Call for Proposals The HTMlles 11 : ZERO FUTUR(E)

The HTMlles – Feminist festival of media arts + digital culture
11th edition, November 2014, in Montreal
Deadline: November 17, 2013

Taking place in Montreal, The HTMlles is an international biennial festival that brings together artists, scholars and activists who are passionate about critical engagement with new technologies from a feminist perspective. Based on a specific theme, each edition addresses urgent socio-political questions by pushing the boundaries of artistic and feminist practices.

The HTMlles is produced by Studio XX, a bilingual feminist artist-run centre for technological exploration, creation and critique. Initiated in 1997, the festival began as an international platform for introducing women’s web art. Collaborating closely with partner organizations, The HTMlles has become a multi-site festival dedicated to the presentation of women’s, trans and gender non-conforming artists’ independent media artworks in a transdisciplinary environment that strives for anti-oppression.

THEME FOR THE ELEVENTH EDITION
The HTMlles 11 – ZERO FUTURE
The future is obsolete.

Zero. Zero as in inertia. Zero as in deterritorialization. Zero as in noise. Zero as in Generations XYZ = Generation 0. Zero as in Ground zero. Zero as in zero budget, zero time, too much #work & #information (0’s and1’s), not enough kisses. Zero as in the economy of death. Zero as in WTF. Zero as in rewind. Zero as in zero emails, zero texts, zero views, zero likes, zero followers. Zero as in rest. Zero as in refusal. Zero as in degree zero. Zero as in Day 0.

Future. The future as in an idea that was invented in the previous century by modern capitalism. The future as in the myth of progress for all (but not really). The future as in debt. The future as in something that is constantly put off because the present is just too much. The future as in a dissolving horizon. The future as in Back to the Future. The future as in “poetry from the future.”

The 1990s were the end of the century that mobilized on “the future.” Since, global neoliberalism has spread the emptiness of the “post ideology” whereby the illusion of having gone “beyond” class, race and gender has left the door open to the desert of semiocapitalist desires, the noise of the overproduction of commodities and intellectual property, and the rise of biosurveillance. The 00 decade, which started with the dotcom crash, saw the New Fall, as social movements were cornered by the war on terrorism, the obsession with so-called security, and the implementation of financial insecurity, on a global scale. In parallel, aliens started to proliferate in the shape of afrofuturism, cyberfeminism and queer futurity, among others, and highlighted the fact that the “future” invented by modern capitalism, futurism and to some extent cyberpunk, was white, male and heteronormative.

After more than a century, should we still care about “the future”? Recently, both the speculative turn/trend and the calls to focus on the present might be symptoms of a future in crisis. The future, as an imagination which both projects from and affects the present, is therefore founded on perception. What was suggested as utopia back then might look like total dystopia today. Shall we abandon the future? How to negotiate the tension that exists between an oppressive future in the present and making the present our terrain of struggle in order to (re)build community?

If the idea of the future has inherently been developed in relation to technology, science and progress, how do artists today contribute to the construction and/or subversion of the future? What kind of imaginations can come out of collective exhaustion, melancholy, of being fed up on a wide scale? What sort of non-market value can coemerge without a future and the refusal of neoliberal resilience/positivity? What sort of creativity can come out of being liberated from the future? Is negativity, nihilism, cynicism or irony an ethics of the privileged? What kind of feminist ethics is created without a future? Is Zero Future frightening, encouraging or something else? How to embrace together Zero Future?

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR
The HTMlles 11 is seeking submissions that shed light on the perception of “today’s futures” by different generations, including critical and creative propositions inspired by (but not limited to) afrofuturism, chicanafuturism, feminist cyberpunk, utopian and dystopic cyberfeminism or other feminist sf and queer futurity, for instance.

The HTMlles 11 welcomes project proposals from self-identified women, trans and gender non-conforming artists, curators, activists, collectives, and organizations.

Examples of media/formats: net art, audio and electronic art, radio art, video art, installation, locative media, 3D animation, game art, augmented reality, digital storytelling, short film, bio art, public interventions, open source and community-based practices, performance and interdisciplinary practices, workshops, roundtable discussions- or something so futuristic, we haven’t even heard of it yet…

NOTE: The HTMlles and the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies (IGSF) will also organize a conference as part of the festival. A call for papers will be published in January 2014.

WHAT WE OFFER
The HTMlles is a non-profit festival that relies on the support of friends and volunteers and that aims to remain accessible (with no or low entrance fees). We cannot financially contribute to production costs of artworks but can offer in-kind support, access to some equipment, and letters for participants who apply for funding.

The HTMlles offers artist fees based on CARCC/CARFAC.

The HTMlles is a great opportunity to meet like-minded people through a unique series of events and a diverse set of copresentations. Partners of The HTMlles 11 currently include: articule, La Centrale, Eastern Bloc, Groupe intervention vidéo (GIV), IGSF, OBORO, RATS 9 collective, Centre des arts actuels Skol, and Venus radio collective.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
To submit a proposal to The HTMlles 11, send the application package enclosed in a zip or pdf file (max. file size 5 MB) to festival@htmlles.net by Sunday, November 17, 2013, at midnight.

Please download and complete the application form and include the required documents.

Only complete applications will be considered.
Applicants will get a confirmation of receipt.
The HTMlles 11’s Programming Committee will notify selected participants before January 2014.

For more information: htmlles.net + studioxx.org For questions and further inquiries, please contact us: info@htmlles.net