Four months of prototype development in Athens and online, with seed funding, mentoring, technical support, and a potential March 2027 exhibition.

ONX Seeds 2026 is an international art and technology open call for emerging creators, artists, creative technologists, designers, developers, makers, and interdisciplinary teams developing early-stage projects that combine artistic practice and technology. The four-month program takes place in Athens and online and will support up to four prototypes. Selected projects receive €1,000–€5,000 in seed funding, along with artistic, curatorial, production, technical, and strategic support. The program moves projects from an initial concept to a functional prototype, with qualifying projects considered for presentation at the ONX Exhibition in Athens in March 2027.

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Art and Technology Open Call Snapshot

What: ONX Seeds 2026, “Soft Circuits for Hard Times,” a four-month artistic development and incubation program for early-stage, proof-of-concept projects using technology as part of their artistic form and experience.

Who: Emerging creators, artists, teams, new media creators, creative technologists, speculative, fashion, product and game designers, developers, sound and visual artists, innovators, and makers. Greek and international applicants are eligible.

Where: Athens, Greece and online. English is the working language.

Award/Support: €1,000–€5,000 in seed funding per selected project, plus mentorship, technical support, artistic and production guidance, strategic support, networking, and access to ONX facilities and equipment, depending on location and availability.

Application Fee: FREE

Residency Duration: Four-month incubation and artistic development program.

Deadline: October 26, 2026

Official Link: https://www.onassis.org/open-calls-past/open-call-onx-seeds-2026

Strategy Coach Notes: https://www.patreon.com/pformart/posts/art-and-open-onx-171682024

Get The Application Strategy

This application rewards proposals that connect an artistic idea directly to a realizable prototype. Applicants must describe the creative concept, how and why technology is integrated, the visitor experience, technical requirements, production plan, budget, and the specific areas of ONX support they need. The review criteria make the priorities unusually clear: conceptual strength, artistic merit, technical merit and innovation, feasibility, thematic relevance, and the quality and completeness of the application. Build the application so those six criteria can be found quickly across the materials, rather than concentrating the entire argument in the project description.

Join the Contemporary Performance network for our full Strategy Coach Notes and application-focused resources.

About The Art and Technology Open Call

ONX Seeds is the foundational incubation program of Onassis ONX, which operates studios in Athens and New York and supports artists working with emerging technologies and digital culture. The 2026 theme, “Soft Circuits for Hard Times,” asks artists to consider digital technology as something embodied, tangible, networked, and culturally situated. The call points specifically to subcultures, micro-communities, fandoms, digital pop cultures, games, avatars, street styles, online rituals, sound, moving images, and other spaces where technology shapes identity, desire, connection, and collective imagination.

Projects can include interactive installations, moving-image work, video, screen-based narratives, immersive experiences, new media performance, generative systems, playable worlds, speculative design objects, analog-digital objects, garments, games, apps, platforms, and participatory environments. The guidelines emphasize realistic scope. ONX is looking for a project that can reach a coherent and functional prototype within four months and within the available production budget. Elaborate scenography, industrial-scale technology, extensive crews, and permanent architectural interventions are discouraged.

What Is Offered

Seed funding of €1,000–€5,000 per selected project
A four-month artistic development and incubation program
Access to the ONX Studio in Athens for Athens-based participants
Technical mentoring and troubleshooting
Artistic, curatorial, and production guidance
Business and strategic advising
Online community events, masterclasses, and networking
Connections with ONX Studio New York and the wider Onassis ONX network
Production and installation support for qualifying projects presented at the March 2027 exhibition

The official public call describes funding as up to €5,000. The detailed terms clarify that selected projects may receive no less than €1,000 and no more than €5,000, with the final amount determined according to the approved budget, project needs, feasibility, scope, and intended outcome.

Who Should Apply

The opportunity is particularly relevant for emerging practitioners who already have a developed concept and need concentrated support to move it into prototype form. Individuals, collectives, creative studios, and early-stage enterprises working across art, design, technology, and adjacent disciplines are eligible. Applicants do not need a previous immersive or advanced technology project, but they must demonstrate the ability to realize the proposed work. The project itself should be original, or applicants must hold the necessary rights for any adapted material.

Art and Technology Open Call Timeline

Application Deadline: October 26, 2026
Interviews: November 27–December 4, 2026
Selected Applicants Notified: No later than December 20, 2026
Incubation: Four months.
ONX Exhibition Athens: March 17–21, 2027

Only projects that complete the incubation and reach a functional, coherent prototype aligned with the curatorial direction proceed to the exhibition. The guidelines describe this as a cut-off model based on completion, coherence, and technical feasibility.

Why This Opportunity Matters

ONX Seeds’ strongest feature is the combination of direct project funding and sustained development infrastructure. Artists receive funding to build the prototype, along with technical mentoring, production support, curatorial conversations, strategic advising, and access to a larger art and technology network. The program is also accessible to international artists who cannot spend the full incubation period in Athens because the core program can be undertaken remotely. For artists with an ambitious digital or hybrid project that is conceptually developed but still needs testing, technical development, and production planning, that structure makes ONX Seeds especially useful.