Call for Cooperation Projects on Digital Culture

Digitalisation is becoming an ever more important aspect of contemporary art. Pro Helvetia is now focusing on this development with its latest call for projects. Support is to go to interdisciplinary cooperation projects that deal with new media and technology or their impact on society in an artistic fashion. The call for projects is part of the Swiss Arts Council’s four-year «Digital Culture» programme.

New media have by now become firmly embedded in contemporary art and culture. Pro Helvetia is acting on this development with its «Digital Culture» programme. Together with other federal institutions for cultural promotion, it aims to explore the impact of digitalisation on artistic work, in accordance with the Federal Council’s message on culture for 2012-2015.

Pro Helvetia’s four-year «Digital Culture» programme consists of three main components, one of them is the one-time call for interdisciplinary cooperation projects. Event organisers, institutions and producers are invited to submit joint projects that deal in an artistic way with new media and technology or with the social and cultural impact of these technologies. «We are aiming for cooperation between institutions from very different areas, for instance a university research unit with a cultural institution», explains Andrew Holland, Director of Pro Helvetia. «There is an enormous amount of creative potential in such combinations». Cooperation partners submitting a project must guarantee that their project will be presented in Switzerland. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2013. A broadly based, independent jury will select the winning projects.

The second component of the «Digital Culture» programme explores the influence of digitalisation on the promotion and dissemination of traditional art forms, for example through web-based literature platforms and projects providing information on the music scene.

New Programme: «Mobile – in Touch with Digital Creation»

In September 2013, at the X Media Lab conference in Lausanne, Pro Helvetia is launching a new programme called «Mobile – in Touch with Digital Creation», the third component of its overall «Digital Culture» programme. Taking the rapid spread of smartphones and tablets as a starting point, it will focus on interactive and transmedia creation.

Media Relations: Sabina Schwarzenbach, Head of Communication,

Tel +41 44 267 71 39, Fax +41 44 267 71 06, sschwarzenbach@prohelvetia.ch 

Media Release Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, 03.07.2013