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As a special programme of this year’s Shanghai Biennale, the Academy of Reciprocal Englightenment issuing a call for applications.

Deadline for applications: 20th August, 2012.

The programme embodies the educational philosophy of the biennial: education is a self-governing action by learner communities, which serves as a platform for exchanges and the dissemination of opinions. It operates in the form of workshops that include the  following three themes: Art Writing/Journalism Workshop, Curatorial Practice Workshop, and Immersion- Art | Technology Workshops.

The theme of the 2012 Shanghai Biennale is Reactivation, emphasizes the propositions including social mobilization and structure of community, and implies the critical role of education. Thus, the curatorial team decides to place seminars, lectures and other communication events into the framework of a short-term training program.  We replace the usual forum and lecture with the means of short-term training program in autumn to pursue the efficiency and production of communication.

1. Art Writer/Journalist Workshop

Today, we are forced to confront with universal uncertainness in the global new economic and political circumstance. In such context, contemporary art need to rethink and re-define its uncertain relationship with the contemporary world in order to survive. As one of important factors in the process of art production, contemporary media therefore also need to reconsider its function in the contemporary world when the cliché or the former dominant way of observation and expression are no longer suitable to the new trend. How the traditional mass media transform its responsibility and function when everyone can distribute his opinion (cultural, political, and economic) and have privilege to take part in the public discussion on internet.

As an echo to the theme of 9th Shanghai Biennial “Reactivation”, “Art Writer/Journalist Workshop” plans to invite media experts from all over the world to join in this event to approach round-table discussions, lectures, and site visits. The young international media workers could have an opportunity to communicate with and practice with teachers who work for global influential media and media agencies such as New York Times, Time Magazine, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Xinhua News Agency, Associated Press; ARTINFO, Modern Painters,  Kunstforum International (Germany); e-flux journal, BOMB Magazine, The Third Text and so on. Meanwhile, the student will have an opportunity to have an interaction with the curators and artists of the Biennial as well as Shanghai art scene.

Time: 23rd Sep –9th Oct , 2012
Application submission: 15th Jul – 20th Aug, 2012
Contact for the application submission: [email protected]
Announcement of final participants: 25th Aug, 2012

Teaching language: English (or Chinese with interactive interpretation)

Special notes from the organizer:
1. The Shanghai Biennale will grant tuition and accommodation to all of the selected participants for the entire course in Shanghai. Participants will be responsible for their round-trip airfares to and from Shanghai, visa fee and living expenses (meal and local car fare) during their stay
2. All the participants should submit a published report or essay about the Biennial as their graduation paper. Then, the Biennial will award the certification.

Qualification:
1. Media workers or freelance who write for magazines, newspapers or websites
2. The age restriction has been set to 40 and under.
3. Fluency in English (preferably also in reading and writing)

Application requirements:
1. CV : English for international candidates; English and Chinese for Chinese candidates
2. Motivation statement explaining the applicant’s interests and the purpose for applying (within 1, 000 words)
3. Two published essays (please mark out what media, which issue and when)
4. The applier’s one recent photo and one registration photo

2.Curatorial Practice Workshop

Introduction
In collaboration with the Graduate Program in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco and China Academy of Arts (CAA) in Hangzhou, the 9th Shanghai Biennale calls for application for its 1st edition of the Shanghai Biennial Curatorial Workshop. The workshop consists of two parts, each organized by faculty from CCA and CAA respectively.

The first part, titled ‘Typologies’, runs from Oct.2 to Oct.7. The course will provide the participants, by means of a number of lectures and discussions, with an overview of some of the basic exhibition formats such as the solo exhibition, the Biennial, the retrospective, the collection, art in public space and others. The aim of the course is to open the often inner directed conversation around curatorial thinking to a wider public given that curating and especially exhibition making are essentially driven by the idea to communicate with a larger audience. While exploring a seemingly basic element of this profession, the course will examine some of the fundamental forms and terms of curating and their contemporary conditions.

All guest professors are internationally acclaimed curators working either in museum or independently, who have made a strong contribution to the exhibition format in question. Each guest professor will conduct a four-hour seminar and give an in depth public lecture.

Drawing on the knowledge pool provided by the first part, the second part, titled “The Next Biennial”, will focus on the future of the biennial. Organized by CAA, the workshop will be from Oct. 9 to Oct. 14 and addresses the issues of art and its relationship to local institutions and traditions, of social engagement and cultural construction, and of cultural policies. The lectures are given by international curators experienced with Asia and transnational cultures. Based on a focused study of biennial events across Asia, participants are required to work out their own curatorial proposal for the next edition of Shanghai Biennale; senior curators will conduct a series of critique for these proposals.

