Disability, art and technology

Leonardo CripTech Incubator is an art-and-technology fellowship centered on disability innovation. Through 2022-2023, this incubator creates a platform for artists with disabilities to engage and remake creative technologies through the lens of accessibility. Across five residency sites in California in 2022, artists will have the opportunity to engage with a cohort of other disabled artists and a network of experts in technology and media to develop a project at the intersection of disability, art and technology that innovates new forms of aesthetic access.

What? Where? When?

Each of these residency sites vary in structure, form, location and time. In a 16-week Spring intensive, ThoughtWorks Arts in San Francisco offers artists specialist software support in design and engineering. Over a year of remote and on-site engagement at Nokia Bell Labs’ Silicon Valley, artists will collaborate with scientists and engineers using emerging technologies like AR, VR and AI. Through a year-long residency at Berkeley Disability Lab, an artist will conduct research, collaborate with UC Berkeley faculty and engage with the disability community on campus. At Santa Barbara Center for Art, Science and Technology, an artist will live onsite for 8 weeks (July and August 2022), using cutting-edge tools and technology including a fully programmable media environment with a haptic floor. Beall Center for Art and Technology at UC Irvine will facilitate a year-long research-based collaboration between artist and faculty, conducted remotely with 2-3 weeks spent onsite. In 2023, artists will have an opportunity to present their work in Leonardo’s LASER salon series, participate in workshops, exhibit their artworks and be published in a special issue of Leonardo journal. Artists will be awarded an $11,000 stipend to support their projects.

Submit

Interested in becoming a CripTech Incubator artist? Submit to our call for artists. Round 1 will be open from 15 April - 20 May 2021. In Round 1, we will assess artist interest and eligibility to participate in CripTech Incubator. We will review and invite more detailed submissions in early June. Round 2 will be open from 1 June-15 July 2021. Finalists will be invited and announced in August.

Questions?

Check out our FAQ! Contact Vanessa Chang at vanessa@leonardo.info or call 415-322-0037.