Spain | international call for artists and social scientists

Improbable Connections 2012 | an international call for artists and social scientists to collaborate with businesses and organisations in the Basque Country (Spain) on innovation and social responsibility projects.

The organisations open for collaboration with artists and social scientists in the period September 2012 - June 2013 are: Artepan (artisanal bakery and pastry maker), EDE Fundazioa (social intervention), Eraikune (construction cluster in Euskadi), Grupo Uvesco (supermarkets), Oiz egin (rural development platform), Orbea (design and manufacture of bicycles) and Silam (Products and solutions based on silicone elastomer).

Who can participate?

Artists, creators, experimental designers and architects, software designers and social scientists interested in developing projects in the fields of innovation and social responsibility.

Both the artists/creators and social researchers can come from any discipline: visual arts, performing arts, literature, music, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, etc.

The call is open to all nationalities, places of residence or ages and you can apply individually or as a group (regardless of legal status).

For what?

Co-creation
The aim is not to carry out an independent process of creation/research, but to become integrated into a team and achieve, by working in a collaborative manner, results that can be converted into a prototype, device, catalogue of ideas, event, visualisation, etc.

Application Deadline: 9am on 25 June 2012

Collaboration period: September 2012 - June 2013.
Payment (grant to be paid to selected artists) 12,000 euros + VAT (including travel and accommodation).

Full guidelines in English: download pdf.

Improbable Connections is a community of collaborative and co-creative research initiatives aimed at innovation and social responsibility. It is based on the paradigms of open innovation and the principles of interrelated fields, disciplines and individuals.

It therefore relates the arts, philosophy, science, business and governance in search of new questions and answers that respond to the needs of all manner of organisations. The connections are supposedly improbable, but possible.

Improbable Connections fosters an environment that is able to promote transformation from the hybridisation of differences. Slow, deeper and more radical innovation backed by joint research and experimentation, as well as by values and people.

Image: Artepan