about | of lab faq | how to apply

This year, at Ars Electronica (sept 4 - 9) we are planning to make something pretty unique to represent openframeworks - OF LAB!

Essentially, it's a laboratory space where a group of us will make artwork live during the course of the festival. The idea is to build a space where a dozen or so hackers, tinkerers and researchers will hang out and experiment, make stuff, create guerrilla exhibitions around the festival and document their progress and discoveries. The work that we do will come directly out suggestions from the festival audience members -- and hopefully, over the 5 days, we'll create a kind of good feedback loop between getting suggestions, making projects and exhibiting the results.

For us, we like a project like this because it can demo really well the activity of the community, and it's a great chance to meet face to face and work closely together, since many of us are spread out in different locations. The space and scale of the project is quite big, so we could use tons of help to pull this off. In addition to the work done on site, much of our research and development will occur online so that folks who can't make it to Linz can also participate, help out and keep track.

So, we are recruiting for the lab - here is a small FAQ to help answer any questions, but if you have other, you can email zach [a t] eyebeam.org / theo [a t] muonics.net

- how many people are you recruiting?

currently, we are looking for 8 people, but could be a few more depending on budget issues. We have a fixed budget, and will try to see what we can make happen. In addition to the folks we are inviting now, we have also some folks based in Linz helping along with members of the Ars Electornica Futurelab. It will be a very tight and strong team.

- what can we provide?

we have to manage a shoestring budget, but we can provide (likely) flight, full accommodation, full festival access, and (hopefully) a small fee. Our goal now is to figure out how to have as many good people involved as possible. Also we will Provide white lab coats, OF hoodies or some kind of nice uniform.

- what does the environment / space look like?

we will have a structure built out of scaffolding, 15m x 5m, 3 stories high, with one story as a dedicated laboratory, one story as an exhibition area and the third floor a kind of informal "meeting" area. we will have computers for each participant, plus general lab equipment, cameras, projectors, fridge, etc :) We want it to feel a little like a mix between a cool research lab and a pirate ship.

- where will the works we make be shown?

hopefully, all over the city. we are building a mobile unit that can be moved anywhere for projection, and we will have a great technical staff that knows linz well and loves unusual tasks. Our goal is to use the lab format to take over the festival, and produce tons of good work and experiences.

- what kinds of skills / people are you looking for?

People that like to make stuff and experiment, and that are open to the challenge of producing work under tight time pressure. Should be creative and flexible, love hacking, and be cool to work in an unpredictable, collaborative environment. We are looking for experts in different fields, and strong makers to make a complete team. Someone for whom hanging out making stuff during a busy festival full of distractions sounds exciting.

- do you need to know / be an expert in OF ?

It would be helpful and obviously this lab is about OF, but we are open to all different types of folks that want to collaborate. tell us what you know well and we'll see if it fits. we are curating a team and obviously we need a core group of OF folks but we are open minded.

email zach {at} eyebeam.org / theo {at} muonics.net
subject: "of lab application"
due date: wed july 30

please include:

------------------- basic info

--> your name
--> your email / contact info / phone number
--> url

------------------- getting to ars

--> where would you be coming to/from?
--> do you need help w/ flight / accommodation / fee ?
--> anything we should know, for example, if you need a visa to visit EU ? potential problems?
--> are you able to come to ars for the full time Sept 4 - Sept 9th? Are you able to come earlier? how much earlier?

------------------- about yourself

--> a brief description of your background
--> why are you interested in being a part of OF LAB?
--> urls of your work / best projects
--> anything else, resume, etc you think we should see

* super important!
--> no attachments!
--> keep it urls only - please!