Berlin | Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research

The Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research is a cooperation between the Vilém Flusser Archive at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and transmediale, festival for art and digital culture Berlin. A call for artistic research projects that actively explore the capabilities and limitations of transdisciplinary and transmedial situations in contemporary culture. We understand artistic research as an exploration of the links between aesthetics, materiality, and politics.

“We ‘know’ that there is nothing wonderful about the world, or about ourselves, (...) and still we produce wonder after wonder. Perhaps (...) what science is really about is not to explain wonders, but to create them.”
Vilém Flusser

For Vilém Flusser, theory and praxis are intrinsically tied to each other. His nomadic thinking was shaped by a philosophy of positions; experimental testing of different ways of thinking and the linking of different disciplines and methodologies played a significant role in his work. Not the search for the truth but rather the playing around with the aesthetic constitution of truth characterized his thinking, often developed in dialogue with others. A fundamental principle of his philosophy is the dialogue between the disciplines, points of views, and methodologies. Knowledge production as a dialog between different standpoints (between science and art, laboratory and applied research, old and new media, local and global forms of organization) is therefore the guiding principle for the concept of artistic research, which is supported by the Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research.

Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research

With the two-month residency program, we would like to support projects and works in different stages of development, from the first conceptual steps up to significant advancements of already existing projects and works. A comprehensible research interest is of importance for the jury’s decision; the relation between the work and issues and questions addressed in its research with the context of our society as a whole; first ideas regarding the approach during the period of the residency (strategy, workshops, presentations, etc.); and the connection to the focus of the Vilém Flusser Residency Program for Artistic Research.

This is not a production grant. During the period of the residency at least one workshop and public presentation in the framework of transmediale and UdK is expected from the selected resident. However, there is no pressure to present finished works. Where applicable, the support of publications, exhibitions, interventions and other results of the residency may be negotiated on a project-to-project basis. One month before the start of the residency, details will be prepared/discussed in regular meetings between the resident, transmediale and the Vilém Flusser Archive (also possible via skype). In the selection process, special priority will be given to young and/or emerging artist-researchers.

Note
The period of residency is two months, between May and July 2017. The details of the final period will be defined in agreement with the selected resident.

The residency covers:
# travel costs to Berlin
# stipend/grant of 1.300 EUR per month
# workspace at the Vilém Flusser Archive at the University of Arts (UdK) in Berlin.