AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

from art-agenda

Call for Submissions:

"Supernatural: Stories of Worlds to Come"

June 20–August 15, 2017

Cinekid
Kattenburgerstraat 5
1018 JA Amsterdam
Netherlands
http://www.cinekid.nl

Exploring present and future narratives through media art, with Capitaine futur as your tech guide

Three new media artworks will be commissioned by an international partnership comprising Cinekid, La Gaîté Lyrique and KIKK Festival, along with special partner WoeLab. The theme of the partners' joint project, "Supernatural: Stories of Worlds to Come," is an invitation to artists and designers to explore the transformations of the hybrid ecology era. The selected artworks will be announced on the 31st annual Cinekid Festival in October 2017 and will tour festivals and exhibition spaces in 2018 and 2019.

Cinekid, La Gaîté Lyrique, KiKK Festival and WoeLab—based in Paris, Amsterdam, Namur and Lomé, respectively—are pleased to announce Les Voyages de Capitaine futur. An open call for proposals for the project will launch on June 20 and close on August 15. The four partners, who specialise in media art and technology-based design with a focus on programming for young people, will present the three selected media artworks during an international tour of their festivals and exhibition spaces throughout 2018 and 2019.

Open call for the development of media art projects
The theme of the open call pertains to hybrid ecology—our technological environments are increasingly becoming natural elements in our lives. A host of singular species coexist in this new world: virtual animals, mutant plants, electronic viruses, insatiable computers, memory rocks, tentacular networks, autodidact algorithms, domestic robots, cybernetic forests and more. Is this new organic, composite world an intermediate stage of natural evolution or a "big bang" of singularities? What tools must we craft to survive, experience, adjust to and negotiate these new types of coexistence?

The call aims to elicit poetic visions, narrative approaches and fictional tales that recount a land where humans are no longer central and undergo a metamorphosis upon contact with heterogeneous beings.

Internationally renowned artists
The project partners expect a large number of international submissions to the open call. Past projects commissioned by the partners for festivals and exhibitions include works by internationally renowned artists such as Marshmallow Laser Feast, Zach Lieberman, Theodore Watson & Emily Gobeille, Artificial Nature, Kyle Mc Donald, Nils Völker and Benjamin Gaulon.

About Capaitaine futur
The central figure in the Les Voyages de Capitaine futur project is Capitaine futur, a recurring storytelling vehicle created by La Gaîté Lyrique that has already featured in a number of exhibitions. This new endeavour marks the imaginary explorer's first international appearance as a protagonist of media art, of sorts. His role in the project brings to mind the philosophical tales, and literary characters of the works of Jules Verne and Casper David Friedrichs' Der Wanderer, a symbol for romantic notions of the future of the world. Visit the website of Capitaine futur for more information about the open call, regulations and deadlines: http://capitainefutur.voyage/

The four partners
Cinekid is one of the world's oldest and most renowned annual festivals for children and young people, with programming on film, television, digital media and for professionals. The festival's MediaLab holds a major exhibition of interactive artworks and installations. Cinekid is based in Amsterdam, with a presence across the Netherlands and internationally as part of special projects.

La Gaîté Lyrique is cultural institution in Paris that specialises in emerging forms of digital culture and the dialogue between art, technology, research and society.

KIKK is an annual international festival for digital and creative culture based in Namur, Belgium, which explores the intersections between art, science and technology.

WoeLab is a centre for technological democracy that spearheads a network of local tech hubs in its hometown of Lomé, Togo, and elsewhere in West Africa. The centre promotes the pooling of resources and knowledge, local collective action and technology reuse.