Open call for the selection of three research projects within the annual programme of Medialab at Matadero

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Open call for the selection of three situated research projects to be developed over a period of one year within the framework of Medialab's areas of work. The projects will be carried out in an open process with users and the public and in dialogue with the centre’s annual programme of activities and the communities that are involved in it.

Medialab promotes transdisciplinary, collaborative and open research, encouraging the development of research projects with both national and international scope. Following its transfer to Matadero, Medialab’s aim is to consolidate itself as a groundbreaking research centre from which to shape the future -  hence the launch of its annual programme of research projects through this international open call for proposals. The programme will host, promote and visualise the development of three situated research projects at the margins of established ways of thinking. Medialab encourages research that is proactive, collaborative and experimental, but at the same time rigorous, critical and operational; it supports research proposals based on speculative design, learning-by-doing and the counter-intuitive, which promote the resolution and testing of projects that have human potential and are socially and ecologically useful.

Medialab is a space for innovation and research that welcomes projects that are too unconventional to fit into the strict confines of academic research, which often lacks the capacity to bring together and interweave different disciplines or intermediate positions between thought and practice. Medialab’s mission is to fill this institutional void to the best of its ability, welcoming and promoting ideas and projects that, despite being brilliant and capable of bringing about change, have not found their niche in the more disciplinary public programmes.

Within this broad framework and through this open call, Medialab provides a context and an appropriate space in which to develop three situated research projects over the course of 2022.

We call them "situated" research projects because we understand that the context in which they will be developed is relevant. Unlike other more introspective research environments, Medialab offers a unique context for research: an open environment, in constant dialogue with multiple agents, along with dynamics of collaboration, participation and co-production. The selected researchers will join an ecosystem formed by hundreds of members, dozens of working groups, collaborative prototyping labs, transversal workshops or artistic residencies, and we want both the candidates and their projects to have the will to nurture and be nourished by this unique context.

During their development, the projects must be able to engage in dialogue with Medialab’s other activities and be capable of transforming and enriching themselves through that dialogue and their contact with collaborators (both individuals and other organisations), other researchers, users and the public.

The winning projects will be those whose themes, proposals and dynamics make the greatest contribution to the centre and, at the same time, most benefit from Medialab’s context of openness, collaboration and innovation.

IMPORTANT

The aim of this call for proposals is to provide working spaces, funding, tools, professional guidance, institutional support and international visibility to the three selected research projects.

To apply, please read the complete terms and conditions and carefully fill in the required online documentation in this form: https://form.jotform.com/213343370622346

The decision will be announced on Friday 4 February 2022 through the websites www.medialab-matadero.es and www.mataderomadrid.org and to the winners at the email address they have provided.

Research projects will have a maximum duration of 12 months. The start date is scheduled for 15 February 2022, although this date is subject to possible changes duly justified for scheduling reasons.

Proposals may be submitted in Spanish or English.

Please read the full terms and conditions in the document attached below.