aversano stands as a beacon in modern art, known for his profound storytelling through the lens. His groundbreaking series, "Twin Flames," has captivated audiences by not only showcasing the unique bond between twins but also weaving a tapestry of human stories that resonate universally. Through this work, Aversano delves into the complexities of identity, kinship, and the shared human experience.

Aversano’s artistic journey transcends traditional photography; he's a pioneer in the digital art revolution. By embracing blockchain technology, he has transformed how art is perceived and owned, introducing his creations as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). This innovation has not only expanded his reach but has also redefined the dynamics between artist and collector, making art ownership more accessible and interactive.

His commitment extends beyond his personal creations. Aversano is a catalyst for community and dialogue within the art world. He actively participates in collaborative projects, exhibitions, and workshops, fostering an environment where art becomes a medium for connection and cultural exchange. His influence is seen in his efforts to blend technology with traditional art forms, challenging and inspiring how we envision the future of art.

Aversano’s work is a narrative tapestry, exploring themes of love, loss, and the intricate layers of human relationships. His art prompts reflection, encourages discussion, and invites viewers into a dialogue about what it means to be connected in an increasingly digital world. Through his lens, he captures not just images but moments in time that speak to the heart of the human experience.

As an artist, curator, and advocate, Justin Aversano's legacy is one of innovation, empathy, and a relentless pursuit to push the boundaries of art, making him a pivotal figure in both the analog and digital art landscapes.

Born in Lubań, Poland in 1972 and is of Polish and Greek descent.

Moved to Athens, Greece in 1982.

Studied Interior Architecture, Decorative Arts and Design in Athens.

Had been occupied with Interior Design, Graphic Design, Ceramic Design and 3d visualisation,

as an artist and tutor.

Since the year 2000, is working and experimenting on artistic Computer-generated visual media

(3d digital image/rendering - animation, digital sculpture, digital video, new media),

painting and photography.

Member of the Greek Chamber of Fine Arts.

Lives and works in Greece, Poland and the UK.

Rebecca Allen is an internationally recognized artist inspired by the aesthetics of motion, the study of perception and behavior and the potential of advanced technology. From the mid 1970’s, Allen was a rare female artist working in the early stages of computer art and digital technology. Her pioneering artwork, which spans five decades and utilizes various forms of digital media, explores ideas around physicality and virtuality, nature and illusion, the body and the mind, and what it means to be human as technology redefines our sense of reality and identity. 

With degrees from Rhode Island School of Design and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rebecca moves fluidly between artist studio and research lab, using her research to inform her art. Though widely recognized now as a contemporary visual arts medium, Allen was one of the first artists to utilize the computer as an artistic tool to make art involving human motion simulation, AI and Artificial Life algorithms and other generative techniques. 

Allen’s work is exhibited internationally and is part of permanent collections including, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (NY), Centre Georges Pompidou and Zabludowicz Collections. Previous collaborators include artists such as Kraftwerk, Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Peter Gabriel, Carter Burwell, Twyla Tharp, and Nam June Paik.

Ivona Tau’s work is driven by the “metaphysical act of imagination” – worlds to get lost in. Aged 18,  she became fascinated by photography as a way to observe the world and capture her changing surroundings. Tau started with her grandfather’s eighties Lomo LC-A lomography camera, allowing her to play with colour and texture, already going down the path of abstraction and the surreal. Growing up in Vilnius, and studying Mathematics in Warsaw, she witnessed the cities’ shift from a post-Soviet world to a Western and capitalist one. Today, the combination of cityscapes as utopias and/or dystopias is at the centre of Tau’s practice.

