Gjorgji Despodov wins STRP Young ACT Award with graduation project

STRP Young ACT Award provides a platform for artists to expand, realise, and ultimately present their graduation project as part of STRP’s 2026 exhibition ‘Big Energy, Slow Futures’. This year, three winners were selected by the jury consisting of STRP’s Artistic Director and the STRP Young Advisory Board. They receive a project budget, artistic and production guidance, and the chance for the selected artists to become part of a growing network of creatives and collectives.

About Gjorgji and DOOM SCROLL REHAB: CACHE CLEANSE

With ‘Cache Cleanse’, Despodov envisions a near-future where chronic overconsumption of digital content takes over the world. As society suffers from this condition called ‘Brain Rot’, the only way to treat it is to leave your phone and algorithmic dependencies at the door and enter the doom scroll rehab facility called ‘Cache Cleanse’. In this immersive experience, visitors can enter the Anti-Doomscrolling ASMR Ritual Circle, where they are provided with a guided ASMR therapy session whilst being encouraged to interact with tactile materials to counteract the effects of doomscrolling. All while being watched by the Goddess of Slime, Silitra, who - in this speculative future - is known to soothe brainrot with a single whisper.

Through his work, Despodov reflects on the mental and ecological exhaustion of accelerated digital media consumption. By creating this counter-ritual to attention extraction and algorithmic speed distraction, ‘Cache Cleanse’ operates as a ‘slow future’ prototype. It reimagines energy not as power or efficiency, but as presence and attentiveness, as a possible cure for the insatiable appetite of big energy. All to open the door to a speculative future in which collective well-being and digital culture can coexist in harmony.