On May 23, 2026, the launch ceremony of the 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026 was held at Tuzi Mountain Music Park in Hangzhou. Under the annual theme “Liquid Community” and the subtitle “A Global Public Canvas for the Oceanic Future,” this year’s competition invites young creators from around the world to respond to the themes of ocean, science, city, and the future through the language of digital art, interdisciplinary methods, and imagination for public space.
At the event site, where tea hills and light art converged, guests and audiences from the fields of art, design, technology, public space, international education, industry organizations, and creative practice gathered to witness the official launch of this year’s CDSA.
CDSA, short for City Digital Skin Art, is an art competition initiated by the Department of Public Space Art, School of Sculpture and Public Art, China Academy of Art. Since its founding, the competition has been dedicated to integrating digital technology with urban space through the concept of city digital skin art, inspiring the public’s imagination about technology, space, and urban life.
The CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition was established to discover and support outstanding emerging artists, creative students, and young practitioners. It aims to promote professional and academic development in the arts while building a platform for creative exchange across disciplines, industries, and spaces.
The competition is committed to creating a public platform for the presentation of media art in urban spaces, encouraging outstanding, innovative, and contemporary multimedia art practices to actively engage with public space and social life. Its vision is to connect art with commerce and creativity with practice.
The launch ceremony brought together guests and creators from cultural tourism, art education, public art, media art, international design, academic institutions, industry associations, corporate platforms, and artistic creation to witness the opening of the 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026.
Wang Xueqiang, chief initiator and chief curator of the Tuzi Mountain International Light Art Festival, delivered a speech. He introduced the original vision and creative achievements of the festival, and expressed his hope that this event would serve as an opportunity to develop Tuzi Mountain into an important site for digital art presentation, art-science integration, and art toy culture.
Ruan Yuelai, founder of the CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition and Associate Professor at the Department of Public Space Art, China Academy of Art, officially launched the 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026 and announced this year’s annual theme:
“Liquid Community: Bringing Ocean Science into Global Media Architecture.”
International guest representative Eliane Weizmann Hudler shared her insights from the perspectives of international design education and cross-cultural exchange. Her speech introduced a broader international perspective to the event and echoed CDSA’s ongoing focus on global media art exchange and young creative practice.
Focusing on this year’s theme, Professor Ruan Yuelai introduced the continuing vision of CDSA, the direction of the 2026 competition, and potential future exhibition formats.
He noted that this year’s competition will continue to use urban public space as an important medium, encouraging creators to respond to topics such as ocean science, deep-sea ecology, data perception, environmental change, non-human perspectives, machine observation, and future civilizations through interdisciplinary approaches.
The competition aims to make art go beyond the screen, transforming it into an important means of connecting science, cities, and the public.
The key visual of this year’s competition is developed around three core ideas: the ocean, the shared future of humanity, and urban public space.
Using flowing light and shadow, data oceans, and architectural forms as its main visual elements, the key visual responds to the competition’s thematic focus on ocean science, media architecture, and public communication.
The 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026 is now open to young creators worldwide. University students, young artists, designers, moving-image creators, creative technology practitioners, and interdisciplinary teams are all welcome to participate.
This year’s competition encourages creators to develop works around topics such as ocean science, ecological futures, urban public space, and global media architecture. Participants are invited to explore digital moving images, data storytelling, media architecture, public art proposals, and interdisciplinary experiments, bringing the ocean into the city and transforming science into an artistic expression that can be perceived by the public.
More information about registration, submission requirements, and the competition schedule will be released through official channels.
As a warm-up event for the 5th CDSA Competition 2026, the launch ceremony also announced the winners of related competitions and presented selected award-winning works from the 2026 Hangzhou Tuzi Mountain International Light Art Festival.
The winning works were presented in public space after nightfall, creating interactions among moving images, the site, the urban environment, and the audience. These works not only demonstrated the creators’ diverse understanding of light art, digital media, and public space, but also further revealed the rich possibilities of media art intervening in urban settings.
The launch of the 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026 marks not only the official opening of a new round of submissions, but also CDSA’s continued expansion in the fields of urban digital public art, global media architecture, and interdisciplinary creation.
Starting from “Liquid Community,” the 5th CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition 2026 looks forward to welcoming young creators from around the world. Through the language of digital art, interdisciplinary methods, and imagination for public space, participants are invited to respond together to the defining questions of our time: ocean, science, city, and the future.
School of Sculpture and Public Art, China Academy of Art
Department of Public Space Art
Organizing Committee of the CDSA International Media Art Creative Competition
Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhejiang Light and Space Cultural Creativity Co., Ltd.
Communist Youth League Committee of China Academy of Art
SPINOR Digital Media Lab
LIMPIDART
Hangzhou Aurora Digital Art Co., Ltd.
Public Art Lab, Germany
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany
School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Media Art Nexus
IED Istituto Europeo di Design
OceanX Research Project Team
Digitaling Art Network / Shuyi Network
