East meets East: Open Call

Nabi 2022 East meets East Open Call

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Art Center Nabi is pleased to resume its international open call on art, technology and society.

Art Center Nabi has been at the forefront of the media art scene, discovering emerging artists through various programs such as residencies, hackathons, conferences, and exhibitions. Art Center Nabi also works with artists from diverse cultural backgrounds to create platforms that examine and confer creative and aesthetic potentials of the convergence between art, technology and society.

As a part of such endeavors, Art Center Nabi now launches the long-term hybrid research project East meets East (EmE) that proposes critical perspectives on technology-based art, history, society, culture, media, and philosophy. Setting sail towards the ‘East’ where the sun rises and the future arrives, EmE envisions the coming together of ‘We’ and our Han Ma Eum (한마음, Planetary Mind). We look forward to wide participation from artists, creators, and researchers around the world.

Director’s Letter

When a baby crawls towards the well, you jump to rescue regardless of whether it’s your child or not. Mencius called this compassion and established Confucianism based on such sentiments. Feeling the pains of others is surely not exclusive to Mencius’ time. Right at this moment, countless volunteer troops and workers are putting their lives in danger in Ukraine to rescue their neighbors in plight.

On the other hand, humanity has never been more isolated. The US Surgeon General has warned against loneliness as the biggest health hazard of the 21st Century, while many governments now characterize loneliness as a serious social pathology. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated such isolation and loneliness. Not only are individuals imprisoned in personal media, but they are also constantly bewildered by endless, affordable audiovisual content to watch and enjoy. Each sitting in our silo, we have entered a new life as fragmented selves.

However, an interesting fact emerges as digital selves floating apart from reality are being constructed: everyone seems to pursue a sense of ‘we’, or community. Community is sought in different ways, some of them in sole pursuit of money and profitability, others based on cultural codes. I believe the interaction between human wants and needs would eventually decide which of the Web3 community will survive amongst the flooding number of them. Considering this, Art Center Nabi would like to propose the following hypothesis:

Technological development can encourage Han Ma Eum (한마음; Planetary Mind), the instinct to support neighbors in plight and to share happiness and sadness with one another.

Here, we propose Han Ma Eum as a total and ultimate consciousness. When we escape from the perceptive boundaries of being an individual, we will then be able to find ourselves interconnected as one and envision Han Ma Eum, the encompassing mind beyond planetary consciousness.

Art Center Nabi is not an academic organization but a collective of practitioners. We send out this call to realize our hypothesis above, which is our hope. It is an invitation to create with you.

OPEN CALL OUTLINE

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Genres

• Artwork: Audiovisuals, Interactive Installations, Performances utilizing techAR, VR, XR, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Blockchain, etc.
• Design: HCI, BCI, Neuroscience and Cognitive Science-related, AI, Physical Computing related work
• Writing: Poetry, Prose, Essays, SF shorts, Research paper, etc.

Theme: Envisioning Han Ma Eum (한마음; Planetary Mind) and various forms of ‘we’ who think and act together

Supports

1. Production Cost (varies by genre)

• Writing and Design (HCI-based thinking process: max. 3,000,000 KRW (approx. 2,400 USD)
• Media Artwork: max. 10,000,000 KRW (approx. 8,000 USD)

1. Opportunity for a showcase and an artist talk

Program Schedule

• Production: July 6th - September 1st
• Online Showcase: September 9th (Fri) TBD

Schedule

• Open Call: June 14th (Mon) - July 3rd (Sun), 2022
• Application Review: July 4th (Mon) - July 6th (Wed), 2022
• For interviews, applicants will be contacted individually when necessary.
• Results will be posted on our website (www.nabi.or.kr) and only selected applicants will be notified.

Applications and inquiries to: info@nabi.or.kr

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