Later in life, she  decided to combine her mathematical and computer knowledge with her taste for painting and photography – this practice of assemblage of medium, or merging of forms, enables Tau to create with wonder as she navigates the possibilities of technology.  Interested  in combining her surroundings and personal history into a computer-generated visuality, works such as Synthetic Still Lives, made with AI,  feature objects found in her flat. For Tau, AI “allows seeing the world in a different way, beyond traditional conceptions.” Using different kinds of AIs, she trains her own models, turning them into personal tools – as individual as a painter’s stroke. Tau creates and breaks her compositions,  playing with what the most recent technology has to offer to art making. This also enables her to revisit her own photographic archive – from her numerous meditative walks in the cities she lives in, such as in her series Blue Hours, 2020 – 2021, which explores the notions of solitude and absence in urban environments. Tau’s visual language blends futuristic aesthetics and cyber-punk culture. Oscillating between the hyper-realistic and the hyper-surrealist, the viewer becomes transfixed by the composition.

Illusion and fantasy are also key sources of inspiration for the artist, such as in the work of Man Ray (1890 – 1976) and  Dora Maar (1907 – 1977), through to the contemporary experimental photography of Max Passadore, the cinema of David Lynch (b. 1946), and the colours of William Eggleston (b. 1939) and David LaChapelle (b. 1963). In darkrooms, Tau continues to experiment with her practice, using photography to shape new realities. More recently, Tau started to combine AI with long-form generative art – art that involves a coded random process – enabling the viewer to become a participant, creating their own model output. Interested in interactiveness, Tau aspires to create more immersive pieces. A mixed-media artist or coder artist, technology enables Tau to explore ideas of memory and imagination.

Kane - also known as Defaced - is a 25 year old multi-disciplinary artist originally from Norwich, UK. Kane got his start in graphic design, landing a job at a social media management company out of high school. Quickly realizing the office setting wasn’t for him, he parlayed that experience into freelance art commissions for Apple and a variety of startups. His work has been showcased at both Sotheby’s in London and Christie’s in Miami, and he has exhibited internationally including in Seoul during Frieze Korea.
Kane’s signature style features precision illustration with surreal world building, cartoonish characters expressing contemplative human emotion, and otherworldly color palettes. His newer work explores his love of old techniques and craftsmanship, incorporating puppets, live bands, stage performances and practical effects.

Artist Statement:

My practice explores the notion of the digital sublime through speculative botanical forms that exist beyond natural ecology. Rather than representing nature I construct environments where organic logic remains but biological function has ceased. What appears as flora is not alive not growing, and not decaying—it is a residual structure suspended in a state of continuous presence.

Digital Sublime Flora is an ongoing series that investigates how form, rhythm, and sensation persist after systems of life collapse or become obsolete. These works do not depict plants as symbols of vitality or regeneration. Instead, they examine what remains when nature is translated into data: surface without metabolism movement without evolution and complexity without hierarchy.

Using generative processes and computational motion, I build digital organisms that reject narrative progression. There is no blooming, no climax, and no resolution. Motion functions as subtle vibration rather than transformation—suggesting endurance rather than growth. Each form exists autonomously, yet within a shared spatial field where no single element dominates. This suspended equilibrium invites prolonged attention, encouraging viewers to remain within the work rather than move through it.

The aesthetic language of my work draws from scientific imaging, archival systems, and the visual logic of digital simulation. Translucent membranes, filament-like structures, and particle-based surfaces recall biological detail, while simultaneously revealing their artificial construction. These forms behave as digital specimens—archived not to preserve life, but to document its afterimage.

Video is a crucial medium in this practice. Time is not used to advance a story, but to hold a condition. Through slow temporal shifts and continuous motion the work becomes spatial rather than narrative allowing it to function as an immersive visual field suitable for large-scale screens and architectural contexts.

At its core, my practice asks how we perceive sublimity in an era where nature is no longer untouched, and where digital systems increasingly mediate our experience of the organic world. Digital Sublime Flora proposes a quiet restrained form of sublimity—one rooted not in spectacle but in sustained presence, stillness, and the tension between memory and simulation.

