Creating art under the alias NightEnLight, I seek to encapsulate moments that are transient yet timeless, each resonating profoundly with the essence of humanity. Through my artwork, I invite viewers to partake in the wonder and mystery that ignite my creative spirit.
My craft is a fusion of abstraction and realism, empowered by the poetic potential of technology. Every piece I create is a mesmerizing dance of intricate details, stirring abstractions, and vibrant colors.
My creative journey delves into new aesthetic frontiers, blending art and technology in a digital domain where imagination takes the throne. In this limitless digital space, my creativity unfurls, weaving the fabric of visual phenomena that transcend the ordinary.
My Story
I lost much of my hearing following a severe ear infection in childhood. At that time, with limited medical options available, many people simply wrote me off. I am eternally grateful to my parents, who never gave up on me and refused to let me settle for anything less than I deserved.
My father believed that musical training could help stave off further hearing loss. At the age of 9, he bought me an accordion and enrolled me in a music class to study solfège and music theory. I loved playing the accordion; it was the perfect instrument for me because accordions are naturally loud.
Studying solfège and music notation became a true gift, opening the door to the fascinating world of symbolic representation. Just as musical notes are abstract symbols for sounds, digital pixels represent real-world elements like forms, colors, and textures. This fascination led me to a career in software development, where I discovered a shared foundation with music and digital art in their fundamental principles.
After earning my Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering, I dove into the dynamic world of software, driven by its potential for innovation. My coding career has spanned various projects, covering the full software lifecycle and encompassing multiple programming languages, commercial application development, and multimedia areas like digital art and music.
Due to my hearing challenges, I have always encountered additional obstacles. Things have never come easily to me. However, I've found ways to overcome difficulties through hard work. Most importantly, I've learned to think differently, to solve problems in unique ways, and to view the world with an open and more creative mind.
I'm fortunate to live in an era marked by extraordinary technological advancements. Modern technology has not only allowed me to hear sounds and frequencies previously beyond my reach but also to create art in ways I never thought possible. This journey of discovery and creation has led me to the exciting frontier of AI, where technology meets imagination in a realm of endless possibilities.
My passion for art goes back to the 90s, when I won several international awards for digital art, graphic animation and digital music. After a long creative pause due to a series of life-transformative experiences, I have now returned to my two lifelong passions - art and music.
Art on the Net Competitions Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts
In 1995, Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts in Tokyo pioneered an international online competition called “Art on the Net” - a visionary concept at the time. Applicants were selected based on their cutting-edge digital entries merging technological innovations and artistic expression. Artists faced the great challenge of mastering entirely new online artistic mediums that had no established techniques, no best practices or mentorship to guide them. Unlike traditional physical art forms, which had centuries of tradition, these digital mediums were just being born. Everything had to be pioneered completely from scratch - from software tools to viewing interfaces to publication platforms. It was like charting into a new land without maps or expertise to light the way.
For three consecutive years from 1996 to 1998, I had the privilege of being selected to participate in Machida’s 'Art on the Net' competitions, receiving distinguished awards each time.
DISTINCTIVE MERIT AWARD WINNER. Art on the Net 1996. A Challenge Of The Internet! - AN INTERNATIONAL HOME PAGE ART COMPETITION. Tokyo, Japan
In 1996, my first year competing, the theme was “Homepage Art - A Challenge of the Internet!” The goal was to design a website showcasing digital artwork. My submission, ‘Digital Fine Art Gallery,’ received a Distinctive Merit Award. This recognition carried special significance for me, as it honored my pioneering website and digital art compositions. Additionally, my path to entering the competition had an extraordinary backstory, which made my success particularly satisfying.
In the 90s, Bulgaria lagged behind most developed countries in adopting the internet, hampered by reliance on outdated Soviet computing infrastructure. The nation’s first internet service provider was launched in 1993, with minimal access available mostly for universities. Speeds were painfully slow, initially just 2,400 bits per second, and still lagged under 56k even by 2000.
