[Image: Usman Haque's Natural Fuse] ZER01, xClinic and Pachube.com call for Out of the Garage, Into the World :: September 4 - 20, 2010 :: South Hall, San Jose, California :: Open Call for Projects — Deadline: March 29, 2010 (application).

ZER01: the Art and Technology Network, in collaboration with xClinic and Pachube.com is soliciting proposals from artists to create environmental health projects and lifestyle experiments that make use of Pachube (a web-based sensor data storage and brokerage system that makes it easy to publish geolocated time-series data in real-time and to couple local and remote sensors and actuators). We are looking for truly innovative projects that push the boundaries of both environmental analysis and action, projects that don’t just “make data public” but help the “public make data,” projects that consider very carefully the relationship between all sorts of systems, human and non-human alike, technological and cultural. You will need to do a lot more than just plug a sensor into a tree and get it to tweet!

One project will be selected for funding in the amount of $5,000 and will be featured as part of the Out of the Garage, Into the World program at the 2010 01SJ Biennial. Once selected, during project development, Environmental Health Clinic Director, Natalie Jeremijenko, and the founder of Pachube.com, Usman Haque, will be on hand to provide advice, guidance and consultation on projects.

The 2010 01SJ Biennial is about how powerful ideas and innovative individuals from around the world can make a difference and come together to build a unique, citywide platform for creative solutions and public engagement. Under the theme “Build Your Own World,” the 3rd 01SJ Biennial will take place September 16-19, 2010 in San Jose, CA, with significant public programming beginning September 4th.

Collaborators

xClinic, the Environmental Health Clinic + Lab, facilitates lifestyle experiments to improve environmental health. The clinic approaches health from an understanding of its dependence on external local environments, rather than on the internal biology and genetic predispositions of an individual. The idea is that by ameliorating your own local environmental health, or by more consciously coupling human and non-human systems, you improve the health of humans (and nonhumans) around you. The more people who participate, the greater the cascading effects. Pachube.com is a web-based sensor data storage and brokerage system. It makes it easy to publish geolocated time-series data in real-time and to couple local and remote sensors and actuators. Access to Pachube is available via a wide variety of hardware and software platforms, including open source tools like Arduino and Processing and the generalized Data Logger iPhone application. Pachube members contribute thousands of datastreams from around the world consisting of energy, weather, building control and a whole host of other data.

Out of the Garage, Into the World

Out of the Garage, Into the World takes as its overarching theme “Build Your Own World.” Its methodology is rooted in the ethos of garage hacking and “neighborhood science”—creating and inventing for the common good. Prior to the Biennial, from September 4-14, ZER01 is inviting a range of independent artists, designers, architects, engineers, programmers, and corporate and academic research programs to publicly work in San Jose’s “South Hall” to create projects which build on the dynamic histories of garage hacking and citizen science to imagine not just what’s next but to ensure that what’s next matters. The 01SJ Biennial, through Out of the Garage, Into the World, strives to build a place where the general public can observe and even participate in the process. Additional information is available here: http://zero1.org/01sj/out-of-the-garage

Project Criteria

Your project should make use of simple passive strategies that can scale. Identify an area of concern in your local community or neighbourhood and propose a plan for improving that situation. Describe the phenomenon that you want to evaluate over time and think about the systems that phenomenon is part of, and how it can be coupled to or modulated by others (either locally or remotely) for mutual benefit. Think about what you might want to ‘measure,’ what constitutes good ‘measurement’ and how you might evaluate that which you are ‘measuring.’

Remember that sensors and actuators are not necessarily bits of technology: a human, a tadpole and a houseplant can all be considered sensors and actuators too. You might use Pachube for data collection, to monitor (and share) improvement or measurement data, or to compare results from different locations in realtime. The aim is to develop a project that you can implement locally, but which others can take forward and contribute to in their own communities and neighborhoods, using Pachube to aggregate, compare and trigger effects.