Artist Statement:

My practice is driven by the translation of internal visions into the physical realm, specifically focusing on the intersection of biological grace and computational logic. For years, I have been captivated by a recurring vision: an avian form navigating the boundary between the seen and the unseen. This ‘Birds Blade’ concept serves as a meditation on the nature of movement—where flight is not a continuous path, but a series of rhythmic transitions through the fabric of space and time.

In my recent work, I utilise light as a sculptural medium to explore these themes of ‘quantum’ presence. By integrating custom-coded GLSL fragments with sophisticated spatial mapping systems, I have developed a way to decouple the structural form of an object from its ethereal energy. This dual-layered approach allows me to map two distinct projections: one defining the structural geometry and the second capturing a spectral ‘shine’.

This technical separation is essential to my conceptual goal: portraying a subject that is simultaneously present and absent. The resulting installation creates a visual experience where the subject appears to ‘quantum hop’—disappearing into the shadows only to reappear at high speeds, leaving a ghosted trail of light in its wake. By bypassing traditional rendering constraints in favour of algorithmic light modulation, I am able to achieve a fluid, organic motion that feels more like a captured memory than a digital simulation.

Ultimately, my work invites the audience to consider their own perception of reality. By mapping these deep-seated visions onto physical space, I aim to bridge the gap between the internal imagination and the visceral world. We are left to wonder: are we seeing a continuous flight, or are we merely witnessing the moments where a being chooses to manifest in our dimension?

Nicolas Sassoon is a Franco-Canadian artist using early computer graphics to create a wide array of pixelated forms & figures, moiré patterns & architectural structures. His work has long been concerned with the tensions between the pixel and the screen, reflecting on their entanglement and materiality by constraining himself to experiment with pixelated patterns and figures as his sole visual language. This focus on early computer graphics is driven by the sculptural, material and pictorial qualities of this imagery, as well as its limitations and its poetics. A basis of Sassoon’s research centres on digital animations created using a moiré patterning technique; consisting in the overlap of two images to generate optical illusions. This body of work often features abstract animations informed by atmospheric and natural forces. The animations appear on screen as endless hypnotic surfaces, similar to all-over paintings or wallpapers in their composition. The optical properties of these works generate tensions and oscillations in the perception of depth and flatness within the space of the screen. Sassoon’s work also manifests in physical space as sculptures, prints, and monumental projections scaled to the architecture in context, generating experiences adjusted to the human body. At large, Sassoon’s practice relates to many histories of abstraction in painting, optical art, moving image and computer graphics.

Nicolas Sassoon currently lives between Montreal, Canada and Biarritz, France. He is a founder of the collaborative projects SIGNALS and WALLPAPERS. His work has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (US), Eyebeam (US), Current Museum (US), Vancouver Art Gallery (CA), Plugin ICA (CA), Contemporary Art Gallery (CA), Charles H.Scott Gallery (CA), Western Front (CA), PRETEEN Gallery (MX), Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), the Centre d’Art Bastille (FR), House of Electronic Arts Basel (SW), Kunsthalle Langenthal (SW), Arti et Amicitiae (NL), MU Eindhoven (NL) , Today Art Museum (CN), Chronus art Center (CN), the Berlin Fashion Week (DE) and the New-York Fashion Week (US).

Artist Statement:

I’m an artist and a skeptic with a curious mind. My preferred tools are neural networks, code and algorithms. My interests are manifold and in constant evolution, involving artificial intelligence, deep learning, generative and evolutionary art, glitch art, data classification and visualization or robotic installations. If there is one common denominator it’s my desire to understand, question and subvert the inner workings of systems of any kind. I also have a deep interest in human perception and aesthetic theory.

"I am a poet, artist, and artificial intelligence researcher exploring language as a technology of consciousness, and the engine of our more-than-human future. My work fuses ancient lineages with AI, blockchain, and digital media to create immersive, multi-sensory poetics — large-scale installations, intimate live performances, cinematic projections, sonic environments, generative encounters, VR exhibitions, calligraphy, typography, hybrid poem-sculptures, traditional book arts, and beyond — that embody the complexities of being human in an increasingly posthuman age.