The only method for accessing the internet in Bulgaria was dial-up, which used regular telephone lines. This meant not only very slow speeds, but it also tied up my telephone landline while online. Any incoming calls would disconnect my internet session. To make matters worse, in Bulgaria one phone line was shared by two households (so-called duplex phone lines). This meant while I was using the internet, my neighbor and his family couldn’t use their phone and vice versa. In order to create my Digital Fine Art Gallery for the competition, I had to work during the night.
However, the most significant challenge I faced was submitting my entry to the Machida curators for review. The painfully slow internet speeds made transferring data and content extremely difficult. Furthermore, when I tried to upload my entry, I ran into an unexpected hurdle: a bug in the Machida Museum’s system that wouldn’t accept submissions from computers like mine.
This setback, however, turned out to be a hidden blessing. Initially, You Minova was taken aback by my claim. He told me in disbelief, 'Constantine, this is Japan, not Bulgaria. We don’t typically have these issues.' But since I insisted, he checked and, to his surprise, confirmed the bug. You Minova was so impressed by my ability to discover the bug that he committed to helping me submit my entry in any way he could. Fixing the bug, however, was out of the question due to time constraints, so I had to find another, compatible computer. Luckily, a friend at Sofia University gave me access to university’s more advanced computer systems. Yet, even there, I faced the same challenge: the internet speeds were too slow to transfer a website containing artwork! I was afraid my entry would never reach Japan.
Then You Minova suggested that I split the file into several smaller parts and transfer the website piece by piece. And so, on the very night before the deadline, I sat uploading the website in segments from Sofia, while You Minova reassembled it in Tokyo. It was a dramatic night I will never forget. A man whom I had never met, working tirelessly with me from thousands of miles away, dedicated to helping me participate in this crucial competition! It was a profound manifestation of professional solidarity and a great testament to how technology can bridge vast distances, connecting people from the furthest corners of the world.
The next day, by early morning, after an exhausting night, we had finished, and You Minova was truly impressed with my Digital Fine Art Gallery. He accepted my entry into the competition on the spot.
The international jury awarded my work the Distinctive Merit Award, and it felt like more of a personal victory, considering the remarkable circumstances involved in getting to that point.
In the 90s, Bulgaria lagged behind most developed countries in adopting the internet, hampered by reliance on outdated Soviet computing infrastructure. The nation’s first internet service provider was launched in 1993, with minimal access available mostly for universities. Speeds were painfully slow, initially just 2,400 bits per second, and still lagged under 56k even by 2000.
The only method for accessing the internet in Bulgaria was dial-up, which used regular telephone lines. This meant not only very slow speeds, but it also tied up my telephone landline while online. Any incoming calls would disconnect my internet session. To make matters worse, in Bulgaria one phone line was shared by two households (so-called duplex phone lines). This meant while I was using the internet, my neighbor and his family couldn’t use their phone and vice versa. In order to create my Digital Fine Art Gallery for the competition, I had to work during the night.
However, the most significant challenge I faced was submitting my entry to the Machida curators for review. The painfully slow internet speeds made transferring data and content extremely difficult. Furthermore, when I tried to upload my entry, I ran into an unexpected hurdle: a bug in the Machida Museum’s system that wouldn’t accept submissions from computers like mine.
This setback, however, turned out to be a hidden blessing. Initially, You Minova was taken aback by my claim. He told me in disbelief, 'Constantine, this is Japan, not Bulgaria. We don’t typically have these issues.' But since I insisted, he checked and, to his surprise, confirmed the bug. You Minova was so impressed by my ability to discover the bug that he committed to helping me submit my entry in any way he could. Fixing the bug, however, was out of the question due to time constraints, so I had to find another, compatible computer. Luckily, a friend at Sofia University gave me access to university’s more advanced computer systems. Yet, even there, I faced the same challenge: the internet speeds were too slow to transfer a website containing artwork! I was afraid my entry would never reach Japan.
