Open Call for Submissions
ECAS – Networking Tomorrow’s Art For An Unknown Future is a new European festivals network, supported by the European Union within the CULTURE PROGRAMME (2007-2013).
To launch the ECAS network, a Euro 10,000 Commission is available for a new project responding to the ECAS 2011 theme of ‘Festival as Lab’.
This call for proposals seeks projects that take the form of an experiment, a prototype or a trial of a new type of art object, technology or form of participation.
The commissioned project will receive a Euro 5,000 fee, up to Euro 5,000 production costs, plus additional limited staging costs and support.
Proposals that do not win the commission may still be considered for inclusion in the ECAS festivals and will automatically be considered for other sources of support. All will receive full marketing benefits, management and network support.
Supported by the European Union within the CULTURE PROGRAMME (2007-2013)
The deadline for submissions is 24th October 2010.
Festival as Lab Theme
In its first year, the theme of the ECAS festival network is Festival as Lab.
The theme Festival as Lab is inspired by the FutureEverything festival, which is conceived and designed as a ‘living lab’ for prototyping the future.
The ECAS festivals are experimental spaces or laboratories where we can experiment and play with future art, music and ideas.
We are looking for projects that engage the festival audience and artists in a participatory experiment in creating a new kind of artwork, a new form of participation, new understanding on art or technology, or a new and innovative way of presenting inspirational art.
Proposals should experiment with the festival format, transforming the festival environment into a lab or experimental space.
The ECAS festivals network is looking at this unique approach where festivals act as experimental spaces for new cultural forms, new technologies, and new modes of audience engagement.
It is optional not essential that proposals involve collaboration with scientists and social scientists as well as audience groups and ethnographers to inform future project design.
We will favour proposals which promote the concept of the ‘active participant’ over traditional assumptions about passive audiences, and seek to involve audiences integrally in the project.
Background
The audience will be the large and diverse publics who attend the participating festivals, and also at other collaborating cultural events. The impact of the programme is potentially broad, as the festivals provide a testing ground of relevance to the entire cultural sector, as well as areas of academic research and public policy.
Festivals are a space where new cultural forms, methods and technology prototypes may be tested and evaluated with a live audience. They offer the ability to discuss and give attention (including media attention) to a topic or experiment. And they are a place where different forms and communities cross-fertilise, acting as a meeting place between audiences, cultural workers, artists and other stakeholders.
The cultural sector is increasingly fluid, changing at a bewildering pace. Over the past 15 years it’s been possible to see the rise of a new generation of cultural festivals, which increasingly reflect and represent the fast-paced cultural sector of today. The ECAS network proposes these festivals can be viewed as a new kind of cultural institution, which, unlike other traditional cultural institutions such as the museum, has the versatility to respond and adapt very rapidly to emerging artistic forms and trends. They engage with wholly new themes, formats and art forms each year, or within a single year’s programme.
