Planet Earth senses itself through a gigantic swarm of satellites and a multitude of smart city sensors scans the flows below and above its surface. The mechanical viewpoints of our phones observe, sense, and analyse our bodies and biologies while tracking our movements. As algorithms influence our behaviour, real-time surveillance technologies are shaping politics in a profound way from Harare to Beirut, and from Lagos to Beijing.

A ‘sensorium’ describes the combined system of perception that an organism has to sense its surroundings. Has a planetary sensorium emerged in which a worldwide technological megastructure of cameras, sensors, laser lights, and ultrasonic waves gestures towards new organic and synthetic entanglements?

To imagine a Planetary Sensorium is to both acknowledge and re-imagine our conception of Planet Earth. As increasingly sophisticated technologies are created to sense the world, the Planetary Sensorium is drastically shifting people’s worldview in return. Infrastructural networks and logistics of pipelines, high speed rails, and fibre optic cables have informed the worldview of earth as an interconnected and globalised whole in service of a specific mono-culture of technology. This in turn produces its own geopolitical realities, impacting how people’s lives are governed across the world.

The current planetary sensorial apparatus — sonic, tactile, visual, affective, and embodied — can help us to imagine alternate possibilities for the digital planet and new ways of living together. As the planet flows through human, technical agents, and other beings, a question then emerges: for which Earth do we create our intellectual, cultural, and artistic interventions? The theme is inspired by the philosophical work of Lukáš Likavčan.

The Digital Earth Fellowship 2020 – 2021 will focus on investigating The Planetary Sensorium and how we can imagine a humane digital earth to come.

WHAT DO THEY OFFER?
•A Fellowship spanning 9 months (September 2020 – May 2021).
•Monthly Stipend, a total of €13.500 per fellow for the entire fellowship.
•Consultations with acclaimed artists, curators, and scholars.
•Online research groups with other fellows.>•Online sessions with our faculty.
•Presentation during partner events, symposia and exhibitions (online and in real life, when possible).

WHO CAN APPLY?
The Digital Earth Fellowship welcomes 8 artists and/or duos from different practices who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits, and are committed to ideas of resilient futures, equitable societies, and critical diversity, showing a marked capacity for self-direction.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
•5 years of work experience.
•Fluency in English.
•Age: 25 and older.
•Minimum 24 hours per week availability from September 1st 2020 until May 31st 2021.

SELECTION PROCESS
Your application will be assessed by a selection committee based on the selection criteria below. The committee will ensure that a multitude of perspectives are included. We aim to support 4 projects grounded within the African continent, 2 projects that take Asia as a starting point, 1 project from Latin America, and 1 Global application.

SELECTION CRITERIA•Demonstratively qualitative artistic practice and exceptional creativity.•Motivation to become a part of Digital Earth’s network.•Quality and criticality of the proposal.•Alignment with the curatorial theme of The Planetary Sensorium.

HOW TO APPLY?
Applicants are asked to prepare their application using the template which combines the research proposal, portfolio, and CV into one document, please download the template.
Save your completed application as a PDF, max. 10 MB.

An application can be submitted before 17 July 2020 9 AM Central European Time Zone.

Apply here: digitalearth.art/fellowship