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Artist open call: BeFantastic Beyond (CLOSED)

A programme enabling emerging visual artists through artistic development, mentoring, technical support and production to create interactive AI artworks

Are you an artist or creative technologist pushing the boundaries of creative practice with Artificial Intelligence? Do you want to project your voice towards the cause of climate action? 

Join us, as BeFantastic goes Beyond, to engage with experts and create artworks which communicates the state of nature and our collective futures. 

As part of the BeFantastic Beyond program you will be offered:

  • Facetime with Experts in the Field: 

You will have the opportunity to attend clinics and dialogs offered by those representing cutting edge practice from India, UK, Germany and Switzerland.

  • Collaborate with a Creative Network: 

You will be part of an invaluable network of international professionals from the above mentioned countries with an invitation to collaborate and propose interdisciplinary project ideas.

  • Knowledge Sharing (Art, Creative Technologies & Climate Change)

You will have access to lectures, peer discussions and resource packs dealing with the depths and breadth of AI and Art.

  • An opportunity to pitch for a production grant:

You will have the opportunity to bid for a project idea with international collaborators in response to the curatorial brief.

2 Selected proposals will receive funding to develop an AI enabled art piece to be showcased at the FutureFantastic Festival that will take place in Bengaluru in March 2023.

Apply now!

What is BeFantastic Beyond?

BeFantastic Beyond proposes to bring together artists and creative technologists exploring AI technologies to create pieces of art amplified with creative AI.

This program enables artistic development, creative exchange and collaboration between emerging and seasoned artists and creative technologists from around the world, focussing on ideas around interconnectedness, climate emergency and the role of art and digital innovation. It seeks to push the boundaries of these new formats of work by bringing together the practitioners at the forefront of this innovation in India and the UK.

Conceptual Brief:

It has been noted that with the strides made in technology in the last few centuries, humanity has compounded into a geophysical force, with our activities influencing topographies, evolutionary pressures and most notably, the climate. Within a century of unprecedented technological advancements and urbanization, it would seem humanity has fatally wounded the planet that sustains it.  A multiplicity of intelligences is required to comprehend our path forward. The phenomenal growth of Artificial Intelligence by the side of the climate emergency reveals a possibility of offsetting the scope of damage perpetuated by the Industrial Revolution and its discontents. The question remains to be that of harnessing all possible neural networks to contemplate the crisis.

What is FutureFantastic?

FutureFantastic is an ambitious festival conceptualized by Jaaga’s BeFantastic (India), in association with FutureEverything (UK), scheduled for March 2023 in Bangalore, India. The festival and its programming is supported by the British Council.

FutureFantastic hopes to communicate the urgency of the climate emergency by leveraging the novelty and, therefore, the public fascination of artwork that is created in collaboration with Artificial Intelligence. It is the outcome of a series of international fellowships fostering creative exchange and collaboration between emerging and seasoned artists and technologists from around the world, each focusing on the thematic focus of climate action, through different forms of artistic practice like interactive installations and performances. In its curation, it hopes to further the discourse around climate consciousness while simultaneously informing its audiences of the possibilities augmented and artificial intelligences have to offer. FutureFantastic will also feature artists and collectives whose practices have been pushing the boundaries of TechArt in recent years. Complementing the exhibition of such artworks, would be various kinds of programmes including dialog sessions and workshops with experts in the domain, that might holistically communicate different aspects of the climate emergency to diverse audiences while proliferating a certain degree of technological literacy.

BeFantastic Beyond components?

30th Aug & 6th Sep 2022 / Networking Sessions

All selected participants will be invited to attend online Networking Sessions with selected international peers. Portfolios of all selected participants will be made available to each other prior to the Networking Session.

Participants will be encouraged to commit to groups (between 3-5 members each) and formulate a proposal to apply for a production grant towards showcasing an artwork at the FutureFantastic Festival, in Bengaluru March 2023.These sessions are to enable participants to find potential collaborators (both organisations as well as individuals) to draft a proposal with.

Sep – Dec 2022 / Dialog

Participants will attend a series of public dialogues by international experts to debate and discuss the nascent field of AI and art, with the aspiring practitioners and general audiences.

Nov 2022 – Feb 2023 / Clinics and Check-ins

Only groups representing successful proposals will go on to attend the clinics and check-ins to work towards the FutureFantastic Festival in March 2023.

Proposals will be chosen based on the strength of its idea, incorporation of AI & ML skills, responses to the curatorial thematic of climate emergency and the commitment toward the medium (AI + Art).

23rd-26th March 2023 / The FutureFantastic Festival

A culmination of the program that includes a physical showcasing of the works developed by the commissioned groups.

To impress the curatorial theme of the climate crisis and engage diverse global and local audiences in new and experimental forms of TechArt, the Showcase events are open to all participants, as well as the wider public.

How do I apply?

APPLICATIONS FOR THIS PROGRAMME ARE NOW CLOSED

The FutureFantastic festival and its programming is supported by the British Council and forms part of the India/UK Together Season of Culture