Hosted by Beta (IE), this residency explores technology through relationships – between human, artificial and more-than-human intelligence – asking how we might reimagine technological futures through decolonialism and interdependence between all forms of intelligence. Situated in Ireland’s ecological, cultural and infrastructural realities, artists are invited to critically prototype new relations of coexistence.

Deadline:
November 10, 2026
23:59 (CEST)

At a moment of overlapping ecological, political and technological crises, the residency asks what becomes possible when we understand technology through the relationships it creates and disrupts. Artists might explore relationships between human, artificial and more-than-human intelligence; the material and ecological infrastructures underpinning seemingly immaterial technologies, or how digital systems are reshaping ideas of agency, communication, care and coexistence. Extended reality, AI, game design and interactive and digital practices offer spaces to experiment with alternative relationships and new ways of being.

The residency also invites artists to consider how decolonial practices might challenge dominant ideas of technological progress and our relationships to land, resources, culture and knowledge. These questions have particular resonance in Ireland, where histories of land, language and extraction intersect with the contemporary presence of the global technology industry and its demands on energy, water and infrastructure.

How might artistic practice unsettle inherited hierarchies between human and non-human, nature and technology. What forms of knowledge or ways of relating have been marginalised by dominant technological imaginaries? And what might emerge if we reimagine these relations through interdependence, plurality and care?

Beta Festival invites artists, technologists, storytellers, engineers, hackers, designers to apply and will be supported by Beta Festival team, the consortium, partner organisations, skills sharing, creative technology support, and subject area expertise.

Medium
XR,
Interactive,
Multiple users

Place & time of the residency
March–August 2027
With an in-person period: May–June 2027 @ Beta (IE)

Presentation of the final project
Test Lab, June 2027. Showcase at Beta Festival, November 2027.

⮑ 3 artists will be selected and joined by a creative technologist. Together, they’ll work as a group, to create a collective XR artwork.

⮑ The residency will alternate between moments of shared work, critical discussion, and practical experimentation, allowing ideas to emerge, transform, and consolidate in dialogue between artists, technologists, and cultural contexts.

⮑ Each phase is conceived as a necessary step: from conception to prototyping, from testing the works to meeting with audiences and professionals.