Barcelona Crea. Research and Experimentation Grant at Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Lab

Introduction
The “Barcelona Crea – Fàbriques de Creació 2024 Grants” are an initiative of the Xarxa de Fàbriques de Creació, with the support of the Institut de Cultura, to support the preliminary processes leading up to the production that accompany the creation of artistic proposals: conceptualization, gestation, research, experimentation, documentation, and rehearsal. With these grants, the aim is to contribute to maintaining the cultural and scientific momentum of the city by offering resources to develop processes of artistic research and innovation.

Hangar aims to maintain (that is, generate, update, review, repair, and sustain) the necessary conditions to facilitate artistic production and research, understanding them as practices and forms of critical speculation capable of responding to contemporary debates and urgencies. Hangar understands art as a knowledge-producing practice and, therefore, advocates for artistic research as a legitimate form of research, endowed with a specific form of discovery and production of knowledge.

For the first time, the Hangar Creation Factory announces a Barcelona Crea – Fàbriques de Creació 2024 grant to assign a grant to artists, collectives, researchers, and developers in the field of open-source technology to carry out a research, development, or pre-production residency in its Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.

With this grant, Hangar makes available to the beneficiaries the budget, space, and appropriate technical conditions for the production of research and contribution to its dissemination in a professional environment.

About Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory
Hangar is committed to the development of custom hardware for artistic projects from a commitment to open-source hardware and software. In the Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory, Hangar can develop all kinds of hardware for artistic projects that require it, including the development of internal electronics, programming, and prototype construction. Some examples of applications include real-time interaction, synchronizations, mechanisms, automations, and remote controls. Additionally, the laboratory develops a series of royalty-free tools available to artistic projects that may need them. Miguel de Heras, the technician responsible for the laboratory, will provide technical guidance in the development of the selected project.

1. Objectives
General
— To collaborate with creators in their research and/or pre-production activities, in their experimental work, and in the development of their projects.
— To detect and encourage the generation of communities around new tools and/or technologies.

Specific:
— To provide and facilitate the necessary resources for experimentation, research, development, and creation in the field of interactive open technology.
— To promote documentation, publication, dissemination, transfer, and exchange of knowledge in the field of creation with interactive open technology.

2. Benefits and Grant
Hangar will provide the grantee with:
— Fees: €6,000 gross, which will include the purchase of all materials necessary for research.
— Technical support, guidance, and access to tools for project development.
— One-month residency in the Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.
— Hangar will provide beneficiaries with contacts from its network of collaborators: suppliers, technicians, techno-scientific research centers, or other artistic and cultural institutions that may be necessary.
— Hangar will support the dissemination and public presentation of the project within one of the center’s public programs.
— These grants do not cover travel expenses from the place of residence to the center, nor accommodation or subsistence expenses.

3. Recipients
— Artists and collectives, researchers, and developers of any age and nationality working in the field of creation with open technology related to the city of Barcelona or its metropolitan area. The relationship will be considered accredited when at least one of the following conditions is met:

• The proposal is related to the city of Barcelona or its metropolitan area.
• The candidate or entity resides in the city of Barcelona or its metropolitan area.
• The candidate or entity is linked to the cultural fabric of Barcelona or its metropolitan area, as evidenced by the content of the documentation presented.

The call will consider projects that need to carry out a phase of ideation, research, prototyping, testing, pre-production, i.e., in the development phase of the artistic proposal, prior to production in Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.

4. Duration
The awarded project must be developed within a maximum period of one (1) month between the grant award and December 15, 2024.

5. Requirements
— Each individual or collective may submit only one project for the call.
— The project must be primarily carried out in Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.
— The proposal should be in a phase of ideation, research, prototyping, testing, or pre-production, i.e., in the development phase of the artistic proposal, prior to production.
— None of the phases covered by the grant (development of the artistic proposal prior to production) should have been carried out.
— The proposal must not have been previously publicly presented, either by the participant or entity involved in the call, or by other individuals or entities.
— The proposal must not have received any type of assistance from the Barcelona City Council at any stage of its development or any BCN Crea Grant.

