ZERO1 is pleased to announce the selection of Austrian-based artist Patrícia J. Reis to lead our Impact Art AT virtual exchange this fall. With this announcement, we are launching the open call for Bay Area-based participants for the Impact Art AT exchange.

Impact Art AT is a month-long, online creative exchange that utilizes community-driven digital and new media art projects to explore and address the social challenge, “In Search of Truth.” Using feminist hacking strategies as a methodological entry point, participants will work with Patrícia to unravel and augment the way we perceive truth.

How can a “true conception of reality” be established contemporaneously, and how does it influence us as individuals and as a collective? Is our truth an individual perception or a common belief constructed by the masses? How does truth affect where we are and the way we care for each other (as humans and non-humans)? Ultimately, how can technology be an asset in the pursuit of truth, even in fictional scenarios? 

Impact Art AT will tackle these questions while teaching open-source tools to build machines that help us speculate about future truths and the process of truthmaking.

It is scheduled to run September-October, 2021.

The creative exchange consists of five activity phases:

• Artist Talk: a presentation by the Austria-based lead artist, Patricia J. Reis, introducing the participants and the public to her creative practice and approach to the exchange.
• Workshops (10-15 hours): a workshop series led by Patricia which leverages her specific area of expertise. In parallel, the social challenge “In Search of Truth” is explored by applying frameworks from the arts, social entrepreneurship, and community engagement.
• Project Development (~30 hours): Participants prototype artworks that apply workshop skills to address the challenge.
• Panel Review and Virtual Exhibition: the exchange culminates in a public panel review wherein Austrian and U.S. experts provide feedback on participant project prototypes. Projects are revealed to a wider public audience at a virtual exhibition opening.
• Sustainability Meetings: Patricia and the participants discuss how their artworks might develop beyond the creative exchange.

Patrícia J. Reis

Patrícia J. Reis is an installation artist based in Vienna whose practice encompasses different formats and media to examine our relationship with modern technology. Through an ongoing investigation that destabilizes the boundaries between science, technology, magic, and spiritual beliefs, she explores questions “How do we believe in machines?” and “How technology is shaping us bodily?” In her complex installations, she often appeals to the visitor’s sensoriality in an intimate and sensual way, encouraging them to become active participants. Seeking to subvert visuality as a primary mode of experience, she plays with technology as a means to expand and stimulate corporeal perceptions in the viewer. Furthermore, she has a feminist approach in her artistic practice, focusing on the assigned female roles in terms of representation (in the digital image), and on the lack of female participation and visibility behind the production of new technologies and art. Since 2012, she has been a board member of the collective Mz* Baltazar’s Lab, a feminist hackerspace. She currently lectures at the Universität für Angewandte Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and at the Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria. She holds a post-doc position at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Vienna, Austria. 

Impact Art AT is seeking participants based in the San Francisco Bay Area with:

• An interest in technology, new media, and/or digital art; experience in the arts is preferred, but not required
• An interest in exploring the social challenge, “In Search of Truth”
• A desire to learn from new perspectives and new tools
• A willingness to work and create in a collaborative environment

Participation in the exchange is free of charge and those who participate fully will receive a $500 stipend. Apply Now