Call for Applications until 1st of Dec: Project Simularr, New Forms of Collaborative Aesthetics

About the Project

Simularr posits a novel mode of collaborative artistic process based on simultaneity and spatiality. These two elements act as ‘basic’ or ‘boundary’ concepts that guide artists working together, preserving diversity and individuality among the group, while binding the process as a whole and bridging boundaries between different practices. We aim to create new aesthetic approaches that reveal the collaborative process without collapsing to a single or synchronised position / object. The project designs methods that facilitate contact among the concurrent artistic processes and understanding how these concepts affect them. What are reference frames that allow to establish a “togetherness, at the same time”, and how do different types of spaces—thought spaces, aesthetic spaces, architectural spaces—and their corresponding modes of spatiality interact and interfere? (Footnote 1)

This open call is for the project’s first working interval (April–May 2023), an in-situ phase that brings together artists-researchers to develop simultaneous ways of working, in close proximity and contact (footnote 2). During this period, the team will work with the invited artists-researchers distributed in labs and studios, where condensation happens along “thought spaces” as we bring our practices into contact with the shared concepts. Exchange happens in weekly gatherings and intermittent visits to each others’ working environment. The idea is to engage in common workshop-like activities, such as reading together, collecting materials together, sharing and discussing tools, strategies, and methods.

Embedded in the first interval is a two weeks intensive phase (10 - 23 April 022), a retreat to a particular architectural space whose affordances now become surfaces of condensation. This spatial conditioning also forms the basis for architectural designs. At the end of each interval, artefacts and propositions are displayed and performed, giving structural role to aesthetic spaces. The project’s process and output are documented online and disseminated and complemented through international events and a book.

The team consists of sound and digital artist Hanns Holger Rutz (principal investigator, IEM, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz), installation artist Nayarí Castillo (principal investigator, ISD, Graz University of Technology), architectural researcher Franziska Hederer (national partner, ISD, Graz University of Technology), and sound artist Daniele Pozzi (research associate). Across the project, they are working with invited artists-researchers and a board of advisors.

(footnote 1) For our approach to transversal spatiality see: Hanns Holger Rutz and Nayarí Castillo (2021), “Three Spaces.” In: Proceedings of 9th Conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics & X (xCoAx), edited by Miguel Carvalhais, Mario Verdicchio, Luísa Ribas, and André Rangel, pp. 290–306. Porto: i2ADS, University of Porto. https://2021.xcoax.org/data/pdf/xCoAx2021-Rutz.pdf.

(footnote 2) We understand simultaneity as a mode of togetherness without the need to be in a causal, hierarchical, or functionally distinguished relationship, a mode that transcends a call-response interchange.

Who the Call Addresses

This call is directed at mid-career artists-researchers with prior experience in collaborative approaches and whose work incorporates spatial practices (e.g. intermedia, installation art, sound art, new media art, performing arts). Applicants should be able to demonstrate this through their past work (consistent portfolio / research material). They are capable and interested in exposing and reflecting their process and work through writing, discussion and other forms of discourse. They have an understanding of the field of artistic research, and they are intrigued by developing and sharing new approaches and methods for collaborative artistic practice and research with the team and with other artists-researchers during interval.

Residency

During the artistic research residency, you will work collaboratively with the project team, yet exploring the new mode of simultaneous activity envisioned by the project—a togetherness in independence, aiming for a movement towards each other (“simultaneous arrival”) via regular exchange and group activities. You are expected to work both independently and collaboratively during the residency. You are contracted to participate as a peer in the process of developing the new model for artistic collaboration, and while for this process the work through your artistic practice is central, the goal of the residency is not the completion of particular autonomous artworks. Instead, we call the tangible outcomes “artefacts and propositions”, to highlight their epistemic status, a state of not-yet or no-longer, hybrid things between physical and immaterial, between verbal and non-verbal. It is in the nature of collaboration that we may no longer clearly delineate the authorship of any of these outcomes, and an important part of the initial process is to agree on the terms of use (and future use) of the traces we produce during the project, both regarding legal and ethical issues.
The artefacts and propositions will be presented locally and internationally by the project team, and will find their way into various publications, and you are invited to attend events related to the project.

How to Apply

We recommend you to carefully read through the the project's website: https://simularr.net. Please fill out the form provided at https://simularr.net/call/form.pdf and send it to info@simularr.net along with the required accompanying documents. We aim at the composition of a diverse team, and we encourage applications from female and non-binary artists-researchers.

Conditions

• Duration of residency: 2 months. You are expected to spend the months of April and May 2023 without major interruptions in Graz. The residency is based on a 50% (20 hours/week) workload, thus you can attribute part of your time to other remote work. If necessary, the residency can be split into two parts with an interruption of up to two weeks around the break between April and May, thus possibly ending in the beginning of June. The two weeks retreat 10.–23.04.2023 requires full time on-site attendance.
• For non-EU citizens, upon completion of the application process (December 2022), applicants must have their visa/passport situation sorted to come to Austria, if restrictions apply. We are happy to provide a letter of invitation.
• Ahead of the research residency, i.e. between January and April, you must be available for a brief weekly or bi-weekly online contact (Jitsi or Zoom), in order to discuss the method, communication strategies and ethics, our thought processes, materials needed, reading suggestions etc. ahead of the in-situ period.
• Remuneration: 6,300 EUR total (Werkvertrag - contract for specific work; gross value subject to taxation where applicable). You must cover your travelling and accommodation expenses from this sum. In particular, you are expected to work at the studio apartment “Reagenz (Ost)” in Graz, which will be billed at 380 EUR all-inclusive per month. Covering of additional material costs you need to conduct the research may be agreed.