OPEN CALL
Mensch-Maschine // Human-Machine
The Junge Akademie of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin in partnership with VISIT, the artist-in-residence programme of the innogy Stiftung für Energie und Gesellschaft foundation, is offering a new international fellowship to fund projects at the interface between art and science on the topic of the human-machine relationship. Artists from all disciplines may apply with a project for the very first time online from 1 March 2020 and are invited to explore this complex subject area using artistic research approaches.
GRANT: 20.000 Euro
Apply here: http://www.visit-junge-adk.de/en/
The deadline for application is 30 April 2020.
Topic
The complex relationship between human and machine has been the subject of art and artistic practice since the beginning of the Industrial Age. In the face of digitalisation and the emergence and development of digital technologies, the topic has taken on new meaning. In contrast to the machine concept of industrialisation, the hidden digital ecosystem of artificial intelligences is ushering in the second machine age. This is having an effect on our intellectual abilities similar to that of the steam engine on physical strength. Whether human intelligence will be exceeded or even replaced remains speculative. Nevertheless, self-developing algorithmic systems have already made their mark on our perception, stimulating, regulating and controlling our behaviour, making decisions and bringing new forms of the authoritarian and surveillance to the fore. Against this background, fundamental philosophical, economic, ecological and ethical concepts as well as images of the world we live in are being questioned by the new human-machine interfaces in the technosphere and the age of the Anthropocene. They shift through new types of networking, interaction and collaboration between human and machine or are completely transformed. On the other hand, there is the proclamation of alternative ways of being human and the body in relation to nature and technology.
Fictions and utopias around omniscient and sentient machines that turn against humans, develop desires and seek freedom as well as human immortality fantasies dominate the Western cultural imagination. Literature, film and visual arts have a specific aesthetic knowledge in this regard, discussing concepts, playing out scenarios and speculating on futures still to come.
What will differentiate humans from machines if they develop their skills and become self-aware? How will human, machine, nature and body interact? How will the understanding of "human" autonomy change? What will happen to the mind and the collective consciousness when we outsource it to the cloud and allow machines to participate in memories and narratives? Do we lose contact with democracy if machines interpret the world?
Application scope:
Artists from all disciplines are eligible to apply.
The thematic fellowship will be advertised three times until the end of 2022. Each fellowship is endowed with EUR 20,000 respectively and can be used for fees, travel cost, production costs and documentation. It must be possible to show the project in the context of an exhibition/presentation. Fellows shall also be given the opportunity to stay at one of the Akademie der Künste's studios in Berlin's Hansaviertel district as a guest.
All of the information on applying is available from the application portal at www.visit-junge-adk.de
