Open Call: More-than-Planet 2023 Residencies

What kind of future are we headed towards? In a world where 75% of the Earth’s land area is under the direct human influence the way we understand and imagine the planet has a fundamental impact on the environment. Imagining the future of our planet is based on underlying concepts, value systems, visual cultures, and technologies used to describe the Earth’s environment.

What new perspectives, knowledge, and novel solutions can we imagine in an era of accelerating environmental change? The Earth’s climate is changing at an unprecedented rate due to human influence. The man-made technosphere is merging with the cycle of life from microbes down to Earth’s bedrock and from the depths of the oceans to the atmosphere and space, resulting in an interdependent, hybrid environment. We must change the way we do things in terms of energy, resources, and the living environment – to name but a few of the challenges – and adopt more sustainable practices. How to adapt to the changes that are already happening? How to prepare for those that are likely to come? What is the role of local knowledge, on one hand, and information acquired from space, the depths of the earth, and through satellites and remote sensing, on the other, in describing our hybrid landscapes and lifeforms?

The residency programme calls for artists and workgroups who approach future studies, change detection, and environmental change broadly through art and science. The More-than-Planet project and its residency programmes aim to re-examine our understanding of the bigger picture on the planetary level. The themes of the residency are observation of environmental change and artistic exploration of alternative futures and solutions through questions concerning climate, ecology, land use patterns, water ecology, the carbon cycle and social and cultural change. We look for artists who develop and challenge traditional forms of collaboration of art and science, questioning and offering new perspectives. The artists are expected to work in collaboration with both researchers and local communities. The residency is open to all forms of art but places an emphasis on artistic practices that employ lens-based techniques. The residencies will take place in 2023 and 2024.

This open call for artists seeks proposals that open new perspectives and develop novel ideas for works that draw on different methods, technologies, scenarios, and identifiable experiences leading to a deeper and broader picture of the change and the solutions it calls for.

The artist or the group selected will be invited to a two-month residency for artistic research and exploration at the:

1) Callio Lab underground research station in Pyhäsalmi mine and the surrounding communities, or;

2) the multidisciplinary research station in Oulanka National Park and the local communities. Our satellite and remote sensing data collaboration partner is the European Space Agency’s earth observation unit ESRIN (ESA Centre for Earth Observation) located in Frascati, Italy.

The artist or group will be paid a total of 15,000 EUR for a two-month period of residency and independent work resulting in a new artwork. The residency period will run from April 2023 to May 2024. The residency programme will finance the accommodation and travel expenses of the participants and support the production of the works in terms of content, production and technology. The duration of the continuous working period in the residency location is 2-4 weeks depending on the situation, contract, and schedules.

During the residency, the artist will create a new work or body of works for the More-than-Planet exhibition at the gallery of Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre in Oulu, Finland in autumn 2024. The works will also be part of the Photo North – Nordic Photographic Centre’s Oulu European Capital of Culture 2026 project.

In addition, the residency projects of the More-than-Planet project aim for participation in the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria in September 2023, where the processes and the finished works (if available) will be presented. Ars Electronica is an annual digital art festival that explores the future through art, technology, and social phenomena.

The resident artists are selected by a jury of four members: Antti Tenetz, More-than-Planet project manager (Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre), Darja Zaitsev, executive director, curator (Photo North – Northern Photographic Centre), and Emmi Itäranta renowned Finnish fiction author.

In addition to the artistic portfolio of the applicant or the group, the selection will be based on evaluation of the concept of the work, its artistic quality, the feasibility of the plan and its relation to the themes of the residencies of the More-than-Planet project. We welcome mind-blowing, novel ways of thinking and provocative perspectives. The jury may contact the applicants for further information prior to selection. The implementation and the content of the works will be developed in collaboration with the project participants.

Deadline for applications: 28.2.2023. Please apply online.