The »Web Residencies« program was initiated by Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2016 to support young talents from the international digital scene as well as artists of all disciplines who deal with web-based practices to present the process and results of their work online on the platform www.schloss-post.com. For each call three to four people or teams were selected by the curators for a four-week »Web Residency,« which was rewarded with 500 USD.
In 201 6 Akademie Schloss Solitude launched the three calls Decentralization of Internet Art (curated by NETRO), Re-entering the Ultimate Display (curated by Mario Doulis), and SUPRAINFINIT: L’Avenir Redux (curated by Apparatus 22).
In the years 2017–2020, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe shaped the program together. With this cooperation, Akademie Schloss Solitude as an artist residency – and »networkmachine« – and the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe as a museum and place of artistic research and development merged their expertise and practice to work jointly on the development of the program »Web Residencies«.
Both houses consider online artist residencies as a contemporary format for the support of artists in a globalized art scene shaped by digitalization. The digital space will be utilized to attempt new ways within the artistic practice and communication of art beyond geographical and institutional borders. The program is thereby consciously open designed to be shaped also by the ideas, concepts, and methods of a scene that operates beyond the mainstream art establishment.
The focus of the »Web Residencies« does not lie in the ready art piece but artists are invited to experiment with digital technologies and new art forms at the surface of digital art and communication within a defined topical frame. Thus they’re in direct exchange with the professional network of both institutions as well as a general digital public which in turn gets immediate access to the artists’ works. This format makes possible a decentralized and international discussion on topics set by the invited curators in the fields of digital arts, net culture as well as digital technology and society.
»Web Residencies« are carried out exclusively online, until 2020 the works were presented on www.schloss-post.com and web-residencies.zkm.de. The upcoming calls will be initiated by the Akademie Schloss Solitude and presented on the new website. Keep up to date through the Digital Solitude newsletter. There is no age limit for applicants, also students are eligible to apply. The Digital Solitude program with fellowships and the online platform Schlosspost are supported by the State Ministry of Baden-Württemberg for Science, Research and the Arts.
Web Residencies by Solitude und ZKM 2017–2019
Call No. 1 – Blowing the Whistle, Questioning Evidence
Call No. 2 – Fractal Horses
Call No. 3 – An AI Summer
Call No. 4 – Ghosted
Call No. 5 – Refiguring the Feminist Future
Call No. 6 – Planetary Glitch
Call No. 7 – Rigged Systems
Call No. 8 – Engineering Care
Call No. 9 – Violent Consumer Media
The Hash
In the years 2018 and 2020, the production prize »Hash« was awarded for outstanding projects by the Web Residents. The awardees were Marloes de Valk (2018) and Natasha Tontey and Pedro Oliveira (2020).
