The goal of the Mutations web residency is to engage artist collectives working on the heterogenous theme of mutations – biological, sociopolitical, technological – in relation to the global digital divide. It aims to support artists, programmers, hacktivists, researchers, and other practitioners that offer mutations to the aesthetic and political underpinning of digital and internet-based art. Here, mutations can be understood as biological and computer code alike, impacting both natural and media ecologies. Likewise, the organisers welcome, for example, practices that directly interrogate the changing landscape of the surface and dark web, the extractive geological industry that sustains these infrastructures, and the embedded economic and political inequalities of our networked existence. They hope to attract applicants with a practice that moves beyond raising awareness around issues in favor of intervening directly on the systems in question.
In direct response to the constantly evolving nature of digital online work, Akademie Schloss Solitude do not prescribe the format in which applicants choose to present their work. Likewise, rather than requesting the formulation of a new project, the Mutations web residency offers means to sustain ongoing initiatives that would benefit from Akademie Schloss Solitude’s creative community, as well as the time and financial resources to continue moving ideas forward.
For this call, the Mutations Research Group selects five project proposals, whose creators are rewarded with a four-week residency and an 800-euro grant.