Projects must:

• Involve some aspect of local environment and its effect on human and/or non-human health.
• Be situated in more than one location (multiple rooms within a house; apartments within a building; streets within a neighborhood; neighborhoods within a city; or cities within a country).
• Enable both within and between comparisons of some kind.
• Be capable of evaluation according to criteria that you provide: i.e. success is not required, but you must be able to show that you have either succeeded or failed in what you set out to achieve.
• Have some public/performative/participative aspect that involves people (or non-humans) that you don’t already know.
• Be replicable relatively easily by others, i.e. it shouldn’t require high investments in technology or education to carry out.
• Be explicit about the portion of work that will be carried out before the Biennial, especially the September 4-14 ”garage” time, and the portion of work that will be presented in an interactive manner during the core Biennial dates of September 16 - 19, 2010.
• Consider the overarching theme of the 01SJ Biennial, “Build Your Own World,” as well as the goals of Out of the Garage, Into the World.

Timeframe

Artist must make arrangements to begin installation on September 4, 2010 and have some activity going on inside the space from September 4-14, 2010. During this time South Hall will be open to the public during the day. Then the South Hall project space will transition into one of the main 01SJ Biennial venues from September 16-19, 2010. Deinstallation must be completed on September 20.

Venue

Projects will have a designated space in South Hall of the San Jose Convention Center on Market Street at San Salvador in downtown San Jose, CA. South Hall is an 80,000 square foot tent structure directly adjacent to the San Jose Convention Center. In 2006, the ISEA Symposium exhibition at the 1st 01SJ Biennial was held in South Hall. For more information about South Hall see http://sanjose.org/meetings/facilities/southhall.php

Budget

The budget for the project is $5,000 and must cover all costs including production, materials, presentation, travel, and lodging. Eligibility and Selection Process:

All artists and artist groups are eligible and encouraged to apply. One project will be selected by a jury composed of members of the ZER01 programming team, Natalie Jeremijenko and Usman Haque.
You should be prepared to provide the follow pdf files via our online application (2MB limit per file): http://zero1.org/01sj/out-of-the-garage/pachube/application

1. An up to three page conceptual proposal that should include project title and description, and “success criteria” – we are asking you to tell us how the success of your project, if it gets selected, should be evaluated.

2. An up to two page technical proposal, which outlines the basic parameters of how you imagine the project to be produced including the schedule over the September 4-14 “garage” time as well as Biennial dates, number of participants, materials procurement, space or equipment requirements, layout etc.

3. A proposed budget. The budget should indicate any confirmed or likely additional funding, if costs exceed the commission funding.

4. A list of key collaborators, describing their role, and a brief (no more than a one paragraph) narrative biography of each person.

5. Complete resume(s)—length not exceeding 2 pages each—of key personnel.

6. A document containing links to examples of past work related to your proposal.

Deadline

Submissions must be received by digitally by 11pm Pacific Standard Time on March 29, 2010. There is no entry fee. Artists will be notified of decision in mid-April. Apply here.

Policies

Once selected, the artist must agree and comply with the contract terms presented by ZER01 until the project is complete and presented at the 2010 01SJ Biennial.

• Artist may only submit one proposal for each posted open call (but additional submissions to workshop and micro-grant open calls are acceptable). Artists who are submitting as a team may also submit a personal application as long as they are not the lead artists for that team.

• ZER01 has the right to reject or accept any responses received

About ZER01: The Art and Technology Network

San Jose-based ZER01 has served as a catalyst and platform for the world‘s most innovative artists since 2000. The nonprofit focuses on inspiring creativity at the intersection of art, technology and digital culture. As producer of the 01SJ Biennial, a multidisciplinary, multi-venue event of visual and performing arts, the moving image, public art and interactive digital media, ZER01 has showcased the work of 350 artists from more than 40 countries—using such media as GPS-equipped pigeons, interactive platform shoe devices, mobile phone and surveillance technologies.