6. Commitments of the selected project with Hangar
— Participate in the animation of Open Thursdays*, attending to other creators and offering them free technical support.
— Conduct an open and free workshop on the tools used for the project development.
— Deliver a presentation of the project during the residency period at Hangar, participating in a public event at the center.
— Submit a final report of the project and an evaluation of the residency within two months following its completion.
— The artist will grant Hangar the rights to publicly communicate the research for any country in the world, for dissemination and communication (publications, press kits, center’s website, social media, etc.).
— Hangar’s logo will be included as a producer or co-producer in the credits and in all types of communication and promotional material for future exhibitions. If, in any case, the logo’s appearance is not possible, the project will be disseminated and displayed accompanied by the text: “Project produced with the support of Hangar, Center for Artistic Production and Research”.

*Open Thursdays are weekly gatherings open to artists, creators, and developers from different disciplines of electronic art who wish to work with open-source hardware and software tools. Attendance is always free and allows participants to meet with technological experts in open tools and collectives with whom to collaborate and share resources to develop projects.

7. Submission of Applications
To apply for this call, it is necessary to send an email to miguel(at)hangar.org with the subject “Grant_Create_Interaction_FIRSTNAME_LASTNAME”, attaching a dossier in PDF format containing the following fields:

— Personal Information (Full name, date and place of birth, photo of ID card or passport, contact email, phone number).
— Curriculum Vitae, including technical qualifications of the applicants (maximum 1,500 characters, including spaces).

Project description, including:
— Project summary (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— Objectives (up to 1000 characters, including spaces).
— Expected results (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— Methodology (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— Motivations for undertaking the residency at Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— How the project will be documented (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— Schedule and work plan, which must include the approximate start date of the project (up to 2000 characters, including spaces).
— List of technical requirements.

IMPORTANT:
— Requests that do not include the required information or exceed the length limits will not be accepted.
— The content of the applications can be submitted in Catalan, Spanish, or English.
— Requests that do not include the required information or exceed the length limits will not be accepted.
— Artists who have benefited from any grant in the Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory in the last five years will not be eligible to participate in this call.

8. Submission Deadlines and Schedule
— Deadline for submitting applications: until July 5th at 12:00 p.m. (GMT +1).
— Results of the selection process: before the end of July 2024.
— Residency period: one month before December 15th, 2024, to be arranged with Hangar.

9. Selection Committee
The selection committee will be composed of:
— Xosé Quiroga, artist.
— Miguel Ángel de Heras, responsible for Hangar’s Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.
— A member of Hangar’s Stable jury.

The selection committee may contact preselected individuals for an interview.

10. Evaluation Criteria
The selection committee will assess the projects based on:

– The submission of all documents and materials requested by the call, in the required format and with the indicated length.
– The relevance and coherence of the project in the context of the artist’s trajectory.
– The quality, relevance, and interest of the project.
– The technical expertise and self-sufficiency of the applicant.
– The project’s capacity to open up and share the development process with the communities around Hangar.
– Continued presence within the Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory.
– The suitability of the proposal to Hangar’s work lines and the Soft/Hardware and Interaction Laboratory itself.
– The feasibility and potential for project development at Hangar.

11. Data Protection
— In accordance with data protection regulations, it is informed that personal data must be processed by Hangar to manage participation within the framework of this call. By legal obligation, data will not be transferred to third parties. You have the right to access, rectify, and delete the data provided, as well as to exercise other rights established in current data protection regulations.

— The submission of projects within the framework of this call implies the presumption of authorship, and it is the responsibility of the project submitter to handle any potential claims that may arise.

12. Acceptance of the Terms and Jury’s Decision
Participation in this call implies acceptance of the terms and the jury’s decision, as well as any changes that may occur subsequently due to factors external to Hangar.

For more information
Miguel Angel de Heras
miguel(at)hangar.org
933084041