Open Call

«BODY-MACHINES-PUBLICS»: A glocal network exploring bodies in the age of computer mediated reality

«BODY-MACHINES-PUBLICS» brings together a «glocal» (global and local) network of cultural and research partners in Switzerland, India and Chile that seek to provide time and space for artists and creators to develop prototypes and works exploring the sensitive body and technical mediation in relation to public space. The project is a two year collaborative initiative between NAVE (Chile), KHOJ Studios (India), Immersive Arts Space/ZHdK (Zurich, Switzerland) and Kornhausforum (Bern, Switzerland) and is supported by the Pro Helvetia Synergies Program.

People increasingly interact with technologies on an intimate level which successfully blur the lines between the physical and the digital; the body and its interaction with its environment. The human body thus becomes a dynamic human-machine interface that senses and expands our understanding of the physical world surrounding us. At the same time, the involutary data collection and machine-led decisions that arise from these sensing technologies exacerbates historical inequalities, particularly affecting marginalized groups. Addressing the capture of human motion, thoughts and experience by way of the body is therefore an ongoing challenge that requires new kinds of creative and imaginative practices.

«BODY-MACHINES-PUBLICS» aims to show how new forms of artistic-based research can play a crucial role in expanding critical discourse around the interaction of the body and technology in our contemporary society. We are interested in the contribution of artists who are processually exploring the relationship between existing power structures using both digital and physical technologies such as wearable sensors, VR/AR headsets or other data gathering systems and the possibility of challenging them through artistic creation, where the human body lies at the center of the exploration. Proposals for installations, and/or performative interventions indoors and outdoors are particularly welcome.

Call for Proposals

For 2024, the «BODY-MACHINES-PUBLICS» project invites Swiss artists together with Chilean visual, performing and media artists, designers, architects or researchers working between art, technology and science for a joint research residency at the Immersive Arts Space and Kornhausforum Bern in Switzerland. Artists for the residencies can apply through an open call from May 6, 2024-June 12, 2024. The residency will last four weeks, two weeks in each institution (Immersive Arts Space and Kornhausforum) between 5.9. – 5.10.2024. The aim of the residency is to develop prototypes and works that can be publicly exhibited. In each venue, technical and production support will be provided as well as artist and production fees. The selected artists will also be involved in internal and public workshops at the venues and will present their research work in progress to local artistic and research communities.

Submission deadline: June 9, 2024

More information and submission: blog.zhdk.ch