Black Box Residency Projects

Black Box Projects is an artist residency initiative focusing on the research and development of responsive environments, installations and sculptures by artists who will work collaboratively with various UC Irvine research departments. This initiative provides selected artists with an opportunity to have access to the latest knowledge and resources to further their own practice, while simultaneously allowing the Beall Center to exhibit innovative, interdisciplinary work and to function as a research center for experimental media arts.

Black Box Projects has been in operation since 2011.  Black Box Projects residents are generally awarded a 2-year program and focusing on the collaborative research and development of their projects. While many artists are producing responsive works, they often lack the access and means to utilize the most current technological developments. But more importantly, there is a deeper issue about the reception to responsive art: How do artists progress from producing works that are purely about play to those with deeper cognitive engagement and embodied experiences?  Black Box Projects addresses these issues through a collaborative approach between artists and researchers in fields such as the hard sciences, technology, humanities, and engineering.

Each accepted artist project will have different research parameters. Ideally, artists will expand their practice into new territories by taking advantage of UC Irvine’s vast scholarly resources. Their potential collaborators may include art or media historians, computer scientists, robotics experts, cognitive psychologists, DNA researchers, physiologists and studio artists. To date, residency artists have already collaborated with resources such as the Center for Complex Biological Systems (led by artist Anna Dumitrieu in 2016), the Hui Lab for microtechnology (led by artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand in 2015), and the Specialist Transgenic Mouse Facility (led by artist Paul Vanouse in 2013).

Please do not send unsolicated proposals.

The goals of the Black Box Projects residency are as follows:

1) The artist will produce a compelling new work of media art for an exhibition and push the boundaries of their practice.. 

2) The artist will participate in a public program with collaborators to share the results of the research.    

3) The artist and the Beall will thoroughly evaluate the methodology, timeline and working process for future projects. 

Residency awards include:

- Substantial funding of research and development, and final artwork materials

- Provision and orchestration of collaboration opportunities

- Roundtrip airfare as necessary

- Lodging during campus visits

- Inclusion of works in a Beall Center for Art + Technology exhibition (upon approval of completed work)