The workshop is conducted in English.

The 9th Shanghai Biennale grants tuition and accommodation to all of the selected participants for the entire workshop in Shanghai. Participants will be responsible for their round-trip airfares to and from Shanghai, and living expenses during their stay.

Course dates: 2nd Oct – 14th Oct, 2012
Application submission period: 15th Jul –20th Aug, 2012
Contact for the application submission: [email protected]
Announcement of final participants; 1st Sep ,2012

Qualification:
1. College or university student who majors in art history or curatorial practice;
2. Young curator who works for a museum or a gallery.

Application requirements:
1. English CV with one recent photo and one ID -card-format photo.
2. Motivation statement explaining the applicant’s interests and the purpose for applying (within 1, 000 words)
3 Supporting materials: one or two copies of the most relevant published materials for curatorial/exhibition related projects that the applicant participated in.
4 Please list two referees with their contact details.
5 .Letters of recommendation are welcome.

3. IMMERSION – Art | Technology Workshops

Introduction
IMMERSION is an experiment, a free state of mind between real and unreal where human consciousness is drawn away from the physical world to reach non-linear time and space. In the artistic field, IMMERSION specifically refers to Virtual Art, very often in a three dimensional environment, using interactivity and Virtual Reality (VR) to immerse the viewer into a computer art world based on aesthetic-technological logic and expression.

Responding to the 9th Shanghai Biennial’s theme of “Reactivation”, we attempt to track the history of art and technology through our workshops focusing on the theme of IMMERSION in order to redefine the field and its development in the future, thus to reflect on man and the social environment he’s living within.

Our program will gather a group of international key figures, who greatly contributed the discipline’s evolution, to deliver a series of lectures combining theoretical studies and workshops to communicate with creators and researchers in China.

Students and young art practitioners can apply for participation by submitting the following materials. Participants are expected to have a solid understanding of the history of IMMERSION, and handle the basic technical skills at the end of the program. They will also have the opportunity to interact with the Biennial’s major artists and curators as well as other important personalities in the Chinese art scene.

Time: 3rd Oct – 14th Oct , 2012
Application submission: 15th Jul –20th Aug, 2012
Contact for the application submission: [email protected]
Announcement of final participants: 1st Sep, 2012

Teaching language: English (partially with Chinese interactive interpretation)

Special notes from the organizer:
1. The program is free of charge
2. The participants’ hotel will be covered by the Biennial
3. The participants will be responsible for all other expenses
4. A certificate will be presented to the qualified participants at the end of the program
5. Participants only enrolled in part of the program will not be qualified to receive the certificate

Qualifications:
1. Under 40 years of age (40 included)
2. Graduate students, PhD candidates, or scholars from same the research field
3. Young artists working in art and technology
4. [eCulture Free Media Workshop] accepts senior staff with direct enrollment in the delivery of their organizations public programs, either at an implementation or strategic level (preferably both)
5. Fluency in English (preferably also in reading and writing)
6. Basic knowledge of computer science and graphic design software operation
7. Basic knowledge of video editing and sound recording

Submission materials:
CV or Bio (300 words) in pdf, both in Chinese and English, including the following information:
1. Name | Date of birth | Sex of the applicant
2. Position or identity
3. Employer or name of Institution | Academy | School
4. Score of English test (if there is any)
5. Link of the applicant’s personal website (if there is any)
6. Scanned document of the applier’s school/job identification
7. The applier’s one recent photo and one registration photo

Special notes from the organizer:
1. The Shanghai Biennale will grant tuition and accommodation to all of the selected participants for the entire course in Shanghai. Participants will be responsible for their round-trip airfares to and from Shanghai, visa fee and living expenses (meal and local car fare) during their stay
2. All the participants should submit their graduation paper. Then, the Biennial will award the certification.
3. Those who only participate in part of the courses will not be awarded the certification.

Courses (partial):
From Cybernetics to Technoetics (art, technology and consciousness) | Immersion, aesthetic strategies towards a total field experience in sound and moving image | Micro-Narratives: description of the invented time and space | [eCulture/LOD-LAM Workshop] Open Cultural Data from Data Immersion | [eCulture Free Media Workshop] Escaping data immersion: body, data and machine | Virtual Reality, 3D images and 360 paranormal interactive art | etc.

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