DA Fest - International Digital Art Festival Sofia

October 21 to 25, 2025 L44.Space, 56 Dondukov blvd, Sofia, Bulgaria

Master's program Interface Cultures, University of Arts Linz presents students' exhibition

DreamAtlas
Ahmed Jamal (EG), Emma Silvana Tripaldi (IT), Till Schönwetter (DE)
DreamAtlas is a growing map of shared dreams, inviting visitors to contribute personal dream fragments to a collective dream-diary. Through algorithmic analysis, individual dreams connect into a visual constellation that reveals shared symbols, themes, and emotions. A repurposed telescope guides participants through this inner universe, transforming the act of stargazing into a ritual of inward exploration. DreamAtlas exists both as a web-based platform and as an installation, cultivating an evolving archive of collective memory and opening space for intimacy, reflection, and research.
dreamatlas.cloud

Emma Silvana Tripaldi
Technosymbiosis: Feedback feed
This installation stages the symbiotic dynamic between users and algorithm-driven social media. Platforms adapt content to user behavior, while endless streams of stimuli trigger dopamine release, reinforcing compulsive scrolling. Here a plant becomes the agent: its bioelectrical signals activate a mechanical device that performs screen gestures on TikTok. The algorithm adjusts and curates the content as it would with a human user, creating an unusual loop of feedback and adaptation. By transposing this addictive cycle onto a non-human organism, the work reframes the relationship between nature, technology, and algorithms, questioning their influence on behavior, mental health, and the reinforcement of biases embedded in everyday digital infrastructures.

Martina Pizzigoni (Italy)
(Very) Neural System
Interactive Installation, 2024 - 2025
AI Models, Unreal Engine, Metahuman plugin, Audio2Face, Python scripts
(Very) Neural System is an ongoing investigation into the intricate dynamics of identity construction in the digital age. Harnessing the transformative power of artificial intelligence, a digital embodiment of the artist's persona emerges: an amalgamation of seemingly authentic features, responses, voice and cognitive patterns, meticulously synthesized from data from major corporate entities. This digital simulacrum delves into the domain of hyper-realistic emulation with an eerie tinge of dystopian atmosphere. The resulting manifestation, an interactive doppelgänger existing in real time, invites viewers to cross the twilight zone between physical reality and virtual existence.

Exhibition times:
October 21 to 25, 2025, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

da-fest.bg/25-10/exhibition-students-linz