In the eighth Open Call Fresh Perspectives, 10 projects have been selected for a development contribution. The call was intended for cross-sectoral collaborative projects that offer new perspectives on current crises. Examples include the climate crisis, discrimination, the migration and asylum crisis, social inequality and inequality of opportunity, or the housing crisis. Coordinator Sharvin Ramjan reflects on the first phase of the open call.
2 July 2024
The selection consists of convincingly motivated collaborations between parties from the creative industry and the social domain. Within the collaborative projects, design is used as an instrument to develop new perspectives on social issues. The topics range from digital accessibility to the climate, inequality of opportunity and the safety of healthcare.
The selection committee, which assessed the submitted applications, saw in particular opportunities in plans that provide insight into the connection between the social, cultural and economic sides of a social issue. In these proposed projects, a sharp picture of a ‘multi-pronged’ approach is formed based on a broad problem analysis. The committee expects the selected projects to achieve results that will benefit people and organizations from different fields.
The following 10 projects have been selected:
- Artificial Nouveau Studio – Screen-to-soundscape
- B9 – Aarde als binder
- Hyper Epic – Coral AI
- Ink. – LeerKracht
- Julien Thomas and Ekaterina Volkova – Dramaturgies of witnessing
- Muzus – Lentekriebels
- Genomic Gastronomy – Food forest taste tests
- Studio Wolfs – Footwear Care Lab
- Uitgeverij Spookstad – Counter-mapping trans-national abortion care
- Yin Aiwen – Survivalkits voor kunstenaarsgemeenschappen
The applications were submitted to Paul Hekkert (professor of Form Theory at the Faculty of Industrial Design, TU Delft), Roos Groothuizen (multimedia designer), Bernhard Lenger (social designer), Barbara Vos (creative leader of the Embassy of Food) and Hüsnü Yegenoglu (architect and lecturer TU Eindhoven). They assessed the applications on the following criteria:
- How the chosen issue, problem or task is addressed;
- How the project is positioned in relation to existing knowledge and developments
- The partner’s motivation and expertise with regard to the issue;
- The extent to which the committee expects the project to lead to a distinctive artistic/cultural product within the creative industry.
The budget available within Fresh Perspectives is € 300,000, divided over two phases. Within the first phase, there is a budget of € 100,000 that will support up to 10 research-and-development projects. The percentage of applications receiving grants is 50%.
The call consists of two phases. The proposals selected in the first phase will receive a development contribution of € 10,000. The contribution can be utilized for formalizing the collaboration(s), developing a research question and conducting experiments in the run-up to the second phase. The parties also work together on the positioning of the chosen issue. For the second phase, € 40,000 is available per project, with a total available budget of € 200,000. In this phase, the research proposals are implemented. For example, the project could consist of an activation, programming, publication, intervention, service or product. This phase is also intended for disseminating the project and strengthening its impact within the creative industry. Being awarded a phase 1 grant is not a guarantee that a grant will be awarded for phase 2.
Image above: Studio Wolfs – Footwear Care Lab
