Linz, 28th September 2023
European Digital Deal – a project co-funded by Creative Europe – has just launched an open call for twelve artist residencies exploring the deep entanglement between new technologies and democracy.
European Digital Deal – a project co-funded by Creative Europe – has just launched an open call for twelve artist residencies exploring the deep entanglement between new technologies and democracy.
Applicants are called on to investigate a wide range of topics, from the notion of truth in an information age shaped by algorithms, biases in AI, techno-anxiety, the digital divides arising as a result of digitalisation and ways to counteract them to new forms of surveillance, intelligence, living, citizenship or work. A detailed description of the challenges defined for each residency can be found here.
The selected artists will receive a 25.000 EUR grant to complete their project, access to mentoring through an incubation programme, and the chance to show their work at Ars Electronica Festival, Onassis Stegi, and Laboral among many other locations.
The call was launched on the 28th of September 2023, and remains open until the 30th of November 2023, 23:59 CET.
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European Digital Deal is a three-year investigation into how the accelerated, but at times unconsidered, adoption of new technologies can alter or undermine democratic processes. For three years (January 2023 – December 2025), thirteen cultural organisations in Europe will form a new kind of public forum that critically reflects on the implications of new technologies on the social fabric and draft an action plan for how future technological innovation can benefit the many.
The project unpacks the changes driven by the now-ubiquitous artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and algorithmic processing in the media and public administration. It opens the discussion about their long-term effects and the need to imagine more ethical, fair, and sustainable innovation practices. In the ungoverned and seemingly ungovernable digital space, European Digital Deal wants to set the stage for a digital deal to be reached. Cultural institutions, artists, researchers, and educators will gather to reflect on what a digital deal aligned with European democratic values might mean and their role in shaping it.
The twelve 9-month artist residencies hosted by eleven different partners across Europe will be at the heart of the project. Alongside the residencies, the European Digital Deal will organise numerous educational events for young people, conferences, and exhibitions. These activities will try to answer questions about the effects of new technologies on the ways we live and organise our societies.
The residencies tackle the challenges of our times and invite artists to question and critically examine current practices through works that envision alternatives and shifts in the current paradigm. The challenges were defined by the cultural organisations in the project consortium, which will also host the artists-in-residence. Though inspired by local issues, the challenges transcend national borders.
For the project, each host institution gathered a group of experts with a double role: to guide them in designing relevant programmes as part of the project and support the artists-in-residence in their research and project development. Over 50 experts from various backgrounds will be involved in the project, including Kasia Chmielinski – co-founder of the Data Nutrition Project; Marta Peirano – writer and journalist at El Pais; Ilaria Bonacossa – Director National Museum of Digital Art; Simon Colton – Professor of Computational Creativity, AI and Games at Queen Mary University of London, alongside many others. The complete list of experts is available here.
20 of them have met at this year’s Ars Electronica Festival for the Digital Deal Summit – a series of workshops on mis/disinformation, digital rights and climate justice, digital inclusion and web accessibility, and open government data and citizen participation. During the three-day summit, the experts formulated research questions that can help artists develop their responses to the call. The summit conclusions were presented in a closing event available here.
In addition to the 25.000 EUR grant and the support of a selected group of experts, the artists will also benefit from a capacity-building programme looking into the inner mechanisms and logic of new technologies and innovation processes. The kick-off of the incubation programme will be marked by a joint trip from Budapest to Linz in the spring of 2024.
The artworks and projects conceptualised and developed during the residencies will be showcased in numerous exhibitions planned to take place in 2025 in different locations, including the Ars Electronica Festival 2025, Onassis Stegi, and Laboral, as well as the locations of other host institutions.
The European Digital Deal is run by a consortium coordinated by Ars Electronica (AT) and including the Center for the Promotion of Science (RS), Culture Yard (DK), Gluon (BE), Teatro Circo de Braga (PT), iMAL (BE), Kersnikova (SI), LABoral (ES), Onassis Stegi (GR), Pro Progressione (HU), Sineglossa (IT), Waag Futurelab (N L) and Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation (ES).
