PLEASE NOTE: This is an archived Call for Applicants from the 2014 VIR season. The VIR program is currently part of the With Everything but the Monkey’s Head project. We are not taking any new applications at this time.
CALL FOR APPLICANTS
The ICI is happy to announce the launch of its Visualist-in-Residence (VIR) Project for artists, art theorists, filmmakers, writers, and other visual researchers and cultural producers who are committed to studio-based research and the production of knowledge. The VIR offers visual researchers (or research teams) an opportunity to collaborate with the ICI for 6 – 8 weeks as they develop their work within a visual research template. We encourage you to read our brochure on visual research and to explore this topic on our website. Applications are currently being accepted for visual researchers whose cultural investigations, analyses, examinations, and experimentations are sympathetic with the Institute’s formulation of Visual Research. We encourage proposals from artists, writers, scholars and serious tinkerers who work in mediums or with ideas that typically fall outside traditional visual genres. For 2014 we are especially interested in projects that address the Institute’s current research theme: PHANTOM, MIRRORED, AND DOUBLED WORLDS. We are looking for adventurous residents who are interested in bringing new energies, concepts and ideas to the organization.
THE VIR FACILITY
The ICI provides a well-equipped study and production facility in the Institute’s main building . The VIR will have a private, dedicated space that can function as an artist’s studio, a writing room, a space for gathering data or a quiet space for evaluation and contemplation. The resident will also have access to the ICI’s equipment including a wireless network, computers, scanners, printers, analog film and movie cameras and, upon request, a photographic darkroom. The resident will have unrestricted access to their work space but the ICI does not provide room and board. Residents are prohibited from living in their workspace due to strictly-enforced fire safety codes.
THE RESIDENCY
Over the course of the residency it is anticipated that the resident will engage physically or psychically with the topography of the ICI space either through an active engagement with objects from the ICI library or Repository or through manipulation of the ICI physical space which includes a large garden and patio. In addition to the research space and publicity, the Institute will provide planning assistance, manpower and limited financial assistance to help realize the VIR project. To aid you in your research, we also offer a small collection of antique devices, arcane apparatuses, old-fashion interfaces, a library filled with books and esoteric pamphlets and a repository with a host of cultural detritus from the last two centuries. The in-progress Institute residency project will be open to the public by appointment every odd Thursday and Saturday. There will be a public event towards the end of the residency so that the resident can share his or her ‘findings’ with the public. Choosing from a variety of formats (lectures, performance, film screening, symposium), the resident will be encouraged to engage ICI associates and the organization’s curious spectators in a manner that eschews traditional exhibition practices. At the conclusion of the residency, the resident will be asked to create a material trace of their project for the ICI repository where it will become a part of our visual culture laboratory and/or traveling collection. In addition, the resident will be expected to document their research on a dedicated VIR blog during the course of their residency.
FEES
The VIR space is offered free of charge and unlike most residency programs, we do not require an application fee. There is a $75 lab fee to be paid by each resident to help defray costs for maintenance of our computers and equipment. If this fee is prohibitive and/or dissuades you from applying, please contact us. Limited assistance might be available to help defray this cost. The ICI will also work with out-of-area residents to help them secure housing for their tenure at the ICI although this responsibility ultimately rests with the resident. We encourage the use of social media and housing sites such as airbnb.com. There is no funding from the ICI for room and board.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
Applications for the VIR project can be found here. In addition to the completed application, please supply us with a current CV and up to 5 samples of your previous work that we can easily access through an internet interface such as dropbox. Applications for the 2015-2016 VIR session are no longer being accepted.
For more information contact us at info@culturalinquiry.org.
