Collaborative research labs for artists, curators, researchers, and practitioners working across digital culture, media, technology, and collective systems
The Transmediale Lattice Labs Open Call offers artists, researchers, curators, students, and interdisciplinary practitioners the opportunity to participate in a collaborative research and development structure connected to transmediale in Berlin. Organized as part of transmediale 2027, the program brings together participants working across media art, technology, infrastructure, archives, interface politics, software culture, and cooperative systems. The call centers process-driven inquiry, collective experimentation, and peer exchange rather than finished production outcomes. Applications are due June 7, 2026.
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Transmediale Lattice Labs Open Call Snapshot
What: Collaborative artist and research labs connected to transmediale 2027
Who: Early career and emerging artists, researchers, curators, students, and interdisciplinary practitioners
Where: Berlin, Germany
Award / Support:
– Participation in one of four Lattice Labs
– Collaborative research environment
– Workshops and collective sessions
– Mentorship and facilitation
– Participation within transmediale 2027 programming
– Additional travel or accommodation support not fully specified publicly
Residency Duration: Lab structures vary and are not fully specified publicly
Deadline: June 7, 2026, 23:59 CEST
Official Link: https://transmediale.de/en/news/lattice-labs
Strategy Coach Note: https://www.patreon.com/posts/strategy-coach-158725191
Want the strategy behind this application?
The Lattice Labs are evaluating methodological clarity, collaborative readiness, and alignment with the specific research question of each lab. Most applications weaken when they stay broad, overly theoretical, or fail to explain how the applicant actually works. Strategy Coach Notes break down how reviewers read these applications, how the research questions function structurally, how to approach the word limits, and how to build an application that feels inseparable from the selected lab.
About the Transmediale Lattice Labs Open Call
The Lattice Labs Open Call expands transmediale’s ongoing engagement with digital culture, infrastructure, artistic research, and collective inquiry. Rather than functioning as a traditional residency or production commission, the labs are organized as collaborative working environments where participants investigate shared themes through discussion, experimentation, critical analysis, and collective process. The framework prioritizes exchange, interdisciplinary thinking, and the development of methods rather than finalized artworks. This structure creates space for artists and researchers whose practices operate across hybrid forms, experimental systems, technological critique, or socially engaged inquiry.
Four distinct labs are included in the 2027 cycle, each built around a different thematic and methodological approach. The Playful Misuse (of everyday software) Lab investigates repurposing and misuse of digital tools as artistic and political strategy. Minor Indexes focuses on indexing systems, metadata, archives, and counter-cataloging practices. Reclaiming the Interface examines interfaces as political infrastructures that shape behavior and access. Solidarity Economies explores cooperative systems, collective organization, and alternative economic structures within cultural production. Participants apply directly into one lab structure rather than the overall program broadly, making alignment between the applicant’s methodology and the chosen lab especially important.
What Is Offered
- Participation in one of four thematic Lattice Labs
- Access to collaborative research and discussion structures
- Engagement with transmediale 2027 programming
- Peer exchange with international participants
- Mentorship and facilitation by invited organizers
- Experimental and interdisciplinary working environment
- Access to workshops and collective inquiry sessions
- Integration into a major international media arts and digital culture platform
Who Should Apply
The call is designed for early career and emerging practitioners working across artistic research, media arts, curatorial practice, digital culture, critical technology studies, performance, archives, software culture, and interdisciplinary inquiry. The structure supports applicants whose practices are process-oriented and collaborative. Artists working with collective systems, technological critique, archives, participatory structures, experimental pedagogy, or networked culture may find strong alignment with the program.
Applicants should pay close attention to the conceptual and operational structure of each individual lab before applying. The strongest applications will likely demonstrate a direct relationship between the applicant’s existing methods and the lab’s specific thematic framework. Because the labs emphasize collective inquiry rather than solo production, proposals centered entirely around individual finished projects may align less effectively than applications that foreground process, participation, experimentation, and exchange.
Timeline
The deadline for submission is June 7, 2026 at 23:59 CEST.
Selected participants will join the transmediale 2027 framework in Berlin through one of the four thematic labs. Exact scheduling and duration structures vary across labs and have not been fully detailed publicly at the time of publication. Applicants should review the official application materials carefully for additional logistical information and participation expectations.
Why This Opportunity Matters
The Lattice Labs Open Call reflects a growing shift within international arts programming toward collaborative research structures that prioritize process, discourse, and collective experimentation. Opportunities built around inquiry rather than production remain relatively uncommon within large-scale media arts festivals. The program offers access to a significant international platform while supporting slower forms of investigation, exchange, and interdisciplinary engagement.
For emerging artists and researchers working across technology, infrastructure, archives, interface culture, and social systems, the labs provide a framework that values methodology and critical engagement alongside artistic practice. The connection to transmediale also places participants within a wider international network of practitioners, curators, theorists, and organizations engaged with contemporary digital culture.
Apply
Official Application Link: https://transmediale.de/en/news/lattice-labs
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