Hotel generation open call
Hotel generation is a yearly UK-wide development programme shortlisting 5 young digital artists, each one based in North, Midland, Scotland, London and South West area, through an open call. The programme culminates in a solo exhibition at arebyte Gallery for the winning candidate selected by a panel of esteemed judges in the digital art sector.
The skills-focused programme gives young UK-based digital artists a first-hand experience of developing an exhibition proposal in collaboration with a gallery team. Through critique of their work and business support workshops (3D modelling, art marketing, fundraising, commissioning contracts and copyrights), the programme expects participants to gain the confidence and ability to approach art professionals with a developed proposal, produce a body of works against a timeline and budget, communicate their ideas in a concise manner, and successfully generate new interest around their practice through promotion and networking.
Run for the first time in partnership with key actors within the digital sector QUAD (Midlands), FACT (North) and NEoN (Scotland), hotel generation 2023 aims to create a region-wide support network for the next generation of digital artists, initiating new dialogues between young, regional voices and forming new conversations between different areas of the country as the programme continues yearly.
The programme
Once selected, each participant gets a stipend of £1,000. The programme starts by an in person weekend in London on the Fri 24th & Sat 25th of March 2023 with all the regional mentees from Quad, Neon, Fact and arebyte, allowing the participants to see arebyte’s gallery space, attend industry workshops as well as visits to relevant London exhibitions.
During April and May, your regional mentee provides you with professional guidance and critical feedback to develop your initial proposal into an exhibition proposal for arebyte’s gallery space through five to six curatorial sessions (online/in person), including assistance with proposal writing, making and progressing work and ideas, as well as budgeting.
At the end of the programme, the finalised exhibition proposals are shared with the judging panel who selects one of the 5 participant to realise their proposal. The winning participant get additional budget to produce a fully funded exhibition at arebyte Gallery in
Transport costs and accommodation to the in-person week-end and curatorial sessions are covered by the programme.
The Body, The Mind, The Soul
For hotel generation 2023, we seek initial exhibition proposals which respond to the theme of ‘The Body, The Mind, The Soul’ and offer a critical look at what it means to be human in the digital age; scrutinising how technology affects our physical being, our emotional state and philosophical impressions.
Stemming from the breadth these themes offer, ‘the human condition’ is investigated through the lens of human and non-human entities, computational and machine intelligences, and out-of-body and consciousness-expanding experiences. Expanding the notion of the human life-cycle to include the technological, selected artists will consider digital – birth, life and death – by investigating hypothetical technological afterlives, techno-shamanism, transhumanism, god and singularity, in reference to contemporary discourse concerning the philosophy of human existence in the Information Age.
To apply, you will be asked to write a 500-word proposal for a solo show with work using emerging and digital media, around the theme The Body, The Mind, The Soul.
Timeline
- Mon 30th Jan 2023: Open call opens
- Mon 6th Mar 2023: Open call closes
- Tue 21st Mar 2023: Selection of the 5 participants
- Fri 24th & Sat 25th Mar 2023: Weekend trip to London
- Mar – May 2023: Development programme (online and in-person)
- Thu 1st June 2023: Exhibition proposal finalised
- Sat 17th June 2023: Selection of the winner by the judges
- June, July, August, Sept 2023: Production of the solo show
- 18th Oct – 25th Nov 2023: Solo show at arebyte Gallery
How to apply
Apply online using our online form. You can have a preview of the questions by downloading the application questions here.
Access needs
If you have any questions, require the open call information and FAQ in another format or would like to apply in an alternative format please email [email protected] or call +44 (0)2045032205 from 11am to 1pm on Tuesdays or Thursdays. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Please make us aware of any access costs for the application process or for making the work.
Though this call out has been carefully constructed, we acknowledge it may not be perfect and welcome conversations about how we could improve as well as feedback on the application process!