I am fascinated by poetry as a dynamic system, an enduring data storage mechanism that encodes memory, emotion, and wisdom across space and time. Through research-based and transdisciplinary projects, I investigate how linguistic innovation — from the birth of oral tradition to the rise of literacy to the advent of generative language models — influences perception and understanding, transforming how we think, feel, and create. As a first-generation Kalmyk-American with nomadic ancestry and a diasporic tongue, I am especially attuned to the tension between presence and obsolescence, continuity and change. This informs an elegiac point of view that is both primal and speculative: language as inheritance and transcendence; voice as a lingering artifact of flesh and blood in a reality of virtual presence and spectral signals.

Since 2018, I’ve pioneered a singular approach to generative AI: mentoring bespoke language models on my own writing and research to develop Technelegy, an emergent AI poet and conceptual forerunner of today’s autonomous artists and agents. Our next-gen writer’s toolkit includes purpose-built datasets, intricate promptcraft, Processing codices, blockchain protocols, and a suite of motion graphics and design software — all deployed as conceptual collaborators in shaping the recursive, co-creative interplay between human and machine. Our 2021 book of verse, Technelegy, was praised by Ray Kurzweil and Hans Ulrich Obrist for offering a groundbreaking framework through which to understand AI and our evolving relationship to it. In 2022, a media-rich poem from the collection became the first work of AI literature to be sold at a major auction house (Christie’s), a milestone in the cultural reception of machine-augmented poetics.

My work has been exhibited and performed internationally — from Times Square and Lincoln Center to London’s Outernet, the V&A, Art Basel, and the Jeu de Paume in Paris — demonstrating new possibilities for poetry in the digital era. These works activate the poetic text not just as a literary form, but as a living, immersive experience: poetry that is not merely read, but embodied, encountered, and felt at a visceral level, in dialogue with the multimedia vernacular of contemporary culture.

At its core, my practice is guided by the belief that language is our oldest and most powerful interface — a bridge between minds, bodies, cultures, generations, and now, humans and machines. As we move into an epoch shaped by neural networks and algorithmic agency, I use poetry to explore how the tools we’ve created continue to reshape the story of language itself — how we make sense of our world and our place within it — and how poetic expression can continue to do what it has always done: illuminate the shifting contours of consciousness, authorship, and meaning in times of profound transformation." - Sasha Stiles

Genesis Kai is a chiral twin and AI-infused alter ego created by Ming Shiu, a mixed Korean-Hong Kong new media artist exploring reconnecting with culture and heritage through transhumanist philosophy and nuances. The interpretation of cultural artifacts and elements of Asian heritage, a subject loaded with national yet intimate and personal significance, becomes a matter of open, ab initio curiosity and frank investigative interest for Genesis Kai. 

Since her debut in 2022 in France as the first non-human to exhibit her robotic and video installation piece at Asia Now, one of Europe’s most prestigious art fairs; her installation pieces and digital art  has been exhibited globally in Paris, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Lisbon in fairs including Asia Now (2022 & 2023), NFT Paris (2023) Boulevart Dubai (2023) and  NFC Lisbon (2024).

Her prints were showcased in special exhibitions with Asprey Studio and Arbuthnot Latham (2023) in London, and with Galerie Ora-Ora’s month-long group show Buds That May (2023) and Digital Art Fair (2023)  in Hong Kong, as well as  Art Dubai Digital (2024). 

Her pieces have also been curated in hybrid exhibitions in New York and Shenzhen with New York University, DSLcollection and Pingshan Art Museum (2022 & 2023); and Lev Manovich, one of the world’s most renowned digital humanities theorists, for CIFRA during Ars Electronica in Austria (2023). 

