»Alienation is the labor of freedom’s construction.«
-Laboria Cuboniks–
As petroleum burns ceaselessly, cutting holes in the atmosphere… As hormones, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals colonize every watery body… As rare-earth mining and e-waste amplify for our cars, computers, and smartphone convenience… And as micro-plastics and PCBs nest in the microscopic cracks of our biology, birthing a new »toxic progeny (1)«… This planet glitches, queering our notions of normal and natural.
We live in an alien landscape, one that we no longer know.
Call for Web Residencies by Solitude & ZKM
»Planetary Glitch«
Curated by Mary Maggic
Deadline: January 6, 2019
Read the call in English (below), Chinese, Indonesian, French, Farsi
Climate change, rising sea-levels and the chemical alteration and industrialization of the planet have been largely driven by patriarchal, hegemonic, capitalist forces. These are the very same forces that uphold the all too familiar systems that devalue nonmales, migrants, animals, and nature, and justify the overall exploitation of the planet. This collective mutagenesis paralyzes us as much as it should mobilize us, urging us to seek solidarity and symbiosis among industrial and ecological ruins. Like Xenofeminism suggests, we must seize this »alienation as an impetus to generate new worlds (2),« new myths, new disobediences, and new commonalities.
Let us change the course of this alienation. Both now and the future require a new commons, harnessed and transformed out of the planetary glitch that implicates and connects us all. In response, can we create open–source strategies founded in inclusion, diversity, balance, and equity? Tactics which undermine the glorification of technology and technosolutionism, and remain ever-critical? Might we find resistance in imaginations of the new normal and the new natural? As the mechanical glitch of computers resist their binary language, so too does glitch act as a »much-needed erratum (3)« to our current systems of violence.
»The glitch is the catalyst, not the error. The glitch is the happy accident.«
-Legacy Russell-
This is a call for artists, designers, (bio)hackers, technologists, storytellers, writers, healers and shape-shifters to create new open–source strategies for undoing the trap of this planetary shift. Among these strategies may include kitchen recipes for eating the other, pleasure tutorials, witchcraft and alchemy, collective coping mechanisms, online networks of care, information emancipation, training exercises for becoming-with our mutations, biohacking protocols for freeing toxic substances from their molecular mystique, and digital tools for radical interconnectedness.
Text and image by Mary Maggic
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(1) Heather Davies, “Toxic Progeny: The Plastisphere and Other Queer Futures” (2016)
(2) Laboria Cuboniks, “Xenofeminist Manifesto” (2015)
(3) Legacy Russell, “Digital Dualism and the Glitch Feminism Manifesto” (2012)
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Format
We accept text, performance, documentary video and fiction, 3D objects, net sculptures and installations, web archives, apps, and any other experimental mediums. Selected projects should be carried out in open-source formats that are well-documented, shareable, and consider the accessibility of its users, who may range in age, race, gender, economic class, and ability.
Application
Submit your project proposal in the form of:
– a headline
– a concept text in English (1,000–1,500 characters with spaces)
– a header image (high resolution, landscape format)
– a short bio in English (500 characters with spaces)
– a portfolio PDF (images, text, links)
Grant
For each call, the curator selects four project proposals, whose creators are rewarded with a four-week residency and 750 USD. All selected web residents are nominated for the production prize HASH by Solitude & ZKM which will be awarded in 2019.
Timeline
Call release: Nov 23, 2018
Applications: until Jan 6, 2019 (midnight)
Web residencies: Jan 14 – Feb 11, 2019
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 has been program partner since 2017. For each call, the curator selects four project proposals whose creators receive a four-week residency and 750 USD.
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 on
schloss-post.com and web-residencies.zkm.de.
Artists and students of all disciplines as well as former or current Solitude fellows may apply. There is no age limit.
Learn more about the program.
Juror/Curator of This Call
Mary Maggic is a non-binary artist working at the intersection of biotechnology, cultural discourse, and civil disobedience. Their work spans documentary video, scientific methodology, public workshopology, performance, and large scale installation. Maggic’s most recent projects Open Source Estrogen and Estrofem! Lab generate DIY protocols for the extraction and detection of estrogen hormone from bodies and environments, demonstrating its micro-performativity and potential for mutagenesis, i.e. gender-hacking. They hold a BSA in Biological Science and Art from Carnegie Mellon University and a MS in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT Media Lab and their work has exhibited at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), OK Center (Linz), Haus der elektronischen Kunst (Basel), Jeu de Paume (Paris), Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), and Spring Workshop (Hong Kong).
Submit
Submit your content under this link. The deadline is Jan 6, 2019 (midnight).
Please write to schlosspost(a)akademie-solitude.de if you have any question.
