Digital Diasporas | online residency for Chinese and Chinese diaspora artists

Open Call from China Residences for Digital Diasporas. Host organizations Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (4A in Sydney, Australia), Chronus Art Center (Shanghai, China), and Gendai (Toronto, Canada) are seeking applications from Chinese and Chinese diaspora artists, curators, and collectives interested in collective, intercultural and cross-border development and research, connection and solidarities.

The remote, online residency will be facilitated by three host organizations between mid-October to mid-December 2021. Each resident or collective will primarily work with one host organization in Canada, Australia, or China and all residents as a cohort will be in dialogue with one another through convenings. Each resident or collective will be awarded an unrestricted stipend of AUD $10,000 for their participation. Each host organisation will design a program of remote/online mentoring, networking, research and development for the resident they host.

Digital Diasporas will host:

      • one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese diaspora in or from Australia (citizen or permanent resident)
      • one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese diaspora in or from Canada (citizen or permanent resident)
      • one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese, regardless of what passport they hold or where they reside

2020 marked a pivotal shift for the Chinese diaspora around the world. The world's watchful eye on the People’s Republic of China, where the COVID-19 pandemic started, and subsequent travel restrictions, communication bans, and algorithmic biases only exacerbated echo chambers. In some places, the lack of government support devastated Chinatowns and drove poor and working class immigrants into further precarity. Racial tensions drove a horrific rise in violence directed at people thought to be of Chinese descent, or from any of the places we now call “Asia.” All of this has brought into focus pre-existing dynamics that have simmered in the background for centuries.

Yet at a time when we are the most separated and divided in recent history, solidarities emerged to end all forms of supremacy and imagine a better world. We are heartened by outpourings of support, (re)new(ed) interest in exploring complicated histories, dedication to weaving mutual aid networks and resisting displacement at the local level and generative responses at the regional and global scale. We look forward to supporting this ongoing work and creating connections between efforts worldwide.

Building person to person connections across borders is more important than ever. In this open call, we want to hear from artists, collectives, and curators who self-identify and find it useful to gather under a "Chinese and Chinese diaspora" cohort. This is a time for research, exploration and learning. We are looking for openness to collective, intercultural and cross-border development and research.

We welcome experimental, digital, and/or research-based practices, and people who feel an alignment with and interest in all three of the host organizations' networks and programming. We’re especially interested in ideas that explore diasporic cultures and spaces, flows of people, goods and capital, alternative community and kin-making, digital cultures, media arts, philosophies of technology and place-making—and any intersections of these.

Everyone is encouraged to apply, especially if you have never applied to anything in the past. We are particularly interested in applications that resist and interrogate stereotypical or reactionary impulses, instead turning our gaze towards the difficult but necessary conversations, care, and solidarities we might build across borders.

Deadline for applications: 15 July 2021