There are only 15 days left to enter this year’s edition of the Digital Innovation Art Award. Make sure to submit your project or business today!  

This year, both Zavelev and Vidokle are thrilled to see the projects and businesses that will apply for the award. Each year, the innovation keeps mind-blowing, pushing the boundaries, and opening up new incredible possibilities in the world of visual art. This year the award is especially competitive, given the amount of digital innovation so many businesses were forced into in light of the pandemic. Given the digital nature of both of the jury’s businesses, they understand the challenges candidates undergo in this process and look forward to reviewing the selection. Anton mentions that’s that “It’s an honour to serve on the jury for the Digital Innovation in Art Award. I view my participation as an opportunity to encourage a breed of technological innovation that is grounded in an ethos of ecological sustainability and cross-generational accessibility.” 

So, what is the backstory of our jury? And how did they get to where they are today? 

Elena Zavelev creates the art world’s future by envisioning it. When she saw the opportunity to create New Art Academy, a production of educational conferences, workshops and events focused on Art and Technology for the global art market, she seized the momentum. It was the same feeling, ‘The market Is more and more ready for digital art’ that pushed her to found CADAF (Crypto and Digital Art Fair) and then Digital Art Month, two projects that have brought together communities of artists practising across a range of mediums that use technology.  

In her eyes, there was an opportunity and the reality that while art fairs were deeply popular and numerous, none were presenting much digital art. With CADAF, “we are trying to do to bring an opportunity for digital artists to show their work and sell their work”, comments Zavelev ahead of the fair’s third edition this June online. At the same time, the AR digital arm of the New Art Academy – ” Digital Art Month”, is presenting its third edition at the same time, now in Paris. The two other editions in NYC and Miami have proven the interest in the concept while attracting the general public’s attention and the press.  

In a similar fashion, Vidokle is no stranger to neither art nor pushing the boundaries and being at the forefront of new trends in the art world. While his work as an artist has been presented internationally, from Document 13th to the 56th Venice Biennale to Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Istanbul Biennale, Garage Museum, the Stedelijk Museum and many others, he also deeply contributed to knowledge exchange. 2008 was a pivotal year in Vidokle’s career. He created the e-flux journal, the world’s leading monthly online publication on art and critical theory. This journal has an influential international and diverse readership and has become instrumental to many universities’ programmes at the forefront of what is going on in the art world. 
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The same year, Vidokle also created a Time/Bank for the artistic community – which was a platform where creatives in the arts can help each other outside of the traditional mercantile manner. Without the use of currencies, they are exchanging time and skills.  

Another Vidokle initiative has been featured as Pavillion number 8 at Ars Electronica .ART Gallery – is the ongoing collective research project The Institute of Cosmos, residing on cosmos.art and made together with Marina Simakova and Arseny Zhilyaev. This ambitious project is a space for creative investigation of the materiality of the cosmos. It uses the perspective of philosophy, anthropology, history of science as well as art. At its core it is using a technological platform created to investigate and disseminate knowledge, making it one of the most relevant participants for Ars Electronica and .art Domains gallery in 2020.   

One of the critical commonalities between both Zavelev and Vidokle is how their minds are focused on innovation and the possibilities in the digital space across the multiplicity of projects they introduce. What if your business was the next CADAF or e-flux? Make sure to apply for what has been described as the Oscars of the tech world.   

Click here to nominate for the Digital Innovation in Art Award 2021.