Inspiration forum Lab: Interdisciplinary Research Program for Artists & Researchers

The Inspiration Forum Lab is an interdisciplinary research program designed to provide a space where artists and scientists can meet and work together on creating collaborative research-based art projects. The aim is to combine the languages of science and art to find forms of expression that can communicate to audiences beyond the boundaries of each of these two worlds.

Working in interdisciplinary groups, the participants will conduct collaborative research in order to develop concepts for their art projects. The final projects will be presented in the Display Gallery and at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Topic of IF LAB 2022/23

• For centuries, bodies of water have served not only as the sources of the drinking water and livelihoods, but also as trade routes and supply chains for the modern capitalist economy. Water has been treated as a resource to be extracted, while at the same time it is imagined as a separate, remote entity capable of absorbing the waste and dissolving anthropogenic pollution. The system that has enabled the commodification of water and the violent exploitation of its various properties is the same one that has caused most of the painfully evident scarcity of freshwater and exacerbated inequalities in access to it. In a time of ecological urgency, a relational rethinking of water seems not only necessary but also necessarily political.
• “They are all bodies of water! What they do to water, they do to everybody, including ourselves.” The words of cultural theorist Astrida Neimanis not only challenge them to reflect on the relationship with water, but are also a call to action. They suggest that by opening up to a different ethic of relation and care between humans and planetary waters, they can also find a new way of connecting to the rest of nature. How can water’s ability to connect the human scale with all other scales of life guide them in finding solutions to urgent ecological issues? What might water teach them about solidarity with other species and each other? And what can they learn about the interdependence with water and moisture from the radical conditions such as those found in deserted areas on Earth or in space?

Program Tutors

• Over the course of the program, participants will be guided by and able to consult their projects with two tutors: Lenka Hámošová and Barbora Kleinhamplová. The expert lectures will be programmed by Jurij Krpan.
  • Lenka Hámošová
    • A visual artist and researcher working with synthetic media and the use of artificial intelligence in artistic practice. As part of her PhD studies at FAMU in Prague, she is specifically interested in the collective perspective of human-AI co-creation and experimenting with participatory approaches to AI-assisted media synthesis. She also focuses on methods of co-creation and interdisciplinary collaboration in her educational and research activities related to the activities of the Uroboros collective (Uroboros Festival), of which she is a co-founder.
  • Barbora Kleinhamplová
    • A visual artist and co-founder of the Institute of Anxiety, where she co-creates its year-round program. In her work, she uses associations and metaphors to explore the question of what constitutes society, what its ills and emotions are, and what its future holds in relation to institutions, work, the economy, and the political situation. She works with performative situations, which are often mediated through video and installations.

Benefits

• Each participant will receive a stipend of €600
• The IF LAB program will run for nine months (from October 2023 through June 2024) and will be followed up by project presentations in the autumn of 2024.

Eligible Countries: EU Member states (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden).

Who are they looking for?

• 9 participants with various backgrounds (artists, filmmakers, architects, designers, social scientists, environmentalists, biologists, technology innovators, etc.), who will create three interdisciplinary groups. The program is designed for individuals who want to experience new interdisciplinary collaborations, not for already-established teams that aim to develop existing projects.
• Age: 25–40 (recommended).
• Fluent in English.

Conditions

• The lecture programme and workshops will take place in Jihlava, Ljubljana, Bratislava, and online.
• Each participant will be provided accommodation and a travel contribution (as sustainable as possible) to the sessions in Jihlava, Ljubljana, Bratislava, and the exhibition in Prague.
• Each group will work with a production budget of €1,500.

Programme & Schedule

• Introductory online meeting with program coordinator, week of 9 October 2023
• Session I: 6-day kick off meeting during Ji.hlava IDFF, Jihlava, Czech Republic, 23-28 October 2023
  • Taking place in the middle of one of Europe’s largest documentary film festivals, the programme of the first session will allow them to immerse ourselves in a wide range of artistic perspectives. The program, consisting of lectures and roundtables, will focus on theoretical knowledge related to the topic of this edition of IF LAB as well as research and creative methods of interdisciplinary collaboration. Workshops will focus on the formation of interdisciplinary groups, as well as defining research topics and outlining formats for their artistic projects.
• Session II: 4-day residency at Kersnikova Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 30 January – 2 February 2024
  • The residency at the Kersnikova Institute, a platform for the development, production, and presentation of contemporary investigative art projects, will be an opportunity to further expand the thinking about the theoretical framework of this round of IF LAB and will also focus on project development. The program will include lectures and discussions on the human-nonhuman relationship and will also introduce the possibilities that laboratory infrastructures can bring to artistic creation. The workshops will allow them to test some of the theses through hands-on work in the lab.
• Session III: 3-day residency at Sensorium, Bratislava, Slovakia, 7-9 June 2024
  • The third session is designed to provide critical feedback and support in the final stages of creating research-based art projects and working towards their presentation in the Display Gallery and beyond. The residency at Sensorium, a festival of digital art and culture, will provide an opportunity to present near-finished art projects to an audience of professionals working at the intersection of art, technology, and science. Workshops and mentoring sessions will focus on strengthening the communication of the main idea of the project.
• Continuous Work on Projects & Consultations, online, November 2023 – September 202
  • Sessions in Jihlava, Ljubljana, and Bratislava will allow you to meet in one place and work together on projects. However, much of the work will take place outside these sessions, mainly online. You will be able to consult with tutors during the development and production of your projects, and there will also be three check-in sessions in early December 2023 and February and April 2024 (online, exact dates tba), during which you will present and discuss your projects with tutors and colleagues from other groups.
• Final Project Presentation: Display Gallery, Prague, 7-30 September 2024 (dates tbc) & during Ji.hlava IDFF, Jihlava, 24-29 October 2024 (dates tbc).

For more information, visit Inspiration forum Lab.