R23 - Understanding intelligence: Across human and other-than-human worlds

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Caption
Block design test, a subset from the WISC III (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) developed in 1991 in the USA. The block test was used to assess spatial visualization ability and motor skill.
Authors
Helge Brekke / MUV
UiO

R23 - Understanding intelligence: Across human and other-than-human worlds

Residency developed with Sophia Efstathiou, Ageliki Lefkaditou and the Museum of Cultural History at University of Oslo.

What is intelligence? Can intelligence be owned, given, or lost? Does it arise from our genes or our environment, or some mixture of both? Who can be thought of as intelligent and who is excluded from this category? How have science, society and art historically been dealing with intelligence - and how could they?

Residency 23, Understanding intelligence, invites a multidisciplinary group of artists, scientists, and others to explore concepts and constructs of intelligence.

This residency asks how constructs of intelligence are measured, used and abused, and how changing understandings of human and more-than-human worlds might require radical redefinitions. Through creative engagement with concepts of human and other-than-human intelligence, intelligence testing and the resources of existing research projects, the residency aims to stimulate new understandings of intelligence through dialogue and creative activity. The residents will explore questions of control, freedom and access, and how lines are drawn between the pathological and the normal, nature and culture, and human and animal.

Residency 23, Understanding intelligence is developed in collaboration with the University of Oslo (UiO) research project Historicizing intelligence: Tests, metrics and the shaping of contemporary society, which is based at the Museum of Cultural History, at its department Museum of University History (MUV). Historicizing intelligence examines how the scientific research object “intelligence” and related testing technologies have come into being through transnational exchanges, how they have acquired various roles and functions in Norway, and how intelligence measurements are woven into relations of authority and legitimacy. Residents will have the opportunity to engage both with a multidisciplinary research team of historians, social anthropologists, science and technology scholars, jurists, and educationalists, and with materials in the historical collection on intelligence testing at the University of Oslo.

Residents will also have the opportunity to engage with work on human-animal relationships that is part of the research project MEATigation: Towards sustainable meat-use in Norwegian food practices for climate mitigation, based at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and partly at the University of Oslo.


Applications are welcomed from artists, practitioners, theorists and others whose interests and experience are relevant to the residency’s theme - for example, individuals who are presently investigating and making work/generating knowledge that relates to concepts of intelligence. Selected residents will be part of a temporary community of between around eight local and international participants. The residency will involve group activities, discussions, readings and creative exchange around the residency theme, as well as time for independent working. Selection is based on the relevance of the application and the applicant’s ability both to gain from, and contribute to, the activities of the month-long residency. PRAKSIS aims to provide an environment for development and professional growth: applications are welcome from practitioners of differing ages and experience levels.

PRAKSIS is currently located in one of Oslo’s oldest buildings and does not have step free access. If this will be difficult for you, please inform us after receiving a place on the residency and we will make arrangements to run the residency from an accessible location.

  • This residency is free of charge and offers comfortable accommodation for non-Oslo based residents in central Oslo. Local residents will continue to live at their usual address. The residency community will regularly come together at PRAKSIS and other locations, and at events and meals.
  • Selected international participants receive a stipend of 3000 NOK (approximately €300) towards additional costs.
  • Weekly meals encourage discussion, debate and friendship. On weekdays PRAKSIS will provide lunch at PRAKSIS HQ. Dinners for all residents plus invited guests are held weekly.

Residents are responsible for their own travel and any further costs. Two places are available for international residents. Further places may be offered subject to securing support. Approximately four to six spaces are available to local residents. The team is happy to support applications for external grants wherever possible.

Requirements:

  • English is the common language at PRAKSIS and residencies must be sufficiently fluent to participate in group discussion and activity.
  • Residents are expected to involve themselves fully in the work of the residency: joining meals, participating in events and engaging with the resident community.
  • Accepting a residency involves a commitment to participation for the full residency term.

Application guidelines:

  • Fill out the online form. Deadline 20 June 2022.
  • Upload a recent CV/resume.
  • Upload a portfolio (only one PDF file). Up to 5 images. The images should include captions or short descriptions. For videos/films, please provide links to your own website, Vimeo page, YouTube page, etc. Do not attach actual video files.
  • Include contact details for two referees.
  • Pay an administration fee of 75 NOK towards part of the cost of administering your application.
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