CODE 2025 OPEN CALL
Reclaiming Digital Agency
Are you an artist, designer, researcher, software designer or developer? Working in marketing, law, technology, policymaking, politics? Interested in human rights and equality? Are you open to working on collaborative projects that can speak to the imagination of a wider audience and inspire them to think about their digital agency? If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you’re simply concerned about our digital rights and the lack of agency across the online platforms we use, then IMPAKT is looking for you!
The deadline for this open call has passed.
CODE 2025 programme
Beginning in February with an online introduction meeting in which participants and coaches can get to know each other, this co-creation project continues into a series of online workshops in March.
The first physical meetings of CODE 2025 will take place during the hackathon weekend in Mechelen, Belgium, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of March. Following the hackathon, the co-creation process continues with more on-site meetings in Utrecht along with occasional meetings onlines into June, by which time all projects must be finished so that presentations concerning the project’s outcome can be prepared before September.
As a participant you are expected to actively engage with each of these events, and as a result we are looking for those who are available to participate in all events for the five-month duration of CODE 2025.
The programme will be in English.
What is CODE about?
Initiated in 2021 as a response to growing concerns regarding agency over digital tools and online platforms, CODE aims to influence public policy and build awareness of the most pressing digital challenges today. Through cross-disciplinary collaborations we hope to address the hegemonic influence of big tech companies on our digital autonomy and interrogate the role of the government in such a matter. With CODE, we are driven by the question: what can we, as concerned citizens, researchers, and artists, do to support and reclaim digital agency?
With the open call for CODE 2025, we invite creatives, professional and non-professional artists, and concerned citizens of the Netherlands and Belgium to embark on a five-month journey of critical discourse and collaborative creation regarding digital rights. Between February and June of 2025, you will work with other participants on group artworks to be presented at international festivals and events.
Across the past four editions of CODE, we have supported over 100 artists and non-artists alike in collaboration on creative projects. We have also brought togeter national and international politicians and pundits for interviews, panels, and presentations, and we have even presented our own projects at international events such as Ars Electronica, transmediale, Dutch Design Week, MozFest House, Public Spaces Conference, re:publica, Dutch Media Week and the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection (CPDP) conference.
The projects that were produced, the talks hosted, and the many interviews shared with politicians, policy-makers, and activists can all be found at code.impakt.nl
CODE 2025 is an international programme organised by IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] in Utrecht, in collaboration with Kunsthal Mechelen, Werktank, (production platform for media art) in Leuven, Privacy Salon / CPDP (Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference) in Brussels and NØ School Nevers.
Selection and stipend
Participants for CODE 2025 must be living in the Netherlands or Belgium and will be selected based primarily on their motivation. We are looking for a group diverse in expertise and background; no matter if you are working in the arts or in technology, activism or policy making, law or education, we are looking for those simply motivated by a concern for our digital rights! Everyone is welcome to apply; no previous experience is required.
We encourage women, POC, and people of the LGBTQ+ community to apply.
Participation is free of charge, and selected participants will receive a stipend of 200 euro. For the group projects as well we provide a small production budget of 200 euros. We will reimburse travel costs and provide accommodation for the three-day Hackathon in Mechelen. Participants will also be reimbursed for the travel costs of all onsite meetings in Utrecht.
Preliminary schedule of events
This schedule is just an indication and subject to change. We are working on finalizing the schedule:
- 15 December 2024: (before 23:59 CET): deadline to respond to the open call for participation.
- 8 January 2025: applicants will receive notification of the results of their applications before 8 January 2025.
- February 2025: Kickoff meeting (online)
- Early March 2025: First workshop (online)
- 28, 29 and 30 March 2025 : a 3-day hackathon (in Mechelen, Belgium)
- April, May, June 2025: Several meetings and workshops (in Utrecht, the Netherlands), and additional online meetings and feedback sessions
- September to December 2025: Presentations and exhibitions at international festivals and events
Selected candidates will receive an updated schedule
Final works
By the end of the programme in June, we expect you and your group to have conceived and executed a final work. You will have ample time across a series of workshops to provide and receive feedback from fellow participants as well as from our mentors, our invited policy makers, and other established artists.
These finished projects will then be exhibited in a digital catalogue intended to facilitate and engage with continuous critical discussion even beyond the conclusion of the programme. Additionally, we will continue to support, publicise, and propagate the finished projects through presentations as intentional festivals and events in the public realm.
You can have a look at a selection of projects from the previous editions at code.impakt.nl. The results of CODE 2024 will be added at the end of 2024.
Further information
Deadline
The deadline to apply is
15 December 2024 (before 23:59 CET).
You will receive notification of the results of your application before 8 January 2025.
FAQ
What is the financial compensation?
Selected participants will receive a stipend of 200 euro. For the group projects as well we provide a small production budget of 200 euros. Costs for travel and accommodation for the three-day Hackathon in Mechelen will be reimbursed, as well as the travel costs of all onsite meetings in Utrecht.
Can students apply?
Yes, we encourage everyone who is interested in collaborating on topics such as digital rights and digital agency to apply!
When is the deadline to apply?
The deadline is 15 December 2024 (before 23:59 CET). You will receive notification of the results of your application before 8 January 2025.
About the organisers
IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture]
IMPAKT is a media arts organisation founded in 1988 and based in Utrecht (The Netherlands). We present critical and creative views on contemporary media culture and arts in an interdisciplinary context. We aim to identify urgent issues in our digital and transglobal culture by focusing on the relationship between society, media, technology and arts. We examine issues around politics, science and popular culture from a plethora of angles and perspectives. We present creative and innovative approaches to both commonly held beliefs in society and dominant perceptions in arts and academia that not only stir debate but also provide novel, critical ideas.
Werktank
Werktank is a media arts producer and distributor based in Leuven (Belgium), operating at the intersection of art, science and technology. Werktank embraces new media and fuses it with artisanal techniques that critically question the impact of (new) technologies. Werktank offers a professional context and financial support for artists and can help guide them into the next phase of their artistic practice.
Kunsthal Mechelen
Kunsthal Mechelen is a generous open house for contemporary art. Operating in the city of Mechelen (Belgium) but without a centralised location, the Kunsthal’s programme unfolds across various spaces throughout the city, including public space. A rotating selection of artists, curators, thinkers and collectives bring the house to life in a program that defies confinement within a singular artistic framework. The program stands for flexibility, depth, and a departure from fixed formats, challenging established patterns of expectation and transforming the cadence of a changing society and art field. The institution exhibits art that questions, researches, and imagines the world in all of its complexity, and aims to foreground those perspectives on life and society within the city that are at once compelling, innovative, and–crucially–critical.
Privacy Salon
Privacy Salon is the organizer of the annual CPDP Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference in Brussels. Privacy Salon aims at critically informing the broader public, policy makers and industry in Belgium, Europe and beyond about privacy, data protection and other social and ethical issues being raised with the introduction of new technologies in society. In addition, Privacy Salon wants to play a role in policy-making and the evaluation of privacy and data protection policy through consultancy for both industry / research institutions, but also for policy-oriented research on privacy, data protection, and social-ethical consequences of new technologies.
NØ School Nevers
NØ School Nevers is a unique international summer school, held in Nevers, in Burgundy (France) and aimed at students, artists, designers, makers, hackers, activists and educators who wish to engage with critical research around the social and environmental impacts of information and communication technologies. Over a two week period, NØ School Nevers offers its participants the opportunity to follow a unique and intensive curriculum, mixing theory, practice, research, and making, led by an international panel of artists, designers, critical makers and theorists.