Applications are open for the fifth iteration of the Digital Art Residency in cooperation with the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. It will be awarded to one individual or collective working in the field of digital art practices, at the intersection of media arts, performance, sound, and moving image. Applicants must have Swiss nationality or permanent residence in Switzerland and be firmly established in the Swiss cultural scene, following Pro Helvetiaās general requirements .
The Digital Art Residency includes an additional production grant of CHF 15,000 awarded to the selected project. The grant supports the development of a new work or the continuation of an existing project and is open to all formats, building on the research initiated for the Digital Art Residency. The project needs to be completed by December 2027 at the latest. Scheduling, implementation, and potential presentation opportunities will be coordinated individually with the selected resident. The two-month residency will be awarded with an artist fee of CHF 2,000 per month, as well as travel and accommodation for the festival and residency. Applications from duos or collectives are welcome; however, the fee and production grant remain the same and need to be shared accordingly.
Over four decades, transmediale has operated within a network of artists, researchers, and activists working at the margins of dominant technological culture, sustaining collective imagination towards a different kind of technomediated present. At the milestone of the festivalās 40th anniversary , transmediale acts as a counter-infrastructure: an ever-evolving practice, shaped by and responding to changing conditions and demands. Looking at this becoming and taking its inspiration from a document from the early history of the internet, RFC 40 marks the 40th in a series that collectively shaped the specifications and protocols through which the internet came to work. The documentās name was chosen to avoid being deterministic: Request for Comments made no claim to finality. It acknowledged that no single voice had the complete picture, and that any protocol would only stabilise through collective response and revision.
The 2027 residency programme extends this moment of reflection and future-imagining across the year and asks how a network can stay legible to itself while the structures surrounding it are breaking down. How do we reconfigure technical paradigms towards new cultural protocols, outside of widespread extractive logics, moving from critique to construction? This yearās open call seeks proposals offering alternatives to how we understand, respond to, and shape the technological conditions we inhabit.
Structure of the Residency
The hybrid residency takes place over two months, both remotely and on-site in Berlin at transmediale studio, between mid-May and mid-July 2027 The on-site part of the residency takes place in June. Presence in Berlin during the whole month of June is mandatory.
Located in silent green Kulturquartier in Berlin-Wedding, transmediale studio is a shared working space with modular working stations. It is used for events, presentations, and gatherings, as well as for the production of small-scale works and rehearsals. During the on-site period of the residency in June, the residents will present their work in a public event as part of transmedialeās year-round studio programme. transmediale also offers the possibility of an online publication through its journal . During their stay in Berlin, the residents will be connected with various institutions and stakeholders in the city and attend events on Berlinās cultural calendar.
The residency will kick off during transmediale festival in January 2027 with a presentation of the residency projects. The format of each residentās contribution to the programme will be discussed individually.
16 July to 28 August 2026
Open call application period
October 2026
Announcement of the selected residents
26ā31 January 2027
Residency kick-off during transmediale 2027
(recommended attendance)
May 2027
Onboarding and first hybrid part of the residency
June 2027
Residency month in Berlin at transmediale studio
(on-site presence is mandatory)
July 2027
Second hybrid part of the residency, including reporting
The availability of the residents for the festival (last week of January 2027) and the residency month of June on-site in Berlin are important prerequisites. Presence in Berlin for the month of June in Berlin is mandatory; attendance of the festival in January is optional but strongly recommended. The deadline for all applications is August 28, 2026. Applications are only accepted via transmedialeās submission forms.
How to Apply
Applications are submitted online via the transmediale submission forms and should include the following:
ā«ļø A project description (max 400 words)
ā«ļø Project development: current status of the project and planned steps before, during, and after the residency (max 200 words)
ā«ļø Accompanying visual or audio material, image(s), video, mood board, etc (optional, max 5 items)
ā«ļø Short bio
ā«ļø Contact information
ā«ļø Further references or portfolio of previous work (optional, PDF, max 5 pages)
Results will be announced in October. For further information and questions, please contact: submit[at]transmediale.de
Jury
The resident will be selected by Nina Liechti, curator at ENTER HERE Kunstmuseum Bern; Anan Fries, artist and resident 2025; and Anna-Lena Panter, Head of Programme transmediale.
The transmediale Digital Art Residency programme is a cooperation with Pro Helvetia.
