Sonic Acts and Rupert establish ALTERLIFE, a residency programme focused on collaborative responses to the compounding ecological crisis.

OPEN CALL
Sonic Acts and Rupert seek an interdisciplinary artist or collective for a two-part research and production residency at Rupert in Vilnius, Lithuania (September–October 2024), and with Sonic Acts in Amsterdam, the Netherlands (February 2025).

Applications are accepted until 1 April 2024. Jury interviews with shortlisted candidates will take place 10–11 April. Applicants will be notified by 15 April.

The Project
The climate crisis is a crisis of the imagination, writer Amitav Ghosh warned in The Great Derangement. He states, we are unable to think through the scale and violence of climate change in our culture. The ethics of individualism value personal experiences above structural and collective ones. Yet individual bodies cannot get you out of entanglements, notes Indigenous feminist scholar Michelle Murphy, ‘embodiment does not provide a respite or escape from history, from infrastructures, from relations of power.’

Human bodies do not end at the skin, as Donna Haraway puts it. They expand into the environment, and mirror it back to us. We are living in what Murphy describes as the state of ‘alterlife’, transformed by the chemical entanglements built up in our societies over the centuries of colonial and capitalist exploitation of both humans and non-humans.

Guided by the methodology of critical walking practices, we invite proposals that use imagination to forge alliances and create alternative narratives about our political realities. Wandering is both a political and cultural activity, according to author Rebecca Solnit, ‘an embodied presence in motion connecting us to inner and outer realms.’

How can passing through space critically help us understand and reimagine our environment, our shared histories, and each other, showing us where we can go together? How can we think of alterlife as a starting point for a different approach to life?

What is expected
The project begins with a two-month research residency at Rupert in Vilnius, Lithuania from September to October 2024. Next is a one-month residency in the Netherlands in February 2025, followed by the development and production of a new commission for exhibition at Rupert and Sonic Acts in late 2025 and early 2026.

Who can apply
This residency welcomes all EU-based artists during the duration of the residency (2024–2025). We encourage individual artists or duos who take a multidisciplinary approach, particularly practices which incorporate sound and video.

The Offer
Fully funded stays at Rupert (September–October 2024) and Sonic Acts (February 2025)
Stipend of 3.400 euros for a 3-month residency period in both locations, travel to both locations (up to 400 euros per location), and research/production support for an artwork (to be discussed with the resident)
Research project featured on Sonic Acts and Rupert website or publications
Feedback sessions with the resident, help in working on funding applications, productional support
Production of the artwork and its exhibition at Rupert (2025) and Sonic Acts Biennial (2026)
Residency at Rupert

Individual artists or collectives are provided with one residency studio (maximum 2 person occupancy) and one stipend for two months. Applications can be submitted by families, but note that the kitchen, bathroom and toilet facilities at Rupert are shared between the residents and other tenants in the building. You can find more information in Rupert’s FAQ.

Residency at Sonic Acts

Sonic Acts’ studio infrastructure consists of two state-of-the-art audio/video studios equipped with professional audio, video and lighting equipment. These studios are modular and can be configured per project. Sonic Acts has an extensive multichannel audio setup, 3D and VR glasses and projectors, various workstations, streaming facilities, and high-end cameras, sensors, microphones and field recording kits. In addition, the organisation owns software licenses for professional audio and video productions, 3D modeling and spatial sound. An electronics workshop is available for building instruments and prototypes, and several workplaces for makers and designers. Sonic Acts archive, both in physical form and digitally, is available for research.

Selection Process
The selection committee includes two members of the curatorial team of Sonic Acts (Mirna Belina, Maud Seuntjens), two from Rupert (Viktorija Šiaulytė, JL Murtaugh), and independent jury members: artists Marissa Lee Benedict, David Rueter, and others to be confirmed.

How to Apply
Sonic Acts and Rupert invite prospective international residents to submit a CV, portfolio (up to 5 works, maximum 10 pages and 10 MB), and project description (up to 600 words).

Applications are accepted through Homerun and throughout 1 April 2024 until 23:59 (CET). Interviews with shortlisted candidates will take place 10–11 April. We will notify the selected applicant by 15 April.

Apply via Sonic Acts here.