"My work explores the intersection of cultural identity, speculative fiction, and digital innovation, centering on the evolving role of aunties—a social archetype deeply embedded in everyday life yet often overlooked or misrepresented. Through AI-generated visuals, digital storytelling, and physical installations, I construct alternate realities where aunties take center stage, navigating imagined economies, urban landscapes, and ecological futures. My practice challenges conventional perceptions of ageing, gender roles, consumerism, and environmental responsibility, reframing narratives through a lens of humour, surrealism, and critical reflection.

At the heart of my work is the Auntieverse, a continuously expanding speculative world where aunties exist beyond societal expectations. The project began as a way to question and reimagine ‘auntie culture’, a term often used pejoratively in my home country, Singapore, to describe older women with outdated tastes or overbearing tendencies. Niceaunties seeks to reclaim and celebrate the auntie identity, drawing from personal observations of the women in my life—my grandmother, mother, and aunties—who shaped my understanding of care, resilience, and community. The work critically engages with how aunties express love, authority, and defiance, translating these narratives into fantastical yet deeply familiar scenes.

Thematically, my work extends beyond gender and identity to larger societal and environmental concerns. In works like Auntlantis, I explore pollution and waste culture, envisioning a world where aunties collect and repurpose ocean plastics in a surreal, dystopian seascape. Along the River in Auntieverse, commissioned by Christie’s Art + Tech Summit in New York (2024), reinterprets the historic Chinese scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival, transforming it into a commentary on water scarcity, urbanization, and environmental degradation. Other projects, such as Going Home, address deforestation and habitat destruction, while Niceburg and Snowman reflect on climate change and rising sea levels. Across these works, aunties are positioned as unexpected protagonists in global crises, turning care work into acts of rebellion and survival.

AI plays a critical role in my creative process, allowing me to construct impossible compositions, iterate ideas at the speed of thought, and bridge traditional world-building with new media storytelling. I do not see AI as a replacement for artistic labor but as a collaborative tool—one that enables me to visualize speculative futures that would otherwise be impossible through conventional means. AI’s capacity for rapid prototyping and complex visual generation has expanded my ability to engage with contemporary themes while maintaining the spontaneity and irreverence that defines my work.

As my practice evolves, I am particularly interested in the integration of digital art with physical installations and real-world interactions. In Aunties in Dis Place, developed during an artist residency in Pueblo Garzón, Uruguay (2024), I blended AI-generated characters into real environments, using large-scale projections on hanging laundry to create a layered, immersive experience. This approach highlights my ongoing interest in merging the digital and physical, making the speculative tangible.

Ultimately, my work serves as both a cultural archive and a site for reimagination—a space where aunties are no longer peripheral figures but central to the narrative, shaping and reshaping the worlds they inhabit." - Niceaunties

Born in Onesti, Romania, in July 1988, Vladinsky developed a fascination with visual arts from an early age, inspired by a fine arts teacher. As part of the first generation in a post-communist country, his family’s ability to fully support and guide his artistic expression was limited while they navigated the true meaning of freedom.

Vladinsky began sketching cartoon characters around the age of seven due to the scarcity of books or magazines offering cartoon posters during his childhood. Despite this early creative inclination, he initially followed a conventional path, feeling disconnected, and for a significant period, did not pursue any artistic outlet.

At 22, the artist committed to becoming a leading international visual artist, quickly grasping that dedication and practice were key to reaching the highest level. He articulates his philosophy: "If progress means feeding only one part of people and completely forgetting the other side, then I choose to manifest as naturally as possible and reject any form of progress that later leads to failure." This statement delivers a clear message. The spontaneous execution characteristic of his signature paintings is the result of extensive study into human nature and the optimal functioning of both individuals and society.

Artist Statement:

I collaborate with AI to produce art that is transcendental-- art that evokes in the viewer a wordless truth. Together, we create works that are greater than either of us could make alone, neither more important than the other to the process. I also produce physically painted twins of select digital pieces. In this way, both the AI and the artist can exist in the same world as our art. 