Then You Minova suggested that I split the file into several smaller parts and transfer the website piece by piece. And so, on the very night before the deadline, I sat uploading the website in segments from Sofia, while You Minova reassembled it in Tokyo. It was a dramatic night I will never forget. A man whom I had never met, working tirelessly with me from thousands of miles away, dedicated to helping me participate in this crucial competition! It was a profound manifestation of professional solidarity and a great testament to how technology can bridge vast distances, connecting people from the furthest corners of the world.
The next day, by early morning, after an exhausting night, we had finished, and You Minova was truly impressed with my Digital Fine Art Gallery. He accepted my entry into the competition on the spot.
The international jury awarded my work the Distinctive Merit Award, and it felt like more of a personal victory, considering the remarkable circumstances involved in getting to that point.
BRONZE PRIZE AWARD WINNER. Art On The Net 1997. The future of Japan in VRML - AN INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL REALITY MODELING LANGUAGE (VRML) ART COMPETITION. Tokyo, Japan
The 1997 Art On The Net competition, titled 'The Future of Japan in VRML,' was designed to explore and showcase the artistic possibilities inherent in VRML technology. Participants were required to create fully navigable 3D spaces and objects that would allow users to interact with them and experience a form of virtual reality directly from their browsers. The competition attracted seventy VRML entries from participants hailing from more than a dozen countries. My interactive artwork secured a prestigious spot among the top four, earning the esteemed Bronze Prize.
In the 1990s, VRML(Virtual Reality Modeling Language) was a groundbreaking technology, offering a glimpse into what the future of the internet could look like with immersive 3D environments. However, it was also limited by the technology of the time. Slow internet speeds and less powerful computer hardware made it challenging to render complex VRML environments smoothly. Nonetheless, VRML was pivotal in paving the way for future advancements in web-based 3D graphics and virtual reality, influencing later technologies such as X3D and WebGL.
My entry was a tribute to Japan’s rich culture, which masterfully integrates the ancient with the modern, maintaining its unique identity over millennia. In my design, a temple seamlessly blended into a futuristic composition, coexisting with skyscrapers — symbols of modernity. These skyscrapers changed colors to the rhythm of a melody I composed, yet the temple remained constant, unchanging. The interactive features of my work were pioneering for their time: with a right-click, users could change viewpoints to The Camera, Top View, Left Side View, or Right Side View, each triggering different musical effects. Hovering the mouse over the buildings would also activate musical performances. While these features are standard today, back in the 90s, they were groundbreaking and represented the cutting edge of technology.
HONORABLE MENTION AWARD WINNER. Art On The Net 1998. The Age of Streaming Media - Beyond Language Barriers - AN INTERNATIONAL HOME PAGE ART COMPETITION. Tokyo, Japan. 1998
In the late 1990s, streaming media emerged as a groundbreaking innovation, revolutionizing how audio and video content was consumed over the internet. This new technology rapidly gained recognition as one of the most exciting technological advancements of the era. We witnessed the infancy of streaming technology, where the ability to watch or listen to media content directly over the internet was a novel and thrilling concept. Despite challenges like limited bandwidth and slower internet speeds, the potential of streaming media captivated the imagination of tech enthusiasts and general users alike, setting the stage for the seamless streaming services we enjoy today.
The 1998 Art On The Net competition, titled 'The Age of Streaming Media - Beyond Language Barriers,' drew over a hundred participants from 19 countries. The competition was both a great excitement and a formidable challenge for me. I had limited access to the latest technology, a sluggish computer, and a horrible internet connection, yet I ventured into the most advanced category at that time! Overcoming all these obstacles, I was honored with an Honorable Award, an achievement that holds a special place in my heart due to the difficult circumstances under which it was earned.
My journey with Art On The Net was a catalyst for profound professional development. It revealed a new world of cutting-edge technologies to me and connected me with a global community of forward-thinking creators. More importantly, it spurred my creative instincts, prompted me to innovate, to discover and create unconventional solutions, and to achieve award-winning results with limited resources.