Press Contact
Christopher Sonnleitner
E-mail: christopher.sonnleitner@ars.electronica.art
This project has been co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme under grant agreement No 101100036. Views and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) can be held responsible for them.
Consortium
Ars Electronica is a leading cultural institution, educational facility, and R&D lab based in Linz, Austria. Its comprehensive approach to techno-cultural phenomena has brought Ars Electronica a worldwide reputation for excellence. Its four divisions (Ars Electronica FESTIVAL and PRIX, Ars Electronica CENTER, FUTURELAB) mutually inspire one another in a circuit of creativity.
The Center for the Promotion of Science (CPN) is a public entity from Belgrade, Serbia, that promotes and communicates science and technology. The Center cooperates with research and educational institutions at all levels in Serbia and worldwide. It works closely with government ministries, media, the private sector, and civil society.
The Culture Yard is located at the harbour in Elsinore and North Zealand’s largest culture house that, together with the city’s older culture house Toldkammeret, provides stages and spaces for a wide range of local, national, and international cultural events all year round.
Gluon is a Brussels‐based non‐profit organisation that realises projects on the crossing borders of visual art, research, and industry. Gluon’s Art & Research department aims to maximise collaborations between artists, researchers, and companies and support scientists through residencies in artists’ studios.
Braga Media Arts is the coordinating and implementing structure of the UNESCO Creative City in media arts program in Braga, Portugal. A result of Braga 2012 – European Youth Capital, gnration is a place for creation, performance and exhibition within the domain of contemporary music and the relationship between art and technology. Both are managed by Teatro Circo de Braga, the municipal cultural company of Braga (Portugal).
iMAL is a space that aims to connect artists, thinkers, makers, and citizens from Belgium and abroad and to offer its wholly renewed infrastructure to support a programme focussing on research, production, and presentation. iMAL is directly connected to the latest social challenges, trends, and technological developments.
Kersnikova Institute is a cultural and educational organisation and production platform for artists and projects at the intersection of art, science, and technology. Along with developing and exhibiting artworks in Kapelica Gallery, the organisation has an extensive programme of educational activities and has established an infrastructure of wet and mechatronic laboratories.
LABoral is a multidisciplinary institution that creates, disseminates, and promotes access to new forms of culture based on the creative use of new technologies. The Art Centre acts as a platform for exchanging knowledge and access to tools to support artists and creators in developing cultural projects and the communities in their immediate surroundings in acquiring a critical and creative vision of technology.
Οnassis Stegi lies at the heart of Onassis Culture, the Foundation’s cultural engagement. It is the place where contemporary culture meets aesthetics and science, where courageous, restless, daring Greek artists find the means to showcase their work; the place where international collaborations are nurtured; the stage on which the boundaries between science, art, society, education, learning and politics are renegotiated.
Pro Progressione is a Budapest-based artistic hub that connects people, professions, and ambitions by designing international collaborations in the field of culture. Their overall objective is to create a global network of artists, institutions, and audiences by helping the communities find their path towards arts.
Sineglossa is a cultural organization that fosters new sustainable development models in response to global challenges by applying contemporary art processes. Their approach is inspired by the idea of a “New Renaissance”: through contamination between humanities and science, we seek beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive solutions.
Waag is a Future Lab for technology and society. Based on the understanding that technology is not neutral, Waag reinforces critical reflection on technology, develops technological and social design skills, and encourages social innovation.
Zaragoza City of Knowledge Foundation (FZC)/Etopia is a private non-profit foundation whose objectives are to disseminate – at a regional, national, and international level – the progress made by Knowledge Society, construct a more participative, equalitarian, inclusive, and innovative society, open new development expectations at the intersection of art, science, and technology and erase digital gaps in communities.