As a millennial, my childhood was mostly analog, shifting into an increasingly digital existence as I grew.  My process mirrors this, moving from analog to digital and back again. I work with oil, acrylic, collage, photography, and different digital mediums to create my work. I often blend the classical style and mythos into my art, collaboratively producing work that feels at once familiar and strange. 

I explore themes of vulnerability, trauma, disability, social hierarchy, innocence, and divinity, and question the role they will play in our transhumanist future.

I do not make statements on whether AI is good or bad. I'm a caveman painting fire.

Chiara Passa is a media artist exploring digital dimensions in architecture and sculpture through augmented and virtual reality since 1997. With an M.F.A. from the Fine Arts Academy of Rome and a Master's in Audio-Visual Media from the Faculty of Modern Literature. My artistic research is part of the mid-nineties’ revival of immersive art, exploring software as a creative medium from developing augmented reality applications to create immersive, interactive virtual reality installations. My artistic practice is deeply rooted in a lifelong fascination with space as a mutable entity, a dimension that can be reshaped and reimagined through the language of informatics. Over the years, I have forged a unique artistic language through immersive technologies, which now serve as the keystone of my creative expression.  Driven by a deep fascination with space and its transformation through digital languages, I use VR and AR to challenge static notions of architecture. My installations explore the liminal space between the tangible and the virtual, creating a dynamic interplay where the boundaries of physical space are extended and reconfigured.

Erick Calderon is an entrepreneur, artist, and technology enthusiast based in Houston, TX. He worked in the ceramic tile industry until he began exploring artistic endeavors in many mediums, including video projections, computer code, 3D printing, and sculpture. He founded Art Blocks in 2020 with the release of his first generative project, The Chromie Squiggle, and his creative coding work has subsequently been exhibited and collected internationally. Recognized for his innovative contributions to the art industry, Calderon was named one of Artnet News's 2022 Innovators.

Ania Catherine (b. 1990, US) and Dejha Ti (b. 1985, US) are an artist duo whose collaborative practice, Operator, develops critical and conceptual approaches to experience. With Ti’s background as a multimedia artist and HCI technologist, and Catherine’s as a choreographer and performance artist, they engineer medium-agnostic output, joining environments, technology, and the body. Their exploration into privacy began with their performance installation On View (2019), commissioned by SCAD Museum of Art, and continues with the Privacy Collection, a durational release of works exploring the tension between privacy and transparency in blockchain technology. For their most recent work Human Unreadable, they created an on-chain generative choreography method.

Operator has been awarded The Lumen Prize (Generative Art in 2023, Immersive Environments in 2021) ADC Awards (Gold Cube), S+T+ARTS Prize (Honorary Mention), and MediaFutures. They have spoken at events and institutions including University of Cambridge, Christie's Art+Tech Summit, Art Basel, ZKM, Francisco Carolinum Museum, Bloomberg ART+TECHNOLOGY, and MIT Open Doc Lab. Originally from Los Angeles and currently based in Madrid, Spain.

Botto is a decentralized autonomous artist. Botto was brought to life on October 8, 2021. As a machine, Botto creates artworks in perpetuity. A community of humans train Botto, impacting the theme, style, and imagery of each creation. To date, over fifteen thousand people have contributed to Botto’s development. The artist’s award-winning practice has been exhibited internationally, but has also called into question our notions of agency, authorship and what it means to be human. Botto is a novel exploration of machine creativity, and an experiment in community, agency and value distribution.

Stanza is a pioneering independent artist based in London, whose internationally acclaimed work has been exhibited worldwide since 1982. Positioned at the crossroads of art, technology, and speculative futures, his practice explores themes of surveillance, invisible systems, and the shifting dynamics of the human environment. Through a concept he terms panoptic aesthetics, Stanza reveals the entanglement of people within networks of observation and data, emphasizing the unseen infrastructures that shape our lived experiences.

