mur.at and the Collective Intelligence Association (CIA) are looking for a number of artists or collectives to participate in a 5-day artistic residency and worklab in Graz, Austria. Throughout the year, mur.at has been collecting intelligence from artists, collectives, and passersby in Graz and beyond. The selected artists will together collaborate with CIA and the mur.at team to work with this collected material and develop an artistic investigation that may take the form of data-mining art, a documentary on intelligence, a net art provocation, new software—or something entirely unexpected.
The form is open. The only condition is that it must emerge within the thematic frame of collective intelligence. Since the annual theme is KI – Kollektive Intelligenz (Collective Intelligence), we propose that the structure of the five-day worklab – based on the idea of an open Barcamp to the mur.at community – to be collectively defined by the invited participants.
Who we are
CIA is a branch of the CMKK community — an initiative based in Graz focused on computer music and sound art. CIA facilitates CIAPs – Collective Intelligence Access Points – interactive digital portals installed at events to connect simultaneous gatherings across distant locations. CIAPs also provide space for digital collective meet ups, brainstorming and feedback sessions, and documentation. Each CIAP is a live audiovisual node allowing public input, anonymous interaction, and collective presence across borders.
The interface – a digital canvas facilitated by a physical installation – is developed by TAAT.live.agora and actively incorporates contributions from artists and audiences. In 2025, CIA collaborates with mur.at for a full year of events, experiments, and interventions focused on collective intelligence. Since 1999, mur.at has been building a physical and digital infrastructure, along with a community comprised by artists and cultural workers from diverse sectors, committed to developing and promoting net culture, sound art, software art, and media art. mur.at prioritizes Free/Libre & Open-Source Software (F/LOSS) and supports unrestricted information flow and transparent knowledge transfer. It provides the technological backbone for a wide network of artists and initiatives, both in Austria and internationally.
Who we are looking for
Creative developers, activists, writers, and artists working in network art, sound art, media art, digital art, or related practices— anyone contributing to the development of network-based artistic communities and interested in engaging with the topic of collective intelligence.
Worklab/Barcamp Guiding Questions
These questions will frame the process and collaborative investigation during the worklab:
- What forms of intelligence emerge when authorship is diffused, anonymous, or collectively overwritten?
- How can we design digital spaces that foster collective action instead of pas-sive participation?
- Can a distributed art practice hold political weight without central leadership or stable structure?
- Is it possible to generate collective intelligence without consensus?
- Could an artwork behave like a virus; a disrupting force spreading positive af-fect and/or emotions, solidarity?
- What do we relate, owe to others in a shared digital space where our presence is partial, invisible, or asynchronous?
These questions are a starting point of the discussions and could be changed completely if the participants find it necessary.
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More info and details: https://mur.at/post/opencall-2025/