International Open Call for Art Students
SMTH launches the 4th International Competition for Digital Arts Students under the theme “Digital Reflection”.
We invite students and artists to explore how the digital environment shapes our identity and self-perception. In an era where the physical and virtual selves intertwine, key questions arise: do these platforms bring us closer to a more authentic version of ourselves, or do they pull us away from it? Through works that address this duality, we aim to reflect on how digital identity redefines our sense of belonging and authenticity in an increasingly interconnected world.
This edition is presented in collaboration with LABA Valencia School of Art, Design & New Media, CC Xperience San Boi, CC Xperience Logroño, CC Maremágnum, CC Meridiano, CC Nueva Condomina, CC Príncipe Pío, CC L'Aljub, CC Vallsur, CC Zielo Shopping Pozuelo, CC La Gavia, and CC Som Multiespai.
The competition will be open from January 1, 2025, to March 30th, 2025. A panel of experts will select the five best works, each awarded €500 and displayed across all screens from April to July 2025.
We want to explore how these relationships redefine our sense of community and connection, questioning whether technology brings us closer to a more authentic understanding of ourselves or distances us from it. In this way, "Digital Reflection" becomes a space where each piece addresses the complexity of existing in a constantly shifting reality, where both self and society are in continuous transformation.
We live in an era where the boundaries between the physical self and the digital self are blurring, raising fundamental questions: Who are we in the virtual space compared to our identity in the physical world? Do we create new personas online, or are they extensions of who we already are? How does the virtual environment affect our personality?
Through this call, we invite students to reflect on the impact of virtual interactions on our self-perception, exploring whether these environments reflect our "true" selves or, instead, promote idealized versions. This is an identity in constant flux, where the tangible and intangible intertwine, allowing us to question and reimagine our essence in a connected world.
IMAGE 2024
Felina H.DB. is a 3D artist and designer connected to the worlds of fashion and virtual environments. Her work focuses on exploring the boundaries between the 3D world and physical reality. Through subtle challenges to the laws of physics, Felina H.DB. projects a vision that portrays unreal concepts combined with reflections on digital space.
THEME
DIGITAL REFLACTION
IMAGE
FELINA H.DB
Felina H.DB.'s practice specializes in studying the intersection between virtual realities and the physical realm. Her work adeptly navigates the duality of brilliance and obscurity within the digital age, unearthing insights into the evolving relationship between the virtual and the tangible.
Her creative journey ventures through diverse interpretations of fashion, art and space design, fusing unreal materials with traditional elements to define a distinctive visual identity. Among her notable achievements are collaborations with the MMMAD Art Festival and music artists such as Lola Índigo. Furthermore, she has led several 3D animation campaigns for Zara.
Currently, she shares her expertise as the programme leader for the Digital Fashion Masters at IED, while also maintaining her personal and commercial practice.
At the core of Felina H.DB.'s work resides a profound commitment to universe creation through digital tools. Through meticulous exploration, her aim is to shed light on how the physical and digital realms intertwine, shaping contemporary perceptions and experiences of Fashion, Art, and Beauty.
ARTISTS
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RULES AND REGULATIONS
INTERNATIONAL OPEN CALL FOR ART STUDENTS
ESTEBAN RIVERA
A Colombian designer, currently based in Valencia, Spain, pursuing a Master's degree in Interactive Design at the Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny de València (EASD). A music lover and admirer of art and cultural events. His work moves between the analog and digital, combining elements of the physical world with digital technologies to generate immersive stimuli. He is interested in new media art, generative art, interactive installations, and immersive experiences. His main tools include Touchdesigner, Ableton Live, and Python.
'Digital Cascade' is a contemplative piece that explores organic movement and subtle transformations over time. The work unfolds a generative waterfall of pixels that slide and reconfigure, evoking the duality between the natural and the virtual. While the code governs the structure of the piece, its behavior suggests the unpredictable and ephemeral, reminding us how, today, even the most primitive and natural elements are permeated by technological society.
