Amor Muñoz and Daniel Rozin Named Finalists for 2026 Lumen Prize

Amor Muñoz and Daniel Rozin have been named finalists for the 2026 Lumen Prize, an international award dedicated to art made with technology. Muñoz is shortlisted for the Legacy Futures Award, while Rozin is a finalist in the Experiential Innovation Award. The announcement was shared by bitforms gallery on August 26, 2026.

The finalists are identified in connection with Muñoz’s ‘Macrame Finger: Memory Capsules’ (2025) and Rozin’s ‘Mechanical Mirrors (Performative Version)’, the title the prize uses for the work. Muñoz’s installation draws on the Andean khipu, treating the knot as an early coding and data-storage system and asking what becomes of craft under digital automation. Rozin’s entry extends his series of interactive mechanical mirrors into live performance, with the wooden elements functioning as both a visual and a musical instrument; the prize entry credits composer Tamar Muskal, soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon and the American Composers Orchestra as collaborators on a Carnegie Hall performance.

The Lumen Prize says its 2026 edition marks fifteen years and presents 89 finalists chosen from more than 2,200 submissions across 82 countries, in three categories: Legacy Futures, Systems & Structures and Experiential Innovation. Each category award carries $5,000, and the Gold Award, selected across all categories, is $15,000 in 2026. The organisation, now the Lumen Prize Foundation, states it has awarded $155,000 to date; the gallery’s newsletter cites a lower figure of more than $80,000. According to the prize’s published 2026 schedule, finalists are announced in August and the winners in November.

Founded in 2012 by Carla Rapoport, the prize is one of the longer-running awards devoted to art made with technology. Its 2019 Gold Award went to Refik Anadol for ‘Melting Memories’.

Muñoz, who was born in Mexico in 1979 and lives and works in Mexico City, works across textiles, performance, sound, experimental electronics, interactivity and art mediation. Her practice examines the relationship between technology and society, including the ways manual labor is transformed by the global economy. Her research also addresses technology’s history, appropriation and obsolescence, alongside language, handicraft and systems of production.

Her work has been exhibited at institutions and events including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile in Hong Kong, the National Art Center in Tokyo, and the Havana Biennial. The gallery’s artist materials also cite awards and honors connected to competitions and biennials including Prix Ars Electronica, the Japan Media Arts Festival and the Cuenca Biennial.

Rozin, born in Jerusalem in 1961, lives and works in New York City. For nearly three decades, his practice has investigated the structure and materiality of images, using materials ranging from trash to hand fans to explore how discrete components can be assembled into a recognizable whole. His interactive installations and kinetic “mirrors” often respond to a viewer’s presence through cameras, physical computing and custom software, turning reflection into an inquiry into representation and perception.

Rozin’s work has been shown at the Reina Sofia National Museum in Madrid, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Barbican Centre in London and the NTT InterCommunication Center in Tokyo. His awards include the Prix Ars Electronica, the Chrysler Design Award and the Rothschild Prize. He is also an Associate Arts Professor in New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. The 2026 Lumen Prize announcement places Muñoz and Rozin in separate categories rather than naming either as the recipient of the final award.