Open Call for Digital Diasporas 联网离散

爻 yáo collaborative maps and weaves the local and global constellations of artists, collectives, culture workers and stewards whose work opens portals for cross-border artistic exchange, friendship, and care between mainland China/HK and the rest of the world.

In 2021 the first iteration of the Digital Diasporas was launched as a distributed, remote residency that gave artists the space to research, cultivate their practice, and convene across borders. Last year's residents Tian Zhang, Amy Lam, and Casey Tang inspired many generative conversations and long-lasting connections about colonialisms in multiple contexts, sustainability and equity in arts practices, and all the ways in which humans, non-humans, and ecologies coexist in all relations.

Digital Diasporas was a spacious opportunity for artists to do deep thinking and form cross-border connections without the pressure of producing a final product. This year, they are excited to bring back this open call for a second iteration with an additional residency host in the United States.

They want to hear from artists, collectives, and curators who self-identify and find it useful to gather under a "Sino and/or Chinese diaspora" cohort. This is a time for research, exploration, and learning. They are looking for openness to collective, intercultural, and cross-border development and research.

They welcome experimental, digital, and/or research-based practices, and people who feel an alignment with and interest in any or all of the host organisations' networks and programming. They are especially interested in ideas that explore diasporic cultures and spaces, flows of people, goods and capital, alternative community and kin-making, digital cultures, media arts, philosophies of technology and place-making—and any intersections of these.

Everyone is encouraged to apply, especially if you have never applied to anything in the past. They are particularly interested in applications that resist and interrogate stereotypical or reactionary impulses, instead turning our gaze towards the difficult but necessary conversations, care, and solidarities we might build across borders.

Digital Diasporas will host:

• one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese and/or Sino diaspora in or from Australia (citizen or permanent resident)
• one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese and/or Sino diaspora in or from Canada (citizen or permanent resident)
• one person or collective who self-identifies as Chinese and/or Sino, regardless of what passport they hold or where they reside

The remote, six-week-long online residency will be facilitated by three host organisations in May and June. Each resident or collective will primarily work with one host organisation in Australia, Canada, or the United States and all residents as a cohort will be in dialogue with one another through convenings. Each resident or collective will be awarded an unrestricted stipend of AUD $10,000 for their participation (CAD $10,000 for the Gendai Resident). Each host organisation will design a program of remote/online mentoring, networking, research, and development for the resident they host.

The host organisations are:

• 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney, Australia / the ancestral lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation)
• Gendai (Toronto, Canada / the ancestral territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples)
• Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia, USA / ancestral homelands of the Lenape peoples)

This Digital Diasporas Global Residencies is initiated and funded by the Australian Council for the Arts and supported by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, and Canada Council for the Arts.

Deadline: Wednesday, February 15, 2023 (midnight in your timezone, wherever you are).

The application form can be found here.