Call for Web Residencies No 15: Mutations

The goal of the Mutations web residency is to engage artist collectives working on the heterogenous theme of mutations – biological, sociopolitical, technological – in relation to the global digital divide.

Curated by Mutations Research Group — Mrz 30, 2021

Web Residency Call No. 15 by Mutations Research Group

Graphics by Stephan Thiel and Anne Lippert

ការផ្លាស់ប្តូរ
Mutationen
mutations
mutações
mutacioj
мутації
mutasiyalar
Мутациялар
მუტაციები
mutasi
ukuguquka kwezakhi zofuzo
awọn iyipada
mitasyon
变异
mutaciones
мутации
mutaties

General idea:

To engage artist collectives working on the theme of mutations – biological, ecological, socio-political, technological, or otherwise – that speak to the global digital divide.

To define the mutational is, at its most basic, to set a condition at odds with an established order. In the life sciences, this translates to alterations in chromosomal sequence, molecular transformations in cells, tissues, and organisms that are tracked within empirical contexts construed by modern science. Yet embedded in the idea of mutation are blind spots underpinning the designation of order itself. This is true not only in conceptual terms, disciplinary methodologies, or institutional priorities, but also through sociopolitical configurations that frame what is deemed disparate or exceptional in the first place.

The goal of the Mutations web residency is to engage artist collectives working on the heterogenous theme of mutations – biological, sociopolitical, technological – in relation to the global digital divide. We aim to support artists, programmers, hacktivists, researchers, and other practitioners that offer mutations to the aesthetic and political underpinning of digital and internet-based art. Here, mutations can be understood a s biological and computer code alike, impacting both natural and media ecologies. Likewise, we welcome, for example, practices that directly interrogate the changing landscape of the surface and dark web, the extractive geological industry that sustains these infrastructures, and the embedded economic and political inequalities of our networked existence. We hope to attract applicants with a practice that moves beyond raising awareness around issues in favor of intervening directly on the systems in question.

In order to increase diversity of applicants from geographic, linguistic, and technological backgrounds, the Mutations web residency invites low or no-text applications that speak to the call’s theme (more on this on the guidelines).

Finally, while the working language of the Mutations Web Residency is English, we strongly encourage applications that serve non-English-speaking communities and that maximize their impact across disparities in informational, technological, and computational resources worldwide.

The thematic collective residency, Mutations, is a cooperation between Akademie Schloss Solitude and KfW Stiftung, and the first thematic and collective residency of its kind at the Akademie Schloss Solitude. Seven fellows representing a variety of artistic and interdisciplinary backgrounds were selected due to their interests that expand mutation beyond bounded interpretations of biological structures and systems. As a part of this group, Grayson Earle (USA/Germany), Ana María Gómez López (Colombia/USA/Netherlands), and Joana Quiroga (Brazil) are the curators of this Akademie´s web residency call. To know more about Mutations go to mutations.akademie-solitude.de.

Format

In direct response to the constantly evolving nature of digital online work, we do not prescribe the format in which applicants choose to present their work. Likewise, rather than requesting the formulation of a new project, the Mutations web residency offers means to sustain ongoing initiatives that would benefit from Akademie Schloss Solitude’s creative community, as well as the time and financial resources to continue moving ideas forward.

Application

If you are selected as a web resident, you will be required to make public the content of your proposal on the Akademie Schloss Solitude and Mutation Research Group websites. Your result may, of course, diverge from your proposal (please specify the expected results in your proposal as much as is possible).

Grant

For this call, the Mutations Research Group selects five project proposals, whose creators are rewarded with a four-week residency and an 800-euro grant.

All selected Web Residents are nominated for the production prize HASH by Solitude which will be awarded in 2022.

Timeline

Call release: March 29, 2021
Applications: until April 30, 2021 (midnight IDLW / BIT)
Web Residencies launch: June 17, 2021

Web Residencies

In 2016, Akademie Schloss Solitude launched the Web Residencies to encourage young talents of the international digital scene and artists from all disciplines dealing with web-based practices. ZKM was program partner from 2017–2019. For each call, the curator, or colletive selects project proposals whose creators receive a four-week residency and a mini-grant.

Artists are invited to experiment with digital technologies and new art forms, and reflect on the topics set by the curators. Web residencies are carried out exclusively online, and the works are presented online.

Artists and students of all disciplines as well as former or current Solitude fellows may apply. There is no age limit.