Applying For Art Residency Open Calls
Meet Dasha Ilina
I graduated from Parsons Paris in 2018 with a BFA degree in Art, Media, and Technology.
“After graduating, I spent a lot of my time applying to various art prizes, residencies, grants, and festivals. Some of which I got accepted to and some of which I didn’t. In Europe, lots of applications are free, which is great because the only thing stopping you from applying at that point is having the time to do the application. This year I was accepted to EMAP – European Media Arts Platform – a network of European residencies co-funded by Creative Europe. You have to apply with a project idea in mind and then list the art spaces part of this consortium in order of your preference for your residency space. Each center is different, meaning not only that they focus on different aspects or themes in media art, but also that they offer different kinds of spaces and tools. The space in which I will be doing my residency is called IMPAKT in Utrecht in the Netherlands, and the residency will begin in April and will last two months.
The project I applied with intends to create an ethnography, documenting the folk strategies around the uses of technology, with a specific focus on saving damaged or dying devices, and the sharing of mythologies to explain the obfuscated workings of algorithms used in social media applications. The project will take the shape of a book as well as a video piece. While the intended publication will aim to document socially adapted ‘strategies’ — ways individuals ‘protect themselves’ from algorithms, as well as how to protect devices from whatever disasters may occur to them or ultimately how to repair a broken device. The video will document the interviews performed in gathering information for the publication itself, as well as containing found footage from the internet — where most of ‘techlore’ (folklore about technology) is shared. (And if you are interested in being interviewed — just send me a message!)
When it comes to applying to open calls, I find it really hard to predict whether I have a good chance of getting accepted or not, so most times if I have the time and an idea that would fit the open call and the framework sounds interesting — I will just try my luck. It’s impossible to know what the jury is looking for, so it’s always worth applying, in my opinion. And even if you don’t get accepted, this does not mean that your work isn’t good — maybe it just didn’t fit the specific criteria the jury was looking for and someone from the jury could still reach out to you in the future to show your work because they liked your application but it just didn’t fit that specific context. Overall, my advice is to apply to as many things as possible, as long as the project you’re proposing fits the theme (at least loosely) if there is one.”
You can see some examples of Dasha’s work below!
