Digital Diasporas Residency

About Digital Diasporas
In 2021 we launched the first iteration of the Digital Diasporas, a distributed, remote residency which 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 we (human, non-human, and ecological) coexist in all our 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, we are excited to bring back this open call for a second iteration with an additional residency host in the United States.

What we are looking for
We 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. We are looking for openness to collective, intercultural and cross-border development and research.

We welcome experimental, digital, and/or research-based practices, and people who feel an alignment with and interest in any or all of the host organizations’ networks and programming. We’re 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.

About the residency and hosts
The remote, six-week-long online residency will be facilitated by three host organizations in May and June. Each resident or collective will primarily work with one host organization 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 organization will design a program of remote/online mentoring, networking, research and development for the resident they host. The host organizations 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.

For more information about the open call, check out our website: https://yaocollaborative.org/digital-diasporas-open-call Please never hesitate to contact us directly with questions or to recommend specific artists you may have in mind at hello@yaocollaborative.org.

Requirements

Everyone is encouraged to apply, especially if you have never applied to anything in the past. We 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

Application Instructions

Deadline: Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Midnight in your timezone, wherever you are