The SHAPESHIFT Festival explores “The Human Algorithm.”

From 24–26 April 2026, the international festival SHAPESHIFT returns to Toplocentrala Cultural Centre in Sofia for its fourth edition, bringing together designers, artists, researchers, and technologists to explore how emerging technologies are reshaping creative practice and contemporary culture.

Positioned at the intersection of technology, science, and art, SHAPESHIFT has quickly established itself as a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue in Southeast Europe. Through talks, exhibitions, film screenings, and workshops, the festival examines how new tools, systems, and materials are transforming the way we design, build, and imagine the future.

In a time when technological change unfolds simultaneously across industries and disciplines, SHAPESHIFT offers a concentrated perspective. Across three days, voices from architecture, digital culture, science, and design come together to help audiences understand how the world is transforming — and how we can adapt alongside it.

The theme of the 2026 edition, “The Human Algorithm”, focuses on the relationship between human intuition, ethics, and creativity and the algorithmic systems that increasingly shape our decisions, environments, and cultural production.

The programme is co-curated by Maciej Zasada and Karol Góreczny, founders of the creative-tech studio UXMachina, whose work explores the intersection of design, engineering, and speculative storytelling.

This year’s speakers include Stephan Bischof, Founder and Creative Director at London-based studio Brave Duck and Robots, known for building speculative design worlds through narrative and technology, and Alexandre Mballa-Ekobena, leading Advanced 3D Design at adidas Originals, where digital design tools are transforming product development and manufacturing.

The festival also welcomes Merel van Helsdingen, founder of Amsterdam’s Nxt Museum, Europe’s first museum dedicated to immersive new media art; YiNong Dong, Product and Innovation Lead previously at Twitch and now at Amazon, working on platforms shaping contemporary digital culture; and Karen Antorveza, a biodesigner and researcher at ETH Zürich, whose work explores living materials and new approaches to architecture.

Artist Marta Djourina will join curator and cultural strategist Veselina Sarieva for a conversation on perception, light, and the role of art within the technological landscape.

Beyond the talks programme, SHAPESHIFT also offers a series of hands-on workshops led by invited speakers and practitioners. Previous editions have included sessions exploring radical imagination, future thinking, and collaborative design practices, offering participants the opportunity to engage directly with the ideas presented during the festival. New workshops for the 2026 edition will be announced soon.

SHAPESHIFT is organised and curated by NEXT-DC, an independent creative agency that, since 2010, has helped businesses and brands navigate cultural and technological change.

For more information and tickets please click here.