/decisions/make/art presents a selection of projects by students, graduates, and faculty from the Master’s Program in Digital Arts at the National Academy of Art in Sofia. The exhibition is an occasion to consider art as a logic of choices—composition is a system, creation a protocol, and authorship a dynamic negotiation with the environment.
The featured works include generative visual systems, interactive installations, machine learning, and experimental participatory formats. Here, creative decision-making unfolds as a responsive aesthetic and ethical process—one that evolves, reacts, and invites the viewer in.
/decisions/make/art is not just a title—it is a command, a condition, and a conceptual frame. The exhibition thinks not only in images, but in systems; not only in aesthetics, but in the ethics of interaction between humans and technology.
The Master’s Program in Digital Arts builds on the rich academic tradition of the National Academy of Art, founded in 1896. Today, the program shapes a new generation of artists who rethink creative practice through interdisciplinary approaches and cultivate a space for hybrid thinking—between the visual, the technological, and the critical.
/decisions/make/art / National Academy of Art Sofia, Master’s Program in Digital Arts - Photo: Venelin Shurelov
Collection
/decisions/make/art
National Academy of Art Sofia, Master’s Program in Digital Arts (BG)
Age of You
RAW Lab – Roslana Yotova (BG), Radina Yotova (BG)
RAW Lab traces how algorithmic systems reduce expression to behavioral data, contributing to the disembodiment and abstraction of the self. The face is positioned here not as a site of intimacy, but as a contested field of extraction and interpretation.
Between This and That is It
Antoni Rayzhekov (BG), Martin Murer (AT) – beyond_repair
Between This and That is It is an interactive installation using an AI-enhanced 1980s typewriter. Visitors input two words, and the system generates a “middle” word, creating a collaborative techno-poetic act.
Bot Brother
Ivelina Ivanova (BG)
Bot Brother follows how the digital realm influences identity formation, reflecting and refracting societal values and aspirations. Text data gathered from social media and news website comments are fed into an N-gram word prediction model to generate a dialog.
Cilia with Metal Stalks
Stefan Donchev (BG)
Cilia with Metal Stalks consists of an array of sensor wires and a small printer. It reacts to tactile interaction by collecting data with its sensors, interpreting it, and translating it into visual graphics. It prints the end result on a piece of paper.
DUST
Yana Vasileva (BG)
DUST is an installation that visualizes, on a macro scale, the invisible traces of materiality within the National Gallery of Art. The dust collected from the palace building is a collection of countless microscopic parts of significant artefacts.
Fantomat
Venelin Shurelov (BG)
The Fantomat is a humanoid vending machine sculpture that replaces consumer goods with poetic, audiovisual experiences. Coin-operated and android-like, it mimics commercial automatons while subverting them with unexpected artistic content.
Fire Extinguisher
Volen Penev (BG)
Fire Extinguisher is an interactive audio sculpture exploring a cultural phenomenon in Bulgaria’s recent history—the act of the self-immolation of over 60 people—that is suppressed in public discourse.
Fragile Perspectives
Antoni Rayzhekov (BG), Dimiter Ovtcharov (BG), Günther Mausz (AT), Thomas Aschenbrenner (AT), Tatjana Schinko (AT), Benjamin Bergmann (AT), Max Meindl (AT)
This data physicalization project transforms vast news datasets into glass sculptures by clustering thousands of articles into 3D landscapes. These tangible maps reveal patterns of media coverage and angles.
INTERVIEWS FROM MIAMI: A DICTIONARY
Iliyana Kancheva (BG)
While in Miami I recorded four interviews with Venezuelan artists. I identified keywords which appear in the recordings. Through automated software I extracted every phrase where a keyword is present, tearing it out of its original context.
NOKLA
Pepa Parisheva (BG)
Do we really need the latest technological innovation? How exactly do these technologies make our lives more fulfilling? How do we determine which technological tools are necessary and which are not?
One Person
Venelin Shurelov (BG)
One Person is a living system, a collective body in the process of constant self-actualization. The computer algorithm combines video and dataveillance.
Portable Center of the Universe
Martin Penev (BG)
This work, titled Portable Center of the Universe, is based on the notion that the Big Bang happened everywhere and all at once, not somewhere in space, but creating space.
Purring Grass
Stefan Donchev (BG)
Purring Grass is a work that combines the traits of grass and of a cat. The work consists of a flower pot with grass in it. When we stroke or pet the grass, a purring sound can be heard.
Sweepcase
Antoni Rayzhekov (BG), Martin Murer (AT) – beyond_repair
Sweepcase is an interactive sound installation inviting visitors to place everyday objects into a suitcase. When closed, the system sonifies the objects’ material traits, creating ephemeral soundscapes.
Video Art Selection
National Academy of Art Sofia, Master’s Program in Digital Arts (BG)
Watch a selection of video art projects by students, graduates, and faculty from the Master’s Program in Digital Arts at the National Academy of Art in Sofia.
Credits
Curator: Prof. PhD Venelin Shurelov
Hinweis: Das Programm fürs Ars Electronica Festival 2025 ist noch in Arbeit.
Wir sind gerade dabei, alle Informationen für die Website aufzubereiten und planen, in den kommenden Tagen das Programm vollständig online zu stellen – stay tuned!