Press Release
Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu Receives the Silver A' Design Award for Carbon Silicon Singularity Stage Design in Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
The international grand jury of the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu for performing arts, stage, style and scenery design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 24, 2026 /DesignNewswire/ Carbon Silicon Singularity Stage Design by Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu, designed for Centre for Digital Arts, Department of Arts and Design, University of Macau, has been granted the Silver A' Design Award in the Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The award was conferred within the 2025 - 2026 A' Design Award & Competition and was reached through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who scored anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Silver A' Design Award
The Silver A' Design Award celebrates top-tier designs that embody excellence and innovation. This award acknowledges creations that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also highly functional, reflecting the designer's deep understanding and skill. Silver A' Design Award recipients are recognized for their contribution to raising industry standards and advancing the practice of design. Their work often incorporates original innovations and elicits a strong emotional response, making a notable impact on the improvement of everyday life.
Regarding Carbon Silicon Singularity Stage Design
The work explores the moment when organic life encounters emerging silicon based forms of existence, including AI and algorithmic systems. Using the Singularity as a conceptual metaphor, it examines how this convergence reshapes ideas of life, identity, and ontology. Rather than presenting silicon as a replacement for the organic, the work emphasizes hybridization, coexistence, and mutual influence. At its core, it stages an evolving dialogue between carbon and silicon, imagining a speculative future shaped by new possibilities of embodiment.
About Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu
Lampo Leong, PhD from the Central Academy of Fine Arts and MFA from California College of the Arts, is a Distinguished Professor, Doctoral Advisor, and Director of the Centre for Digital Arts in the Dept of Arts and Design at the University of Macau, a Tenured Professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia in the USA and a Visiting Professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Leong has served as judge or curator for over 80 art and design competitions and exhibitions and delivered over 300 lectures at esteemed institutions such as Stanford University, UC Berkeley and China Academy of Art.
Award Record
With this recognition, Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu is a winner of 10 A' Design Awards. The awards span the editions from 2018 - 2019 to 2025 - 2026 of the A' Design Award & Competition.
About the A' Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design Award
The A' Performing Arts Design Award is an international competition recognizing excellence in set, stage, and performing arts design by top designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to performing arts designers, set designers, theater architects and costume designers from all countries. Entries typically include choreography, dance moves, theatrical sets, dance costumes, stage lighting and opera props. Awarded performing arts designs are published at https://desingers.org/design-category/performing-arts
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://desingers.org/180788
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/180788
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!180788
- Laureate Profile: https://desingers.org/d/244273
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Carbon Silicon Singularity Stage Design
- Function
- Stage Design
- Category
- Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts and Entertainment
- Colors
- Black, Maroon, Midnight Blue and Deep Pink
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Centre for Digital Arts, Department of Arts and Design, University of Macau
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao and Haozheng Wu
- Country
- Macau (China)
- Recognition
- Silver A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2025 - 2026
- Design ID
- #180788
Credits
- Team
- Lampo Leong, Yanxiu Zhao, Haozheng Wu, Dan Wang, Shiyun Wan and Li Lin
- Image Credits
- Lampo Leong, 2025
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The work explores coexistence, convergence, and hybridization of distinct life forms. When humans project perception and emotion onto algorithmic systems, these entities operate as reflection that refract and complicate our understanding of human essence. The motif of a "dialogue between carbon and silicon" constitutes a conceptual axis: two forces simultaneously resisting, permeating, and co-constituting one another. Their intersection illuminates a speculative and fantastic future.
- Inspiration
- This series adopts the Singularity as a conceptual metaphor to examine the transitional moment in which humanity stands between carbon based life and emerging silicon based modes of existence. This shift signals a fundamental redefinition of life, self awareness, and embodiment. As carbon and silicon converge within shared temporal and spatial conditions, the boundaries of life become increasingly porous, allowing new ontological configurations to emerge.
- Research
- This work explores the transitional moment in which humanity confronts the emergence of silicon based forms of existence such as artificial intelligence and computational systems alongside traditional carbon based life. Using the Singularity as a conceptual metaphor, the work examines how this shift re-configures established understandings of life, identity, and ontology. Rather than depicting silicon as a replacement for organic existence, the work emphasizes hybridization, coexistence, and mutual influence. As humans project perception and emotion onto machinic entities, these systems reflect and complicate our understanding of human essence.
- Challenge
- Transforming classical and contemporary ink painting and calligraphy into postmodern, digitally generated video art presents significant creative and technical challenges. Additionally, the video work also functions simultaneously as an immersive installation and as stage design for modern dance performance, further expanding the complexity and innovation of the project.
- Realization and Technology
- This work begins with hand painted ink artworks and calligraphy on rice-paper. These physical pieces are then digitized using a high-resolution scanner. Using multiple tools and software, the images are transformed into dynamic, generative video compositions. Ultimately, the resulting immersive fine art installation becomes the stage environment for a modern dance performance.
- Operation and Interaction
- An immersive, digitally generated video art installation that serves as the stage environment for a modern dance performance. As the dancer moves through the space, she interacts with evolving calligraphic strokes, generating imagery that signifies an ongoing dialogue between carbon based life and emerging silicon based forms of existence.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in September 2025 in Guangdong and finished in December 2025 in Beijing, and it was exhibited in The 10th Beijing International Art Biennale in 2025.
- Specifications
- This immersive installation measures 3.2m x 3.2m x 3.7m and features a digital ink generative video displayed on an LED panel. Acrylic mirrors line the walls, ceiling, and floor, creating a reflective environment that also functions as a stage for modern dance performance.
- Keywords
- Immersive Stage Design, Dance Performance, Immersive Installation, Interaction between Calligraphy and Body Movement
