[nettime-lat] Call For Proposals :: Short Term Fellowships

[Waag Sarai Exchange <exchange-platform@waag.org>]

Waag Society / for Old and New Media (Amsterdam) and the Sarai Programme 
of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (Delhi) have 
initiated a platform for collaboration on media culture. This has come 
out of an on-going, long standing collaboration between the Waag Society 
and Sarai since 2000. Waag Society / for Old and New Media was founded 
in 1995 as a laboratory for research and development of cultural 
applications of technology. Since then it has grown into a knowledge 
institute in the field of new media with many national and international 
work-relations. Its driving force is the interaction between technology 
and culture. Since its establishment in 2000 as a programme of CSDS, 
Sarai has grown into one of South Asia's best known initiatives on 
media, urban culture and the public domain. Composed of both scholars 
and practitioners, Sarai's work cuts across various disciplines and 
networks, and exists in collaboration with partners in India and around 
the world.

  The Waag-Sarai collaboration since 2000 has focused on building links 
and collaborations between programmers, designers, scholars and 
theorists between Europe and Asia. From its inception, the exchange has 
been driven by a vision for certain shared values. In elaborating the 
idea of the exchange, we would like these values to be maintained, 
discussed and disseminated in a wide arc of initiatives. In particular, 
we are concerned to reiterate the following:

  • Importance of the public domain
  • Access to media tools and innovation in media practices
  • Interdisciplinary research (between research and practice, and 
across disciplines)
  • Setting up contexts for creativity and exploration of expressive means.
  • A critical reflection on the nature of collaboration between 
different cultures

  We have been particularly concerned to address issues of inequality; 
hierarchies of knowledge and of access, and a dialogue based cultural 
practice. Here we particularly emphasize the importance of an engagement 
with the immediacy and concreteness of local circumstances and 
possibilities.

  We should reiterate that our understanding of 'new'-media derives from 
the particular historical configurations: these include those of 
innovation under conditions of large scale inequality, creative uses of 
existing old media, and thriving informal networks in the societies of 
Asia, Africa, the middle East and Latin America.

  We would like to draw upon this experience of Waag-Sarai 
collaboration, and the institutional knowledge gained during this 
process to encourage other emerging initiatives in the South. As part of 
this the Waag-Sarai platform is proposing two short term Fellowships to 
support proposals for emerging initiatives in the South focusing on the 
themes outlined above.

The short-term fellowships are intended as seed money during which 
successful applicants are expected to produce a document, which includes 
the following:

  • A vision statement and long-term plan
  • A network architecture
  • A space design
  • Collaboration with other networks.

The fellowship is designed to help initiatives produce a coherent plan, 
rather than set up the centre or network itself. The grant amount is a 
total of 3,000 Euros and will run for six months.

The final document will be presented at a public workshop in Bangalore, 
India in November 2004. The Waag-Sarai platform will cover the costs of 
travel and board to Bangalore for the successful applicants. The 
workshop in Bangalore will also enable the applicants to investigate 
possibilities for future collaboration with the Waag Sarai Exchange 
Platform on the basis of the presented plan.

The proposal should be mailed to exchange-platform@waag.org. Last date 
31st March, 2004. The Fellowship will commence from 1st May,

-- 
waag sarai exchange platform | exchange-platform@waag.org | 
http://sarai.waag.org
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