For nearly thirty years, Puerto Rican artist Anaitté Vaccaro has earned international recognition for work that moves fluidly across theater, performance, sculpture, projection, architecture, technology, and public art. No single medium could contain her practice, so she named it Digital Scenography: the pursuit of a total work of art through the integration of technology. As technology drives us apart, she uses it to bring us together.
Her work explores surreality, the environment, culture, and identity, carrying the vibrancy and pulse of her Caribbean roots and broader Hispanic heritage. Each medium is chosen with intention; technology opens another perceptual dimension. That vision takes many forms. Among the most ambitious is The Perennials, recently selected among the 2026 CODAawards Top 100. Vaccaro was invited to present it at CES 2020, where it received a CTA and New Voices award.
Hand-painted, solar-powered, and made from recycled materials, the work becomes social infrastructure, a community gathering place, and a global network. The Perennials unites Vaccaro’s two patented designs: The Perennial form and its Power Leaf solar panels. Conceived as the first global artwork of its kind, it will connect one hundred sculptures worldwide as one distributed work. Each is shaped by the stories, culture, and environment of its location and, like a windborne seed, takes root where it lands. Born from Vaccaro’s experience of Hurricane María, the project reflects on climate diaspora, resilience, and belonging. What blooms is a vision cultivated by the world.
At CODAsummit, Vaccaro reveals what Digital Scenography is and where it goes next: from projected worlds and sculpture as social infrastructure to a new work in which a body of water becomes both medium and collaborator.
Meet Anaitté at the Artist Showcase, Track 2, on Thursday, October 1, at 11:00 a.m. to envision what might be commissioned and realized together.