Digital Gaze is a project initiated by the artist Natalia Yordanova. Through the idea of its realization and structure she explores the idea of “digital” as a medium, an approach to understanding the world and its perception in the contemporary world.

Digital Gaze functions as an extended public sculpture. A large format ice screen is installed in a public space in Sofia. The digital is both the medium and the means of creating art. The materiality of the screen as the medium of the work brings its sculptural character. Its positioning in a public space aims at inclusion, immediate access and outreach of the works to the general public.

The first digital project was realized by the artist. Since its realisation, the public digital “canvas” has been transformed into the Digital Gaze Institute and is a vehicle for exploring themes in the digital through an educational structure, theoretical and practical programme and the presentation of digital work by emerging and established artists through open invitation. Defined in this way, the Institute explores the following themes fundamental to digital art: Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence, Telepresence and Teleprobotics, Body and Identity, Database and Big Data Aesthetics, Beyond the Book: Digital Narratives, Gaming, Tactical Media, Activism and Hacktivism, Ecological Art and the Anthropocene, Future Technologies: Art and Science, web3 and NFTs. Each theme is explored over the course of two months. During this period, a guest artist whose practice engages with the theme gives a workshop with a group of artists who have previously expressed an interest (been selected, applied or invited). One of the projects created is presented on an ice screen and exists in a public space for an appropriate period of time. The other projects are accessible through an online platform created for the project and which documents its activities.

The project thus described creates a lasting framework for understanding digital art in Bulgaria and its many variations by engaging local artists and establishing links with an international network. The Digital Gaze Institute provokes interest in both the interested and the casual public who witness it. Last but not least, the project creates a community of artists in Bulgaria who exchange ideas and create a new contextual knowledge and sensibility that engages with the digital through contemporary art practices.