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The Liquid Commons | 2026 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition Final Awards Announced in Milan

Local time, 18:30, 1 October 2026, Milan.

As a key digital cultural event of Milano Digital Week, the CDSA 2026 International Media Art Creative Competition & International Digital Public Art Festival officially opened at the MEET Digital Culture Center in Milan.

Centered around the theme “The Liquid Commons”, this edition brings together artists and creators from across the globe. Leveraging urban public LED screens and digital cultural venues, it explores new relationships between media art, digital public art, urban spaces and the public.

International Guests Gather in Milan to Witness the Launch of CDSA 2026
Distinguished guests in attendance include:

Maria Grazia Mattie

Director of MEET Digital Culture Center

 

Layla Pavone

Councillor for Technological Innovation and Digital Transformation, Municipality of Milan

 

Yue Lai Ruan

Founder & Artistic Director of CDSA, Professor at China Academy of Art

The guests exchanged insights on digital technologies, urban public spaces and contemporary cultural innovation, witnessing the official kick-off of CDSA 2026 in Milan.

The opening ceremony also hosted the release of shortlisted works for the CDSA 2026 International Media Art Creative Competition, unveiling a total of 25 winning pieces across seven categories.

Grand Award

MuseumOfTheLastSea
TanYuYanCheerie

Gold Award

Stones Speak, Oceans Breathe 
Dai Yanliang, Gao Fansong, Sun Yuanzheng, Zhou Yufan

Silver Award

Human Made
Guo Sansan
Voyage of the Drifter 
Ying Xiaoliang

Bronze Award

GO! PLASTIC
Jian Wei Hoe
TO DISSOLVE, TO BECOME
Rolin Yuxing Dai
Microscophony
Jiin Ko

Best Ocean Storytelling Award

Coral Symbiont 
HU Icey
No Take Zone
Layla Jordan
When the Sea Ceases to Breathe 
Sang Shijing

Best Public Communication Award

A DOOR FOR WATER
Wang Yiduo
Waltz 
HU Icey
ONTARIO
Janie Fitzgerald

Best Media Architecture Expression Award

Tagged By Humanity
Filip Sari
Ocean Repository
Wang Duanyang
The Tao of Water
Wang Zilin

Best Visual Effect Award

Panta Rhei (Biophil I)
Simon Renfer
NEOCHIMERA
Robert-Seidel
Neopelagic Drift
Nacoca Ko

Best Interdisciplinary Innovation Award

Bird’s-eye View
Liu Tieyuan
Plastisphere
Telle
Mirror Pulse No3
4MA STRATA Alvaro Collar & Juan Carlos Vasquez

Best Youth Potential Award

Depths We Share
Xu Yun, Guo Xiaofeng, Luo Siyi, Zhang Keyu
Sazgvari
Dachi Giorgi Garuchava
The Invisible Ocean
Leah Chakola

Outstanding Instructor Award

Ina Conradi
Michaela Vieser
Kraemer Verena

Outstanding Organization Award

CDSA × MEET × Milano Digital Week

A premier digital cultural platform in Milan, MEET Digital Culture Center has long fostered dialogue among digital culture, art, technology and social innovation. Hosted at MEET and incorporated into Milano Digital Week’s programme, CDSA 2026 offers a vital platform for global creators working in media art and digital public art to engage with urban public spaces, digital cultural institutions and audiences.

 

This collaboration further expands CDSA’s international network and facilitates cultural exchange and collaboration between China and Europe in media art, digital culture and public art.

From Screens to the City

Since its founding in 2022, CDSA has continuously probed the potential of embedding media art and digital public art within urban public domains. By interconnecting large-scale public LED screens across cities and nations, it dismantles the boundaries of conventional exhibition spaces and integrates art into everyday urban life.

 

Spanning Hangzhou, Milan, Singapore, Hamburg and beyond, CDSA is building a transnational exhibition network for urban digital public art. Artworks continuously displayed on civic screens transform the city itself into an open exhibition venue, enabling the public to encounter contemporary media and digital public art amid daily routines.

 

In 2026, guided by the theme The Liquid Commons, CDSA turns its focus to the transformation of public space in the digital age: as urban environments are increasingly shaped by digital media, network connectivity and real-time data, how may art contribute to the construction of new public cultural spheres? How can the ocean transition from a remote, invisible natural entity into a shared public reality for urban residents to perceive, interpret and collectively debate? How might the bonds between humans and cities, humans and oceans be re-established?

Departing from Milan, Connecting Global Cities

This Milan opening constitutes another milestone in CDSA’s international development trajectory.

 

Moving forward, leveraging its global network of urban public screens, CDSA will continue to partner with international art institutions, universities, digital cultural centres and municipal cultural platforms. It promotes cross-disciplinary dialogue bridging media art, digital public art, technology, urbanism and public culture, while exploring emergent forms of digital public art within urban public space.

 

Starting with a single urban screen, art enters the city. Starting from one city, the ocean reclaims public consciousness. Starting from cities worldwide, humanity and nature, technology and civilisation converge within new public spaces.

 

 

 

 

Event Partners

 

Organiser

Department of Public Space Art, School of Sculpture and Public Art, China Academy of Art

 

Co-organisers

Organising Committee of CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition

MEET Digital Culture Center (Italy)

 

Scientific Support

Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

Supporters

Milano Digital Week 

PublicartLab (Germany)

Bauhaus-Universität Weimar

School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

Committee of the Communist Youth League, China Academy of Art

IED Istituto Europeo di Design

Cloud Valley Center, Alibaba

SPINOR

LIMPIDART

media art nexus

OceanX Research Programme

Zhejiang Light & Shadow Space Culture and Creativity Co., Ltd.

 

Media Partners

ArtSight

MANA New Media Art Platform

 

 

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