Open Call: Touch Aesthetics Fellowship
We are seeking disabled artists for a Los Angeles-based 3-month research and creative exploration fellowship that explores the intersections of haptics and disability, harnessing the transformative power of touch and creative technology to reimagine how we engage with the world and create new possibilities for learning, creativity and accessibility in immersive storytelling. A new landscape of experience design is now possible by combining immersive and interactive tools with new haptic vests, gloves, and hand/arm/feet tactile actuators.
[Updated October 31, 2024] Due to broad national interest, we are now considering applications from artists not based in Los Angeles who we can meaningfully support in a hybrid engagement. If you are not based in Los Angeles and would like to apply, please complete the two additional questions outlined in the application process section below. Please contact us (criptech@leonardo.info) if you have questions about whether this opportunity is the right fit for you.
This fellowship is a partnership between the Haptics for Inclusion Lab, under the Narrative and Emerging Media Program at Arizona State University, and Leonardo CripTech Incubator.
Leonardo CripTech Incubator is an art and technology program for disability innovation. Encompassing labs, workshops, fellowships, presentations, publication, and education, this innovation incubator is a community platform for disabled artists to engage and remake creative technologies through the lens of accessibility. Employing a broad understanding of technologies, including prosthetic tools, neural networks, software, and the built environment, CripTech Incubator reimagines enshrined notions of how a body-mind can move, look, and communicate.
The Haptics for Inclusion Lab, under the Arizona State University Narrative and Emerging Media program, ignites imagination using haptics technology as a force for perceptual change and inclusion of the most marginalized in our society. The Haptics for Inclusion Lab combines the power of haptics - testing out new haptics technologies including gloves, vests, full body suits and custom made devices - with immersive storytelling to explore the full potential of haptics technology in the creative narrative process.
Activities
Participants will engage in activities emphasizing touch as a sensory modality, exploring its potential to reshape learning and creativity. The Fellowship will include a combination of presentations, prototyping sessions, and group discussions to address the ways in which haptics and disability-informed design can better support diverse communities. It will culminate in the creation of new artistic and technological prototypes that reflect both accessibility and creativity. Fellows will also receive support to develop and refine project proposals to pitch to granting and industry bodies.
The Fellowship will take place at the Haptics for Inclusion Lab at the ASU California Center - Broadway (Herald Examiner Building) in Downtown Los Angeles alongside a virtual program of talks, workshops, and crit sessions.
The fellowship requires once-a-week check-ins that can happen in person at the Haptics for Inclusion lab or online. The schedule will be determined in consultation with staff and fellows.
Timeline
18 November 2024: Application deadline
11 December 2024: Fellows selected
January 2025: Define fellowship schedule
February 2025 - April 2025: Fellowship
April 2025: Final Showcase
Who We’re Looking For
- Emerging, mid-career, or established artists
- Creative ideas that explore new territories of experiential design
- Ability to independently lead project design, development, and execution, with support from NEM and Leonardo
- Experience or familiarity with immersive storytelling platforms such as Unreal Engine, Unity, or Max MSP
- Located in the greater Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and can attend periodic in-person activities at the ASU California Center in Downtown Los Angeles. Non-Los Angeles-based artists will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Budget
Fellows will receive a stipend of $5000, an allocation of $3000 worth of hours for a committed developer, and a transportation stipend of $600 to assist with the costs associated with traveling to and from the ASU California Center - Broadway at the Herald Examiner Building.
Application Process
You will submit your application on the linked portal, including upload of the following in a single document (doc/docx/pdf). Feel free to use our premade template to assist in your application:
- Answers to the following questions:
- What excites you about this opportunity?/What specifically is compelling you to apply for this opportunity? (250 words max)
- Describe your experience with immersive platforms such as Unity, Unreal Engine and/or Max/MSP. (250 words max)
- What are three potential project areas or concepts that you would be interested in exploring? These can be general, and do not need to be fully fleshed out. (500 words max)
- How do you understand the creative potential of touch/haptics? (250 words max)
- Describe your experience with disability and/or accessibility in artistic/creative contexts. How would you bring this experience to bear on this opportunity? (500 words max)
- What do you hope to learn or collaborate on through this process? (250 words max)
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[Optional, for Non-Los Angeles Applicants Only] The Haptics for Inclusion Lab has a collection of haptic gear. We will not be able to ship these items. If you are not based in Los Angeles, what are your plans for acquiring or accessing haptic gear, or do you have institutional access to such gear? (200 words max)
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[Optional, for Non-Los Angeles Applicants Only] If you plan to acquire or access haptic gear where you are based, do you have existing collaborators or developers to work with you? (200 words max)
- Up to 3 work samples either as links or uploads (No more than 5 minutes per sample)
- Three References (Name, Title, Organization, Affiliation, Email, Phone Number)
We will also be asking for contact details, a short bio, website, field of study, and social media. This information will be kept internal unless you wish to be included into the Leonardo member directory.
In place of a written document, applicants also have the option of submitting an audio or video response to the questions above; submitting links to work samples and references separately. Please keep the total time 15 minutes or under and ensure your submission is accessible via a shareable link set to public or viewable to anyone with the link (YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, DropBox, etc.).
APPLY NOW
Application Deadline: 18 November 2024
If you would like to discuss your ideas about this opportunity before submission, have access questions, or need assistance please contact criptech@leonardo.info
Diversity
Leonardo and ASU is committed to diversity and encourages applications from BIPOC, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and persons with disabilities, as well as applications from researchers and practitioners from across the spectrum of new media disciplines and methods.
About Leonardo
Fearlessly pioneering since 1968, Leonardo serves as THE community forging a transdisciplinary network to convene, research, collaborate, and disseminate best practices at the nexus of arts, science and technology worldwide. Leonardo’ serves a network of transdisciplinary scholars, artists, scientists, technologists and thinkers, who experiment with cutting-edge, new approaches, practices, systems and solutions to tackle the most complex challenges facing humanity today.
As a not-for-profit 501(c)3 enterprising think tank, Leonardo offers a global platform for creative exploration and collaboration reaching tens of thousands of people across 135 countries. Our flagship publication, Leonardo, the world’s leading scholarly journal on transdisciplinary art, anchors a robust publishing partnership with MIT Press; our partnership with ASU infuses educational innovation with digital art and media for lifelong learning; our creative programs span thought-provoking events, exhibits, residencies and fellowships, scholarship and social enterprise ventures.
About the Narrative and Emerging Media program at Arizona State University
Arizona State University’s Program for Narrative and Emerging Media (NEM) in Los Angeles is a best-in-class research, teaching and gathering venue, with a focus on diversifying the demographics of who gets to create and distribute narratives using emerging media technologies in the areas of arts, culture and nonfiction. The MA’s mission is to be an inclusive, affordable professional program and a center of excellence, bringing together pioneers from diverse communities, pushing technology with underrepresented narratives, and using innovative techniques for practice and policy, all strongly anchored in ASU’s larger purpose of inclusion. NEM trains and supports storytellers, artists, journalists, entrepreneurs and engineers who are building the stories, technologies and policies of the future as leaders in the emerging media landscape. In fall 2022, we launched our flagship MA Narrative and Emerging Media, centered around the development of a creative practice and critical understanding of emerging storytelling and immersive experience content creation in augmented, virtual and extended reality, and short-form digital, streaming and virtual production. Students engage in professional networking and for-credit portfolio development, and emerge prepared to take on roles in film, content development, media production and project management, or become entrepreneurial storytellers ready to seek funding for their own projects. Our team is composed of dedicated and diverse professionals spanning fields of journalism, film and VFX effects, and art and technology.