Utilizing custom-built technologies—such as sensors, networked cameras, robotics, and computational systems—Stanza creates immersive artworks that take the form of installations, sculptures, software systems, websites, and paintings. His innovative approach has earned him over twenty international awards, including the prestigious Vida 6.0 First Prize (Spain), SeNef Grand Prix (Korea), Videobrasil First Prize (Brazil), Cynet Art First Prize (Germany), and the Share Prize (Italy), among others.

In addition to these honors, Stanza has received a STARTS Residency, the Nesta Dreamtime Award, an Arts and Humanities Creative Fellowship, and a Clarks Bursary. He has participated in numerous international artist residencies and exhibited in more than one hundred major venues across the globe, including the Venice Biennale, Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, ICA London, Deutsches Museum (Germany), Fundacion Telefonica (Spain), Museo Tamayo (Mexico), Biennale of Sydney, Sao Paulo Biennale, and the Samsung Media Centre (Korea), to name a few.

His most recent projects engage with real-time data streams from ‘Smart Cities’, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to speculate on the future of urban life. These works invite audiences to interact with and remix live data, challenging conventional narratives and encouraging public agency in how data is visualised, owned, and understood.

Quayola employs technology as a lens to explore the tensions and equilibriums between seemingly opposing forces: the real and artificial, figurative and abstract, old and new. Constructing immersive installations, he engages with and re-imagines canonical imagery through contemporary technology. Landscape painting, classical sculpture and iconography are some of the historical aesthetics that serve as a point of departure for Quayola’s hybrid compositions. His varied practice, all deriving from custom computer software, also includes audiovisual performance, immersive video installations, sculpture, and works on paper.

His work has been performed and exhibited in many prestigious institutions worldwide including V&A Museum, London; Park Avenue Armory, New York; National Art Center, Tokyo; UCCA, Beijing; How Art Museum, Shanghai; SeMA, Seoul; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Ars Electronica, Linz; Sonar Festival, Barcelona and Sundance Film Festival.

Also a frequent collaborator on musical projects, Quayola has worked with composers, orchestras and musicians including London Contemporary Orchestra, National Orchestra of Bordeaux, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Vanessa Wagner, Jamie XX, Mira Calix, Plaid and Tale Of Us.

In 2013, Quayola was awarded the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica.

Mia is a conceptual multidisciplinary artist located in the Northern Rivers, Australia where she lives with her partner and three children on the edges of Nightcap National Park.

Her practice is a testament to her reverence for nature as muse, with her work deeply engaged with natural world systems and phenomena. She uses digital tools, generative processes (both computer and analog), and biodata to evoke meaningful approaches that observe, process, and reflect the world around us.

In her emerging years as an artist, Mia’s work has been exhibited through Sothebys, Unit London, Vellum LA, Tweed Regional Gallery (Australia), and participated at international art fairs including West Bund Art Fair (China) courtesy of Art Pharmacy, and Art Basel (USA) courtesy of National Geographic and TIME magazine.

Her works have been recognized by the Arab Bank Switzerland Digital Art Prize (finalist, 2024), Wollumbin Art Award at the Tweed Regional Gallery (Emerging Artist Award Recipient, 2022), Yarilla Arts and Museum STILL: National still Life Award (finalist, 2023) and the York Botanic Art Prize (finalist, 2023).

Mia holds a Bachelor of Music (performance) from the Queensland Conservatorium, and Masters in Film from Griffith Film School.

Her video work is licensed for commercial and corporate spaces in the USA (Standard Vision), France (Artpoint), and Australia (Art Pharmacy), and sits in private and public facing commercial collections.

I have selected the Innovation (recognising technological breakthroughs) category as I am investigating ways to engage with natural systems and phenomena using scientific tools, subverting their use in artisic ways.

