The inaugural ANNWN Prize will bring a major programme of digital art and immersive storytelling to Wales Millennium Centre this summer, placing Cardiff Bay within an international conversation around technology-led cultural production.
Created by Wales Millennium Centre in partnership with Crossover Labs, the prize has been developed to recognise strong artistic work across digital storytelling and immersive experience formats. From a longlist of 25 emerging artists and studios, four finalists have been selected to present their projects in Cardiff.
For cultural venues, commissioners, creative technologists and visitor experience specialists, the prize offers a useful view of how immersive media is being used to address history, identity, surveillance, memory and personal reflection.
Finalists Reflect A Broad Creative And Technical Field
Each finalist has created a 45 to 60-minute exhibition experience, giving the selected works sufficient duration to support structured audience engagement and complex narrative development.
Colored / Noire by Novaya uses augmented reality and bone-conduction audio to revisit 1950s Alabama through the story of civil rights figure Claudette Colvin. The project places historical interpretation within a spatial media format, showing how immersive tools can support education, empathy and archival storytelling.
Karen Palmer’s Consensus Gentium presents a society in the near future shaped by surveillance and artificial intelligence systems. Through facial recognition technology, the work responds to participant emotion and decision-making, creating a variable experience shaped by individual behaviour.
Constantinopoliad by Sister Sylvester combines cinema, literature and live participation. Inspired by the life and writing of poet Constantine Cavafy, it explores lost archives, memory and identity through a format that sits between installation, performance and screen-based work.
NOWISWHENWEARE (the stars) by Andrew Schneider uses darkness, nearly 4,000 reactive LED lights and a 496-channel sound environment to place visitors inside an interactive constellation. The installation uses sensory design to prompt personal reflection and individual interpretation.
Implications For Cultural Venues And Experience Producers
The ANNWN Prize highlights several areas of interest for the visitor experience sector. The finalist works show how immersive practice is moving beyond spectacle and towards formats that combine story, participation, sensory design and ethical questions around technology.
For museums, galleries, arts centres and destination venues, the programme demonstrates the value of commissioning work that can attract specialist audiences while also supporting broader cultural aims. It also shows how venues can use international prizes to build profile, draw sector attention and position themselves as active contributors to digital culture.
The inclusion of AR, responsive systems, large-scale audio, reactive lighting and live participation also creates opportunities for suppliers working across AV integration, spatial sound, interaction design, media production, accessibility planning and technical operations.
Cardiff’s Role In The Digital Culture Sector
The winner of the ANNWN Prize 2026 will be selected by an independent panel of industry experts and cultural figures, with the announcement scheduled for 14 June 2026.
For Wales Millennium Centre, the prize strengthens its role as a host for ambitious digital work. For Cardiff, it brings international artists and studios into the city’s cultural infrastructure and creates a platform for future collaboration between venues, artists, technology partners and funders.
As immersive art continues to gain relevance across visitor attractions, heritage, theatre, exhibitions and public programming, ANNWN provides a timely model for how a cultural institution can support creative risk, technical experimentation and meaningful audience participation.
