Are you a recently graduated artist or designer, with an innovative, ground-breaking idea that stretches the border between art and science? Then the Bio Art & Design (BAD) Award is calling out to you!
Don’t miss out on the chance to work on your own bio art and design project in close collaboration with prominent Dutch researchers. No less than three teams are granted €25.000 each to realise their projects and exhibit it at the end of the year in the Bio Art & Design exhibition at MU Hybrid Art House.
BAD Award invites designers and artists interested in bio art & design to propose projects for collaborative work across disciplines. The Bio Art & Design (BAD) Award, existing since 2010, is a yearly 25,000 euro award. With the budget a maximum of three successful applicants are given the opportunity to fully realize a new work of art or design that pushes the boundaries of scientific research and creative expression.
The BAD Award highlights and explores exciting new intersections among design, artistic practice and the (life) sciences. The BAD Award is made possible by a collaborative consortium of Eindhoven based cultural partners: BioArt Laboratories, Dutch Design Foundation, MU Hybrid Art House, and Next Nature. Furthermore, St Joost School of Art & Design / Master Institute of Visual Cultures joins the BAD Award as an education partner.
Aims
The BAD Award aims to stimulate emerging designers and artists to delve into the world of bio art and bio design, and produce new work in close collaboration with prestigious Dutch (life) scientists, working in numerous fields – such as sustainability, food, health, biotechnology, horticulture, and agriculture – with a focus on living materials: from molecules to the universe and every bio entity in-between, natural and synthetic.
The Award aims to:
Ignite interest and excitement about the interaction between art and sciences through high-quality, original artistic practice and indepth collaborations.
Examine the social, cultural and ethical contexts of the sciences through the arts.
Promote high-quality interdisciplinary practice and collaborations between art/design, and science/technology.
Foster the development of art/design projects with potential practical applications.
Funded projects must be collaborations between artists/designers and researchers/scientists based on an equal exchange of ideas and knowledge. Projects proposed for the BAD Award must be new and not yet in operation or fully realized.
Award Information
The Award of € 25,000 is sufficient to realize the project.
A time frame of 6 months is sufficient to realize the project.
Eligibility Criteria
Artists and designers with a keen interest in the sciences, who graduated within the last five years in the field of art or design (at either the master’s or bachelor’s level).
You can participate individually, or with others. As long as the main applicant has graduated within the last five years in the field of art or design (at either the master’s or bachelor’s level). The prize money will stay the same (25.000 euros), regardless the amount of artists / designers in your team.
Both EU and non-EU citizens may submit an application. For non-EU citizens it is necessary to take travel expenses, visa rules and COVID-19-regulations into consideration as they need to be covered from the budget or otherwise taken care of by themselves.
Artists and designers that are winners of previous Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Awards or Bio Art & Design Award are not eligible again for this competition.
Special Conditions
Special conditions that apply to the award:
Working with genetically modified organisms is in general not possible. A permit to exhibit genetically modified organisms may take 6 months or more. Therefore a GMO permit must not be crucial for the realization of the project.
New (still to be developed) biotechnology must not be crucial for the realization of the project. Backup solutions should be available.
All applicants are available for the matchmaking event on Friday 21 April 2023 If they come physically it is at their own expense. EU and non-EU residents may also choose to participate and pitch online in the matchmaking, or they can prepare a self-explanatory slideshow or video, but should then be available for online questions on the day itself.
All (EU and non-EU) finalists are available for the Jury meeting and Award ceremony on Friday 9 June 2023. Their travel costs are (partially) reimbursed: EU residents and residents from the UK can reimburse max. € 100 for their travel costs, all other non-EU residents can reimburse max. € 400 euros for their travel costs and only one reimbursement is possible per full proposal. (A copy of) the flight/train/bus ticket must be sent to MU in order to receive reimbursement. The country of residence is the country where applicants live at the moment of submission of the initial application. By this BAD Award does NOT mean nationality.
If awarded, the designer/artist is available for the Bio Art & Design Award project from July till December 2023, at the expense of the project. For the 3 monitoring meetings physcial presence in the Netherlands is mandatory.
Any visa requirements are to be dealt with by the designer/artist.
The end result is ready before the MU exhibition opens in December 2023, and is premiered and first exhibited there.
The applications are made known to the representatives of the collaborative partners involved (Dutch Design Foundation, BioArt Laboratories, Next Nature, MU Hybrid Art House) as well as the Jury but they are treated confidentially.
The artists and designers are the owners of the ideas and projects. IP and other judicial contracts between the artists/designers and the scientists are made between them and do not involve the BAD Award consortium partners.