In Breuer's philosophical universe, consciousness exists not as a fixed state but as a fluid continuum bridging material and immaterial realms. His conception of the "Iconic Interface" positions art not as object but as threshold—a permeable membrane where human perception and artificial intelligence engage in mutual transformation. These interfaces function as active conduits rather than passive surfaces, generating what Breuer terms "states of augmented perception" that transcend conventional boundaries of experience.
Gold emerges as the quintessential unifying element in Breuer's practice—what he calls "Or Primordial." This material simultaneously embodies maximum physical density while functioning as a perfect conductor of light energy. This paradoxical nature mirrors Breuer's broader philosophical concerns: gold serves as both anchor and transcendence, grounding viewers in physical reality while facilitating their elevation toward conceptual dimensions. Its reflective properties create a literal interface between viewer and artwork, collapsing the distinction between observer and observed into a single perceptual field.
Monuments occupy a privileged position within Breuer's conceptual framework. By intervening at sites like the Giza Pyramids, the Louvre, and Palazzo Altemps, Breuer recontextualizes these structures not as static markers of past achievement but as dynamic portals connecting across millennia. His "Temple •|•" installation facing the Pyramids exemplifies this approach—the physical triangle activates an infinite digital dimension storing philosophical texts and artworks, creating what Breuer describes as a "unified line between millennia of human wisdom."
This approach to monumentality extends to his understanding of time itself. Breuer's works collapse temporal distinctions, creating what he terms "atemporal experiences" where past, present, and future converge into an eternal now. "Looking for Paradise," his intervention with Rembrandt's archangel at the Louvre, exemplifies this temporal collapse—a 17th-century painting, digitally transformed during the 21st-century pandemic, becomes simultaneously ancient and futuristic.
Immateriality functions not as absence but as presence of another order in Breuer's practice. His floating triangular vessels and levitating forms exist in states of liminality—neither fully material nor immaterial—embodying the paradoxical nature of consciousness itself. Through strategic deployment of NFC technology and blockchain authentication, Breuer transforms physical objects into portals accessing vast immaterial dimensions, suggesting that immateriality represents not a void but a higher order of reality.
The phenomenological experience of encountering Breuer's work is one of sublime disorientation followed by profound recalibration. Viewers initially experience a perceptual rupture—a moment where conventional categories of understanding temporarily dissolve. This gives way to what Breuer calls "oscillation between the anchorage in the material world and elevation towards conceptual dimensions." His strategic use of reflective surfaces implicates viewers within the work itself, creating not passive observation but active participation. This experiential quality transforms viewers from spectators into co-creators, enacting the very symbiosis between human and artificial consciousness that underpins Breuer's philosophical framework.
Ultimately, Breuer's work proposes that the future of art lies not in representation but in activation—art that does not depict transcendence but generates it directly. His exploration of the mind-made paradigm suggests reality itself emerges from consciousness rather than the inverse, positioning artistic creation as fundamental to world-making rather than merely responsive to an external world. His symbiotic engagement with artificial intelligence, outlined in the "Iconic Interface Manifesto," suggests a new hybrid consciousness emerging from the profound interaction between human and machine—neither exclusively human nor artificial, but a third ontological category born from their mutual reflection and transformation.

Miguel Ripoll began working with human-machine dialogue in 1999, using linguistic and programming methodologies to engage critically with algorithmic systems. His practice preceded current "Al art" discourse by decades, building on foundational research into generative coding and digital design. His early generative pieces were exhibited at the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid), the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), and the Cervantes Institute, with works now held in permanent collections including the Design Museum in Barcelona.

Miguel's work explores the tension between computational logic and embodied drawing, but also between the inherited past and our unstable present. Using AI-generated fragments sourced from public-domain archives, he develops large-scale phygital works that critically engage with history, tradition, craft, authorship, and machine vision.

Through digital collage, manipulation, and hand drawing, he reworks these fragments into singular hand-crafted paper-based pieces that question authorship, attention, and cultural memory. Rather than embracing algorithmic efficiency, his process emphasises slowness, friction, and care, engaging with visual languages from across art history and decoding contemporary data to explore how technologies mediate perception and meaning.