Share Prize 18th Popular Singularity
Now in its 20th edition, Share Festival – the Italian contemporary art festival exploring technological evolution and science – has reopened the call for entries for the Share Prize.
The Share Prize is Italy’s longest-running award dedicated to the most innovative artistic proposals within the international contemporary tech art scene.
This year, we delve into the contemporary scientific debate: Share Prize XVIII Popular Singularity is dedicated to imagining how research and technology can return to the human experience.
The Share Prize is Italy’s longest-running award dedicated to the most innovative artistic proposals within the international contemporary tech art scene.
This year, we delve into the contemporary scientific debate: Share Prize XVIII Popular Singularity is dedicated to imagining how research and technology can return to the human experience.
The Jury
Full bio of our Jury members here.
La Tematica
Every year, the artistic directors of Share Festival select a new theme for the Share Prize.
In 2026, entries for the prize will be required to explore singularity – the concept of singularity – a scientific field that is losing its philosophical character and becoming increasingly concrete and real:
In 2026, entries for the prize will be required to explore singularity – the concept of singularity – a scientific field that is losing its philosophical character and becoming increasingly concrete and real:
Popular Singularity
By definition, a "Singularity" happens when science is advancing so fast that even scientists can't understand it.
However, *artists* can intuit it!
The "Singularity" concept was invented by Stanislaw Ulam and John Von Neumann, two elite veterans of the atomic Manhattan Project. A Singularity is always associated with scientists, programmers, rich moguls, and billionaire investors, even though none of them ever seem to know what it means and how feels. Instead, a *lived* singularity is left to the daily experience of all the rest of us.
Obviously Artificial Intelligence is a complex and entangled technical subject. The software is dense and stochastic, the server-farms are costly and gigantic, we know all that. But if you're a young modern child, you're simply born in that fire. You're not amazed about it, you were given no choice. If you're ninety, it's even more of your same old world, where you arrived long before any of these so-called amazing marvels.
So, this year, we ask our artists for clear, lucid, sincere art about the Singularity. A popular, heartfelt folk art about it, immediate and accessible, without any tech-jargon, or any ugly, lazy AI-slop. Our city's ivory tower is a National Cinema Museum, so we know "new media" and we also know "dead media."
Art will last when hype dies!
What is the Turinese "Arte Povera" version of a "singularity"? An elegant, aestheticized singularity. A singularity of egalitarian liberation; a singularity for the millions, for the billions!
However, *artists* can intuit it!
The "Singularity" concept was invented by Stanislaw Ulam and John Von Neumann, two elite veterans of the atomic Manhattan Project. A Singularity is always associated with scientists, programmers, rich moguls, and billionaire investors, even though none of them ever seem to know what it means and how feels. Instead, a *lived* singularity is left to the daily experience of all the rest of us.
Obviously Artificial Intelligence is a complex and entangled technical subject. The software is dense and stochastic, the server-farms are costly and gigantic, we know all that. But if you're a young modern child, you're simply born in that fire. You're not amazed about it, you were given no choice. If you're ninety, it's even more of your same old world, where you arrived long before any of these so-called amazing marvels.
So, this year, we ask our artists for clear, lucid, sincere art about the Singularity. A popular, heartfelt folk art about it, immediate and accessible, without any tech-jargon, or any ugly, lazy AI-slop. Our city's ivory tower is a National Cinema Museum, so we know "new media" and we also know "dead media."
Art will last when hype dies!
What is the Turinese "Arte Povera" version of a "singularity"? An elegant, aestheticized singularity. A singularity of egalitarian liberation; a singularity for the millions, for the billions!
Bruce Sterling, Direttore Artistico di Share Festival
Jasmina Tešanović, Curatrice di Share Prize
Jasmina Tešanović, Curatrice di Share Prize
Terms and Conditions
The competition is open to artists who explore the contemporary nature of our technological society through creative expression, in all forms and formats, including in combination with analogue technologies and/or any other materials.
New media art, video art and generative art, augmented reality and algorithmic art. Digital art, kinetic art, net art and all other disciplines. Works from all areas of technological art are welcome.
The competition is open to Italian and international artists.
Each artist or collective may submit a maximum of 3 works, whether previously exhibited or not. The Sharing Association will arrange for the transport and installation of the selected works. The production of the works is the responsibility of the artist or collective.
