SoC Residency Open Call

For 2025 we will be selecting 16 Funded Projects: 8 ZHdK projects from currently enrolled or employed students and staff of ZHdK [Zürich University of the Arts], and 8 independent projects from proposals outside of ZHdK, including ZHdK alumni. The 8 independent projects can be from anywhere in the world, and do not have to be associated with an educational institution of any kind or have any specific level of education. For all the 16 projects we strongly encourage duos and collectives to apply, although we will be accepting projects submitted from individuals, duos, and collectives.

Each of the 16 projects will receive a total budget of 1,500CHF towards production and travel expenses, alongside access to publishing opportunities, accommodation in Zürich during the mid-year gathering, mentors/speakers, workshops on alternative ways and workings, peer learning, collaborations, and more.

What is School of Commons?

School of Commons (SoC) is a community-based initiative dedicated to peer learning, and the study and development of self-organized knowledge production, located at the Zürich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

To date, we have supported 157 projects since our foundation in 2017, with the content and position of SoC being defined by our community. Over the 10-months of the SoC programme, research is conducted as peer-based collaborative endeavours with annually changing members. Each cohort brings together a wide range of participants, guests, and contributors who share their curiosity, skills, and visions – producing a broad, integrative understanding of knowledge. We offer personal support, financial resources, and an active community of peers and experts engaged in a wide range of topics.

SoC’s programme is developed bottom-up rather than top-down. Instead of providing a fixed curriculum, we encourage participants to actively shape our programme, either by organizing and hosting events themselves, introducing new lines of study, or by inviting guest speakers and tutors who are relevant to their research. SoC is there to support and help organize the educational programme our participants would like to have.

In short, SoC:

Is a global community-learning environment dedicated to the study and development of self-organized knowledge through commons-based methods and practices
Is located at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), but mostly hybrid in format, taking place online, with some select offline events at the ZHdK, and selected venues across Zürich
Brings together practitioners, researchers, facilitators, and activists from all disciplines for its 10-month peer-led learning programme
Has a structure which is shaped based on the needs, requirements, and wishes of the participants
Works with a broad network of partners who help to explore, shape, and share the future of Peer Education as an important strategy and method of lifelong learning.

If you would like to familiarise yourself with some of the key terminology School of Commons uses within this application pack, and as part of the learning environment, please refer to our Ways and Workings. If there is a term used in this application pack that you are unfamiliar with, please search for it in the Ways and Workings for further information and context. If there is a term used in this application pack that you are unfamiliar with, please search for it in the Ways and Workings for further information and context.

What does School of Commons offer to participants who are selected?

A one-off, unaccounted budget of 1,500 Swiss Francs towards production and travel expenses
A supportive learning environment
Opportunity for collaboration and exchange, as well as peer-group and public presentation platforms
Online and offline spaces to experiment with ideas, concepts, and practices
Support with presentation structures such as the planning of exhibitions, events, and workshops
Access to publishing opportunities, including our annual end-of-year publication: ISSUES
Access to ZHdK’s infrastructure during on-site events. Specifically: tech material, room-booking access, access to faculty members of ZHdK
Participation in our ongoing research project into ‘Accessibility and Inclusion in Digital and Hybrid Learning Environments’
Participation in a 5-day workshop with CERN’s IdeaSquare on site at ZHdK
Introduction to a growing SoC alumni network for mutual support and exchange
Workshops introducing methodologies for peer learning and co-creation

What do School of Commons’ participants have in common?

It is essential that SoC participants feel a connection to the main qualities that form the SoC learning environment, these are:

Reciprocal exchange
Experimentation
Openness (towards one another, especially towards backgrounds and contexts unfamiliar to our own, towards definitions of, and approaches towards learning and knowledge, and towards the process of commoning, which very often requires working directly with those from outside of our own bubbles)
Conviviality
Curiosity
Committed
Process-centred approaches

Who can apply to SoC?

SoC is open to all countries, backgrounds, ages, and disciplines, for applicants who are interested in the production and sharing of knowledge in the broadest sense, and who feel a desire to actively engage with, work as part of, and be in collaboration with a community of fellow thinkers and producers.

SoC has no set criteria in relation to formal or informal educational backgrounds. Previous participants have had a broad range of qualifications from non-academic, to BA, to PhD level, with backgrounds ranging from technical schools to art schools, to universities, as well as auto-didacts, makers, activists, and those with lived experience and tacit knowledge. SoC has previously had the pleasure of hosting artists, scientists, architects, geographers, designers, writers, and those who consider themselves between and outside of these categories, as part of the program.

SoC does not select based on discipline but is instead focused on those interested in, or working with alternative methods for learning, with an emphasis on wider definitions of knowledge and experience, as well as the desire and commitment to learn with and from others, and to engage critically and thoughtfully with the wider SoC community.

The main learning agenda of SoC is to produce and share practices based around the methods of peer learning and commoning. In doing so, we aim to encourage spaces for exchange and alternative ways and workings. Overall, SoC endeavours to be a place that produces and reproduces alternative modes of thinking and doing across research, disciplines, themes, and focuses.