Within the framework of the European project S+T+ARTS in the City, HacTe is opening the call for three artist residencies or artist collectives in three research centres in Barcelona for nine months. These artistic residencies seek to contribute to the resolution of scientific challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration and are endowed with €40,000 each.
Specifically, the three Hac Te partner centres that will host these residencies will be: the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (IRI CSIC-UPC) and the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).
Each of the residences will have to contribute to the resolution of one of the following challenges of the center that hosts it:
ICFO – Understanding and designing photosynthesis for a more sustainable future
How does photosynthesis work at the molecular level and how can we improve it? Understanding the processes governing nanoscale energy transfer could advance sustainable agriculture, green energy, and carbon capture. We invite artists to support the scientific challenge of making plants allies even stronger in the fight of large cities like Barcelona against climate change.
UOC – Immersive and digital narratives for climate change
How can sustainable and climate-conscious artistic practices help a city like Barcelona prepare for the climate crisis? Barcelona’s historically privileged geographical position is quickly becoming a challenge: pollution, rising temperatures and the threat of rising sea levels, to name a few, are now very urgent problems, and looking the other way is no longer an option. How can digital artistic practices and storytelling be part of the solution?
IRI CSIC-UPC – Designing the robots of the future
How can the arts play an active role in improving the interaction between humans and robots? In Catalonia, as a result of the ageing of the population, the dependency ratio of the elderly will increase from 28.9 in 2021 to 44.3 in 2040, and to 51.2 in 2070. As technology advances, robots will soon become ubiquitous in human environments. Its role will be especially important for the elderly, as it not only provides a form of companionship and facilitates their independent life, but also helps caregivers to monitor well-being and keep an eye on accidents or falls at home. While these advances bring with them a number of exciting possibilities, deep reflection is needed to ensure that we can safely reconfigure our lives to address issues such as privacy, trust, acceptance, transparency, and honest interactions.
These residencies are part of the S+T+ARTS in the City project, whose main objective is to articulate the ecosystem of each of the six regions that are part of it and to connect European projects. Specifically, Hac Te has been chosen as a catalyst for the Catalan ecosystem and from April 2023 to November 2024 it will deploy a set of actions to boost and promote ACTS practices.
STARTS in the City has been the result of a candidacy led by Gluon (Brussels), together with Meet (Milan), Ars Electronica (Linz), Inova+ (Matosinhos), Kersnikova (Ljubljana) and Hac Te. This consortium promotes a total of eleven artistic residencies where co-creation must solve a specific problem in each region.
The project is also characterized by the desire to strengthen links with the academic world to promote a new curricular approach to teaching in art, science and technology. Once the residencies have been concluded, the business potential of the results will be explored, ensuring that the prototypes produced are viable and provide concrete solutions to the market. Likewise, the results of the residencies will be exhibited in different European festivals and contests, reaching audiences from all over Europe.
The S+T+ARTS programme is funded by the European Commission and supported by the Department of Culture of the Government of Catalonia and with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.
