The Pixel Prize
The Pixel Prize is funding that puts artists at the center. We see art as a vessel for critical discourse, education, and expression. This prize offers three micro grants for technological artists to create v1 of a concept—acknowledging tech projects have real costs. We will evaluate these three grantees and award the person embodying the themes a €50K grand prize.

We will focus on using blockchain as an artistic medium to drive critical conversation—conversations around blockchain's shortcomings and potential.
Grant Overview
Overview
Focus Areas
Requirements
Selection Criteria
Important Dates
Application Requirements
What (And Who) We Fund
European-based Researchers,
Master's or above
Projects that will drive greater
Web3 adoption
Academic research
Researchers with track record of
success (even if not directly
Web3/blockchain related)
Individual researchers and
research teams
What We Do Not Fund
Anything illegal in the EU
Financial products and services (trading platforms, investment products, stablecoins, lending or betting platforms)
Art projects or social impact projects outside this round's scope
Projects requesting retroactive funding
Projects with planned token launch or public funding round
Our Evaluaters

Artist and Legal Scholar, Harvard University

Primavera De Filippi

Primavera is an artist and legal scholar at Harvard University, exploring the intersection between art, law and technology, focusing specifically on the legal and political implications of blockchain technology. Her artistic practice instantiates the key findings of her research in the physical world, creating blockchain-based lifeforms that evolve and reproduce themselves as people feed them with cryptocurrencies.

LinkedIn

Head of Program and Curator, HEK Basel

Dr. Marlene Wenger

Curator and researcher based in Bern, Switzerland, who studies how digital technologies in the 21st century influence the production, perception or distribution of contemporary art. Her curatorial work deals with topics such as artificial intelligence, online self-representation and body images in social media. In her PhD project, she examined exhibition displays of postdigital artistic practices in physical and virtual spaces. She is currently employed as head of program and curator at HEK (House of Electronic Arts) in Basel.

LinkedIn

Digital Art Curator, Founder of Breezy Art

Eleonora Brizi

Digital art curator, specializing in blockchain art, while also focusing on generative AI. Founder of Breezy Art, co-founder of 100 collectors, curator at MakersPlace. She graduated in contemporary Chinese art and worked for several years in Beijing with artist Ai Weiwei. In 2018, she relocated to New York and shifted her focus to developments in the field of art and technology. As one of the first curating presences in Web3, Eleonora spearheaded many of the earliest Cryptoart projects. Today, she continues to curate and lead web3 and digital art initiatives.

LinkedIn

Director of Growth, Avara

Maria Paula Fernandez

Argentinian/Italian, relocated to Germany (Berlin) in March 2013. Currently working as Director of Growth at Avara. Maria Paula has been the co-founder and COO at Juried Protocol Galleries LTD (JPG.space) based in Berlin. Founder and former Managing Director of ETHBerlin/ Department of Decentralization. Other past experience includes Golem, a Blockchain project aiming to create a decentralised marketplace for computing power.

LinkedIn
Cohort 1 Winners

Software Engineer, Artist

Ioannis I. Bardakos

Iannis Bardakos is an artist, a metaphysicist, and a hunter-gatherer of form and non-localities. His theory-practice unfolds through cybernetics, speculative philosophy, and technoetic processes, where he constructs ontologies and conjures mutable formalisms. He holds a double PhD from the School of Fine Arts of Athens and from Paris 8 University.

Website

Artist and Researcher

Paul Seidler

Paul Seidler is an artist and researcher based in Berlin, whose work traverses networks — from creating protocols to deploying decentralized and peer-to-peer interventions. In 2020, he graduated from the University of the Arts Berlin in the class of Prof. Joachim Sauter. Since 2015, he has been working with blockchain-based technologies to investigate questions of value, ownership and encryption, thereby creating a body of onchain work using self-written smart contracts, zero-knowledge circuits and token-based protocols.

Website

Pseudonymous Artist

Oxfff

Working with smart contracts and distributed systems. Their projects treat blockchain protocols as both material and site for art-making—creating long-running works that run as autonomous programs, accumulate endless todo lists, or map their own movement across networks. Through exhibitions like World Computer Sculpture Garden—a pure show of contracts and a show as contract itself—they explore computation not as a tool but as the thing itself. Part systems art, part poetic experiment, their practice playfully investigates alternative ways of understanding computation, from protocol art to collaborative, dynamic environments.

Website
Evaluation Process
From the close of our final application deadline, we spent three months taking applicants through a five-step evaluation process:
1
Applications were first judged on completeness. Incomplete applications were rejected automatically.
2
Anonymized applications were sent to our Evaluator Panel. Evaluators considered overall impact and feasibility, scoring on a 30-point rubric.
3
The top 5 proposals were de-anonymized and sent to the board for final selection.
4
While the board evaluated proposals, we conducted reference checks on all shortlisted applications.
5
Finally, we selected our grantees.
Applications can be sent to: contact@glitchart.org
with subject line "Pixel Prize Application"
Apply Now
In Collaboration With
FAQs

Can the publications I submit be in German?

Yes, but please submit a detailed abstract in English.

Do I need to be affiliated with a German institution?

The only requirement is that at least one main researcher in the project be based in the European Union.

Do I need to be based in Berlin to apply?

No, but you do need to be based in the European Union. Eventually, we’ll branch out to other locations.

What if I miss the deadline?

You’ll have to wait until the next cohort. BUT! In the short term, you can join our Matrix community to continue the discussion with other like minded researchers.

Got more questions?

Get in touch at grants[at]justopensource.io