Fractal Horses

(The deadline for this call is over)

»There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns.
If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself.
What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher.«
– Chuck Palahniuk

People want patterns. They communicate with patterns, live in patterns. Patternalism prevails. Some patterns are so obvious they can’t be true. Others are so complex they can’t be true. – And some are just right. Or beautiful.

Chaos theory is a dark horse of science. It teaches us to expect the unexpected and deals with things that are essentially impossible to foresee or control. It changes the view on our patterned existence. For it is chaos that permeates our lives, appearing from a tiny snowflake to the World Wide Web, which echoes the infinite complexity of nature. Any little shift can change everything.

We are looking for works that challenge the multiplicity and tensions of patterns and chaos – in any new art media discipline such as visual, music, sculpture, games or writing. We are looking for artists who face the nonlinear and the unpredictable, who design algorithms to draft the flap of a butterfly’s wings, watching out for the change of the course and the rhythm of the world to come.

It is easy to trace a path, but it is difficult to create a sophisticated journey.

Web Residencies

The international artist residency Akademie Schloss Solitude and the ZKM | Center for Art and Media award Web Residencies three times a year.

The Web Residencies program was initiated by Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2016 to support young talents from the international digital scene as well as artists of all disciplines who deal with Web-based practices to present the process and results of their work online.

For each call, the curator selects three to four project proposals, whose creators are rewarded with a four-week residency and 500 USD. The focus of the Web Residencies does not lie in the finished art piece but rather the process. Artists are invited to experiment with digital technologies and new art forms at the surface of digital art and communication, and reflect on the topics set by the curators.

Web Residencies are carried out exclusively online, and the works will be presented on schloss-post.com and web-residencies.zkm.de.

Former Solitude fellows or students may apply. There is no age limit.

Applicants for the Web Residencies are welcome to participate in a maximum of three calls. Different projects must be submitted for each call.

Learn more about the program.

Format

All formats – e.g. websites, applications, installations, videos, games, sculptures, writing, social media projects, optical illusions, music – are accepted. If specific software/environments are needed, please contact us in advance.

Grant

For each call, the curator selects three to four project proposals, whose creators are rewarded with a four-week residency and 500 USD. A short list of the best contributions will also be published online.

Application

Submit your project proposal in the form of:

– a headline

– a concept text in English (1,000–1,500 characters with spaces)

– a header image (high resolution, landscape format)

– a short bio in English (500 characters with spaces)

– a portfolio PDF (images, text, links)

Timeline

Call opens: May 15, 2017
Deadline: June 23
Jury selection: June 23–27
Web Residencies: July 3–August 3

Juror

Claudia Maté (b. 1985, Spain) lives and works in London. She works in a large area of new media and online works. Her works come from a variety of formats including programming, 3D, video, video games, VR, GIF, and sound. She is cofounder and curator at cloaque.org. Her work blends the familiar with the odd, and the futuristic with strange retro tropes. She has realized her ambition to fuse the Internet and interactive 3D technology into an aesthetic that is nonideological and defines a never-ending new aesthetic – into a surreal and pixelated world where anything is possible, and nothing is as it seems.