The European Commission has opened a new call for proposals, ‘Art and the Digital: Unleashing Creativity for European Water Management’. It aims to unite the digital with the arts in order to promote a European policy vision on the future of water and to help raise societal awareness on water use. Artistic residencies in companies will help induce a change of mind-set and novel ideas regarding the preservation of water resources. Consortia will propose concrete ideas at the nexus of art, digital and water that will lead to a sustainable set of actions and a burgeoning community. Links to existing initiatives like STARTS and Digital Innovation Hubs are encouraged.
The pilot project will work on two objectives:
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Establish collaborations at the nexus of art, digital, and water that result in real world experiments and artistic works/installations/performances. This objective will be implemented by open calls to artists for residencies in companies or institutions related to water/digital.
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Develop a community (beyond the project consortium) at the nexus of art, digital, and water that can contribute to a new thinking in policy, business and society on sustainable water use. This objective will be implemented by among others conferences, workshops, online activities, educational workshops, and exhibitions.
Eligible activities must clearly involve artistic expression and use of digital technologies with a goal to promote a European vision on water. They can comprise among others:
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Art works/installations at the crossing of the digital and the arts that promote sustainable water use and inspire policy makers, business and citizens to engage towards a European vision on water.
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Short-term residencies of artists in companies/institutions from the digital and/or water sector to work jointly on possible projects that combine digital and art for sustainable water use.
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Experiments in water management inspired by artistic expression and enabled by digital technologies.
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Activities (workshops, talks, exhibitions…) that further collaborations of actors at the nexus of art-digital-water.
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A website (in collaboration with starts.eu) open to artists and interested citizens on future water visions that can serve as a gathering point for people and ideas to achieve sustainable use of water.
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Educational program for young adults bringing together artists and digital experts to promote knowledge on sustainable water use.
The expected outcomes of this pilot are concrete collaborations at the nexus of digital-water-art. These outcomes will include artistic works and real-world experiments that could be first steps to novel solutions on societal or business level towards sustainable water management. Furthermore, the pilot should help in the emergence of a burgeoning community at this nexus.
Consortia should comprise partners from a least three different regions across Europe. The suggested project duration is between 18 months and 22 months, with activities starting by 1 March 2021 at the latest. The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of the project under this call for proposals is estimated at 1,000,000 EUR.