To enter the competition, works must be registered using the entry form. Entry forms and descriptions of the works will be accepted in both Italian and English, with preference given to English.
New media art, video art and generative art, augmented reality and algorithmic art. Digital art, kinetic art, net art and all other disciplines. Works from all areas of technological art are welcome.
The competition is open to Italian and international artists.
Each artist or collective may submit a maximum of 3 works, whether previously exhibited or not. The Sharing Association will arrange for the transport and installation of the selected works. The production of the works is the responsibility of the artist or collective.
To enter the competition, works must be registered using the entry form. Entry forms and descriptions of the works will be accepted in both Italian and English, with preference given to English.
The Share Prize jury will award a prize of €2,500 to the work (published or unpublished) that best represents the theme of ‘Popular Singularity’ across the various possible forms of technological art.
The six shortlisted entries will be announced in July 2026.
The shortlist of six finalists will be guests at Share Festival XX.
The jury will announce the winning artist during the opening of Share Festival XX, which will take place as part of Turin Contemporary Art Week.
The following are not eligible to enter the competition:
The six shortlisted entries will be announced in July 2026.
The shortlist of six finalists will be guests at Share Festival XX.
The jury will announce the winning artist during the opening of Share Festival XX, which will take place as part of Turin Contemporary Art Week.
The following are not eligible to enter the competition:
- Members of the jury and members of the organising committee
- Employees and associates of jury members and the organising body
- Projects or works that have not yet been realised will not be accepted.
Deadline
The registration form must be received no later than the 22nd of May 2026 at 11.59 pm (CEST)
Applications submitted after this deadline will not be accepted under any circumstances.
Documents
Download the official text of the call for art. ︎︎︎
Complete the form to submit your artwork.
Q&A
Popular singularity: what is it?
Aware of the complexity of the theme chosen for the 18th edition of Share Prize, we decided to explore it in greater depth. What does the artistic direction of the Share Festival expect from the artists applying for the prize? We picked their mind, interviewing Jasmina Tešanović and Bruce Sterling to gain some detailed insights into the meaning of popular singularity.
Q&A pt. 1
What do you guys mean by popular singularity?
The Popular concept means that the art inspired by the idea of singularity should be a type of art that’s enjoyed by the people. Maybe that should benefit the people. It doesn’t mean that everybody has to build their own with their own two little hands. But, for example, we want art from our artists that imagines AI benefiting the people.
What do you guys mean by popular singularity?
The Popular concept means that the art inspired by the idea of singularity should be a type of art that’s enjoyed by the people. Maybe that should benefit the people. It doesn’t mean that everybody has to build their own with their own two little hands. But, for example, we want art from our artists that imagines AI benefiting the people.
Q&A pt. 2
What makes “singularity” popular? Is popular meant more in the sense of a cultural perspective, shifting the focus from the tech elite to the public?
It's about raw numbers: the "1%" and the "99%". Share Prize 18th edition is seeking tech and media art that speaks to the ninety-nine percent of the global population. We want art that, taking into account the diversity within this community, reflects its relationship with today’s technology.
Q&A pt. 3
In the theme there’s a reference to an "Arte Povera version of a singularity"? What do peoples, scientific singularity, Arte Povera and technology have to do with each other? The artworks that represent an interaction between these elements, what are they made of?
The reference to "Arte Povera" implies that materials to do the art don't have to cost a billion dollars. Yes, tech art and media art do require some perhaps expensive technical components. But for the six artworks selected to represent a “popular singularity”, then the materials and technologies involved should ideally be accessible and bottom-up, rather than costly and available strictly among specialized elites.
In today’s world, anyway, most people have access to fairly advanced technologies...
In the theme there’s a reference to an "Arte Povera version of a singularity"? What do peoples, scientific singularity, Arte Povera and technology have to do with each other? The artworks that represent an interaction between these elements, what are they made of?
The reference to "Arte Povera" implies that materials to do the art don't have to cost a billion dollars. Yes, tech art and media art do require some perhaps expensive technical components. But for the six artworks selected to represent a “popular singularity”, then the materials and technologies involved should ideally be accessible and bottom-up, rather than costly and available strictly among specialized elites.
In today’s world, anyway, most people have access to fairly advanced technologies...