site.btaNational Dormitory in Sofia to Host International Computer Space Digital Arts Festival

The National Dormitory in Sofia will host the Computer Space International Festival for Computer Arts from October 16 to 18, the organizers from the Student Society for Computer Art announced on Monday. This year marks the 37th edition of the forum.

For three days, the foyer of the National Dormitory will turn into a hub of creativity, innovation, and cultural memory, bringing together technology, art, and history, the organizers said.

The festival will open on October 16 with an award ceremony honouring projects from Bulgaria and abroad that competed for the Computer Space statuettes and other prizes. The programme will then feature presentations by international award-winning artists in the categories Computer and Electronic Music and Computer Animation.

On October 17, the programme will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the launch of the iconic Leica cameras. A temporary exhibition will showcase rare vintage Leica cameras alongside newer technological models. Photographers Nikolay Treyman and Vladimir Tomashevich will discuss the brand’s legacy in visual storytelling and its influence across generations of photographers. Rosen Petkov will present the key technological innovations introduced by Leitz and Leica, the organizers added.

The final day, Saturday, October 18, will feature a seminar on gaming clubs and gaming culture in Bulgaria and the Balkans in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Dido Karolev from Project Lazarus will discuss Bulgarian computer gaming magazines from that era. Valentin Milev will examine gaming clubs as a cultural phenomenon and the youth subcultures that emerged around them, while Emil Gruev, lecturer at the National Academy of Arts, will speak about training and education in game development.

Computer Space – a non-commercial international digital arts forum – is part of the Cultural Events Calendar of Sofia Municipality. Admission is free for students and pupils, the organizers note.