Radical Empathy: wendy.network's New Open Art Call

Dear community,

We’re looking forward to our call for artists framing the topic of:

RADICAL EMPATHY.

Why did we choose this topic and where does it come from?

As you may know, the KONJUNGATE project is based on my cyber novel MACHFELD, written in 1999. One of the main characters of this book is Wendy, a fascinating person, who works as an agent for Satoshi NAKAMOTO. On the one hand, she is smart and full of empathy for the cultural conflicts of different extra-galactic forms of life – which is a central part of the novel – and on the other hand, she has a secret job to do that goes against her personal convictions. In addition, she is the eponym of our network.

Like all of us, she has to make decisions on a daily basis that will change her future life forever. If you see life as a system of experiences and socialisation, our choices are closely related to it. But can we break out of this framework? And do we as a society manage to establish a sustainable, empathic approach to one another?

wendy.network is committed to empathic interaction. We are open to cultural and artistic exchange without restrictions and we are aware of our social responsibility by implementing an experimental new way of decentralising art funding using cryptographic technology.

Art and culture have the power to exemplify empathic togetherness. Let’s show that to people.

Wendy is empathic and so are we.

Best wishes,

Michael Mastrototaro

wendy.network is starting a series of art calls to engage the community with Wendy’s personality. One of her main traits is having radical empathy and we want you, the artists of wendy.network, to help us define what that is and how it should impact our world today. 

We at wendy.network want to encourage each other to have radical empathy. We think having radical empathy is a cure for this year’s loneliness. 

Jack Schot defines Radical Empathy as “an active striving to better understand and share the feelings of others.”

For this call, we are asking you, the artists, these questions: What do you define it as? Why does the world in 2021 need us to have radical empathy?

After a year of physical and emotional distancing we need to start working as a society to be more empathic, in a radical way. We need to build bridges between each other and slash the distance that the past year put between us. By having radical empathy, we can extend the same acceptance we’ve had for ourselves over the last year to everyone around us.

The panel of judges will be members of the wendy.network.

The artwork will be available on the wendy.network for a length of one month.

Requirements:

Artists can be any age, from anywhere in the world.

Artists must be members of the wendy.network and create a profile that is representative of your practice to submit and be considered (it’s always free to join the network).

Artwork can be of any medium but must be submitted in a digital format (ex: JPG, PNG, MP4, etc). Past projects and new works are both eligible. 

Artists need to submit a short artist bio (300 words max) a title, links to socials or websites and a short description of the artwork and how it answers the questions above (400 words max). Artists must fulfill all requirements to be considered.

No entry fee.

Deadline for entry is: June 1st, 2021 10am CEST.

Applicants will be notified by mid June, 2021.

Please send all material to join@wendy.network and any files can be sent through WeTransfer.