Albert.DATA is the new artistic identity of Albert Barque-Duran (1989). Albert is an artist and a researcher in Creative Technologies and Digital Art, currently based in Barcelona. Albert, the human one, earned a PhD and a Postdoc in Cognitive Science from the Centre for Mathematical Neuroscience at City, University of London (UK) and have been a Visiting Postgraduate Researcher at Harvard University (USA) and University of Oxford (UK). Albert’s artistic research focuses on: (1) human-algorithm interactions during artistic and creative processes; (2) perception and aesthetics under sensory conflicts; and (3) the transformation of our artistic cognitive practices in virtual contexts, where the process of cognition is mediated by digital artifacts. They have exhibited and performed at the most significant and international new media art, electronic, experimental festivals, contemporary art museums and biennales such as Sónar+D (Barcelona, Spain), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), Ming Contemporary Art Museum (Shanghai, China), V_2 Lab for the Unstable Media (Rotterdam, Netherlands), Daejeon Museum of Art (Daejon, South Korea), ISEA International, Museum Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki, Greece), and many more. Recently, they have been short-listed for the ‘FUTURES’ category of the LUMEN Prize Award 2023, and received the ‘Re: Humanism’ & ‘Romaeuropa Digitalive’ Prize 2023. Albert was also awarded with the Artist Residency at Sonar+D x Factory Berlin in 2020 and received an award from "We Are Europe" (Creative Europe Programme of the European Union), which endowed him as one of the 64 young "Culture Activists" in Europe in 2019.

The .NewArt { foundation;} is based in Reus, Catalonia. Its ambition is to help the artistic community develop new technological, scientific, conceptual, and social practices. The foundation disseminates art at the intersection and transgression of science and technology as a strategy for social development and empowerment. It acts not just as a witness, but as an active agent. One of its main challenges consists in the development, conservation, and preservation of an artistic legacy linked to science and technology, within the framework of the .NewArt { collection;}. This project will be brought further by the creation of a new Art Center in the city of Reus.

Sónar+D is the international meeting of art, science, and digital culture hosted by Sónar during the festival, exploring how creativity changes the present and imagines new futures. Since 2013, this anti-disciplinary event has brought together leading artists, technologists, creatives, musicians, designers, thinkers, scientists, and entrepreneurs in Barcelona for a carefully curated programme of talks, masterclasses and groundbreaking performances, with a focus on inspiration and networking.