An online fellowship and public program expanding the notion of technology beyond colonial, modernist, and solutionist views!
Unwired Currents—Imagining Technologies Otherwise is:
A six-month free online public program of keynotes, tutorials, panel discussions, and gatherings starting May 2025.
A fully-funded, six-month online fellowship for participants from diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to envision technologies beyond dominant narratives. The open call in November 2024 will invite designers, scientists, artists, coders, educators, and more to research and develop their own narratives as texts and mini-projects—such as a podcast episode, visual essay, short movie, or any other artistic or designerly utterance.
Western societies have perpetuated the myth that machinery and technical systems are neutral, objective tools, equating technological advancement with societal progress. This dominant discourse promotes a universalist vision of “the future” that reinforces modernist ideals and solutionist approaches to pressing, complex social issues. As a result, many technological developments not only fail to address but often exacerbate inequalities rooted in ableism, classism, cis-hetero-patriarchy, and racism.
The Unwired Currents open program and fellowship bring together diverse perspectives from fields such as anthropology, history, and philosophy to art, design, coding, and activism to explore technologies beyond dominant narratives and delve into Indigenous knowledges, ancestral ways of making and being, and community-based practices.
The program is co-created by the think & do tank Dezentrum and Futuress, along with the transnational collective Dreaming Beyond AI, designer and researcher Franca López Barbera, and the anti-educational platform Materia Oscura.
Overview
Open program:
• Start: May 2025
• End: October 2025
• 8 free online keynotes, roundtable discussions, tutorials, and exchange-based gatherings available via Zoom and as recordings via Vimeo
• Language: English with close-captions
• Registrations will open soon! Register for our newsletter to stay tuned!
Fellowship:
• Start: May 2025
• End: October 2025
• 7 online sessions in small groups with fellowship mentors as well as individual work time on the project
• Different days and time-zones available
• Access to the Futuress Slack with a transnational community of feminist creatives, thinkers, and activists
• Honorary of 2000 CHF gross per fellow for research, writing, production, and publishing
• Application deadline: January 14, 2025, 23:59 CET.
How to Apply
Our call for applications will open on November 19, 2024, and close on January 14, 2025, at 23:59 CET.
Through an anonymized Google questionnaire, you may present a new or ongoing research project you wish to develop and share with a broad audience—this could be a thesis in the works, a final-year project, a semester assignment, a long-standing obsession, or a piece of research you’ve been pursuing on your own.
You will be asked to share a short research abstract along with a situated biography and a short portfolio of relevant material. This can include previous research, writing samples, designs, or any materials you’d like to share that help us understand your work.
Your profile: You are interested in the politics of technology with a focus on broadening the notion of technology beyond machinery systems and digital tools. You aim to challenge dominant ideals of “progress,” “neutrality,” and “universality” and understand technology as a mode of cultural production and transformative practice to foster equity, inclusivity, and justice. Your research amplifies marginalized perspectives and narratives, and you’d like to present your findings in a compelling, accessible format.
The fellowship includes an honorarium of 2.000 CHF gross which will be paid in two installments: the first after the first fellowship session and the second upon publishing your work.
Please note that the language of the fellowship is English.
We prioritize applicants from marginalized communities and situated perspectives. Due to the funding of the program coming from Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council, one third of the spots are reserved for practitioners based in Switzerland, regardless of nationality or migration status. We particularly encourage applications from marginalized Swiss-based communities, including migrants, BIPOC, queer, disabled, and other structurally excluded groups.
Website link: https://futuress.org/fellowships/unwired-currents/
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