site.btaUPDATED Sofia to Host International Computer Arts Forum

The international computer arts forum Computer Space will be held from October 24 to 26 at the National Student House in Sofia, Sofia Municipality announced on Monday.

Computer Space is being held for the 36th time and showcases the science-technology-art synthesis. The international forum for digital arts has a competition and festival part - the award ceremony will take place on October 24 at 1 pm at the National Student House, and the festival programme continues until October 26. Interesting projects in eight categories compete for the first places - creative ideas in the field of computer graphics, computer animation, electronic music, web design, interactive arts, the organizers said.

The festival part includes exhibitions, workshops, seminars and project presentations. One of the highlights this year is creating interactive art installations which combine electronics, software and art. How can an idea be developed into an interactive project using software and hardware? A competition will be made between teams made up of students from the School of Technology "Electronic Systems" and the National Vocational School of Polygraphy and Photography. The teams will include both students with a technical background and designers. Using Arduino kits and measuring equipment, they will create interactive installations based on a specific idea.

The programme includes workshops on 3D graphics and animation, as well as presentations by international award-winning artists in the field of electronic and computer music.

Retro computers and Bulgarian retro games will be on display at the National Student House in Sofia from October 24 to 26. Titled Retro Graphic Editors, Interfaces and Computer Screens, the exhibition is a part of the 36th edition of the International Computer Art Forum Computer Space, organized by Student Computer Art Society.

The exhibition showcases a range of vintage computers and their displays that represent some of the key moments in the history and development of computers and computer graphics, both from a global and regional perspective, the organizers write.

A seminar, held on October 26, will present a more detailed history of the exhibits and their graphics software and displays.

“It is impossible not to pay attention to Pravets 82, which, following the computer architecture of the Apple II, played an important role in the introduction of personal computers in Eastern Europe. Together with it goes IMKO 2, which can be called its earlier version. The exhibition also includes other models from the Pravets series, such as Pravets 8M and Pravets 16, which represent the efforts to create powerful yet affordable computers for educational and business purposes in the 1980s”, the organizers said.

For its part, the Apple II was a cornerstone of the PC revolution in the West, alongside the colorful and innovative iMac G3 and its successor, the iMac G4, which introduced a bold new approach to PC design and usability in the late 1990s. and the beginning of the 2000s. Professional workstations such as Silicon Graphics Indy and Sun SPARC round out the lineup, introducing the high-frequency computing capability that has been critical to the development of fields such as computer graphics and animation, design, and scientific research.

Last but not least, the exhibition is also dedicated to the graphic editors of these computers. Some Bulgarian retro games will also be demonstrated, the team added.