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Home » News » Alumni In The Running for The Lumen Prize 2020

Alumni In The Running for The Lumen Prize 2020

Published September 17, 2020

FSU Art BFA ’15 Lena Weissbrot (and winner of MTV Fulbright Award and Idea Grant), along with FSU Art BFA ’13 Julia Krueger are excited to announce their browser game creation, Viral, has been selected for the The Lumen Prize for Art and Technology Longlist 2020. The Lumen Prize celebrates the very best art created with technology through a global competition, exhibitions and events worldwide. Lumen Art Projects, a not-for-profit based in the UK, is dedicated to providing opportunities for artists who engage globally with technology through links with cultural venues, festivals and institutions.

Carla Rapoprt, Founder and Executive Director of Lumen Art Projects, considers Viral one of her “favorites in this year’s Longlist.” Rapoport describes Weissbrot as “a multi-disciplinary media artist whose work reflects the millennial dilemma of being deranged and jaded from internet-induced media oversaturation. [Her work] explores the internet culture’s intersection of identity, sexuality, ethics, language, and mental health.”

Weissbrot is a graduate of the Florida State University Class of 2015, where she received a B.F.A. in Digital Media Art. She was one of five college graduates selected to participate in the 2015-16 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship shortly after graduating. Her interdisciplinary body of work integrates illustration, animation, video art, and original rap music to create politically charged feminist pieces that inspire social reform in favor of gender equality. Weissbrot believes, “The desensitization to atrocity is a defense mechanism to cope with a culture where the horrific becomes mundane.” Her work has been featured in several international publications, including Dazed DigitalRhizome.org and The Huffington Post. 

Julia Kreuger, also known as Costcodreamgurl, is Weissbrot’s collaborator. Nightmare Temptation Academy, their most recent feature-length musical game, won the Night Games Award at IndieCade 2019 and the Most Amazing Award at A MAZE. Playful Media Festival 2020. Since 2015, the two have been working on Viral for the Rhizome Internet Art Microgrant. Play the game and see full credits at viralgame.org.