2024 Scholarship Program

Technological Gaze

Wyvern Art Fund Scholarship Program
March – June 2024

In the digital era, we are not only sentient beings who experience life, we are also measurable units in vast digital networks. We have learned to see ourselves in a way that is convenient for the digital platforms to archive information: names, genders, blood types, health records, educational backgrounds, income level, ID numbers…Even the deceased ones continue to live on in the network of information with a “death certificate”. Instead of being the subjects of experiences, we have been turned, or even turned ourselves into public corpses with discrete identities.

The merging of technological and human gaze raises a pivotal question: how much are we interacting with technologies as if they are an extension of our body that can enrich our experiences? How much are we sacrificing for predictability, efficiency and productivity, becoming mere appendages to the machines? How do we balance between the subjective joy of life and the efficient exchange of energy?

This call invites artists and thinkers to come together for a 4-month collective curatorial project that explores the ways the technological gaze manifests and affects us on a personal, somatic, social and structural level. The ways we see ourselves through technology influences the ways we are able to imagine futures and relations. We aim at exploring both the potentials and limits of technologically intermediated sensing, seeing, and knowing. What would it take to inspire hope and action instead of dystopian self-destruction? Artists working with any medium are welcome to apply.

For this program, we are looking to fund 6-8 artists and thinkers for the period of 4 months.

STRUCTURE

The program is structured as a mix of participatory workshops about practical skills and reflections useful to create consensual, nurturing collaboration, and meetings focused on artistic co-creation, where participants are invited to engage with the theme and each other to develop their art piece. The program culminates in a co-curated exhibition in June 2024.

SCHEDULE

2024 March – 2024 June (with an initial meeting on the 1st of March, Friday)

Commitment: Weekly in-person meetings on Tuesday evenings from March to June, in Schillerkiez, Neukölln, Berlin.