IÑAKI CANCILLO
Iñaki Cancillo Mora is a designer and visual artist exploring how design and digital media shape cultural narratives. With a background in architecture, his practice moves across artistic and curatorial projects, project management, and digital content creation. He works with both manual and digital techniques, using tools like photogrammetry, 3D modelling, and sound design to build immersive visual experiences. His work reimagines the boundaries between technology, art, and material culture, reflecting on how digital media transforms creative processes and perceptions.
'Digital Birth' reflects on birth in a world where technology shapes, contains, and mediates bodies. The work situates this act within synthetic environments, where the organic unfolds through layers of artificiality, questioning the boundaries between the natural and the manufactured. Through a partially visible body, distorted by plastic interfaces, it reveals the tension between biological life and the digital frameworks that enclose it. The rigid frame acts as both a boundary and a support, suggesting a larger structure that regulates movement and autonomy. By isolating this moment of emergence, Digital Birth explores how human identity is constructed under the influence of external systems, bringing into play the aesthetics of the artificial and the fragile relationship between control and freedom in the digital age.
LIDA ZACHAROPULOU
Lida Zacharopoulou is an interdisciplinary artist, creative coder, and data scientist from Athens, Greece. She holds a BSc in Computer Science (University of Athens) and an MSc in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media (UPF). She worked as a software engineer at CERN and is currently working in the data science field while completing an MA in Digital Arts at Athens School of Fine Arts. She has participated in international festivals including Sónar+D (Barcelona), FILE Festival (São Paulo) and ROS Film Festival (Alicante) and in group exhibitions in venues like Medialab-Prado (Madrid), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin), VAA (Vilnius), Technopolis (Athens), Kapnergostasio (Athens) and Costa Navarino (Pylos).
'Latent Life' investigates the boundaries between the artificial and the organic, the real and the simulated. It reflects on identity as a constantly shifting concept within digital environments. Through a dialogue with artificial intelligence, texts are transformed into living forms. These entities emerge from the algorithm’s latent space, questioning the authenticity of digital creation. They breathe, dissolve, and reconfigure, revealing the instability of the virtual self. The work asks whether digital processes can generate real life or merely simulate what already exists. It blurs the lines between creation and imitation, authenticity and transformation. Within the context of Digital Reflections, it questions whether these changing forms reveal a deeper truth or move us further away from it.
OFF_DISARTIST
A 3D artist of Franco-Spanish nationality currently living in Madrid, he studied a 4-year degree in animation at U-tad. He specializes in real-time rendering and shaders for visuals and interactive experiences. In recent years, he has developed an interest in live real-time visuals. He has worked on projects for musical artists such as Kinda Patri and JustinBEATS, focusing on creating atmospheres that perfectly complement their projects and concerts. On the other hand, he has participated as a VJ and 3D artist in events like ROOTEDcon (Madrid) and Arcu Atlanticu (Gijón), developing audio-reactive and interactive projects
PERSONALITY_ERROR critiques how personalities are formed from what is seen and felt. However, much of these stimuli come from the digital worlds. In a constant transformation, the personality reflects what it is, hidden behind imaginary masks that spin around it. The world is viewed through a fictitious window, where everything, in the end, becomes data that gets lost in the infinite. A simple error can transform all that wonder we know into hell. With this piece, the aim is to show the duality of social media and the internet: how they are constantly transforming and reflecting those worlds within oneself. It also seeks to highlight how, on many occasions, we hide behind masks in front of others. Digitalization has brought great benefits to growth, but at the same time, it has made us forget what is truly real and tangible, much like when the brain loses its ability to distinguish between reality and the digital.
P.A.R.T.V
A collective of designers from different nationalities, based in Madrid. Focused on digital design and passionate about audiovisual creation and experimentation
Altered Ego is a project that dialogues about the negative consequences of the current digital context. Throughout its dreamlike, and at times nightmarish, imagery, it addresses issues such as body dysmorphia, self-esteem/constant comparisons, and the loss of individual identity. It is structured in the form of a loop with the aim of creating a sense of repetition, reflecting the routine nature of our society's relationship with social media and the habitual consumption of it. The alternative aesthetic, referencing phenomena such as chromatic aberration or fragmentation through collage, seeks to convey precisely the suppression of what defines you, only to never find it again.
EXHIBITION SPACES
13 SPACES // 9 CITIES
