Signal Festival and PrusaLab, Josef Průša’s prototype workshop, jointly announce an open call for the creation of an artwork for the 12th edition of Signal Festival, which will take place from 10 to 13 October 2024.The aim of the call is to design and realise an installation that will be included in the main programme of the Signal Festival 2024. 

For whom the call is addressed

The call is open to Czech authors or authors who have been active in the Czech and Slovak Republics for a long time. Professionals from both creative and technical fields can apply. We welcome all architects, designers, programmers, artists or technical engineers. We are also open to students in all of the above fields. It is possible to apply as an individual or as a group. 

Assignment

By artwork we mean an object installation that creatively uses light as an important technological component of the work. Projects that present contemporary advanced technologies or reflect contemporary scientific concepts and theories in a novel way are welcome. Given the festival’s location in the evening city, it is desirable that light remains present in the work. The way in which the capacity of the PrusaLab creative workshop is used is important for the evaluation of the project.

Inspiration

If you’re not sure what to start with, here are some initial concepts to get you started.
The twelfth edition of the Signal Festival continues the three-year project under the overarching theme of Ecosystems. Nature, technology, society, culture, personal space – all these combine to form the ecosystems in which we live, seeking traces of joy, beauty and excitement in new discoveries, as well as solutions to critical questions.

This year’s programme is called Ecosystems II: Quest. Quest will have four parts: Machinery Missionaries, Deep Travellers, Into the Universe and Play.

• Machinery Missionaries, subtitled Ecosystems of Machines, presents installations and works based on the principles of robotics, mechatronics and autonomous systems. Keywords: the ambivalent nature of artificial intelligence, the transformation of the relationship between man and machine.
• Deep Travellers, subtitled Ecosystems of Travellers, will present installations and works on the theme of travel. Keywords are: speed and time, unknown, journey, traveller.
• Into the Universe, subtitled Ecosystems of Universes, will feature large-scale installations with keywords such as: parallax, energy, data, transcendence and universe.
• Play, subtitled Ecosystem of Games, refers to interactive projects that rely on the direct participation of the viewer, a natural element or other energy that changes the form of the work in real time. The theme of Play is open.

Have a look at last year’s winner Nexus by Lukáš Dřevjaný, David Minařík, Michal Mitro and Luboš Zbranek.

Location

The selected work will be placed in an outdoor location in the centre of Prague, so it should be able to withstand autumn weather conditions for at least a week. When creating an interactive work, it is necessary to take into account the large number of visitors to the festival, so the installation must be able to withstand the onslaught of thousands of spectators. The life of the work should not end on the last day of the festival. If the installation is designed with potential transport and frequent (de-)installation in mind, this will be viewed positively by the committee.

Realisation and technical costs of the work

For the production of the installation, PrusaLab will provide a budget of CZK 180,000 for materials for the production of the installation, as well as workshop facilities and production capacity of machines and craftsmen.

An overview of PrusaLab’s technical facilities can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14oMW80m8FGcIzrjHAl5DirnwOvc4EztYBzyIvClMi64/edit?usp=sharing.

To get a better idea of what PrusaLab can offer, we recommend that you discuss your concept with us beforehand. Materials and elements from Prusa Research that are no longer used in the production of current 3D printers can be used to produce the installation. An illustrative list with photos of example parts can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1RquQX-MWzC8u34h6DPvbzmbS1l0pLrP0

(This includes displays, stepper motors, sensors, power supplies, etc.)

Competition rules

The call will take place in two rounds. In the first round, we will accept project proposals until the deadline. After that, projects will be selected for the second round and authors will be recommended topics for elaboration and refinement. All projects will be rewarded with a sketch fee of CZK 5,000 for their participation in the second round. In the second round, the committee will decide on one project to be selected for implementation. The creator of the selected installation will be rewarded with a fee of CZK 40,000, an Original Prusa 3D printer and a three-month project membership in PrusaLab.

The resulting work is considered to be a joint work of Signal Festival (organiser), PrusaLab (creator of the work) and the artist(s) (creator of the concept), and will be treated as such even after the Signal Festival has ended, unless otherwise agreed in advance.

Application form

Submit your projects using this online questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSem3E7azsUeMzE1GFCjkVvWhHTs_oHmz5iMUcQJvr7RYIIkdw/viewform 

Timeline

Deadline for applications – 29 February 2024

Contact

• dan@signalfestival.com – information and consultation on opencall
• info@prusalab.cz –information and consultation on the possibilities and equipment of PrusaLab

Please note

Signal Festival and PrusaLab reserve the right not to select a winner of the challenge.