What is CODE about? 

We want to make sure the general audience, politicians and policymakers are aware of the digital challenges of our time. We want big tech companies to be regulated, curb their power, and protect our digital rights. What role should governments play, and how can we make them understand the urgency to act? What can we as concerned citizens, researchers, and artists do to support this process?

With this open call we invite creatives, professional and non-professional artists and concerned citizens living in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to embark with us on a six-month journey of dialogue, critical discussion and co-creation about digital rights. Between January and June 2024 you will work with other participants on group artworks to be presented at international festivals and events. 

CODE was initiated in 2021 as a response to growing concerns that we are losing agency over the digital tools and platforms we use on a daily basis. We believe in the need for better laws and legislation that will protect us as digital citizens and consumers. By creating creative and artistic interventions, our aim is to influence public policy on a national and international level and to create awareness for issues at hand. We want to inspire and facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations, which have the potential to catalyze system change. CODE 2024 will be the fourth edition. In the past three editions we supported almost 80 artists and non-artists to work together and create projects. We also brought together national and European politicians and experts in interviews, panels and presentations, and we presented our projects at international events including 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 produced, the talks and the many interviews we had with politicians, policy-makers and activists can be found at code.impakt.nl 

CODE 2024 is an international programme organized by IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture] in Utrecht and Werktank, production platform for media art in Leuven in collaboration with international partners like Privacy Salon and the CPDP (Computers, Privacy and Data Protection conference).

We are happy to invite participants to join us for an exciting collaborative series of CODE events throughout 2024!

What will you be doing?
Selected participants will work closely together in a co-creation process. Throughout the programme, we invite established artists and experts to provide inspiration and feedback. CODE consists of a series of online and onsite events, including:

• Kickoff meeting (online)
• Three workshops (hybrid)
• One symposium (online)
• 2-3-day hackathon (onsite)
• Group meetings and feedback sessions (both online and onsite)
• Online exhibition
• Presentations at festivals and events

See below for a preliminary schedule of events. 

The events are spread over several months: from late January till June, with presentations of the project’s outcome expected in September. As a participant, we expect you to be actively engaged in these events, which are aimed at bringing to light the most pressing issues we face in digital culture and public policy. We are looking for people who can participate in all events for the duration of the CODE 2024 programme. The programme is in English.

Final works
Group artworks will be conceived over the six-month period from January to June. During this period, there will be workshops and an in person hackathon where you will have the opportunity to discuss and receive feedback from policy makers and established artists. The final works created throughout the events will be exhibited in an online exhibition meant to engage continuous critical discussion beyond the duration of the programme. We will also facilitate presentations of the works at international events and in the public realm to stir debate and foster change, like emerging projects from past years have done as well.

You can have a look at a selection of projects from the previous editions at code.impakt.nl

Selection and stipend
Participants will be selected mainly based on their motivation. In making the selection, we also aim for a diverse group in terms of expertise and backgrounds. We will select a group of participants from all participating countries. Everyone is welcome to apply, and no prior experience is required. 

Participation is free of charge. There is a small stipend for groups that produce a work for international presentations and for the online exhibition. Travel costs and accommodation to attend the 2-3-day hackathon will be covered.

Who are we looking for?

• Applications are open to professional and non-professional artists, researchers, policy makers and concerned citizens
• You must be open to work on projects and concepts that can inspire the general audience and have a relationship with digital rights and digital legislation.
• We highly encourage people who don’t identify as artists to apply as well, this includes researchers, people with corporate, tech or law background, or working for governmental institutions
• People with an interest in learning from and collaborating with professional artists to create artistic interventions to influence policy makers
• Participants should be living in the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany
• No prior experience is required

Application Deadline

Please apply by filling out the following form before Thursday 30th November, 23:59 CET

Apply here

Preliminary schedule of events
We are working on finalizing the schedule. Please keep an eye on our website for updates.

• Early December 2023: Selection participants and applicants informed about their selection
• January 2024: Kick-off meeting (online) to introduce the programme and to get to know each other
• Early February 2024: online introductory session
• End February: 2-3-day Hackathon (in person presence mandatory)
• Late March 2024: Workshop #1: Working groups are formed and you start working out ideas for the final work together
• April 2024: Groups hand in their final works proposals 
• May 2024: Workshop #2 (checking in on the progress final works and feedback session)
• Mid-June 2024: Workshop #3 and feedback session (online)
• End of June 2024: final works
• September – December 2024: Presentations final works at international events and festivals
• December 2024: Launch CODE 2024 online exhibition

Questions & info sessions
If you have any questions regarding this open call, we organise two info sessions.

The first one will take place during the IMPAKT Festival 2023 Our Terms Our Conditions on:

Saturday 4th November 
16:45-17:15
Location: Het Huis Utrecht (Boorstraat 107, Utrecht), Studio 2

Register for the info session. 

The second info session will be online, after the festival, on:

Monday 13th november
19:00-20:00
Location: Online meeting, the link will be shared through email after you have registered

Register for the second info session

You can also send us a message to timo@impakt.nl 

To read more about last year’s CODE 2023 Programme, click here: https://impakt.nl/residencies-projects/2023/code-programme-2023-41790/ 

To see the online exhibition, click here: https://code.impakt.nl/

About the organisers

IMPAKT [Centre for Media Culture]
IMPAKT is a media arts organisation based in Utrecht and founded in 1988. We present critical and creative views on contemporary media culture and arts, in an interdisciplinary context. Our aim is 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 different angles. We aim to present creative and innovative approaches and stir debates with critical ideas on common beliefs in society at large as well as towards dominant perceptions in arts and academia.

Privacy Salon
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 that are raised with the introduction of new technologies in society. In addition, it wants to contribute to policy, policy-making and evaluation of privacy and data protection policy by ways of consultancy for policy makers, industry and research institutions, but also to scientific and policy-oriented research on privacy, data protection and social-ethical consequences of new technologies. Finally, it works towards creating a platform.

Werktank
Werktank is a media arts producer and distributor which operates at the intersection of art, science and technology. Werktank embraces new media, fuses it with artisanal techniques and critically questions the impact of (new) technologies. Werktank offers a professional context and financial support for artists and guides them to the next phase in their artistic practice.