Open Call: VR Residency in Zeitz, Germany in September 2020

Open Call: VR Residency in Zeitz, Germany in September 2020

THIS IS FAKE is now accepting applications for a one month artist residency in Zeitz, Germany in September 2020.

Focussing on fundamental questions regarding the use of virtual reality in the arts, THIS IS FAKE is organising an artist residency and exhibition programme in the city of Zeitz in 2020. During two separate residencies (March and September), two artists and two members of THIS IS FAKE can use the space in a former pasta factory, known as »Nudel«, to work together. During the four-week-stay, the participating artists are provided with accommodation, material budget, a travel allowance of 150 euros, a shared studio / workspace and the necessary equipment during the four-week stay in Zeitz.

Deadline for applications is 1 April 2020.

In the run-up to the residency, the artists will work on various approaches for the collaboration in Zeitz in regular online sessions and — by means of a digital archive and sketchboards — exchange materials, texts and inspiration which will flow into the production phase in September.

Possible keywords are: the impact of image-based media, digital environments and social platforms, the understanding of the human body and human gesture, presence and their relationship to artificial entities, the dualism between physical and virtual worlds, questioning decision making, automation and algorithmic tools, qualities and nature of digital materials, the update-behaviour of virtual systems or generally image-induced visual culture. The participants' different points of view and locations (including Leipzig, London and Amsterdam) is a determining factor for the cyclical approach of research and conception in digital space, the experimentation and physical nature of the residency period in Zeitz, and ultimately the implementation in a touring exhibition format. Reflecting both the preceding digital working process and the results of the collaborative work in Zeitz, the exhibition is intended to be shown at further locations in Germany as well as the UK and the Neterlands.

The residency is aimed at artists who wish to work on a joint exploration of various aspects of virtual reality to investigate how a collaborative work in a digital environment manifests itself. The call is open to artists of any self-definition, institution and origin. In particular, the collective would like to motivate students and people from underrepresented groups in VR art to apply.

About THIS IS FAKE

THIS IS FAKE is a media art collective from Leipzig, founded in 2017, whose members focus on new media, with a particular interest in virtual reality.

The contextual framework that unifies the work and artistic research of the collective is a critical examination of contemporary digital technologies and their content, as well as their effects on the present and future of social contexts in which they are used. They understand artistic practice as mediation and research that brings together various practioners from art, science and beyond in order to develop perspectives and questions concerning contemporary discourses of digitisation.

The collective has realised several exhibition projects nationwide (e.g: "Schönheitsuniversum", Galerie Off Galaxy, Nuremberg, 2018, "The Transcendence Is Deceitful In All Dreams", Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 2018 and "digital overload", Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, 2018). As a recent example, during the "Open VR Lab" as part of the exhibition "Good Friends", c/o Galerie Kunstpunkt (Berlin, 2017) and the autumn academy "Are Other Worlds Possible", Academy of Visual Arts (Leipzig, 2018), topics related to the keyword "immersion" and the associated techniques were examined theoretically and worked on practically in an experimental environment.

Location

The programme takes place in Zeitz, an industrial city in the south of Saxony-Anhalt with good connections to Leipzig, takes place in the studio spaces of an old pasta factory (Nudel), which is being converted into a 11,000 m2 creative center since 2016.

Nudel is a place for artists and professionals. In the lower part of the building there is a coworking space and several studios of freelance artists, as well as accommodations for residents and visitors. That makes the location an exciting field for creative exchange and artistic research.

Shared working space ~220m²
VR-Equipment 4 PCs + 4 VR systems (3 HTC Vive, 1 HTC Vive Pro)